Sex in the Sky

“Once again thanking my editor, RogueLurker. Best gal in the solar system.*kisses* baby.”

“Give me some feedback and I’ll tank you for it, just, please, make it makes sense. *grin*”

*

Yanking hard on my bag, trying to get the damned thing out of the overhead compartment, I nearly fell backward when it finally came free. I knew I wasn’t thinking straight, my stomach was fluttering more every second and my knees felt like they might give out at any moment. I had never been this nervous in my life but then, I had never done anything so wildly reckless before either.

I couldn’t believe that I had actually gotten onto a plane and flown to another country to meet a man that I had only know through a chat program. Granted, the country in question occupied the same landmass as my own but still, I just “did not” do this sort of thing. It was completely out of character for me and I hadn’t felt like I was on solid ground since I had finalized the arrangements for the flight.

The worst part about the whole thing was that I knew this wouldn’t lead anywhere. I knew this from all the conversations we’d had, I also knew that he’d never had any sexual contact with another man in real life and while the idea excited him, it also seriously unnerved him. He really got off on messing around with men online but considered himself to be essentially straight. I knew he had no intentions of having an affair. I knew that he loved his wife and I respected that immensely; but, when he asked if we could meet face to face and really get to know each other, I just couldn’t refuse. I had no idea what it was about this man but I hadn’t been able to deny him much of anything since I first met him while goofing off on a discussion board.

Mild flirting had quickly turned to hot passion and we had been instant messaging for most of every day since then. I felt like he had worked some kind of Haitian voodoo on me, possibly involving the sacrifice of live chickens but most assuredly considerable chanting and naked dancing. It seemed that no matter what I was doing at any given moment, no matter where I was, he was on my mind.

I’ve heard it said that men think about sex every four minutes. I had that beat by a mile. Every time he popped into my mind, the first thing I thought of was how wonderful, kind and sweet he is. The second thing I though of was him naked and sweating under me, groaning hoarsely and clutching me to him, begging me to make him cum. As a result every time I thought of him, which was averaging around every two minutes, my dick would twitch. If I was alone and could devote my thoughts to him I would wind up getting so turned on that my dick would start leaking. Here I was, a thirty-three-year-old man and I’d become a fourteen-year-old boy again.

So, here I was, about to get off of the plane that had brought me up here to meet him and I felt like I was going to puke or pass out or both. Trying to conceal the rod of steel I was sporting with my carry-on bag, I followed two huge men who looked like they should be Mob enforcers down the tunnel from the plane and stepped off to the side, searching men’s faces at the arrival gate. Spotting him, my heart stuttered in my chest. He hadn’t seen me yet; he was looking closely at everyone that came out of the debarkation tunnel.

I watched him searching every face, filling my eyes with him in a way that I wouldn’t be able to as soon as he saw me. I felt myself trembling and sweating with the desire to go over to him and take his face in my hands and kiss him, long and slow, right in front of everyone in the terminal. I knew the longing had to show on my face, in my eyes. I spent the few remaining seconds I had, before he spotted me, composing my features and trying to get a hold of my body. I looked up, from wiping my face with my hand, and our eyes locked across the slackening flow of passengers.

His face lit up and he quickly began walking over to me. My knees felt even weaker and my throat had gone completely dry.

“Martin? God, man, I was starting to think you hadn’t come after all.” He said, engulfing my smaller frame in his strong arms, hugging me hard. The contact made my diaphragm seize, I couldn’t breathe but I could still smell his sweet, musky cologne. My arms lifted of their own volition and I found myself clinging to him, my head on his shoulder, breathing in his heady aroma.

The second I felt the slight shift that told me he was going to end the hug I let go and pulled away as he did. I didn’t want him to think I intended to try and start something physical while I was here. I figured that would make him pull away from me emotionally and I didn’t want him to do that. I didn’t want to ruin our time together with tension. Stepping back, I looked up into his beautiful eyes and tried to moisten my throat by swallowing several times.

