After a mere two hours of lying on top of my bed, I stomped into the town hall the next morning. My demand that Leon go to my place last night had apparently failed to convince him, since he’d never showed up. Maybe being a domineering prick wasn’t the way to play things with him, but damned if I could remember how to woo someone.
Cannon and Nate sat side by side at the long table that had been returned to its proper place, along with the chairs I’d kicked out of my way last night.
I overheard the tail end of Hills—our commune elder—saying, “Wrecked the place a little bit.”
I settled in an empty seat next to Liz and grabbed a cup of coffee to hide behind. “Sorry ’bout that.”
The air around me was cloying with pity, thick as the mud I needed to knock off my boots after my walkabout last night. I kept my head in my cup and held up a hand to ward off everyone’s sympathetic glances. “Aw, shit. Don’t start pussyfooting around me now. Whatever the CEO dishes out, I can take, so long as Leon doesn’t have to.”
There were coughs and mumbles and more looks I chose to ignore. Linc, Eden—who was Nate and Linc’s mom as well as the Chitamauga healer—and Hatch, the tech guru, took their seats.
Liz turned to me. “How was Leon last night?”
I blew across the steam rising from my coffee.
“You pissed him off, didn’t you?” Her tone turned icy.
“He’s got a hairpin trigger; you know that.” I took a scalding sip from my cup, not even wincing as it burned my tongue.
“And?” she pressed.
“I was a dick.”
“Well, there’s a surprise.”
The door opened and I shot to my feet, expecting Leon.
In swanned Farrow, who looked ready to reign over a tea party in her swishy dress, only the dark circles under her eyes giving away her fatigue. She’d been our go-to girl in Beta, the real mole as far as I was concerned. “Ah’m sorry to be late, y’all. It was a rough night after Ah told Sebastian about Leon.”
Her brother, Sebastian, and Leon had become friends in Beta while Leon worked to infiltrate the Posse Omnis Juvenis, the hard-core crew of militants Cutler had under his thumb.
Farrow swept behind me, running a hand along my back. “Ah’m purely distraught for you, Darke.”
I grumbled a response and returned to watching the door. Two minutes of chatter later, Leon still hadn’t showed. “Where the hell is Leon, anyway?” I asked.
Guess I wasn’t so good at playing it cool after all.
Hills hooked a white strand of hair behind his long pink earlobe. More of the crushing weight of sympathy rolled from him. “We thought it best he didn’t sit in on this meetin’. If you find you can’t contain yourself, perhaps you’d be better off trackin’ him down.”
Like hell. “I can control myself.”
“Good man.” Hills nodded at me. Easing back, he asked, “What do we know?”
Hatch launched into a detailed description of the Pneumonic Plague, the disease that had been spun as the Gay Plague back in fifty-nine to sixty in order to wipe more homosexuals off the map. When she was being tortured by CEO Cutler, Liz had found out the virus wasn’t originated to kill gays—it’d been created to infect rebel masses. Created by Liz’s father, Robie Grant, and his InterNations counterpart, Dr. Val. It was this Dr. Val who’d not only wiped Leon’s frontal lobe but had also made him a human incubator. She was on Liz’s hit list, too, for perfecting her mind-scrub techniques years before on Robie Grant.
“It’ll be total genocide of the rebel faction if Cutler has his way,” Hatch said. “He wants complete control of the government, total adherence to the Company, and death to all who stand in his way. A handful of those infected with the sleeper virus are our fellow rebel leaders. Cutler’s savagery is very well planned.” Hatch’s keen eyes landed on me.
Cannon joined in. “From the records Liz gave us from her father’s lab, we know this new manifestation will spread faster than ever once it goes live.” He kicked his chair back, his hands scrubbing down his face. “Jesus fucking Christ. I remember what happened to my folks, my sister when they got sick. This thing’s gonna rip through all of us until our guts are bleeding out on the floor.”
The thought of Leon becoming sick from this disease, dying from it, was not a reality I was willing to face. “It’s exactly what the Colonial Americans did when they sought to lay claim to Native American land. He’s using Old History against us. They delivered diseased blankets to the indigenous, killing them quietly.”
“We won’t go quietly.” Liz gripped my hand.
“Lysander’s just waitin’ to wipe us all out.” Miss Eden twined her fingers together, looking down.
