Free Khyber Run by Amber Green Page A

had touched in the bazaar, and frankly I didn't want to eat with hands that had washed behind theirs.
    Oscar took back his sharpener with a polite nod.
    Echo rearranged his shemagh as a bib. “Reckon the Zombie Hunters in the 122nd know they're geographically in the wrong century's apocalypse? That they bought into the wrong live-action game?"
    Mike snorted. “Have they? Groups that large carry their reality with them. Faceless, implacable hordes of hungry foes who don't stop for hunger or pain or fear? Individuals that get knocked down easily, but then there's two or ten replacements? The nerve-shredding awareness that infected people look perfectly safe until after they've gotten inside your personal defenses and killed you? Does this sound familiar yet?"
    Our dish came, fragrant rice topped with a generous pile of curried mutton.
    A dancer came to our table too. He wasn't as young as the one at the far table, which suited me just fine. Little boys don't do a damned thing for me. This one did.
    His heavily made-up eyes met mine. He smiled in recognition, and he danced for me. I leaned back to ease my hardening cock and to watch his flowing, deliberately seductive movements. He smelled and looked and moved like a healthy man. None of that was any guarantee, of course.
    It's been a long time since I insisted on a guarantee. That's what condoms are for.
    My cock ached for a good, hot ass. There were plenty on shipboard, plenty of them anonymous, even. But I didn't like the idea of one of them following me afterward, learning my name, maybe talking about me. So mostly I'd lain in my rack, hand curled tight around my rod, jerking hard enough my nuts bounced, imagining a warm pair of hairy buns rubbing against me.
    "He probably has six kinds of clap."
    The sneer snapped me awake, tightened the skin on my face.
    Mike rolled naan to make a curry burrito. “Shut up, Echo."
    "Seriously, I bet he does. Four incurable, and two that don't even have names."
    Mike looked through his eyebrows at Echo.
    The blond scowled but subsided.
    I waved the dancer away. He pouted, but went. Probably did have clap, at that. And I didn't have a condom.
    Besides, it was broad daylight. If I was going to lighten my load, I'd rather do it in the dark. Or at least without three marines knowing what I was doing. Probably insisting on watching my back. Laying bets. Making comments, or storing up ideas for comments to make later.
    Four soldiers, US Army, came in, nodded to us, and sat around the larger unoccupied table. Not filling it, just taking it up. The dancer swam to them and took up a new dance, this one less a sensuous delight than an open invitation to carnality.
    One of the army men gulped. And gulped again. He was all but drooling. Now that one would be clean, or as clean as the army could keep him, and he sure looked willing. Better, he'd have his own supply of rubbers.
    No, the idiot was waving money at the dancer. The one-armed man came over to negotiate. Oscar watched them intently. Echo rolled his own curry burrito, his eyes flicking sideways on them. I felt eyes on me, though. Not Mike's. He also pointedly ignored the negotiations behind his left shoulder.
    I focused on another man at the gulper's table. Yeah, he was the one watching me, all right. He was blond, with a thin mustache that was probably a lot more of a pain to keep manicured than it was worth.
    I pushed myself to my feet, my gaze locked on his. “I need to use the head."
    Mike rolled another burrito. “Watch his back, Oscar."
    "No-go. I know where all my own parts are. I've been doing this without supervision for a good while now."
    Mike gave a look I couldn't read, but Oscar sat back down. I looked at Mustache and stepped outside. The cold hit instantly, but didn't do a thing to cool my throbbing dick.
    Mustache came out behind me. Looked like he'd shoved a cucumber under his fly. “Where?"
    I jerked my head at a collapsed building across the street. Earthquake damage, and