“Nah, man. You know how much I wanted to meet you in person and if I had changed my mind I would have let you know. I wouldn’t have let you come here, expecting me to be on the plane, only to find out that I had wussed out. That would be “harsh”, babe…err…Jack.” I wished I could kick myself for that slip but he didn’t seem to pay it any mind.

“Let’s go get the rest of your luggage and we’ll get you checked in to your room, OK?” he suggested, taking my carry-on off of my shoulder before I could protest. I quickly swung my laptop case around to the front to shield my groin.

“Sure, that sounds great. I’m starving, man. I haven’t eaten in, like, two days.”

“Why not?” he inquired, looking puzzled as he led the way to the baggage claim area.

“Oh, you know, just too nervous to be able to think about food.” I replied, watching the people and looking at the advertisements we were passing. Looking at anything but him, feeling embarrassed that I had actually admitted that to him.

“I’ve been on the verge of pissing my pants for days, myself, Martin.” He said, laughing, his eyes shining with mirth.

When I pointed my two bags out as they glided along on the conveyer belt, he said, “Jesus fuck, man, you pack like a woman.” and laughed again.

“Well, I really didn’t know what to expect in the way of weather and activities so I tried to be prepared for anything, you asshole.” I quipped, punching him lightly on the shoulder and laughing with him. We collected my two, large bags, me carrying the carry-on again because he insisted on taking the heaviest ones. I reminded him that I hadn’t had any help with them on the other end of the flight and he came back that that was all the more reason for him to help me now. On the way out to his car I asked after Sheila, his wife, he said that she’d had to go out of town unexpectedly because her mother had come down with a nasty bug and needed help for a while.

We picked up some Chinese take-out on the way to my hotel. I kept my laptop in my lap the whole way, my erection just would “not” subside, and it was incredibly embarrassing. Every thing he did kept my hormones raging. His legs moving as he worked the pedals; his hand casually resting on the stick shift, or gripping it when he needed to change gears; the way the steering wheel slid through the fingers of his left hand when he was straightening up from a turn. The sound of his voice kept sending tremors down my back.

We had jacked off together nearly every day since we met and now I found it impossible to think of anything else. I knew it for certain, now, that I was some sort of weird masochist, otherwise, I would never have agreed to this meeting, which was going to be a week and a half of pure, sexual torture.

We got my stuff up to my room and I started unpacking a little while he set the food out on the table, just getting my shaving kit into the bathroom and my robe thrown out on the bed. I pulled out the little speakers I had brought for my MP3 player and set up a play list so we would have something filling any empty air that might result from nervousness or chewing.

If I had thought that watching him drive was bad, watching him eat was far worse. The way his tongue would slip out and sort of wrap around the food as he put it in his mouth with the chopsticks, then close his lips around them and pull them back out had me nearly climbing the damned walls. He kept up a steady patter of conversation the whole time, talking about all sorts of things that he wanted to do or show me while I was there. I commented when I needed to or had something to say but mostly I ate and tried not to choke on my food when he would poke me with his chopsticks or nudge me with the back of his hand as he spoke.

I had decided that he was one of those people who touch the people they’re interacting with without thinking about, the sort of person who is completely comfortable invading a total stranger’s personal space while passing a brief word with them when in the market. He would probably put his hand on their shoulder to let them know that he was standing behind them and reaching past them for a head of cabbage, or whatever, say, “Excuse me, buddy, just gonna grab this real quick, thanks.” and not even notice the weird look they gave him. In most anyone else it would be incredibly irritating, in him it was endearing.

I’m the sort of person who doesn’t like people in my space and I don’t like being in other people’s space. It’s uncomfortable for me, always has been. It’s probably because my family wasn’t big on touching and such so I never got used to it as a child. I didn’t mind Jack touching me though. I desperately wanted him to touch me in other ways; but, I knew it wouldn’t happen, so I resigned myself to enjoying the little contact he offered and would jack off a couple of times in the shower before going to bed.

When he unexpectedly reached into my container with his chopsticks to get a sample of my General Tso’s chicken, the back of his hand brushed along mine and goose bumps rose over most of my body. My nipples contracted into painfully hard nubs and my already throbbing cock jerked behind my zipper. Feeling myself begin to leak, I put my food down and got up quickly to head for the bathroom.

