STORY EXCERPT

The short walk to the hospital proved frightening. All around them, victims of the bushfire slowly made their way to the emergency entrance. An elderly couple helped a younger man limp toward the hospital, one foot and both hands badly burned and obviously painful. A young mother tried to calm her two terrified children as she searched the crowd for someone, possibly her husband, and all around them, people covered in soot helped the injured and bewildered victims of the bushfire.

A father called for help as he tried to carry two young children with burned feet, his own feet badly injured. Jack and Reece both turned to Christina, seeming unwilling to leave her but unable not to help someone so obviously in need.

“I’ll be right behind you,” she said. Both of them smiled grimly before heading directly for the man and his family. Christina stayed close, sensing the need in Jack and Reece not to leave her alone. Or maybe it was her own emotions messing with her head, but she didn’t want to be alone right now, and sticking close to friends seemed more important than lining up for medical attention a few minutes faster.

As they approached the injured man, Christina realized there was a woman limping behind him, her feet also burned, a young baby clutched to her chest. She’d been crying, her face streaked with black soot and cleaner tracks where the tears had washed away the grime.

“We didn’t know.” The words were quiet, filled with anguish. “We didn’t know.”

Christina tried to think of something to say but seemed unable to find words of comfort under these circumstances. She wrapped her good arm around the woman’s shoulders.

“I’m going to try and help take some of the weight off your feet. Are you okay to hold the baby?”

The woman nodded. She couldn’t have been any older than Christina, maybe even a few years younger, yet here she was in the middle of a natural disaster trying to protect her three young children.

“We didn’t know. The baby has been crying for days.” She said the words with difficulty, her throat obviously raw and painful. “The radio reports said the fire was heading in the other direction.” Her breath caught on a sob. “We didn’t know.” Tears tracked down the young woman’s face again. Christina did the only thing she could. She held the woman tighter and continued the slow, painful progress to the hospital emergency entrance.

Jack and Reece each carried a young child and helped the father to walk.

As they walked past the accident, Christina averted her eyes, unable to bear witness to more tragedy. Even the quick glance she’d had of the crumpled metal remained behind her eyelids. More death, more destruction, more painful agony for the survivors.

When they reached the other side of the accident, cars were parked haphazardly all over the road, making it necessary for them to weave through the vehicles. It was very slow going, but eventually, they reached the hospital triage area that had been set up on the lawn in front of the emergency entrance. Almost every space was filled with burn victims, many in terrible pain, waiting as the more severe injuries were treated first. Several ambulance sirens could be heard in the distance as well.

A woman approached them as soon as their small party stepped onto the lawn. She wore a name tag, but with eyes still blurry from the smoke, Christina was unable to read it.

“How old is the baby?”

“Nearly six weeks,” the young mother answered in a strained and raspy voice.

“Can you walk to the door over there?” When the young mother nodded, the nurse continued. Turning to Christina, she said, “We need to assess the children first. Can you help her?”

“Of course.”

The nurse quickly looked over the other two children, a look of anguish crossing her face momentarily before she resumed her professional mask. With all the suffering going on around them, it seemed pretty easy to forget the medical people were affected by this tragedy, too. Christina found herself marveling at the training and professionalism that kept doctors and nurses doing their jobs when it would be much easier to give in to despair.

Reece moved to her side. “Vanessa,” he said to the woman beside her, “Your husband wants me to carry you and the baby into the hospital. Jack has the kids. We’ll get there much faster.”

The young woman glanced at her husband and then nodded her head slowly. Reece bent and easily lifted the woman and her baby into his arms, then immediately strode toward the door the nurse had indicated. Jack was just a few steps behind, the nurse beside him.

“Thank you,” said a quiet voice. Christina glanced at the man trying to limp toward the same door. She’d only just wrapped her good arm around his waist when Jack and Reece returned. They lifted the man between them and headed back into the hospital, returning to her side a few moments later.

Christina smiled at both of them, a little surprised by the way her vision blurred. Her eyes watered, and her head had begun to pound some time ago, but she’d been so involved with getting the family to safety she hadn’t realized just how much her head really hurt. She lifted her shoulders, opening her mouth to drag in a big lungful of air, but it felt wrong somehow, the cleansing breath she sought eluding her. She shook her head and tried again.

ADULT EXCERPT

Reece was watching her as she opened her eyes.

“Good morning,” he whispered as he leaned in to kiss her lips. “Did you sleep better?”

Smiling shyly, she realized she’d had the best night’s sleep she’d had in days, maybe even months. Wrapped safe and warm in the cocoon of their bodies, she’d slept soundly for the first time in a very long time.

Jack’s arm tightened a little as he pulled her back against his body and nuzzled her neck.

“Good morning.” He sighed into her ear. “I am so comfortable here, I don’t think I’ll ever let go. You feel so wonderful.” Seemingly to prove his point, he pulled her hips back onto his raging erection, grinding his cock slowly against the soft flesh of her ass.

Christina’s body immediately started humming with excitement, and she felt wetness gathering between her thighs, the muscles of her pussy beginning to pulse.

“Ah, looks like you’re enjoying that,” Reece said as he leaned forward to kiss her, pushing his tongue deep into her mouth and tangling it with her own. She moaned a little, and Jack leaned over to bite her ear gently, reminding her in a soft whisper that they needed to be quiet.

“I love your sweet sounds, but show me with your body.” Christina felt the zipper to her sleeping bag open, cool morning air momentarily chilling her skin before Jack returned to her, still inside his own sleeping bag.

Reece ran his hands over her hips and her belly, pushing the shirt up past her breasts and over her head, carefully helping her get it over her injured arm.

“They’re even more beautiful than I remember,” he said as he ran his hands up her body to cup her breasts, his thumbs grazing over the stiff peaks.

Jack continued pressing her back onto his erection as his hands roamed over her legs and ass, hooking into the top of her panties, pushing them down her legs, and helping her to kick them off.

Heated embarrassment crept up her neck as she realized she now lay on her side, naked between them, both men still in their sleeping bags.

“Let us show you how beautiful you are,” Jack whispered into her ear, gently nipping the sensitive skin on her neck. Shyly, she nodded her consent.

Reece again captured her lips with his, holding her jaw firmly in his large hand, pressing his marauding tongue more deeply into her mouth.

Jack’s hands moved down her body, lifting one leg over his so her pussy lay open to his attentions. His fingers tangled in her wet curls, circling her clit gently, before he plunged one into her dripping pussy. She squeaked in surprised delight, and Reece pushed his tongue farther into her mouth, still teasing the stiff peaks of her nipples with his clever hands.

As Jack continued to push a finger in and out of her aching pussy, Reece slid lower down her body to pull the stiff peak of her nipple into his mouth. He rolled his tongue around the areola. She moaned again but found a large palm gripped firmly over her mouth. She smiled against the hand and then nipped at the fingers. An evil little chuckle sounded just before Reece returned the favor and bit her nipple. She yelped behind her makeshift gag, and he quickly soothed the pain with his tongue.

Jack began circling her clit with his other hand as more fingers pushed into her dripping channel.

“You’re so wet for us, Christina. Can you feel how much your body wants us both?” Christina whimpered in ecstasy behind Reece’s big hand that still held her quiet. She moved rhythmically against Jack’s hands now, striving for the peak that seemed so tantalizingly close. Reece began to suck strongly on her breast, taking up the same rhythm. The combined sensations on her pussy and breasts and the erotic thrill of Reece’s hand forcefully reminding her of the need to be quiet had her thrashing in their arms, desperate for the orgasm she knew only they could give her.