LustAfterDeath (5 page)

Josie spotted something slimy and yellow on the trail and
bent to touch it.

Footsteps sounded behind her, precise strikes at the ground.
“I wouldn’t do that. Banana slugs are slimy.”

“Slimy?” Her finger darted out and stroked down the length
of the slow moving creature. Its surface was slick, a bit like soap, but
stickier. Smiling, she rolled the goo between her fingers. “Hee!”

Bane tromped to the front of her and grasped her hand. “You
know how hard it is to get that off?” A sizzle of energy stole up her arm at
the touch of his calloused fingers on her wrist.

She yanked her hand back. “Don’t touch me.”

He stared her down. His deep-set eyes took her measure.
”There are some things I need to tell you.” His expression softened, though his
jaw clenched. “You need to know what you are.”

Josie crossed her arms over her chest and placed one leg in
front of the other, holding and protecting herself at the same time. “And
you’re going to tell me? Why?” Adam’s reasons, though twisted, made sense. Adam
had loved her and wanted to take care of her. This man didn’t even seem to like
her.

“Because it’s a big world, and you’ll need to take care of
yourself.” His eyes shadowed, and she knew Bane wasn’t telling the whole truth.
But his resigned stance told Josie he was telling some. “Come…” Josie flinched
at the start of the order, and Bane held his hands palms up in surrender. “We
should sit down.”

He tugged the blanket from her arms, careful not to brush
her skin, and laid it on a boulder. Then Bane sat, patting the spot next to
him. “Would you sit? Um, please.” The last was said between gritted teeth.

She settled on the farthest tip of the blanket even though
Bane’s body radiated an excitable heat that made her want to edge closer. He
smelled of sweat and man, and just a hint of metal. And he placed his hand
inches from hers, flipping open and shut his shiny lighter.

“Well, the first thing you need to know is that you used to
be dead.” His tone was all business, and he prepared to list something else,
when Josie cut him off.

“What does that mean?”

With what appeared to be great effort, Bane paused. He
scrubbed his hand at his neck before continuing. “You remember what happened to
Adam? When I shot him?” Josie nodded. “Well, you were like that.”

“You shot me?” The idea hurt her feelings.

“No!
I
didn’t kill you. Likely no one did, you… I
mean your body probably died because you… I mean it was sick, or something.”
Josie opened her mouth to ask another question, but Bane held up a finger to
cut her off.

“Adam brought your body back to life and built your mind
using some of the connections your brain had before, and some new ones.” Again
she tried to speak, but Bane’s thumb stroked along the ridge of her index
finger, stealing her breath. “The point is that there are billions of people in
the world, but very few of them are like us. Most were born as babies, to
mothers.”

Josie searched her repository for more data and found an
image of a tiny pink person. “Will I ever have a baby?”

His shoulders rose and fell. “I don’t know. Probably not.
Okay, most likely not.” Those curved lips pinched into a hard line, and Josie
had a wild urge to kiss them softer. “But you can do a lot of things, anything
you want. But I have to take you to my people. They’re called the Zombie
Underground, and they help people like you. They’ll clear the programming Adam
installed and…”

“Why would I want that?” Josie eased her hand closer to her
body, away from his long, teasing fingers.

His eyebrows shot up. “You like being someone’s slave,
having men put you under to force you to do things?” His voice shook with some
hidden emotion, and Josie sensed the need to speak carefully.

“You don’t have to order me to do things.”

A breeze blew from the water, rustling the trees overhead,
and a bird cawed and flapped its wings above.

He didn’t meet her eyes. “Frank, my boss, can help you
function better, fix any hidden problems. You could live with others like you,
or out among humans.”

Josie noticed that another small animal had crept out of the
underbrush to watch their conversation. It wasn’t the same animal from earlier,
but looked to be the same kind. “I like it here though.” She made tiny sounds
to lure her prospective friend.

Bane sat up straight, seeming to lose his patience. “Yeah,
this is beautiful, but you can’t stay here. Among other things, Synaviv would
snatch you up in no time.”

She whispered, more to herself than to him, “Not if you’re
here.”

He looked away and Josie thought he might leave. “We need to
go to Seattle.”

