by Sylvia Ryan
“I’ll be cooking on the wood stove inside when the weather starts turning.”
“The big question is will you have any food to cook?” Julia asked.
“I think as far as food goes, making it through the winter won’t be a problem. I just need to keep the house defended.”
Julia nodded.
“You want to wash up at the pump now or after I get done with my chores?”
Remembering her hair’s Bob Marley impression, she answered without hesitation. “Now would be wonderful, if you don’t mind.”
“No problem, just as long as you return the favor once your strength comes back enough to pump for me. I’ll grab some soap and a towel for you. You want your jeans and T-shirt?” he asked as his eyes flickered over her bare legs that peeked out from under the too-large T-shirt she swam in.
“Yes. Please,” she added as he headed in to get the supplies.
When he came back out he set a bottle of shampoo, a washrag, and a bar of soap next to the hand pump. He set the towel and her clothes a little farther away so they would stay dry.
“You ready? It’s going to be cold,” he said with a tone of warning.
“No time like the present.” She knelt in front of the pump. Thinking she would wash her hair first, she left the oversized T-shirt on and bent over so the water would fall down from the nape of her neck.
Arden started pumping, and boy, he wasn’t kidding. It was cold. A squeal escaped Julia’s mouth as the water poured over her hair and down her body. The water hardened her nipples instantly, and his white T-shirt clung to her skin. She ripped the shirt off right away, realizing that the cold material sticking to her skin made her colder. She lathered up her hair and didn’t bother with the bar of soap. She used the extra shampoo bubbles as soap to wash her face and upper body. While quickly rinsing off the top half of her body, she noticed that Arden watched her from the corner of his eye as he pumped the water for her. When she picked up the bar of soap, wet it, and stood to lather her bottom half, he looked away.
Julia had never washed her hair or body faster. The cold water left her breathless, even in the relative warmth of the sunny morning.
“I’m done, I’m done!” she squealed, hugging herself as she went for the dry towel. She wrapped it around her shoulders, teeth chattering. “That did not feel as good as I thought it was going to.” She bent over, still moving like an invalid, and scooped up her clothes. She yelled, “Thanks, Arden!” over her shoulder as she climbed the steps to the porch and disappeared into the house.
* * * *
Holy shit. That was the sexiest fucking thing he’d ever seen. Still, the last thing he wanted was to have her catch him leering at her with a hard-on. And he was sporting a raging hard-on after that display. The constriction of the denim was almost painful against him.
It intrigued him that she didn’t try to hide herself from him. The fact that she was so comfortable with her nudity, that she didn’t seem to care much if he was looking or not, captivated him. She had only been up for a day, but he was overwhelmingly aware that he had a serious attraction to that sliver of a woman.
He looked at the ground and shook his head. He felt her presence in his chest. It tightened when she was close, and it felt like he had to breathe heavier just to get enough oxygen. Her nearness physically changed him, his breathing and his heart rate. His almost continuous erection since her arrival was not helping. He was seriously flustered, in need, and frustrated.
Arden didn’t remember ever having a reaction to a woman like this. Some women had come and gone in his life, but none he had any serious feelings for. Not like Julia. She activated some kind of primal need within him. He wanted to make her his. He wanted to protect her and, well, fuck her. He wondered if it had anything to do with saving her life. Would he have feelings like this for any woman he’d saved? He didn’t think so.
Arden picked up the shampoo and soap and put them on the porch then grabbed his T-shirt and spread it over the railing to dry in the sun. Adjusting himself so he could walk more comfortably with his erection, he strode off to the wood pile to work off some extra energy.
His long day of hard work stretched until amber and salmon streaks dyed the sky near the horizon. Arden looked forward to spending time with Julia tonight. He promised himself he wouldn’t think about her sexually. He honestly wanted to get to know her without sex to muck up how things played out between them.
When he caught sight of her—clean, dressed in her jeans and T-shirt, her long brown hair brushed away from her face in a ponytail—he registered a second of recognition. She was starting to look like the woman in her driver’s license picture again. He had to smile. He just couldn’t stop himself.
“Hope you’re hungry,” he said as he held up tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden.
They sat in the kitchen eating the sliced vegetables while Arden listened to Julia talk.
She told him about her brother, John, and their conversation years before about the possibility of something like the pulse happening some day.
“It was his first visit since he’d become a National Guardsman. He was excited about the new direction his life was taking. We talked for hours, drinking beer and catching up.
“We got on the subject of the holes in the country’s defenses that terrorists could easily use to their advantage. He mentioned everything from biological weapons to attacks on key targets like what happened with 9/11.
“We even talked about the bird flu, which was in the news at the time. He said that something as simple as a mandatory quarantine for two weeks would cause complete chaos.
“I was fascinated by the topic. We talked for hours.”
Julia paused. Her expression revealed the nostalgia she felt remembering that day with her brother. Then she sobered quickly.
