“Fair enough,” he said with a nod. “I’ll show you.”
We’d spent an hour using it to climb various trees, until I admitted that it would’ve been much harder to climb without it, especially the ones without low branches.
“Anything useful?” I asked as I watched John approach through a gaping hole in the wall, rolling up the cord as he went. The fading rays of sun illuminated his tall figure, and I stopped for a moment just to admire him. His lean, strong body radiated heat that kept me warm on the colder autumn nights, and the more I stared, the more I wished we were alone…and I wouldn’t complain if we were naked, either.
“Nah,” he replied with a shrug, but the upturned corner of his mouth told me that he knew I’d been checking him out.
While John and Kimmy had found supplies for the trip before today, I still needed a winter coat, which would be a major problem the further north we went. John and Kimmy had winter clothes, but all I had was a rain jacket. Thankfully, I’d knitted half a dozen pairs of socks, a pair of mittens, and a hat when we lived at the camp, but the lack of a good coat was a problem. We’d found some decent winter boots for me, which were a little large, but wearing thick socks made them wearable.
“Just keep your eyes peeled for a coat,” John had said to me. “We’ll do the rest.”
We’d hunted for ammunition and for useful materials and tools—anything from sewing needles to salt for food preservation. We’d had decent luck, but the winter coat still eluded us. Thankfully, for now, the weather hadn’t turned cold enough during the day that I needed one immediately.
The sun was setting, though. It was about to get much colder, and I wanted to make camp for the night.
“Time to call it,” John said with a sigh. “We head back out in the morning.”
“Good, I’m starving,” Kimmy grumbled, and she strode back through the hole in the wall to the outside.
John moved to follow, but I caught his elbow and backed against the wall, pulling him with me so that he trapped me against it. He made a noise of confusion but was quickly muted by my lips smothering his. I gripped the front of his jacket and pulled him in deeper, slipping my tongue past his lips to taste him, and he groaned, soft and low in his throat. It was the sexiest sound, and I wanted to hear more.
“Claire,” he mumbled against my lips, attempting to pull back. “Not here.”
“Yes, here,” I said, my grip on his jacket tightening as I pressed my knee between his thighs and rubbed against his growing erection.
“Fuck,” he grunted, and I sensed victory.
He surrendered and grabbed my face in his hands, crushing his mouth against mine and flattening me against the crumbling wall. His tongue plunged into my mouth, giving me what I craved, and a helpless moan escaped me. We came up for air a moment later, both panting.
“Not here,” he repeated, and moved back with effort. “It’s not safe.”
“I want you,” I said, kissing down his jawline as he shuddered. “I miss you.”
John’s expression softened. “I miss you too. It’s not that I don’t want you…Christ, I do. But it’s not the right time or place.”
I sighed, defeated. “I know.”
“Hey, if you two are done ignoring our surroundings, can we make camp?” Kimmy called, evidently impatient. “And it’s gonna be dark soon.”
I flushed, and John grinned before planting a kiss on my forehead and leading me back outside.
We camped out in an abandoned strip mall on the edge of a derelict suburb. It was far enough from the city core that it was less likely to attract gangs, but close enough that supply trips were manageable. The buildings were crumbling, but they held their shape enough that we could camp inside, mostly sheltered from the elements. We set up our tent and got dinner started.
Kimmy built the fire and started roasting some of the meat we had from a hunt two days earlier. Meanwhile, John and I foraged for edible plants. I had my homemade logbook open, and we referenced it as we wandered through a small, wooded area beside the strip mall.
As luck would have it, John spotted a bunch of blackberry bushes. Birds had gotten to some of the berries, but there were enough there to make up a sizable harvest. We loaded them into my bag and headed back. There was a grassy patch some distance away from the campfire, and we both sat cross-legged to wash the berries.
I’d been scheming the whole way back, and as I watched John methodically washing blackberries across from me, I decided to put it into action. I let out a low, quiet sort of sigh, staring intently at the berries in my hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw John glance up at me, but when I didn’t say anything, he returned to his work.
I sighed again a moment later, more dramatically this time, and he looked up again.
“You okay over there?” he asked.
“Yes,” I answered, then chewed my lip. “I just wish we were alone.”
“I know, sweetheart,” he said sympathetically, stroking the back of my hand with his thumb. “Just be patient. I’ll find a moment for us to slip away once we’re finally out of the city. A couple more days, maybe.”
A couple more days?I scoffed.
