Page 22

TWENTY-TWO

KITTEN

Cipher discovered the bunker about ten miles from base on one of his missions, a large, twenty-by-twenty-foot concrete square box underground with a solid steel hatch. A doomsday prepper must have built the bunker themselves because it had all the trappings of a DIY project, and most of the equipment looked salvaged or repaired. The canned goods were brands I recognized from Before and some, like the two cases of Mug root beer, were rare and coveted these days.

The space had been furnished with a full-sized bed and well-worn sheets, pillows, and blankets. There was a kitchen area with a countertop, sink, and camp stove to heat up food, a fully functioning bathroom, and a water pump with a filter to make the well water potable for consumption. There was also a floor-to-ceiling locker of weapons, ranging from hunting knives and handguns to rifles and what looked like a rocket launcher. (Cipher had yet to test it out.) Whomever had built the bunker never had the chance to use it, which made us speculate on what sort of apocalypse they’d been anticipating.

In the months since he’d found it, Cipher had made improvements to the bunker too; he brought in a lightly used sofa and area rugs to warm up the cold, concrete floor, a cooler where we could store raw meat and dairy short-term, and a cold storage box for keeping fruits and vegetables fresh. He’d kept the bunker a secret from me for a while, finally presenting it when he felt it was ready. Blindfolded, he’d led me down the collapsible wooden ladder into the space, which he’d lit with candles and oil lamps. “Our home away from home,” he’d told me. A place where we could get some privacy and pretend like the outside world didn’t exist.

We made the most of it that day and every one since.

We fondly referred to it as “base camp,” and we made it a point to visit regularly. Cipher and I were both field agents, trapping “infecteds” to bring back to the lab for screening and potential rehabilitation. Cipher did more of the tracking and trapping side of things, and I examined the potential patients and administered first aid.

So far, of the two dozen individuals we’d brought back to base, eighteen had survived and were now in recovery. Despite the occasional setback, the treatments were getting better, the survival rate higher. Dr. Godara was preparing to launch pilot programs at three other UF bases. It was an exciting time for us at StarChem Lab with every success story getting us closer to a return to civilization.

But while we were at base camp, all of those concerns faded away, and it was just the two of us in our own little hideaway. Inside our bunker, Cipher slept without his prosthesis, a rare occurrence for him and the biggest indication that here at least, he felt safe. Right then Cipher was shirtless, wearing only sweatpants after his recent shower, rummaging through our cupboards for something to make for dinner. Everywhere else he maintained his modesty, but here at base camp, he’d sometimes dress down as a little treat for me.

I was sitting up in bed, using the light from one of the oil lamps to study for an upcoming bio-chem exam. Dr. Godara decided my medical training would consist of practical field work alongside my more formal education. There was an increasing demand for medical workers, and I was anxious to help out in any way I could.

“Babe, are you feeling pasta or chili tonight?” Cipher asked, turning slightly to call over his shoulder. I loved that gorgeous twist of his body, the curve of his lower back. He was still slim and angular, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist, but his arms and back were nicely built thanks to the regular meals and rigorous strength training we had to do, not to mention all the time he spent sparring in hand-to-hand combat. He was lethal when I met him, and his skills had only improved since then.

“Beans make me fart,” I warned and he laughed. The bunker was ventilated but the scents tended to linger.

“Pasta it is then,” he said.

It wasn’t long before the smells coming from the kitchen and the temptation of my shirtless boyfriend lured me away from studying. I put a piece of paper in my textbook to mark the page and set my schoolwork aside. At the counter, I wrapped my arms around him from behind and pressed our bare skin together. He smelled like the lemony shampoo from our shower, still with a metallic tang that I associated with the smell of his guns.

“Mmmm, that feels nice,” he said while stirring the cooked pasta in a white wine sauce with mushrooms, garlic, green onions, and a bit of pork fat. I tucked my nose in the crook of his neck and watched him work.

“Smells good, chef,” I said while running my hands over his pecs, then circling his nipples until they formed hard peaks. Cipher groaned as my hard cock slotted up against the cleft of his ass and he pushed back against me, teasing.

“Whatcha got for a starter?” I asked.

“Standard,” Cipher said. “A very hard salami.”

I took that as an invitation and dropped down to my knees on the carpeted floor, dragging the elastic of Cipher’s sweatpants with me. Just having them around his knees wasn’t enough for me, so I kept pulling until he lifted each foot. I maneuvered the material around his prosthesis and tossed the sweatpants aside. He turned around and I rubbed my hands up and down his muscular thighs, leaning in close to smell his manly musk but not touching him yet. Cipher’s abs tensed until I could count every single ridge of muscle that laddered up his torso. The lines of his groin were sculpted to perfection.

“Kitten,” he groaned as I licked just the tip of his cockhead, where it was poking out from under his foreskin, tasting his salty burst of essence.

“Yes, Cipher?” I asked, staring up at him innocently.

“You play too much.”

I took that as a challenge and began tormenting him some more, lapping at his balls and licking long stripes along his shaft, kissing his smooth head without taking him wholly inside my mouth.

