V They were heading through the mountains with the top down on the Invicta. Lyla was wearing as small a T-shirt as he could find, and a pair of drawstring pants with the bottoms rolled up. She had her dread locks tied up the best she could manage in a pale, blue scarf Case had given her. He was surprised how easily he could look at her wearing it. It was a relic Kelly had left in her wake.And an ill-fitting pair of aviator shades. Those had been his and they seemed to cover half her face.When he’d been looking for things she could wear as well as mask her appearance, she’d pointed out it was the first time she ever worried about being recognized in public. It wasn’t something that happened often, but with news of the fire still getting near constant attention, so was she.By now they’d confirmed everyone had gotten out. They were calling it a miracle, and stories of the unknown hero who’d carried several people to safety were growing more grandiose every time one of the survivors got in front of a news camera.The investigators had pieced together a few more details on what had happened with the back door, and determined someone had deliberately locked people inside. As they regarded this alongside the club’s many fire code violations, the miracle of no one dying became even larger. The nameless hero became that much more heroic, and the mysterious disappearance of the little known singer that much more mysterious.They’d reported a massive upsurge in sales of Lyla’s music, and her face was being flashed in every report. The lead fire investigator as well as her manager issued appeals to her to come forward and let the world know if she was all right. They issued more appeals to the public to call in if anyone spotted her.She wasn’t ready to deal with it, but she needed clothes. She and Rawlins had had a long conversation whether or not to go out in public while it was all still at the center of the world’s attention. Case had been cautious, but in the end, she told him she wasn’t going to go on walking around in the dumpy clothes she was borrowing out of his closet.She’d sat quietly stoic through most of the long ride, but a smile crossed her face as soon as they pulled into the mall parking lot.Case circled until he found a spot close to an entrance. Lyla kept smiling. She seemed completely unconcerned with walking into a massive public place crowded with people. In his mind, Rawlins knew the odds of some random disaster striking were astronomical, but a knot of tension was forming in the pit of his stomach. It was the first time they’d gone anywhere public since the fire.Lyla reached across the seat and put her hand on his leg. “I feel it, too,” she told him. “But I swear, nothin’s gonna touch us but us.”He put his hand on top of hers and studied what he could see of her face through the makeshift disguise. She was all smile and cheekbones.“There’re a lot of cars here,” he said. “The more cars, the more people inside. The more people, the more chance someone could recognize you.”Her smile relaxed a brief moment and she nodded agreeably. “But that’s not gonna happen. Sometime, yeah. But not today. Remember how calm you were back in the shitstorm?”Calm didn’t feel like the right word. He remembered doing things he could never have done without a flood of adrenaline pouring through him. He’d felt a clarity that faded in the aftermath – little more than his body going through motions his mind knew needed going through – but he didn’t open his mouth to contradict her. He just nodded and listened.“That’s how I feel now,” she told him. “All kinds of shit can, and sooner or later will, probably blow up right in our faces…but today just ain’t gonna be the day. Don’t ask me how I know. Just do.”He gave back the same look she’d given him, punctuating it with the same nod.“Okay. Long as you’re up for this, so am I.”“Well I can’t keep on borrowing your clothes. That shit just don’t work.” They might have laughed, but there were too many other things to be thinking about. “Besides,” Lyla finally added, “when was the last time you went clothes shopping with a woman?”“That would be a very long time.”“Somebody important.” It was pure statement. No hint of a question.He nodded. “How’d you know?”“Oh please. Men and women don’t go clothes shopping together unless there’s something real personal between them.” She paused a beat or two and then asked what happened.Rawlins thought back on the accident and highly publicized demolition of the relationship. “Remember what you said before about not having to doubt what the person you’re with is made of? There was another kind of fire for us, and no hero to carry anybody out.”“Faith is a motherfucker,” she said.Silence curled heavily around them. “Is there somebody waiting for you?” he finally asked.“Couple of businesspeople. A band. Hopefully. These days that’s all I got.”Rawlins was surprised, but he didn’t say so. “Generally,” he said after a long moment, “people ask these kind of questions before getting close as you and I been.”“You mean the fucking, I s’pose.” She flashed a self-satisfied grin.“Yeah, pretty much.”“Generally,” she said with a soft chuckle. “But walking through fire together has a way putting everything in its own context.”He waited long enough for the subject to drift away. “You ready?”“Let’s go.”As they left the car and headed for the entrance, Lyla slipped her hand inside his. The gesture surprised him, but he liked it and turned a smile on her. Then he started laughing, and she lowered her shades and raised a brow in question.