Fueled by his passion and his admiration she felt her body quickly climbing towards orgasm. Sometimes he teased her by changing his methods when he saw her arousal growing, but tonight he just wanted to pleasure her and to watch the emotions play across her face as the intensity of her orgasm rose and fell.
His release came moments later, before the last tremors of hers had faded, and they collapsed together on the bed. “I love you,” he murmured.
She nuzzled his neck and managed a slightly slurred, “Love you too.”
He rescued the sheet but the rest was beyond his reach unless he wanted to disturb the beautiful woman sprawled over his chest. ‘She’ll keep me warm,’ he thought, tucking the sheet around them. He kissed the top of her head and snuggled in for the night.
V.
The house was quiet so Eddie took one of the leftover apples and went outside. It wasn’t like living in the city suburbs, the nearest house was a backyard away instead of two feet away, and the driveways were anywhere from a hundred to four hundred feet long, and those were just the few he could see from the end of the driveway. Others were waking up and starting their days and the ones that passed gave him long, lingering looks. He smiled at them and ate his apple.
A group of girls in sandals, shorts, and tank tops came up the road. They all smiled wide at him before turning down the driveway across the road. He watched them giggle to each other and one looked back at him. They disappeared behind the bushes only to reappear a few minutes later with assorted groceries.
This time they walked right up to him.
“Who are you?” the ring leader said.
“My name’s Eddie. I’m new here.”
Their smiles grew wider and the ring leader cocked her head and batted her eyes. “It’s really nice to meet you, Eddie. I’m Marianne.”
Another girl, no this one was a young woman already, jogged up the road. “Sue is waiting for those supplies,” she said. She waited by the side of the road until the gaggle of girls was out of sight.
“Thanks for the rescue,” Eddie said. “I’m Eddie.”
“Violet. They’re fifteen and sixteen,” Violet explained. “They hate listening to me but they respect Sue well enough. There aren’t any boys their age in the village so they tend to flirt with Matt. They’re going to flirt with you all the time too. I’d tell them to stop if I could.”
“But they’re too young for me,” Eddie said. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“Be polite, and don’t let them corner you somewhere private. Hopefully we’ll either get a few more stragglers or we’ll be able to host ‘courting trips’ to the surrounding villages.”
“What about you?”
“Oh.” Her cheeks grew hot. “Sue’s expecting me back right away, I was just sent to find strays. I’m sure Damian will have work for you, or something.” She turned back up the driveway.
“I’ll see you later!” he called after her.
She half turned and waved and then jogged off.
VI.
Matt woke with a groan. There was a deep satisfaction in not using an alarm clock. As long as you didn’t sleep the whole day away no one really cared what time you crawled out of bed. It was heaven. He heard the front door and was ready to dismiss it as Stan or Joe, their other roommate, when he remembered Eddie.
He sprang out of bed, threw on a set of clothes, and nearly fell down the stairs for all his haste. He found Eddie and Stan in the kitchen preparing water for tea. The tea outlasted the coffee by a long shot, which was fine for people who liked it, but Matt was stuck with water until they found a way to import coffee from a warehouse somewhere or, even less likely, overseas.
“Good morning!” he said, trying to sound friendly. “How’d you sleep?”
“The couch was a pleasant change from ground,” Eddie said.
There was a knock at the door and Damian stuck his head in. “Oh good, you’re all still home.”
“Joe’s on the wall,” Stan said.
“Everyone’s going to have a lot of questions and I just wanted to let you know that what happened on the wall yesterday is public knowledge so if anyone asks, just fill them in. Sorry, Eddie, you’ll probably be the main attraction for a few days. Did you need anything?”
“Matt volunteered to show me around.”
“Did he?” Damian studied Matt for a long moment. “Well good. Matt, see if you can find him a few changes of clothes from the shed then get him set up chopping wood. I’ll check in before I go up the wall, I’m on the evening shift tonight.” He gave a sharp nod in their general direction and disappeared.
“Is he always like that?” Eddie asked.
“Military,” Stan said by way of explanation. “Sorry I don’t have milk but there’s sugar here.”
Eddie shook his head. “Plain is fine. Anything is better than ditch water.”
“You didn’t even have water?” Stan said.
“I ran out pretty quick. I didn’t want to steal so I just ate and drank what I could find.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t starve.”
“Me too.”
When they had finished their breakfast Matt took Eddie out to explore the village. “Anne and Damian live just there,” he said, pointing to the house that stood between them and the gate. “They share with Ryan, Sean, and their girlfriend Pauline. You’ll get to know Ryan and Sean pretty quick, they’re sort of the law men around here.”
“Their girlfriend?” Eddie said.
“Yeah. It’s strange but it works for them. Across the road there are a few other single men and the shop behind their house is being used as our grocery store, as it were. We keep the water barrels in there and all the extra food. There’s no lock or anything but someone will chase you down if you’re taking too much.”
