Page 40 of Resolution
Melly didn’t know what she expected but it wasn’t for Jeff to explore every inch of her with his hands and give soft little kisses to the bruises and red-and-purple marks left by the alien probes. His touch was healing as he glided his callused hand over her skin, giving enough pressure to feel sensuous without creating pain. She wriggled and tried to divert him to the places she was aching for him to touch.
“I want to see all of you,” he said. “I want to kiss away every single mark that bastard made, and then I want to be inside you, reclaiming what’s mine. You and I belong to each other, Melisande Jericho, and no one else has any right to touch either of us.”
She felt boneless and like she was flying as he completed his self-appointed healing work. Then he kissed the hollow at the base of her throat and moved to caress one nipple, swirling his tongue until the bud was a hard bead and then transferring his attention to the other side. As she arched her back, he slid the other hand over her stomach and between her legs, stroking her soft, wet folds. Then he moved so he was kneeling where his fingers had been. After giving her a look burning with intensity, he began applying his tongue to her most sensitive places. Melly cupped her hand around the back of his head, to keep him at his task and rolled her hips in response to the way he was stimulating her nerve endings. A wave of sensations flowed over her, pushing pain out of her nerve endings and substituting mind altering pleasure.
He watched her as the orgasm swept through her and even in the throes of the climax Melly found it erotic the way he was taking satisfaction from having her fall apart in front of him. As the tremors eased he moved to cover her, so his cock was positioned at the entrance to her body.
“Are you sure this isn’t too much too soon?” he asked, smoothing her hair away from her face and gazing at her, his eyes narrowed in concern.
Melly hugged him, arching her hips upward to provide easier entry. “Just right. Just perfect. Love me.”
“Oh I do,” he said. Slowly he pushed inside, moving an inch at a time, watching her for any sign of pain or panic.
Melly tilted her hips and did her best to clench around him, exulting in the way he filled her. His hard length stroked every nerve ending in the best possible way. “Harder,” she panted. “Deeper. I need?—”
In response he slid the rest of the way in one powerful thrust, granting her requests. She felt him all the way to her core and the fullness and the connection were balm to her heart. She ran her hands over his back, relishing the feel of the powerful muscles as he moved, stroking in and out, hard and fast. When he found the angle that was the ultimate, she dug her hands into his sides and gasped.
“There, right there. I can’t—I can’t hold off—” she whispered.
“No need to—let go,” was his answer.
The world slid away from Melly as she was transported by the climax, lifted into a place where it was all light and waves of glorious sensation, anchored the entire time by his cock deep inside her, bonding them together in a way that could never be broken. At some point she was conscious of his release, as he shook in her arms and groaned her name, as the hot seed meeting her core spurred her to ride the waves again with him. Melly clung to him as tightly as she could and wished the moment would never end. She felt so happy and content and loved. It had been a terrible, long journey to reach this place and time but now, in her husband’s arms she decided it had all been worth the pain.
Of course the world was going to intrude on her happiness soon because there was still the Glastine camp to be dealt with.
Much later, after a long nap curled up together, they got dressed again and Jeff had given her a tour of the house, they were in the spacious kitchen and he poured a cup of synthcaff for her from the big pot Devora kept going at all times. Melly sipped the refreshing brew and wondered if Devora’s habit was left over from the time when she was a police dispatcher and helped run the sheriff’s office in Rosewater before the outbreak. Whatever the cause, she was grateful for the amenity. “The house is amazing,” she said while Jeff poured himself a cup.
He glanced around the kitchen and grinned. “Yeah, way above my pay grade but since there were five of us and the military was paying, I decided to hell with it and ordered the premium model. You’d think we were First Landing First Class sponsors.”
“We’ll need the space, with all of us living here,” she said, amused at his uncharacteristic extravagance. “It was sensible of you.”
“Home sweet home,” he replied, leaning on the counter.
She set her mug on the kitchen table and moved into his embrace. Laying her head on his chest as his arms encircled her she said, “You’re my home, wherever you are, that’s where I intend to be.”
“Likewise, lady.”
They stood together in a frozen instant of time where nothing and no one could touch the love between them and Melly felt truly at home and safe. What she’d said to Jeff weren’t mere words—they were the truth she held at her core and she had no doubt he loved her in the same way.
Chapter Thirteen
At the controls of the lead flyer, Jeff surveyed the sprawling Glastine camp in the vids. It was predawn, with the early gray light before sunrise and the camp was quiet. Cody had been maintaining his drone surveillance over the place so Jeff was assured nothing had changed since the night of their escape. He’d also been jamming the Glastine broadcasts at Jeff’s order so no new refugees had been lured into captivity to become unwitting lab rats.
Thousands of infected ringed the old fairgrounds on all sides, pressing against the force fields and the barricades made of wrecked vehicles and parts of buildings. The plan, hammered out with much discussion, was to begin the raid by taking out as many of the infected as possible first. Neither Jeff nor his two partners in this attack wanted to let the infected loose on the innocent refugee population trapped inside the gates.
Getting rid of those who ran the place was another matter.
Jeff was going to bomb the admin building inside the camp where Quantike and his officers had their offices and living quarters and hope to cut off the head of the snake with a surgical strike. Zach and Ryan in the other flyer were going to strafe infected, while the APC’s, the contingent from Millersville and Perry Norwood’s giant agri robots worked their way through other areas of infected. The predators had no concept of self defense, no ability to work together to fight off attackers. They would turn on the invading forces of course but lured to the scent of uninfected humans and the noise rather than any concept of fighting back.
The argument to bring Norwood into the mix had been frustrating. Jeff had involved Tamsyn in getting him to attend the negotiations via holo and then to be persuaded to play an active role. The old rancher had been adamant about staying on his own land and not taking part in the battle, although he’d been as horrified by what the Khagrish and Quantike had been doing as everyone else.
“What’s in it for me?” he asked. “Why should I risk my people and my assets on this? You say you’ve destroyed the aliens and ended the threat so why should I care about Quantike and what he does?”
Finally Jeff had said, “Self interest if nothing else motivates you. This is the largest swarm in the northern part of Randal Four and eventually they’re going to sense you up there in your stronghold and come after you. I know you have good defenses—I’ve seen them—but I’m telling you now you can’t hope to take on infected in those numbers and survive. You need to join us in taking this risk now to secure your future.” If the old man was so callous as to disregard the humanitarian aspects of leaving Quantike in charge of several thousand innocent humans ringed in by infected, Jeff would appeal to his baser instincts.
Tamsyn had leaned in over Jeff’s shoulder and added, “If we ever want Randal Four to return to even a pale imitation version of what it was before this outbreak, we have to eradicate this threat and these people who schemed against all of us. I know it seems safer to sit up there at the ranch and guard your own land but the risk is worth the reward. And you’re a damn stubborn old coot but even you have to admit it’ll be better for your kids and grandkids to grow up in a world where the humans are taking control back. Where a real future is possible again, not just hiding and fighting and dying.”
Norwood had been silent for at least two minutes and Jeff had let him stew. There was nothing else to be said. Beside him the mayor of Millersville, who was all in and who had committed his entire guard force to the attack, stirred restlessly but held his tongue too. He’d bet Jeff the day would end without the old rancher buying in.