“That outfit is gonna get you looked at more than any news report.”She snickered and squeezed his hand tighter. “Just stay close. We gotta keep this circle around us.”“That sounds like faith.”“It is.”“Thought you said faith is a motherfucker.”“Only when you don’t have it.”When they got inside and started working their way through the mall, it didn’t take long before they started attracting curious glances. Rawlins was a good foot taller than Lyla’s five-two, and his hair was a light enough shade of brown as to be almost blond.They turned into a well-known department store, and Lyla floated through it until they were standing in the middle of a large ladies’ section. She let go of his hand and scanned the area. She seemed to drift away for a moment or two. Then she turned to Rawlins briefly and reminded him to stay close. He followed her from one rack to another while she pulled item after item down and piled them across his arm.Before heading to the changing rooms, she took him on a detour to the men’s section and grabbed a shirt at random.“That’s your ticket into the changing area,” she explained.He was skeptical.“Close, remember?” she added. “I need you close. Besides, you didn’t think I was just gonna take all this shit off the rack and not get a second opinion, did you?”He couldn’t help rolling his eyes, but he followed her toward the changing rooms without saying güvenilir bahis anything. She took her pile of choices out of his arms and stopped to let the attendant check her through. The young, blonde attendant gave the singer a skeptical look, but he stepped up quickly to divert her attention and checked through with his single shirt.About half the stalls were taken, but Lyla was waiting for him about two-thirds of the way down on the row to the right. He stepped inside with her, discovering she’d already hung her selections on the brackets. She pulled the door closed, shutting them into the small space. The moment the door clicked shut he started to have deep misgivings about being there. He was reluctant to say anything, feeling cautious about being overheard.Lyla took off her shades and responded to his disapproving look with a broad smile. Then she deftly flipped the scarf off her head and released her shoulder length locks.“Shit,” Rawlins whispered intensely. “Is this allowed?”The singer’s grin widened even more as she shook her head. “Call the fire department,” she whispered back.Around them was the muted clicking of plastic hangers being put on or taken off metal brackets. People in their own stalls trying out their choices. Case rolled his eyes and sat on the small bench. His presence was enough to make the small booth feel cramped, but Lyla had a way of making it seem there was plenty of room to move in whatever space she occupied.In a few, quick moves, she pulled off the clothes she’d borrowed and stood naked within touching distance. Her back was turned while she scanned through her selections. The curve of her spine as it swept down to the firm spheres of her ass held Rawlins’ close attention despite his concerns about everything that could possibly go wrong.There was no fighting the swarm of heat that swept between his legs. He wanted to reach between hers and run his hand up the inside of her thigh, but she quickly bent over and started to pull on a pair of thin, grey yoga pants that hugged her tightly as her skin. She then shrugged into a sleeveless blouse that was cropped just below her ribs.She turned around to face him while she buttoned the blouse from the bottom up, slowly covering the swells of her breasts. Then her hands shot out to each side in a what-do-you-think gesture.Rawlins shook his head. I definitely shouldn’t be in here, he told himself. After a moment of staring, he rose off the bench and started to unbutton the blouse. “This is a keeper,” he whispered as he pushed it off her shoulders and down her arms.She leaned over and pushed the yoga pants back off. Rawlins sat down again, and Lyla put one foot up on the bench beside him. He slid his hand along her bare thigh to her pussy, catching her eyes as his fingers began stroking the folds of her slit. The look on her face told him she had as many things to say to him as he had to her.She reached out with both arms and braced herself against the walls while her pussy flushed around his searching fingers. Her words echoed continually though his mind: nothin’s gonna touch us but us.They were dream words, but they rang true even if only for the moment. He repeated them over and over in his mind while he studied her face and felt her pussy lips grow thick and wet to the stroke of his fingers. She looked back at him with the same intensity, her breasts beginning to heave as her breathing grew deeper.Someone shuffled into the stall next to theirs. She was clearly putting up a struggle to keep her breathing silent now. He gripped one of her ass cheeks firmly in one hand and pressed the tips of two fingers into the yielding space between her pussy lips.Her eyes widened and then hooded over as he pushed his fingers deeper, but she kept them trained on his face. He pressed the tip of the middle finger from his other hand against the pucker of her rimhole and leaned over to lash her clit with his tongue.Her hands moved off the walls to his shoulders, nails digging into the muscles that had smashed their way to freedom when everything around them had been on the verge of total collapse.The person in the next stall unzipped something. Then there was the light whisk of fabric. But Rawlins began sliding his fingers in and