Truck Drivin’ Hero Read online

  “Yeah, I’m not used to sitting in a car seat all day long,” Sunshine said, wrapping her arm around the other side of his body.

  “So, two rooms?” he asked.

  “Two rooms sounds great,” Speedy said.

  “Make sure the bed is bigger than Hutch’s is,” Sunshine said.

  “Aw, I kind of like having to snuggle on a smaller bed,” Speedy said.

  Hero started to walk toward the front desk with the two women, then looked back at Apple. “Come on now, so we can get you your room, too.”

  Apple followed behind them, looking a little dazed. Hero tried to concentrate on the two women sandwiching him, but the moment was bittersweet. He wished he could make Apple happy without betraying these two girls.

  “I’ve got dibs on the shower,” Speedy said as they entered the room.

  “No fair, I’ve been sweating all day. Every time you peel out, it sends a rush through me,” Sunshine whined. “Besides, you shower in the mornings anyway!”

  “How big is the shower, Sunshine?” Hero asked.

  Sunshine looked in the bathroom and bit her lip. “Not big enough for three.”

  “There goes that idea,” Hero said with a grin.

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Speedy said, giving him a wink. “But really, I just need to get clean. I’ll be quick.”

  Hero flopped down on the bed, exhausted from the day’s events. He had forgotten how tired he could get just by driving, and the multiple adrenaline rushes he had gotten from their close brushes with the law had done something to him. He closed his eyes, intending to reflect a bit on the day’s events.

  “Hero?” came a voice beside him, but it was the hand on his shoulder that jerked him out of his sleep. Hero’s eyes shot open, and he had a moment of major fight-or-flight reflex. He grabbed the arm connected to the hand that shook him, then looked who it was attached to. Speedy was there, completely naked except for a towel wrapped around her hair. “I just wanted to tell you that the shower was available.”

  He relaxed and exhaled. “Thanks.” He enjoyed the casual way that Speedy was naked in front of him. “Sunshine, did you need a shower?”

  “You go ahead. I wanted to talk to Speedy about something,” Sunshine said.

  “Okay. Sorry about jumping, Speedy. It’s been a long day. We probably should just go straight to sleep tonight.”

  “Well, I was hoping for something else, but I might be able to sleep without it tonight,” Speedy said with a warm smile. “And look! One big bed for us to share instead of the little one from the other night.”

  Hero squeezed her hand, then went to the shower and turned the water on hot. Speedy had warmed it up for him, so he was able to undress there in the bathroom and get in right away. The motel had a combination shower/bathtub with a shower curtain. Every time he saw one of these, he was reminded of the shower scene from the Hitchcock classic Psycho.

  The bathroom door opened and a shadow crossed in front of the shower curtain. When the curtain was pulled aside, there was no lunatic with a knife. Just Sunshine, naked, looking as beautiful as ever. “Mind if I join you?”

  “I thought you said the shower wasn’t big enough?” Hero pointed out, a smile on his face. Seeing Sunshine naked was already getting him hard.

  “I said it wasn’t big enough for three. But two might just fit,” she said.

  Hero nodded. “We just might.”

  Sunshine stepped into the front of the shower, getting herself nice and wet. Hero just stared for a couple minutes while she washed herself. The way that the water ran down her body, especially off her breasts, was mesmerizing. This close to each other, in the small shower, every turn of her body brought her skin in contact with his.

  Hero had been convinced that he didn’t want any more activity or exertion this evening, but Sunshine was trying her best to prove him wrong.

  “You just gonna stand there and watch me all night, Hero?” Sunshine asked, her ass in the water as she faced him. Hero smiled and wrapped his hands around her body, caressing her wet skin as he leaned in for a kiss. He bent down a little bit while grabbing Sunshine’s ass, bringing her up on her tip toes. His cock went between her legs, pressing between her upper thighs.

  “Shouldn’t we invite Speedy in for this?” Hero asked.