“I gotta piss, man, I’ll be right back.” I said, as I walked away from the table. Shutting the door behind me, I immediately opened my baggies and got my dick out to prevent my thong from absorbing any more moisture than it had already. I turned the water on, to mask the fact that there was no way in hell I was going to be able to actually piss, wet a washcloth and sat down on the toilet lid. Taking hold of my dick, I began cleaning myself up, carefully wiping the precum from the head. God, it felt so good but there was no way I could get any relief right now with Jack barely fifteen feet away.

The image of Jack sitting in the other room eating Chinese food, maybe even eating more out of my container, combined with the stimulation of cleaning off the head of my cock was too much; I couldn’t resist. My eyes fluttered closed and I dropped the washcloth so that I could stroke with my dominant hand. I leaned back against the tank, my head falling back to touch the wall. Biting my lip, trying to keep quiet, I slowly ran my hand up my shaft. Holding just the head in my hand, I rotated my fist around it like the Earth wobbling on its axis, then slid my hand back down the shaft to squeeze the base, forcing precum out of the slit in a runnel.

Catching some of it with the finger tips of my free hand, I brought it to my mouth, a glistening, spider web like, strand connected the tip of my cock to my lips as my fingers went past them and touched my tongue. My lips closed over them, the way Jack’s had on his chopsticks and the bathroom door swung open.

“Hey, Martin, did you want toooo…” I froze, staring at him with my fingers still in my mouth; he froze, staring at my hand on my engorged dick. He just stood there, one hand on the door jam, the other on the door knob, his right leg extended behind him slightly as if he had just taken a step with his left and had been going to take one with the right to come over the threshold. His lips still held the shape of the “O” that had trailed into silence. My eyes dropped to the fly of his jeans, a visible ridge lay directly behind it. I realized that he had to have already been hard or it would have been lying at an angle pointing toward one of his hips.

“Oh God, Jack, I’m so sorry!” I gasped, scrambling to put my dick away, just as he strode quickly over to me.

“No, Martin, don’t.” he said, going to his knees right in front of me. He grabbed my hands and pulled them out of his way, pushing my torso back against the tank he pulled my baggies open again and wrapped his large hand around the base. I clutched the edge of the counter to my left and the towel rack to my right, not knowing what else to do with my hands and whimpered as my hips involuntarily jerked up at him. When he leaned down and swirled his tongue around the underside of the head I tried to say something, I’m sure I did, all that came out was a sort of gurgling sound. Dropping his head lower, he engulfed the head of my dick in his burning hot mouth, slathering his rough tongue over the entire thing.

“Oh God, Jack, I uuuuuhg…” I had tried to warn him so that he could pull off but the most intense orgasm I’d had in months, maybe years even, slammed through my body, shutting down the speech center of my brain. I felt him jolt in surprise when the first jet hit the back of his throat but he didn’t pull back, in fact, he sucked harder, swallowing and just kept flicking his tongue around. When the incapacitating spasms passed my entire body went totally limp and I slid off of the toilet lid and into his lap. My head fell forward, onto his left shoulder, my lips barely touching the side of his neck; it was beyond me to do anything more complex than breathe.

“”Fuck”, baby, that was hot as shit!” he said, cradling me against his chest, his hands under the back of my shirt, caressing my damp skin, making me shiver.

“Jack, why did you do that? I thought…” I started to say but he interrupted me.

“I couldn’t “not” do it, baby. I’ve been dreaming about doing that since you agreed to come here for your vacation. Should I apologize for doing it? Did you not want me to?” I lifted my head to look into his eyes, such a beautiful blue.

“Jesus, Jack, did it feel like I didn’t want you to?” I snorted, answering his question with one of my own. My snort caused my body to shift against him, changing the pressure my ass was putting on his straining bulge. He gasped in then groaned out, his hands dropped down and slid inside the back of my shorts. Cupping a cheek in each palm, he pulled me more firmly against his groin, pressing his hips upward at the same time. I actually “felt” my eyes dilate as a fresh surge of lust rolled through my body from my fingers and toes and in toward my cock. His eyes were closed to mere slits and his lips were parted. I took advantage of this without even thinking about.

