Eternal Refuge

by Annabelle McInnes

  ‘Well fuck me,’ Nick muttered.

  Euan’s lips were at Nick’s ear. ‘Feel like washing up?’

  Nick’s breath escalated. ‘Thought you said one of us should keep watch?’

  Kira’s fingers were delicate flowers that trilled over the surface. They dipped and splashed. There was a curve to her lips as she hummed a tune long lost to the humanity’s demise. Her hair was slick against her skull, her breasts were high, her nipples tight and Euan’s throat contracted as it swallowed.

  Nicks chest rose and fell under his hand. The cloth rasped as he took each breath. Euan’s hand travelled until he could press his fingertips to the pulse at Nick’s neck. He enjoyed the heightened thrum as it beat for them.

  They watched in silence, each drinking their fill of the woman who gave them hope, courage. Her shoulders were as pale as her hair, a bead of water nestled in the hollow of her created by her collarbone. Euan wanted to lick it, taste the nothingness of the water, and the everything of her skin.

  Euan’s other hand travelled downwards until it reached the waistband of Nick’s pants. When he groaned in anticipation of Euan’s intention, Kira looked up. Bright eyes turned hungry, that smile stretched into a grin. White teeth shone back at him, almost as dazzling as the water.

  Nick’s belt was undone with a jerk and a swipe. His fly down and his dick out before he could jerk free of Euan’s grip. They both groaned when skin touched skin. How long had it been since Euan had held Nick like this? Weeks? Before he’d left to be butchered.

  Nick was already hard and Euan squeezed. The grunt was music, better than any pre-plague tune, even if it came from Kira’s lips. ‘Stay very still for me, Nicky,’ Euan whispered in his ear before he removed the hand from Nick’s chest and used it to pull his fatigues down beyond his hips.

  Christ, that ass. He just had to stare at it for a few heartbeats. Hard as rock, tight, hollowed at the sides where he rocked carefully into Euan’s hand. He missed it, Christ how he’d missed it. But that abstention was now over.

  The watch was important, but so was that ass. Euan licked his lips and decided that he’d keep his eye on their surroundings and ensure they remained quiet.

  Maybe.

  His focus left what was before him and lifted to reach Kira. Pupils were blown, her lips were parted with desire, glossy from the swipe of that kitten-like tongue. When she walked out of the river, the water dribbled down her skin in rivulets, trickled over her hips, lost to the small patch of hair between her thighs. She tasted so sweet there, and his mouth watered at the thought.

  Nick’s greedy eyes devoured her also, his hips rocked, kicked up their pace. Euan hardened his grip and Nick grunted. Fuck, he loved that sound.

  She was almost upon them, her feet dirty with mud and sand. Euan tore off his shirt and threw it onto the ground at Nick’s feet. ‘Kneel,’ he told her and said no more.

  He didn’t have to.

  Both Nick and Kira groaned in unison. In an instant, Kira was on her knees, her fingernails digging into the taut flesh of Nick’s thighs and her mouth, so desperately close to the erection that Euan held out of her reach.

  ‘Nick’s gonna fuck your face while I fuck him, think you can handle that, sweetheart?’

  Her attention never left the dick in his hands. She simply licked her lips and nodded.

  ‘Stay still for me,’ Euan warned before he let Nick go to unbuckle his own belt and remove something precious out of his pocket.

  A small tube of lube.

  He’d packed it quietly. Hidden it deep within his backpack when there had been no hint that they might heal the rift between them. But it had been thoughts of their love, his adoration for Nick, and being able to act on those feelings again that had forced his hand, moved him to take the chance. He missed Nick, he missed the tight embrace of his body and the beauty that the man he loved could provide in his hand. He desired nothing more than to watch Nick buck and swear, lose his sense of self and reason. To hear Nick cry out, grunt and curse. To watch him come down Kira’s throat, to see her swallow his essence.

  He wanted nothing more than to hold onto what they had once had.

  His painful erection broke free and honed his focus. He pumped it once, relished the warmth of his hand against the chill of the air and then used two hands to lube up his fingers.

  He was going to enjoy this. So much.