  “That’s what I talked to her about just now. She’s cool with it,” Sunshine said, trying to lean in for another kiss.

  “She’s cool with it? She said that?” Hero repeated.

  “Yeah. She knows this is just for fun, something to blow off steam in between missions. I guess sometimes during missions, too. She doesn’t have a jealous bone in her body. Besides, she got to be with you by herself a few days ago.”

  Hero set his jaw. It was basically the same thing she had said last night. We’re just friends. Get rid of pre-mission jitters Something to blow off steam. Speedy hadn’t reacted to Sunshine's words last night, but that wasn’t what she had confessed to him. I’ve never met anyone like Victoria. I think I’m falling for her. Those weren’t the words of someone who would be okay with Sunshine having casual shower sex without her.

  Sunshine leaned in for another kiss, but Hero pushed her away a little. He let go of her ass and pulled his dick out from between her legs.

  “What’s the matter?” Sunshine asked.

  “Sunshine, I’m not sure if you’re missing the signs, or if Speedy really hasn’t let on. She likes you. A lot.”

  “Ha ha, stop,” she said. She reached down and grabbed Hero’s dick, jerking him off for a few strokes. “Why are you talking about that anyway? Why can’t we just fuck?”

  Hero grabbed her hand, stopping her. “Are you hiding something? I’ve never known you to hide anything.”

  Sunshine tensed, then let go of his cock. She looked down at the shower floor and sighed. “You know I’m no good at hiding my feelings, right?”

  Hero remembered the slap in the briefing room. He remembered her telling everyone that they used to be lovers. He remembered her storming out of his room the other night. Those incidents, plus countless others while they had been together a couple years ago, confirmed that she wore her emotions on her sleeve.

  “I’m not oblivious to Sally’s feelings, Bill,” she said, using their real names. “We’re in a dangerous line of work. At any time, either one of us could be on a mission that requires us to give up our lives for the greater good. Even worse, one of us might have to let the other one die to complete a mission.” She looked up at him. Hero couldn’t tell whether it was just shower water or whether tears were forming in her eyes.

  “You were in the Army before you met me,” Hero said. “Hell, we fought for weeks against the Greys in California. You didn’t have any trouble with relationships then.”

  She let out a quick laugh, and the way she frowned right after let Hero know that she was definitely crying. “I had sex with guys in the Army, sure, but I never actually cared about any of them. Certainly not enough that I’d jeopardize a mission over it. I have always been a little jealous of you and your battle buddy, Tim.”

  “You can have him,” Hero said quickly.

  “And with you, it was way different than either the Army or the Resistance,” she said. “We didn’t have orders to follow, missions to complete, operations to contribute to. We were just two young people, fighting a war we couldn’t possibly win. I was sure we were going to die at any time, so what did it matter if I fell for you? Truthfully, I couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried.”

  “Neither could I.”

  “I’ve had a couple years to think about that, and I think that it was a miracle that it was just my heart that was broken. Not that it was a mistake, falling…” She hesitated, then locked eyes with him. “Falling for you. Just that I couldn’t let it happen again. With anyone.”

  “So when you started getting signals from Speedy-”

  “When I fell in love with Sally, and when I felt her start to love me back, I went in the complete opp
osite direction. I was too weak to stop hooking up with her. I mean, come on, she’s really hot.”

  Hero nodded in agreement.

  “But I made it clear that we were just friends. Hot friends who enjoyed having sex with each other before a mission. I had to enthusiastically lie about it to make it believable because otherwise, I knew I’d slip up. She went along with it. She never made a big deal about it, anyway. But lately, it’s been harder and harder to stop the feelings. Tonight at the restaurant, it was too fun. You and her and me, having fun and laughing. Even Francheska. It felt like I had a family. I could tell that Sally felt the same way. And I…”

  Hero understood. “You decided to nip it in the bud. You knew that having sex with me without Speedy would ruin her good feelings about tonight and give you that break you need to keep your heart safe.”

