by J R Hogan
I knew that I had to pull away from her cotton candy lips. It felt like turning away from ice water after languishing under the sun, but too many alarm bells were ringing in my head. I gently pulled Daisy away from me and set her on the grass nearby, prying myself from the vice grip of her thighs.
“They attacked,” I mumbled, “I think more are nearby. Chastity-”
“Yeah, two men were hiding behind the trees that fell,” Jessica responded, pointing with her AR-15. “Ling and I fired at them, but we didn’t want to waste any more bullets after they disappeared, and we didn’t want to abandon you.”
“Didn’t you hear the shotgun and assault rifle going off at the same time?” Ling asked.
I shook my head in confusion. “There was… a lot going on.”
“So everyone’s gone but us?” Daisy asked, her hand snaking toward my waistband.
Jessica rested the butt of her weapon on her hips, muzzle pointed at the sky. “Yep. After those two creeps ran off, we found a way around the ravine.”
“The men,” Sarah asked, her voice shaking, “were they naked and covered in dirt?”
Jessica and Ling looked at her skeptically. “How’d you know that?” Jessica responded with more than a hint of concern in her voice.
I stood and approached Sarah, wrapping her in a tender hug. She melted into my body before pushing away. She had always been gentle, even meek. But that embrace was different; I felt something new in her that had previously been absent.
She had found her defiance.
“They know we can make them bleed,” she explained.
Then she wiped her katana on the grass and slid it into the sheath strapped to her back.
“And Chastity?” Ling asked. She didn’t seem angry or eager – just exhausted. “Where’d she go?”
I approached the cliff before I knew what I was doing. Jessica gasped as Ling ran toward me. I didn’t want to look down, but I knew that I had to.
Heart pounding, I got on my knees and peeked over the edge.
The splintered remains of the log lay scattered on the rocky bank of the river.
But I saw no dead body.
“Professor?” Ling asked. “Where is she?”
I felt guilt from every angle. “I don’t know,” I sighed. “No matter what, it’s probably what she deserves.”
I stood and faced the other three.
Jessica was afraid. I could feel it from several feet away. But she wasn’t concerned about herself; she was terrified for the rest of us. That included me. She feared the notion that she couldn’t keep us safe.
Sarah’s stony expression had changed in a way that I suspected would be permanent. Before today, I doubted that she had physically harmed a single person in her life. For better or for worse, she’d learned something about herself that she hadn’t believed was real.
Daisy was still on the ground, still wearing just her bra, shorts, and gun holster. She had reached the same limit I had. My mind felt like taffy that had been pulled needle-thin. I needed peace, if only for a few moments. Her gaze told me the same – but that peace would come in the form of taking me in a way that she was no longer strong enough to resist.
I looked back at Ling, who was still gazing over the cliff’s edge. She was the hardest to read, but I caught whispers of her ephemeral thoughts. She’d always felt powerless. That was part of why she’d reacted so negatively to Chastity’s presence. But now Ling could see that their tension had been resolved, that she had been the victor, and that she had always felt too weak to consider the positions of those who saw her as intimidating.
Then I looked inward. I had lost Chastity in several ways. Without knowing what happened to her, I couldn’t find any sort of resolution. That knowledge rattled in my head, gleefully promising never to leave. Despite all of our differences, I still cared about her – yet I had chosen to let her fall.
As she had done to me.
“Professor,” Sarah called, snapping me out of my trance. She padded over and rested a gentle hand on my cheek. I closed my eyes as she spread calm with her contact. “Let’s go home.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
TOC
I didn’t need to explain why it was time to turn away from our pursuit of the jungle men. Every step of the way had been on their terms; this looked like it was going to be a long fight, and we needed to plan the game before we played it.
Besides, they knew we could draw blood.
And we had gotten some supplies back.
“What do you think is in the bag?” Jessica asked as she knelt down to unzip it.
“If it’s ammunition, it means these jungle men are idiots who just gave us a huge advantage, and we can breathe easier,” Ling offered.
Jessica opened the zipper with a quick snap of her wrist. “Toiletries,” she announced, pulling out a tube of toothpaste.
“Perfect. We need to see what detergent is best for getting out dino blood,” I huffed while lifting the bag and throwing the strap over my shoulder. “I’ll be hard-pressed to defend myself while lugging this thing around. Any chance someone could cover my ass while we walk?”
• • •
We moved in silence that didn’t need filling. Upon reaching the dead Troodon, we stopped and cut enough meat for lunch and dinner.
Losing our food supply was going to make things very dangerous. We would have to live day by day, hunting dinosaurs – and now people – who would be hunting us back.
But as we worked our way toward camp, I felt more at peace than I had in some time.