  ‘Now, Kira,’ he said.

  The jerk of Nick’s body hid nothing. Her attention was immediate. The groan that vibrated through Nick’s chest reverberated through his. When he slid his glossy fingers into the crease of Nick’s ass, the man bucked into Kira’s mouth and she hummed in appreciation. Euan’s smile stretched the skin at his cheek. In that moment, he enjoyed the hurt.

  There were no demons to be fought, not within Nick. Those monsters were dead, buried, their carcasses had long rotted and decayed. Only love and excitement radiated from the man in his arms as he played with that tight ring of muscle, and listened to the song he sang, but Euan still took care and kept his senses attuned to terrors that might waylay them.

  When he slipped his fingers inside the man he loved, his focus contracted to that single point. Warmth, tightness. Nick’s was tense, even with Kira’s focus. He pulled Nick’s torso close to his chest and bent down until his lips could touch the skin at his neck, trail his tongue up and around the whirls of his ear. ‘I love you, Nicky. Love you so fucking much, I’ll never leave you again, never hurt you like that again, I swear it.’

  Nick’s hitch of breath had nothing to do with the tongue that laved his cock, or the mouth that swallowed that enormous erection as if it were nothing more than a candy cane. Kira’s eyes were closed, her hands worked in time with her mouth, Nick had no hope of escape.

  ‘Nicky? Hear me?’

  Nick nodded as Euan played and Kira sucked. He pumped his fingers, twisted, scissored, stretched the muscle as Nick finally relaxed into what was happening between them. A sigh was followed by a shudder. Euan delved deep with his fingers, added a third for good measure before he pulled out. More lube went onto his hand as his mouth continued to kiss and lathe. Nick’s hips bucked, his breath was ragged. His eyes were scrunched tight.

  Euan placed his erection at the entrance to Nick, waited for the tension to ease out of his body before he said, ‘You gonna wait for me?’

  ‘Always,’ was the hoarse reply.

  His word lanced through Euan’s chest, and even through the pain it created, he pushed forward. Heat, a grip that could make him cry. One hand was in Kira’s wet hair, the other wrapped around the man he loved for both balance and comfort.

  Christ, he loved them. He loved them both so fucking much.

  He moved, his hips slow. Nick’s body vibrated with suppressed want between them. Euan could sense Nick’s need to buck into Kira’s mouth, but he was holding back. Euan pinched a flat nipple and his trembling escalated, his skin slick and hot. Euan wouldn’t have it, his restraint aggravated, and by the annoyed glint in Kira’s eye, she wouldn’t have it either.

  ‘Fuck her, I want to see it, hear it. So does she.’

  ‘Jesus,’ was the curse, but Nick did as he was told. The gates that held his control burst open, and he began to rock between them. The thrust and draw was exquisite, glorious. Euan struggled to hold himself back. He spread his legs as wide as his pants would allow, and planted his feet firmly into the wet earth so he could be their rock, their safeguard against everything.

  They swayed, they grunted, they moaned. Kira’s gasps for air were periodic as she lathed attention and devotion onto Nick. It felt as though hours passed. An infinity in seconds. But the reality was far less endearing.

  Euan shifted his hips, hit that place inside Nick that made him cry out, kick into Kira without control. A beast was in Euan’s arms, an animal that sped towards a cliff, the pinnacle where darkness ended, and light began. Euan braced, clenched his teeth for the violence that approached.

  Mere moments and an inarticu
late cry burst from Nick. His body no longer his own as he bucked between them and began to come. Euan was not far behind. They rode the wave of pleasure, swearing, grunting, whispering words of devotion and love until Nick’s knees trembled and Euan’s body sagged.

  Kira backed off and smiled with swollen lips as she swallowed the last of Nick. She sat on her haunches eyes bright with need and desire, with love. Skin flushed, nipples pointed, knees parted just enough for Euan to see what lay between. He licked his lips in anticipation, stroked his hand down Nicky’s slick chest and made one final thrust with a softening cock, just because he could.

  The breath in Nick’s throat caught. Kira’s grin widened.

