Author's (brief) forewarning: There are sexual themes/smut throughout the entirety of this chapter.

Chapter 29 – …& primal attraction (Part 2)


After successfully sneaking out of the library without being detected by the balding curator, we made our way to the parking lot.

Kim threw her bag into the back of the Gremlin and turned to face me. I was looking down slightly, trying to dig my keys out of my pocket when I noticed her spin around, but I was taken by surprise when she reached over and grabbed a handful of my shirt. There was a powerful tug and our lips were sealed together again, followed by her tongue embracing mine. Something about the stigma dissolving between us caused a massive overflow of desire and sexual hunger. It was an overflow that, seemingly, neither of us were willing to repress, but very much looking forward to satisfying.

"Just make sure you keep up," she said, slightly panting, as she broke away a minute later and lowered her posture down from just standing on her toes.

"We need to- I mean, I need to," I began sputtering. "Um, I don't have any- do we even need...? Yeah, we do. Of course we do."

I felt a pained look overshadow my face as I continued to try to explain our current predicament while avoiding a certain word.

Condoms! Just say you don't have a condom and you need to stop at a gas station or something!

Kim looked perplexed for a moment and then what I was trying to say must have clicked in her head, as she began to laugh. "No, I've got it covered, trust me. Why do you think I wasn't worried the first time we did it?"

I was clearly not at the top of my game, as what she said took a bit to sink in and make sense to me.

Birth control! The name rang loudly in my head as if it was the solution to a question that had been nagging me for months.

"Oh! Gotcha. Wait, you have like a, uh, prescription or something? So your parents know? Well, I guess they do but-"

"God, no!" Kim laughed again and looked at me somewhat shocked. "My parents? Seriously? Try the clinic in Roseville."

The light bulb suddenly came on over my head and I felt like an idiot. Roseville was a small city that was about a twenty-minute drive from the outskirts of Chippewa. Even though it was barely a third the size of Chippewa there was a ton of stuff there, including a few clinics.

"Nobody knows who I am there, so I don't have to worry about word getting back to my mother and I guess it's illegal for them to let her know or something," she continued. "Anyway, keep up."

I watched her quickly make her way to the driver's side of her car and jump in before I followed suit with my own car. Her demands for me to 'keep up' were actually far more accurate than I originally would have given her credit for considering the difference in power and speed of our vehicles. For a car that had difficulty starting the day before, her little Gremlin was showing it had some get-up-and-go when it needed it.


Within fifteen minutes, I had followed Kim to the parking lot of some apartment complex and once again parked next to her jalopy.

"Come on, come on," she commanded impatiently, holding her hand out for me to take while quickly making an opening and closing motion. After she had a firm grip on my hand, we practically ran up the steps next to the yellow and green colored collection of apartments on the other side of the covered parking spots. We went to the third floor and walked past several doors before stopping.

I noted to number of the door, 336D, as Kim pulled out a mass of keys from her pocket and dropped her bag next to the door. Though things had calmed slightly during our drive, I found my longing for her rising at an almost overwhelming rate again. She leaned her head slightly to the side and flipped her hair over her shoulder while scanning through her keychain.

As I stood directly behind her and stared at her now exposed neck, something else altogether began to rise. I put my hands on her shoulders, massaging them lightly as she continued to comb through the keys. Leaning down, I began to kiss her neck, recalling just how well it had worked to get her horny the last time we were together. It wasn't that I doubted she already was aroused, but a little extra never hurt. She leaned back into me and the sensation of our bodies pressing against one another only heightened my excitement.

"336D, huh? Whose place is this?" I asked, my words were slightly muted as they vibrated off of her soft skin.

Kim released a low, quick moan of appreciation before answering. "My cousin's. She's gone for the weekend, so..." She raised her arm back and ran her hand through my hair, her fingers weaving into the curls atop my head. "We need to cool it, Othello, before the neighbors get nosey. I feel that poking me, by the way," she finished with a laugh.

"Othello?" I repeated, raising my head up in curiosity. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't immediately place it.

