Free Afterglow: An Apocalypse Romance by Maria Monroe

with him standing before her, feeling her hand fondle his balls while she took him all the way— all the fucking way —into her mouth.
    “I’m done,” she said, interrupting him, and he turned to see her tucking one end of a towel, wrapped around her body, into the space between her breasts to secure it in place. “That felt so good.” Her hair was dark from wetness, her face fresh and clean.
    He grunted in response, unable to speak, unable to get his thoughts out of the gutter.
    “Wait,” she said. “Give me just a little more water? I want to wash off my clothes so they’ll be clean for tomorrow. I only brought one change.”
    Creed said nothing but began to pump once more, the creaking sound familiar now as the water began to flow. He watched Nina bend over, holding the towel in place with one hand while she got her clothes soaking wet, then squirted them with shampoo. She tried to get them sudsy with one hand, but it wasn’t working.
    “Turn around again?” she asked finally. “My towel keeps falling off.”
    Fuck. Me . Creed turned his body, his cock throbbing now at the thought of Nina naked. This time he didn’t dare sneak a look at her, knew he wouldn’t be able to hold back if he did.
    And she’d probably kick him in the nuts if he tried anything.
    And he didn’t want to get involved. Not when they still had hundreds of miles ahead of them.
    After a few minutes she said, again, “I’m done. For real this time.”
    Creed turned to see her tucking her towel back around her once more, her cleaned clothes lying in a pile on the grass not far away.
    “Your turn, big boy,” she said with a wink. “You ready? It’s cold.”
    “No peeking, sweetheart,” he said with a drawl.
    “You’re assuming you’ve got something I’m interested in seeing.”
    He held her gaze with his and shrugged nonchalantly, then reached down to grasp the bottom of his T-shirt. Wincing only slightly at the pain in his arm from the cut, he lifted the shirt up and over his head. Now it was his turn to wink, and as he did so he tossed the shirt aside and reached for his fly.
    “Not interested,” Nina insisted, looking away haughtily. “Trust me. You don’t have anything I want.”
    “Aw, Nina, you’re missing the good part!” he said with a chuckle, then unzipped his fly. He almost sighed in relief as the pressure on his arousal was released. He stripped off his jeans and boxers and stepped closer to the water, splashing some onto his body.
    “God damn, that’s cold!”
    Nina laughed.
    Well, one cure for a raging boner was an ice-cold shower, and Creed washed as quickly as he could, then rinsed out his clothes like Nina had. He tucked a towel around his waist, then gathered up his and Nina’s clothes and fastened them to a clothesline near the house. Soaking wet, they weighed the line down, so he spaced the clothes out and watched them drip for a few seconds. Hopefully they’d be dry by morning. Probably they wouldn’t.
    He remembered seeing a fireplace when they walked through the house. A fire was dangerous because it would attract people they didn’t want around. But if they fortified the house well, it would be good for cooking—eating cold food from cans was already getting old—and drying their clothes.
    “Let’s go inside,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at the darkening woods behind them, and he and Nina headed back into the house.
    * * *
    Nina took off into one of the bedrooms as soon as they got in the house. “I’m going to look for pajamas,” she said. “I know I should sleep in my clothes and be ready to go if we have to leave quickly, but what if I just put them on for a few hours? Just to warm up?” The bedroom door closed behind her.
    As soon as he was alone, Creed braced himself against the wall with his hand and exhaled, willing his body to calm down. Nina had him all on edge, and he didn’t like that.
    He headed into the living room to see about starting a fire. Made out of