by Lenise Lee
Several seconds later, his eyes popped open and he sucked in a huge and loud gulp of air. He could feel a small trickle of blood dribbling down from a gash at the top of his forehead. It had probably been caused by the deployed airbag of the SUV’s steering wheel. Jesse forced his body to sit up and yank back the door handle in two staggered motions. He stumbled from the driver’s seat and tumbled on to the concrete. Eli’s truck had become stranded at an awkward angle between a parked sedan and a coin operated parking meter.
Jesse jumped to his feet when his line of sight immediately landed on the car that was facing his direction. The vehicle had come to a diagonal stop a few feet ahead of him and pillars of smoke streamed from the hood. The view inside of the windshield was blocked by the material from the expanded airbags in ailing vehicle’s dashboard.
“Eve! Evie! Are you all right?” Jesse called out as he stumbled forward, using the hood of the truck for support.
When there was no answer, he ignored the screams from his injured body to lie down and rest. He forced himself at full speed ahead toward the crashed car. He stopped in his tracks when the dented driver’s door slowly creaked open. A short man with olive skin spilled out and rolled onto the hot asphalt below. He pushed himself up on his knees and then waved one palm up in the air as a sign of surrender.
“Shit, man, take the car…take it. I’m done,” he croaked and then started to slowly crawl off as he retreated from the scene.
Jesse eyed the man then realized he wasn’t going to be any more trouble. From the way the man was clawing at the ground at a beleaguered pace, his ribs were probably broken in a few places.
The sound of the passenger door snapping open caught his attention. A much taller Caucasian man with wild black hair backed himself out first and then dragged Eve’s limp form out with him. Her head was down and her eyes were closed. Some of her braids had fallen into her face and Jesse couldn’t tell if she were still breathing.
His nerves ran raw and his heart rate hit a new crescendo. He didn’t feel the pain of the long cut on his brow or the bruised muscles in his torso anymore. All Jesse felt was maddening rage at the man who had kidnapped his woman accompanied by the oppressive guilt that he was the one who had allowed this to happen to her.
Jesse’s left arm shot out. If only his will to have her back in his protective embrace was enough to pull her away from the grip of her captor.
When his eyes finally landed on Jesse, the other man straightened up and clutched Eve’s dangling body closer. Was he truly this insane? Where did he expect to go and how far did he expect to get while pulling the weight of another person, even if it was a small woman? The instant he moved left of right, Jesse would be on his ass in less time than it would take a bolt of lightning to strike.
Jesse took two steps forward and then the man reached in his jean pocket. He pulled out a slim metal blade and held it up. Jesse cut his advancement short. He rocked on his heels and waited for his opponent to make his next move.
“Don’t move…I swear I won’t have any problems doing this.”
The abductor placed the tip to a spot just under Eve’s chin.
Her eyes blinked open and Jesse was filled with a mix of relief and dread. She was alive but remained in an extreme amount of danger. There was gloom and shadow lurking in the man’s eyes. Jesse didn’t need to be closer than a yard away to see the chaos swimming in adversary’s mind. In those delusional thoughts, Eve was probably a puppet, a new play thing he had picked up along the way on his rambling journey to nowhere. He probably didn’t even have a real reason why he picked Jesse’s car as the one to steal. The sociopathic man saw something he wanted and went for it. He wanted that car and he took it, and Eve so happened to become a big bonus.
With the car immobilized there was no need to hold on to her yet he did so because monstrous men never knew when their diabolical plans were defeated. Their only instinct was to go on taking and exploiting until the day when they had met their match and their menacing deeds were ultimately and inevitably put to an end. On this fateful day, such a showdown was about to take place.
“Give her to me,” Jesse said slowly and evenly.
He could discern that this type of man would only respond to what he perceived to be weakness for a sign that he had the upper hand. That is, if Jesse had asked nicely, it might have only caused the stranger to want to drag out this standoff longer than necessary and, perhaps, would have added a hint more cruelty than he was already displaying.
“Why? She’s nothin’ but another female. I take her and you limp away like a good boy should.”
Jesse gained two more steps closer to the criminal.
“I said back up, man! I’m not gonna’ tell you again!”
The man moved the point a fraction deeper into Eve’s skin and she shook a little in his arms. Every pound of muscle in Jesse’s body tensed and coiled for a strike.
“I swear to you on everything that I am, if you hurt her in anyway, I will hunt you down like the animal you are and break your fucking neck.”