Josie focused on the animal, with his scratchy-looking
hands. She ran her fingers over the felt of the blanket.

“And another thing. You're going to have to let me touch
you… Sometimes.”

Josie’s head spun so fast, a crick stung at her neck.
“What?”

Again Bane raised his palms to her. “Hey, I’m just telling
you what my guys told me.” He picked at a piece of string along the seam of the
blanket. “Adam seems to have built you to need touch like you need food. I’m
sure because he planned on doing a lot more than just touching you.”

Josie knew she could determine his meaning if she thought
hard about her time with Adam, but she refused to revisit those memories.

“But if you come with me back to the ZU, I bet Frank can fix
that, make it so you could go days not touching anyone and be fine.”

Her fingers curled on the blanket at the thought. Already
with his warm body so close, Josie had to bite her lip not to reach over and
stroke her nails through the gold fur in his arms. Given how Bane had laughed
at her earlier, she didn’t want to be at his mercy.

Her body leaned toward his, and Josie’s sharp senses drank
in the musk emanating from his skin. “Can I touch you instead?”

Bane didn’t answer, but when she looked at him, the apple in
his neck bobbed. “If you want.”

Josie extended her arm. She gasped when the pads of her
fingertips met the flesh on his wrist. Then she walked her fingers higher, to
where the hair thinned at the bend of his elbow and his skin bulged with
muscle. Before Josie could process the onslaught of sensation, her hand snuck
into the arm hole of his shirt.

Bane shifted so he faced her, but closed his eyes. Her arm
snaked farther into his shirt, coming to rest behind his shoulder blade. He
held still while she explored. His skin was rougher than hers and his muscles
hard beneath his flesh. Josie bit back a sigh. She wanted to press herself into
him, her whole body against his, so close they could feel each other breathe.

His eyes opened and his gaze darted to her lips. Their faces
hovered close together. She could smell his breath, see the short, rough hairs
on his jaw. Those hard, pink lips called to her, and Josie leaned forward and
placed her mouth on his. He made a sound like a purr, but deeper. Josie’s
fingers dug into his shoulder, she pressed her chest against his.

The feel of his body flush against her softer one brought a
scream to her throat. Her arm wrapped around him and her leg pitched over his
lap until they were face-to-face. Her mind zinged with sensation. Buzzing
filled her ears so that it took her a moment to register that his tongue had
slid into her mouth.

Chapter Five

The space between Josie’s legs swelled with heat. He did it
again, and Josie shouted against his lips. Her mind filled with faded images of
bodies locked in an embrace. She wanted to throw her head back and crawl into
his body all at the same time. He smelled so intoxicating she abandoned his
mouth to bury her head in his shoulder and run her tongue over his smooth, tan
skin. He tasted like sweat, a hint of salt water and the sheen of misty rain.

She bunched his t-shirt in her fists and dragged it over his
head, crying out again as acres of warm flesh were bared to her hungry gaze.
She tugged her own shirt up, looping her hair to fit it through the opening.

The material fell to the forest floor, and dragging in a
breath, Josie eased her bare torso onto Bane’s. The sensation exploded along
her nerve endings. She felt every crest and valley, the tiny puckers of scars
along his ribs. Her heart beat a frantic rhythm, and she could feel his doing
the same. Overcome, she laid her head on his shoulder, her face pressed into
the warm muscles. Sharp bits of rock poked at her knees, and Josie adjusted her
legs to wrap around the seat of his pants.

She hadn’t known anything could feel so good, and her mouth
opened to tell Bane as much, to ask him if he felt it too, when his hands
smoothed down to her hips and gripped them. Bane tugged her in closer, so that
the damp, swollen center of her crushed into the lap of his rain pants. She
felt a ridge beneath the fabric hard against her sensitive flesh. He thrust his
hips up into her and Josie’s eyes rolled back into her head. Sparks flew wild
and fast behind her eyelids at the feeling his movements wrung from her. Josie
writhed on his lap, adding friction to his already firm strokes.