out of her pussy. He kept his tongue in steady motion over her swollen pearl along with the tight pressure of his finger against her starbud.He knew Lyla had to be just as aware that someone was in the next stall, but she just kept pouring herself onto his tongue and fingers. Her hips began rocking in a see-saw motion that started lightly, but then intensified along with the pressure of her nails in his shoulders.She let an audible sigh escape. It was soft as a whisper, but the pleasurable nature of it was unmistakable. Consequences ceased mattering. Rawlins’ cock was fully swollen in his pants, and he was driven to consume every drop of nectar Lyla’s body was pouring onto his hand and mouth.Carrying her out of a burning building didn’t feel real anymore. It might as well have happened to someone else. It had barely felt real even while it was happening. It had been little more than a long, protracted reflex he never thought about. Pure action and reaction. It could have been anyone in the right place at the right time, but because of their surreal circumstance, no one anywhere in the world could ever be who she was to him now. He was bent on carrying her to wherever life exists. If he could do that much, then maybe he would be able to find himself in such a place as well.Her hip suddenly froze, but her body started to shake with tremors. Rawlins lapped harder and faster at her clit, thrusting harder with his fingers until a soft whimper escaped her throat and her grip on his shoulders went slack.When they slowly disengaged, she stepped back while he leaned against the wall. Looking at her while her taste still clung to his lips made his cock ache harder.There was another whimper of pleasure. It didn’t come from Lyla, but from the neighboring stall, and it was distinctly feminine. Whoever it was, she was making just enough noise to let them know they were affecting her. It was almost as if she were joining them.The naked singer cast a glance at the wall between them and their anonymous partner. She reached between her thighs and slid her finger up into her pussy, then drew it back out and took the entire length of it into her mouth, sucking her own nectar from it with a calculated smack of her lips. She was answered with a whimpering gasp that came light as a breeze. They were keeping it all low enough to keep it private, but it was hard not to wonder if anyone in the area could hear their telltale lapses in the discretion. Yet it was even harder to care.When Lyla brought her attention back to Case, he quietly loosened his belt and unzipped his pants. He pushed them down to his ankles and then openly stroked his rigid cock as he admired the singer. Her eyes güvenilir bahis siteleri were trained on his calmly stroking fist. Her tongue swept out and traced the inner circle of her lips, moistening them even though they were already damp.The gesture looked so natural Rawlins couldn’t tell if it had been completely unconscious or if she were deliberately teasing. Either way, it made his cock pulse with heat while a steady flow of precum seeped out of the head.It felt strange to have her watch him, as if their natural roles were reversed. The stifled moans and whimpers coming from the next stall were more than he could think about, but he felt every one of them.“I’m gonna suck that big, bad cock dry,” Lyla whispered. A soft moan came from the other stall in reply.Rawlins knew she hadn’t said it only for him as he watched her smile and step closer. His hands skimmed over the smooth warmth of her breasts as she leaned over and whispered only to him.“Nothin’ but us.”Then she sank down on the carpet at his feet and replaced the hand on his cock with hers. She stroked his shaft and began licking the head, punctuating her tongue swipes with barely audible kisses. His body pulled deeply for breath while her tongue curled around the ridge of his ripe dome just before enveloping him inside the wet heat of her mouth.He wove his fingers into her locks, holding them back so he could watch her work the full length of his cock with her lips and hand stroking in tandem. She made just enough noise to keep the line of whimpered communication open with their unseen companion.Rawlins’ pulse was spiking. He almost marveled at his own selfishness for wanting to tell Lyla she had never been more beautiful than she was at that very moment. But he also knew it wasn’t true. She was as naturally beautiful as the deepest night sky over his personal desert. It was what she was from her core outward.But that’s what beauty was. Something that happens at the random intersection of natural forces. It was unfathomable and untouchable. It was a unity as seamless as mother and child in one body.Whatever it was, it was Lyla. It was the strangled whimper of release coming from a hidden stranger who’d happened into these moments belonging to them.Case wanted to thrash and howl as he started to cum, but he only allowed himself a loud enough gasp to let their neighbor know she wasn’t cumming alone. The force of his own restraint intensified the sensation of soft electricity shooting through his body. Everything he was exploded and was swiftly sucked into Lyla’s spectacular mouth.She made good on her promise to suck him dry, and when she finally released him, she sat back on her haunches and smiled. There wasn’t a trace of cum anywhere on her mouth.VI He handed the shirt back to the attendant on his way back out. Waiting for Lyla, he kept scanning the store and wondered if any of the women within eyeshot could be the one who’d been inside that changing booth. One of them had to be.When Lyla appeared a couple of minutes later, she was wearing the shades but not the scarf. She was grinning, looking almost comical as she balanced the huge load of clothes in her arms. The attendant made a move to help her, but she passed her off.