by Marla Monroe
“Yeah, that wound on her head will get infected if we don’t close it. I’ll need your help. You know why.” They would probably have to hold her still.
“Yeah, I know.” He eased onto the bed beside her and waited for Brice to get started.
“It shouldn’t scar too bad, and it’s under your hair, so you won’t be able to see it.”
“Just do it.”
Brice made the first stick and she moaned. Garrett sat ready to grab her hands if she started to grab at Brice while he sewed. To her credit, she didn’t, though she did cry and finally pass out.
“She did well, despite passing out,” Garret said.
“She needs help, Garrett. She has animals that need to be taken care of. You up for it?”
“Sure, can’t leave them untended.”
“Her name is Ronnie.”
“Pretty name,” he said. “Will she be okay to leave her while we tend to things?”
“Yeah, throw the covers over her and let’s get going. It’s going to be dark soon.”
“I don’t like leaving her up here alone. What if she wakes up and tries to get up?”
Brice sighed. “She won’t get far with that foot like it is. It’s going to take both of us to get things done.”
They stood looking at her for a few more seconds, then turned around and left her to rest.
Chapter Two
“She’s a pretty little female,” Garrett mused. “Not tiny, really, but strong looking.”
“All that light brown hair will be pretty once she’s gotten the blood out of it. It looks like honey.” Brice grabbed a stool and a bucket and sat down to try his hand at milking a cow. Garrett’s hands were too big.
Garrett busied himself with feeding and watering the horse and the other animals, which included the chickens. He put some feed in the coop, and they all followed him. He shut them up and hitched the latch.
She had the prettiest hazel eyes, with flecks of gold and green in them. She was all curvy, just like he liked a woman. He was a big man, and didn’t like feeling like he would hurt a woman just by holding her in his arms. She had the most perfect, round ass he would love to explore. His cock had been hard ever since he’d held her. He wondered how Brice felt about her.
Ever since the year of catastrophes, when governments all over the world had collapsed, he and Brice had been a team. They’d been great friends since college but had grown even closer these last five years.
“I’ve gotten everything out here taken care of. How are you coming with milking?” Garrett asked.
“Well, the cow is a little pissed at me, but I’ve managed to get a half a bucket. I wonder how much she usually gets.” Brice sighed and continued pulling on the teats with minimal luck.
Garrett chuckled. “I’m going to go deal with that deer. There should be some good meat to eat. I’ll salvage what I can.”
“I’ll join you once I finish this.”
Garrett walked out and started on the deer. It turned out to have quite a bit of useable meat. It had hit headfirst, so not much of the shoulder was affected. Brice emerged carrying the bucket of milk and took it into the kitchen. He returned a few seconds later and helped Garrett finish stripping the meat from the deer.
“I guess we’re staying tonight,” Garrett said.
“Yeah, she can’t take care of herself like she is, much less this farm. Do you mind?”
“Nope. Don’t mind a bit. She’s a pretty lady.”
“You getting interested in her?” Brice asked, looking up.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“We don’t stick around in any one place for long. We have to keep scavenging to make a living.”
“Yeah, I know.” Garrett thought about settling down several times, but hadn’t brought it up before.
“What are we going to do with the meat now?”
“Cook some of it for supper tonight.” Garrett dropped the last piece of meat in the pan and stretched. “I’ll get rid of the carcass while you take the meat in,” Garrett said.
He dragged what was left of the deer deep into the woods and left it for the scavengers to have a feast. The smell shouldn’t reach the house as far out as he left it. He returned to the house wanting to check on Ronnie. He liked the name. It even sounded strong.
He walked into the kitchen and noticed that Brice was putting the meat into the fridge. Despite there not being any electricity.
“Figure it would stay cooler in there.”
“I’ll cook some later. I want to go check on Ronnie.”
“You’re really stuck on her, aren’t you?”
“I guess I am. I’ve haven’t been around a female not in a brothel in over five years, Brice. It’s nice for a change.”
“I know what you mean.” Brice nodded. “Go on up and let me know if I need to check on her.”
Garrett all but ran up the stairs, but slowed down to peek in the bedroom before barging in. He didn’t want to wake her up if she were sleeping. She had her head turned to the other side, so he couldn’t tell if she was asleep or not. He eased into the bedroom and she turned her head with tear-filled eyes.
“Hey, don’t cry. We’ve taken care of everything.”
“What am I going to do? I can’t work the farm like this. I’ll lose everything and starve.”
“I won’t let you lose anything. I’ll help you as long as you need the help.” Garrett couldn’t believe he’d just promised that.
“I can’t ask you to do that.” She still appeared to be uneasy around him. It bothered him.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Ronnie.” It was important to him that she believed him.
She swallowed and nodded, but nothing changed in her demeanor.
“Is there anything I can get you right now?” he asked.
“No thanks. It’s too soon for more Tylenol, so I’m just going to try to sleep some.”
“I’m going to cook some of the deer meat for supper. I’ll bring some to you when it’s ready.”
