The Last Woman (All That Remains #1) (11 page)

All joking aside, this little
trip may have been a mistake. We haven’t strayed too far from home, such as it
is, but what we’ve seen hasn’t been encouraging. This is the fourth small town
we’ve visited, and we haven’t seen one sign of life. Perhaps we should go back
and try again when the weather isn’t so unforgiving.

I drive the RV to the middle
of the parking lot and unload a few large chunks of firewood. By the time Micah
returns I have a huge, roaring fire burning and a large pan of beef stew
bubbling on the propane stove. He’s carrying a fifth of whiskey and a six pack
of wine coolers. At least his sense of humor has returned. He’s been such a
grouch lately.

“Here you go, precious. I
thought you might be thirsty,” he says, tossing the wine coolers to me.

“Asshole.”

“It always comes back to that
with you, doesn’t it?”

I have to laugh. We pass the
bottle of whiskey back and forth a few times before I suggest we make this
little town our last stop on our Giant Waste of Time Tour.

“Do you want to start back to
Vermilion tomorrow?” I ask.

“Let’s give it one more week.”
He unfolds the map, and we plan out where we want to continue our fruitless
search for survivors. Damn, do I miss GPS.

“One more week,” I agree. “The
next town is called Herrin.”

“Fantastic.”

Airen is still asleep beside
me, and I can’t stop staring at him. He looks so young and so goddamned
handsome. His eyes pop open, and I’m busted.

“Good morning.” I smile, and he
grabs me, cuddling me close. We’re quiet, just holding each other, caressing
and enjoying the feel of one another, but I can’t refrain from asking, “Do you
regret it?”

His fingers run down my spine
and back up, giving me goose bumps. “Have you been staring at me, waiting for
me to wake up so you could ask that question?” he asks, staring at me in
exasperation.

“Possibly.”

“What am I going to do with
you, Abby?” I’m pulled against his chest as he sighs in amusement. “Of course I
don’t regret anything we did. Nothing has changed since last night. Did you
really think it would? It’s not like we got drunk and had a one night stand.”

“Do you mean we get to do it
again?” I grin, kissing his ear.

“And again, and again, and
again,” he murmurs with a wicked smile, resting his hand against my hip. “But
right now I have to pee.” He squeezes my leg and bounds out of bed. I snort and
start to pull on my panties. Hmm, the kids won’t be up for another hour.

Airen comes out of the
bathroom naked, and oh, I could just stare at this man forever. Just sit down
and stare at him until I die of old age. Instead, I put my hands on his hips
and kiss him hard, delving in with my tongue to revel in the taste of him.

“Don’t start something you
aren’t prepared to finish,” he murmurs.

“We’ll finish,” I promise, backing
him toward the small love seat in the corner of my room. The back of his knees
touch, forcing him to sit, and the blazing stare I’m met with sends goosebumps
across my skin. He took charge and showed me how he could move last night, made
me come harder and faster than I thought I could. Now it’s my turn. I straddle
him and slide my lips along the stubble on his jaw. He smells so damn good. His
hands move around to caress my behind.

“You have a great ass, Abby,”
he murmurs, his lips nibbling my earlobe. His erection grows against my thigh,
and I take hold of him, squeezing firmly. I’m rewarded with a gasp as he lays
his head back and closes his eyes.

“Slow,” he moans.

“Sorry, you aren’t in control
this time,” I whisper against his ear.

His eyes fly open, and he
inhales through clenched teeth as I impale myself on him. I spread my legs and
press my knees down and out, driving him deeper inside me. It feels so good, so
full. He’s so thick. He licks into my mouth as I move slowly up and down.

“Abby…God, Abby,” he groans.
His fingers move between my legs, stroking, teasing, sending spikes of pleasure
racing through me, burning me from the inside out. I try to focus on what I
want to do to him and not on the growing sensations threatening to engulf me.
Breathing deep, I shift and rotate my hips slowly. We both moan, and my hand grasps
his hair, my other digging into his bicep as he grips my behind and moves with
me. When his thumb slips down to find my spot, I come instantly, exploding on
top of him.

“Yes, darlin’,” he moans,
staring up at me while I fall to pieces in his arms. The intimacy of being face
to face, of being watched at such a vulnerable moment is overwhelming, and I
have to look away.