“Don’t worry. I’ll take ‘em all,” she said without breaking stride.The singer kept some distance from the checkout counter while Rawlins bought the entire haul. She hadn’t even tried most of it on.“You look like that guy on the news,” the cashier said as she scanned through the bar codes. She looked like a round-faced college girl working a summer job.Rawlins was taken by surprise. He felt himself clench and hoped it didn’t show.“What guy?” It seemed impossible anyone could have recognized him. It had been too many years since the minor league fame he’d given up. His brief spate of major fame after Kelly’s accident felt like a distant nightmare now. “I’m afraid I haven’t seen the news today,” he lied.“Oh my god, didn’t you hear about that huge fire they had? Some guy rescued all these people and then just disappeared. They thought he might have gotten stuck inside, but they searched all morning and figured everybody got out okay. Thanks to him, whoever he is. It’s like the freak miracle of the century.”“Huh. Sounds pretty incredible. But if this guy disappeared, how’d he end up on the news?”“They had some of the people talk to one of those sketch artists like the cops have. There’s all these people who want to thank him for saving their lives and such. Anyway, you look a lot like the guy in the sketch.”He forced an amused smile. “That’s a good one. ‘Fraid I’m no hero, though. Unless carrying my wife’s shopping bags qualifies me.”“In my book, definitely,” the girl chuckled.“I’ll be sure to tell her that.”The smile on his face faded the moment he turned to go. He was relieved to get away from the cashier, but a whole new set of worries came down on his mind. With multiple bags hanging from each hand, he met Lyla near the store’s exit into the mall. She took a few of them off his hands and they started walking.“There’s something I think we need to see,” he told her.She nodded without a word and they made their way to a large electronics discount store. Inside, they were confronted with a long bank of televisions all playing the same news report. The fire was the topic of the day, and it likely would be for a few more. It wasn’t long before the sketch the cashier had told him about flashed onto the twenty or thirty screens all at once.Rawlins felt his blood go cold while Lyla grinned.“You’re way better looking than that in person,” she remarked. “No one’s ever gonna recognize you from that.”“Someone almost did.” He told her about his talk with the cashier.“Almost,” she emphasized. “And that’s as close as anyone’s gonna get until you’re ready to come forward.”“I’m having trouble sharing your confidence.”“Here’s how sure I am,” she said, and then she took off her shades and stuck them into the pocket of her ill-fitting, borrowed pants.“We’ll never make it to the car with you showing your face like that.”“Yes we will. Best place to hide something’s in plain sight, right? But we have one more stop to make first.”She turned on her heel and marched toward the exit, back into the mall. Every step she took, Rawlins was worried someone would spot her. He understood her need to step back for a time, especially if she had the kind of enemy who’d locked a crowd of people into a flaming nightclub. But she was a performer, and sooner or later she’d need to get back to her life and career. They both had their own share of post-traumatic stress to get over, but for now, everything was intersecting.He wasn’t paying attention to where they were going when Lyla turned into a lingerie shop. It was a much shorter stop than the first one. She seemed to know what she wanted, and the only thing that stanched her progress appeared to be color selection.This time, she went with iddaa siteleri him to the counter and stood beside him looking as if she hadn’t a care in the universe. The cashier was cordial, but otherwise acted as if she barely noticed them. Adding three more bags to their haul, they left the store, Lyla’s smug grin growing wider the closer they got to their exit.The number of bags they were carrying between them filled the Invicta’s trunk. When Rawlins shut the lid, he found Lyla staring pensively into space. The grin she’d been wearing before had changed entirely. It was clear she had something to say, but needed some time to say it.He gave it to her and waited.“I’m afraid of turning into a burden,” she said. “I keep assuming all of this is okay. It’s like I fell out of the sky and monopolized your world. But everything’s got a shelf life. Even me. But if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be alive right now. You gave me my life, and all I’ve done ever since is just keep taking.“I know you were trying to hide that part about the door being locked from me, too. And I know you were doing it for me. Protecting me from that much more ugly truth.“Most people get to say hello first, but not you and me. You just saved my life and took me away just ‘cuz I asked you to. You are the hero they keep saying, and I’m stupid enough to not like you belonging to all those other people who are alive because of what you did.”She paused, looked at him briefly and then back off across the tops of a small sea of cars.