“I’m really not hungry.” She picked at the cover with her good hand.
“We’ll see how you feel later.” Garrett backed out of the bedroom, leaving her to rest.
When he returned to the kitchen, it was to find Brice sitting down at the kitchen table sipping coffee he’d boiled on the stove.
“There’s plenty more. I figure we’ll need it to watch her. I’ll have to wake her up every two hours to be sure she isn’t suffering from an even worse concussion than I think she has.”
Garrett put together a supper of deer meat, canned beans, and some bread that she obviously made from scratch. He was pleased to find that she had gas for cooking. They enjoyed the meal, and then Brice took some up to her so he could check her over. Garrett elected to stay downstairs and clean up the kitchen. He was afraid she would notice the state of his cock. It had only grown harder as the night wore on, because he couldn’t get her out of his mind.
When Brice returned downstairs, he had a plate of half-eaten food. Garrett shook his head, but figured she didn’t feel much like eating since she was still in a good amount of pain.
“Brice, I told her I would stick around until she was back on her feet. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I know you don’t like to stay in one place for long.”
“I kind of promised the same thing,” Brice confessed with a grin.
“Thanks. I just can’t leave her like this.”
“I guess I can’t, either.”
* * * *
Ronnie couldn’t stop the tears from falling every little while. She’d worked so hard to remain independent and away from prying eyes. She knew if men ever found out about her being alone they would try and claim her, or worse, steal her for the black market. So far, she’d been able to avoid that.
Now, all her hard-won independence was threatened by two men. Two really big men. They had to each be six foot seven or so inches tall. Garrett had huge hands and was built like a tank. He had short black hair,
with equally dark eyes. He scared her just by how big he was. Brice, on the other hand, was tall and lanky with a broad chest. His wasn’t as defined as Garrett’s seemed to be. He wasn’t as large as Garret, either, just tall.
Brice had sandy blond hair that fell to his collar. His eyes were a bright, piercing blue the color of a robin’s egg. They appeared to be great friends and worked well together. She wondered what they were doing in the area. Would they try and take her with them when they left? She would fight them. She didn’t want to belong to any man, no matter how much her body reacted to them.
The entire time Brice had been in the room checking on her, her nipples had burned and stood at attention. She kept the covers tight around them to keep him from noticing. Her pussy wet her panties, and she worried he would smell her arousal. It wasn’t right that these strangers should arouse her so much. She knew nothing about them. Besides, they would be moving on as soon as she managed to get back on her feet.
They wouldn’t know how to put up the deer meat. She needed to be downstairs tending to it. She might make it to the stairs, but she would never make it down them. A fresh wave of tears fell at her predicament. It wasn’t like her to cry at the drop of a hat. She was usually much stronger than this.
She heard the sounds of boots on the stairs. Garrett stuck his head around the corner of the door and grinned to find her awake.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, walking further into the room.
“My head hurts, and my wrist and ankle throb. I’m crying and can’t quit, and the deer needs processing and salting.”
“I was wondering how you preserved it. Tell me what to do, and I’ll try to handle it for you.”
“You’ve already done so much. I can’t ask you to do more work. It will be dark soon, and I know you will want to get back to wherever you were going.”
“I told you, I’m sticking around until you’re able to handle things on your own again. So tell me what to do about the deer meat.”
She swallowed and instructed him on salting and preserving the meat. “I have a cellar that stays cool. I hang the meat in there once I’ve finished with it.”
“I’ll take care of it before we come up to bed tonight.” Garrett smiled at her before turning and heading back downstairs.
* * * *
Several hours later, he finished the process and needed to clean up. The house had begun to cool down pretty rapidly now. They would have to sleep with Ronnie to keep her warm. Brice had said that with broken ribs she would be susceptible to pneumonia, and that would be dangerous without antibiotics to give her. She wasn’t going to like them sleeping with her, he was sure, he thought with a grin.
“Brice, I’m going to head upstairs and take a shower.”
“I’ll take one after you, and then we better get to bed. I have a feeling there’s more to do tomorrow. Plus, I’ll have to milk that stupid cow again.”
Garrett chuckled and took the stairs two at a time. He was eager to find out what she felt like up close, without clothes in the way. He carried his bag of things into the bathroom with him and noticed Ronnie was sleeping.
The water proved to be lukewarm at best, but helped to curb his raging dick from raring to go to mildly interested. No doubt that would change once he climbed into bed with her. He wondered how Brice was faring. Did his friend not feel anything for her? It would be the first time they had not felt the same intense arousal for the same woman. They’d shared women since back in college nearly ten years ago.
Once he was out of the shower and drying off, Brice walked in with his bag.
“She’s going to be pissed when we climb into bed with her,” Brice said.
“I know. Guard your nuts.”
Brice chuckled. “Don’t worry.”
“Should I hold off till you get out? Might make it easier if we double-team her.”
“Not a bad idea. I’ll hurry.”