We had a lot of fighting ahead of us, and there was no one else I wanted by my side. I didn’t know how I’d gotten so lucky; the most important thing in my life now was protecting what we had.
• • •
It was a hot, hazy, late afternoon when we finally emerged on the beach. Heat shimmered on the horizon as we collapsed in the shade.
I don’t know how long I’d been asleep before Ling nudged me awake. Panic bolted through me as I sprang up and searched for any hidden danger.
Ling looked back with a coy half-smile, and I was instantly disarmed. She stood and grazed her fingers along my stomach. “Daisy’s been taking a long bath in the creek, Professor Swift. Something tells me she wants to look pretty tonight.” She stood on her toes and pulled my collar toward her so that she could whisper directly into my ear. “You should get ready.”
She reached down and squeezed my dick hard enough to stop my breath, flirting the edge of pain. Smiling with her eyes as much as her lips, Ling kissed me on the cheek and walked away.
Slightly dazed, I moved without thinking. I headed to the toiletries bag, picked up several supplies, and headed into the jungle, where I knew the river ran slightly deeper. I stripped down and climbed into a spot where the current slowed. It was three feet to the rocky bottom with steadily moving water, which was perfect for me to wash my jeans and shirt. I left them to dry in a patch of sun next to a new set of socks and underwear, then scrubbed myself thoroughly with body wash, face wash, shampoo, and conditioner. It felt humanizing to use a real towel. By the time I’d gotten dressed, my mind had been washed just as much as my body.
I headed back to camp just as Daisy arrived, her hair dripping wet. There was no longer any point in denying how she made me feel: I was head over heels for her, and had been for some time. To be sure, that did nothing to diminish how I felt about the rest of them. I was falling hopelessly into a euphoria that thrilled me, and was completely terrified by how quickly my practical mindset had been overtaken by an emotional one.
I had never felt like this before.
And that feeling was divided four ways.
My vulnerability to them was both wonderful and more fear-inducing than anything I’d ever felt.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. All I could do was give them the very best of myself every day. I’d provided enough to get us into tomorrow, and that was enough for now. Be
cause once they had the best of me, I had the best of them.
Opening my eyes, I looked across at Daisy. Despite the trauma of the day, she was radiant. Though I felt bad about my inability to buy them new clothes, I knew that my purchase of detergent, socks, and underwear was greatly appreciated. Daisy’s clothes were now fresh and clean, but I noticed that she had decided to stay barefoot.
She stalked over to Ling, who was stoking the growing flame of the campfire. Daisy pulled her upright and smiled sadly. “You told him what to say, didn’t you?”
Ling raised an eyebrow.
“Or, more importantly,” Daisy pressed, “you told him what not to say, and when not to say it.”
Ling brushed a lock of hair from Daisy’s face, tucking it softly behind her ear.
“Ling, everything about this is… it’s just hard. But these past couple of days…”
A tear peeked its way out of Daisy’s eye. Ling wiped it away.
“You were always looking three steps ahead of me when I couldn’t see a path forward,” Daisy sighed. “I’ve been trying to figure out what I’m feeling, what I’m doing, what we’re all doing. And I finally think I understand: we’re trying to live in a way that’s impossible to do alone. So… thank you.” She folded her arms in frustration. “Do you hear what I’m saying?”
Ling pressed her hands against her own back, breathing deep and puffing out her chest.
Daisy paused.
Then she took Ling’s face with both tiny hands and kissed her, timid yet excited, as Ling wrapped her arms around Daisy’s shoulders and leaned in. Daisy melted into Ling’s embrace as their foreheads touched. Both gasped at the same time, and Daisy buried her face in Ling’s shoulder. Ling stroked her short, brown hair and rocked her gently.
Then they both faced me and smiled.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
TOC
I’d been disoriented more frequently in the past several days than in all of my previous cumulative life experience. But that moment left me spinning long after they had parted and Ling walked past me with a bright note of “time to eat!”
We sat down to a meal of dino flanks, cooked and served on sharpened sticks. The smell of the fire, the taste of the meat, the warmth of the setting sun tinged cool with a soft ocean breeze – each of these combined to forge a connection with the simplicity of the open space. I wasn’t experiencing a brief moment of nature; I was part of it.
That base essence infused each feeling, and the women around the campfire danced with every one of my heightened senses.
I watched them consume the meat, licking lips and fingers with intense hunger. They drank in not just the flavor, but the moment itself, with hungry mouths. As the sun melted into twilight, I lost the rigid edges of line and logic, feeling as much as seeing four sets of eyes: two sets of brown, one of green, one of hungry blue. I couldn’t put a specific description to my feelings as we gazed at one another over the fire. I was vaguely aware that I felt primal, and I liked it.
