Page 21 of Bait
I’d only ever had powdered eggs. I was very excited to try them. Candela boiled them on the small range in the rig while I toasted bread in a little contraption that could also bake, according to her. Torch was out checking in with the overnight guards to make sure they hadn’t seen any other suspicious activity, and when he got back, we’d get on the road again for our last day of travel to the bunker exiles' township.
“I still can’t believe we could’ve been out this whole time.” This morning the outrage of it had mellowed into something more like determination. I was not going to be mad for the sake of it. I was going to do something about it. Candela made a sound that was hard to decipher as she pulled out eggs and placed them in a bowl of cold water. This was another nice thing about the outside. Water was not exactly in unlimited supply, but there was enough for everyday life. In large part because there were much fewer people consuming it around the world.
“It really wasn’t safe to be out for a long time.” She didn’t look at me while she talked, her focus on what her hands were doing, and I tried very hard not to notice how the muscles on her bare arm flexed. Or how she would catch her tongue between her teeth sometimes.
“I just wish my mom could’ve seen it.” My dad too, but I was still not sure how I felt about the way he’d been in his last years. Candela gave me a funny look, but then she turned back to the egg peeling, which from her focus seemed like serious business.
“Eat an egg.” She thrust the thing at me, then passed me a little saltshaker. I bit into one after salting it liberally and was not very impressed. It was gummy and the yolk inside stuck to the roof of my mouth.
“Not a fan,” I declared, which rewarded me with a very toothy grin. I tried very hard to picture the other places her mouth had been and all the places I wished it would go.
When the bread was ready, Candela pulled a small jar out of the basket Bianca brought the stew in the night before.
“Honey.” I’d never had honey. I knew they’d tried to bring bees into the bunker, but that they’d ended up dying.
“What’s the township like?”
“Small, only about three hundred people, but we keep it secure and for the most part we’re self-sustaining.” The bunker claimed to be that too, but I wondered if we’d ever been. “We grow most of our food, and we have a mill for flour. We even have some cattle that Torch got from another township in exchange for a motorcycle he and couple of the guys managed to fix so that it runs on solar energy.”
“Why don’t you live there, then? Settle down.” It was a question I’d been meaning to ask since I found out she spent most of the time travelling between the town and the bunker.
She shrugged twisting the lid of the jar of honey. “It’s important to me to help anyone who is pushed out of that hole in the ground to have a place to land. To have people protecting them when they get out.” Because it was not what she’d had when she and her dad were.
“Were we ever really fully closed off from the world or did Becker always keep the back door open?” It was something that had been on my mind since yesterday. I didn’t know why it mattered to know that, since what difference did it make now? But it did.
“The first few years they had to.”
I looked out the window of the rig and even from this hideaway in the woods, I could see the traces of what had happened. The ground had that sheen of volcanic remains.
“Come and taste this honey, Brains.” I don’t know why my brain decided to glitch on me in that moment, but the words hit me hard. It was like a light switch and suddenly I was hot again. A scorching ball of need swirled inside me. I could feel myself getting wet.
“Sorry,” I croaked out, certain my face was red.
Candela, who always could read me like a fucking book, gave one of those low throaty laughs of hers and dipped a finger into the golden, thick liquid. “Very naughty, Alma.” She made atskingsound before offering the bit of honey. I was salivating with anticipation. For both the taste of the honey and for whatever that heat in her eyes promised.
I wondered what would happen if Torch walked in on us and the thought only made me more eager. I leaned in and stuck out my tongue for it. Lapped just a drop while I held her gaze. It was an explosion of sweetness and sunshine in my mouth. We had beet sugar in the bunker, but this was different. It tasted like the outside. Like the clouds and the blue sky.
“You like it, Brains?” I made a sound of approval before sucking the digit into my mouth. I held it between my teeth, with just enough strength to make her hiss hotly. I fluttered my tongue over the finger and wished I could slide inside my pants and stroke my clit while I did it.
“I knew you’d be an eater. Bet you’d lick it all off my pussy if I let you.” The words pummeled me, because I’d never done it. But the idea of licking honey off her labia, of spreading her with my fingers and slurping up her juices, made me wild. I was almost vibrating in my chair.
“I bet you’re so wet.” Candela was almost biting off the words, her jaw tense as I made love to her finger. I was about to launch myself over the table and kiss her when the door slammed open and Torch walked in.
I instantly sat back, letting go of Cande’s finger with a very loud pop. But I was pretty sure he saw us. I didn’t look at him, but Candela was shameless and turned to him with a big grin.
“Our girl just tasted honey for the first time.”
Torch grunted in answer and walked over to the table to swipe a piece of toast, which he slathered with the honey.Their girl, that was what I wanted to be.
“Bianca is catching a ride with us,” he announced before biting into the bread.
“What? Why?” I cried out in outrage before I could check myself. I was too turned on to hold my tongue. Torch raised an eyebrow in question, and I could swear the asshole was secretly laughing at me. I was completely out of line. They’d saved my life and now I was acting all territorial.
“You feeling a certain way, Brains?” Candela asked with a little edge to her question that made me squirm in my seat.
“It’s just, I thought Torch would get jealous since she’s clearly into you.” Yeah, that was super fucking mature. Candela laughed and Torch kept that wolfish eyebrow thing going while he munched on toast.
When he was done, he dusted crumbs off his hands and leaned down so his mouth was right at my ear. “I don’t get jealous, Sass. Like you, I like to watch.” Then that asshole just left me there, while my entire body burst into flames. It was so bad I had to run to the sink to splash water on it, while Candela laughed at me. Which was how Bianca found me.