My hungry mouth latched onto his and I ran my tongue into his mouth, exploring the interesting textures I found therein. He caught my moan in his throat and retuned it with his own. He dipped his fingers into my crack and burrowed them under the strap of my thong, finding my pucker and pressing on it with two fingers. My head flew back, tearing our mouths apart, as I cried out. My cock had suddenly become painfully hard again.

“Fuck, baby, I want you so “bad”! Please, Marty, I “need” to “have” you!” he pleaded, licking and sucking the skin of my throat. I hated being called Marty, from his lips it sounded like a benediction. “Let’s go into the other room, baby, I wanna see all of you. I wanna “touch” all of you.” It didn’t even occur to me to say no. I stood up from his lap, my baggies dropping to the floor. Slipping my feet out of my Birkenstocks, I headed for the door and pulled my t-shirt over my head, letting it fall where it would. I looked at him over my shoulder smiling.

“You coming with me, lover, or will your dick reach from in there?”

When I was out of sight I heard him stand to follow. I dug through one of my bags and pulled out a large bottle of lube just as he came up behind me and pulled my ass into his denim-clad hardon. Looking over my shoulder he saw what I was holding.

“You were expecting this to happen, baby?” he asked, sounding surprised.

“No, I “didn’t”, you stupid, sexy “muthah fuckah”! I “expected” to spend every night “jacking off”, like a “pubescent zoo monkey”, so I’d be able to “sleep”.” I answered with all honesty. He threw his head back and roared with laughter. When he stopped laughing, he started trying to tickle me, making monkey sounds and I squirmed away from him.

“Stop it, fuck head.” I said, trying to sound pissed but I couldn’t keep the smile completely off of my face. Laughing again and grabbing me by the hips, he pulled me back against him, facing him this time and kisses me with such heat that my knees nearly buckled. When he pulled back he took the bottle from my hand and looked at it critically.

“This isn’t going to be enough for a week and a half, baby, we’ll have to get some more.” He pitched it onto the queen bed and stepped back to take his clothes off. I watched him strip, as I moved over to the bed and removed my bright red thong. Lying down, I waited for him. He left his clothing in a pile at the foot of the bed then walked around to the side.

“How do you want me, Jack?”

“God, I want you “bad”, sexy!”

“No, I mean in what way. On my face, my side, my back, how do you want me, baby?”

“Mmm…I want you every way you’ll let me have you, Marty, but this time, our “first time”, I want you facing me so that I can watch you when you cum.” My only reply was to smile and spread my legs in invitation, running my hands over my chest and abs. He positioned himself between my thighs and spread himself out on me, kissing and running his hands over me as if he’d never felt skin before. I explored the muscles of his back and his ass, licking and nibbling his neck and shoulder when our mouths weren’t engaged with each other. I decided that he was holding back, waiting for me to be ready for him so I started humping my hips into his stomach.

“Jack, baby, I need you “inside” of me.” I groaned into his ear. He shuddered hard and leaned over to get the lube. Straightening up onto his knees, he heavily coated his engorged cock then carefully worked some into my pucker making me slick and loosening me a bit. I was surprised at how easily his mushroom head slid past the outer ring of muscles; it had been an incredibly long time since I’d been with anyone. He was probably more surprised than I was because he had given a fairly hard push and wound up sliding in half way before I tighten involuntarily on his shaft and he stopped. I moaned loudly, arching my back at the exquisite sensations.

“”Uh, Jesus fucking hell, baby!”" He gasped, pressing his face into my neck and thrusting again, burying himself to the hilt. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, “oh fuck”! I’m not gonna last, Marty. You feel to “goddamned” good!” he was panting like he’d been sprinting.

“Fuck me, Jack! Fuck me “hard”, lover!” I demanded, writhing my hips under his. I knew what the result of this would be and he didn’t disappoint me in the least. He began thrusting his hips hard; grunting every time his balls smacked my ass. I don’t know if he knew that he was pounding across my prostate but he was. I felt my balls tingle and tighten. I hadn’t expected to cum before he did. I thought that I would need to get him back up so that he could fuck me a second time but I defiantly felt myself shooting up the rise to the edge of the precipice.