She’d know better than anyone what the CEO was capable of. She’d been married to the monster, forced to abandon her two sons when they were young because her husband, the rising CO star, had beaten her mercilessly. She’d been reunited with both Nathaniel and Linc only recently.
Lysander Cutler might’ve been defeated in the Territories of the former North Americas, but he was blazing a new trail across the Pan-Atlantic pond. Worldwide, he’d either assassinated leaders or simply slick-talked his way into the director’s seat in places like Zeta—home of the Siberian citizens—Delta and Kappa in the Europa continents, and Omega Territory. We might be free, but our brethren overseas were not.
I barged to my feet, unable to contain my rage any longer. “You were right last night,” I said, glaring at Linc. “You should’ve killed your motherfucking dad when you had the chance.”
Liz tried to placate me while Cannon was ready to restrain me, rising from his seat.
Linc merely nodded. “I know.”
Nate spoke in a calm drawl. “It wouldn’t have mattered. Leon was already infected by that point.”
I wrenched free of Liz’s hands.
“If we can track down Father, we can find the cure. When we finally take him out, it will be with the antidote in hand and total InterNations victory on our side.” Linc drew Liz close to his side.
“Sorry. Sorry, man. I’m just really screwed up about this,” I apologized.
“No shit.” Liz huffed a little laugh.
“You have every right to be upset, Darke, which is why I asked if you needed to step away from our meeting.” Hills frowned at me.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Taking my seat, I laid my palms flat on the table. I thought for a moment. “What about this Denver? You trust him? Because he seems like a sketchy dude.” Both Linc and Farrow considered him a double agent, but I wasn’t convinced he was working for the good of the people. His only saving grace so far was he hadn’t killed Liz when he’d had the chance back in Beta.
“Got no choice,” was Linc’s not-so-comforting reply.
Liz leaned onto her forearms. “I say we send out our feelers for Dr. Val. She created this thing. She infected Leon. She’ll have the cure. And as soon as we get it, I’ve got first dibs on slitting her throat. A little bit of justice for my dad.”
I listened to them go around for another hour before I snapped. “All this yammering is getting us nowhere. What’s the strategy?” I was used to formulating a plan, not sitting on my ass while people flapped their gums.
“We can’t just go off half-cocked—” Cannon started.
“The hell we can’t. Maybe you want to twiddle your damn D-Ps until Cutler destroys every last rebel and Freelander Outpost, but I don’t. I’ll go it alone if I have to.”
Linc shook his head. “We don’t even know Dr. Val’s true whereabouts. We don’t have any solid leads yet.”
“Or contacts.” Cannon rapped his knuckles on the arms of his chair.
“Ah reckon Ah might know one or two people here and there…” Farrow interjected.
“Is there any Territory you haven’t plundered, Farrow?” Liz snaked a grin at the other woman.
Farrow pinned a loose curl back into her hairdo. “What’s that old sayin’? Every port in a storm.”
Linc chuckled. “I think it’s any port in a storm.”
I growled in frustration.
Suddenly Hatch jumped up from his seat. He’d had his ears on the conversation and his eyes locked on his D-P, constantly scanning the channels. “Holy hell. I think y’all are gonna wanna see this.”
Our D-Ps bleeped as he sent the link. I dug mine out of my pocket, tuning in to a black screen that showed only the word REVOLUTION in bold red letters.
“Where’s this coming from?” I asked.
“There’s no origination signal. It’s being broadcast from one hundred and fifty different locations, and my guess is they’re all false leads.” Hatch pushed his glasses farther up his nose.
A voice came across the wire. Distorted and deep, it echoed around the town hall:
“The Revolution is one step away from being defeated by the Company. Activism, equality, freedom will be dictated by a newly unilateral militarized government controlled by one man only: CEO Cutler.”
“Who the hell is this?” Cannon curled over the D-P he shared with Nathaniel.
Shivers raced up my spine. “Who’s this going out to?”
Hatch threw his smudged glasses onto the table. “Everyone. Everywhere.”
“Holy shit,” Nate whispered.
The blank screen changed to an image of what had to be Omega Territory—a red desert dust bowl to begin with—followed by more images that flashed quickly on the screen. Omega on the Aafricans continent had always been the most forward-thinking Territory. There the Company allowed the population of Freelanders to do the daily drudgery for them in this sunbaked land my ancestors hailed from. In exchange for their workforce, the CO let the Omega Freelanders live within the Territory walls instead of outright persecuting them.
