Eternal Refuge

by Annabelle McInnes

  She broke from Euan’s lips. ‘Please,’ she begged.

  Nick’s laugh was pure evil, malevolence personified. ‘Not yet, Pix. The both of us? For the first time, here? That requires a special type of preparation.’ His hand smoothed the heated skin up her spine. ‘Relax into it.’

  And so she did.

  There were growls and groans, moans and sighs. Kira panted, her breath a constant barometer for the effects of their torture. Held between them, she’d lost that slim hold on control long ago. Though as her body was manipulated with care, precision and dedication, she didn’t mind. In reality, she couldn’t think enough to care.

  There was communication between the two men that she attempted to understand. Grunts and jerks, flicks of fingers and single syllables. It wasn’t until Kira’s clit was pinched just as Nick pushed the tip of his finger into that dark untried region did she realise that they had conferred on this.

  It was coordinated, choreographed. She marshalled her senses, called heel to her sanity. She placed her palm over Euan’s grinning mouth to limit her distractions. ‘How long?’ she rasped, voice hoarse with need.

  Euan’s lips tipped up under her hand, and she could feel Nick’s chuckle rumble up her spine. ‘Pixie-Pie, we’ve waited our whole lives for this moment. Everything from the day we met you to now has been the two of us planning how this was going to play out.’

  ‘How is it going?’ she gasped as Euan rolled and worried her clit.

  Nick’s tone was casual, but his finger played the song of destruction. Her focus slipped even as he said, ‘You enjoying Euan’s face was a pleasant unforeseen alternative to our plans.’

  Kira’s laugh was breathless, her eyes closed, her spine arched. ‘I liked that too.’

  Euan removed the palm that covered his lips with his free hand. He kissed her twitching fingers before he placed it over his heart and held it there. One eyebrow rose, and with a wicked grin, something Kira had never seen across his face before, he said, ‘Too much talking.’

  Nick agreed by grunting and slowly slipped two fingers inside her prepared rear entrance. She squirmed, gasped with the stretch and burn. Out of her euphoric state, the realities of what they were trying to achieve suddenly seemed impossible. Euan’s appendage alone stretched her … Nick’s as well?

  ‘Are you sure …?’ she asked.

  Euan’s hand cupped her jaw as Nick’s fingers twisted and twirled. In and out, twist, twirl. In and out again.

  ‘Oh heavens …’ she gasped.

  Euan’s eye turned into black velvet. ‘Yes.’

  Then Nick’s fingers were gone. In a coordinated effort shown with the same precision they displayed continuously, they lifted her.

  One masculine hand notched the head of Euan’s cock to the entrance of her pussy, and with care that made her eyes burn, they let her fall.

  Until he filled her. Until Euan was everything, every shudder, sigh and motion. He owned her, destroyed her, impaled her. She was lost to sensation, to want, to need. The noise she made was guttural as she stretched around him, and she didn’t care.

  The wetness they had coaxed from her body made the penetration unencumbered. She was small, and Euan was so big, but their manipulations had been worthwhile. He was inside her to the hilt in a matter of moments.

  She tried to move on top of him, attempted to shift her hips, writhe, undulate.

  ‘Oh no, sweetheart,’ Euan crooned in her ear. ‘Now it’s our turn to hold the reins.’

  The pad of his finger circled her blood rich clit, slowly, reverently. Another rolled her nipple in his fingers with the same unhurried dedication. Each movement was measured, prolonged. He coaxed her to rock on him, while he remained inside. There was no withdrawal, just a constant nudge to that place inside that sent fireworks through her nerves and blackness to her vision.

  She didn’t know how many fingers Nick used now. In that moment, she really didn’t know anything, except for the sensation of skin on skin, the sound of the straw crackling under their moving bodies, the smell of man and musk and, unfortunately, horse. Her own arousal and their overwhelming strength to see this to its end.

  Sweat beaded on Euan’s forehead. It was slick when she pressed her own there. She kissed him, just his lips, and breathed his breath, pulled more of him inside her.

  Nick’s teeth were on her shoulder, he bit and whispered, ‘Ready, Pixie-Pie?’

