normal.
He grabbed his shirt, and a couple of minutes later, she watched from the window as he strolled across the street to the car that sat on Bob and Carol’s lawn. He peered in the vehicle’s windows. Something must have alarmed him because he’d quickly looked up at her and waved his hand signaling to her to stay put. She’d watched as he knocked on Bob and Carol’s front door and waited. He knocked a couple of more times, and then surprisingly he’d opened the door and disappeared inside the building.
Her gaze drifted to the increasing number of plumes of black smoke. She darted a look up and down the street. No traffic. No people. What the fuck was going on?
She reached for the clock radio on the bedside table and flicked it on. Silence. Shit! She’d forgotten the electricity had gone out.
Okay, so this was not good. Not good at all. She snapped through her memory trying to figure out where she’d put her watch. She found it on the dresser. It had died, too. What the fuck?
A few moments later, Durango had returned and their nightmare had begun…
Liz awoke with a jolt, her heart hammering and cold perspiration clinging to her clammy skin. She bit her bottom lip and forced herself to steady her breathing.
Just a nightmare. She wasn’t back in Calgary. She wasn’t reliving the Catastrophe. She was here, safe and sound, in this little century-old stone house. Durango was here and Landon and Tyrell. Everything was fine.
She burrowed deeper against her pillows and clutched the comforters tighter over her chilled body. Ignoring the gentle throbbing in her butt and pussy, she smiled. Yeah, she’d liked what had happened last night. Liked it a lot.
“When the time comes for us to leave, I’m staying,” Landon said. He was perfectly prepared to fight Tyrell and Durango on this matter, and he was surprised when Tyrell nodded his head and Durango didn’t so much as say a word of protest as he broke breakfast eggs and set them onto the frying pan of the woodstove Liz had in the kitchen.
“I’m not leaving her either,” Tyrell said from his perch where he stood on a kitchen stool, frantically searching the upper cabinet for some pepper. Tyrell loved his eggs sunny-side up and doused in pepper. Unfortunately these days pepper was virtually impossible to buy.
Eggs, on the other hand, were plentiful, since everyone and their mother seemed to pay Liz for her doctoring services with eggs instead of money.
“No one’s going anywhere. It’s not safe for Liz to be here alone any longer,” Durango said as he sprinkled salt onto the eggs.
Durango’s words diffused the pent-up anger Landon had been harboring ever since he’d awoken this morning. The three of them had roused around the same time and left Liz still fast asleep, despite the fact all of them wanted to take her again.
The woman was just perfect, Landon thought as he remembered how she’d eagerly kissed him and allowed Durango to guide her over his erection, effectively impaling her on him.
Man, she’d been so tight. Her kisses so hot and passionate, and her sweet body convulsing all over the place every time she’d orgasmed.
He knew he loved her from the moment Durango had brought him here. Knew he would die protecting her if and when the time came.
“What about the gang? Aren’t they going to be pissed?” Tyrell asked as he stumbled off the stool and headed for the pantry.
“I’ve already sent word through Logan,” Durango replied. “Told him yesterday when I was helping them. He volunteered to take a ride up and tell the guys. I’m sure they’ll understand.”
“Geez, first there were nine of us in the gang, and now only three left.” Landon laughed, but then blades of seriousness flowed through him as he focused his attention on Durango. “Are you going to be able to handle the boredom of surviving day by day, Durango? It ate you up the last time, to the point where you were snapping Liz’s and my heads off.”
There was a glint of excitement Landon had never seen in Durango’s eyes before as the man smiled. “That’s before I realized we can survive without the use of stores and cities, gentlemen. Despite this cold weather we are going to go into the farm business. We are going to become self-sufficient. If our neighbors Teyla and Logan and the guys can do it via a greenhouse, then we can, too. With animals.” Durango smiled at the two of them, and Landon could literally feel the man’s excitement zipping through him as well.
Durango continued. “And when we become self-sufficient, we’re going to become self-employed. How’s that sound? No more bosses. No more robberies. No more posses. Just us running everything ourselves and keeping prices reasonable so we can stay in business, but so we can also help out the people who most need it. Since every son of a bitch is out there charging so much for everything, we’ll undercut them and put them right out of business, compliments of their greediness.”
Landon nodded. “We can start by getting our hands on some wild chickens and rabbits. Knock together some buildings and house them. Chickens need warmth to keep producing eggs. So we’ll create that environment. It’ll take time to get the supplies, but with all the abandoned homes and farms in the valleys we should be able to piece together what we’ll need.”
Tyrell chuckled as he pulled out a small tin of pepper. “Yes! Liz is my kind of woman. She must love pepper on her eggs, too. She’s got a good stock of food in here, too.”
“She gets it from the clients she treats,” Durango replied as he grabbed a spatula from a nearby pitcher containing such utensils.
Landon grinned. “Perfect. Liz loves to cook when she’s nervous. With the three of us around, she’ll be nervous wondering when one of us wants to take her, so she’ll be doing a lot of cooking.”
“A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” Tyrell said as he plopped down in his seat at the kitchen table, pepper tin ready in hand while Durango slid a couple of eggs onto his plate.
Yep, Tyrell was definitely on the mend if he could have sex with Liz so much last night without busting a stitch in his side wound and now getting happy over some freaking pepper.
“In the meantime, we can see if we can rent some greenhouse space from Teyla to grow some of the greens the animals will need.” Durango kept talking, but Landon began tuning him out as he spied movement in the hallway.
He looked up and surprise washed through him at seeing Liz standing there. In a split second, Landon forgot how to breathe. She looked spectacular. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were fever bright with arousal, and her pretty honey-blonde hair shone brightly in the early morning sunshine streaming in through the kitchen windows.
She also looked quite shy with her hands twisted nervously together in front of her as she watched them in the kitchen. When she saw him watching her, she smiled and the cutest dimples popped out in her cheeks. He swore his heart burst at the seams with happiness.
“I…I was hungry…I mean…um for food,” she said softly.
Upon hearing her sweet voice, Tyrell and Durango whirled around. Landon swore Tyrell’s cheeks blushed the slightest shade of pink, and Durango almost dropped the frying pan. The two men didn’t move an inch and simply stared at her as if transfixed by her beauty.
Landon shook his head. These guys were suddenly acting like a couple of starstruck teenagers.
“Come on, guys, give the lady a seat. She needs food. Serve her.” He was at her side within two quick strides, and grabbing her hand, he led her to a seat beside Tyrell, who actually stood while Landon seated her.
Fuck. Looked like chivalry wasn’t dead these days. Who would have guessed Tyrell would be so smitten with her?
“Here you go, baby. Some eggs to get some energy into you. You’re going to need it.” Her eyes widened at Durango’s comment, and Landon noticed a look of alarm splashing over her face.
“Give the girl a break. She needs to rest after last night,” Landon soothed. The way the two of them were drooling as they stared at her, she probably thought the three of them were sex maniacs demanding sex before she even had breakfast. But Durango was right. She needed the energy because he was dying to take her again. But
