Tower in the Woods (8 page)

Deciding not to put his conscience in any more jeopardy than was necessary, Dane had firmly closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. If he had continued watching her or talked to her while she was dressed that way, he had no doubt she would have ended up flat on her back with his erect penis buried inside her. He was that close to losing control, and it galled him that the innocent little sniper had absolutely no idea.

Now that she was gone Dane took the opportunity to deplete as much sexual frustration as he could. Grabbing his still damp boxers, which Nel had so kindly washed, he slipped them on as he went through his own morning routine.

Dane’s exercises had a much bigger emphasis on the upper body. Nel didn’t have a chin-up bar so he did handstand push-ups instead, trying his best to tire himself out before she came back into the room. Unfortunately, she didn’t take very long to wash up so he found himself watching her in an upside-down position as she stepped through the bathroom door comfortably clad in an oversize black T-shirt and a pair of camouflage pants identical to the ones she wore last night. Dane didn’t understand how someone could look so damn sexy in such unflattering clothing, but Nel succeeded with aplomb.

Dane felt a little like preening as he noticed the way Nel’s bright blue gaze swept over his sweaty body, lingering appreciatively at his chest and shoulders. She clearly liked what she saw, for her cheeks dimpled into a smile as her tongue came out to lap over that full lower lip, bringing back extremely vivid memories of how she had just last night licked him to orgasm. Realizing his boxers were pooled precariously around his groin, he somersaulted into a standing position and made his best attempt at a charming smile.

“Thanks for washing my clothes,” he said like an idiot as they continued to stare at each other. The sexual tension in the room was rising to ridiculous levels so Dane safely decided to cut and run. “Mind if I use your bathroom?”

Nel shook her pretty blonde head silently as she continued to ogle him, her gaze turning languorous as she blushed. Not even bothering to look down at his groin, Dane fled to the other room and shut the door behind him.

Luckily, Nel had copious amounts of extremely cold water, which was bound to be quickly replenished once the snow started melting. Stepping into a nonfunctional bathtub, Dane grabbed the plastic bucket sitting on the tiled floor, reached over the wall of the reservoir, and filled the container completely before proceeding to upend the entire contents over his head. Breathing a huge sigh of relief as his boner quickly shriveled as a result of the water’s freezing temperature, he quickly scrubbed himself clean before repeating the process, shivering profusely once he finally stepped soaking wet out of the bathtub.

“I have an extra one of these if you want to brush your teeth,” Nel said from behind him. Clearly her upbringing had not included the concept of privacy implied by closed doors. Knowing he was completely naked, Dane turned only his head as he reached for the proffered item, surprised she had even put some minty homemade toothpaste on it.

“I don’t believe you will fit into any of my clothing,” Nel said, impervious to Dane’s discomfort. The erection he had so painstakingly gotten rid of was now back in full force. Apparently all his penis needed to rise to full attention was for Nel to be in his immediate vicinity.

“Ah … I figured I’d re-wear my boxers and dry off by the fire,” Dane replied, not quite knowing what the etiquette was in this situation. Nel clearly didn’t care he was naked. She simply leaned against the doorjamb, waiting for him to come out. His brain somehow turned itself back on, making him mutter the lamest excuse imaginable. “I don’t like people watching when I brush my teeth.”

Nel’s eyebrows rose, her face clearly saying she now thought he was a complete weirdo, but she thankfully walked away, shutting the door as she went.

“Down, boy,” Dane ordered as he glowered at the offending body part, one that was getting into the habit of overruling his brain. “She’s off-limits. At least for now.”

* * * *

One of the things Nel missed the most about life outside the Tower was cooking. For obvious reasons, Mother Gothel usually brought her nonperishable food, the kind that came in cans and vacuum-sealed bags. Because Nel ate with an eye toward stockpiling, she couldn’t logically make herself ask the prophet to increase the amount of fresh food in lieu of the canned goods, even if she could rarely bring herself to eat the disgusting stuff.