Now the D-Ps streamed pictures of the Freelander people being hounded and harassed by the military from every corner of the vibrant city of bazaars.
“We rebels now know a certain number of the subpopulation in each Freelander stronghold has been infected with a new strain of the Plague. The CEO wants to rid the InterNations of what he calls our pestilence. This strain goes live on August sixteenth, 2071.”
“Aw, shit. That’s not good.”
All eyes swung to me.
“Are you thinking riots?” Linc asked.
“More like killing sprees since word of the infected is being broadcast live.”
“There is a cure, my friends! It’s in the early phases. We think it can be synthesized with the right medical instruction. Our shamans are working on it. It all begins in Omega. Remember: Love Free or Die.”
The transmission ended with that rallying cry. Omega was where Cutler was reported to be. If the cure was there, too, it was a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone scenario.
“Who the fuck was that?” Cannon cussed.
Hatch shook his head. “Unknown voice, untraceable broadcast.”
“Some bastard’s out there making bold statements. He better hope to hell he can back them up once we nail his ass.” I rewound the transmission and watched it again.
Everyone pulled closer to the table and started speaking at once, their voices rising above one another.
“Omega’s the point of origin.”
“Especially if Cutler’s there, too.”
“I’m going. Make the arrangements pronto.” I just needed a starting place, my weapons, and transport.
“We’re going,” Cannon announced. A round of fists pounding the table sent a jolt of energy through me.
We were decided then. There were two races: to find the cure or steal Doc Val’s antidote, and to take Cutler down once and for all.
Time was our biggest enemy.
More talk spun around me. I listened with half an ear, more attuned to finding out where Leon was than on who was going, who was staying, and why.
“Sebastian’s with us.” Farrow spit green fire from her eyes.
Hills sighed. “He hasn’t been through the coming-of-age rites yet.”
“Ah don’t need a communal ceremony to tell me my baby brother is a grown man. He did his time in Beta.”
“Ooh boy. Territory girl’s got a temper. Maybe you need to get that itch scratched, Farrow.” Liz’s lips lifted.
Linc groaned.
Liz swiveled to him with a tut. “I wasn’t offering, baby.”
As head of the Chitamauga militia, this was my call. “Sebastian can come.”
“Speaking of ceremonies, we want to get married first,” Linc said. He looked at Hills, making his appeal to the commune elder.
I tried to ignore the knock to my chest. He and Liz deserved to be happy for one damn day, and I deserved exactly what I got, too—the solitude I’d all but demanded. I tuned out, lifting my head only when I saw a flash of gold skin and long hair pass beyond the windows. Leaning back in my chair, I followed Leon with my gaze. He strolled down the road, his shirt hanging from his back pocket. The muscles in his back shifted and shined in the sunlight.
I shoved away from the table. On my way out the door, I heard the usual guffaws, this time tinged with an air of sadness.
“Cock on a leash, like I always said,” Liz halfheartedly joked.
Farrow drawled, “Ah’d be more inclined to say it’s his heart on the leash.”
* * *
Outside, I jogged to catch up with Leon. The sun worshipped his body, deepening the tan on his honey-colored skin. He wore cutoff denims that hung low enough on his hips to reveal twin pelvic cuts when he turned at the sound of my approach.
I swept my hands up his sides to gently clasp his shoulders. “Where’ve you been?”
“Out in the fields. Micah needed some help.”
My already-stressed emotions hit the red line. “What the hell are you thinking? That can’t be a good idea in your condition.”
“I’m not six feet under yet.”
I felt my stomach bottom out. “I know you’re not. And you won’t be. We just had some news. There’s a cure in the making. We’re headed to Omega.”
He aimed a somber smile at our feet. “Are we?”
I lifted his face to mine. “Yes, we are.”
“Bien.” He remained distant.
It was so not fucking bien I tripped over my tongue. “Good, uh…I’ll see you at the handfasting later?” Come to the handfasting with me, I should’ve said.
“Handfasting?”
“Linc and Liz. They wanna do it before we head out. Because…”
“We probably ain’t gon’ come back.” He leaned in, fingers splayed on my chest before shifting away. “I guess I gotta go pack.”
“Wait. Where’d you spend last night?”
“In my momma’s wagon—not dat it’s any of your business.”