“Well, anyway, because of that conversation, I recognized what this was as soon as it happened. It was one of the worst-case scenarios we talked about that night. I think he called it an electrical pulse, something like that. It causes a total disruption of all electrical systems, and because practically everything we use nowadays has some sort of electronic circuitry, literally all critical functions of U.S. society would be useless. Nothing electric works. No machine containing electrical components works. That translates to no lights, no heat, no phones, no city water, no cars except for very old ones, no access to money.”
“So how much of the U.S. do you think is affected?”
“John said that it would only take one detonation to affect most of the country, and there would be no chance of repair or rebuilding before the complete breakdown of modern society.”
Julia reached out and touched Arden’s forearm. “Think about it. I mean really think about it. No cars means no cops. Criminals would begin their reign of terror immediately. There would be a run on the stores for food, medicine and water. Even after all the stores are cleared out, groceries only stock enough food to feed the local population for about three days. After that, everybody has to find their own food. Loss of power to water pumps translates into people literally dying of thirst in less than a week. People who rely on medication to keep them alive every day would be dead within a week or two. Bodies start to pile up. Human waste starts to pile up, causing disease.
Julia shook her head then leaned back in her chair. Until that moment, she hadn’t even noticed how closely she was leaning in toward him.
”When I realized what was going on, I knew this was going to turn into a clusterfuck pretty quickly. Just the Cleveland area alone has about two and a half million people. Things were going to get a lot worse before they got better. John had said the rebuilding process of just the power grid alone would take years.”
Julia set down her fork and took a drink. “When the pulse happened, I was stranded on my way to a park that has a bike trail. I was lucky. I had my bike on the rack of my Jeep and my gym bag in the back. I packed up what I thought I could use and just started riding. I thought that if I co
uld get to John at the National Guard base in Pennsylvania, I would be safe.”
“It seems like you should have been able to cover more ground in the weeks you were riding.”
Julia nodded. “I honestly didn’t think riding my bike over the long distance would be so hard, but I realized quickly that I’d been suffering from a case of overconfidence. I traveled at night and hid in brush, fields, whatever I could find during the day. That slowed me down considerably. The dark was a double edged sword because it was easier to slip quickly and quietly past people, but it made it harder to find food and water. After a few of nights, when I saw that people were starting to crowd the roads in search of food and water, I started to stay away from major routes and cities completely.
“I still had a couple of close calls, though. During the day, when I was hiding and trying to sleep, I started noticing bands of men travelling together. They swarmed farms, slaughtering the livestock for food. They robbed other people they came upon on the road.” Julia lifted her chin and donned what looked like a carefully constructed look of strength. “I barely had time to avoid a group of them. I ducked into a ditch at the side of the road before they saw me.” Julia’s voice wavered. “But then they stopped for the night so close to where I was hiding…” Julia trailed off. “I listened to them rape a woman for most of the night. When they left in the morning, she was dead.”
Arden sat quietly for a few seconds. “You were lucky,” he said tenderly.
Julia nodded.
“After that, I just grew weaker every night. Food and water got harder and harder to find. I was completely exposed to the elements. Toward the end, I spent more time hiding from people than travelling. By that time, I couldn’t travel more than a mile or two each night before I had to quit anyway.
“Then that last night, my bike hit something on the trail. It stopped. I didn’t.”
Julia picked up the fork she had set down during her account of her journey and started eating.
Arden was silent, not knowing how to respond to everything she’d just said.
Then the sudden silence in the room was filled with the sounds of sheer pleasure that escaped Julia as she relished the food. Her moans hijacked his train of thought and were starting to turn him on. He changed the subject.
“So, where did you work?”
“I was a Unit Manager at one of the state prisons out in Grafton.”
“What exactly does a Unit Manager do?”
“Everything.” She laughed. “The inmates called the managers of the three housing units mini-wardens. It’s an accurate description from their perspective, but in reality the managers worked way harder than the actual warden did.”
“How on earth did you end up working there?”
“After I got my masters in social work and criminal justice, I started working for a gang intervention program at Juvenile Court. I spent five years working in the hood. I had a very low success rate. I was frustrated. So, when I saw the job opening at the prison, I applied. “Jeez.” Arden shook his head, looking at her. “You’re so tiny, weren’t you scared?” He detected a hint of irritation in her expression. Still, he knew the look on his face was one of disbelief or shock.
“Close your mouth, Arden. It’s not that unbelievable.”
She shook her head. “I learned a long time ago that my size gives people the impression that I’m a cute little thing—nice, a pushover, weak, whatever. That is not me, and it’s taken years to win that battle. But I did win it. Don’t underestimate me.”
Julia’s story altered his initial opinion of her. He saw that she wasn’t a fragile girly-girl. Why had he thought that in the first place? Probably because of the condition in which he’d found her.
He had to completely reform his conception of her. She was strong, but it was obvious she didn’t feel the immediate need to prove it. She was independent, intelligent. She knew who she was and what she’d wanted from life. She was a woman, not a girl, despite what she looked like.
