Chapter 14 Bathing in the Sun’s Blood
BATHING IN THE SUN’S BLOOD
“Did it not occur to you to mention that a shovel may come in handy, princess?” Einar asked me wryly, delving into the sand with his bare hands.
“We didn’t have one coming here.” I smiled at him apologetically, a little stung by the note of reproach in his voice.
The small grains irritated my hands, and I rubbed them together to ease their itching.
“I swear if this is the wrong place and we’re digging here for nothing ...” Albert grumbled and shot a dark look in my direction.
“It’s not, I promise. We marked it with these three stones.”
I had wondered just what would happen if we had found the hiding spot ransacked, and was extremely relieved at seeing it undisturbed.
Tension was still palpable in the air, though, owing to the approaching moment of truth—the moment that would show whether I could be trusted.
Einar seemed the most agitated of us all, working with fast, relentless movements.
With a warm tug at my heart, I realised he likely dreaded the possibility of not finding the promised treasure even more than I did.
And not because of the bows themselves, but because he would be obliged to ascertain whether I had lied about their existence or merely about their location.
And it was quite obvious that if I would have disliked his methods of enquiry, he would have abhorred inflicting them upon me even more.
“I can zee plastic,” Jean-Luc announced abruptly to the silence punctuated only by the whoosh of the distant waves and the soft hiss of shifting sand.
Our pace became frantic, and not long after, we could tug at the plastic, unwrapping it.
Loud whoops of almost boyish joy pierced the air.
A pair of very large hands grabbed me in a hug and spun me around, all in such a quick succession that it took me a few seconds to realise just why I had suddenly found myself airborne.
“And you just brought all these over here from bloody Pisa? Just like that?” Einar asked incredulously once he set me back on the ground, his eyes shining.
I shrugged in reply, clearly succeeding in my attempted cocky grimace, for he laughed and muttered something that sounded markedly like ‘absolute legend’.
“I’d been so sure you were taking the piss when you said seventy!” Albert chipped in with a similar tone of excited disbelief mingled with an unvoiced apology.
“I wasn’t,” I told him lightly. “Now, would you all like to worship me some more, or shall we get those into the jeep before dark? I’m personally fine with either option ...”
The sun was setting in earnest, and the trees cast long shadows across the dusty parking lot by the time there were no more than a few pieces still left in the sand, and the jeep’s boot was nearly full.
“Renata and I will manage the last load.” Einar turned to Jean-Luc and Albert. “You two take some rest and then scavenge what you can from the campsite ...”
I hoped that at least my violent blush wouldn’t be visible in the fading light, because Einar’s real intent behind this decision was glaringly obvious.
Jean-Luc quickly looked away with a choked cough, but Albert chuckled, shaking his head amusedly.
“Seriously?! What if more infected come?” he protested.
“That’s simple, just drive away,” Einar deadpanned. “Let’s go, love.” He put his hand on the small of my back as if to propel me forward, ushering me away from any further discussion.
We trudged the narrow dirt path in silence all along the camping village and then between sleepy wood and golden fields.
All the while, my embarrassment was gradually turning into excitement.
With ferocity made possible only by seeing too much death in the space of a single day, I found myself looking forward to the feel of Einar’s marvellously warm, live body pressed against mine, to the masculine musk of it, so pleasant after the sickly-sweet smell of decay.
The beach strip opened in front of us. The setting sun was bleeding dramatically into the frothing sea, making its gentle waves blaze orange, pink and purple. Even the white sand was painted with warm light.
“Oh, how marvellous! Beach at sunset!” I exclaimed with genuine enthusiasm. “It couldn’t have been more perfect if you planned it!”
The excited grin froze on my lips when I noticed Einar’s sheepish expression.
“Wait ... did you plan it?”
He stopped in his tracks, and so did I, my feet sinking into the moist sand. Einar took a deep breath and looked apprehensively into my face, the dusk’s glow splendid in his eyes.
“I might have ... I’d hoped it could be nice if I timed it right. Minus all the cadavers and cannibals, of course. Not that you seem to mind those too much.”