“Oh fuck, baby, I’m gonnaaaaa…” I felt his shaft swell and jerk hard right up against my sweet spot. When his burning hot jism spattered into me, right in back of where the head of his cock had slammed upward seconds before, I went flying over into the dark abyss of pulsing, colored lights that only exists within my mind during an orgasm.

“But I learned a lot,” I finally tore myself away and went on between tracing a line down his inner thigh with my teeth. His gorgeous ass flexed in my hand; I wanted to fuck it, but fumbling for a condom and lube would’ve killed the mood so I’d just have to be satisfied with sucking his dick until he begged for mercy.

“Oh yeah?” he asked in that husky voice he got when he was turned on, “what did you learn?”

“What you like.”

I stroked his shaft harder, the way I’d seen him in the shower. I lifted my head and wrapped my lips around just the tip of his cock, swirling my tongue around and around until I heard a little moan come from his throat.

“Mmm yeah, I like that, baby… and what I like is hearing you tell me how much it turned you on,” he whispered as his strong hand went under the back of my head, supporting it at the right angle for cocksucking. “You’re not as shy as you pretend, are you, hmmm baby?” he panted while I slid my lips down his shaft and buried his cock in my hot mouth. “Oh, shit…” He gripped the back of the seat with his other hand, his weight falling forward as his knees went weak.

“Yes, fuck my face…”

I couldn’t speak with a mouthful of cock, so I just moaned and sucked, guiding him forward with both hands on his ass now, handfuls of tight round muscle flexing and so very spankable. His thighs were shaking now and he was breathing harshly, so close to orgasm, just about to trip over the edge when he suddenly pulled back from my mouth and left me bereft and startled.

“What’s…”

He looked down at me with his eyes dark with lust and his face all flushed, his breath panting through his lips, and gave me such a sexy smile that I broke out into a sweat despite the cold. Turning around, he kissed his way down my belly and sank down to his side next to me so that we were in the sixty-nine position. I shivered when his hand spread over my belly and smeared around the little puddle of juice that had dripped onto my skin while I sucked him, and when he licked it from his fingers my stomach gave that jump that it seemed like only Daniel could make me feel.

He made me feel a lot of things I thought I couldn’t feel. When his tongue dipped into my slit, an intense surge of electricity shot through me and left me reeling. My moan was muffled by his cock in the back of my throat. It felt so good nestled in the roof of my mouth, warm and smooth, it was hard to breathe but I didn’t care. The need to cum burned through me but I held off even with my dick buried in his hot, wet mouth. I tried but it wouldn’t be for long, it felt too fucking good.

Oh, the things he could do with his tongue…

The beginnings of my orgasm gathered around the base of my spine and it was too late… I sucked him harder so he could join me but then he pressed that spot under my balls with his fingertips and I was done for. Tiny pinpricks of light behind my eyelids exploded into sunbursts as I shot into his mouth, down his throat in a flood.

He thrust his hips forward into my face while doing that low, sexy cry of “Oh!” The hot seawater jets of his cum filled my mouth and spilled out of the corner even as I swallowed and swallowed, greedy for every drop. God, he tasted good…

“Uhhh,” Daniel groaned, his head dropping to the rough carpet while our chests heaved in tandem. “It’s fucking freezing in here. Gimme my clothes before my dick falls off.” I grinned and reached behind his shoulder for his shirt.

“We definitely can’t have that.”

Chapter 10

“No, I can’t use your cell phone.”

That’s what Daniel told me when I offered to let him call the number his friend gave him, instead of using the payphone on the side of the gas station. I saw his uneasy glance at the surveillance camera angled from the corner of the building, but he took a deep breath and I could plainly see him reminding himself that this would all be over in a matter of hours. Everything was fine now. The FBI would take care of it. No need to worry about the camera. Still, he pulled his Wal-Mart hunting cap over his shaved head and drew it down to his eyes, and added the sunglasses. He took a calling card out of his wallet.

