CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
We stepped outside into the garden where our rooms were situated. By this time, visibility was almost zero. I felt disorientated, until I felt the big hand on my lower back.
“This way,” the calm, authoritative voice said. It was Alex’s voice, of course, not some voice from above or anything. But it was a voice I would listen to. There was something about it. It was the tone. The words he chose, the way he said them. If Alex had to tell you something truly awful, like there was a giant spider clinging to you, it would probably still sound like music to your ears.
We stumbled forwards together, but couldn’t see a thing. The mist was so thick now that you could feel it with your hand. As if it had a weight to it. It was also wet, it clung to my skin and coated me in a thin layer of icy, cold moisture.
“Shit!” I tripped over something and landed on the floor.
“Val?” Alex asked. I could hear his arms flapping and see the trails they were making through the mist, even if I couldn’t see him properly. I reached up for one of the hands but couldn’t find it. I climbed onto my hands and knees and then tried to stand, only my head hit something on the way up.
“Val!” Alex shouted and I felt him jump back.
But as he did, a razor-sharp pain radiated through my scalp like fire.
“OH MY GOD!” I screeched. “Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.” I was frantic and crawled forward on my knees. I found Alex’s legs and quickly wrapped my arms around them tightly, pulling him as close as I could, not caring that my head was now fully in his crotch. Face first.
“Val!” Alex tried to push me away but I clung on even tighter. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I wailed.
“Uh . . . I don’t know,” Alex said.
“Well, I’m not suddenly trying to go down on you if that’s what you think!” I said, in between winces of pain. “Stop moving, please,” I begged and grabbed onto his legs even harder. “My hair is stuck on something. And it’s fucking sore!”
“Your . . .” I felt his hands come down. On the top of my head at first, then they slid over my cheeks, over my face, into my hair. “Where?” he asked.
“Here.” I pulled my head away slightly, pulling back my free hair and exposing the strand that was stuck. It stretched from my head right to his crotch area, there was just no making this up. I was attached to Alex’s crotch! I felt his hands fumble some more, his thumb clipped my lip, his palm squished my nose, he poked a finger in my eye. Finally, he had the strand between his finger and located the problem.
“My belt buckle,” he said. “It’s stuck in my belt buckle.”
“Great!” I threw my arms in the air and almost lost my balance. I grabbed onto Alex once more.
“Uh . . . those aren’t my thighs,” Alex said awkwardly.
I squeezed. The things beneath my hands felt hard and firm and . . . “Oooohhh,” I said, suddenly realizing that I was gripping his backside. I released my hands, not before giving it the tiniest little squeeze again.
“God, I hope no one sees us like this.” I sighed and then shook my head a little.
“Whoa!” Alex grabbed the top of my head with his hand and held it firmly in place. “Please don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?” I asked.
“Don’t move like that.”
“Like what?”
“You know,” he said with a strange tone in his voice. “You know.” Great vocal emphasis was placed on this last “you know.”
“No, I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t know,know, you know.”
“Just stop moving your head like that,” he said, sounding exasperated, or was that desperation in his voice?
“What, like this?” I moved my head again and this time his hand came down a lot harder on the top my head.
“VAL!” he said loudly. “Every time you move your head like that it’s causing some friction . . .”
“Oh.” I thought about it for a second and then got it. “OH!” I said, biting my lip. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be . . .” My voice tapered off as I looked straight ahead of me,and yup, it had grown somewhat. I tried to bite back an awkward smile, but couldn’t. This was the second time in a few days that I’d had an encounter with his surprisingly large package—was the universe trying to tell me something? Well, if it was, it wasn’t being very subtle about it, that’s for sure. In fact, it was being very in your face about the whole thing. Literally.
