Part Two~ Dirty Little Thoughts

Justice turned to look at Muriel, astounded, and said, “you wanted to let me go an hour ago, and now I’m being shot at and I can’t get you to leave? Women.” Yet he kept driving, and Muriel watched his face- determination, marred by the occasional grimace of pain.

“We need to stop so I can look at the leg,” Muriel said, wiping from her brow a heavy sweat that she had just noticed.

“In a while, in a while, I promise,” he said, mustering a weak smile. “Just tell me, how easy was it, letting me go? Were you even hurting a little?”

She looked into her lap. “ I was hurting a lot, Justice, a lot. I just felt trapped in this same routine, and I noticed that I was noticing other men more than I should have been, exclusive as we were.”

Justice laughed aloud. “Well, now the routine has been broken.”

Muriel wondered how she had missed this side of Justice, and yes, she wondered why he suddenly thrilled her all over again- just add a bit of danger. She should be desiring to get as far away from him and whatever problem he faced as possible. She should be questioning him more as to who or what he was in danger from, why someone wanted to shoot him, why they almost shot her in his presence. Instead, she just wanted to have a chance to be alone with him, to dress his wound and touch his skin in that now not- so- familiar way. Oh, the things she wanted to do with him, some of the things she remembered, some of the things she had always wanted to try, but had thought Justice too boring to handle. Her face became a grin of sensual longing held back.

“This excites you, doesn’t it?” Justice asked, shaking his head and smiling a little, apparently amused. “You are suddenly fascinated by me again, and right now you are thinking a dirty little thought..”

“How do you read my mind like that?” Muriel snapped, “You have always done that!”

Muriel remembered their first real date, two days after the day they met amidst the bookshelves of the huge library, where asking for directions to Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy became a long and fascinating conversation.

That first night together, they were sitting at that little café he loved, a block from Justice’s apartment, a few blocks from the library. Muriel was smiling in the same way she had a moment ago, nibbling at her food politely, but watching his hands, those large and graceful hands, as he picked at his own plate. Her smile that night had been a longing to have those hands touch her for the first time, to have his beautiful plump lower lip snagged between her teeth as she felt every inch of his skin. In her mind, she saw it clearly, though she thought that the smile on her face was hiding it. Justice had seen through the smile. “You are so hot you can’t eat, aren’t you?” Justice had asked. His own smile had enough in it to tell her that he wasn’t talking about the weather, and they had quickly found his apartment, eager and hungry for one another before the door had even shut completely. He had been the first man she had hungered for like that in a long time, and now, a year later, she sat fascinated all over again, realizing she had never really known all of this man, eager to discover more. Yes, danger was a powerful aphrodisiac.

Justice stopped the car at a gas station in an area of the city where the traffic was not as busy, and they entered the men’s restroom, where Muriel inspected his leg. Luckily, the bullet had gone clear through the meaty part of the calf, and didn’t appear to have damaged anything vital to Justice’s mobility. She gingerly bent over him, and kissed him on the forehead. “I’ll be back,” she whispered, “we need a few things.” She left him in the dirty little restroom, his injured leg propped up on the little white sink, and entered the store to buy some rubbing alcohol.

A few years back, Muriel had attended a nursing school, for a few months, but had dropped out, deciding that it was not her best choice career-wise. Now she wished she had stayed longer, since she knew little of how to help a bullet wound heal correctly. She purchased an ace bandage, some extra gauze, and the alcohol, and returned to the restroom.

As the door swung open, pushed by her foot, she peered inside to find nothing more than the toilet and sink. She turned around just in time to see the station wagon peel out of the gas station’s driveway. Muriel was stranded, and Justice was gone, his leg still needing attention.
No. Muriel decided that she wasn’t going to stay here and mope. She strode across the parking lot, defiant and angry…

To be continued…