Arden admired Julia’s independence and determination. He didn’t think many people would have made it as far as she had traveling alone. He was convinced that the only reason she was alive was because of her decision to travel at night and on little-known roads and trails.
“So, what else?” Arden asked. “Do you have any average qualities or are they all of the superhero variety?”
She laughed. “I like to run, and I love music. I wish I’d had my music to listen to all those nights I was riding. It would have helped me a lot.”
“Helped you? How?”
“Hmm, it’s like lyrics in the music help me work out whatever feelings I’m dealing with. Most of the time, it’s not okay to openly show your feelings, especially when you work where I do. Did,” she corrected herself. “So, I’d take a long run or a ride and listen to just the right songs to help me get it all sorted out, get centered again. And, when I was done, I wasn’t angry anymore, or lonely, or whatever. It’s like my own personal therapy sessions, you know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I do. You know, I play the guitar. I might be able to play some of the songs you’re missing.”
“That would be nice,” she said, smiling. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you about my bike.”
“Trashed,” he said with a shake of his head. “Why? You still planning on finding your brother?”
“I’ve been thinking about it.”
Every cell in Arden‘s body screamed no! He couldn’t let her go. It was dangerous and, well, he just didn’t want her to go anywhere, ever. “You don’t have to leave here. You can stay as long as you like,” he said, meeting her eyes. God, he could look into her gorgeous, chocolate-brown eyes forever. He forced himself to look away from her. “Besides, your bike is mangled beyond repair, and the weather’s getting colder. It’s not a good idea.”
Julia didn’t reply at first, “I know, you’re right, but I can’t just impose myself on you. You’re too nice to turn me away, but we both know with food so scarce, it would be easier to keep one person alive than two.” She put her hand up to stop him from speaking. “But, I don’t have a death wish either.” At least not anymore.
“Don’t worry about food. We’ll have enough to last through the winter if need be. We might be eating a whole lot of corn, but we’ll have enough to keep us alive.”
Arden saw Julia’s thought processes vacillate through the expression in her eyes. She was doing the math, and he knew she would come to the same bottom line he had. She didn’t have any other reasonable choice.
“So you’ll stay at least until we know exactly what’s going on?” he pressed. “And when the time comes, we’ll talk about this again. Okay?” He looked at her squarely in the eye. “Okay?”
“I’m just not feeling comfortable about taking your charity.”
“And you’re comfortable hiding in ditches and starving to death?” His tone of voice changed from good-humored to deadly serious, along with his mood. “Leaving right now is suicide Julia, and I can’t let you do it.”
“Okay, Jesus!” Julia leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. She looked pissed, but she had capitulated, and that’s all he wanted.
“Good. Now we both need to get to bed. I have a lot of work to do before winter, and you need to recuperate.” Arden stacked the dinner plates to wash the next morning, locked the back door, and blew out the candle in the kitchen.
“Damn, it’s seriously dark in here,” Julia whispered.
Arden walked up behind her, placed his hands on her hips, and guided her to the base of the staircase. He led her up the stairs to the second floor with his hands still resting on each side of her. As he turned her into her room, he let go of her waist. “Goodnight, Julia.”
“Goodnight.”
* * * *
Julia couldn’t even remember the last time she’d let a man touch her as intimately as he had just done. She loved it. The feel of powerful, manly hands weighing down her hips, almost encircling the expanse of her waist,
the heat of his touch, made her wet for him and prompted twirly flutters in her stomach. Her breath had quickened, and her nipples hardened, but thankfully, in the dark, he didn’t notice. After a mere two days, he was already inside her wall. Inside her defenses.
A fantasy flashed behind her closed eyes as she lay in bed that night. Arden was taking her from behind, pulling her toward him, one hand on her shoulder, one clutching her braid. He wildy hammered his cock into her. His muscles danced and shifted under his sweat-sheened skin.
She opened her eyes to get the picture out of her mind.
She thought of the grimacing, bruised, insect-bitten face that she’d seen in the mirror that morning and remembered how hideous she looked. Realization dawned. He really had only touched her to guide her. Crap. That was a disappointment and a relief.
Julia knew she had to get a grip. She was going to be here with him for a while. No need to complicate things.
Now, if she could just convince her body.
Chapter 3
A few days later, when Julia was a little stronger, Arden asked her if she would pump the well for him.
“I’ve been washing out of a bucket for almost a month now, and it sure would feel good to get a shower, so to speak.”
“Sure, no problem. Just let me finish my breakfast. I’ll meet you outside when I’m done.”
Arden went upstairs for clean clothes and a towel. The soap and shampoo were still outside on the porch.
“Just pump for me until I get totally wet, then you can rest until I’m ready to rinse off,” he said as he took off his clothes.
The large iron lever that pumped the water up from the well was harder to push and pull than Julia thought it would be. After a minute, she was winded. She sat down cross-legged to rest as she waited for Arden to wash.
Now that she wasn’t working, she glanced up at him. She admired his defined abs, and he was lean and muscular enough that she could see the V of his muscles that started at his hip bones and ended at his cock. She loved that.