Leon walked away, back straight, head high. So much for treading softly with the man. Shit. It seemed like everything I tried with Leon ended with me planting my size-sixteen boots in it again.
But there was one thing I could do.
I set off for my place. It was time to say good-bye to my ghosts, even if Leon never knew it. Turning the corner, I slowed to a stop and wiped my eyes. Forgive me, Tam. Let me go, Wilde. Be at peace.
Let Leon live.
I let the door bang when I entered the two-roomer. I yanked the heavy curtains wide open over the windows and then ripped them entirely off. Sun streamed in. There was no hiding anymore. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, I filled boxes with their belongings. I lovingly laid Tam’s favorite boots on top of her clothes. I packed Wilde’s books carefully—the heavy tomes about husbandry and veterinary medicine. I added Tammerick’s pistols after I cleaned them to a bright shine.
I kept only two things—the ivory-handled dagger Wilde had etched with my name and a lock of hair from Tam tied in a deep red satin ribbon. I placed them in a small wooden box I locked inside the bottom drawer of my dresser, and then I knelt on the floor and laid my hand over my heart.
“Good-bye, my loves.”
It wasn’t as if I felt freed when I walked over to Eden’s caravan with boxes piled in my arms. There was no jaunt to my step. My burden was too heavy for that. I did take in the birdsong, the chatter of squirrels, and the heat of the sun. I thought about the room I’d made for Leon and I felt lighter.
Eden answered my knock, her haphazard bun of strawberry-blond hair collapsing on top of her head. She peeked inside the crates, and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Darke.”
Swallowing several times, I passed the boxes into her arms. I made my way back down her steps and onto the grass. “I figured you could disperse their belongings as needed to our villagers.”
Eyes as vividly blue as the wings of a swallowtail butterfly found mine. “I’ll do just that so long as you remember you deserve happiness, too.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll try.” I retreated, blinking back the final pain.
She called after me, “You’re a good man, Darke.”
* * *
I hadn’t dragged in a deep breath since last night. Fuck that. I hadn’t inhaled a goddamn normal breath since I’d heard Leon had been snatched right in front of Cannon and Liz in Beta. And, fuck me, my heart had stopped when Tammerick and Wilde were killed. Today I’d said good-bye to them, because of Leon.
It was Leon who’d kick-started my heart again, Leon who ignited the fire in my blood and loins, Leon I didn’t want to love but had to save.
My path to the meadow later was no less lonely for having laid my loved ones to rest. I padded softly among the tall stalks of wildflowers, careful not to crush them underfoot. I dawdled in the open fields that led to the small knoll beyond which the handfasting would take place. Everything now would be rushed: love, life, death, coming so swiftly upon us.
I was caught up in my meandering when a small hand snuck into the crook of my elbow. Jonquil kept her gaze ahead as she joined me. She was everyone’s favorite former flirt, well, except for Cannon’s. She’d taken great pleasure in terrorizing him with her feminine wiles his first few days in the commune. Now she was married, more mature, and well on her way to motherhood.
“Surely you’ll walk a mother-to-be to the gathering, Darke.”
“And where is your husband?” I fell into an easier gait beside her.
“I do believe he took to the merrymaking early.”
“As he did with you.”
She patted the proud swell of her belly with a secret smile. “Yes. And I have no complaints on that, either.”
The meadow had been transformed during the afternoon. An altar was swiftly raised beneath an arbor dripping with blooms of brightly colored lilies. The table before Eden and Hills held the priapic wand and a length of red ribbon.
The villagers assembled, dressed in their finest, whatever shape that took on this muggy July evening, but always with the Freelander hint of red. Votives lit the path down which Liz would walk, and more candles on the altar added a beautiful glow to the night as dusk descended in dark blues and vivid violets.
Leon made his way to the ceremony after me. He didn’t stand beside me or anywhere near me. He wouldn’t look at me, although I stared at him continuously. I couldn’t help it. His hair was tied back and tamed for once. His shirt was bright white against his skin, and his lips moved rapidly as he made little Calliope—one of Micah’s young daughters—laugh.
A hush fell over the crowd. Cannon appeared on the crest of the grassy hill, Liz on his arm. She wore some sort of ivory dress that could have come only from Farrow’s collection, baring her shoulders and part of her midriff. I chuckled when my gaze fell to her hips, where her Desert Eagles were holstered. They were her only accessories, except for a circlet of white flowers in her softly spiked black hair.
