Read Tanner's War for Free Online

judge, and he hadn’t hurt her.
    After a few moments of silent
contemplation, she realized how hungry and thirsty she was. They’d never gotten
those burgers at the diner, after all. She decided it was probably late enough
that she could sneak down to the kitchen without running into anyone else, and
left her room.
    As she stepped into the hall,
another door further down swung open. A woman ran out into the hallway,
squealing with laughter and clutching a bed sheet to her naked body. A man ran
after her, snatching at the sheet. He tripped, she grabbed him for support, and
they both went down in a flurry of shrieks and giggles, rolling around as if
Beth didn’t exist. She saw flashes of flesh, plump breasts, strong thighs, and
felt her face flame.
    “Oh Lord.” She turned quickly and
hurried for the stairs.
    “Come join us if you want!” the man
called cheerfully. “The more the merrier.”
    “Wolf! You finish with me before
you start on anyone else!” the woman cried, mock-outraged.
    Feeling like her head was going to
explode, Beth all but ran down the stairs. A rich mix of embarrassment and
curiosity filled her. They’d been having fun—sex wasn’t about fun. It was for
procreation and duty, or so she’d been taught. She’d never liked that thought
but even her mother, who had five daughters, had never talked about sex as
anything other than a chore women had to perform. Beth had asked her once if
she ever found any joy in her chore, and her mother had simply smiled sadly and
changed the subject. It was a memory that had always sat uneasily with Beth.
Sex came with marriage and she thought marriage ought to mean love, or at least
affection. The idea that you’d get neither was depressing.
    The kitchen was blessedly empty and
she rummaged around until she found a clean glass. Food seemed in short supply,
but she wasn’t entirely comfortable with helping herself to the bits and pieces
in the fridge anyway, not without asking someone. She was painfully hungry now
though. Her last meal seemed a lifetime ago. Everything that had happened before
Tanner almost ran into her seemed a lifetime ago.
    She sat at the table and sipped her
water, and probably would have just gone back to her room if someone else
hadn’t come in. Beth started at the sight of the other woman, mostly because
they were dressed very similarly in worn jeans and a plain button-down shirt.
Was this Roxy? Tanner had mentioned getting clothes off her. The woman had been
heading for the fridge, but she stopped dead to look Beth over, her face
breaking into a wide, knowing grin as she did.
    “I guess you’re Beth, right?”
    “Yes, sorry,” Beth stuttered,
leaping up and sloshing water all over herself . It was
her destiny to end up soaked in other people’s clothes, it seemed. Feeling
stupid, she stared at the floor, hoping it might swallow her. “Sorry,” she
heard herself saying again.
    “Relax.” The other woman’s voice
was gentle, making Beth raise her head again. “I’m Roxy and I promise I don’t
bite.”
    Something about her reminded Beth
of Mia, and she managed to smile back. “Hi.” It was all she could manage to
say, and she felt pathetic for it.
    “I bet you’re starving. Tanner told
us what happened in the diner. Why don’t you come through to the bar? We just
ordered pizza.” Roxy took Beth’s glass from her and slipped her arm through
Beth’s, tugging her out of the kitchen. She didn’t give Beth a chance to say
no, which was probably just as well, given how thick her tongue felt in her
mouth.
    The bar was a cacophony of music
and chatter, and for a second Beth wanted to bolt. There were men lounging on
sofas and playing pool, women dancing with each other and grinding against some
of the men. The smell of beer hung thick in the air, along with something musty
and dank she didn’t recognize. The lights were low, the music was aggressive.
There was a heavy sense of carnality in the room, and Beth had a feeling