Devoured by - (ebook reader browser .txt) 📖

Lance listened for a few minutes, hearing the occasional shriek from off in the distance, but not much else. The hardened shell of the truck didn’t allow much sound in.

“Let’s hope the Vladdies don’t find us in here. It’ll be loud as hell if they bang on the sides.”

“I hate not knowing what time it is,” Cass said. “Has the sun set yet? We should sleep during the night so we can get out of this tin can in the morning.”

“No idea. There’s no chance in hell I’m going to open the door and find out either. Not yet, anyway.” He wiped away the sheen of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep in here—too damn hot.”

“We have a safe place to spend the night and you’re complaining?”

“Hey, I admit it—I’m a huge baby when it comes to sleeping. I’m one of those people that needs the AC jacked up.”

“You better get over that. We aren’t going to feel the joys of air conditioning while we sleep for the rest of our short lives.”

“Cassie, you have a real knack for cheering me up.”

She kicked him in the shin—not terribly hard, but enough to warn him off the name. He yelped and slid his leg away, rubbing the area.

Lance went back to the gym bag and pulled the towels out.

“Damn, what else is in there?” Cass asked. “What’re the odds that we stumbled upon all of that in here?”

“I guess karma can only shit on your life for so long.” Lance pushed two of the moneybags against the wall, clearing the center of the truck’s bed. The towels went on the rubber matt that covered the steel floor. There wasn’t enough space to put them side-by-side, so he layered them on top of each other. “Not exactly the Ritz, but it’ll do. I wouldn’t recommend bumping into me tonight though, unless you want to shower in my sweat. Christ, I’m going to be so dehydrated that I’ll look like a mummy by the time we wake up.”

Cass stood up and looked at her arms. Light reflected off the layer of saltwater covering them. “I’m not exactly a bastion of cleanliness.”

“Bastion? Good word.”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Would I mock someone who carries around an axe straight out of DragonLance? No, I was being serious. Good word. Don’t hear that one too often.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

Lance frowned at the awkwardness of their conversation. He looked at the towels on the floor, wondering how their sleeping arrangement would go. The benches were too thin and short for someone to sleep on.

The heat inside would force him to take his clothes off to sleep and he didn’t feel particularly comfortable doing that beside her. He realized how moronic that was, but it didn’t change anything. Most of America’s population had died a horrible death and poor Lance York didn’t want to take his clothes off in front of a woman.

Is she feeling as uncomfortable about this as I am?

Cass grabbed the bottom edge of her shirt and pulled it over her head, dropping it to the floor.

Lance stared at her black bra, shocked at how nonchalant she was about her near-nudity.

“You’re acting like you’ve never seen a bra before.”

“Sorry, I just didn’t expect that.” He gave his head a little shake and tore his eyes away from the tops of her sweat-covered breasts.

Cass undid her belt, letting it fall onto her shirt.

Lance felt his gaze being pulled back to her like it was caught in a tractor beam. He watched as she slid her skirt down and stepped out of it. She stood before him in a matching set of bra and panties.

“Uhh—”

“Stop staring at me. It’s hot as the seventh level of Hell in here.” She reached up and turned off the dome light.

“Sorry.” Lance heard her lie down on the towels. He slid his shoes off, placing them in the corner by the moneybags. He paused with his hands on his zipper. “Oh, what the hell.” He stripped down to his boxer briefs.

“What?” Cass asked from the floor.

“Nothing. Being weird.”

He lay down beside her, his heart pumping faster than it should have. He hadn’t been in anything resembling this kind of position with a woman other than Liz in a decade and a half. Even though he knew that there was nothing sexual about their situation, he couldn’t help but feel odd about it.

His shoulder bumped into her as he rolled onto his left side, putting his back between them. “Sorry.”

With his arm trailing along the floor above him, his head placed on it, he wished for a pillow. Why couldn’t the world have ended from a zombie apocalypse like all those shitty novels he used to read? Any moron could board their doors and windows shut and sleep in their own bed.

But no. Reality had to consist of a virus mutating people into raging, steroid monsters. Now he was trying to sleep in an overgrown lunchbox.

At least he had a hot woman beside him.

Sleep hinged onto the edges of his consciousness with surprising quickness.

His muscles relaxed, body finally allowed a moment of rest. He felt himself falling away when something soft and moist brushed his stomach, exploring across his skin just below his belly button.

Lance jerked out of his semi-sleep as Cass’ hand plunged inside his boxer briefs. She grabbed him, squeezing firmly.

“What the hell are you doing?” He rolled over, senses tingling, emotions running the gamut from confusion to elation.

“Shut up, dumbass,” she said, her voice husky.

“But—”

She gripped him tighter as he grew in her hand. “I said shut up.”

“I’m disgusting though! I haven’t had a bath in days. I must smell like a gym locker.”

“I haven’t either.” She slid his underwear down to his thighs and straddled him.

His erection didn’t share the same protests as his mind. He stood at attention as she worked on him.

They both sighed in ecstasy as she guided him inside her.