  So fucking beautiful. Both of them. He was surrounded by new life. The forest waking from a long winter. Green buds lined their spindly branches as armaments to spring. Blossoms emerging on the saplings, pink and red and white. The air crisp with the scent of a rich soil and emerging growth. The sky was filled with grey cloud, but to Euan, it only signalled the chance for sustaining water to nourish the earth.

  Yet, nothing compared to Nick and Kira. Marble statues of Venus, artistic representations of the perfect man, pictures of celebrities long lost to a plague and time. Nothing compared. Nothing.

  Except maybe Kira on her back, her spine arched, eyes closed to the sky and lips parted, her senses lost to her own pleasure.

  That would certainly be more beautiful.

  Care was paramount when he withdrew from Nick. As he held him close for balance, he bent his head, kissed the shell of an ear and whispered, ‘It’s not over yet, Nicky, feel like eating a little sun-sprite for lunch?’

  Nick’s huff was laced with exhausted laughter. ‘Oh, yeah.’

  They were on her like two rabid beasts. Attention for comfort was lost now, but not for their surroundings. His eye might have been focused on the woman he manoeuvred onto her back in the grass, but his ears were attuned to the trees.

  There was no preamble, no restraint. Both their heads descended to take her. She gasped when not one, but two tongues and two sets of lips shared the taste of her.

  Nick’s fingers were inside her, curled upwards to rub and stroke. Euan’s pinched and worried a nipple. Her skin was feverish under their palms that stroked, teased and tormented. When she came with a stifled cry, they both sucked her clit through a shared kiss.

  Heaven. On. Earth.

  And it was, no other way to describe it. Their future held men, monsters and demons. They were to fight a battle for their love, for their lives, for the human race. They were to arm themselves with weapons for war, to battle for righteousness, femininity, and for the privilege to be human. They would stake their lives on an outcome for morality, for decency.

  But not in this moment. This moment was to savour, enjoy. Euan didn’t know when another time of reprieve would come. If ever at all.

  As he kissed her down from her euphoric high, he committed her taste to memory, her scent. The suppleness of her skin and the sting of her nails on his scalp. He understood the need to hold such innocuous treasures deep and dear. Those were the thoughts that kept a man from drowning, kept his heart beating, his mind clear and concise. Those were the thoughts that kept a man alive when all others failed. A man did not pray for riches in his darkest hours, he prayed for one more kiss, one more touch.

  He should know, he’d made those final entreaties to apathetic gods himself.

  Nick rolled onto his back and Euan sat on his haunches. Kira’s chest rose and fell in exaggerated pants. Her fine-boned hands rested listlessly on a belly that fluttered with aftershocks. ‘Do I still get my bath?’ She sighed with a face tilted towards the sky.

  Euan scanned the trees. ‘Yeah, sweetheart. We’ll camp here tonight and wash our clothes. The end of all this will come soon enough.’

  Kira nodded and Nick tilted his body so he could stare at Euan. Green eyes were soft, stated, overwhelmed with everything he felt in that moment. ‘We can make it work, big man,’ he said.

  Euan felt it, the raw affirmation. The words that were not torn from a man that dealt with demons or anger. Just a man, who loved another man. Who was full of hope for a future. Euan nodded. It was all he could do.

  Chapter 12

  Euan

  Their bond was strong, their vows unbreakable. If only love alone could impede the very real threat of bullets.

  The trees creaked and groaned. The woodland was thick around them, the undergrowth lean and deprived of warmth and light. The layer of decomposing leaves lay thick upon the rich earth. Every step was a noisy reminder of their presence. There could be no stealth in this mission.

  Their weapons were raised high. Euan’s senses were on alert. His hands were gloveless, cold, but responsive. The butt of his rifle was comfortable against his shoulder. His finger rested against the trigger, and the patterned grip pressed into the palm of his hand.

  The scent of earth and life was thick in the air. The repetitive squeak of baby birds was a chorus around them. Tiny green shoots pushed through the grey dormant branches. Tiny pinpricks of colour against a bleak backdrop. There was no mist that bellowed from their lips, there was no icy chill that wormed its way through their layers to press cold tendrils against their skin. Winter had finally left them. A new season and new hope awaited.