Eddie nodded and followed Matt down the driveway. They made a pass around the full mile square with Matt pointing out the orphanage and school, the house Violet and the other single women shared, the houses that were still empty, and the field they had fenced in preparation for getting some livestock. “This was a very good idea, using an area like this. You have room to grow, room to farm, and room to hunt.”
Matt nodded. “Walking would have been too hard; we had too many people who were too young or too old. But there’s work for all of us here.”
Along the way a lot of people stopped them, all with the same questions. Who was he, where was he from, when had he arrived, did he have news from the road? Eddie tried to be polite and he was happy Matt insisted on moving along quickly.
VII.
It was a good place and they were good people but Eddie was grateful for finally having a little privacy. ‘Maybe in a week or two when they start trusting me I’ll tell them the truth.’ He knew it was safer to keep this secret from them but it was hard to watch every step, every handshake, to make sure he didn’t do anything to give away the fact that he wasn’t like them anymore.
Matt had left as soon as Eddie was settled with the axe and the stack of logs for splitting. He was set up behind a shed on one of the unused properties, no one else was nearby, he was sure of it. He let go of his self-control and set to work. With no strain and little effort he moved through the job of setting up the logs and splitting them into pieces that would fit in furnaces and stoves. He managed four hours’ worth of work in the span of one without breaking a sweat. He wasn’t even short of breath but he was mentally kicking himself as he surveyed the neat stack of split wood that was much, much bigger than it had been when he started. “Now what?” he muttered.
He heard someone coming around the shed at a good clip and put on a show of breathing hard. Violet rounded the corner and skidded to a halt. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know anyone was working back here.”
He smiled at her. “It’s okay, I was just stopping for a break.” He sat on the dwindling pile of logs and stretched.
“You know, this job wasn’t very high on anyone’s priority list.” She glanced at him. “I mean,
we won’t need the wood for another month or two and Damian has everybody gardening right now, or working on the wall.”
“It’s probably safest to give the new guy the job that is hardest to sabotage.”
“That wasn’t what I meant. I mean, I’m sure Damian wouldn’t do that.”
“Of course he would. He’s responsible for the safety of this village. He’s not going to trust me just because I say I’m a nice guy. For all he knows I could be a thief, or worse I could have been sent to dismantle your wall or open your gate in the middle of the night and …”
“Were you?”
Her voice was soft, almost shy, and it halted his rant. He stared at her. “Was I what?”
“Were you sent to sabotage us?”
He shook his head. “No, I wasn’t sent by anyone for anything. I just want to be safe.”
For a moment they just looked at each other. Violet looked away first. “They did promise us safety from wild animals and bandits here,” she said.
She looked agitated so he said, “Do you feel safe?”
He had heard the footsteps approaching so he didn’t jump when Damian came around the corner. Violet did jump but when she saw Damian she relaxed again.
“Violet,” he said mostly sounding surprised but Eddie noted concerned undertones.
She offered him a reassuring smile. “Just getting away for a moment; those kids can take a lot out of you.”
Damian nodded and turned to Eddie. “The wood pile is looking good. Hard to say how much we’ll need this winter.”
“I’ll keep at it.”
“Oh, this is for you.” He tossed a full water bottle and nodded his approval when Eddie caught it with ease. “Do you know how to fire a gun?”
“I’ve never tried.”
“That’s for another day then.” Another nod and Damian was gone again.
Eddie waited a moment for the footsteps to fade before saying, “So, who did you think was coming around the corner?”
She looked embarrassed now. “No one. Where are you from?”
“Utah. We got hit hard early in the war by a hot bomb. I got trapped. It took a while to get out.”
“Why was it so hard to get out?”
“Didn’t Bismark go hot?”
“It burned for a long time,” she said. “The planes dropped a lot of bombs; they did a lot of damage.”
Eddie shook his head. “They didn’t need a lot of bombs for us. We got nuked.”
“Oh.”
“Look, I know I’m new here and you have no reason to trust me, but you’re hiding from someone. Is everything all right?”
She took a deep breath, ready to lie and say everything was fine, but instead the truth tumbled out. “Matt and I are the only ones here in our twenties and he just won’t accept no for an answer. It’s not like he’s tried to force me into his bed or anything, I just don’t want flowers and presents or a boyfriend.”
“What do you want?”
She seemed started by the questioned but answered quickly enough that he thought her answer must be genuine. “I want my mother.” She gave her head a shake. “Don’t tell anyone I said that, or about Matt either. Everyone thinks I miss my phone and my internet and my selfies and that’s fine with me.”
“I miss my mom too. She died and sometimes I wonder if I could have saved her somehow.”
“I don’t even know if my mom is alive or dead. I was on my way to visit her when the bombs dropped. My phone broke so I couldn't reach her. We left so soon after that I didn’t have time to look for her. I don’t know where she would have gone or how to reach out to her. She could be alive, looking for me, and I wouldn’t even know it.”
“The not knowing must be awful.”
She nodded. “Thanks for listening. I just had to get away for a bit.”
“You work with the kids?”
“Yeah, I do. But they weren’t the problem. I should get back to them though. I told Sue I was just going for a jog to clear my head.”
