Lost and Found (9 page)

Connor's fingers found my hand and he tugged it below the sheets, between us. "That's
an impressive bulge, Sir," I joked.

"I told you I have a problem. Mind fixing it for me?"

His mouth met mine, parting my lips, eagerly probing inside to dance with my tongue.
The sheet slid down to my waist and Connor kicked it the rest of the way off, exposing
our nude bodies. He nibbled at my neck and shoulder while walking his slender fingers
down my abdomen. The freshness of his body wash and the salty musk of his skin twisted
my stomach into knots and titillated every one of my nerve endings. He had only to
touch me to awaken every sense in my body.

We both jumped when a knock vibrated off the bedroom door. I clutched the sheet to
my chest and heard Connor groan as he rolled off of me.

"Riley, Connor…you awake? Breakfast is ready!" Kris's chipper voice said from behind
the door.

"Sure, Kris…we'll be right down!" I replied.

"Okay, great!"

"Wait, what?" Connor complained. He pulled me onto him until I straddled his waist.
"That's all I get, a few kisses and love pats?"

I ground my hips against his before rolling away from him and quickly sliding off
the side of the bed. "Come on, let's eat. Kris and I have a big day planned."

He was up and off the mattress before I slid my underwear on. The cotton fabric made
it to my knees before he grabbed me from behind and pushed himself firmly against
me. "But…you said you would help me with this problem," he grumbled into my ear, playfully
nipping at my lobe.

I swatted at his roaming hands, which were seeking a resting place between my thighs.
"I can help you with your problem later…will you stop that!" I laughed as he leaned
into me, nudging my backside with his erection. I placed my palms on his thighs in
an attempt to free myself, but he was stronger - and faster. One of his free hands
darted between my legs and I gasped as his fingers slid inside me. The pad of his
thumb rubbed against my clitoris as he pushed two fingers in and out at a pace that
rivaled my heartbeat.

"Connor," I gasped as he spun me around to face the bed, bending me forward, still
rubbing - still probing. I braced myself against the foot of the bed as Connor delved
deeper inside me with one hand and cupped my breast with the other. Unable to stop
myself, I pushed against him, longing for the feel of his sex inside mine. My muscles
tightened around his fingers as a moan escaped my mouth but instead of continuing,
he eased out of me.

"No, don't stop," I pleaded.

Fingertips ran up my spine and I arched my back from the sensation. "Riley, I want
you," he begged.

"Please…take me, Connor…I'm yours."

And take me, he did.

With each step along the trail, sweat rolled down the sides of my face and neck, soaking
a dirty ring into the collar of my sleeveless top. I looked over my shoulder at Kris,
and noticed her shirt looked no better than my own. We had only been on the horses
for two hours, and it was the hottest day of the month. The thermometers inside the
cabins read at a steady ninety degrees but all of us swore it felt more like one hundred
and ten. The air was so dry that our throats were sore; none of us could get enough
water.

For over a week, Kris and I had been taking the horses out for a daily three - five
hour hike along various trails in the Laguna Mountains, testing them on different
terrain, including the hard packed asphalt of the highway. I was almost certain that
Sunny, our friendly palomino with the soft and gentle, Hershey-kiss eyes, was a trail
horse at one time in her life. The only thing that Foxy struggled with was being in
the rear. She hated to be behind the other mare and would yank at the rope reins and
sidestep on the pathway until I allowed her to trot her way to the front. Lucky for
us, Sunny didn't seem to mind being passed up.

I almost cancelled the last trail ride of the week because of the intense, arid heat,
but we were leaving soon and I wanted the horses to be able to take a few days off
before we set out. It would be a long week of walking from east San Diego County to
the outskirts of southern Los Angeles, and I wanted to make sure the horses could
handle the random hot days just as much as us people.