Regaining my senses, I plant
my hands on the back of the sofa and thrust my hips downward, forcing him into
me as deep as I can.

“Fuck,” he growls, his hands
tightening on my ass.

I can’t take my eyes off of
him as I ride him faster. He’s coming apart beneath me, his head tilted back,
lips parted, eyes squeezed shut. It’s hot as hell to watch him lose control. He
grasps my hips hard and slams into me as he reaches his climax, panting and
sweating. I collapse against him with my head on his chest, his arms around me.

Oh, what a fabulous way to
wake up.

* * *
*

“We need to talk to everyone
about a few things,” Airen announces at breakfast.

“You’re a man trapped in a
woman’s body?” Carson guesses, making Joseph choke on his coffee.

Jayla giggles. “I think you
have that backward.”

“Not at all. Look at those
child bearing hips.”

Carson laughs as Airen puts
him in a choke hold. “I’m going to have to show this boy who’s boss around
here,” Airen threatens, grinning.

“Mom?” Jayla suggests, and
everyone chuckles.

“That’s right,” I brag. “Now
stop ganging up on Airen.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet,
protecting your boyfriend,” Carson teases.

I can’t help but laugh, mainly
because Airen blushes a bright red and looks away.

“Knock it off,” I admonish,
smiling. “That’s actually what we want to talk to you about.”

“When’s the wedding?” Carson asks.

“I don’t think you want to be
Jayla’s brother,” I reply, raising my eyebrows at him. I’ve seen the looks
between them lately, and I know at thirteen it’s only puppy love, but they bear
watching.

It’s Carson’s turn to blush.
“I’m done,” he mutters.

“I want to be Jayla’s
brother!” Walker cries. Jayla scoops him onto her lap and kisses his cheek.

“You are my brother.”

I stare at Airen who has
suddenly clammed up and left the announcements to me. “We aren’t getting
married, but we are going to be...um...together.” I really don’t know how to
describe it. “Airen is going to move into my room, and we thought Walker might
like to have his own room.”

“Really? I can have my own
room?” He dances around the table.

“Do you want to take Airen’s
room?” I ask Joseph. “I don’t think you want Walker in there since there’s an
outside exit.”

“Sounds good.” On his way out
of the room, Joseph slaps Airen on the back and murmurs something that makes
him laugh.

“Can we do it today?” Walker
asks, bouncing in his seat.

Airen shrugs at me. “I don’t
see why not.”

When the kids leave the room,
I’m on it. “What did Joseph say to you?”

A wicked smile raises his
lips, and his hand slides down the back of my shorts to squeeze my bare ass.
“He said, ‘Take care of her, and don’t keep me up all night fucking’.”

“You liar!” I laugh, slapping
his chest.

I’m lifted and pinned against
the kitchen wall in half a second, his hot hands under my ass as his tongue
runs down the side of my neck. “I could only promise the first one.”   

* * *
*

Spring has finally shown its
face, and it’s lovely to spend more time outdoors. We’re busy tilling plots of
land and planting every vegetable and fruit we can think of growing. There’s no
shortage of seeds, and we plant a lot, too much probably. Even with what we’ve
learned from reading, this is going to be a lot of trial and error. It’s a good
thing we have plenty of canned foods in the meantime.

I hear the bang of the screen
door and the thuds of shoes hitting the floor before Joseph, Airen, and Carson
plop down at the kitchen table. They’re sweaty and dirty, and their hands are
blistered. They’ve been putting up fences to keep the deer out of the crops and
are now discussing plans to plant trees and shrubs the next day.

“What’s the point of planting
shrubs?” I ask.

“To hide the crops,” Joseph
replies.

“From who?” I pursue,
confused.

“Anyone, everyone,” Airen
answers. “We never know who’ll come down this road. It’s better if it isn’t
obvious that people live here. We don’t want to advertise our food supply.”

“Oh.” It just seems a little
paranoid to me. I want to meet other survivors, not hide from them.

Airen has the look he gets
when he’s prepared to argue to the death to get his way. “You don’t like the
idea?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t
want to hide from people.”

“We aren’t hiding. We just
don’t want our little farm to be visible from the road. If someone approaches,
we want to be able to see them before they see us so the choice is ours whether
or not to meet them. It’s safer this way.”

