These people don't want to sleep? I stared at the mass of cars surrounding us, the entire procession crawled at a snail's pace along the main road exiting La Esperanza. I wasn't sure how long it'd take to reach the checkpoint. Maybe we should just stay here in La Esperanza until the BID finds us or something. This is really boring...

"This is going to take a while," Deen said, almost reading my mind. She was looking at me. Perhaps she noticed an expression of annoyance cross my face. "You can sleep if you want. I'll wake you up later."

"I'm fine," I told her.

"Okay then," she answered with a wink.

What was that for? That was weird.

I glanced at Deen. She drummed the steering wheel with her thumbs, humming a tune.

Actually, what was weird was Deen outside her house in casual wear. She was like a penguin in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Of course, I have always seen her like this since I lived with her. But whenever she went outside, she'd gear up—full makeup on, hair styled to perfection, and wear the most fashionable clothes.

But now, not a hint of makeup was on her face—none at all, not even a light touch supposed to pass as a 'no makeup' look. Unlike me who looked like a servant of the undead if I didn't wear makeup, I'd daresay Deen was more beautiful without it. She also wore a simple shirt, a bit fitting in places, and shorts that ended a few inches above her knee. I tried to scan for the brands of clothes she wore.

My eyes were drawn to her legs. Her skin was smooth and milky. It was like her legs were covered by a glowing sheen. I wasn't sure if it was the dim light of the car mixed with the heavy-duty spotlights on the streets outside trying to pierce through the car's dark tinting.

Her shapely legs were a result of her rigorous exercise regimen. But even if they were toned, I knew that they were still a bit soft and really bouncy. I felt her thighs before when she squeezed my hand between her legs.

"Don't do that," Deen suddenly blurted out.

I gave her a sidelong glance with a raised brow. "Huh? Do what? I'm not doing anything."

She shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever it was that you were about to do."

"Eh? I also don't know. Did your Guardian Angel tell you something?"

She nodded. "It told me I should be careful not to crash into the car in front of us."

"How is that my fault?" I said with a giggle that gave me away. "You're the one driving."

"Gotcha! So you were planning to do something that'd surprise me." She narrowed her eyes at me. "What was it going to be?"

"I wasn't planning on doing anything, I swear. I was just thinking how great your legs looked. Actually, I was going to ask you about the skincare products you're using."

She snorted. "Seriously? I highly doubt that. What were you really thinking about? Come on, be honest."

"Okay, fine," I said with a chuckle. "I wasn't thinking about doing anything...yet." I tilted my head and wondered, more to myself, "But if you didn't disturb me, my thoughts would probably wander to touching your legs.

"Why are you going to do that?"

"Remember when I raked your stomach with my nails?" I laughed as I recalled my prank yesterday. "It was so funny that I might do that again. Gone are the days of poking your sides. Civilization is progressing."

She glared at me. "If you did that, then yeah, I might've floored the pedal in surprise. You're such a bully."

"I'm so cute and innocent," I said, giving her puppy dog eyes. She frowned at me and faced forward again. "How can you accuse me of being a bully? It's not my fault you're so ticklish."

"Do it."

"Hmm?"

"Touch my legs." She had a determined look on her face as the car inched forward. She continued in almost a whisper, "Do anything you want. I'm not going to react no matter what you do. I mean, just don't do anything painful."

"Is this a challenge?" I asked. I don't back down when it comes to challenges. Especially when they came from Deen. I was irritated that she was taking charge of my life, and it may be time to assert my dominance. Subtly. I wasn't going to overthrow her from her natural position in the hierarchy of society. But I could embarrass her...even more so since she wanted to stubbornly stop herself from reacting.

"Your words not mine," she said. I threateningly wiggled my fingers over her legs. She shrugged. "Go ahead. Nothing painful, okay? That'll be cheating."

"Yeah, yeah," I replied with an exaggerated groan. "Don't worry. I'm not going to bite your thigh."

