by Marla Monroe
Jessie’s long brown hair was the color of a mink coat and softer than rabbit’s fur. It almost reached to her waist. She normally kept it pulled back and braided it, making her look much younger than her twenty-one years. She had eyes the color of honey and a smile that took his heart. She had a woman’s body with curves in all the right places. He and his brother were both six feet six inches, and she fit perfectly under their chins. She was perfect for them. He just had to get Wyatt to see it.
He didn’t see anything wrong with sharing her. Maybe back before the catastrophes when there were plenty of women it would have been wrong, but now, he saw more and more men sharing their women. Of course, a lot of them had bought them on the black market. He didn’t agree with that one bit. Women weren’t commodities to be bought and sold. It was what they were fighting to keep Jessie safe from.
Finally, his mind stilled, and Kent was able to settle down and catch some sleep. They had a long day tomorrow. It would be the first of many long days, he was sure.
Chapter Two
Wyatt woke up about three the next morning and groaned. He really needed another two hours of sleep, but they needed to get a move on. He snuck down the hall past Jessie’s room to wake Kent up. His brother was instantly awake when Wyatt opened the door.
“Time to get a move on.” Wyatt backed out so his brother could dress.
He didn’t plan on waking Jessie up until they had to, or she woke up first. She needed to rest as much as possible. This was going to be harder on her than any of them. She would have to stick with them and not have any freedoms at all. Not that she had a lot here.
“What’s first?” Kent asked.
“Let’s open the front up and move any furniture we plan to take, then box up the clothes from our rooms and the food out of the kitchen. We’ll save the mattress for last so we can sleep in the back of the truck at night. Since Jessie has the king bed, we’ll use her mattress. We can’t afford to take all of them. We need the room for storing whatever we come across that we might need.”
Kent nodded and started moving the couch out of the way of the door. They worked for a solid two hours before Jessie came downstairs in sleeping shorts to see what they were doing.
“Man, you’ve moved a lot of stuff already. Why didn’t you wake me up to help?”
“Because you needed your rest. You’re still hoarse from last night,” Wyatt pointed out.
She blanched, and he cursed himself for reminding her of her ordeal.
“Come here, honey.” He wrapped her in his arms and almost groaned out loud at the feel of her breasts against his chest. God, yes, he wanted her.
“What can I do now that I’m up?”
“Get dressed and pack up all your clothes and bathroom stuff.”
He watched her run up the stairs and disappear around the landing. It was hard to believe he was only four years older than her. At twenty-four, he felt like an old man. He guessed having so much responsibility made him feel older. Kent was twenty-two and had had a crush on Jessie ever since she’d been a teenager. He’d discouraged it until now. Now he knew she was old enough, and things had changed in their lives. They would have to become a family to survive in the world now.
“Did I hear Jessie?” Kent asked.
“Yeah, I sent her up to pack her things. How much more do we have in the kitchen?”
“I’ve gotten all the canned stuff and the appliances. Do you want to take any of the frozen stuff to eat as it slowly thaws?”
“Fill a cooler with it, and we’ll see how it works. We can always cook over a fire. Which reminds me, we need to take the racks out of the oven with us to use for a campfire.”
“Good idea.”
They worked in silence, packing up their lives and everything around them. Jessie brought down a load of her things, and Kent took it from her to add to the truck. He followed her upstairs to help her with the rest while Wyatt arranged things in the truck. He checked his watch. It was closing in on six. They needed to get moving.
“How much more is there?” he asked Kent when he brought in a box.
“Not much. She packed our bathrooms up, too, so we don’t have that to finish.”
“Good girl.” He pulled her into a hug when she set her box down. “Let’s get a move on so we can get on the road.
“What about breakfast?” Jessie asked.
“I kept the cereal boxes out for us to munch on for now. We’ll see after that. There’s a six-pack of water in the front of the cab as well, so we’ll be okay.”
Jessie nodded, and for the first time, he saw real fear on her face. It wasn’t the same fear from the men who’d tried to kidnap her. It was the fear of the unknown. He knew exactly how she felt, but he couldn’t let on to her. He had to project confidence for her and Kent.
They loaded up the last box and closed the doors to the van. Wyatt latched the door, then added a padlock. He made sure Kent had a key as well in case something happened to him. They climbed up into the cab of the big U-Haul and pulled out with the trailer behind them. They had a lot of strange looks as they headed through town toward the highway, but no one tried to stop them.
Wyatt began to feel a little easier as they left the town of Holly Bluff behind them. They had a hell of a journey ahead of them, but with a little help from the good Lord, they would make it. David had marked on the map everywhere he thought there was gas along the way, so they stopped and filled up even if all they needed was a fourth of a tank. They didn’t want to end up stranded with no way to get gas.
Oddly enough, the first two places they stopped took old money as trade. They stocked up at the little station on water and canned goods, as well as snack food. They traded a thawing chicken for supper that first night in a little community about nine hours out of Holly Bluff. The woman who took it offered them a homemade meal of fried fish and potatoes along with the use of her driveway for them to bed down in the truck. Her husband hadn’t been too keen on it but shut up at the prospect of chicken for supper the next night.