I glanced at Linc to see his mouth drop open before he snapped it shut. When Liz passed me, I noticed the way she kept blinking, trying to keep her tears at bay. Next to her—tall as a tree and as large as me—Cannon did the same. He deposited her in front of Linc at the altar, where they exchanged a few terse words before Liz drew their gazes to her gun belt with a wide smile.
The opening kiss Liz and Linc shared was slow and passionate. I stared at the side of Leon’s face, willing him to look at me, to share this moment with me, but he trained his sights steadfastly ahead. I felt a sharp poke in the ribs from Tommy, which returned my attention to the couple in front of us.
Their vows were spoken in low voices—a rumble from Linc as he clasped her face, a throaty whisper from Liz when she kissed the tips of his fingers, placing his hand against her heart. Tears slid down their cheeks, their eyes fastened on each other as their lives soon would be. I didn’t need to hear their words to feel the power of their love.
Rings were exchanged once the ribbon was wound around their arms and hands, binding them together, no matter what might come. Linc closed his eyes and smiled at something Liz said as she slid his wedding band home. When his ring came to rest on her finger, the villagers went wild. Shouting, whistling, clapping, and hugging one another.
I was embraced by one person after another as I slowly made my way to the center circle trying to locate Leon. Goose bumps erupted on my skin when I found him a meter away, his eyes locked on me.
Neither of us moved until a flurry of red ribbons from each Freelander’s hand waved and weaved into the air amid shouts of “Live in Freedom! Love at Will!”
The barrage of hollers and the press of people carried us away from each other and across the meadow. I fumbled in my pocket for my own ribbon and set it loose in the wind. It curled and coiled, then whipped from my hand, flying bright as a poppy across the dark sky.
* * *
Hills got his wish that Sebastian be sent off properly for our mission. In the town hall directly after Liz and Linc’s handfasting, I conducted a quick ceremony to initiate him into manhood.
At the age of eighteen, Sebastian had been through his own ordeals in Beta. I deemed the tall, rangy youth with the white-blond hair and charming southern manner ready to face the hardships to come. He stood still and straight when the flat blade of my ceremonial dagger pressed onto one of his shoulders and then the other. His near-violet–colored eyes were somber as he kissed the cool metal laid against his lips.
After accepting my formal congratulations and my less-formal handshake, he gave me a small bow. Then he laughed. “Shoot. That was a breeze compared to the test of manhood in the bedroom Territorians have to go through. I didn’t even have to get my equipment out.”
“Tell me about it, baby brother,” Farrow said. “At my ceremony, Nathaniel here ran out on me like his pants were on fire. Not in the way one would want, Ah’m afraid.”
“I’m afraid that’s because you had the wrong equipment.” Sebastian mock punched his sister.
“Oh, just go and fetch me a drink,” Farrow commanded.
Before he turned to leave, Sebastian shook my hand. “Thanks, Darke. I know we got off to a rocky start.”
I tried to forget how I’d wanted to shoot him on sight because I thought he had the hots for Leon. “Water under the bridge.” Unless he ever decided to look at Leon with anything even remotely resembling carnal interest again.
All the while I kept a lookout for Leon, who managed to always stay beyond my vision. I wondered if he watched me, if he was thinking about me. I wanted to initiate Leon, too, in a much more sexual manner, except I knew he’d had other lovers and I was probably the least of his concerns.
Jesus Christ. After that I found myself a frothy mug of ale. Nathaniel started his guitar playing, and Liz and Linc took to the cleared floor beneath rafters decorated with brightly colored banners.
An air of urgency tempered the jubilant celebration, or perhaps that was just my goddamn pining. I laid eyes on Leon just as Old Tommy and farmer Micah took up their usual bookend stances beside me at the plank-board bar. I quaffed quietly, ignoring their bickering about who originally wrote the song Nathaniel sang, his voice ringing clear and dropping to a gritty growl at turns.
Cannon hauled up beside us, licking his lips while he watched his mate strum. “Van Morrison,” he pronounced, ending the debate. “Fuck.”
I handed him a drink. “You got it bad, man.”
Cannon turned his attention to me and arched an eyebrow. “And I’ll be getting it in bed later, unlike you. What are you waiting for?”
“Dance with Leon?” I asked.
