Page 16 of Bait
“But my dad—” I started, but she wasn’t having it.
“You’re not responsible for what your parents did any more than I am for mine.” She palmed my cheek, while her other hand settled at the nape of my neck. I couldn’t look away even if I tried. I pressed forward and my bigger breasts bumped into hers. I was in my loose tank still and when Candela lowered her gaze to them, she made a growling sound that made me ache. “Do you really want to talk about my dad, Brains?”
She rubbed her finger over the pulse point on my throat and the sensation was like a jolt. She was the first person I’d kissed. “What do you want to talk about?” I whispered into the space between us, and she licked her lips. I nuzzled the hand on my face and turned until I could leave a kiss on her palm.
“If you do that again, I’m going to kiss you.” It was a warning and a promise, and I’d had a day that had turned my world upside down, so I did the thing I wanted and not the one I should have. I nipped her hand and then lapped the spot with my tongue. Candela reacted to my boldness, with a sharp intake of breath and a very welcome invitation. “Come here, Brains.”
I went.
We met halfway, our mouths crashing together with ferocious hunger. Candela’s hand on my nape kept me right there for her. I parted my lips for her tongue, and it swept inside like my mouth was hers, just hers. “I missed you,” she whispered between the pulls of my tongue. I moaned as she bit my bottom lip and then I bit hers. I ran my hand up the space between us. Pressed my palm to her belly, swept it up to her breasts and her chest rumbled with something that made me weak. My body fizzed as she touched me in tandem. It was all so new and yet so familiar. I’d kissed a couple of guys in the bunker, but this was so much better. I felt it all over. Every corner of my body responded to what Candela was doing.
“Cande.” I clutched her head and kissed her deeper, scrambled up until I was plastered to her from breast to toe. “Touch me,” I begged shamelessly, and she made a rumbling noise before pulling down my tank to reveal my breasts. God I wanted her mouth on me. Her teeth too.
“Brains.” She sounded like she was in pain, and she looked a little addled as she stared at them. “I want to taste. Can I sweetheart?” I nodded eagerly, and she lowered her head to it. Her tongue rasped the tip, and the contact turned me into a live wire. She suckled it, nursed it with teeth and lips, and I needed more. The ache between my legs was intense and I knew I was soaking for her.
“Don’t stop, please.” I was not too proud to beg for this.
“You like my mouth on you, baby?” The baby almost made me melt. I nodded eagerly and looked down as her tongue circled my tight nipple. “I want to put my tongue inside that hot pussy.” Candela always had a dirty mind and it seemed she had a mouth to match. “Want to let me lick you baby, make you come on my tongue.”
“Oh fuck.” Just the thought of it had me close to coming. I was so lost in the sensation that I almost didn’t hear the bang of the door. I jumped back like I’d been scalded. Every inch of me protesting the interruption. I pulled my shirt back over my breasts with my face burning.
Candela on her end stretched her body in one of those lazy, feline movements of hers. Her nipples were hard, and her lips looked just a bit bruised, but she was cool and collected while I was considering throwing some water on my face.
I forced myself to look at Torch. I didn’t have anything to be embarrassed about, after all. It was just a kiss. His face was impassive, no emotion, except for the flare of something a little feral when he fixed his gaze on the wet spot right over my right breast.
“Are you two ready?” he asked, walking past us into the driving cabin without waiting for a response.
ChapterSeven
The rest of the afternoon passed pretty smoothly and despite the hit of adrenaline the kiss had provided, the day began to catch up with me. We made our way through what Torch and Candela called the “expanse.” We managed to emerge out of the area of the bunker without much incident and soon we were ascending the old mountain road that led to our destination. As we drove, Candela pointed out a valley she said had been filled with volcanic ash. Now it was a forest with pines so enormous they seemed to reach the sky.
“There are quite a lot of people living in there,” she told me as I looked in awe at the trees that resembled the photos I’d seen of the California redwoods. “Sunlight is an issue, but they are pretty concealed.”
“I haven’t seen any lava.” I hadn’t expected to be close to the bunker, I knew they’d built far from the projected eruption areas, but I’d imagined the spill would be everywhere.
“The lava was worse on the West Coast. It didn’t reach here so much.” My dad had made a few predictions of how the eruptions would happen, but once they began it was hard to know where they occurred. “We heard there were towns that were swallowed whole.” I tried not to read too much into the fact that Torch was actually responding to my questions. Or into the fact that he didn’t seem fazed by what he’d walked in on earlier. Like half my boob hadn’t been in Candela’s mouth. It was certainly not behavior that was acceptable in the bunker. Sex was only to be bred. But if he was taking it in stride, I would too.