The fierceness in Jesse’s words drained the light color from the man’s haggard face. He dropped the angle of the knife down by an inch, breaking the contact it had with Eve’s throat. Jesse looked into Eve’s golden eyes and he saw her next move. Before he could shake his head for her not to try, she executed her blow with perfect aim, much faster than even he had expected. She pulled her elbow up high and then jabbed it deep into the mad man’s rib cage, causing him to release the sharp blade and double over in agony. The instrument of terror hit the ground with a light clang and Eve looked up to Jesse for further direction. Perhaps she had not truly anticipated her sneak attack would go so well.
“Run, Eve!”
Jesse yelled to her and she took off in a sprint around to the rear of the stranded red car. He needed her to get far away from the kidnapper before he regained a portion of his senses.
As Eve’s darted around to the other side of the smoking car, Jesse raced forward and used his knee to deliver a powerful thrust upward to the sensitive spot right beneath the man’s chin. The stranger fell backward onto the concrete as blood exploded from his nose and mouth. Once on his back, the pool poured down onto the hard slabs turning that area crimson.
Despite the fact of his opponent being clearly incapacitated from the two forceful hits delivered in a rapid succession by the couple, Jesse’s anger remained seething and unsatisfied. He wanted this man to feel every minute of heart breaking stress that he had felt when it looked as if Eve had been taken from him forever. Jesse straddled his defeated opposition, who sputtered a few more drops of blood before his dark eyes rolled under his lids. He raised his wide fist high and prepared to bring down another bone crushing blow to the center of the attacker’s face. Before he could move to strike, a pair of hands caught his arm in midair and pulled back with determined might.
“No, Jesse! You’re not like him…don’t do it.” Eve’s pleading voice floating in from somewhere at the rear of his harried sanity.
Jesse loosened his fist and turned to look up into her sun-splashed irises and her beautiful mocha shaded face.
“It’s over,” she said with a small smile, “we can go.”
She was right. Eve was out of immediate danger and hurting this bleeding man even more so than he already was would not undo anything that had conspired over the last twenty minutes. Jesse pushed himself up onto his feet and stared down at his love.
“Evie,” he whispered with adoration in his strained voice.
She pushed herself up on her toes and folded her arms around his hot neck. She brought her man down closer into her gentle and loving hug. The reunited couple simply stood in the middle of the abandoned walkway and held onto each other for strength. It was all that either one of them could do to keep from crumbling to the ground below from absolute exhaustion. Neither one of them wanted to ever to break their emotional reunion or to allow another moment pass when they would have to be absent of their tru
est love ever again. From the sparks of energy and joy passing between them, they both knew that their souls would only be complete when they were joined together.
Jesse leaned away only enough so that his jovial gray eyes could dance over Eve’s exquisite face again and again. She looked even more perfect now than when she had been cheering for him at the ball field yesterday.
Yesterday. Had all of this really happened in such a brief amount of time?
One day can truly change everything. All that Eve and Jesse had known had been rearranged and set back in a completely new form. In some ways the change was for the best, like the beginning of their love affair. In others, the transformation was frightening. How were they going to survive in this brave new world unfolding all around them? Is this how their lives would be – one heart pounding escapade after another – until the world regained its strained sense of civility?
For Jesse, it didn’t matter. He would go through hell all over again and suffer every bruise a hundred times over for Eve. She had become his life, the reason why he needed to exist and be strong – for her – for as long as he roamed the earth.
He laid one long tan finger on the gold locket that hung around her neck. Jesse and Eve, Always. Afterward, he centered her chin between his index finger and thumb. After what felt like an eternity, Jesse leaned forward and tasted Eve’s lips. She was as sweet as ever and the center of his peace.
- Epilogue -
Two weeks later…
One answered prayer had doubled and then multiplied.
Back on the scene, to Jesse and Eve’s surprise, Eli’s vehicle was dinged but the rugged beast’s engine still turned over when Jesse had tried the ignition. It had been a slow drive back downtown to find Eli and an even slower one to push past the parking lot of abandoned vehicles that had remained lined up the length of Broad Avenue and back toward the highway. As the sun had ebbed ever closer to the bottom of the sky, the trio gathered whatever was left over. The mass looting had settled down to a few stragglers. Panic had mobbed the streets that afternoon and panic had emptied them just as quickly after only a couple of hours. Many had retreated back to their homes in the city or to places further along in the neighboring rural communities. Any sane person was already well aware that the wolves would be out that night and every night afterward for a long time to come.