“Why not? Everyone else is.”
Don’t I know it. I’d found him, all right. He’d sucked back one drink and then another before taking to the floor. The way he moved his body invited unwanted fantasies I was trying to drown in alcohol. Leon danced with everyone but me. He acted like nothing was happening. Not to him, not between us.
“Don’t think so.” I crossed my arms, intent on staying where I was. Staring, stalking, waiting to strike.
Knocking against me, Tommy bared his summer teeth in a ghoulish grin. “G’on. Get ’im, son.”
Micah pinched my ass, and I jumped forward. Cannon pushed a hand between my shoulder blades. “Now or never.”
I’ll take never, thanks. My palms grew damp, and Micah took my beer from me. Assholes, the lot of them.
I watched Leon, preparing to close in. He was dancing alone finally. His hips swiveled, his hair had come loose, and his eyes were shut.
Aligning myself behind him, I bent to let my breath brush his ear. “I want to dance with you.”
My hands found his waist and he leaned in to me. “Darke.”
I was no longer nervous. My voice deepened as hunger struck me. “Turn around, babe. Let me feel you.”
Leon slid into my embrace. Tall and lithe, his body was enfolded by mine. My hands settled just above his ass, stoking the heat between us. Our groins met, both cocks hard. Music played somewhere, but the rhythm we moved to was the primal beat of rutting male bodies. Reaching beneath the tails of his shirt, I thumbed the dimples above his ass. His hips lurched. His lips and teeth found my neck, mumbling those crazed, lusty Cajuns words I only half understood. Explosives went off inside my body, shivering up my spine, shuddering down to my rigid cock.
“Good God, I want you.” I leaned him back, finding his studded nipples beneath his shirt with fingertips that twisted, tapped, teased.
“Dieu, yes.”
I loved watching my dark skin play against his tawny flesh. Too bad the damn shirt was in the way, as well as our pants—and hundreds of onlookers. Beyond our first month, I’d never given a second thought to taking both Tammerick and Wilde in public during the annual orgiastic festival, but there was no way in hell I’d share Leon with anyone here.
I growled, bending my knees, catching his cock against mine, grinding until my eyes rolled back. I smoothed a hand down his chest to the front of his pants, jerking him against me. Hooded eyes, tousled hair…I wanted him just like this for me, only me, every day of my life.
His lips parted when my mouth sought his, but at the last moment he turned his face. I was granted only a kiss on his cheek. My muttered oath was drowned out as people started clapping, whether for our show or Nathaniel’s vocals, I didn’t know.
Leon pushed off of me. He shook his head and stumbled away, glancing back only once. The hunt was on. My blood sang, and my body was on high alert. I barely said good night to Liz and Linc before I started after him.
Outside I heard him whistling as he ambled down the road. Perhaps he’d had more to drink than I’d thought. When he hiccupped, I smiled. Catching up to him, I ran an arm around his waist and pulled him back against me. His long sigh ended with a low moan.
“Darke, this ain’t a good idea.”
At that point I didn’t really care. He smelled fresh and clean, spicy and a little sweaty. The pulse at the side of his throat ticked like a fast-running clock, and I nipped him there.
“Where are you going?”
Turning in my arms, he slid his hands along my waist. A current of heat raced between us, trapping my breath in my lungs. “To bed.”
His mouth was so juicy and red. So ripe to kiss. I ran my thumb across his bottom lip, shuddering when he touched me with his tongue. “My bed.”
He backed away. “I don’ need a keeper. I’m not a boy. And I ain’t your boy. You made dat clear.”
I grasped his hair in a fist, softening my hold to cup his neck. “You’re right. You’re a man. My man. So stop fucking fighting me for a change and get your sexy ass in my bed. Now.”
Fuck. Wrong words. Leon took another step back. Before he could let fly with another earful, I strode forward. “Please, Leon.” I raised my hands to his face. “I need you. I want you in my bed, just once.” My voice stuck in my throat. “We don’t have to do anything, I just…”
“Oh, we’re probably gonna do somethin’.” He turned his head until his moist lips brushed my wrist. His playful grin was back, but then again he could just be three sheets to the wind.
“Will you wait for me in my caravan?”
He nodded.
“I’ll go to the kitchens, find some food.” He headed off toward my place while I did an about-face to the mess hall, grumbling, “Something to soak up all that alcohol, at least.”