“I’m going to throw these bones into the ocean to stave off predators,” Jessica announced as we finished eating. “I think it’s time for bed.”
Ling grinned as she rose and disappeared into the growing dark as Sarah gave me a wistful look, stood, brushed her skirt, and departed.
I closed my eyes as Daisy’s fingers wound slowly through my hair. Wordlessly, we stood. She took my hand in hers, and we walked along the sand. “You didn’t say the things you weren’t supposed to say, but you did the things I didn’t know I wanted you to do,” Daisy sighed as she leaned her cheek against my arm.
Instead of trying to untangle what I didn’t understand, I looked up at the first stars. They had stories waiting to be told, if only someone was patient enough to hear their words.
“You can’t always be logical,” I responded, head still facing the heavens.
“Hey,” she snapped, stopping.
I looked down at her.
“Pay attention to me,” she pouted.
It was the exact sort of response that would have irritated me earlier in life. Hell, it irritated me in that moment – but it made me want her more, not less.
I smiled. “Why?”
She pinched my ass, and I grabbed her wrist in a firm, controlling grip. Daisy bit her lip and looked up at me.
She wanted to affect me enough to make me want to restrain her. Daisy needed to feel my physicality on her body; the greater the force I felt compelled to use, the more in control she was.
I tried to let go of her wrist, but it was like holding a live wire. Her pulse thrummed against my skin while mine beat faster.
I forced myself to let go, winning the tug-of-war by slackening my grip. Walking toward the ocean, I breathed in the gentle, salty breeze.
“Stop,” she commanded.
I whipped my head around and took in her figure beneath the dwindling sunlight. She was so tiny and unassuming; her slender frame looked ready to blow away at the next gust. The revealing t-shirt and shorts showed enough skin to make her appear even more vulnerable; and even though her breasts were small, they enraptured me through her shirt. Their perfect rotundity fit her body in a way that could not be honed to any greater perfection. The allure flustered me and sent my head spinning.
The past several days were bubbling up inside of me. I had tried to keep a cap on my emotions with the cool guidance of logic, but that had proven to be nothing more than a cracking dam. I’d felt guilty for hurting Daisy, angry for her choice to ignore me, and blinded by an ever-increasing lust for her that I couldn’t understand. I knew that she knew the effect she was having; I knew that I had to bottle my emotions; and I knew that she liked it. I’d thought that I could keep my tension in check, and I was correct only on a temporary scale.
In the end, we needed to face the prospect of mortality together for the simple fact that there appeared no other way to articulate the magnitude of how we affected one another.
How to put that into words?
“You’re a brat,” I snapped at her.
“I get to be a brat,” she snapped back.
The sky was red with the last rays of sun, and when I closed my eyes I still saw red. “Why?”
I opened my eyes as she stepped toward me. Without a word, Daisy pulled something from what felt like thin air.
It was the long twig.
The dam broke. All of the tension that I’d been feeling, the rejection, the longing, the agony at knowing she had control and wouldn’t let me in, being forced to hold back and do nothing when all I wanted was to express how I felt – it boiled over and spiraled my self-control away. The last straw had been the sense of entitlement with which she presented the twig, the look that said everything would continue to go according to her terms, and the complete lack of doubt that I would serve her needs on her terms, poured into the hungry kiss that I fell into as I took her in an unyielding vice grip.
Even as I pinned her arms to her sides, I could feel the smile on her lips and tongue. I smelled the vanilla and raspberry shampoo on her shoulder-length brown hair and tasted the red space between us as I lowered her to the sand.
“Wait,” she breathed.
I squeezed her arms. She gasped.
We heaved.
Her eyes found mine, drifting in and out of focus. “You want split me open, but you’re a nice guy who’s confused why you’re happy when you feel more than you think,” she whispered.
I squeezed harder. She gasped again.
“I’ll tell you a secret if you let go,” she cooed.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
TOC
For a moment, I couldn’t tell where her will ended and mine began. I released Daisy as she slithered out from beneath me and propped herself up on her elbows. “Stand up,” she ordered.
I sprang to my feet and lifted her as she yelped in surprise. Then she looked at me and moaned through a smile. “Come on,” she ordered, her hand outstretched.
> She dragged me forward as soon as my fingers were in hers. I held back slightly as she pulled. “What’s the secret?” I demanded. “Where are you taking me?”
She didn’t say anything, and I was unwilling to let go.
Daisy led me back to our campfire, which was now smoldering with flameless heat. We stopped. She looked up at the violet sky.
“Tell me your secret,” I insisted, shocked at the desperation in my own voice.