"Well, I thought it sounded better than Romeo," she defended, picking what seemed to be a random key out of the bunch. "Everyone says Romeo."

The dots finally connected in my head.

"You know Shakespeare?"

"A little... kind of. We had to read Macbeth last year and... ugh! That guy wrote in the stupidest way! The old bag, Mrs. Whiteman, handed out the wrong book to half of the class and I didn't even realize it because I cut the next day."

A small laugh escaped my lips. "So you read Othello instead of Macbeth? For how long?"

"A week. Barely." She joined in my laughter. "I was wondering why every time we talked about the book in class it was about some other characters that I never even read about, but then again I'm not the fastest reader, so I thought I was just way behind. Anyway, it's kinda fitting, right? Othello was some dark-skinned guy and the chick he was with was white."

With a grin on my face, I shook my head slightly and resumed kissing her lovely neck. It honestly didn't matter to me if we were both blue and I had no doubt her intentions were sincere with the comparison. If she wanted to call me Othello instead of Romeo, I was fine with that... even if part of me was certain it was a Shakespearean tragedy where Othello and his 'chick' probably died. Kim did have a point, after all- lots of people compared their significant other, crush , fling or whatever to either Romeo or Juliet and that always struck me as daunting considering both characters ended up committing suicide.

After a few more failed attempts with random keys, she was finally successful with unlocking the door. My constant necking probably didn't help in that regard, but she sure wasn't complaining.

She turned after snatching up her bag, wrapping her free hand around my neck and began kissing me fervently. "In. Now!" she said between smacks.

Interestingly enough, there was something very sexy about the way she just took charge every now and then. Maybe I just liked a woman who knew what she wanted and when she wanted it.


We made out in the living room. We made out in the hallway. We even somehow ended up in the kitchen area and made out there, too. I had never been shoved up against so many walls in all of my life... nor enjoyed it so much.

Almost immediately after we entered the bedroom, we were on the bed, Kim pulling me down on top of her. Our hands began to frantically roam the other's body- unbuttoning pants, rustling tops and, most notably, groping at random parts.

I ran my hand under her shirt, drawing the clothing up as I traced my fingers along her stomach and chest, stopping to fondle and tweak her heaving breasts. She moaned and the sound was like music to my ears. The feeling of her once again running her hand through my hair, grabbing at it and pulling lightly, only emphasized my elevated sensuality by sending shock-waves through me. She arched her back slightly so I could reach and unfasten her bra as she tugged on my loosened pants.

With both of us half-naked and our body parts interlocked like a zipper, I slipped my hand down her unbuttoned jeans. I watched her suggestively bite her lower lip as the tips of my fingers lightly skimmed her soft, warm thigh. There was such an intense craving in her eyes that I just wanted to satisfy her immediately, but instead I shifted my hand to her panties and slowly began to rub up and down, teasing her through the fabric.

She moaned again and again as I continued, each time becoming louder, and I could feel what little nails she had dig into my back as she pulled at my shirt.

"I want... to touch... you... all... over," I gruffly stated, almost literally growling the words out, breaking the sentence into pieces and pausing every other moment to kiss my way up her neck to her lips.

Even though I never would've made claims to be an expert in the bedroom, I knew how to make the foreplay experience very... rewarding.

She gently grabbed my bottom lip between her teeth and tugged lightly for a second.

'You can start with your tongue,' I heard her whisper with a giggle before she nibbled at my earlobe. There was a grin on my face as I wiggled the last two pieces of clothing down her hips. The request had me more than willing to comply.


After coming back to bed, Kim deliberately rested her head on my left shoulder and settled her arm across my chest.

I was gently rubbing her back when a short laugh escaped me. "I didn't, uh, I didn't expect you to be a cuddler, honestly."

She shifted slightly against me. "I'm not, really... but this is nice, right?"

"Very," I nodded, kissing the top of her head.

She seemed rather uncomfortable and I wasn't sure what was bothering her, but remembering what happened the last time we had sex and she panicked, I was not entirely confident in what may have been going on.

"Hey, so tell me all about this trip you and Linds took to follow the Dead. I mean, two weeks on the road, a bunch of shows. You must have at least one or two interesting stories."