A wave of feeling started at the juncture of her thighs. It
made her want to press her legs closed and spread them wide at the same time.
Her breasts brushed at the wiry hair on his chest, creating a circuit between
them. Bane’s hand released her hip and reached lower, stroking along the crease
in her behind and down to the pelt below. Her back arched and she threw her
head back, a cry escaping her lips and echoing through the trees.

He stroked her again, the gentle movement sent fire crawling
up her spine. Another firm grind against his pelvis shot sparks into her core
and Josie felt on the precipice of something. She didn’t know what, only that
she would die if forced from his body.

Bane’s hand stole into her damp flesh from behind and Josie
flew. Shouts and cries left her lips, her body crumbled in shivers on his, and
the center of her clenched and spasmed, the joy of it almost painful. White
lights and colors danced in her vision, contrasting with the earthy hues of
Bane’s flesh, and warmth blossomed in her heart.

She never wanted to be parted from this beautiful creature.

“You are so damn gorgeous,” he growled in her ear, and Josie
knew he felt the same way. Her heart ached even as it danced.

Bane lifted her from his lap a fraction. He fussed with the
fastenings of his pants while Josie floated in bliss. Her cheek rested on his
skin as she looked forward to feeling yet more of his lovely flesh on hers.

In a wild, harsh blur, an image invaded in her mind—Bane
bending her over the boulder, kicking her legs apart, a huge appendage jutting
from between his legs and stabbing into her.

She jumped up from him and scurried to grab the shirt off
the ground. Her hands clutched it to cover her body and when she chanced a look
at Bane, he sat on the rock, a purpled, erect…thing in his hand.

Josie tugged the shirt over her head and yanked at the hem
to cover her thighs. She didn’t look in Bane’s direction again until he’d stood
and started walking away.

His shoulders hunched and his head hung low. He stretched
his t-shirt between his arms to fit it over his head. After a few steps, he
turned to face her. “Listen, you could have just said no, all right? I’m not a
fucking rapist.”

Her mouth opened to reply, and then closed. When she didn’t
say anything, Bane started walking away again.

But like last time, he stopped after a few feet. “I’m sorry,
okay? I… I’m just sorry.” He didn’t wait for her reply before turning back to
the path and heading toward the dock. “We need to find a spot to camp for the
night.”

Josie trailed behind him and sifted through what had
happened. They crested the hill and looked out over the bay. The boats floated
in the gray-green water. “Bane?” She placed a hand on his shoulder and he
stopped but didn’t turn.

“Yeah?” His muscles tensed under her touch.

“Why did you do that?”

He started walking again, away from her and down to the
boat.

Josie hurried behind him. With each step she took, her anger
grew that he hadn’t answered.

Bane hopped down into the boat and started gathering things
from the cupboards.

She remained on the dock and placed her hands on her hips.
“Would you please answer me?”

He stuck his head out the door. “Why’d I do what, exactly?”

She made a little sound, halfway between a scoff and a
laugh. “That stuff in my mind, why did you…” Josie searched for the question.
“Why did you put it there?”

His forehead knit together and he looked at her with an
expression of complete confusion. “Why did I put what where?” He stepped out of
the cabin but stayed in the boat’s aft, looking up at her.

“You didn’t do it on purpose?” She felt a hint of relief.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. You freaked because
I whipped it out, right?” He gestured to the front of his pants.

A hot blush climbed her cheeks. “Um…” Josie rubbed her
fingers against her palms. “Well…I saw things when you did that.”

Bane’s eyebrows rose and he cast a meaningful glance at his
trousers again.

A hysterical giggle rose in her throat. “Not those things. I
mean, I saw a scene…in my mind. I thought you put it there.”

The corner of his mouth twitched up, as if he was trying not
to laugh. “What did you see?”

Josie’s face burned. “It’s not important.” She flicked her
hair back, trying to make herself believe it. But then she whispered, “Adam put
pictures like that in my mind too.”

Bane hopped onto the dock. His deep-set eyes darkened with
understanding and his jaw hardened with feeling. He took her hands, and his
voice was soft and gentle when he said, “I am so sorry.” He shook his head
slowly. “I didn’t project anything on purpose. Adam set you up to network with
your husband, and I guess that’s part of the program.”