Survival: A Military Stepbrother Romance

by Lauren Landish

  It took me close to fifteen minutes, but by the end, we had a cheery campfire ready, with a large stock of wood laid up nearby. “If you can, spread out the sleeping bags and pads,” I asked as I brushed off my knees. “I’ll go get more wood. We shouldn’t need it, but if we hear any animals, a larger fire will keep them away.”

  While I was gone, Robin worked, laying out our bags and arranging them pretty similarly to the way we had them the night before. I was gone about five or six minutes at most, gathering up another fat armload of wood. When I came back, I saw that she had zippered our bags together, a warm feeling spreading through me at the sight. We had only had sex once, and I will admit that the entire day was one of the best of my life, even with the little spat we had, but seeing Robin arranging our bags like that was the icing on the cake. Stepping back into the firelight, I dropped my armload on the ground and inspected her work. “It’s good, but turn the heads sideways. I’m going to sleep on the far side tonight, and you can sleep closer to the fire.”

  Robin blushed slightly and nodded, adjusting the bags. I got out our gathered food and one ration pack, dividing it up between us, making sure Robin got the yummier bits. “If we keep this up, food is going to be no problem,” I happily said, handing her half of the gathered berries and other food, along with part of the packet of rations. “I’d save a chunk of the berries for the morning though, rations alone suck for breakfast.”

  We shared our dinner while gazing silently into the fire. It felt normal, a lot like the vacation I had originally planned, and the fire added a nice touch to the atmosphere. “Thank you,” she finally said, crunching on the last bite of her cracker.

  “For what?” I asked, chewing on a berry. “For getting you lost in the Canadian Rockies?”

  “For being brave enough to love me, even when I didn’t want to admit the truth,” Robin said, kissing me. “Now, are you joining me in the sleeping bag or what?”

  I could kiss Robin forever, but my body needed something else right then. Grinning, I shook my head. “Not yet. I gotta take care of nature’s call first. Thankfully, I can pee standing up.”

  Robin laughed. “Well, regardless, no offense, but as much as the spirit is willing, the body is weak after that hike. I will most likely be asleep when you get back.”

  Kissing her quickly, I chuckled and nodded. “Yeah, me too.”

  As I wandered off into the darkness, I kept close, just far enough away that I had a bit of privacy as I peed against a tree. I could still see Robin though as she pulled off her boots and stripped down to her thermals, rolling her clothes into a pillow that she stuffed into her jacket. She was learning quickly, and her brains were becoming an asset. It took me three nights as a soldier to figure out that same trick in the field. She was shivering when I came back, but still dropping off to sleep when I joined her. I wrapped her up in my arms and buried my nose in her dark, beautiful hair. I don’t know how much longer I was awake, but it wasn’t long, although I am sure I at least kissed the top of her head before sleep overtook me as well.

  Chapter Six

  Robin

  I woke up the next morning as stiff as a board. I felt positively ancient, and most of my body was groaning in pain, especially my legs and my lower back. This is what hiking all day felt like? How in the hell was I supposed to even get out of our sleeping bag, let alone make my way down a bunch of lakes to civilization?

  My groan of pain woke up Wes, who was about the only good thing about that chilly, clear morning. His right arm was still around my waist, and I appreciated the feeling of his strong arm around me. If we had been in a regular bed, I would have been all over him, a day’s worth of grime and sweat on us or not. As it was, even thinking of turning over to kiss him filled me with pain.

  “Stay here. I’ll get the fire going, and we can at least warm up and eat breakfast,” he said as he got up. Somehow, he was able to slither his way out of the top of our shared sleeping bag without opening the zipper, and I was able to greet the morning with the sight of my six foot four, very handsome stepbrother squatting down to start the fire, his nicely toned ass just about two feet from me, wearing nothing but some thermal underwear and combat boots. I reached out and pinched it, laughing when he started and jumped up, mock outrage on his face. “Hey, that’s sexual harassment!”

