Page 116 of Bad Seed
“If it’s the hives you’re worried about, I could wear something. Latex. Or black leather. Tight.”
He’s damn near gnashing on his lip, sweat beading on his forehead. I need to seal the deal so I place my hand on his upper thigh.
The car spins under me. My body lurches to the side, nearly flinging me against the window. I grip tighter to his hard thigh, pulling myself back into my seat as Aubry sends the car twisting into a gas station. He slams on the brakes, but doesn’t put the car in park.
Dust settles around us as Aubry gasps for air. My fingers dig into his inner thigh, occasionally glancing against his balls and cock straining up in his sweatpants. I slide my hand higher, my palm about to wrap around his shaft.
Aubry catches my fingers and pulls them off. “It isn’t the allergy,” he says, holding my hand taut. Then he stares down at me and sighs. “It’s not just the allergy. Do you know what being with me would mean?”
“Condoms,” I say before grimacing. “Or, pulling out. That can work too if we’re careful. Isn’t there a lady condom. That might be an option. Of course no semen means… No kids.”
Oh, crap. He wants a family. A huge family of little eggplants growing in the garden. And I can’t even take on one attempt without winding up in the hospital.Nausea churns in my stomach like I’m being punched repeatedly.
Tears spring in my eyes and I cry out, “This isn’t fucking fair.”
“Sadie…”
I’m full on trembling, my heart pounding in fear and my throat closing tighter than it ever did after a dip of baba ganoush. I can’t give him what he wants. “No matter what I do, what I say, I can’t change my body. You’ll find someone else. Someone prettier, hotter, who doesn’t wind up in the hospital after sucking your dick.”
She’ll be the mother of his children while I waste away into an old crone.
Fingers brush through my hair, but I can’t see anything. My vision’s gone white as I keep sucking in air to the point my lips are burning.
“Sadie…” He whispers my name, but it’s like a train whistle in the distance. And I’m stalled on the tracks, waiting for it to hit.
Aubry glides his fingers under my chin and begins to lift it. I close my eyes tight, unwilling to face the oncoming end.
“There is no one hotter or prettier than you.”
I open my mouth, prepared to argue with him. His lips cut me off. My tongue flails my talking points in his mouth. Aubry locks his hand behind my head, soothing my fluttering heart but sending my brain into a fiery panic.
I slap my palms to his chest and shove him back. He blinks, bewildered as if coming out of a trance. Tears gush down my cheeks. “Then why did you leave me?”
“Because…” The fingers behind my head tighten, pulling me out of my seat until my forehead crashes with his. “Watching you hurt kills me.”
I’m hurting right now.
His touch opens, drawing across the nape of my neck. “What would a life with me be like? You can never return home. Not to Loomis, not to your parents. They know who you are. They know you’re with me. We’ll always be hunted.”
“But we’ll be together!”
His lips twitch as if he’s about to break into a smile. Tell me to hell with it. Run off to the airport arm in arm and fly to Greece, or the Philippines, or anywhere else. It doesn’t matter as long as I’m with him.
Aubry sits back in the driver’s seat and puts the car in gear. We lurch out of the gas station and back the way we came. I stare around, watching for the interstate either out of Nevada or back to the airport. Empty side streets pass us by, only the stoplights catching on the windows.
“I had a family,” he says after a long stretch of silence. “I’m not…I wasn’t looking for a new one.”
“What are you looking for?” As I ask that, we pass the exit for the interstate.
“That’s… It’s a good question. Peace, I guess. Forgiveness. A home.”
I can give him all of that. I’ll forgive him. We can find peace in each other’s arms. And what better home for his head than my tits?
My skin chills as we turn at the motel entrance. “What are you doing?”
“I have to go back,” he says.
“Go back where?” I’m spinning in my seat, certain that I’m wrong and there’s some other way to get to the interstate from here. “To Vegas?”