However, since canned and preserved food were not easy to find, only becoming available when scavenging parties came back from raiding nearby ruins, the prophet still brought a good amount of grains, tubers, dried fruit, and vegetables as well as small amounts of smoked mutton. Nel never had much of an appetite, so she usually stored all of the canned goods and satisfied herself with making home-cooked meals last the week.

The most efficient way to make a little food go a long way was to start one giant pot of stew and keep it over the fire, adding more water as the stew thickened and slowly chipping away at it over time. Nel had started a pot just the other night, and typically, it would easily last her an entire week, if not more.

But Nel quickly realized Dane consumed an extremely large quantity of food, especially compared to her, so much so she simply laid her fork down and watched him eat in dumbstruck silence. She had no idea how so much food could even fit into his body, as large as he was.

Clearly noticing she had stopped eating and was simply staring at him, Dane looked up and sheepishly said, “I’m sorry. Am I eating too much?”

Nel shook her head. “There’s plenty of food here, as you can see. I just have never seen anyone eat quite the way you do.”

Dane’s smile made him seem a great deal younger. “You’re an awesome cook, especially considering the limitations you work with. This might be the best-tasting meal I’ve ever had.”

Curious, Nel cocked her head to the side. “If you don’t cook, what do you eat?”

“Where I come from there’s a main cafeteria that makes three square meals a day. The grub tastes atrocious but eating there means all I need to do is show up at the right time,” Dane answered, eyeing the stew that was left in Nel’s bowl. Already quite full, she handed it over for him to demolish.

“And where do you come from?” she asked. “According to Mother, there are no other human enclaves other than the WITCH.” Before he could make a snarky comment, Nel held up her hand. “I was pretty certain she was lying. It’s just that I’ve never heard of another colony before you came here. What’s it like? Where is it?”

Dane’s eyes were guarded as he replied. “Washington, D.C. is to the north of here, about a five-day walk if you know the way. It’s a fully functioning city of approximately fifty thousand people. What about your church? Where is it and how many people are there?”

The question seemed innocuous enough so Nel didn’t mind answering. “When the storm clears, you should be able to see the WITCH if you look to the northeast past the woodlands. It’s difficult to miss from this high up—all three border walls are surrounded by barbed wire and there are piles of rusting cars blocking off all the access roads. Eleven years ago, there were one hundred and thirty-seven members, but the population was steadily growing. We get at least one new recruit every month, although the older members were beginning to suffer from illness and death.”

“If there are new recruits,” Dane pointed out, “isn’t it obvious to everyone that other human enclaves exist?”

Nel shook her head. “Not to everyone. All the new recruits are extremely young, and none of them have any memory of life before they arrived at the WITCH. The explanation given is that Mother, and I mean the god and not the prophet, leads those worthy of saving from the zombie wastelands toward the church’s borders to be taken in and trained.”

Dane looked extremely interested in what she told him. “How difficult is it to enter the borders?”

Nel furrowed her brows as she thought back to her childhood. “There are soldiers patrolling all the walls and checkpoints along the two roads that lead to the fort. Only the prophet and scavenger parties are allowed to drive in or out of the compound. I don’t know if the security has gotten more lax since I left. I usually eliminate all the zombies heading toward the WITCH from here.”

Dane gave her another probing look. “Have you ever considered that your cult leader is concerned about enemies other than zombies?”

Nel shrugged. “It’s possible, but you’re the only person who has made it this far into the WITCH’s borders. I was able to tell immediately you weren’t a zombie, and I can safely say I have never killed a human.”

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Dane asked, his eyes suddenly very intent. “Why did you save me before you even knew if I could be trusted?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Nel asked. “I had never killed another person before, and I didn’t want to start with you. So far, you’ve been pretty trustworthy.”

“Well, don’t do it again,” Dane snapped out, feeling oddly protective. “What you did was very dangerous. If another human comes your way and you don’t want to pull the trigger then just let them pass and stay safe.”

Nel took umbrage at Dane’s words. “Perhaps you should trust my judgment.”

