by Sylvia Ryan
As she straightened the kitchen after the men left, Julia’s thoughts and feelings were turbulent. Her usual inner dialogue recommending caution tried to lock down the provocative impulses running around in her head.
She heard him then smelled him just an instant before she turned to see who had just walked through the kitchen door.
“Did you forget someth—”
It wasn’t Arden or Ben standing there. Her glance met with the dark, menacing eyes of a stranger and the barrel of his gun pointed at her. The man was painfully skinny compared to the healthy men she lived with, but he was still big enough that Julia instantly knew she wouldn’t be able to hold her own with him for very long.
Julia stilled. Her mind raced to the hand-to-hand combat and psychological negotiations training she’d had at the prison. Once a year, mandatory. She had considered the training futile, thinking it would have been hard for any average size woman to take down an attacker with the moves they taught, let alone someone her size. Plus, with her man down button and her sergeant having a CO ghost her wherever she went, she’d never had to touch an inmate once in the five years she worked there. All in all, the training had been a pain in her ass, and a great source of amusement for her brother when she tried to take him down with some of the moves she’d learned over the years. But now she’d have to use them in earnest.
“You don’t need to point that gun at me, darlin’. We’re all friends here,” Julia said with a flirtatious smile. The hard look on the man’s filthy, bearded face faltered with a moment of confusion then hardened again. “Do you want some food?” She pushed a plate of deer jerky that sat on the counter toward him. He looked down at it for a split second then returned his eyes quickly back to her.
“Is there anybody else here other than the two men who just left?” he asked. His stinking breath easily closed the gap between the two of them. He looked her body up and down and stepped closer to her. His stench was rancid. His face, hair, and bushy beard were greasy. Repulsive.
“No, just them.” She took a small step forward and smiled comfortably when all she really wanted to do was run away. She met his gaze head on, careful not to show fear.
“I want food and some of that water, too,” he said, pointing his gun briefly at the pitcher on the counter.
She poured him a glass and stepped even closer to give it to him.
She was panicked inside, unsure of whether the offensive moves she knew would even work. She knew the strategy. Be friendly to give your enemy a sense of security. Get close enough to strike when the opening presents itself. Strike first. Strike with everything you’ve got.
He drank the water, never moving his eyes from her. When he set the glass down, he lowered his gun, but only for a second. Not long enough. Her heart raced inside her chest as he took another step closer to her, grabbing her by the hair on the back of her head.
“You are a fine piece of ass,” he said with a vicious grin. “What’s your name, sweetie?”
“Julia,” she said as calmly as she could, but her insides lurched. His smell sickened her and made her gag. The fact that he was touching her collided wildly with her primal urges of self-preservation. Abruptly, her determination mixed with courage to form a familiar demeanor. For the first time since she’d walked out of the prison the day of the pulse, Julia felt like the hard, cold bitch she was accustomed to being. Her compulsion to completely and mercilessly dominate her environment returned. The aggressive adrenaline rush that comes with authority and power washed over her. She wasn’t scared or panicked anymore. She was pissed.
Her heartbeat slowed slightly as she took a deep breath and let the certainty that she would be this man’s downfall settle in. “Well, Julia,” he sneered, “you get me some food, then maybe we’ll have some fun.” He let go of her hair and pushed her backward toward the counter.
That fucker is going to be sorry he had the misfortune of crossing my path.
Julia started filling a plate with jerky and grabbed a knife on the counter top.
“Drop it,” he ordered before she even really had a good grip on it.
“Okay, jeez,” Julia said in the ditziest tone she could manage. “I was only going to cut the apple.”
Julia turned back toward the piece of shit standing in her kitchen and smiled. She took a couple of steps toward him.
“Here, take some.” She held out the plate toward him. His eyes flickered to the food. He was distracted. His gun wasn’t even pointed at her anymore. It was lowered a little like he’d forgotten he had it in his hand. She took another step toward him and set the food on the table.
During his next split-second moment of distraction, when his eyes traveled away from her to the plate again, Julia struck. She clasped her left hand over her right, and with her full strength and body weight behind it, she hammered the heel of her hand to the end of his nose with a forceful upward and inward blow. She felt the bone give way under her hand and heard his gun go off at the initial impact.
The force of the collision to his face combined with his instant ragdoll imitation had her falling forward on top of him. She landed on his body with a thunk. His release of urine, his blood, and weeks of dirt assaulted her as she covered him.
* * * *
At the sound of the shot, Arden and Ben turned and ran full speed back toward the farmhouse. Arden watched Ben pull his gun and followed him through the kitchen door. They found Julia lying on the floor in a pool of blood and urine. Next to her was the corpse of a man. His open, shocked eyes stared out into space, empty and lifeless.
“Julia, are you hurt?” Arden yelled as he knelt at her side.
She shook her head. “No.” Her eyes were wide and intense.
Rage darkened Ben’s face. His eyes were fierce. “I’ll go check for others,” he growled as he disappeared out of the kitchen.