Their first night was awkward. They put Jessie between them on the mattress in the back of the truck and slept on either side of her. She didn’t seem to worry about it and was almost instantly asleep. He and Kent lay awake for long minutes, trying to control their libidos and calm down after the long day of driving.
“Wyatt? Think we’ll get there in four days?”
“Don’t know, Kent. Will depend on how accurate David’s map is. He said he hadn’t gone that far, and we’ll probably want to go farther than he did. I think we’re looking at maybe five days.”
“Going to be a long five nights,” Kent said.
“Yeah, you could say that. Go to sleep. We’ve got to get going in the morning. I don’t trust that husband of hers. He wasn’t happy about us being here. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t call a friend or two to check out our things.”
“Fuck, are we ever going to be able to trust anyone again?”
“I don’t know, maybe. We don’t know how the Border Lands will be. Maybe things will be better there. Now get some rest.”
* * * *
Jessie woke before the guys did and stretched. She hadn’t slept that well in a long time. She was sure it was because she’d slept between the only two people in the world she truly trusted. It helped that she loved them, too. She’d been in love with them for the last two years. Before that, she’d had crushes on them, but somewhere along the way, she fell hard for them.
Early on she’d felt confused over feeling the same feelings for both of them. Then she figured out that they weren’t the exact same feelings. She loved different things about each of them.
Wyatt was the oldest, with shaggy black hair that reached his shoulders when he didn’t cut it. When he did, it curled at his ears. Right now, it was long again. He had the darkest eyes she’d ever seen. They were so black she could see herself in them. He had a dry sense of humor and tended to reprimand her when she got out of line.
Kent, o
n the other hand, was more laid back and often got in the middle of her and Wyatt when they knocked heads over something. He was equally handsome, with black hair that was straight and cut close to his head. He actually did it himself with an electric trimmer. He’d often threatened to cut Wyatt’s hair with it on several occasions. His eyes were a rich hazel, with more brown flecks than green. They seemed to change colors with his moods.
Both men were broad shouldered, with tapered waists and delightfully rounded asses. They had strong legs the size of tree limbs, and since she’d been living with them for five years, she’d had reason to see them in every stage of dress and undress, so she knew all about their cocks. She dreamed about their cocks. They each sported a hefty package between their legs that would rival a porn star.
Sadly, though, they didn’t seem to see her as a woman. They were still stuck in her teenage days, and it drove her crazy. She wanted them to notice her as a woman, one with needs that only they could fill. One day, though. She would get through to them that she wasn’t some shrinking violet that wouldn’t know what to do with them if they came on to her. She knew what she’d do. She’d jump their bones.
“Kent? Can you hear me?” She touched his shoulder. He immediately rolled over and grabbed her. She screeched.
“Hell, Jessie. Don’t scare me like that.”
“Scare you? All I did was call your name.”
Wyatt yawned and turned irritated eyes toward them.
“What is going on?”
“Don’t we need to get up and get on the road?” Jessie asked them.
Wyatt looked at his watch and cursed. It was late. He scrambled out of the covers and started pulling on clothes. Kent did the same thing. Jessie watched them with lust in her thoughts, then grabbed her things and walked to the front of the truck where there was a separation of sorts made up of furniture. She changed out of her sleeping clothes into jeans and a T-shirt. She grabbed a jacket and shrugged into it because it was a bit cold this time of morning. Spring hadn’t quite sprung yet.
When she came back out, the men were dressed and shoving the mattress back toward the other furniture.
“Let’s get up front, Jessie,” Kent said, taking her hand.
Wyatt jumped down from the back and held up his arms to help Jessie down. She loved how strong he was. It felt good to be held by him. Kent jumped down from the truck, and they closed and locked the latch into place. Wyatt checked to make sure the trailer was still properly hooked up and climbed up in the cab of the truck beside them.
“Okay, let’s get on the road again. We’ll stop at the next place and see about breakfast.” Wyatt pulled back out onto the highway.
Jessie had never seen anything like it. There were abandoned cars all along the road. At least the road was clear in most areas. Sometimes they had to drive around a car or truck, which always made her nervous. She kept expecting to see skeletons in them and didn’t want to freak out around the men. They already thought of her as a helpless girl.
They drove through several small towns that looked deserted, but Wyatt didn’t want to stop at any of them since they weren’t marked on the map by David as safe places. Finally, around ten that morning, they pulled into a city that was marked on the map as basically deserted. This was one of the places that David suggested they do some scavenging.
Wyatt drove through the streets, often having to drive up on sidewalks to get around vehicles in the roads. He found a small grocery store and pulled in close to the doors. They looked all around but didn’t see any wolves or other animals anywhere.
“Jessie, stay in the truck with the doors locked while we check it out. If there’s any trouble, honk the horn.” Wyatt looked over at Kent and nodded.
She watched them climb out of the truck and lock the doors behind them. They slowly walked toward the doors and pushed at the door. It actually opened. They looked back at her and kept on going until they disappeared inside the building. She waited and waited for what seemed like hours before Kent walked out and signaled that she could some in. As she climbed out of the truck, he reminded her to walk slowly and not run.
