Page 91 of Never Enough

“Knock it off. It’s not like it’s her bare ass.”

“Thank God. Save that for your own kitchen counter.” Steel turned back to look at whatever was on Midas’ screen, but Haskell was pretty sure she saw one corner of his mouth tipped up. He clearly wasn’t as grossed out as he’d pretended to be.

She’d just finished peeling her banana when a hand grabbed hers. Nemo shoved the tip in his mouth, then lowereddown to at least halfway, bit down, and winked at her, settling between her thighs as he leaned his butt against the counter, his back to her front.

Pulling the peel down farther, Haskell asked, “Had much practice at that, have you? Maybe I should have been asking you if you wanted a hate fuck with Cerberus last night.” She bit off a chunk of the banana.

“I heard that,” Cerberus rumbled. “Not even for an entire cellar of Leroy Musigny Grand Cru.”

Haskell sighed. “Man has bat hearing,” she grumbled.

Nemo just laughed it off. “Man has expensive taste. But sorry, Gem. I don’t share.”

“In all of your exploits, never?”

“Let me rephrase,” he corrected. “I don’t shareyou. And it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be anyway. You just get in each other’s way.”

Cerberus just muttered something to the effect of, “Then you’re not doing it right.”

Nemo bit into a hunk of bread that he’d slathered honey all over. A drop oozed off the bread on the corner of his mouth. Haskell used her free hand to turn his head sideways, and she tipped forward and licked it off. “I don’t share, either.”

A chorus of “Eww!” “Gross!” and “Eye bleach!” rang out across the room.

TB offered up, “As long as we don’t have to give the pool an extra shot of chlorine.” He looked hard at Nemo. “We don’t, do we?”

Nemo shoved the rest of his piece of bread in his mouth and grinned as he chewed.

“You’re lying.”

Nemo shrugged.

TB made a gagging noise.

Waters winced.

Gilgamesh gave them a long, hard look. “Nah. They didn’t. Accidentally caught a bit of the show from the second-floor balcony. A little foreplay maybe, but no sex.” He clapped his hands. “Okay. Time to finalize. What have we got, Midas?”

“First, Waters talked to Itai last night.”

Waters leaned between Gilgamesh and Medusa at the table, everyone picking up their bowls, plates, and coffee cups when he began to spread out the map. “Itai suggested coming in from West Nicholson. We’ll take the coastline north to Nova Mambone, then cut across on secondary roads to Espungabera. Once we hit the border, he suggested we redirect and take the main road to Masvingo through to Zvishavane. Shortly after that, we can cut southwest on another main highway to West Nicholson, where we pick up at the source of the Mzingwane.”

“It would be faster to follow along the borderline to Beitbridge and head up,” Loki observed.

“Yes, but no sense in the border patrol seeing us,” Medusa countered. “You’re better off going out of your way on the upswing and cutting back. There’s no checkpoint where we’ll be crossing into Zimbabwe, and the airport in Bulawayo is closer when it’s time for me to come collect you. Plus, you don’t have to cross the border into South Africa.”

Haskell hopped off the counter and stuffed her hands in her back pockets. “She’s right. And I’m probably posted at every checkpoint along the South African border.”

“Sweetheart,” TB chastised, “you’re up on the wall at every border checkpoint throughout Africa. How you managed to get on a plane out of anywhere on this continent is nothing short of a miracle.”

She shrugged. “Job hazard.”

Waters continued, “Itai told me that the closer we get to Beitbridge, the lower the waterline is. Something to do with the aquifers being used to supply farmers with water for theirlivestock and a temporary restriction on the river. Normally, it only has unrestricted traffic in the winter months due to rain. Hopefully, we don’t run into any patrols who want to investigate nonsanctioned traffic. However, if we do, Itai says he has the word of the farmers in question to back him up. They normally work with Itai to run interference on his underground runs.”

Loki nodded in agreement.

Waters finished with, “We should be covered in case of emergency. Our biggest area of concern is if we overshoot the landing due to patrols because then we run into trouble.”

“So, let’s make sure we don’t run into any trouble,” Loki warned.

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