Page 101 of Slay Ride

Cat and I breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“Where is the lubricant for your genitals?” Grim asks. “Rose believes she can ease it out with digital penetration and anterior—” Another pause. “No, I misheard her.Interior manipulation.”

“Oh, fuck. I’m gonna pass out,” Cat says.

I place my other hand over hers, sandwiching her tiny palm. “Look at me, kitten. You aren’t gonna pass out. You’re one of us, remember? We don’t pass out when shit gets hard.”

“Wealso do not shove turkey parts up our bottoms, but here we are,” Grim mumbles.

I let it slide.

“Grim, the genital lubricant is in the top drawer of the nightstand,” I say without looking away from Cat’s eyes. “White tube, blue writing.”

“Not sure how I am supposed to find it when I have been forced to forego one of my senses, but I will manage.” He stands and feels around for the door.

“I’ll be right back,” I whisper to Cat.

She nods up at me.

“Sit down, old man,” I say as I pass Grim, and he toddles back to his spot beside Rose. “You need any gloves?” I call over my shoulder.

A beat passes, and Grim says, “She brought her own, thank you.”

I fetch the lube and hand it to Rose, then sit beside Cat once more. She’s handling this really well, all things considered. Meanwhile, I feel like a complete asshole. I asked her to trust me, and she did. Then I went and fucked it up. She’s probably waiting until she can walk before she lays into me.

Once Rose slides her slender hands into a pair of sterile gloves—they came in their own little single-use baggie and everything—she holds her hands out so that Grim can apply the lube. Grim having no sight and Rose having no voice creates a bit of a barrier, so I snatch the tube away from him on his fifth try to find her hands.

She scowls at me, unable to use Grim’s voice to tell me how she really feels as I dump some lube onto her gloved fingers. She’s got the body language thing down, though, because her message is crystal.

How fucking dare you belittle Grim. That’s what that look says.

“Um, what’s she doing now?” Cat asks. “Whoa, that’s uncomfy.”

Rose sits back and looks at the ceiling, and I think I know why she’s so frustrated.

“Try to talk to me,” I say to Rose. “I know I don’t understand you as well as he does, but I’m not a complete moron.”

She tilts her head toward me with a deadpan stare.

“See!” I shout. “I know exactly what you’re saying. You just said, ‘Yeah fuckin’ right.’”

Rose’s eyebrows rise, and she gives me another look.

“Now you said, ‘Hmm, pretty good.’”

With a sigh of defeat, Rose nods her head and looks at me. Then she begins to speak.

Her hands rise, and she clenches them in fists. At the same time, she tightens her jaw and pinches her lips together until they are a thin line. Her entire body is rigid. Then she shakes her head emphatically, then mimes blowing out a breath and?—

“Relaxing,” I say. I look down at Cat. “She wants you to relax.”

Rose nods, sending her short gray curls into a hurricane around her head. After raising her hand in a thumbs-up, she moves between Cat’s legs once more. Reaching down, she shakes her head.

“You have to stop tensing up, kitten,” I say.

Cat scoffs. “That’s easy for you to say. You aren’t the one with a turkey leg the size of John Coffey shoved up your ass. You aren’t the one who is about to givebirthto birdzilla! You did this to me!”

One thing is for certain. I’m getting a fucking vasectomy after this trip.

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