by Sylvia Ryan
Mom had changed after that, and Julia had changed too. They were both hurt so badly by the abandonment that John had watched the two women in his life work together to build a wall of security around themselves.
After John had finished school, their mother had finally run back home from the US to Italy. After some time, she met a nice man and got married again. But she always made it clear to both her children, this time she hadn’t married for love. She’d married for money. It was an open admission made with no shame or regret, and her tone always made it sound as if love was something distasteful that got stuck on the bottom of your shoe.
The real tragedy, though, was Julia. Mom at least had had the love of her lifetime, even if it only lasted for eleven years, and she got two kids out of the deal.
Julia had not. She built the wall of protection, and it had been completed before she even graduated from high school. And on the few occasions she would open a door and let a man enter, he ultimately turned out to be an idiot or an asshole.
So, Julia turned out to be a punisher of men, so to speak, first facing off with drug dealers and gangbangers as a social worker for juvenile court and then moving on to the big time, dominating hundreds of hard cores in prison.
But Julia had another side to her. She had always taken the time for him when there was nobody else around to do it. She was the one who would play Matchbox cars with him, put Band-Aids on his boo-boos and tuck him in at night when their mom worked all hours of the day and night. She met him at the bus stop, taught him his first swear word, and tortured his sad ass in ways only a sister could. She loved him unconditionally, and he loved her.
Nobody who knew her today would ever suspect the person that lurked underneath that perfectly constructed barrier, except for him, of course. Happy memories of their childhood played like minisitcoms in his head and kept him entertained and sane through the monotony of his gruesome duties.
* * * *
Tony Paul had a message for John Costa. He had never met the man, but after six weeks of clear, stack, and bury duty, he was looking forward to meeting him. Tony was tired, dirty, and hungry, and he knew there would be little relief when he got back to the Guard Training Center. Resources were slim everywhere, even there. But he looked forward to handing over the message he got on the walk in. Good news was rare nowadays, and he was excited to be the one giving it.
After asking around, he found John in the mess. He was typical Guard, brown, buzz cut hair, standard-issue pixelated camouflage, and boots. Tony could tell just by looking at him that he kept himself in good shape and, by the look on his face, that he was a man to be respected. He was eating the same small bowl of brown stuff that everybody else in the mess had on their plate.
Tony walked up. “Excuse me, are you John Costa?” he asked.
John looked up. “Yeah.”
“My name is Tony.” He stuck his hand out to shake.
John shook, then shot him a look of inquiry. “You need something?”
“Do you know someone named Julia?”
John’s heart suddenly hammered in his chest. He stood, meeting Tony eye to eye and focused on him with intensity. “Yes.”
Tony handed John a creased and dirty piece of paper.
John Costa National Guard - Annville
Julia safe in Holmes County
John read the piece of paper, twice. Relief flooded him. Holmes County. You can’t get any more rural than that. She’s living with the Amish.
Thank God. It was as if a tight knot in John’s chest, one that he didn’t even know was there, loosened. Then, as if his chest and his throat were connected in some kind adverse reaction, John’s throat tightened.
He swallowed hard a couple of times until he could speak. “Thanks, man…Thanks.” John’s words of gratitude were forced through an avalanche of emotion. “Get some food and join me.” John motioned to an empty chair across from him.
When Tony returned with his food, he had barely gotten seated when John said, “Tell me how you got this”.
“Well, sir, on my way back here, I was going through Lebanon. There were some Amish on the road in front of their farmhouse. They had a well and were refilling soldiers’ canteens. Anyway, one of the Amish men asked me if I was going to the National Guard Center in Annville. I told him I was. He got real excited and told me his family had been giving water to military for almost a week hoping they would come across a Guardsman goin’ in that direction. He told me how he was just back from visiting some kin in Ohio and was asked to pass along a message if he could. The message is for you.”
After swapping strikingly similar stories with Tony about his duties since the EMP, John left. His mind raced. It would take some doing to get to Holmes County. He definitely wouldn’t be able to leave until spring, maybe later if he couldn’t get away from his Guard duties. He made his plans right away, searching maps and thinking of schemes.
It didn’t matter what he had to do. He would leave to find Julia once the weather broke.
Chapter 16
I’m happy. Julia’s chest tightened with emotion while she watched the two men she loved playing cards at the kitchen table. If anyone would have asked her a year ago if she could ride out the long winter cooped up with other people, without ripping their throats out, her answer would have been an unequivocal no. But here she was.
Passing the short winter days and long nights was deliciously decadent. Her mood was so good and peaceful she wondered if the secret to the exact right brain chemistry was frequent orgasms.
She was in love, but she felt like her happiness ran so much deeper. She trusted them. It had taken a long time to genuinely feel safe giving herself, heart and body, to the men. But now, looking back, she wondered why she had resisted this situation so long, and she thanked God that the two men would not let her run from them.
There hadn’t been one single episode of jealousy or male posturing. None that she knew of anyways. Both men seemed as perfectly happy as she was. Her worry that the three-way relationship was weird and wouldn’t work faded with every passing day. It was working. Sometimes she felt like the luckiest woman alive. These two steaming-hot men loved her. And there was no one around to judge them or plant seeds of doubt.
