Deserted - Auctioned

Darius hummed. “I’ll give him a call when we get back home.” He opened the door to the back and started clearing the seats. The bags went down on the floor with the coolers, so Gray assumed he’d catch some rest back there. “I’ll set an alarm for midnight, and then I can drive while you sleep.”

“Okay, but come here first. I want some sugar.”

Darius chuckled tiredly and stepped over to him. “Am I sweet enough?”

“The sweetest.” Gray smiled and kissed him, his hands sliding up Darius’s arms and around his neck. “When we get home, I want a whole evening of making out.”

Darius deepened the kiss, teasing his tongue with Gray’s, and gripped Gray’s hips. “We’ve said that before, baby. We last ten minutes before we’re horizontal.”

“That’s a risk we have to take,” Gray responded solemnly.

Darius laughed under his breath and gave him one more smooch. “Don’t tempt me to drag you into the back seat right now.”

Oh, but Gray wouldn’t mind…

If only Darius didn’t have the self-discipline of a fucking…self-disciplinarian.Gray woke up when they drove over something that caused the truck to vibrate.

Ow… He winced as he turned his neck. Pulling down his feet from the dash, he straightened in his seat and groaned at the stiffness in his body.

“Morning.” Darius cranked up the heat.

“Morning,” Gray yawned. They drove over something again, and he managed to look out the window in time to see a cattle guard in the ground. Then he lifted his gaze and was met by a stunning wasteland. “You drove all night. I slept all night.” He couldn’t believe that last part. Damn. “This has got to be the Mojave.”

The sky was clear blue, and the ground was yellow. Brown hills and mountains in the distance. Joshua trees. Cacti and shrubs and sand.

“Aye. We should reach the park in half an hour, give or take. I took a wrong turn outside of Barstow, but it might’ve worked out for the best.” They passed a sign, letting Gray know they were driving along Route 66. Rather, about to get off of it. Darius slowed down and turned onto North Amboy Road. “I wanna avoid Twentynine Palms, and now we’ll be coming at Joshua Tree from the north instead.”

“Got it.” Gray dug out a water bottle from one of the coolers in the back. “Want me to make you some breakfast?”

“I’m good.” Darius gathered Gray’s hand and kissed it. “I thought we could eat when we get to the campsite.”

That sounded better. “Cool.” He took a swig of water and glanced over at the temperature reading on the dash. “Only sixty degrees? I thought it’d be hot.”

Darius nodded at the mountains ahead of them. “Joshua Tree should be behind that mountain range. The elevation makes it cooler.” He paused and smirked a little. “Next time you see Ryan, ask him to tell you the story of when he and his battalion were thrown out into the desert in skivvies—it was thirty degrees, by the way—armed with nothing but knives and Santa hats.”

“Oh God,” Gray laughed. “Had they fucked up, or are the Marines just creative with their training operations?”

“One doesn’t negate the other,” Darius chuckled. “The motto of their regiment is ‘Prepare to March,’ and someone pissed off the wrong superior.” He smiled, maybe at a memory, and scratched his bicep. “Ry was fucking fuming. This was right before he was transferred to another base. He’d already gotten his papers—everything was ready. But no dice. He had to join the others for a march through the desert.”

Gray shook his head in amusement and, frankly, a bit of amazement too.It did get warmer, though nowhere near the triple digits Gray had expected. His phone showed seventy-two degrees before he lost reception. By then, they were in the national park, and they shared the long road with campers, a few walkers, and some on bikes.

Good thing he’d already texted Jayden and Adeline about not being able to get out of bed.

The park had invisible perimeters and was merely an extension of what they’d already seen of the Mojave Desert. With the exception of marked-out hiking trails, tourists, and neat signs with information about various rock formations, death-defying plants, and critters.

With the windows rolled down, Gray breathed in the dry desert air and imagined a future of them bringing the boys to places like this one. He could picture Darius being a great camping companion. He would show Jayden how to start a fire and teach Justin about some rodent. Then Gray would interject when Darius went on about how to roast and eat it.

“What was that little snicker for?” Darius asked.

Gray shook his head and grinned out the window. “Nothin’.”

“Now you gotta tell me.” Darius threaded their fingers together on the armrest between them.

Gray lolled his head along the headrest and smiled lazily. “I hope we’ll take the kids camping.”