  ‘Please.’

  Euan finally, finally, pinched her clit as she felt Nick place himself at her entrance. Their breaths were ragged, and their skin was slippery with sweat. When he pushed the head past that tight ring of muscle, there was a burn, a sting, the stretch uncomfortable.

  ‘Oh,’ was all she could utter.

  Neither of them moved, only their breathing could be heard.

  ‘You need to move, Pix,’ gritted Nick, the heat of his breath in her ear.

  ‘Oh,’ she said again, and did as she was told.

  She pushed back, slowly, and Nick slipped a little further inside. He’d used the copious amounts of her arousal to ease his way, and it was enough.

  Beneath her, Euan arched his neck. Thick cords of muscle pulled tight. His jaw hard as stone as he ground his teeth, his eye scrunched closed as he seemed to will God to aid him in holding himself back from taking control and moving her to his whims.

  But the manipulations on her clit never abated. Her nipple had been abandoned so that hand could be used to dive into Nick’s sweat-slick hair. Euan’s rough handling pulled Nick into a kiss right beside her. The vision made her body move involuntarily.

  They each moaned into each other’s mouths.

  ‘Fuck,’ Nick swore.

  ‘Christ,’ Euan echoed.

  ‘More,’ Kira told them.

  Green and brown turned to meet blue. She rolled her hips, her own lips parted as overwhelming sensations devoured her and repeated, ‘More.’

  They did not deny her.

  Their tongues duelled as she watched. She followed the calls of her body and pushed and withdrew between them. They were saturated with sweat, their skin slick and slippery. Kira moved finitely between them, but it was enough. Whatever she did, she knew it would always be enough.

  Then the sensation morphed from the overwhelming fullness and burn, to the pleasure. They were together again. She was between them. They were whole and forgiven.

  They were an indestructible triad once more.

  The rolling of her hips became more pronounced. Nick was deep now. The stretch acute. She needed them, and like she knew they would, they instinctively heard her silent plea, broke their kiss, and took over.

  They started slow, but it soon turned into a coordinated effort to destroy her, in the best possible way. One withdrew, the other entered. One kissed her lips, the other teased exposed skin. There were murmurs of adoration, declarations of love, lips and fingers worshipped her. Their bodies pulsed within her and eviscerated her sanity.

  She didn’t think she could come like this, the sensations too much. Until Nick’s lips were at her throat, her ear, and Euan simply rocked, teased her clit. Big hands were on her, on Nick. She arched.

  Then it happened.

  It tore from her, both from her body and from her throat. An inarticulate cry of torment and pleasure. Unencumbered, she bucked between them, demanded more, more of everything that they could offer her. But they held her, limited her movement so as not to hurt herself, and even as the crest of fire and ice and rain and sand pummelled her senses, she felt their restraint and revelled in it.

  Until Nick swore. Even in her euphoric state she heard his teeth grind as he held himself still through his orgasm, and only allowed her body to pull it from him.

  It made her love him further, she didn’t know how it was true, but she did.

  Below her, Euan’s face was the picture of torment as he waited for them to finish. He took his own pleasure with a grunt and tiny gyrations in his hips, the only relief he allowed himself.

 
; They were beautiful. So perfect and glorious. They panted, their tendons visible, muscles pulled tight, skin shiny with sweat and exertions. Teeth flashed. They grunted, they groaned, they growled.

  And they were hers. All hers. This was for them and for her, and it was so very wonderful and perfect.

  Euan spoke between panting breaths. ‘We’ll find what’s left of Mickey-O’s men. We’ll kill Parker. We’ll destroy what’s left of the men that follow him, and then, when we survive that, we’ll go back home and live out our lives together.’

  Kira squeezed him tight. The final embers of the wall between them extinguished. In its place was a slab of fortified concrete. It solidified and enhanced the foundations to their tripod. A team, indestructible. Unbreakable. Reinforced with love and adoration. Let the monsters come, let them attempt to penetrate this fortress. The enemy would lose, they would die.

  Nothing would break them now.

  Chapter 11

  Euan

  United they stood. Euan hoped it wasn’t united that they fall.