As she previously suspected, the two of them combined made the perfect man. The perfect sun-moon balance just like her tattoo.
Arden and Julia spent many hours together with his guitar and her song lyrics. The result was sheer bliss for Julia. Her songs, the words that had so many different meanings for her, escaped Arden’s lips and hands. It was soothing and sexy. She could spend lifetimes humming the melodies for him so he could re-create them. Arden was her sensitive, romantic communicator. He stimulated her mind and body perfectly.
Ben filled different needs for her. He was a man’s man. Sometimes gruff, usually sarcastic, but he was what Julia needed most of all from a man. He was dominant. He held his own against her and she fucking loved it. She had found somebody who would not back down from her strong personality. His attitude of complete ownership of her, which she had fought a lifetime to protect against, made her feel safe, not subordinate like she had thought it would.
Ben’s smart-ass sense of humor kept her laughing, at herself and at them. He was endlessly coming up with new nicknames for her, sometimes based on her mood, but usually the name referenced some sexual innuendo or another. They ranged from Popsicle to creamy cheeks and everything in between. Ben found himself immensely amusing.
Sex with the two filled her nights. Sometimes it was gentle and slow, others it was rough and urgent. But it was always good.
She didn’t know when or how, but it was obvious that the two men had worked out an agreement of sorts. They almost always took her together, but if she had been with either one individually while the other was away, it was inevitable that the other man would seek her out individually soon after. She loved those times best of all. Their individual demonstrations and words of love toward her bound her to them
just as sure as if someone had tied them together with a rope.
As she watched Arden deal another hand, Julia thought back to her visit with Ann. She was so right. The winter was excruciatingly boring even with all of the distractions the men provided. Julia had already used up the yarn that Ann had given her, completing a scarf for all of them to use. It turned out nice, and she was proud of herself, even with the nagging and disturbing thought in the back of her mind that she was turning into some kind of June Cleaver.
Now, she was looking at them playing cards but was also trying to read them. Julia knew something was brewing. She’d caught Arden and Ben whispering a few times in the last week. Ben disappeared for a while outside when it was really too cold to “get some air.” But Julia had learned that the two would eventually let her in on what was going on when they were ready.
The three of them decided to celebrate Christmas later that day. They knew they were close as far as the date was concerned. Christmas this year was no longer about giving and getting gifts. It was more about counting blessings and giving thanks.
When the men finished playing cards, Julia cooked a nice meal with Arden by her side talking with her and helping her when needed. The table was set, and they splurged on a candle placed between the triangle of place settings at the end of the table. They splurged on food, too, with fresh venison, potatoes, and applesauce made from some of the aging apples left in the root cellar on the menu. There was an air of holiday cheer as a light snow fell outside, and Arden played “Silent Night” and a few other carols on his guitar.
They reminisced about Christmases past, ridiculous gifts, and favorite traditions.
As the night wound down, Julia stood to start collecting the remnants of the meal and the dirty dishes and flatware.
“Don’t go anywhere. You haven’t opened your present yet,” Ben said. He placed a hand-folded envelope of paper on the table in front of her. A ribbon of flannel was wrapped around the small paper pouch and tied into a bow. “This is from Arden and me.”
Julia looked at Ben and then at Arden. “I didn’t get you anything,” she said, disappointed.
“You give us everything,” Arden replied.
Julia took the package and unwrapped the small gift. With the bow gone, the paper opened up, revealing a gold band. She looked up at the men, picking up the ring.
“Your mom’s?” Julia whispered to Ben.
He nodded and smiled at her.
“Julia, we love you. We want you to be ours forever,” Arden said. He paused, looked at Ben and let Ben continue.
“My mother wore this ring for over three decades, and it symbolized a truly wonderful marriage. We want you to have it. We want you to be our wife,” Ben said. “Getting legally married right now is impossible, and you wouldn’t be able to marry the both of us anyway, but we want you to know how much we love you. We want you to know we will never leave you, and when the time comes, we’ll make it legal with one of us. Right now, we are making a commitment to you, and hopefully, you to us. To be ours.”
Julia was stunned, with one hand over her mouth and the other holding the ring. She didn’t have to think. There was no hesitation. Her previous reservations about what the three of them were doing, how it was going to work, were totally gone. “I’ll always be yours,” she said shakily.
Ben stood and took the ring from Julia’s hand and placed it on her finger. It was a little large but stayed on her finger without falling off. The men embraced her, Ben in front and Arden in back. They both whispered, “I love you,” to her and held her.
Ben stepped away from the embrace, and Arden picked Julia up and carried her to the living room. He kissed her then started removing her clothes as she helped him remove his. He took her hand and led her to the mattress where Ben joined them.