Anxious lines materialised on his forehead as he arched his eyebrows slightly in assessment of my reaction. I realised that my lower jaw was hanging low, my mouth opened in a perfect, incredulous ‘O’. I closed it promptly.
“Why?” I asked simply. “Why would you go to any trouble at all for me?”
His hands sought mine, and our fingers intertwined. The wet sand itched on my ankles, but I refrained from scratching myself, not wanting to disturb the delicate harmony of the moment.
“Yesterday, you asked me whether I didn’t think you were worth any effort. I felt bad about making you question that. I just wanted to show you that, from what I know of you already, I think you are worth a great deal of it.”
The tremulous smile he gave me made the breath catch in my throat. He traced my cheek softly with his fingertips, and my innards dissolved in warm wax.
“But ... why?”
His smile widened as he ran his fingers through my hair. He raised his eyes momentarily to the orb melting pinkly into the waves before turning his sight back on me with a discreetly fervent look.
“Because I want to,” he replied simply and enveloped me in an embrace with a measured pull of his hands, still not taking his eyes off my face.
“Because if the past months have taught me anything, it’s how very short life is.
And there are rarely second chances when you let an opportunity pass you by.
” He kissed my forehead. “Because your eyes are almost green in this light and your hair looks aflame.”
He took a step back, not letting go of my hands.
“Because there are only a few extraordinary moments in life that feel as if the whole universe conspired to give them to you. Only fools cover their ears when they hear their destiny calling.”
We lunged at each other then with the kind of madness that only raging, mutual need could incite.
I staggered backwards with the hard impact of Einar’s solid bulk against my considerably more compact frame.
But he held me fast, steadying me. I threw my bow and quiver to the ground.
We peeled each other’s clothes off in a mindless frenzy, and I pressed my body to his with a loud moan.
We kissed hungrily, clumsily, our teeth colliding, noses and hair getting in the way.
We separated after a while, both panting, only for him to sweep me off my feet effortlessly and set me down on top of himself as he lay down in the sand.
I cried out when I lowered my hips to take all of him in at once, greedily and voraciously, without caution.
He grabbed my hands and placed them firmly on the flesh near my entrance, only to pull them to the side.
“Stay this way,” he commanded. “Spread apart and on full display for me.”
His hands closed around my hips to lift me until only the tip of him remained inside, before he brought me crashing down, slamming into my cervix like a battering ram trying to break through. Violent, brutal pleasure rippled through me.
“All I could think of today was how much I wanted to watch you make yourself come on my cock,” he rasped, lifting me again.
I was only able to reply with an incoherent ‘aaaah’ as he jerked me back down. And then ‘ooooooh’ as I ground my hips against him without rising, keeping him pressed firmly against my cervix, working our contact against my clit into unyielding friction.
“That’s it, be a good girl and show me how well you can fuck yourself on me. Use me like your toy, like something that only exists for your enjoyment.”
When I made to rise again, his grip on me hardened to assist me, the traction against the swollen bud of my mounting arousal undiminished, the tip of his hardness inside gliding firmly across my front wall until it touched an area that made me spasm with bliss.
I stopped in my upwards trajectory, and he didn’t force me any further.
Instead, he held me fast, helping me stay in the position I enjoyed.
Guided by the rhythm of the sea waves, I swayed, letting him rub the sweet spot inside, and I tilted my head backwards with a moan, looking up into the bleeding skies.
“I think I’m going to come,” I mewled unhappily all too soon, unable to stop the building pleasure, the euphoria that was already slashing through my entire body, the ferocious need to become unravelled.
“That’s alright, babydoll, then come. Come for me.” His voice drifted towards me as if from afar, urging me on. “Don’t you hold back on me. There’s plenty more where that came from.”
He may have said something else, something that I could no longer hear, as my ears filled with the sea’s susurration, my body becoming one with the waves and with the sunset, with the caress of the warm air all around.
And I seized and arched my back as I fell apart with a shudder that rippled through me like a gust of wind through sand, the culmination instantly transforming itself into the need for another one, like a phoenix rising from its cooling ashes, its rebirth encouraged not only by the amazing, acute feeling of Einar’s formidable size inside, bracing rather than invasive, but also by the genuine note in his voice as he encouraged me to reap what I needed from him without care or apology.