Arden assessed the situation more closely, and it was quickly apparent that Julia had killed the fetid intruder and fell with him when he went down. The kitchen reeked of his stench. She lay with his filth smeared all over her like a disgusting treasure.
“It’s okay, baby, let’s get you out of here." Arden lifted her from the floor and carried her out the back door.
“You don’t have to carry me. I can walk,” she said to Arden. He ignored her until they reached the water pump and then set her on her feet.
Ben returned, coming from around the side of the house, gun still in hand. He locked eyes with Julia. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. Shocked. Mute.
“It looks like he was alone. I’m going to make a more thorough check then I’ll get rid of him.” Ben walked into the house again.
Julia stood unmoving, looking after Ben.
Arden stepped closer to her and spoke calmly. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Julia nodded, looking down at the wet urine and blood stains on her T-shirt and jeans. Arden pulled her T-shirt up over her head.
Julia’s hands trembled as she started unzipping her pants. She turned when she heard the screen door squeak open and watched as Ben pulled the man’s body by the bottom of his pant legs down the porch stairs. His head thunked as it hit the tread of each step on the way down, and his body slithered in the grass as Ben pulled him around the side of the house. Arden held Julia steady as she shed her jeans and pulled her the few steps she needed to go toward the hand pump. He began the flow of water for her, and as if the presence of the water had triggered a flow within her, Julia started sobbing. As she knelt under the freezing stream of water her reaction retched from her.
Arden knew the adrenaline surge was wearing off, and he could tell the crying just pissed her off, but she didn’t stop. She had to release it, to get the maelstrom of emotions out of her.
When Julia finished washing the man’s fluids from her, she was shivering and shaky. Arden stepped forward and held her. Her body felt cold against him when he circled his arms around her. She clung to him, her cheek on his chest, and held him tight. Ju
lia sobbed, her panting so ragged she was almost hyperventilating.
“Shh, it’s okay now. It’s over,” he comforted her. He held her, stroked her hair, and whispered sweet things in her ear. After long minutes, her breathing became more regular, and her tears dried to only a damp film that stuck her hair and cheek to his chest.
Arden’s cock hardened against Julia, pressing into her stomach. She must have felt it, but she didn’t let go of him.
She curled herself into him as if seeking the safety and protection of his body. He stroked her back, comforting her. He lifted her chin toward him with a finger and kissed her. It wasn’t soft and gentle like the night in her bedroom. This was a desperate, possessive kiss that betrayed the intense horror he felt about what could have happened. His tongue pillaged her mouth and took what it wanted. Arden deepened the kiss, forcing her head back, and clamping his hand around the back of her neck. He needed to make sure she wouldn’t pull away from him. Julia moaned into his mouth and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Never breaking the kiss, he wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground even closer to him. She weighed nothing. She was buoyant in his arms.
Julia instinctively wrapped her legs around him as he adjusted his hands, placing them under her rear, and holding her close.
“I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to you,” he said as he fisted his hand in her hair. He swallowed the lump that tightened in his throat and repressed the expression of love that sat on the tip of his tongue. “You’re under my skin, Julia. All I want to do is be inside of you. I want to taste you. I want to hear you scream for me.”
“What’s stopping you?” Julia whispered. She tightened the grip of her legs and ground herself against the rough seam of his jeans.
Arden quickly strode the few steps to cover the distance to the wraparound porch and rested her, bare-assed, on the railing.
Julia already seemed impatient to have him inside of her. She unbuttoned his jeans with one hand and unzipped with the other. With a determined tug she peeled them from his hips, releasing his swollen length. She grasped it hard and ran her hand up from base to tip.
Arden growled when Julia’s hands encircled his cock. He reached down between them and parted her pussy lips with his fingers, spreading her slick wetness with hard rakes of his fingers. “You’re wet for me,” he groaned. “I need to be inside of you.”
She grasped his erection hard, directing it toward her, nudging his crest at her opening.
She pleaded with her eyes while closing her legs tighter around his hips.
Without hesitation, he entered her in one hard stroke. A cry left her lips. Her head tilted back, looking to the sky. Her hands clenched the railing on either side of her.
He stayed deep inside her without moving and felt her muscles grip him as she squirmed and rolled herself on his cock, moaning.
“That’s good, Julia, it’s all for you. Take all you want. It’s just for you.”
He leaned down and captured a pink nipple in his mouth. He pulled hard then bit with his teeth.
She sucked in sharply. “Yes,” she breathed.
Arden slowly withdrew his cock from her almost completely, looking down at where they were joined.
She responded with whimpered cries of protest before he buried himself into her again.
He reached between them and began massaging her clit firmly, rhythmically, as he retreated and drove his full length back into her over and over again. Their bodies met each other forcefully, and the hard stroke of his hand on her was only interrupted by an occasional pinch of her red, swollen bud.
“Oh, fuck!” she screamed, digging her nails into the railing with one hand and trying to pull him toward her, raking his ass, with the other. She tightened the grip of her legs, forcing him inside her deeper. She ground herself against him with each penetration, prolonging the beautiful sensations of each brush of him over her clit.