“You have piss-poor judgment,” he countered. “You saved me. And, sweetheart, you may not realize it yet, but I’m as dangerous as it gets.”

“So is this what you do all day?” Dane asked as they sat companionably by the fireplace. Nel’s nose was buried in a physiology textbook, and he had just finished reorganizing her ammunition cache. All in all, he couldn’t think of a time when he had felt more content. There was a certain domesticity to what they were doing, which was a component of life he hadn’t realized he was missing.

“Pretty much,” Nel answered as she looked up at him, her small hands rubbing her eyes tiredly. She had clearly completely zoned out while reading, for she looked confusedly around the room. “You’ve been busy.”

Dane abhorred clutter. When it came to his own life, he satisfied his obsessive-compulsive tendencies by owning as few items as possible. While he understood the sense of security Nel’s hoarding provided, the complete lack of rhyme or reason to the way her belongings were strewn across the room was mind-boggling. So after spending approximately thirty minutes marveling at how anyone could be so utterly impervious to the chaos that defined this space, Dane had asked Nel if he could move some things around.

Her answer had been an absentminded shrug. Several hours later, the room no longer resembled the state it was in prior to his arrival. The ammunition was neatly stacked on the wall opposite the fireplace, separated by type and expiration date. Dane had fashioned a makeshift cabinet to house the sniper rifle and pistol, along with Nel’s small collection of hunting rifles and semiautomatic weapons.

On either side of the fireplace, Dane had placed Nel’s copious supply of various foods, categorized by type and arranged in alphabetical order. Using the fragments of wood from the other room, he had cobbled together shelving that was anchored on the walls. He had moved the drying rack to the wall where the window was located, and he placed the soaps and detergents, extra fabric, and medication neatly alongside it. He doubted she even knew exactly how many survival essentials she had collected over the years, but now she would actually be able to find them when she needed to.

It was a relief to know Nel would be able to safely survive in the tower for years on end if necessary. Dane’s chances at surviving his mission weren’t great, and even if everything went according to plan, he was unlikely to get her out of this prison for a good long while after that. The FMA was going to want to launch a full-scale operation to deal with the WITCH, which meant several months may pass before he would be allowed to return to this tower again.

However, Dane had no doubt in his mind that he was going to return and rescue Nel one day. No one, especially not someone as hungry for knowledge as she, should spend their life locked away in this prison. And once he rescued her, he was going to have to watch over her closely. She was too softhearted for her own good, which was ironic, given she was the best sniper he had ever met. In the real world, she would get taken advantage of. She trusted far too easily, a character flaw he had benefited from, but one he was going to have to protect her against. It was the least he could do for her after she had saved his life.

“Making things easier to find in here is the least I could do. Besides, I was bored,” Dane said as he lowered himself next to Nel. He didn’t mention that unless he expended his energy doing something physical, the pent-up sexual frustration was bound to make itself apparent. In fact, it was doing so at this very moment. After catching a single whiff of Nel’s uniquely feminine scent, the lust Dane had distracted himself from quickly made itself known. “Please tell me you’re finally done reading.”

Yawning, Nel nodded. “This book was particularly technical. It helps to pass the time, though. What do you do when you have time to kill?”

Dane frowned as he recalled the past decade of his life. “I don’t know. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have something that I needed to do.”

Nel smiled sympathetically as that blue-eyed gaze met his. “That must be very difficult.”

“No less difficult than never leaving this tower,” Dane replied. But Nel’s observation was an astute one, for he had been deathly tired for the past decade. It was only now that he was forced to stay in one place that he realized how truly draining his entire life had been.

“Now that you have my undivided attention, what is it you want to do with me?” Nel asked, scooting even closer. Before he knew it, she straddled his lap, her head leaning forward so she could brush her lips against his.

The kiss was electric, more so because it was completely unexpected. Compared to what they had shared last night, this brushing of lips was practically chaste. But Dane was quickly reminded that he was drawn to this girl like a lodestone, and the urgency of that attraction quickly demolished the false sense of security he had felt until now.