"You were going to?"

"Eh? No? It was just a joke. Unless that's going to be your challenge to me? I'm not sure if I can do—"

"No!" she interrupted me. "No biting. Just—" She sharply breathed as I placed my palm on her knee. "I didn't know we were starting," she angrily hissed at me. "I almost hit the car horn.”

I stuck out my tongue at her. "Was I supposed to count to ten first like this is hide-and-seek?" Her skin felt really smooth as I slid my hand a bit up her knee. "And you're acknowledging that this is a challenge." Then I had an idea. I tried tickling her knee by raking my fingers outward like a head-scratcher.

"That's not going to work," she said. I could tell that she was trying to control her breathing.

"How about you just focus on driving?"

We listened to relaxing slow jazz while I continued to swirl my nails around her knee cap. Deen was humming again, pretending I wasn't there.

Deciding to up the ante, I crept my fingers past her knee like my hand was an insect climbing up her leg. I playfully poked her flesh with my fingers and moved on to scratching her skin with my nails. I applied enough force that she'd feel it, but not enough that it'd actually hurt her—that was against the rules of our mini-game that she set. It was pretty hard to actually hurt her anyway.

Remembering our little banter about biting, I clawed my hand and pinched her leg as if it was a bite. She made a little squeak of surprise, but she revved the engine to cover it up. With a grin on my face, I scooted to the left side of my seat so I'd have better reach. I was emboldened by my success and didn't want to stop.

I continued feeling up her leg until I reached the bottom of her shorts. Without any hesitation, I pushed it up as I continued massaging her leg. She made an audible gasp.

"What is it?" I asked with a sing-song tone.

"No-nothing."

"Sure, it's nothing?"

"It really is nothing," she firmly replied.

Nothing, eh? Challenge accepted.

I leaned a bit to my left so I could reach Deen's inner thigh. Somehow, touching others wasn't as repulsive as others touching me. Furthermore, I enjoyed bullying Deen—tangentially asserting my control over her. And I was also affecting her emotions; I loved doing that to people. I just hadn't done it this way before to anyone. But this was enjoyable so far.

Even though the air conditioning was on full blast, Deen’s thighs were expectedly warm. I didn't know how long I was massaging her inner thigh, but her breathing became more harried with every passing minute. Is she feeling good about this?

I stole a glance at her then faced forward again; I didn't want her to notice I was checking her reaction. She was closing her eyes and slightly bowing her head. The fuck? We're not going to crash, are we? Her Guardian Angel would probably save us from any accidents so I should continue what I was doing until she stopped me—that’d be my win.

I swallowed as I cautiously nudged my hand even further between her legs. I felt her thigh muscles tense and she instinctively closed her legs. "Is there any problem?"

"No problem at all," she whispered, her voice wavering. She relaxed and opened her legs.

Are you getting off on this? I wanted to ask her. But she might throw me out of the car and report me to the BID as an Adumbrae to hide her embarrassment. You better be thankful for this, Deen, I thought. I was still rubbing her thighs but the side of my hand occasionally pressed against the fabric of her shorts in the middle of her legs.

After about a minute, I stopped.

"Huh? Erind, why did you remove your hand?" There was apparent disappointment in Deen’s voice. She looked at me with a conflicted expression. "Uh, I mean...I still haven't reacted or anything. Are, are you, um, admitting that I won? You should continue—"

"Deen, there's a cop ahead checking the cars," I said, giving her a mischievous grin knowing that I won even if I didn't make her wildly react. "Do you still want my hand up your thigh when he comes over?"

"Oh my gosh! No, no...I didn't—I just didn't see him, okay?" A flustered Deen was already a win in my book. She noticed my victorious smile. I gave her a wink. She mouthed, "This isn't over," as the police knocked on her window.

"Bring it on," I whispered back at her.

It took the police officer about five minutes to ask us some questions and check our documents. After he left, Deen mumbled, "Erind...Can I also touch your leg?"