  They’d slept, and slept well. Their bellies were full of squirrel and peaches. The watch now evenly split between the three of them. Euan did not to think too hard on how he enjoyed the extra hours of sleep. He did not think about why he’d been such an asshole about it. If he did, it only reminded him of waking with a shotgun in his face, and a blond boy held at bay by rough hands, his nose bloody.

  Kira was at his side. Her rifle held in a similar position to his. Her focus did not waver, her lighter body enabled her footsteps to be silent. She was careful, diligent …

  Fucking good at this.

  He ignored the churn in his gut over it. The sourness that would not abate. This was their future, what humanity required to move forward. Women and men who worked together, who were equal to each other, who could move forward in a forest, side by side, without ego and without conflict.

  He knew it, and yet, his heart damn well screamed to cosset her, lock her away and never let her see the light of day.

  But he’d tried that. And it had failed.

  He smelt it the same time Kira did, Nick only a moment behind. This stink of smoke was a reminder of their intentions, and all pretence of their last few days were gone, evaporated into a sky that threatened rain.

  Euan halted, by his side his companions did the same. He swung his head left, then right and murmured, ‘This ground won’t let us sneak up.’

  Nick’s eyes narrowed. His gaze took in their surroundings, he reached out and snapped a nearby twig. The inside was bright green and yellow. ‘It smells of wood, but I can’t imagine this forest was much affected. Nothing is gonna burn this.’

  Euan nodded. The urge to tell them to wait while he scouted ahead was a twisting mass in his mouth. He looked to Nick and then to Kira. Scarves hid their features, but Kira’s gender was undeniable. Nick’s strengths were abundant, but he would always need Euan. They would always need each other.

  But they were a target together, noisy and obvious.

  He swallowed down his objections and spoke the words that would see them finally be true equals in this. ‘We’ll fan out,’ he said. ‘Kira, you go right, Nick, left. I’ll head down the middle. Stay close, we’ll need to cover each other if shit goes down.’

  Both Nick and Kira shared a look and he almost took the words back, told them that it was a foolish idea, that they were better together, even if they presented an easy target. At least Euan knew where they were, even if it was dying at his feet.

  But then Kira moved, and so did Nick. Their retreats were quiet, and Euan fought every instinct to grip them and pull them close.

  He celebrated his developmental growth with a deep breath.

  Fuck, it
grated. As both Nick and Kira disappeared from sight, he almost called out to them, almost ran out and grabbed their damn necks and pulled them close, vowing to never let them go again.

  But he didn’t.

  This was their test. He needed to trust them, trust himself. His heart hammered, his mouth was dry. But he was moving forward, he was doing this. He could make it work.

  He walked, but his limited vision hindered his progress. He realised how they had coaxed him, directed him without his knowledge. They had led him through the trees, pursued him so his path was free of logs, boulders, hidden traps. Suddenly on his own, he tripped and stumbled.

  That look they had shared had not been for them, it had been because of him. They knew that without them, he was lost.

  Christ, he was like a fucking toddler in this forest without them.

  He clipped his boot on a stone and almost fell head first into the mulch. He righted himself at the last moment and bit back the curse that threatened to escape. His head swung left then right. Anger, bright and hot was in his chest. Fury at all that was lost at the hands of one man. The scarring on his face itched, burned, as if to remind him of his limitations, his ineptness, his damn uselessness.

  He assessed the terrain in front of him. One step, two. Both unencumbered. A third was just as lucky. After each step, he congratulated himself. He moved forward slowly, methodically. But he moved forward. In that, there was celebration.

  Nick and Kira were lost to him now. He couldn’t hear their light shuffles or see a hint of dark fabric. His jaw ached from the clench and it was then that he finally allowed himself to become annoyed at their lack of care.

  How was he going to find them again, how were they going to find each other?

  More careful steps, faster now as he gained confidence. His rifle was at his side so he could see where each foot fell, but his muscles were tight, ready to place the stock against his shoulder at a moment’s notice if required.

  Time stretched, he continued to move forward. The scent of wood smoke grew stronger. The trees thinned …