“That number could be traced and it’s better that you stay out of this as much as you can. If they never even know your name, it’ll be good. I’ll be back in just a minute.”

I was puzzled but I just watched as he got out of the car and went to the payphone in the cold wind . What did it matter if the FBI knew my name, or where the call came from? But he was the cop, not me. It was his job to be paranoid.

The drizzle had intensified into icy-cold rain. It would be sleeting by nightfall and I hoped that wherever the FBI took Daniel, it would be somewhere out of the weather, not on the road, in case this winter storm got bad. I was headed the opposite direction after I took Daniel where he needed to go, but St. Louis was going to be hit hard. Warnings were all over the radio. Daniel was from Florida and as far as I knew, he didn’t know much about winter weather. I watched him shiver in the cold at the payphone, crossing his arms and hunching his shoulders, turning his back to the biting wind and the needles of rain to scrawl on the same sheet of paper he’d written the phone number on.

“Brrrr.” He shuddered, rubbing his arms, as he jumped in the car and sighed gratefully when I turned the heater up to full blast. He blew on his clenched hands. “Shit, I’m freezing, Ry.”

“You need a coat. The FBI probably won’t have one waiting for you. I should’ve made you stop along the way somewhere and buy one.” I frowned unhappily. His cheeks were so red from the wind.

“You’re so cute when you’re fussy.” He grinned over at me and I blushed, covering my embarrassment with annoyance.

“Well?” I snapped. “Did you get an address, or are we just gonna drive around the city all day till we find the FBI office?”

Drawing the sheet of paper out of his back pocket, he read off the address. “Know where that is?”

“Yeah. It’s down by the VA hospital. Shouldn’t take long to get there.” I nodded briefly and pulled out of the truck stop to get back on the highway that would take us into the city.

The ride was silent. We’d said our goodbyes, for the most part. A mutual blowjob was better than any words. Instead, I mulled over the last two days. Never would’ve imagined something like this happening to me, not in a million years. Nothing ever happened to me. I made sure of it. I made sure nothing touched me, and from the very beginning, I was so angry with Daniel for dragging me into this whole mess. But now, it was almost over and the danger was gone, and I couldn’t deny even to myself that I was a little bummed I’d never see him again. Why did it always happen this way? When I met an interesting and intelligent man, he was unavailable to me; yet, I couldn’t get rid of the losers and bums.

“So,” I broke the silence, which had become a canyon between us. It wouldn’t be long before he was gone for good, but we could at least talk until then. “What do you think happens next?”

“Hmmm?” He looked up from his intense contemplation of the St. Louis skyline rising up to meet us out the rain-splattered windshield. “You mean with the investigation?”

“Well, I kind of meant with you,” I admitted. It wasn’t easy to say that… not as if I cared, I was just curious. “Are you planning on going back to Tallahassee when this all gets settled?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged and went back to staring out the window.

I swallowed. Fine. He didn’t want to talk. It wasn’t like him to be unfriendly, but since we were a few minutes away from never seeing each other again, he’d clearly decided talking wasn’t worth the effort.

“It was a cell phone.”

It was my turn to look up. “Huh?”

“When I called this agent I’m meeting. It wasn’t the field office. It was a cell phone.”

“Yeah? And do you think that means something?”

“No, probably not. Just odd. And odd things get my attention, you know?”

I nodded. His instincts were finely tuned.

“I’m sure it’s nothing though.”

He shrugged and stared out the window again, but I felt his tension. I’d always been sensitive to other people’s emotions, but for some reason I was even more so with him. Not that it mattered. Still, his unease crept into my subconscious and my heart beat faster and the inevitable butterflies fluttered in my belly as I approached the street where our destination was. I started looking for something that could be an FBI office or some sort of official building, but this street seemed to be mostly industrial. The uneasy feeling increased and I glanced over at Daniel for reassurance, but he seemed to be looking around and noticing the same thing I was. That something didn’t seem right.

“Well…” He took a deep breath and made an effort to smile at me. “This should be it up here, huh?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. It was silly to be nervous. “Right down there.”