  “Emphasis on the ass,” I retorted, snuggling deeper into the bag. With him gone, the temperature difference was already evident. “Now, are you going to get the fire going or not?”

  Wes did, finding some embers and coals deep in the bed that were still warm. He nursed them back into a small fire, nowhere as big as last night, but still helpful. From there we divvied up our so-called breakfast and got dressed. I was surprised when he didn’t start packing his gear immediately, however, but instead went over to a clear section of ground, calling me with him.

  “Warm-ups,” he instructed. “Our bodies aren’t used to this right now, and we need to make sure we don’t pull a muscle or something. There isn’t exactly a medic or even any Advil around if we need it.”

  “You’re joking,” I replied, rolling my eyes as he shook his head. “You’re serious?”

  “Totally. Come on.”

  What followed seemed like agony at first, even though I do warm up whenever I go to the gym. I always hated doing them, though. I knew it was necessary, but I thought it made me look silly. Starting with gentle high knee stepping, we swung our arms, twisted our torsos, and even did some jumping jacks and squats before he was satisfied. I have to admit, by the end I didn’t feel elderly anymore, just a bit worn out. You’d be amazed at how much of our modern feeling of refreshment depends upon a shower and coffee.

  After the exercise, Wes and I broke down our campsite, which thankfully didn’t require a lot. I was responsible for burying the fire pit with lots of dirt, since we didn’t have any extra water and we didn’t want to start a forest fire. It was harder than it seemed at first, and it took me a while to scrape up enough dirt that wasn’t filled with pine needles, sticks, and other easily burned material to bury the fire well. I did have to laugh when Wes helped by peeing on the fire after I had tossed some of the dirt on it. Chalk up another advantage to his having a penis.

  We started off slow, Wes keeping his eyes out for more food supplies as we walked. We had covered about three-quarters of the distance he had originally planned, and we guessed we had about a ninety minute walk before we reached the first lake that he had targeted on his map. I was glad we were pretty close, because I was already a bit thirsty and looked forward to filling our water bottles with water drawn through our filters.

  About thirty minutes after we started, Wes stopped, holding up his fist in a sign I had seen in enough movies to know it meant stop. I was about three feet behind him and froze, not sure what he wanted me to do next. Turning his head, he grinned at me and held a finger to his lips, waving me forward. I stepped forward carefully until I was right next to him. “Look about a hundred meters in the direction I’m pointing,” he whispered, gesturing with his hand. “We’re lucky we’re downwind of him, or else we’d never have gotten this close.”

  Following his hand, it took me a moment before I recognized what I saw. It was a majestic deer, in full late autumn splendor, his antlers wide and full. Watching him munch on the bushes nearby, I was awestruck. It was so different than watching on television. Even though he was farther away, I could see details that you never really notice on TV, like how his fur was clumped on one side, or how his muscles seemed to be constantly trembling. The moment only lasted a minute or so before something made a noise, and the buck looked around and noticed us. I took a step back in surprise, and that was all it took for him to take off through the woods. “That was amazing.”

  “Next time, don’t move. If he doesn’t smell you, he won’t notice you,” Wes said to me with a smile. “They see by detecting movement, not pattern. Stand as still as a statue, and you’d have a chance of him walking right up next to you.”
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br />   We kept going, Wes stopping to check out the bush the deer had been nibbling at and pulling off a berry to taste. He spat it out quickly and wiped his mouth. “Damn, that’s bitter. Don’t think it’s dangerous, but I am in no way eating that.”

  It took us until mid-morning to reach the lake, and by the time we did, I was glad. Our canteens were empty, and we had walked out of the snowy areas, which meant we couldn’t even get clean snow to melt. While we weren’t desperate yet, I was really getting thirsty and was overjoyed when we stopped and took off our backpacks. Wes rooted around and pulled out what he called the Survival Straws.

