Love and Decay, Episode 10 by Rachel Higginson Read Free Book Online Page B

into the trenches.
    I took a breath and went for his pants, while averting my eyes to anywhere besides his washboard abs, bulging biceps or the part of his body I was currently undressing. I felt his hot stare on my profile as I counted rocks along the frothy shore of the creek.
    No matter what I tried to think about, my thoughts constantly rushed back to my task. First, his button popped open and then I quickly pulled down the zipper. I yanked my hands back as if they had been burned.
    I glanced up, embarrassed and insecure at the same time. “Can you wiggle them the rest of the way down now?”
    Kane did a little booty shake to show me he was trying, but it was no use. The jeans were sticky now and stuck to his thighs.
    “Alright,” I groaned. I squatted down- ignoring the compromising position- and grabbed the pockets in order to pull them down- hard. I stared at the ground, counting leaves this time, until his pants were at his ankles and he could step out of them on his own- which he did.
    “Would you grab my glasses out of my pocket?” he asked while he stood there in black boxer briefs that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
    Hendrix was going to be so beyond pissed when he walked into this nightmare.
    “Sure.” I picked up his jeans with as little contact as I could manage and dug around in the pockets until I found his black-rimmed glasses that were smudged and as filthy as him.
    “Would you mind cleaning them off?” his voice was gentle and pleading and I realized he hadn’t been wearing them for probably the entire week.
    “Do you still have your contacts in?” I asked quickly and a bit panicked.
    He smiled genuinely at me. “No, they’ve been out since we got here. But I didn’t want something to happen to my glasses. Besides I haven’t really needed to see anything since I’ve been sitting in the same chair for a week.”
    “Yeah, but,” I started to sympathize with him and then thought better of it. “Can you see me?” I asked instead.
    “Mostly,” he grinned at me. “And what I can’t see, I can remember.”
    And just like that he sent me spiraling back into “stranger danger” territory. “What about a headache?”
    “Yeah, I have a headache,” he answered shortly.
    Deciding to move on, I bent down to the creek and began cleaning his glasses. Kane stepped into the shoreline and let the cool, clean water lap at his ankles. He started at the bracingly cold temperature when he first put his feet in, but almost immediately started to adapt to the feel of the refreshing water against his bare skin. He closed his eyes and seemed to sink into a full-bodied peace while he waited patiently for me to finish with his glasses and start on him.
    While he was distracted I took stock of his body and his various injuries. The cut on his thigh was the deepest and the angriest looking, but it was still healing nicely. His bicep cut was still deep too, but not as bad. His ribs were still bruised and I couldn’t tell if they were getting better or worse. His face was mostly healed, but his eyes were still black and blue from lack of sleep and the facial gashes were all well on their way to scabbing and probably scarring.
    I set his glasses aside when they were cleaned and pulled out a washcloth to use on him. I set about the task as clinically and methodically as I could. This was so freaking awkward.
    My hands brushed over his firm, smooth skin of his chest and taut muscles with an awareness I wanted desperately to avoid. But I couldn’t.
    It was there and I needed to admit it so I could move on with my life.
    Kane was attractive, gorgeous even. And he had this whole aura of mystery that was a little bit enticing, if I was honest with myself. But that was it.
    On the inside he was a hollow, cruel person that lost his moral compass a while ago. The moments he was anything more were just that, moments… glimpses of a person that ceased to exist when Zombies became our reality.
    And that’s