  Sunshine blinked away new tears. “You must think I’m awful.”

  Hero brought her in for a hug. “Not at all. I’m flattered that you just want to use me for sex. Hell, I think it’s great that you chose me over Apple.”

  Sunshine make another cry-laugh sound. “I don’t think she even likes girls. And you’re wrong about me just using you for sex. My feelings about you are just conflicted right now. I never loved anyone before you. I still… I still feel that a little bit. But now, I’m in love with someone else.” Sunshine thought about it for another moment. “I imagine Sally feels the same way. I know she wouldn’t have slept with you the other night if she weren’t still in love with you.”

  “Okay, okay. I’m glad you got one more confused bang out of me,” Hero said.

  Sunshine smiled and moaned softly. “Mmm, don’t get me wrong. I really really enjoyed last night, and I was definitely looking forward to tonight.”

  “I’m glad it didn’t happen. I told Sally that I didn’t want to get in between you two. I would have felt awful if I had found out that I had done it unintentionally.”

  “I don’t think you would have ever found out.” Sunshine looked up at him and sniffled. She wiped her eyes, and other than a little redness in the face, she was back to being as composed as ever. “Well, I think we need to get out of here before Speedy becomes convinced we actually did have sex.”

  Hero smiled at her. He reached behind her and turned off the water. Now that the water was off, he could hear that Speedy had the TV's volume turned up to 11. That was all the confirmation that Hero needed that he was right, and that she didn’t want to hear them going at it. He wanted to point that out to Sunshine. “Speedy even has the TV loud enough that-”

  “Doesn’t matter, I was going to be loud enough that she could hear us from the Mustang,” Sunshine said.

  Hero’s cock twitched a little just thinking about how hot that would have been. “I think you need to go out there and tell her that we didn’t have sex.”

  Sunshine’s face grew a little more pale, but then she nodded. She dried off quickly, then seemed to brace herself. She left the bathroom and Hero could hear her say, “Hey, Sally.”

  “Hey, what’s up?” Speedy said.

  There was a long pause, like Sunshine couldn’t decide what she wanted to say. Finally, she said, “What are you watching?”

  “Just the news. They say they’ve been off the air all day, and they were just able to transmit again when night fell. There’s a lot about the solar storm today.”

  “Cool. Cooooool.” Then silence. Hero sighed. He dried off quickly himself, then got his clothes on. He hated putting his dirty clothes back on after a shower, which was one of the reasons why he always slept nude, but it was a necessity this time.

  He left the bathroom. Speedy had put on her cute panties-and-tank-top ensemble, and she was sitting in bed with the covers up. Sunshine was next to her, still naked, still on top of the covers, with space in between her and Speedy. It was clear that she expected Hero to come snuggle in between them.

  “You’re still dressed,” Speedy said, confused.

  Hero went over to the TV and turned it off. “Speedy, we didn’t have sex in there. Sunshine is in love with you. Sunshine, Speedy is in love with you. You’ve both been hiding it from each other. Don’t either of you try to deny it, either. I’m not coming to bed yet because I need to find an antacid. I figure I’ll be gone for the next thirty minutes, in case you two have anything you need to talk about.”

  “Hey!” Sunshine said in protest, but it didn’t matter. Hero was already out the door.

  15

  Hero didn’t actually have a plan when he left the motel room. He just knew that they needed a little space. He didn’t want to go to Apple’s room either. She’d definitely get the wrong idea. He remembered that he left his book in his truck, so he figured he’d go out and read for a little while.

  He stepped out the motel’s front doors and gasped. People all around him were staring at the sky, and for good reason. Despite the sun being down, the sky was as bright as early morning. Ribbons of green light slowly danced and twirled across the sky.

  He had never been far enough north to see the Aurora Borealis, but now he knew why people went on vacation just to see them. It was an absolutely stunning show of nature. He knew that the solar storm had to be involved, though he didn’t know the exact mechanism. He stood there for a few minutes before going to his truck. He leaned his seat back as far as it would go and just looked at it through the windshield.