Kris and I found a tandem saddle at a horse-boarding ranch not far from Julian a few
days earlier, which would work perfectly for the two of us. Connor was going to ride
Sunny. She took to him, so it worked out nicely for everyone. An added bonus was that
Foxy didn't seem to mind having both Kris and I on her back, though it left less room
for saddlebags. I figured that on some of the journey the three of us could walk beside
the horses to give them a break when they needed it. And as long as we stopped along
the way to pick up supplies, we wouldn't need to carry much with us.

The plan was set in motion. We had it all sorted, even marked out nicely on a map
with a red pen. The only hitch would be the weather and timing our departure to go
with other events happening at the lodge. Ana had a month or so left of her pregnancy,
and I agreed to spend no more than a week in L.A. looking for Mariah. It didn't seem
like much but I told myself if we didn't find her this time around, I could always
go back. It would take almost a week to get there, another week to look around and
a week to return. That left only a week's worth of time for unforeseen events.

My mind ran the journey details on a loop through my brain, and even though we had
planned what we could, I attempted to think of every worst-case scenario possible.
I was imagining what we would do if one of the horses became injured when Foxy jerked
at the reins and stopped walking so instantly that I slammed forward into her neck.
She stood rigid with her head held high and her ears forward as if she was listening
to something in the distance.

"What is it, girl?" I asked quietly, while stroking the side of her neck.

She blinked and let out a soft grunt, but didn't take her eyes off the trail in front
of us. When I glanced behind me, I saw Kris atop Sunny, scratching at her ears.

"What's up?" she asked me.

I shrugged and looked around us at the dry forest that had begun to encroach upon
the trail. The only prints in the dirt were ours, from our hike through the area two
days earlier. There was a stream that hadn't dried up yet, not far away, which was
where I intended on taking us so the horses could get water, but it seemed as if Foxy
was refusing to continue.

I tugged on her reins in an attempt to turn her but she stomped her front feet in
the dirt, not taking her eyes off the winding trail. With a sigh, I yanked harder,
hoping that whatever she had heard or sensed was too far away to be a threat, but
still she didn't budge.

"Are we going back?" Kris asked. Sunny seemed irritable; she stomped at the dirt and
shook her head so that her mane flew out around her.

"Well, that's what I was trying to--", I was interrupted by a high-pitched shriek
that reverberated off the trees in a multi-tonal echo that made the hairs on my arms
stand up. The cry seemed too loud to be human and cut off abruptly. It was
close
.

Both the horses bolted the way we had come, back along the trail. I leaned forward
and hung on for dear life, one hand wrapped in the reins, gripping the saddle horn
and the other fisted in the horse's mane. Two more times I heard the screeching cry
of what sounded like a woman, off in the distant and I glanced over my shoulder only
to make sure whatever had made the awful shriek wasn't following us. The horses galloped
until the trail merged with the highway again, and they nearly tossed us into the
uneven dirt shoulder when we tried to calm them down.

"What was that?" Kris asked, keeping her eyes on the tree line that ran parallel with
the road.

"I don't know, and I'd rather not find out," I answered.

My arm hairs still stood upright and with both horses twitchy and unnerved, we made
our way back to the lodge in silence, never taking our eyes from the trees. Something
was definitely there, watching us. It was a different kind of darkness than the one
we had all gotten used to since the city fell, tethering the dead to the living.

The outcry we heard boom out of the trees was from something alive - most definitely
alive.

***

We arrived back at the lodge sweaty and dirty from the ride. As Kris led the two jittery
mares to their post to tether them, I pulled the water hose from the side of the Recreation
building, letting the water flow from the spout until the temperature cooled. One
thing the horses both liked was being splashed with fresh water. With their saddles
off, I hosed them down until clean streams ran off their flanks, and let them air
dry. With the late afternoon heat, it didn't take long for the liquid to evaporate.
With a huge bundle of hay in between them, the mares calmed down and focused on one
thing: food.

"Shower?" I asked Kris, who looked just as exhausted as I felt.

She shook her head, "Bath."

We took the trail leading down to the cabin slowly, our inner thighs sore from riding,
legs trembling slightly, arms held limply by our sides. My whole rear-end felt numb
but that changed by the time we reached the cabin. Groaning and grumbling with each
porch step, the two of us entered the place looking like the horses had dragged us
through the mountains, not carried us on their backs.

