by SM Olivier
So far, the many rows of meticulously parked vehicles in the now-tight circle on the perimeter seemed to be holding back most of the infected. It was an excellent strategy on Axel’s part, and the guys made sure to commend him for it numerous times.
I learned a lot more about Axel in those moments. He was a strong, well-respected leader. Even Joe seemed to hold a high reverence towards him and deferred to him on most matters. The praises sent his way never seemed to go to his head, either.
The way he handled opposition was commendable as well. Natalie, Jade, and Garth were clearly not happy with him. They seemed to make everything so much more complicated than they had to. But Axel remained firm with them and challenged them to complete their tasks.
He was consistent, fair, and genuinely seemed to desire our safety, even the Terrible Trio− the name Sylvia and I had given Natalie, Jade, and Garth.
Sylvia and I had just finished putting up the last ID, when we stepped back and looked at our handiwork, feeling satisfied yet also filled with a great sense of loss. There were too many people on the board, all senselessly dead because someone out there had decided to play God and create a biological weapon of devastating consequences.
We hugged each other and silently cried as we looked upon the results of the infection’s depravity.
Sylvia had written, ‘Hold onto the Love, Not the Loss’ above the bulletin boards. Surprisingly, once everyone had found out what we’d been doing, almost everyone wrote words of encouragement or sympathy on the walls surrounding the boards. A row of battery-operated candles had been turned on and placed on a long narrow table in front of the bulletin boards. I wished we could have done more, but I was glad we at least did something.
Bane whined as if he knew I was hurting, nudging the back of my legs. The dog hadn’t left my side, or Axel’s, since being released from the store that the kids, Steph, Aunt Pam, and Emery had been holed up in while we took care of most of the cleanup.
In this part of the mall, footsteps were easily heard. We didn’t tense, though; between the guys, Cal, and Joe, we were never alone for long.
Sylvia and I quickly wiped our faces of tears when Corbin and Cal came around the corner. Everyone else, except for the six people on duty, had been sound asleep for the last hour or so.
“Come on, girls. Bath and bed,” Corbin bade.
“You gonna join us?” Sylvia asked boldly, coming back to life. “Will you wash my back, Cal?”
Both men laughed and shook their heads, but it was Cal who spoke up first. “Come with me, and I’ll wash more than just your back.” He winked at her.
“Promise?” She smiled coyly.
There had been a lot of flirting going on between Sylvia, Joe, and Cal throughout the night, but they hadn’t had much time to spend together. She had been lamenting to me all night long about the impossibility of being with two men. She wanted to be with them, but she didn’t understand how an arrangement like that could last.
I still hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about my new predicament. I felt like I was bursting at the seams to tell someone. It felt like every time I found an opportunity to finally broach the subject, one of the guys would come around to “check” on us. They would stay and chat, and for once, Sylvia seemed to be oblivious to the fact that the guys were more than flirting with me. There was an underlying sense of anticipation and sexual tension that she seemed to not notice at all, what with her mind so occupied by her own situation.
“Promise.” He smiled. “I just got off of my shift and I’m free. I’ll show you where I got us set up for the night.” He suddenly looked uncertain about his presumptuous actions.
“Lead the way, prince charming,” she said giddily.
“Yeah?” Cal smiled broadly.
“Yeah,” she said before she skipped forward. “Night, Cor and Ave.”
“Don’t forget I slipped condoms in your bag,” I teased her, retreating back.
Sleep deprivation was loosening my tongue.
“I hope you gave me an entire box,” she sang back, “because I plan to use all of them!”
I groaned. “Too much,” I yelled back.
“That’s what she said.” She turned around and walked backward, grinning at me.
“She would never say that!” I joked back. “There’s never enough.”
I heard Corbin make a low grunting sound, and I saucily winked at him.
He grinned and shook his head at me.
“True story,” Sylvia said solemnly. “Well, I’m hoping to get too much right now. Night night,” she chirped once more.
“Mind if I accompany you to the restroom?” Corbin asked as they disappeared around the corner. He held out his hand, and I took it without thought. “I won’t even offer to wash your back unless you want me too,” he flirted.
I leaned my head against his arm. “Does any of this feel… weird to you?” I asked softly as I gently squeezed his hand.
Corbin and Wyatt had barely let me out of their sight, and whenever they found a chance, they were touching me. Our connection seemed to grow in so many ways, and the more time I spent with them, the more… right it felt. Everything felt so natural, like the way things were supposed to be.
“Nope,” he said immediately, lowering his voice as we walked past the food court of sleeping people. “It feels like I’m finally getting the chance to show you how I’ve felt for years. I think in a way, I’ve always noticed you. I lived in denial for years. The summer you kissed my brother, I didn’t like it, and I didn’t know why.
“So I joined the military and got some distance away from you, but you crossed my mind often. When you started Tae Kwon Do, Mom kept raving about how you skipped a belt, won a tournament, or aced another test. She liked bragging about you. She always loved you like her own. And when she didn’t mention you, I felt down and didn’t know why.