  Mist that was as thick as soup hindered the morning light. A cool grey, heavy with the chill, welcomed the day. It would hide their trail, keep their presence from watchful eyes, but it would also allow enemies to remain as unseen. Euan had watched it roll in and he was not comforted by it gloomy greeting.

  He pulled his body to his feet, stamped his boots into the solid cement and rolled his shoulders. His ass was frozen, his legs were numb and his head hazy with the lack of sleep. When he arched his back in a stretch, his spine popped and his neck creaked. He cupped his hands around his mouth and blew his breath into the cold skin. He rubbed his palms briskly together to reinvigorate feeling as well as to create warmth in his fingers.

  Another hour and he’d wake Nick and Kira.

  Then they would break camp and leave this fortuitous sanctuary. Euan was not eager to journey towards the unknown, but he knew it was necessary. They had to regroup with what was left of Mickey-O’s men. They had to end this, once and for all.

  A giggle had him turning back into the dark mouth of the open doorway. His breath misted before his face. One last glance over his shoulder at the still grassland that surrounded them and he moved inside.

  When he entered the stable, Kira was finger-combing her hair down while Nick pretended to sleep.

  ‘One more hour,’ Nick groaned as he pulled the horse-blanket over his head, which hid everything except a few golden tufts of hair.

  Euan’s lips kicked up and his gaze met Kira’s. ‘I said he could have ten minutes,’ she told him.

  The answering moan from beneath the blankets made both of them grin. ‘If we leave now, the next river we come across we’ll make time to wash up,’ Euan suggested. ‘Sound good?’

  More grumbling, until finally, Nick reluctantly pushed the blankets down from his face to peer at Euan. ‘Promise?’

  Euan jerked his chin.

  As Nick bemoaned the unfair treatment, Kira was packing up their supplies. ‘He did take the longest watch,’ she commented.

  Euan shook his head. ‘It’s his own fault. If he’d woken you when he was meant to, he’d have at least four hours sleep.’ His gaze cut to Nick. ‘Instead, he only had two. Think of it as a lesson.’

  Kira’s smile beamed and Nick’s grumbles increased.

  Euan was the last to leave their sanctuary. His pack weighed his shoulders down, but his heart was light. They had a destination, they had purpose, they had hope. The tension between them had broken, been destroyed by love. If they could make it to the mountains without being discovered, they would see the end of this road of suffering, maybe for all of mankind.

  Nick took the lead and Euan came up from behind. Kira narrowed her eyes at their unsubtle layer of protection. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it and shake her head. She wrapped her face in her black scarves, her blue eyes the only visible feature, and stomped off until they caught up.

  The grass swayed at their hips. The earth slipped under their boots. The dirt was pungent, full of new growth as the warmer months beckoned with crooked fingers. Euan’s hands played with the tips of long stalks as he passed. He pulled them from their roots, threw them as he walked. Their black fatigues were a stark contrast to their golden surroundings. Slowly the sun rose and the mist dissipated, until a cloudless vibrant blue sky with a white sun was above them.

  Euan rubbed at his eyepatch and scratched under the leather string that secured it to his head. A grumble of complaint wanted to be heard, but he bit it back. His feet ached and if he wasn’t careful where he stepped, a slice of pain would shoot up through his calf. It reminded him that his injuries were far from fully healed. But at least his nerves were working.

  At his side, Nick removed a stalk of straw from his hair. ‘Tell me again why we didn’t sleep in the house.’

  It was Kira who answered. ‘Too obvious. Even I know that.’ She smiled a cat-like smile.

  Nick threw the straw at her, only for it to catch the wind and fly into his face.

  He spluttered as Kira laughed, and Euan grunted in humour.

  The ground steadily sloped upwards. It was Nick who first noticed him lag. His blond hair was hidden from view with a scarf of his own. Green eyes sharpened at Euan before he turned his focus back up towards the rising terrain. He stopped. Kira halted beside him.

  When Euan reached them, his breath came out hard. ‘I’m fine.’

  Nick snorted and Kira pressed her lips together to stifle her smirk.