"I got a few," she replied, sounding a little more upbeat.

Kim proceeded to share tales of fun, mischief, adventure and everything in-between. Nine shows in twelve days, spanning from Houston, Texas to Denver, Colorado, left her with a lifetime of memories, it seemed. Even though she wasn't completely sold on the music before the trip started, she admitted that the experience may have been exactly what she needed. Somehow, the band's laid-back, vibe-filled songs supplied her with a calm that washed away all of her anxieties and just let her be, well, carefree and happy. She even came away from the shows with a few new favorite tunes, such as Scarlet Begonias and Not Fade Away. I was sworn to secrecy on that end, though, because as much as Kim appreciated the music and experience, there was no way in hell she was going to be viewed as a 'hippie' anytime soon. I found it ironic that she chose to share her musically-focused guilty pleasure with someone who had more than a few of his own.

Kim and Lindsay met some very interesting folks who had some fascinating tales to share during their travels as well. The band, their music and the atmosphere of their gatherings had helped many, or at least that was the impression I got from Kim. She had heard of how the Dead aided people through extremely tough times of loss and remorse. There was a man in his late sixties who followed the band incessantly. He and his wife were huge fans and had frequented many of the concerts during a good ten year run. Unfortunately, she had passed from a losing battle with cancer that started just a few years after they discovered the band. As sad as it was though, he swore he could still feel her presence there with him when he followed the Dead on their tours. No matter how hard it was on him, the comfort he felt from knowing he was somehow with his better half again made it all worthwhile. At first, Kim didn't know if she should pity him or simply consider him to be insane. Once she saw how at peace and happy he was to sit on a patch of grass and sway to the rhythm of the music, holding a conversation with his wife who wasn't there, her heart broke for him and at the same time she wished to know that kind of joy at least once in her lifetime.

As she spoke, I realized just how profound of an effect the whole ordeal had had on her. It had changed her, that was for sure, but it only came out when she reflected on it, which I assumed was purposeful.

Whatever was stressing her from before was completely gone, and I didn't want it to return again.

"Okay, you've got me interested in giving them a second chance," I admitted. "Do you have any Dead albums we could listen to?"

"Yeah? You mean it?" She turned up to face me with a smile and I nodded in return.

She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled at the white bed sheet until it became completely untucked. After standing, she proceeded to wrap it around her body and I couldn't help but begin to snicker.

"I've already seen you naked, ya know? A couple of times now, actually, and you have quite the stunning body."

She turned to face me for a moment and stuck her tongue out in a taunting, yet playful way. "See if I ever try to be modest around you again." She continued to the corner of the room where a duffle bag was leaning against the wall. As she began to rummage through it, a small realization crossed my mind.

"Wait, just how long have you been here?"

"Since last night; I slept on the couch. After the total drag staying at home turned out to be on Thursday, I decided to see if I could crash here for a while. I kinda doubt she wants me to sleep on her bed... or have sex on it, but oh well."

I knew that Kim's problems at home would never get any better if she just kept running away from them, but it wasn't the time to bring that up. "You and your cousin are pretty close, huh?"

Kim looked back at me and shrugged before pulling a record sleeve out from the bag. "I guess. We weren't for quite a while, but once her mom, my aunt Kathy, passed away, we kind of settled our differences and started to get along again."

I watched her make her way to the record player at the opposite side of the room, the sun that was pouring through the drapes was also spilling over onto the sheet she was covered in. The thin fabric was almost transparent thanks to the light source and I drank in the sight of her body structure as she walked. She had curves in all the right places and the little bit of pep she had in her step simply underscored that fact. I just wanted to photograph her and save that moment forever... because it was flawless. She was flawless.

"This is actually Mr. Rosso's, I think. Lindsay borrowed it from him and I borrowed it from her before I left with Laurie and Victor," she explained, gently placing the record on the player and moving the needle to the first song. "I wanted to stay at the hospital and leave when she was released, but her stupid dad refused to let me ride in their car." As the music began, a grin spread across her face and she came back to bed.