  “We can drink right from the lake with them if we want,” he said. Taking out one of the thick plastic bags we used for our rations, he filled a bag up with lake water. I was suspicious at first until he stuck the straw in, and started sucking. I watched as the brownish-green water went up the first half of the straw, a flexible hose sort of thing, before going through the filter, only to come out clear on the other side before disappearing into his mouth. Wes took a big drink before sighing and handing me the straw. “Each straw can filter a thousand liters of water before we need to change the filter, and even more if we partially purify the water by boiling it first.”

  I sucked on the straw, and found that drawing the water through the filter was kind of like drinking a semi-thick milkshake. I wasn’t giving myself any brain embolisms, but it wasn’t as easy as drinking a lemonade at a restaurant. Still, the icy cold water flooded my mouth, and I sucked hungrily, taking deep draws of water until almost the entire bag was gone.

  Wes took our big water bag, a three-liter thing that had been empty since yesterday, along with the straw and a little pump from his pack over to the edge of the lake to fill them up. I took the time to observe the water, and I felt my heart catch again at the beauty as the mid-morning sun glinted on the water.

  Wesley

  After I finished filling the water bag, I turned around to see Robin still awestruck by the natural beauty of the wilderness we were in. She was standing still, her knit cap halfway off of her head, just watching peacefully as nature unfurled in front of her. It was the look I had hoped to put on her face when I had invited her to come out here with me. I swear, I had no intentions of trying to seduce her. It just happened, although I’m glad that it did.

  I let her watch the lake for another few minutes while I filled both of our canteens and put them back in our bags. We now had five liters of water, but more importantly we were right next to hundreds of thousands of gallons of fresh lake water, glacier fed and icy cold. The lake would lead us to another, and another, and another, until we eventually reached somebody who could help us. Even better, it was now almost impossible to get lost; all we had to do was follow the shoreline to our destination.

  “Hey, you okay?” I asked after strapping in the last bottle and finding her still staring out at the lake. “You look a bit stunned.”

  Robin nodded, pulling her knit cap the rest of the way off to hold in her gloved hand. “This is beautiful, Wes. I can see why you like coming out here when you can.”

  She reached out to take my hands, and we stood side by side, watching. “I guess I started because I thought about what made me happy in the military,” I said, for the first time unburdening myself of the things I’d carried inside for years. “And I realized, regardless of whether I was in Kabul, Mosul, or back in North Carolina, the thing I loved most was the nature. The Earth doesn’t really care about us, as arrogant as we are. Nature’s masterpieces make anything any human artists created look amateur and silly. All we seem to be able to do is destroy, not create.”

  Robin blinked and turned away from the vista to look at me, her black eyes deep and accepting, knowing I had something more to say. “Tell me what happened.”

  “It was my last deployment, when I was in Iraq,” I said, feeling my mind going back into time. “We were in the Green Zone, ironically, supposedly in the safe area where we could at least partially relax. Pete Townsend and I were doing a simple buddy patrol of the streets along with one of the Baghdad cops. Pete was my squad leader, and was one of those guys you just knew was going to end up on TV for either doing something stupidly heroic, or just plain stupid and getting court martialed. Pete was single, thank God, because no woman could put up with his shit for too long, but with us guys, he was awesome. He broke rules, and the Lieutenant was constantly on his ass, but Pete was a good guy and had a good heart.”

  “Anyway, we were walking down the street when this little kid—couldn’t have been older than maybe nine or ten—comes up to Pete. Pete was a sucker for kids, and always had some candy or something for them. It kind of became a trademark of his. This kid, though, pulled a pistol from under his shirt and shot Pete. We were wearing body armor, so he should have been fine, but this kid was so weak he couldn’t control his aim, and his second shot hit Pete right in the femoral artery. I couldn’t even get my damn field bandage out before he bled out on me. Meanwhile, the Iraqi cop we were working with unloaded on the kid, blowing him away. It was then that I just knew I had to get away. When my time for re-enlistment came up a month later, I turned them down.”

