Page 9 of Marked By Shadows
“Planning to sex me up regularly?” Our sex life had been a slow exploration. Alex was not the kind of guy to throw me up against the wall and take what he wanted. Not yet. His bedroom shyness made him adorable and sweet. It was also something else I could teach him, since my own experience surpassed his. “Maybe more like this morning?” I’d started with lotion, massaging it into his skin until he melted into jelly beneath me, then I’d teased his prostate until he’d been screaming for release. I had never been with a guy who lasted as long as Alex. I could probably edge him for days and bask in his sweet heat.
Alex’s moan was almost sexual. “Can we not talk about that while driving?” He shifted in his seat. “I seriously feel like my ass is throbbing for your fucking fingers. How is that normal?”
I smiled. “I have so much to teach you.”
“Oh my God, stop. We’ve barely left home. I think pulling over on the side of the road to rub off is likely to get us arrested.”
“Focus on your crochet,” I reminded him of the project in his lap instead of his hard-on. “I can’t wait to see what it’s like when you’re done.” He had chosen a variegated green and teal yarn with silver accents to it. So far, the color change in the body was really looking like scales.
Alex took a couple shaky breaths then went back to work on the dragon. I turned up the radio and focused on the drive and the subtle calm of the road. We both sang along to the radio. Alex had a great voice, untrained, but pleasant. He didn’t know all the Top 40 songs like I did, mostly because he’d been out of the world so long, first in the military, and then from being taken.
Taken. Fuck I hated that thought. I pushed it aside and tried to focus on the road.
“What sort of haunting does the B&B have?” Alex inquired as he stitched the little tubes that would make up the dragon’s feet. We had been on the road an hour or so.
“Former owner sort of thing. I think everything in Texas is haunted. I read somewhere that it has the most haunted roads of the entire nation.”
Alex put the crochet down and turned to look at me. “How does a road get haunted?”
“Same way anything else does, I suspect.” Though a lot of the stories didn’t actually feature ghosts, more creatures lurking on the side of the road. “People die or go missing.”
Now Alex was less than happy.
“You did know car accidents kill a lot of people?” I asked him.
“Yes,” Alex agreed. “Do you want me to drive?”
“No.” Alex’s PTSD could trigger him and render him completely incoherent. As far as I knew, he was not allowed to drive, though Lukas had said something about Alex being able to test to get his license back. In New Orleans, he didn’t need to drive. In Houston, I’d be doing all the driving. Which reminded me, “You’ve been sleeping okay?”
“Yes,” Alex said, focused back on his dragon. Whether he heard the noise at night or not, he didn’t let on. I’d been keeping him busy enough during the day that when we got into bed at night, after a round of sex, we both slept hard.
“You’ll let me know if something bothers you, right?” I knew his triggers. Sometimes changing location could send him into an episode. Lukas had given me a dozen things to avoid before I’d ever met Alex. Most of those things were not on my daily schedule. No war zones or guns pointed our way. Though Houston, being a big city full of gun crazed Americans, meant we might encounter some of Alex’s triggers. I knew gunfire and fireworks could set off a lot of soldiers, and hoped that staying far enough outside the city would minimize that.
“Sure,” Alex said absently. “I’ve been okay though. Haven’t had an episode since the cemetery.” That event had been caused by a shadow figure attacking us and a fellow tour guide being murdered.
“If your anxiety kicks in, tell me, okay? The convention will be pretty packed.”
“Can you promise the same?” Alex threw back. He was not as oblivious to my anxiety as everyone else seemed to be. Or perhaps everyone else noticed and didn’t care.
“Yes,” I vowed. “I can do that.”
“Good.” Alex threw me a smile, then put his crochet work away to pull out his new phone. “I’m going to research Texas ghosts.”
“Stories of the skunk ape, aka Bigfoot, are more common,” I told him.
Alex slowly panned to me. “Say what?”
“You know, Bigfoot. Sasquatch? Lots of stories of ape like creatures in the USA. Even in Texas. Louisiana is known for them too, in the bayou.”
“Skunk ape…” Alex muttered.
“Supposed to smell like a skunk.”
“Now I’m going to be looking for giant apes every time I smell a skunk.”
I reached out and patted his knee. It was unlikely we’d encounter a Bigfoot, or whatever the stories came from. Though knowing our luck and Alex’s paranormal magnetism, maybe we’d see something. “We’ll be fine. You’re an ex-Army Ranger.”
“Which does shit all against ghosts and random forest apes.”