I focused on what I could see outside. We passed a few areas that looked populated. None of them close to the road, but in the distance. We also saw a few vehicles that had solar panels, but none stopped. They didn’t look like any of the cars you’d see on magazines or movies. These were more like a bunch of different things cobbled together to make one working vehicle. One had a front half that looked like an ambulance, it even had the AMBU on the side, but the rear half was the bed of a pick-up truck. It was reassuring in a way to see that people had found a way to carry on. To work with what was left to build a future.
I also noticed Torch would do a complicated code with his lights as they approached. When I asked he told me it was a signal they’d developed to identify themselves as safe people in transit. I kept busy with a notepad and pencil I got from Candela and listed everything I saw. As I processed the reality that life had gone on without us, Leo came to mind. I couldn’t help wondering what he'd make of this place. If he would be sad or happy to be outside. He was the kind of guy to always look at the positive, so I didn’t think he’d focus on what he’d lost, but what was still left. Although it would probably crush him to know the lies we’d been fed. I didn’t know if even Leo could forgive Becker for his deception. I never would.
“What are you thinking so hard about, Brains?” There were many things I could say. I wanted to ask how they could be so nonchalant while the bunker, while our friends, were down there with Becker being manipulated and deceived. But I knew there was a lot I didn’t know. Still, I couldn’t resist.
“Did you ever hear anything about my mom?” My mom had fallen ill. It had been quick. One minute she’d been fine and the next she’d been began to spiral, her behavior erratic, until she crashed to the ground and was taken to the clinic without a heartbeat. I got to see her once in the bunker hospital before her cremains were delivered to us personally by Becker. Knowing what we knew now, I wondered if she’d truly died.
Before she could catch herself, Candela went very still, alarm flickering in her eyes. But it was gone so fast I wondered if I’d imagined it. Torch gripped the steering wheel hard, but he didn’t respond.
“Not anything you didn’t already know.” I waited for him to say more. To tell me that he missed her too. But all the kindness from earlier was replaced by the icy tone he’d had before. “We’ll be at our stop for the night in an hour.” I knew there was something they weren’t saying. It could be a kindness. Maybe they knew something that could pain me and were trying to spare me. The thought that my father could’ve somehow hurt her had crossed my mind. He’d been so enthralled by Becker. I set aside Torch’s cryptic answer and my speculation for later because just then, we began to descend down a smaller road. The rig bumped and jolted so much that I had to close my eyes to keep from getting sick. By the time we hit smoother paths we were driving in a thick forest.
Soon the evidence of people living there became evident. The trees were very tall and large, but there was a road cleared for vehicles in between their massive trunks. The scale was them was such that it felt like we were in a giant’s wooded home. And there was evidence of a community all around us, which thrilled me. I noticed some signs indicating the direction of the township. There were a few people swimming in a small pond and one of them was fishing. Eventually we came to a small bridge which didn’t look like it would hold the rig to me. I braced myself as Torch carefully drove on to the wooden planks, but to my surprise, we made it through without issue. When we arrived at the gate, a woman and man with guns came out.
“This settlement is called Esperanza,” Candela told me as we came to a stop. “We have friends here.” The two people seemed to know the rig. Both waved at us and a third man moved to unlatch the gate. It was so strange to think that people had just been building communities up here. “These two are Bianca and Samuel,” she said as she pointed to the approaching figures. I noticed Candela was all smiles as she lowered her window. The woman, Bianca, was a pretty, curvy type with two long braids and lovely mahogany skin, approached Candela’s side.
“Hey, you.” Bianca’s greeting and the hungry way she looked at Candela made my stomach twist. And also confused me, because Torch was completely oblivious to their flirting. He’d been all scowly when he walked in on us, but now he was totally oblivious. “Did you bring me anything?” she asked, all flirty, and Candela only grinned harder.
“You know I did.” That was delivered with a wink and a licking of the lips. Candela had always been a tease. There was a reason I’d given her the nickname Candela, she was hot as fuck, hot as ball of flames. I didn’t like this though. It made my skin itch to see her all into that girl.
“Hey,” I yelled, snapping them both out of their little chat. Didn’t they care that I’d been through a harrowing ordeal. That I was not in a well state? “Don’t they need to inspect the truck to make sure we’re safe to enter or something?”
