Sloth (Sinful Secrets 1)

I blush, because he’s kind of right. It does feel good against my pussy.

We both mask and glove up. I take a moment just to look at his pretty blue eyes before we leave the room. We step into the hall and Kimmie, one of the nurses, grins at us. “You guys going somewhere?”

“Somewhere,” I say. We pass Arethea at the nurse’s desk and she presses a button behind the counter that opens the doors for us. Kellan’s eyebrows shoot up to his hat.

“Well, fuck.” It’s murmured, husky. I take his hand, and we walk slowly out into the lobby just outside the locked unit. We both stop and look around. It’s been weeks since either of us has left the locked unit. If I had left at any time, I’d have had to wear a gown, a mask, and gloves the whole time I was in his room. I couldn’t do that—so I stayed.

The air out here feels cool. It smells... like food? Some kind of cleaner. Lemons.

We walk slowly over fresh-waxed tile and into a shining, narrow hall. Kellan stops and grips my shoulder with his gloved hand. “Cleo baby...” He blinks, heavy lidded, his face unreadable. Then he bends down, pulls his mask off, pulls mine down, and kisses my lips. It’s gentle, sweet, and painfully brief.

Then we’re walking hand and hand again, Hansel and Gretel following bread crumbs. To the elevator. We get in it and he pushes me against the wall. He leans against me, his face in my hair—and I remember. I remember what he told me one night about the day Lyon died. I wrap my arms around his back and murmur sweetness in his ear. And then the doors tremble open. We shuffle out into a vast lobby.

Once we get a few feet from the elevator shaft, we both stop and look around. It smells like car exhaust. People walk past us—real people in real people clothes. They look sad, tired, bored, irritable. They have long hair, no hair, dread locks. One pulls a wagon stacked with luggage. Another carries a small child.

My eyes travel up the columns, toward the glass ceiling several stories up. I look b

ack down to find his blue eyes on me. They look wet maybe. I can’t tell. I squeeze his hand.

“Want to keep going?” I whisper.

He nods, and we slowly walk toward the row of glass doors. I get all the doors for us, and when we get outside, I have to resist the urge to throw myself on him and shelter him from all the dangers here. Viruses... bacteria... fungi. For right now, he has no immune system and could catch anything.

For right now, he tips his head up to the sky. His eyes shut. I wrap arms around his waist and press my cheek against his sweater.

I feel him inhale. He murmurs, “Fuck.”

When we look into each other’s eyes again, I can see his are a little red. Mine probably are too.

I can see his face smile, despite the mask. “Where you wanna go?” his low, soft voice asks.

I smile back. “The hot dog stand?”

His arm bumps mine, our hands still joined. “Gotta have a chili dog.”

“Is that okay?” I feel a little bad, because he can’t have one. Because of germs.

His fingers squeeze mine. “I’d say you earned a chili dog.”

I giggle. “Maybe just a little.”

“I’ve got one I know you’ll like. Tastes best with a little soap and water.” I look up, and find a dark spark of arousal in his eyes.

“I’ll save room for seconds then.”

We get my chili dog. I eat it from the little baggie it comes in, keeping my gloved hands far away from my mouth, and then we walk back inside the hospital. Kellan stops inside the doors and looks around.

“I guess you’ve seen this place a bunch of times.”

“Not this last one,” he says, almost absently.

“Where did you come in?”

“Around in back. The ambulance entrance.”

“So it was plane, then ambulance?” I can’t believe I’ve never asked.

He nods. “Want to see?”