He told her. One word, a word Kati remembered from bible class.
“Cain?” she echoed, laughing a little. “As in, Cain rose up and killed Abel?”
His eyes flickered. He smiled. “Just like that,” he said.
“Well, hi, Cain. I’m Kati. Want a beer?”
He did something strange then, leaning forward and sniffing at the bottle in her hand, making her wonder for the first time if he was really there at all or if this were some Baked Alaska head-trip. Then he looked at her. “No,” he said. He got even closer then, enough for Kati to feel his breath on her cheek, and drew in another breath, a deeper one. He didn’t back away afterwards, either. “What do you want…Kati?” he asked, almost humming the words, or growling them. He sounded like he was smiling.
Kati felt a hot little thrill slide down her body. It was a weird come-on, okay, and more direct than most guys got so soon, but it was also sexy as hell. Well, two could play this game.
Kati held her bottle teasingly up between them, keeping him at bay, but reached down with her free hand and cupped his crotch. Immediately, her sly smile turned to wide-eyed surprise and she looked down, as if trying to see through his clothes to the monster she was petting. This had to be the Bake at work. Guys didn’t really come that big, did they?
And he wasn’t slapping her hand away, that was for sure. Not him, and not his blonde girlfriend, although she looked pissed enough to want to try. Kati gave Cain’s cock another disbelieving squeeze and then backed up, sipping at her beer to try and recover some equilibrium. She sure didn’t think she was fucked up enough already to be imagining this. And come on, if this was just the Bake, shouldn’t Blondie and Miss Purple be coming on to her, too? Blondie looked like she wanted to skin Kati alive, and Miss Purple was still curled on the couch, not even watching.
Uncertainly, Kati gave Cain another rub-down and then said, “Am I really here? I am, aren’t I?”
Cain took the beer bottle out of her hand and dropped it. He caught her wrist and pressed her hand tight to the bulge in his pants. “Having a little trouble, are you?” he asked, stroking her up and down on him. He glanced at his girlfriend. “Go take care of Raven.”
Blondie pouted. “She’s sleeping. Can’t I—”
Cain slapped her reaching hand away before Blondie could touch him. “I’m going to assume that you aren’t arguing with me. I’m going to assume you’re asking for clarification. So let me clarify. Wake her up. Now,” he said coldly, his lip curling. His teeth…now those had to be Bake. His hand never stopped moving Kati’s. He was hard as rock inside his tight clothing. “What do I want to hear you say?”
“Yes, Cain.” Blondie’s shoulders tightened and she turned away.
“That’s better. Take care of her. Wake her up if you have to, but take care of her. Do it right and maybe I’ll take care of you. Maybe. Behave yourself.” Cain took his hand off Kati’s at last, but she kept rubbing. He played with the tips of her hair in a distracted way, watching his girlfriend walk to the couch. Blondie bent over and put her hand up Miss Purple’s shirt. That was a nice wake-up for you. Cain said, “I know you’re not here alone. Where are your friends, Kati?”
“I dunno. They’re around. And you should know I’m not planning to behave myself at all.” She grinned when he looked down at her. “I hope you’re not too disappointed.”
“You should,” he replied seriously. “I don’t think you’d like me when I’m disappointed. Show me where your friends are.”
Kati slipped her hand beneath the tight waist of his pants and got her fingers around real, rigid flesh. “Wouldn’t you rather be alone?”
He drew back, blinking fast and frowning slow. “Alone?” he echoed, peering at her lips.
“With me.”
“Ah.” His smile reasserted itself. “That depends on a few things.” He took her wrist again, this time putting her at arm’s length. “First, show me where your friends are. Then we’ll talk.”
Okay, this was definitely not Bake. Fantasy fuck-buddies never gave a rip where other people were. They came, they fucked, they came again, and then they winked out. So Cain was real, which meant that fantastic cock of his was real, too, and if he needed a guided tour before he’d pull it, so be it. Kati took his arm and led him over the ridge and down the path to the water.
The sun was just low enough in the sky to turn the diminished river into a ribbon of blinding white running down the middle of a hellish landscape of cracked earth and skeletal logs. Tabby and some of Ray’s cousins were still splashing around and shrieking at each other. Just about everyone else was coupled up on the small sandy edge that was the river’s real bank. Even Danny had his tongue down someone’s throat. Sarah Ann was completely naked and had two more of the cousins feeling her up with that sleepy fascination that said Green Dragon to Kati. Riffer, who was, as far as Kati knew, straight as a ruler, was receiving a blowjob from Tabby’s boyfriend with an expression of pleasant surprise. Good party, in other words. It was almost enough to make Kati want to wander over and join them.
“Is this everyone?” Cain asked. His eyes were skipping over the scene, mentally detangling and counting bodies, completely unmoved by the content.
“I dunno.” Kati looked around, restless and horny, and moved a step or two closer to the action. “Not quite, I guess. I saw Corky and Owen go off in the woods somewhere. I think everyone else is here. I wasn’t taking coats, you know.” She gave Riffer’s slick rod a longing look and inched a little further away from Cain.
“Show me what direction.”
“What?” She glanced back at him, her eyes fluttering. “What direction…what?”
Cain studied her face, her eyes in particular, and then gave his head a short, hard shake. “You saw…Corky and Owen leave,” he said, very slowly and distinctly. “Show me what direction they left in.”
“Why?”
His eyes narrowed, and for a second there, Kati thought she was about to experience the very first seriously bad Bake trip in the whole universe. Then, although it seemed to take some hard effort on his part, Cain smiled at her. “Because I told you to,” he said. He sighed, caught her wrist, and guided her hand back to the front of his pants.
Clarity sparked. Kati looked at the bulge beneath her palm, felt it, squeezed it, and reached up to pinch at one of her nipples. “Come on,” she said, a trifle breathlessly. “Why don’t you show me what you’ve got, tiger? Stop playing around.”
“Show me what direction Corky and Owen left in,” he said. He put both his hands on her shoulders, turned her bodily around, and gave her a little push back in the direction of the clearing.
She went ahead of him, rubbing at herself as she walked. The Bake was good and fucking with her now. She kept seeing things at the corners of her eyes—birdmen in the air and frogmen hiding in the bushes, all of them sporting gigantic erections and beckoning—and the only parts of her body she could feel were the ones burning with lust. But somehow, she managed to focus on the narrow path that led, if one were inclined to follow it all the way, out to the foot of Ranger’s Mountain. She brought Cain down it until she stumbled on Owen and Corky’s sweaty grope-fest. They were so wasted, they didn’t even look up. Just kept sixty-nining, oblivious even when Kati stomped her foot and whined, “Okay, okay, here they are! Now what do you say, stranger? Let’s dance already!”
“This is everyone?” Cain took the pack he was carrying off his shoulder and opened it.
“Yes!”
“Go lie down.” Cain knelt beside the writhing, four-legged heap of sex and started picking through Corky’s hair as she bobbed on Owen’s dick.