He was watching the numbers on the square gray buildings. Finally, he pointed. “That’s it.”

A chain link fence, topped with a strand of barbed wire, surrounded the parking lot next to the building; a gate had been slid open and two cars waited. One was a plain 4-door sedan with regular Missouri plates; and the other was a St. Louis County Sheriff squad car. As I slowed, pulling closer to the curb, the doors on the sedan opened and I saw feet start to get out. Dark shoes of men, but no women, was the FBI agent supposed to be a woman? Daniel took another deep breath and put his hand on the door handle.

“A police car. That isn’t right, is it? There should be official vehicles with government plates. A parking lot with barbed wire… unmarked building… ”

I will never know what made me do it. Daniel glanced over at me and started to smile his farewell. He opened the door and stuck his foot out as I came to a rolling stop next to the curb. I felt this huge weight right in the center of my chest as men got out of the squad car, men in dark suits and not uniforms, and then I just took my foot off the brake and stomped on the accelerator, tires squealing on the pavement as the vehicle sped off. Daniel slammed the door, his face ashen as he whirled around to stare out the back window at the men who stood there watching us drive off, their mouths moving silently as they gestured wildly at each other.

“Fuck.” My heart was a jackhammer in my chest, my mouth filled with sawdust when I tried to stammer out an explanation. “Shit. Daniel, I don’t know why I did that. It just… something was just not…”

“Just go. Go.”

No thinking anymore. I took the next right practically on two wheels, doubled back a block and then took another right, all the time glancing in my rearview mirror. “Are they back there? What fucking happened?”

“Nobody following us. You just drive and let me worry about the rest. Go.”

A more torturous route through the heart of the city, nobody could’ve invented. I took scary side streets instead of the main road and my heart raced so that I thought it would explode. The sky grew darker and grimmer as the storm approached, trailing us to the nearest bridge. The rain started to crackle when it hit the windshield, turning to tiny splinters of ice. Daniel was tense and silent, watching the mirrors, finally looking up sardonically when I took an isolated stretch of highway surrounded by trees.

“I hope you know where you’re going.”

“I do.”

The wide bridge was under us and we were back in Illinois, a long way north from where we’d crossed into St. Louis the first time. Daniel had relaxed just a little but he looked increasingly doubtful as I drove further and further into more rural country, taking county roads that didn’t even have a dividing line. As we passed through a tiny little town hugging the riverbank and I turned up yet another asphalt paved road, Daniel could stay quiet no longer.

“Rylan… where the fuck are you taking me? In case you hadn’t noticed this storm is about to throw a wrench in our travel plans.”

My heart had slowed as the adrenaline burst dissipated, leaving me a little shaky, but I felt better now that we weren’t exposed on major roads and I was on my home ground.

“Relax.” I grinned. “We’re going to my house.”

His eyebrows went up and he stared at me. “What?”

“I grew up about ten more miles up that way.”

I pointed to the fields that were now visible since we’d risen up from the river valley. The sky was bleak and threatening and soon this sleet would be dangerous. I could feel the tires starting to crunch over the icy road and I slowed and engaged the 4-wheel drive. Yes, this was my hometown, if you could call the clusters of houses dotting the county roads, surrounded by wintry fields, a town. There actually was a town, with a tiny post office, a convenience store, a church and couple of taverns, but it was another fifteen minutes past where we were stopping. As I turned down the road that led to my property, I felt the tightness in my chest ease; Daniel nodded slowly, but I could feel him begin to relax too.

“I keep my house… my grandparents left it to me,” I explained, because he still looked puzzled. “I visit enough that I keep it stocked with basics; it’ll be warm and safe until this storm’s over. And we can get a breather for the night, kinda figure out what happened and what you’re going to do.”

“Okay.” Daniel nodded, but I could feel his uncertainty and something almost like fear, and I reached over and took his cold hand in mine.

“Don’t think,” I told him. “We’ll get to my house and get out of this weather. We’ll turn on the heat and get under some blankets, and then you can think. We’ll get this figured out, okay?”

Another nod, and he squeezed my hand as I turned into the familiar gravel drive that led back into the fields.

***