  Robin watched me for a few seconds, then in a move that totally surprised me, she pulled me in for a deep kiss. Her tongue was soft and supple in my mouth, nowhere near as demanding as when we first made love, but just as arousing, if only because it was so tender. We kissed for what seemed like ages before she broke contact, her arms around my neck, her forehead against mine. “Whatever it was, whatever has happened, I love you and am glad you are here with me now.”

  We kissed again, more passionately than before, and suddenly we were pulling at each other’s clothes, finding zippers and buttons and opening them. It was still too cool for us to strip totally naked, but I didn’t care, I needed Robin then and badly. My lips found her neck, kissing and licking the tangy sweat from her skin, relishing the slightly salty flavor. We were both dirty, but we didn’t care. I pulled her to the soft forest floor, relishing the soft weight of her breasts in my hands. Rubbing my thumbs over her nipples, I grinned as she squirmed.

  I had noticed the first time that Robin had sensitive breasts, and I wanted to explore that as much as I could. She had already pulled off her field jacket, so I lifted her warm shirt and undershirt, pushing them up over the tops of her breasts. They were a wonderful C cup that I’d always thought were perfect, and they fit my hand perfectly. Her sports bra actually fastened in the front, a feature I took advantage of to free them to my hands, softly pinching her nipples as soon as they were visible.

  Robin started crying out, mewling sounds of total arousal that spoke straight to my cock, which was aching inside my pants. My belt was loose but the pants were still up, our hips grinding against each other through the fabric. “Oh fuck, Wes, yes!” she cried when I pulled her down into my hungry mouth, licking and sucking on her right nipple. “Make me come!”

  I kept sucking, letting Robin grind herself on top of me until she stiffened, her sharp cry of climax echoing across the lake. If there was anyone in the area, they would have heard us for sure. When she came down, Robin grinned at me and got off of my hips. My disappointment lasted only seconds, though, as she unbuttoned her pants and pulled them down enough for her ass to come into view, which she promptly turned around and wiggled at me. “Well, cowboy, you going to ride or not?”

  Robin was almost as tight as she was our first time in the plane, which wasn’t helped by the fact that her thighs were somewhat pinned together from her pants still being partially on. I eased into her as slowly as I could, holding myself in as tight a control as possible given the circumstances. My hands went to her waist, and I started thrusting in and out. Each stroke was like heaven to me, a rippling soft vise that massaged my cock from head to base with every stroke. “Robin . . . ”

  I just didn’t have the words, not without sounding nasty or obscene, which I didn’t want to do with her. Instead, I let go of her waist to sli
de my right hand up to her breast again, tweaking her nipple. She pushed back into me, and I almost lost it right then, it felt so damn good. I’ve always loved Robin’s hips, and the sight of my cock disappearing into her from behind was so erotic that I felt my mind slipping, losing control.

  “Harder,” she moaned, and I responded, my hips speeding up while my fingers pinched harder and were joined by my left hand over her other nipple. The movements lifted her upper body up some, which I promptly pressed back down into the pine needle carpet of the forest, hammering her harder and harder. I couldn’t stop myself, my cock needed a release so desperately. Besides, she was loving it, her wails coming more and more loudly with every slap of my hips against hers, and I felt myself reaching the tipping point.

  I’ve never understood the pleasure some guys get from riding that edge of orgasm, trying to delay the moment. I mean, the edge is painful in my experience, where your nerves are lit up to the point of overload, and it seems like even the wind rustling through your hair is both pleasure and pain. Finding myself on the precipice, I thrust one last time, my cock shooting deep within her. I could hear myself growling, my fingers tightening maybe painfully on Robin’s breasts and nipples, but she kept moaning in pleasure as I emptied myself into her.

  When it was over, I knew she was still on the edge, so I rolled us both to the side, my right hand dropping between her legs to rub her clit while I kept my cock inside her. Between my left hand on her breast, my right on her clit and my cock still twitching inside, she came again quickly, this time her voice failing her as she stared out at the lake, stunned, with her mouth open.

  Chapter Seven