Julia’s wild cries and the slap of their bodies colliding against one another assailed his ears. The clamp of her internal muscles tightened, tightened around his cock more with every advance he made into her. He wanted this to last longer. He wanted it to last forever, but he couldn’t hold on. The hold her firmly clamped muscles had on him was driving him to the edge of his restraint.
“I’m going to come,” he barked. The unbearable clamping and quivering of her muscles surrounded his cock. “Come with me, Julia. Do it. Do it, now!” he ordered. With one last stroke into her, they both shouted out their pleasure together. Their muscles locked. Julia had her face raised toward heaven, eyes closed, and rapture emanating from her expression.
* * * *
It was a stirring display of raw sex and bliss. The moment froze in time for Ben.
As he watched them, his heart sank like a stone. Sudden feelings of loss swamped him. His brain grasped at a fleeting wisp of knowledge. He was falling in love with her. And now it was too late to do anything about it.
Ben moved away from his view out the window. It was time to seriously consider leaving. Arden had a cozy love nest here. He didn’t need another man around, especially one whose sexual attraction for Julia had morphed into something more substantial.
But Ben had nowhere to go. Even if his house was still standing next door, it would probably be too close to the couple for him to be able to forget her. It would be too close to fully wish them well.
Ben’s heart ached with regret. He hadn’t realized what his true feelings for Julia were. He had never been in love before. He thought the incessant hard-ons and constant thoughts of her were a result of an unfed lust, a ravenous need gone neglected too long. By the time he realized it was more, it was too late.
Ben looked at the floor and rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand. It was always too late for him, wasn’t it? Too late realizing he was too drunk to drive got him sent to prison. Too late getting back home killed his parents. Too late noticing he was falling in love would cost him his sanity. The consequences he had to serve for being a too-little-too-late dumbass were always severe.
Ben walked out the front door of the house and sat on the steps looking out toward the road. His cock was still hard. His chest was hollow, empty except for the ache that had moved in there.
His spine straightened when he looked up and saw the large group of people walking the road toward the house.
“Shit,” he mumbled, as he pulled the pistol from his waistband. “Arden!” he yelled. “We’ve got company.” Ben stood, looking at the group, and saw the exact moment the men in the front of the pack caught sight of him.
The whole troop stopped their forward motion, and Ben looked them over more closely. There were seven women, six men, and a bunch of children. After watching them circle and confab, one of the men handed his rifle over to the woman standing beside him and began walking slowly toward Ben with his empty hands spread out in front of him.
Arden joined Ben on the front steps, followed by Julia.
“Go inside,” Ben said, meeting her eyes when she stepped out the front door. She was dressed, but her face was flushed and her lips were beautifully swollen and pouty.
Julia glanced at the group down the road and the man making his way toward the front of the house and disappeared back inside.
“Cover me. I’ll meet him halfway,” Ben said, looking at Arden.
Arden shouldered his rifle and set his sight on the man approaching, as Ben started toward him.
“We don’t want any trouble. We were wondering if you could spare some water or food. We got kids with us,” he called to Ben as he got close enough to hear.
“We’ve got a well and a field full of corn that’s a bit past its prime, but still edible,” Ben said as he finally reached the other man. “We can offer you as much corn as you can carry out of here and a fill up on water. But you’re going to have to leave your weapons behind with one of your men before you come onto our land, and be on your way after you have what you
need.”
The man nodded and held out his hand to Ben. “Thank you. I’m Chuck.”
Ben shook Chuck’s hand. “Ben.”
“I’ll get the crew.” Chuck turned toward the group and waved them forward as Ben turned back toward Arden and signaled that he could lower his rifle.
“They’re going to take some corn and refill their water and be on their way,” Ben said to Arden when he returned. “They’re going to leave a man behind with their weapons.”
“I’ll stay up front to keep an eye on him,” Arden said. They stood together watching the group advance. “Are you all right?” Arden asked.
Ben nodded once without looking at his lifelong friend. “We need to talk,” he said, still not looking at Arden.
Ben walked away from Arden as the group got closer. All of them were dirty and tired looking. Ben could see the wariness in the women’s eyes, even as they encouraged the kids to advance. There were ten kids total, ranging from toddlers to teenagers.
“Come on.” Ben waved them forward. “Follow me to the well and the field. There’s an outhouse over there.” Ben motioned to it as he walked past. “Feel free, if anyone needs to use it.”
A minute later, Julia exited the kitchen door with an armful of things and, without hesitation, joined the women and children at the water pump.
With gun in hand, Ben stood off to one side, watching and listening to the excited chitchat of the little crowd around the hand pump.
After a while, Chuck joined him. They stood together, shoulder to shoulder.
“Do you guys have a destination in mind, or are you on the move to forage for food?” Ben asked Chuck.
“We’re headed to Columbus. We heard from a Canadian Armed Forces soldier in Warren that aid shipments from other countries are going to the capitol cities of all the states affected.”
“What states are affected?”
“According to that same soldier, the better question would be what states weren’t affected.”
Ben turned his head to look at the man. “That bad?”