“When I came home on my first leave, when the rents moved to Maryland, I came back and saw you were with Trev, and for the first time in my life, I was jealous of my kid brother. I told myself it wasn’t jealousy, that it was just irritation over Trevor pursuing a relationship with you that had the possibility of ruining the relations between our families if things went south. I kept telling myself I was a pervert for having a crush on someone so young. I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t an attraction towards you. I tried to forget you and became more of a… manwhore.”
I snorted, and Corbin gave me a sidelong glance and a rueful shrug of his shoulders before smiling. For as long as I knew him, save for when we were at Sanctuary− after the summer Trevor and I kissed− he had come alone, but I knew he wasn’t without female companionship.
“The last time you were trying out for the Olympics,” he continued, “about four years ago, Mom told me that you had a crucial match in Virginia. Wyatt and I decided to go. We didn’t tell Mom, just in case we were called up, but it turned out they couldn’t make it anyway. Mom had to get Dad from the airport, and Trevor had his finals that week. But Wyatt and I made it and we got see you in your element.
He stopped suddenly and turned towards me. He cradled my face in his large hands, threading his fingers through my hair. He tilted my head up to meet his penetrating gaze. The actions elicited a slight tremor through my sensitized body. He gently caressed my cheek with his thumbs.
“I think at that moment, I realized my feelings for you had…evolved. You were no longer a little girl anymore but a woman. Wyatt felt the same way but came to that conclusion sooner than me. But he didn’t think I’d be okay with him wanting my brother’s girlfriend, or the fact you’d just graduated high school.”
My lips parted as he traced them with a calloused thumb. It was if the air were being sucked from the room again, but for better reasons. His thumbs were rough, whereas my lips were soft. I liked the contrast of textures. He seemed to notice it as well, as I watched him sink his teeth into his bottom lip for a moment.
“You occupied my thoughts continually for years, A
very,” he confessed as I gave in to the urge to flick my tongue out and taste him. He closed his eyes and groaned before continuing. “I watched you from afar, telling myself it was just from the perspective of a big brother, a protector. Eventually, I felt like we were never supposed to be. You loved my brother, and he adored you. You guys had been best friends for years, and it just made sense if you both became more. I don’t think I realized how wrong he might be for you until after your first break up. I knew he loved you, and I think he will always love you, but he’s always been his worst enemy,” he said cryptically.”
A small satisfied smile curved his lips as I placed a kiss on his palm.
He opened his eyes. “I think this is our season, Avery. It took me some growing up to realize you are what I always wanted. So, yeah, all that to say this feels right to me. This feels like a missing link was finally found.”
I digested his words and found myself agreeing with him. I even noticed his use of the pronoun our and not my, and that maybe this was our season.
I smiled at the reference to one of Mom’s and Aunt Pam’s favorite bible verses. When things didn’t go our way as kids, they would say it wasn’t our season. Eventually, they went so far as to get matching tattoos of the words along the outside of their ribs. They picked their favorite parts in the scripture, not using it all, of course, but it was from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. I had it memorized, as it made me feel closer to my mom.
“‘For everything, there is a season,’” I began to murmur the verse, “‘and a time for every matter under the Heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and time to dance; a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together…’”
Corbin joined in the last part of the verse with me, “‘…a time to embrace and time to refrain from embracing…’”
We looked at each other and smiled.
“Is that the only part you knew?” I teased.
He shook his head and lifted his shirt. My breath caught. Along one of his ribs was the part my mother loved the most: a time to weep and a time to laugh. In tiny lettering, he’d put her name and the years she had been alive. I knew my mom had meant to him what his meant to me. I was just surprised he chose to honor her that way.
He turned so I could see his opposite rib and my breath caught again.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
I had a feeling those words had a deeper meaning for him. He was part of an elite group that worked covert missions. One didn’t survive on a team like that without getting blood on their hands.
I felt tears warm my eyes. “I always wanted to get this one.” I traced the same tattoo my mom had against his ribs with my fingertips. I heard him grunt and felt his skin ripple beneath my touch. I shook off my melancholy and smiled up at him. “Maybe if we find a tattoo artist in the apocalypse, I’ll get this one, and on the opposite side, ‘A time to mourn and a time to dance.’”
He grinned at me. “Funny you should say that…Kingston so happens to be an undercover artist, and I’m pretty sure he can find the equipment to hook you up.”
My eyes widened. The blond, trouble-maker didn’t strike me as an artist. “That would be awesome.”
“I’ll tell him that.” He chuckled. “With his resourcefulness, it shouldn’t take him to long to find everything he’d need.
I was excited at the thought of getting my first tattoo with him nearby, especially since he’d honored my mother in one of the most permanent of ways.
Stopping in front of the family restroom, he withdrew a key from his pocket. He opened the door and stepped back, placing a hand on the small of my back and gently guiding me into the room. The lights were turned off, but vanilla scented candles lit the whole room. In the middle of the space, one of those portable hot tubs was bubbling away. I gaped at the transformation.