Garrett walked into the bedroom in nothing but his thermal pants. He didn’t worry with the shirt. She didn’t rouse at all. He sat on the edge of the bed on her right side. He didn’t want to sleep on her left side with her ribs. Brice would be careful of them.
Twenty minutes later, Brice walked out in his thermals. It was obvious that his friend was affected by Ronnie. Brice’s thermals were tented just like his. They climbed into bed on either side of her. Ronnie roused with wide eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to bed,” Brice pointed out.
“In bed with me?”
“We’ll all stay warm better this way,” Garrett said.
“As long as you realize nothing is going to happen.” She seemed fine with sharing the bed.
“We aren’t going to hurt you,” Brice promised her.
“You’re fucking hard!” she all but yelled.
“Doesn’t mean anything.” Brice pulled the cover up higher and turned away from her, but scooted closer to her.
“Men can’t handle hard-ons without fucking someone. Are you going to fuck each other, then?”
“Not hardly, but we don’t have to have sex just because we got hard.” Garrett couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Maybe he could.
He curled up around her. “Go to sleep, Ronnie. I promise, we won’t do anything but sleep.”
She was stiff and unyielding for several minutes before she finally relaxed and fell asleep. Holding her felt so good. It felt right. It worried him that he felt that way. He wondered how Brice was feeling. He didn’t dare ask, for fear of waking Ronnie back up. She needed to rest. It would go a long way to helping her heal.
He worried she would develop pneumonia as Brice had warned. Garrett decided he didn’t need to borrow trouble. They already had plenty of that. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
* * * *
Brice lay awake for a long time. His dick was hard and throbbing. He couldn’t believe he was reacting to her like this. Sure, she was good-looking, and so much like what he and Garrett liked in a woman, but it was obvious she wanted to remain independent. Plus, they were scavengers and moved around a lot. It was how they made their living. They’d never even considered putting down roots.
He thought about milking the cow and nearly laughed aloud at his poor attempts. He’d never believed he would even try such a thing. He wasn’t the domestic type. He could admit the house was nice. If he were going to settle down, he would want something just like this, big and open and airy.
He couldn’t help but hope Ronnie would warm up to them and maybe let them love her while they were there. It had been a long time for them, and they didn’t like frequenting the brothels because the women had been sold on the black market. When they had, he and Garrett treated them really well. They never hurt them and made sure they were pleasured as well. Still, they always felt guilty and hadn’t been near one in over six months.
Brice had come by his own hand more in the last six months than he had in over six years. It was a temporary solution, but was hardly satisfying. He was sure Garrett felt the same way.
How long had Ronnie been out here on her own? As well as the farm seemed to be doing, it had to have been a while. He wondered if she lost all her family and friends in the hell that had fallen on the earth. He and Garrett had lost their entire family and their friends as well. Garrett had been serious about a woman, and she died in the plagues that followed the catastrophes. For a long time, he hadn’t spoken much. It was only in the last two years that he’d even been interested in sex.
Brice hoped that his being interested in Ronnie was a good sign, though how she would take their interest was anybody’s guess. Somehow they had to soften her up toward them. They would be there with her for a few weeks, with her in such bad shape. He still wasn’t sure if her wrist and ankle were broken or not. Without an X-ray, there was no way to tell.
He guessed they were going to learn some lessons on farm life over the next few weeks. It would be good practice for when they did settle down in one
place. Right now, though, they were content traveling around gathering goods that people needed and trading them for food and gas. That was about all they needed in their life.
Well, maybe that was all they needed. Right now, he was wondering if they needed a certain feisty little female named Ronnie.
Chapter Three
Brice had set a mechanical alarm clock and woke her up every two hours. He wanted to be sure she was lucid and not suffering any further problems. She wasn’t at all happy when he did. Each time she woke up, Garrett woke, too. Around seven, Brice got up and dressed to start the day. It would be a long one, he was sure. He had never really worked on a farm, so this would be a true adventure for him. Well, he planned to look at it as an adventure.
Garrett made it down about the time he poured up the coffee. The big man looked a little worse for wear. He imagined he didn’t look much better, considering the lack of sleep they’d both suffered.
“Morning, Garrett.”
“Morning. How do you think she’s doing?”
“I think she’s fine as far as her head goes. Her wrist and ankle both look better. I’m leaning toward their being badly sprained, and not broken.”
“What about her ribs?” Garrett pulled out some deer meat that he’d cooked the night before and began making breakfast for them.
“I don’t have any way of knowing that. All we can do is hope for the best.” Brice took a sip of the bitter coffee.
“What are the plans for the day?” Garrett asked.
“Well, first off is milking that dang cow and gathering eggs. I’ll do that part. You might want to check with her on what else needs doing. I’ve never really been on a farm before.”
“Well, I’ve done a lot of hunting and been on horses some, but I’m not going to be much help, either. Let’s just hope there isn’t a lot to it.” Garrett served up breakfast.
As soon as they finished eating, Garrett cleaned up and they walked outside to figure out what was first. By the sound of the chickens and the cow, they were late.
“I’ll check on feeding the cows and the horse,” Garrett said.