“There could be wolves watching us. Just walk slowly.”
“Is there anything much left?” she asked when she reached Kent.
“Yeah, quite a bit of good stuff. Here’s a cart. Go up and down the aisles and grab whatever you think we need that isn’t out-of-date. We’re starting on the opposite side. Make sure there aren’t any bugs crawling around on it or around it.”
“Ew, gross.”
He laughed and left her with her cart to search his assigned area. Jessie took the cart and began scanning the contents of the aisle she was in. She grabbed all the canned foods she could reach, paying close attention to expiration dates. The meats were closer to expired than the vegetables. She even found some non-expired tuna fish. She moved on to the next row and felt like she’d hit the jackpot. It was the canned fruit row. She loaded up on everything that appeared to still be good.
Kent wheeled his full cart over to her and took a look. He smiled and pointed to his bounty.
“I’m going to load this up and be back to grab yours next. Fill it up, girl.”
Jessie redoubled her efforts to have a full cart by the time he got back to her. When he did, he traded her full cart with his empty one. With what could only be called a mischievous expression, Kent leaned in and kissed her. She opened to him without thought and welcomed his tongue with hers. They teased each other for a few seconds, then Kent pulled away with a sigh. Jessie licked her lips, enjoying the taste of him.
A few minutes later, Wyatt walked up with a cart full of water.
“How are you all doing?” he asked.
“Fine. I’ve emptied my buggy, and I’m about to go empty hers. She’s got two more rows to go down, and then we’ll be finished here.”
“Hurry it up, baby. We need to check out a sporting goods store for supplies.”
Jessie all but ran up and down the aisles, grabbing things as she went. When she got to the pharmacy area, she grabbed every pain reliever they had and all of the cold and cough remedies. Then she grabbed all the first aid supplies she had room for on the cart. She even stuffed things under the buggy. When she wheeled it over to the front of the store, Wyatt’s eyes got big and he grinned.
“You are a typical woman. You like to shop.”
She punched him in the arm and helped him unload it into containers and milk crates from the back of the store to carry outside. By the time they had finished, she was exhausted. She realized she was going to have to toughen up to make it in their new world. She didn’t want to be a burden on them.
They stopped at a sporting goods store next and loaded up on all the guns and ammunition they could find. It was obvious that someone else had been through things there. Jessie grabbed coats and boots in all their sizes, as well as camping gear. They finished off with a few fishing items and decided that was plenty.
“Let’s grab some gas and then get back on the road. We’ve got another three or four hours of sun left,” Wyatt said.
Jessie climbed back in the cab of the truck and scooted over to sit up against Wyatt while she waited on Kent to climb in behind her. Wyatt pushed her over and gave her a strange look. She didn’t let it faze her. She was going to figure out a way to get them to see her as a woman one way or another.
“Okay, last stop, gas and maybe snacks if they have anything that’s not out-of-date.” Wyatt started the big truck and drove to what looked to be an old truck stop.
Inside, nothing was left other than a few dry goods. The good thing was that the place still had electricity, so they were able to get gas. They would eat off of what they had with them and keep driving.
“There isn’t another town safe to stop in for another four or five hours’ driving time.” Kent folded the map back up and returned it to the glove compartment. “Planning on staying in one of them for the night or sleeping on the road?”
“We’ll look at
the town and decide once we see it. I don’t know. I’m leaning more toward staying on the road.”
“Why don’t you want to stay in a town?” she asked.
“Because I don’t know what their needs are. They might want the truck, or they might want you. Remember what we told you. You’re our wife.”
“I wish,” she mumbled. If Wyatt heard her, he didn’t let on.
They stopped at the next little town and decided they could park in the old Walmart parking lot for the night. No one seemed the least interested in them except when they wanted to barter for gas and food.
They climbed in the back of the truck and set up the mattress with sheets and a blanket and climbed under the covers. Jessie shivered and complained about being cold. Kent moved in closer and wrapped an arm around her.
“Hell, Jessie, you’re like a block of ice. Wyatt, squeeze in next to her. She’s really cold.”
Jessie breathed a sigh of contentment when Wyatt hugged up next to her on the other side. It felt so good to have them so close to her. She’d take being cold anytime if it meant having them surrounding her like this.
“Jessie, turn on your side and wrap and arm around Kent’s waist. I’ll hold you from back here and keep you warm.”
Jessie curled around on her side and snuggled up close to Kent, wrapping her arm around his waist and nudging his neck with her nose.
“Damn, your nose is even cold.”
Wyatt spooned her from behind. She could feel his warm breath on the back of her neck. It warmed things deeper inside of her. Her pussy gushed in hopes of relief from the constant barrage of sexual need. She hated to tell it not a chance, but she knew Wyatt. If he even thought she was getting her jollies out of being held by them, he would put an end to it. She had to play it safe and behave—for now.
Chapter Three
Early the next morning, Jessie woke with the unmistakable feel of a hard cock pressed against her ass. She froze, unsure of what to do. A change in her breathing must have alerted Wyatt she was awake.