"Okay, so this one is called Box of Rain and, yeah, I don't know what it's about. I don't know what most of these songs are about, really, but I like them. Victor and Laurie tried to explain it to me once, but I was so high." She began to laugh and I could swear she became a little lost in thought at the memory.

Again she rested her head on my shoulder and, as the song continued, she hummed along with it.

The music was alright, but I probably would've had to be at one of the shows to truly appreciate it as Kim did. Seeing her smile, though, was more than reason enough to continue listening.

Taking her relaxed mood into consideration, I decided to see if I could pick her brain as far as what her take was on what was happening between us.

"So, I know Lindsay's attempt went bust, but how about you? Were there any guys who caught your eye on the trip?" I teased.

"No," she sighed facetiously in a way that let me know my little ploy didn't fool her for a second. "Well, kinda. I mean, we met our fair share of cute guys, but they would be, like, a bajillion miles away. 'Sides..." she continued with a slight pause, her voice softening on the last word. "I think I need some time for myself, y'know?"

I nodded when she looked up at me briefly following her statement. There was a slight tinge of heartache at her disclosure, but I really couldn't fault her for wanting to make sure she was in a better place before allowing anyone else into her heart.

"I've been in relationships for, like, ever! Daniel for over two years, Mark for almost a year before that. Mark Verdite, not drug-dealer Mark," she quickly pinned on to the end of her words, and I was somewhat thankful for the clarification. No matter what, Kim was far more than deserving of a guy whose chosen catch phrase wasn't 'grab me a piece!'.

"Lots of stupid little insignificant crushes before that; you know how stupid junior high can be like that. I dunno, though," Kim turned her attention back up to me as she continued. "I'm working on a little something here in town for when I'm ready again, and it's going pretty well. Matter-a-fact, I'm almost sure I've got this guy wrapped around my finger."

I shook my head and put my hand over my face, breaking out into laughter a moment later. I should have known better than to engage in playful banter with Kim and expect her not to catch on, let alone turn the tables. She was just as quick on the draw as I was, maybe even faster. At least her response sounded hopeful. I could be patient if that was what she needed me to be.

"Your turn. Any stories of half-naked women to share?"

"Oh just one, and then I got her fully naked," I replied nonchalantly as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. "She's not too interested in rushing into anything just yet, but I'm thinkin'... I'm thinkin' she's a keeper."

She looked up to me again, that all-too-rare, natural happy expression quickly spreading across her face. "Sounds like you have a bit of a handful with that one."

"You have no idea," I told her, nodding in agreement and making sure to keep my eyes as wide as possibly for maximum effect.

In response, Kim faked a look of shock and we were both laughing a second later. Unexpectedly, she shifted up slightly and again she locked her lips against mine, making motions to guarantee we would be secured into the action for a good while. After the third song started, Kim was mounted on top of me, my hands firmly latched onto her hips. More sex. While any thought of us being a couple might have been dead in the water, there wasn't anything stopping us from practicing being friends with benefits. Interestingly enough, something felt- no, something definitely was different that time around.

The first two times we were together we were all over each other. It was hot. It was dirty. It was raw and uninhibited. It was intense. Our third time, though? We were more intimate. Well, she was more intimate and I followed in her footsteps like second-nature. We moved slower, but with more zeal (which I didn't think was possible until that moment). We were softer in our touches, yet they were more passionate. Hell, we even looked at each other more and that too had deeper meaning. Words were unspoken, but they were all around us. It was almost as if time didn't exist anymore and it was only Kim and me, much like how things felt at the library when we kissed. Looking back on it, even that was different from our first occurrence and our last. It wasn't as showy but it somehow spoke volumes about us at the time.

Were we experiencing the difference between simply having sex and actually making love or were we merely drunk off of how good it felt and I was just embellishing the whole experience? Whatever it was, all indications were that we took our sweet time enjoying it, because the record finished long before we did.

"What- what was that?" I breathlessly questioned minutes after we were done, our panting dissipating to a fraction of what it was.

"Fucking amazing!" Kim managed to boisterously declare through rapid breaths and we both began to laugh.