The cabins at the recreational park in the Pine Barrens were their closest and best bet of finding safety away from the city for awhile. The power had stopped running a few days ago and the cell towers were indefinitely out of commission, there was no signal to be found anywhere. There were so many unanswered questions about what was happening in the rest of the world. For now, the plan was for Eve, Jesse, and Eli to camp here for as long as their supplies could last before attempting to venture out in any direction. Jesse didn’t want to take a chance at traveling too far without knowing what kind of circumstances they would be facing, especially since Eli’s injuries still needed to heal. With any hope, all would be back to normal soon. And, if not, they would take care of one another the way family should for as long as necessary.
A bright and glowing yellow sun sparkled through the crowded line of green trees overhead. From their position in the cabin doorway, Jesse and Eve watched the first light of morning rising into the sky. With Eve’s small back resting against his wide chest, Jesse cuddled her in his strong and shielding arms. Even though the incident had occurred weeks ago, it was still hard for him not to be near her as often as possible or to reach out and touch Eve to make sure that she was safe.
He had a lifetime to care for his Eve but every day would present new challenges. Jesse did not want to allow one more fateful opportunity where he wouldn’t be fully prepared to defend her at all cost to ever creep up on him again. Not if he had the power to prevent it from doing so.
He leaned in so that his slightly stumbled cheek rubbed against her smooth one and Eve giggled. She reached around to run her fingers down the other side of his coarse face.
“One thing that I am definitely going to miss about not having electric is you not being able to shave as often,” she said in a teasing manner. “What happened to the baby face that I use to love?”
Jesse laughed against her butterscotch skin. He loved how she always found a way of effortlessly mingling severe honesty with playfulness.
“It’s under here…somewhere,” he growled into her ear with a seductive bass. He also loved how that never failed to make her wiggle in his arms. “Why don’t we go back inside so you can find it?”
Eve squealed with delight at his offer. He could feel her deliciously round ass grinding against his stirring manhood. It wouldn’t take long for him to be stone hard and standing at full attention. He was already half way erect but fully ready to go – again and again – with his tasty Evie.
“Jesseee,” she giggled again and pretended to pull out of his arms, “it’s not even noon yet. Shouldn’t we at least check in on Eli first?”
“Nope,” he replied flatly, “Eli can take care of himself now.”
He immediately caught her by her tiny waist and turned Eve to face him. Eve’s brown bosom partly spilling over her spandex tank top looked mouth watering and tempting. He dipped his head to lay a sizzling kiss at the top of each mound and Eve’s hands instinctively dug into the tresses of his blond hair. When he planted her flat against the bare skin of his broad square chest, Jesse cupped two handfuls of her ample ass.
“I love you, Evie,” Jesse crooned to her before kissing the tip of her button nose. “Always remember that, no matter what happens.”
She palmed his peach colored face in his hands and her warmth felt like pure bliss flowing over his skin.
“I love you, Jesse. You’re my hero…you always were.”
Her cinnamon shaded lips pressed against his rosy ones and the spark of passion was reignited as they breathed in one another’s fulfilling essence.
“Damn, Evie,” Jesse whispered when he laid his forehead over Eve’s brow, “I swear you get tastier every day, baby.”
“Mm…is that offer still on the table?” Her light brown eyes flashed up at him and his cock stood up like a missile ready to launch.
“What offer?” Her wicked smile made him fumble his words when he spoke.
“A game of hide…and…seek,” Eve purred up at him.
A sly half grin lifted one corner of his perfectly shaped mouth.
“Of course, baby, anything for you. But,” he arched his honey blond eyebrow upward, “it’s not going to be much of a game, since I’m ready for you to find the good stuff right now!”
With stealth-like swiftness, Jesse reached down and crooked his burly arms under Eve’s legs. She threw her head back and laughed loudly as he scooped her up into his folded hold and stepped back into the large room of their cabin. He kicked the door closed with the back of his foot and proceeded to flop on to the large bed and make love to the only woman he would ever love this passionately and this dutifully. Eve was the only woman who would ever manage to seize absolute control over his heart, his life, and his instincts. When he plunged his heat seeking cock into the slippery depths of her cherry center, the lovers were united in perfect sync and as close to the epitome of pure paradise as their mortal lives would allow.
Jesse Dawson and Eve Thompson would fight to stay together, no matter what the odds or what incredible circumstances they were presented with. They would travel this new world, hand in hand with melded hearts that could never be separated. No force would ever be capable of pulling them apart, not when a love this strong existed between them. Destiny had used an unusual way of bringing the two lovers together but once the bond was sealed, it was endowed with the power to last for all time.
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