I put one arm around Airen and
one around Joseph. “I feel safe with you two, so whatever you guys think is
best, have at it. I’d like a few apple trees though, since you’re planting
trees anyway.”

“Done.” Airen kisses the top
of my head and goes to wash up.

“Yum.” Carson sighs dreamily,
following Airen out of the room. “Apple pie.”

Joseph grins at me, dimples in
full bloom.

“What?”

“You’re in such a good mood
lately, Abby.”

“I’m happy,” I reply and
return to sorting beans for tonight’s dinner.

“So is Airen. It’s nice to see
you this way. I’m happy for you.” He gives me a quick one armed hug, and I beam
at him.

 “Thank you. That’s really
sweet.”

At dinner, Joseph and Airen
are unusually quiet. Even the kids notice the tension in the air and are more
subdued than usual. They run off to their rooms after dessert, and I eye Airen with
suspicion.

“Okay, out with it. What’s
going on with you two tonight? You’ve barely said two words to anyone. Did you
have a fight about something? Is there another wooden versus wire fence battle
raging?”

While Joseph immediately looks
guilty, Airen blurts, “We need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay,” I respond hesitantly.

“You aren’t going to like it,”
Joseph warns.

“Just spit it out already. You’re
worrying me.”

“Well, Joseph had an idea...”

“Sure, blame it on me,” Joseph
interjects.

Airen smothers a grin and
glances at him. “We need to take a little trip.”

“Go on.”

“We want to hook the house up
to solar power, and we need to collect the supplies. There’s hardware, wiring,
and a few other things we can’t get here,” Joseph explains.

I don’t see what all the drama
is about. We go to neighboring towns often for necessities. “Okay, and I’m not
going to like it because?”

“The closest place that stocks
those items is in Evansville, Indiana,” Airen admits.

“I’ve been to Evansville, and
it was a two hour trip before the roads were crammed with cars or washed away
completely.”

The fall and spring rains have
done an amazing amount of damage to the streets and highways, without anyone to
repair them. We’re in a sparsely populated area where most of the people had
been evacuated as the plague began and still had to spend days clearing a path
to our main resources, towing cars out of the way and pushing them into ditches.
Evansville was large, highly populated, and I presume it’ll be much more
difficult to navigate.

“It’ll take us forever to get
there,” I point out.

“Airen and I can get there in
a day, find what we need, and be back by the next evening,” Joseph promises,
throwing a guilty glance in my direction. They look like two teenagers asking
to borrow the family car and promising not to break curfew.

“Are you out of your minds?”

Airen smirks. “I told you she
wouldn’t like the idea.”

“No shit! You think you guys
are going to go that far, and I’m just going to sit here and worry? Evansville
is a large city, and you have no idea who you’ll run into there or what could
happen! No! Absolutely not!”

“Exactly.” Joseph sighs and
gazes at me. “It’s not safe to take the kids.”

“There is nowhere else that
you can come by this stuff? There isn’t anywhere closer?”

“Evansville is the nearest
warehouse. Look, Abby, if I can find what I need then I can connect the entire
house to electricity. Everything would work including the furnace and central
air. We wouldn’t need so much firewood or gasoline.”

“The washer and dryer,” I
mumble, unable to hide the longing in my voice. Laundry is one of the worst
chores with no power. I consider the possibilities. Am I really willing to risk
both of them for a little electricity and comfort? Airen is letting Joseph do
all the talking, so he must think he has the best chance of convincing me to
agree. “That sounds wonderful, but it’s not worth the risk of losing one or
both of you.”

They stare at each other in
exasperation. “We won’t go unarmed, Abby. The chances of coming across other
people are slim. We’ll be fine,” Airen says.

“Then I’ll go with you, and
Joseph can stay with the kids. I’m a better shot anyway.”

“I’d have no idea what to
search for once we got there. I wouldn’t know a solar panel if I tripped over
one. Joseph has to go.”

“Then I’ll...”

“Don’t even suggest that you
go with Joseph,” he snaps, interrupting me. I guess he saw that one coming.
“You know the kids need you. Don’t you think it scares the hell out of me to
leave ya’ll alone, even for one night? I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t important,
but we had a hard winter, and if we can improve the quality of all of our lives
by spending one night apart, then we’re going to do it.”