  Sheriff Zorflox was also looking at the aurora through his windshield. He had never seen anything like it either, here on this planet or on his home planet. The Greys didn’t have any concept of religion, but with everything that was going on, it was hard not to believe that something was going majorly wrong on this planet.

  He had been tinkering with JR ever since pulling off the road when the sun went down. He knew he should continue his search for the criminals, especially when the bright sun was gone out of the sky, but he had never been cut off from Headquarters for this long. JR was his link to his own kind, and in this alien world, with this glowing sky, he’d need all the support he could get.

  “Durr, you’re under arrest,” JR said in English as he started up again. Zorflox made the alien equivalent of a groan and prepared to turn him off again. Suddenly, the robot whirred. It made the chirp sequence that indicated a system reboot, and Zorflox let it run. “Startup complete,” it chirped in the Grey’s language. “My diagnostics indicate I was offline for ten hours.”

  “You were not offline, but you were not fully online either,” the alien told the robot.

  “SYSTEM ERROR: I must have been offline or else my actions would have been recorded in my memory.”

  “You were acting erratically, like you had taken damage. I thought perhaps your batteries were low or that you had been sabotaged by the humans.”

  “My battery is overcharged. You must have plugged me in.”

  “I did not.”

  “SYSTEM ERROR: I must have been plugged in because my battery is more charged than when I was last online.”

  “You are still malfunctioning. Perform a full systems diagnostic immediately,” Zorflox said. “When you are finished, establish a connection to Headquarters. I have many things to tell them.”

  Hero felt like he really should share this show in the sky with someone, but there was no one. Speedy and Sunshine needed time to talk. After rejecting Apple’s advances earlier, he didn’t want to face that awkwardness. She would be the most interested, being a scientist and all. He knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime show and that it was selfish for him to keep it to himself. However, despite being so beautiful, the universe conspired against them.

  He thought of the three beautiful women that he was sharing this mission with. Speedy, whose heart he had broken in a misguided attempt to keep her safe. Sunshine, whose heart he had also broken in a misguided attempt to keep her safe. And now Apple, who he was pushing away out of some desire to stay faithful to the other two girls, who he also just walked out on to get them to confess their love to each othe
r.

  What a mess.

  He wasn’t sure how to untangle this situation, or if he should even attempt to. He had started this job with the goal of breaking Speedy away from this life, and he hadn’t made any progress on that. If anything, he was encouraging her to stick with this dangerous life by getting in a serious relationship with Sunshine. Sunshine didn’t care about him nearly as much as Speedy did, he was sure. Apple was just intrigued by the boy from the other side of the tracks. She’d definitely forget about him the fastest.

  He knew that he should stop toying with their hearts, even though that wasn’t his intention. He should just deliver the cargo to Colorado as promised, and then he would be out of their lives. Sunshine and Speedy would continue doing missions until they inevitably pissed off the wrong Grey and got sent to a re-education camp. Apple would continue to do science and feel lonely in a crowd. Hero would go back to fixing cars. Everyone would be “happy”.

  Hero sighed. Trying to decide for people what would make them happy was what had dictated the last few years of his life, not to mention several other’s lives. But what could he tell Speedy and Sunshine? He was as confused as they were as to whether he had feelings for either of them still. And how was he supposed to tell them that while still staying out of the way of their love?

  This was all some teenage high school drama bullshit. All he really wanted to do right now was go upstairs and fuck the two naked women in his room. He wasn’t doing anyone any favors by hiding out in his truck, even with nature’s spectacle giving him a show. He left the truck and headed back to the motel.

  Sheriff Zorflox stood within the circle that JR indicated, and the robot managed to project a holographic environment extending two feet around Zorflox’s body. At the same time, the robot scanned the alien and sent that information to his call’s recipient. It was a very high tech way of having a video call.