Our War by Craig DiLouie

Author:Craig DiLouie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-THREE

Aubrey opened her eyes and laughed. “God, I needed that.”

“Now Terry will be very jealous, I think,” Rafael said.

He lay panting next to her on his hotel bed. His pale body was slick with sweat. Tousled hair fell over his forehead. He had quite a bit of black hair on his arms and legs. He was a little paunchy, the result of middle age and a travel diet.

She snorted. “Everything’s a competition with you guys.”

He studied her face. “I was going to say it is because you are amazing.”

Aubrey looked down at her breasts rising and falling with each breath. Living on subsistence rations had done wonders for trimming her excess fat. But she smelled bad. A musky funk. And she’d stopped shaving her armpits long ago, razors being scarce.

“Oh, please,” she said. “You can stop selling. You already closed the deal.”

“Not only this.” He traced a lazy line from her throat to her navel with his finger. “I am talking about who you are.”

“If you’re going to touch me like that, I’d like to wash up first. I stink.”

“You can take a shower, but please keep it under five minutes,” he said. “Water is expensive.”

“Seriously? God, this place is amazing. Now my friends will be jealous.”

Rafael watched her get out of bed. She smiled at the attention and pictured burrowing back into the sheets with him. She hadn’t known how much she’d missed a man’s touch. And she found his extra pounds sexy. In a city filled with starving people, it was even more exotic than his accent.

He gazed at her with longing. She suspected Rafael was lonely just as she was. He’d been in America too long.

“Hey,” she said. “Don’t fall in love with me, okay? Rule number one.”

“Even if I do, it is war.”

“It’s war,” she agreed. “Right now is all that matters.”

“Give me something of yours to read while you shower.”

Aubrey knew what to give him. She crouched in front of her backpack and pulled out the story she’d written about Zoey Tapper’s murder.

The first page had a light, bloody thumbprint on it.

“Read it and weep,” she said. “It’s unpublished. The Chronicle won’t run it.”

In the bathroom, she turned on the shower and stepped under the water. It was freezing, but she was used to that. Then it grew steadily warmer until it was piping hot.

“Oh my God.”

Pure bliss. The last real bath she’d enjoyed had been back in September. It had been cold whore’s baths ever since, wiping herself down with a damp sponge.

It made her laugh. All that soul searching, while life boiled down to such simple pleasures. A couple of glasses of wine, good sex, and a hot shower.

She soaped up and rinsed. Brown water pooled at her feet and went down the drain. She washed her hair next. After that, she shaved her armpits with Rafael’s razor. This was turning into one hell of a date.

Aubrey stepped dripping from the tub and wrapped a towel around her body. She wiped the foggy mirror and inspected herself.

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