  ‘One might think you’re getting old?’ Nick said without inflection.

  Euan narrowed his eye, felt the muscles in his cheek tighten. ‘One might shut his mouth before I stick something in it to keep it quiet.’

  There it was, a flash of hunger, a flare of need in those green depths. Euan couldn’t help the smile then, hidden by his own scarf. Nick bumped his shoulder as he passed. Kira did the same.

  They reached the summit by midday. Below them, pasture, green and gold stretched out wide. Grass once used for domesticated animals now grew long without their attention. Fences bisected the land, broken and twisted and with no one to repair them, their prisoners had fled. Where they were now, was anyone’s guess. But Euan suspected it was most likely in the stomach of predators both native and introduced. Sheep and cows had not been bred to defend themselves from wolves and wild dogs.

  To their right, the mountains, their destination. A blue-green wall of trees and earth with rounded peaks that reached for the sky.

  In between them, and their end goal, was a forest of pines, a river.

  And a road.

  The black tar snaked its way through the land. Graceless, ugly, diseased. Even from this distance, the erosion was evident. The edges were lost to the landscape, the grey bisected with green and brown, where earth and vegetation had penetrated the darkness to reach the light. Its presence created a sickness in Euan’s belly. It bubbled, turned sour. Roads were harbourers of evil. Monsters and men travelled on roads.

  Euan pulled his rifle from his shoulder. At his side, Nick and Kira did the same. The easiness and comraderie of their earlier trek was gone, evaporated. They moved forward as one unit, careful, watchful. Eyes scanned, ears and focus locked onto their environment.

  Grassland turned into trees. Pasture into pine. They were careful and took their time to find their way through the close-knit forest that quickly surrounded them. The ferns of the undergrowth swished against their legs, hiding rocks and rotting logs. Each step was deliberate, careful. The air smelt of pine and earth. Euan’s fingers pulsed with his heartbeat.

  Euan knew better than to make demands. To ask them to step back, to walk behind him. They were a trio now. A hunting pack, one where they shared each other’s strength. Keen eyes, quick reflexes, sharp instincts.

  It was many hours before they heard it and the sun was high in the sky. The gurgle and hiss of water. The noise as its current dashed onwards overtook the sounds of their boots in the mud, of the birds t
hat sung overhead, of the wind that hissed through the trees.

  ‘Are we still washing up?’ Nick asked.

  Euan scanned their surroundings. The shore was a mixture of mud and rocks, the grass and undergrowth of the forest right up to the bank. There was an eddy, where the current was slower than the rest. An alcove of water where a quick dip could take place, where underwear could be washed and hair could be cleaned.

  ‘We’ll take turns to keep watch. Kira, you can go in first.’

  ‘The one time I can be glad that you are a chauvinist,’ she mumbled under her breath and moved to do exactly as she was told.

  Euan removed the pack from his shoulders and rolled the muscles, stretched and heard his bones pop. His shoulder ached, the scar pinched and stung. Euan didn’t think about his feet. He didn’t need to. The incisive scream was a constant marauding reminder.

  ‘Fire?’ Nick asked.

  Euan shook his head. ‘I have a better idea,’ he said as he bent and rummaged through his pack to remove the can of peaches Nick had discarded the day before.

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ Nick cheered as he reached for the can.

  Euan held it from his grasp.

  ‘You’re an asshole,’ Nick muttered, just as he punched Euan playfully in the stomach.

  The peaches were still in his hand as he wrapped his arm around the chuckling Nick and pulled him close to his body. ‘Yeah?’ he asked.

  Nick wheezed under Euan’s tight grip. ‘Yeah.’

  Blonde hair and the sound of splashing water caught their eye. Euan turned with Nick still trapped against him until they caught the sight of Kira as she bathed. Naked.

  That was not part of the careful, watchful, don’t get naked, tactics Euan had considered to keep them safe.

  Kira’s body glistened with the water. It lapped at her hips, caressed her soft belly, hid a precious half from view. The water shimmered brightly in the sun, golden reflections refracted off the ripples to create dancing shards of light against her pale skin.