“We know how hard it’s been on you the last few days, so the guys and I thought we’d do something nice for you.” He leaned over and picked up a shower hose that was attached to the sink head. “I installed the showerhead, while Axel, Kingston, and Wyatt filled up the tub. Easton got you shampoo, body wash, and all that. Towels and clean pajamas are over there.” He pointed to the back of the door and a little shower caddy. “And I,” he held up a two-piece bikini, “got you a swimsuit just in case you wanted company in the hot tub after you take a shower.”
I was stunned by their sweet gesture. Axel, Corbin, Wyatt, Easton, and Kingston had honestly put the thought into spoiling me. No one had ever gone to such lengths to do something so thoughtful for me. To have them collaborate and do all this made me think they really were serious in pursuing a relationship with me.
King and Easton had pretty much already expressed interest in me as the early afternoon transitioned into the evening and then into the night. We were at the get-to-know-you stage, but they both had admirable and desirable traits I could see myself being drawn to.
They were a year younger than Axel, at twenty-nine. Easton was brilliant− like, on a genius level. He had graduated from medical school and was a resident before he joined up. The only reason he joined the military was because Kingston was joining.
He seemed a bit on the introverted side and gave me the impression he was always soaking in everything around him. He didn’t speak much, but he wasn’t severe and stoic like Axel. He leaned more towards “laid back.”
Kingston, on the other hand, was unconstrained and slightly unbridled. I had no doubt he was brilliant, just in a different way, and he was definitely prone to mischief.
Kingston, Wyatt, and Corbin proved to be a dangerous trio of mischief already. Earlier tonight, after everyone had eaten and washed up, the trio had decided it would be funny to put together a gift basket for Amy and had left it on her air mattress, the one she’d blown up for her and Josh.
In the gift basket were several items they’d pilfered from Spencer’s. Glow-in-the-dark condoms, flavored condoms, a sexy nurse outfit, lubes, edible underwear, fuzzy handcuffs, vibrators, and other sex toys. She had turned bright red, especially after Steph and Aunt Pam started suggesting other sexual aids, offering to get her some more.
That kind of backfired on Corbin, though, because Felix made sure to ask if Aunt Pam had used any of those aids when Corbin had been conceived. The two men had nearly ended up getting into a fight over that, with Corbin grossed out at the thought of his mom and dad getting it on.
“You don’t have to say yes,” Corbin said now. “I know how tired you are, I just wanted to sit and talk with you for a while.” He seemed so hesitant, and I had never seen Corbin unsure of himself. If anything, he usually had an overabundance of confidence.
I smiled at him. “Sorry, I was just thinking that this is possibly the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. You guys really know how to spoil a girl. Let me wash up. And I’d love your company.”
He smiled beatifically. “Are swim trunks optional?” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
I crossed my arms over my chest and raised a brow at him.
He laughed. “Hey, I can be sweet. I never said I was a saint.” He gave me a bold wink. “Just knock on the door when you’re ready for me to join you.”
֍
When Corbin returned, not only was his big beautiful body on display in his low-slung swim trunks, but he’d also brought a bottle of Moscato and a bluetooth speaker to hook his phone up to. He turned on a playlist with Shawn Mendes, Ed Sheeran, and other “easy” listening music as we relaxed together.
Being with him, I felt like I had stumbled into the best of both worlds. We could reminisce about the past, and we had already seen each other through the awkward years. There was also the comfortable familiarity with each other, making the conversation flow with ease.
Then I got to witness the passionate, flirtatious side of him.
I wa
s laughing at a recounting of one of his basic training stories when I noticed he hadn’t joined me in laughter. I looked over at him, and there was an indecipherable expression on his face. One minute he was sitting next to me, and the next, his fingers were threading through my hair. He tilted my head back, and his piercing gray-green eyes were lit with an inner fire.
“Tell me to stop now, Ave,” he muttered as his breath caressed my lips.
My eyes widened momentarily at the raw desire in his eyes. I’d already had a taste of him, and I couldn’t deny that I was already hooked.
I shortened the distance between our lips and kissed him. He let out a soft groan as I nipped him before tangling my tongue with his. His massive body pushed me against the side of the hot tub, and I gasped as I felt his arousal pressing against my core.
His large hands began to caress my responsive skin. He stroked my waist and stomach before palming my breasts. His thumb rubbed against the erect peaks of my nipples, and I moaned as heat unfurled deep within.
He grabbed my hips and pulled me closer before he began nibbling on my neck. I gasped and threw my head back so he could have better access. He seemed to innately know what spots were most sensitive and responsive as he licked, sucked, and scraped his teeth against my erogenous areas.
“You taste so delicious,” he groaned.
“So do you,” I responded before moving restlessly against him.
My hands explored the hard planes of his body. My fingernails scraped against his back and scalp. The sounds he made in the back of his throat encouraged me to continue exploring him and enlightened me further. He wasn’t shy, letting me know what turned him on. With each kiss, stroke, and caress, we fed our cravings which spurned us further on. It was like a drug, but luckily there was no danger of overdosing, because I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of Corbin.
I was so close to capitulating to my desires and was so turned on. Plus, I was curious to see if being with Corbin would be as good as kissing him. I was fully aware that he knew the art of seduction rather well.