“I just know I can’t go back. Not yet. And I keep thinking if I let you get more than ten feet away I’ll disappear. Maybe I could just…”He took her by the arm and pulled her close. “I’m not any kind of hero at all, Lyla. I don’t expect you to understand, but you’re the one who rescued me. And the two people standing here now are different than the ones in that club last night. Besides, I’m not sure what I’d do if you got more than ten feet away, either.”“Damn, Case. You’re ‘bout as fucked up as me.”They smiled at each other and he pulled her into a hug.“Nothin’ touches us but us.”“In that case,” she said, “we gotta go back inside. I’m gonna need a keyboard. I got some songs need writing.” When they got back to the desert house, Case parked the Invicta in the detached, double stall garage. He opened the trunk and immediately started transferring the bags and keyboard gear into the dark blue SUV parked in the other stall. Lyla watched him with a curious look on her face, but instead of asking questions, she walked to the rear end of the convertible and started handing him the last few bags.“I just need a few minutes to close up the house. With the news going the way it is, there’s a better place for us to stay. I should have thought of it before. I just didn’t know how far you really wanted to run away.”“Okay.”He couldn’t detect a shred of doubt in her tone. “No one will find us where we’re going. You’ll be able to decide when you’re ready to go back to the world. If ever. And I think you’re gonna like it there.”He gave her a brief smile, and then walked out before she had a chance to respond. If she had any misgivings, the time it would take to pull a few things together and close the house would give her a few minutes to think them over.Having done it enough times, it didn’t take more than fifteen minutes for him to shut down the water and electric mains, and then throw his laptop and a few items into a backpack. There was little need for much else since the other house had clothes, toiletries and food already laid in.When he walked back into the garage, Lyla was already sitting in the passenger’s seat of the SUV. She looked as calm as a woman sipping tea in her best friend’s living room.Case put his pack on the back seat and got in. Before starting the engine, he turned halfway on the seat to face her.“This is an awful lot of trust to be putting in someone you haven’t known very long.”She nodded briefly and turned to look at him. “True. Except for one thing.”“Yeah?”“Yeah. I know the part that matters more than the rest. I know who you are when the shitstorm breaks. And I’m the only person alive who’s seen that man up close. That’s kind of a rarity, wouldn’t you say?”He turned on the seat to face forward and smiled to himself, even though he knew she could see it. Then he started the truck. After three hours of driving, the last half of it back on mountain roads again, Rawlins pulled down a long, gravel driveway. Lyla had been trying to make out as much as she could in the glow of the headlights, but she never opened her mouth to ask where they were or where they were going. Now that they were stopped, her gaze became more curious and intent.Case got out and went ahead into the house. Once he had the power and water turned on, he switched on the lights that illuminated the broad porch that ran along the front and one side of the two-story house. He wished he could have been sitting beside her to see the look on her face when she saw it. She wouldn’t really get the full picture of where they were until daylight, though. The main thing for tonight was to get settled and comfortable for however long they’d be there.He stopped and thought a while about the songs she was planning to write. Although she would surely move on sooner or later, she’d turn whatever changes her heart and mind were going through now into songs he could listen to over and over. He’d always have that much, and that was nothing small.Finally, he went back outside and started pulling things out of the truck. She got out to help, staying quiet until they got inside. It was no mansion, but it had its own brand of fading grandeur, a different world from the spare ranch house in the desert. She stopped and looked curiously around the spacious salon, which took up most of the ground floor.Case had all but forgotten about the chandelier hanging down from the ceiling until Lyla looked up and took it in. It had been there when he bought the place, and he’d never seen a reason to take it down.“This is your place?” She raised a brow along with the question.“It is.” He nodded, confirming.She nodded once at him and then once more at the floor. “You do something besides drive a taxi.” It wasn’t a question.“Used to. But it doesn’t matter now. Not for years. I bought some property when I had the chance. Houses. A few apartments. Most are rented. Now you’ve seen the only two I keep for myself. But we’ll have privacy here. All you have to do is tell me when you’re ready to go back to the world and I’ll take you. The only thing I need to ask is that you never tell anyone about this place. Tomorrow, when I show you around the village you’ll understand why.”She nodded, then walked a curious circle around the salon. The place held an odd mix of things Rawlins had liked, but never thought about how it would all work together in one place. He didn’t care. It worked just fine for him. Lyla was the second person to see the inside of the house since he’d filled it with carpets and furniture out of resale shops. Most of it dated back to the fifties and sixties. It was all in good shape, but none of it looked anything close to new.