Zoey jumped up on us the moment we walked in the door. I bent forward, letting the
small dog lick my face partially clean. I scratched behind her ears until she flopped
down and rolled over, displaying her tummy for a rub. It took every muscle in my back
to right myself when I was finished with the dog, and even more muscles to climb the
stairs to the second floor.

Kris was standing on the landing, leaning against the banister talking to Connor.
She mumbled something about the scream that startled the horses and Connor snagged
my arm as I tried to squeeze past him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, as a look of concern wrinkled his forehead.

"We're here, aren't we?" I smiled up at him and pecked his cheek with a quick kiss
before vanishing into the bedroom. I left a trail of dirty clothes on the floor from
the door to the bathroom, stripping them off and dumping them as I walked.

Connor followed me in after Kris excused herself to her room. "Babe, what happened
out there? Kris looked a little freaked out," he said, while I stepped into the shower,
pulling the curtain closed around me. I flinched when the water came on - cold as
ice - but I was too tired to step back and let it warm. When I opened up my bottle
of spearmint and eucalyptus body wash, the smell alone was enough to make me sway
in the shower, but not until the curtain pulled back and Connor popped his head in
did I realize he was talking to me the whole time.

"Did you hear anything I said?" he asked with a smile.

"Nope. I'm in shower heaven, babe. Sorry, I'm exhausted; that was a stressful ride,
however short it was," I mumbled back at him, as I ran shampoo through my hair. I
pulled out a leaf, blinked at it, and sleepily wondered to myself how it got there.

"Okay, I'll let you shower in peace. You look
hot
by the way," he said. With a wink, he released the shower curtain, letting it fall
back in place and I watched as his shadow left the room.

The soap going down the drain was tinted beige from the dirt that covered my arms,
neck and face, and no matter how hard I scrubbed, I still
smelled
like horse. When I was finally satisfied that I was clean, I stepped out and wrapped
myself in a terry bath towel, twisting another one around my hair.

My intention was to get dressed and go downstairs for dinner but the bed beckoned
me across the room and I collapsed face first onto it, burying my head in a pillow.
Sleep took me instantly, and for the first time in weeks - I didn’t dream.

***

Connor sat downstairs at the counter, rearranging plates and cups and silverware until
Kris begged him to stop. She downed three glasses of water since coming downstairs
after her shower. Riley was still upstairs, and he was growing impatient waiting for
her to join them. He had prepared dinner himself: a mixed veggie salad - all from
their makeshift greenhouse. The lettuce and cherry tomatoes looked especially inviting
and Connor had the urge to lean down and lick at his plate. Just before he did so,
Zoey barked once and Connor rose from the kitchen island to look out the front windows.
Winchester was standing on the porch, holding something in his hands.

"Hey man, how goes it?" he asked the impeccably groomed man.

"Oh, good…good. I just thought I'd bring this over. I know Kris and Riley were mentioning
chocolate the other day." Winchester handed over a square container and Connor peered
below the dishcloth to see a cooling batch of brownies.

"Seriously?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"Yeah, it was easy…just substituted the eggs for applesauce. And we have plenty of
that, right?" he laughed. That was true too, Riley had pureed a whole crate of apples
they picked from a nearby orchard and packed the sauce up in jars. They would have
applesauce through the entire winter.

Kris squealed when she overheard the word 'brownies' and joined Connor at the door.
He noticed that Winchester blushed when Kris leaned through the doorway and kissed
his cheek. He rubbed at the spot as if he wanted to clean his face.

"Well, thanks man. I'm sure when Riley comes down, she'll dive right in."

"Oh, sure. No problem. Okay, so I'm back to the cabin, I'm making pesto tonight for
Jacks. I mean…for Jacks and Ana, Skip too, of course," Winchester laughed.

Connor nodded at him and smiled, watching as the other man left the porch and stepped
back onto the trail to go next door. Damn, that dude is so weird, he thought.