“I should get some more chopping done.”
She started to jog away then stopped and glanced over her shoulder. “There’s not a lot to do around here, but did you want to go for a walk this evening?”
“I’d like that, sure.”
She smiled, a real smile this time, and then left.
VIII.
Matt had heard the voices and had slipped inside the shed to listen. When Damian left he almost came out again but then Eddie and Violet started talking. Now he moved as quietly as possible around the shed.
Eddie was breathing hard as he swung the axe, neatly splitting a large log in half. He picked up one of the halves and split that next.
“You don’t waste time, do you?”
Eddie looked up, pretending to be surprised. “I really want to be here, Matt, I’m not going to slack on my first job.”
“Look, I don’t know you, none of us do, and you don’t know us. You don’t know how things are here, so I’ll fill you in. Violet is my girl and I don’t appreciate you making a play for her.”
Eddie split another log and then put the axe down. As he gathered the wood he said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw her walking away just now and I’m warning you, she’s taken.”
Eddie pinned Matt with a solid stare. “Does she know that?”
“Just watch yourself.” He turned and stalked off.
IX.
After an hour spent violently hoeing weeds from one of the gardens and snapping at everyone who came near him Matt was joined by Ryan.
“How’s the gardening going?” Ryan said.
“Fuck off.”
“I heard you were in a foul mood.”
“What are you? My babysitter?”
Ryan grabbed a rake and started pulling the loose weeds into a pile. “No, I’m not. You’re a grown man, Matt, you don’t need a babysitter.”
“Could have fooled me. Haven’t I been good enough? Don’t I follow the rules? Don’t I work hard enough?”
“I haven’t heard any complaints, except about your temper today.”
“Well I think I have every right to be pissed off! I did what you said, I grew up. I’m not stirring up trouble. Hell! I just took the new guy on a tour, didn’t need to be asked, didn’t get pissy that no one asked me to help with the situation on the wall. I just stepped up and did it. No thanks from anyone. What else to I have to do to get somewhere in this place? Or am I supposed to be happy being nothing but the fall back wall guy? Is that my entire future?”
Ryan had stopped raking and watched Matt through his whole rant. When it was obvious Matt had run out of steam Ryan said, “You’re right.”
Matt just about dropped his hoe. “I’m right?”
“You’re right. Everyone has been taking on new jobs and responsibilities and you’ve stepped up every time you’ve been asked to help with something. I don’t know that there are any big flashy jobs available but I’ll talk to Damian.”
“Really?”
“Matt, I don’t hate you. Damian doesn’t hate you. Don’t ask me about Anne, I have enough trouble deciphering Pauline, I’m not about to try my hand at another woman. We were all under a lot of stress while we were walking and that didn’t bring out the best in anyone. No promises, but I’ll talk to him. Just don’t throw that hoe at someone for wanting to help with this garden, okay?”
“Yeah, fine, okay,” Matt said. He was a little shocked. He watched Ryan leave and stared across the empty yard for a long time after that.
‘That’s exactly what I need. A better job, more responsibility, a new position, it will all prove that I’m a mature, responsible, provider. Violet will see I’m not some snot-nosed kid. I’m a man, a man who can protect her and love her.’
X.
After dinner and a very quick shower Eddie jogged over to the orphanage where a yard full of kids was running around in the fading light. Violet was sitting on the back deck with an older woman. “It loo
ks like they’ll sleep well tonight,” he said.
“You’d think after weeks of walking they’d be tired of it,” Sue said. “But their favourite thing is running around. Marianne will be over soon to help me put them to bed so go on, have some fun for a change.”
Violet smiled and they headed back towards the road.
XI.
Matt’s path took him parallel to the road but inside the yards. He was hidden from sight by bushes and shadows but could see the backs of the two figures just ahead of him. More importantly he could just hear their conversation. For now it was innocent enough, family details, school experiences, where they had worked, but it was more than Violet had ever told him and the resentment and anger was building in his chest.
There was a quiet place out at the back of the empty pasture and that’s where they appeared to be heading. That made following harder since the pasture was just wide open space. He fell out of earshot a few times as he tried to find the safest way to stay on their tails. Finally he found a safe spot just inside the bushes on the other side of the pasture fence where he could sit without being seen.
Violet sat on her rock staring up at the night sky. “You know,” she said. “I never really noticed the stars until we got here.”
“You don’t see them in the city,” Eddie agreed. “But you didn’t notice them while you were walking?”
“We always stopped before full dark and I was too busy with the kids and my own misery to look up at the sky. The only things I noticed were the rain, the heat, and the ache in my feet.”
“Survival is like that,” Eddie said. He shifted on his rock, trying to get comfortable. “I was thinking about your mom. You know that village you first tried to join? Maybe they still trade with Bismark, maybe they could take a message to the city for you. I’m sure other people are trying to find relatives and loved ones.”
Romance: Dystopian Post Apocalyptic Romance 3: The Alphas: Emergence of the Alphas (bbbw mfm menage) Page 2