They swarmed her body with their lips and hands. Julia closed her eyes and immersed herself in the pool of pleasure they were offering her. Her lips were being brushed with light kisses, her breasts caressed and licked. Hands swept between her legs like a whisper then disappeared as soon as they had come. This was what she loved about sex with both of her men at the same time. She could close her eyes and just feel. Lose herself to the sensations. They did everything. She didn’t have to think, just follow. Just submit. She was wet for them, panting and arching under their flurry of attention.
Suddenly missing one of the men’s touches and kisses, she opened her eyes and followed Arden’s movement to the love seat. He sat reclining a little. His hard shaft jutted upward from his lap. He held it in his hand and caressed himself.
“Come here, Julia, ride me,” he said as he leaned forward to motion her toward him. Julia’s stomach butterflied in response. This was something new.
Ben took Julia’s hand and led her to her feet and over toward Arden. Julia climbed on top of Arden’s lap, one leg on either side. She positioned herself over his hardened crest and pierced herself on Arden’s cock. She took him quickly into her with a moan of pleasure. Arden placed his arms around her, stilling her and pulling her body flat to his chest. He stroked her back and hair while holding her in this intimate embrace.
“If you want to stop, just tell me,” he whispered in her ear. She knew then what they wanted. They had never tried this before. Julia’s response to Arden’s whisper was a groan of need.
“Ride me, Julia,” he said as he started moving her hips with his hands. They were chest to chest, Arden inside her to the hilt, her clit rubbing rhythmically against the base of his cock.
Julia sensed Ben coming up behind her before he even touched her. He caressed his hand down the center of her back. She knew he was in no hurry. He just watched her and Arden lazily moving against each other.
Ben found her small rear entry with his finger and rubbed teasingly before penetrating the tight little hole with his finger.
Julia’s immediate push back, penetrating herself deeper onto his finger prompted a loud “yes,” from her lips. Ben added another finger to the penetration of her tiny, tight anus, and she rode Arden’s cock and Ben’s fingers slowly, relaxing a little.
Ben worked his fingers, stretching her as she moved on them. Julia knew Ben had been working up to this in the past few months, trying to make her ready to receive his cock in her ass. She was ready, both physically and emotionally. She knew he would never hurt her.
Ben removed his fingers to Julia’s immediate displeasure.
She lifted her head from Arden’s chest and whimpered, “Ben,” but lowered her head again to Arden’s chest as she felt the base of Ben’s cock pressing against her opening.
At once, she realized that she was the one in control of his penetration. She moved herself back and forth on Arden’s cock and slowly impaled herself on Ben’s engorged crest at her rear. In several gentle passes, Julia had backed herself onto the tip of Ben’s erection. She hissed as he slowly penetrated deeper, falling into a rhythm of his own, complementary to her every stroke over Arden’s cock. He slowly worked his way deeper inside of her. Her ass gripped him tight.
She was right on the threshold between pleasure and pain. She was totally filled by both men. Stretched so tight, she stopped for a moment to catch her breath and absorb the pleasure and wickedness of the act. Both men stilled, waiting for her signal to know she was okay and ready.
With her breathing heavy and her pussy grabbing Arden’s cock so tightly, she knew she was close to orgasm. The stimulation would quickly overcome her. “If I start moving, I’m going to come,” she whimpered.
“That’s the idea,” Arden purred into her ear.
Slowly, Julia began riding Arden again as Ben entered and retreated from behind. Julia’s pleasure was so extreme, all of her muscles clamped down, her body stiffened, and her ability to continue diminished.
“Finish me, please, finish,” she cried, her whole body tensed and frozen in anticipation of her orgasm.
The men took their cue, entering and retreating in perfect synchronization with each other. Both b
uried themselves to the hilt inside her over and over. Their groans pushed her over the edge. Her mind was delirious with pleasure. She drowned between her men. With total submission of mind and body, Julia rocked with an explosive orgasm. Her cries filled her ears. Her muscles were no longer in her control. Her fingernails dug crescents into Arden’s arms. She had never felt such complete fulfillment. Everything in her world was that moment. Nothing else would ever compare to the passion, love, and connection that seized her body, her sanity. This was the consummation of her union to these two men.
Arden roared Julia’s name, announcing his climax. Julia felt the hot jets of his semen entering her and elongating the remains of her quivering orgasm. Arden and Julia finished their shuddering together, locked in each other’s arms, gripping desperately to each other as Ben’s last searing stroke into Julia’s rear found his orgasm. He came inside her with a growl in his chest. With his big hands on either side of her waist, he pulled her into him. His fingers dug into her flesh as he buried his cock deeper within her and cursed through his teeth as he rode out his release.
When Ben finished, he leaned in and kissed Julia’s back and ran his tongue down it as he withdrew from her.
She was limp and shaking. Arden lifted her off of him and laid her down on the mattress, covering her with the quilt. Her mind was not working right, as if she was dazed or half asleep. She rolled onto her side still panting and trying to recover from the sensuous assault on her body. Her attempt to recover swept her into a deep, happy sleep.
* * * *
Winter wore on endlessly, it seemed, and cabin fever gripped all of them. The men were going out hunting, hoping to bag a deer. Each gave her a kiss on the cheek when they left.
