Page 8 of Tower
He starts to thrust, his eyes crawling over my body from my hot face and messy hair to my jiggling breasts and splayed legs. He sets a steady rhythm, holding my bottom in both his hands. The position stretches my stomach muscles, but it’s not a problem. He’s not all in my face, and I appreciate the distance.
“This okay, Hailey?” he asks after a few minutes. Neither one of us has said a word or made a sound. Nothing except the slight sound of him moving inside me and the squeaking of the mattress.
Something about his saying my name makes it real in a way it didn’t feel before. How the hell has my life come to this? Letting this rough stranger fuck me in an old motel room.
“It’s fine,” I tell him breathlessly. “I’m good.”
“You want me to try something else?”
“No. I’m not going to come tonight, but this is fine. You finish whenever you’re ready.”
I don’t think that’s what he wants to hear, but there’s nothing else to say. There’s no possible way I’m going to reach orgasm, and surely it’s better to be honest with him in this situation.
He nods, picking up his tempo. I watch him as he stares down at my breasts, at the place where his cock is moving in and out of me. He might not be blown away, but he’s into it. He likes how I look, and he likes how it feels to fuck me.
His features twist, tighten. His thrusts get harder and faster. He’s gasping out, “Fuck” just before he yanks his cock out to come on my belly. His ejaculate spurts onto my skin. There’s a lot of it.
We’re both panting when he eases my ass back down onto the bed.
He falls down next to me. Both of us stare up at the ceiling.
“Was that good for you?” I ask after a few minutes. When he doesn’t answer, I add, “I mean, you want to… You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”
He meets my eyes in the light from the lantern he brought into the room with him. It’s completely dark outside now. “No,” he says. “I haven’t changed my mind. Have you?”
“No. I haven’t changed my mind either.”
3
Despite everything,I sleep soundly, half waking a few times but never enough to get anxious or upset about my new circumstances.
The first time I come back to full consciousness is early in the morning when the mattress shifts. Levi is getting out from under the covers and sitting on the edge of the bed.
I peek at him through lowered eyelids to see what he’s doing.
Nothing.
He’s just sitting there. For more than a minute.
It’s still mostly dark in the room, but I can see enough to notice his hair is a mess and can identify the darker shading of his tattoos. Most of his tattoos are on his arms. He doesn’t have any on his chest, but he’s got a big one on his back. The details of it aren’t clear in this lighting, but I think it’s another tree.
I have no idea what his thing is with trees.
His underwear is riding low. I even see the hint of his butt crack. He might not be a young man anymore, but he’s fit. I like the strong contours of his shoulders, back, and hips.
He’ssolid.
I haven’t moved, so he doesn’t know I’m awake. I’m wondering how long he’s going to sit there, as if he’s summoning the effort to get moving, when he finally does. He stands up with a textured exhale, pulling up his underwear and then grabbing yesterday’s jeans and shirt from the floor to put on.
I watch as he collects clean clothes from the one dresser in the room.
He’s going to the river like normal. He washes and dresses for the day there instead of in the tents like everyone else.
There’s no fresh air to be had anymore. Not since the asteroid impact sent up a thick layer of dust and debris into the atmosphere. It was worse last year, but even now the grit seems to hang in the air. A lot of people have died from lung problems, and half the people I met yesterday cough regularly like my mom did before she died eighteen months ago.
So Levi is obviously not after fresh air in the mornings. Maybe he likes the quiet. The peace before another day of fighting to survive begins.
I’d kind of like that too.
