A gurgle emanated from Travis’s stomach with alarming volume. He clutched at his belly.
“Yeah,” Emma nodded at Travis, “I’m starving, too. How about we introduce our very own Terminator to the joys of pizza?”
Travis popped up onto his elbows and grinned.
Scratching my eyebrow, I finally asked, “What is this terminator you keep speaking of?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Travis had disappeared into the bathroom with a large pizza box, saying not to wait on him. He preferred to eat in the tub. The water ran behind the closed door leaving Emma and me alone with the other large pizza.
“I did ask if they had salad,” she said, apologetically.
We had both already taken the chance to quickly shower. My shirt was covered in ichor from the Crib and I’d sweated through it multiple times, so I washed it in the sink. It was hanging on a rack in the bathroom to dry, which meant I went bare-chested. I did my best to ignore the hot looks Emma gave me when she thought I wasn’t looking. For that reason, I’d kept my pants on even though they could use a good cleaning, too. I’d wash them later when she was asleep. I felt exposed and out of control as it was.
Emma sat cross legged on the bed in black leggings that clung to her bottom half and a shirt resembling what I recognized to be the style that sports players wore. It had stripes and a number on the back, except hers was white and pink, form fitting, and smaller than the sports shirts I saw on men. Her damp hair was once again pulled back in a ponytail and her glasses were back on. I found her irresistibly adorable. Even after a week of watching her, I wasn’t sure which was more appealing, looking into her naked eyes, or being able to gauge if she was thoughtful or nervous as she pushed her frames up her nose.
Emma opened the pizza box and patted the empty space next to it on the bed. Admittedly the scents wafting off the pizza were tantalizing, but the sight of grease and processed cheeses made my stomach roil. I’d left my pack of provisions back at the abandoned building next to those bottles of unopened wine.
There it was again.
My fantasy interrupted my thoughts as I remembered those wine bottles. The image swam in front of my eyes. It was just Emma and I, a blanket laid out under us, except this time I knew the taste of her lips and we’d do more than dine on food….
No.I ordered myself to stop. Burying the fantasy, I sternly reminded myself I could never have any such thing and it was no use entertaining impossibilities that would distract me from what was real.
Refocusing on my current food plight, I knew the vegetables in my abandoned pack were no doubt wilted by now, but I wished I had some of the canned goods and jerky.
When I realized Emma was waiting on me, I picked up the large, floppy slice of pizza. Strings of cheese dripped off it mercilessly, attempting to cling to the rest of the pie.
I gave her a helpless look and she laughed. “Come on, don’t look at me like that. You’re going to love it. Or I think you will. And plus,” she said with excitement, pointing at the slice in my hand. “I put every veggie they had available on it. So, it’s kind of healthy.” She smiled hopefully at me.
I now realized how she must have felt when she was giving me false accolades for my dumpster fire.
Unable to escape now, I caught the tip of the slice between my teeth. It was hot but didn’t scald my tongue. To show my commitment I took a healthy bite and gave her a wry smile through my mouthful.
Then something extraordinary happened. The bite of pizza melted into my mouth in a rush accompanied by a flavor explosion. The textures of the cheese and crust slid pleasantly against each other in my mouth and struck a perfect balance of salt and tang. My whole mouth sang in exultation. I shivered.
Emma leaned in toward me. Her eyes shone with lust, reminding me of the way she looked at me right before kissing me in her bedroom. Lips parted, her breathing became labored as she watched me.
“You like it,” she said, her voice breathy.
Swallowing, I replied, “Yes, I do.”
She shook her head, her voice rougher than it was a moment ago. “It wasn’t a question. I know you do.” She took her glasses off, putting them down on the bedside table.
Too tempted to stop my new exploration of ‘pizza’, I took another bite but looked at her with question in my eyes.
“Ifeelyou,” she said, and shuddered. Her eyes closed as if experiencing extreme pleasure, and suddenly my pants tightened against my lap as blood rushed down my body at her wanton expression.
I returned the slice of pizza to the box.
“Emma?” I asked.
When her eyes opened, they were nearly black, her pupils dilated, threatening to swallow the soft brown of her irises. “I thought it was just me but it’s not. When you look at me, I feel this heat and need surge up within me. It’s so intense I think…” she swallowed hard. “I think I’m going to drown in it.” She was whispering now though Travis couldn’t possibly hear her over the running water in the bathroom. “I want to throw myself at you and rip your clothes off and touch every part of you.”
Gods.If I wasn’t hard before, I was now. It was almost painful but I kept deadly still, afraid of what I’d do if I moved.
“Then just now, when you took that bite. Your enjoyment was so intense that I felt it too. Don’t you see?” Her eyes begged me to understand and for more than I could give. “I can feel what you’re feeling.”
