Erin nodded.

Joe stepped forward. “You trust Nick?”

“I do,” said Ros. “Implicitly.”

“You’re trusting him with our lives too,” said Erin. “Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” said Ros. “It you want us to leave, we will, and without malice. But I’m hoping you’re not going to do that. Neither of us mean any of you harm. We never did.”

And suddenly every eye in the place was on him, measuring his worth. None seemed openly hostile. Plenty, however, looked guarded.

“It’s hard to know who to trust these days,” said Ali, her hands smoothing over her baby bump. The woman had to be afraid. Delivering babies wasn’t always as simple as nature intended. There were no doctors on standby here, no one who could really help if things went to shit.

He was just glad he and Roslyn weren’t in that situation. Yet. Hell, they’d never even talked about kids. His mind emptied. It just blanked. The idea scared every last thought clear from his head. Talk of future plans was such a bizarre notion.

Roslyn as a mother. Okay, he could imagine that.

But him as a father? Fuck.

There went the fourth heart attack for the night. It was all he could do to keep to his feet.

Ros tucked her hand into his, a silent statement of solidarity. He held on tight.

“Alright,” said Joe. “He’s fine with me for now. We can talk more about it later.”

Erin nodded jerkily. He had the worst feeling the woman was about to cry. But then, it had definitely been one of those nights.

Ali gave him and Roslyn a small, mysterious woman-type smile.

Duncan stared off into the distance. He’d been close to the late Captain Sean. The lack of ready acceptance wasn’t really a surprise. Maybe this wouldn’t work out, staying with these people. But if Roslyn wanted to try then it was fine with him. Safety in numbers and all that. It might be nice for her to be around people who wouldn’t sell her out anytime soon. His faith in people had disappeared over the years, but the events of last night were making him think twice.

Cool little fingers squeezed his hand.

“It’s going to be okay,” said Ros.

“Yeah,” he said, feeling pretty amazed actually. “I guess it is.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“I’ve been watching you,” Nick announced, like it was something unique.

“That’s nice. But you do tend to do that.” Roslyn sat down on the end of their mattresses and tugged at her shoelaces, toed off her joggers. It had been a seriously long day. Her shoulder ached. “I have noticed.”

They’d been at St Catherine’s for a week. The rambling building had been converted into an Art Gallery/Cafe/Gift Shop some years back. Today they’d finished sorting the remaining foodstuffs in the cafe, taken the rotted and or otherwise useless goods out back to be burned or buried. Mattresses and sheets and so on had been gathered from nearby shops and houses to stuff inside the ‘cells’. While far from roomy, at least these cells didn’t have bars on the doors. They were comfortable enough, though the nights regularly dropped to zero degrees Celsius.

Apparently the good folk of Blackstone didn’t tend to come this way on account of the climb up the mountains chewing up gas. Plus, St Catherine’s sat on the edge of a tourist town. All the folky arts and crafts you could hope for, but farming supplies? Not so much.

“I’ve seen the way you look at Ali, Dan and Finn,” he said, obviously going somewhere with all this. Probably nowhere good, knowing him.

“I know. Isn’t it beautiful to see people so in love?” She lay back on the bed and grinned at the hot man currently glowering at her. “So refreshing after all the bloodshed and violence.”

Nick grunted and knelt on the end of the bed. He reached back and tugged off his own boots. “That wasn’t what you were thinking about when you looked at them.”

“No? Wow,” she drawled. “Can you really read minds now, Nicky? That is so cool. So what was I thinking?”

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” The man gave her a hard little smile and her belly quivered. Her belly and her sex. And maybe her knees too, damn it. Fortunately she was lying down.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe I can read your mind. Or maybe everything you think shows up on your face.”

She scoffed. “It does not.”

He just looked at her.

“Does it?”

“Without fail.”

“So what was I thinking, then?” she asked.

He bent forward and undid the button on her jeans, followed by the zipper. “You were thinking about what it would be like to f**k two men at the same time.”

“Such smutty thoughts have never entered my brain.” Actually, she had been wondering. Wildly curious and then some. Her imagination had run overtime, he was right. Ali was a lucky, lucky girl having those two big hot men at her disposal. Not that Roslyn wasn’t content with her one surly male, but still … two. Some people were enjoying their apocalypse a little too much.

So, yes, there had been the odd covetous thought involved. She even had the common decency to experience a twinge of guilt over it.

Nick pulled her jeans and knickers down her legs and tossed them into a corner of the small room. “How’s your shoulder?”

“It’s fine, just a little stiff. I used the sling for most of the day. I didn’t lift anything heavy.”

“Good.” He started in on the buttons on her shirt.

The brush of his hands over her bare skin gave her shivers as he pushed back the material. No bra, courtesy of the still-vivid bruise across her chest. Her perky ni**les rose to the occasion, of course. Her body was a fool for him. Her heart and mind weren’t far behind.

“I just don’t want you feeling like you’re missing out on something,” he said.

“Nick, I’m not.” She reached out for him and he came to her, pressing his mouth to hers in a distinctly hot kiss. Had she thought the air cool? Forget that. This man had her overheated in moments. Their tongues tangled and his hands slipped into her hair. But still he stayed on his knees, hovering high above her.

“But just in case …” he said, pulling back from her.

“What?”

“I picked up a few things for you in town today.” He reached for the backpack he’d come in with and pulled something out. When she tried to sit up to see what he pushed her back down with a hand to her good shoulder. “Don’t strain your shoulder. Lie back. Relax.”

Tags: Kylie Scott Flesh Horror
Source: readsnovelonline.net