“I’m going to spank you with this spatula,” he warned. As enticing as that sounded, I had something else in mind.

“Let’s wait on dinner. I want to blow you in bed,” I told him.

In what felt like two seconds flat, Cipher had turned off the camp stove and the two of us were fully naked and wrestling around in the bed. Finally, I had him pinned underneath me with both my hands on his hips to hold him down, making it my personal mission to prove that my cocksucking skills still reigned supreme.

“Kitten, you’re killing me,” he pleaded, out of his mind with the desire to come and tugging at my hair.

“Not yet,” I said because he’d taught me a thing or two.

“No, babe, wait. Hold up a sec.”

I pulled back while Cipher grabbed his cock and balls and squeezed, staving off his orgasm. “I don’t want to finish yet,” he said, still a little breathless. “I want you inside me tonight.”

Even with the hearing aid, my ears still played tricks on me from time to time, but when I glanced up to see the blown-out look in his eyes, that steely determination, I knew better than to question it. He’d never bottomed before, which meant he was probably nervous and he needed me to take charge and take care of him.

“On your stomach,” I said, reaching over his shoulder to where we kept the supplies. Once he was settled there, I kissed every knob of his spine until I reached the back of his neck where he still had a scar from the Rabid bite. I kissed the healed skin gently, loving that place on him more because it spoke of his resilience and of his body’s ability to heal. “I’m going to make you feel so good, Cipher.”

“I know you will.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yeah, I do. More than anything or anyone.”

“If there’s anything you don’t like, or if you decide you want to stop, just let me know, okay?”

“I will, I promise.” He took a deep breath, exhaled, then seemed to relax a little.

I angled his hips upward and stuffed a few pillows underneath him so he wouldn’t have to rely too much on his prosthetic leg. I didn’t bother with the lube just yet, but instead licked a long stripe along the lightly haired furrow between his cheeks, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. His dark hair turned wet and silky, revealing a perfect pink star.

“Kitten,” he said, sounding broken already.

“Do you like it?”

“Mmmm,” he said, angling his hips for more. I spread his cheeks and kissed him there, pulling back on his buttocks to see his cute little butthole winking at me as I gave it some extra special attention. Curling the tip of my tongue, I slowly edged inside him, opening him up little by little until his shy bud finally started to bloom.

“I could do this for hours,” I told him. Never having had this opportunity to play with him here, I was greedy for it, never wanting it to end.

“Is this payback for all the times I made you wait?” he asked, breathless but amused.

“This is the definition of delayed gratification,” I said, something he was always telling me.

I continued to soften him up with my lips and tongue until Cipher was restless and squirming on the bed, his body demanding more in a way I knew acutely. I fingered him next, just one lubed digit at first, softly probing his rim and inner walls. I found his prostate, a little bundle of nerves hidden like a nut in the ground, and applied pressure. He gasped and cried out as if I’d shocked him. “That’s the spot?” I said, wanting confirmation.

“Yeah,” he murmured.

By the time I had two fingers inside him, slowly coaxing him open, Cipher was sweating and nearly losing his mind.

“Kitten,” he said, his back and shoulders tense as his ass pushed back against me.

“That’s it, grind against my hand. Imagine it’s my dick.”

“I don’t want to imagine it anymore,” he said, sounding frustrated and I took that as a good sign.

I played with his ass a little longer, admiring the view, while lubing up my dick. It was heavy and hot in my hand. I’d been fantasizing about this day for so long that I worried I’d finish too quickly. Like, immediately. I didn’t want to disappoint Cipher–I wanted it to be so good that he’d beg me for it again and again. I’d gotten better at lasting though. It wasn’t exactly prayer appropriate, but I did make a little request for longevity to the man upstairs.

“Private Perrin-Rogers,” Cipher warned, sounding so much like Captain Crenshaw that it made me laugh.

“Okay, tough guy, it’s coming, I promise. I just want to make sure you’re ready for it. You gotta ease up and relax for me, okay.”

“Yeah,” he said while tensing up even more.

I lubed him up again, then myself, pressing against his hole as I laid myself on top of him, my arms overlapping his on the bed while keeping my weight off him. I kissed his shoulder and his neck, leading up to his jaw.

“Kiss me,” I said, and he turned his head, giving me an aggressive, somewhat impatient kiss. When Cipher’s tongue was burrowed firmly inside my mouth, I made my first foray into his body. His tight little bud wouldn’t give way at first, so I pushed a little more, until he sucked me inside of him, just the tip. He was so tight around me that I gasped into his mouth. Better than a hand, better than a mouth even, this was where my cock was meant to be.

“That’s good,” I said. “Push out now so I can get deeper inside you.”

Cipher followed my command with a deep belly groan and I slowly closed the space between us, until I was so deep inside him I could feel the beat of his heart. I knew it’d feel good to top him, but I never could have imagined it’d feel this good.

“Okay?” I asked because we’d both gone silent, only the harsh pants of our breath filling up the quiet room.

“Yeah,” he said and pushed back slightly. “I think… I think I like it,” he said, sounding pleasantly surprised.

“I like it too,” I replied, the world’s biggest understatement, and kissed his shoulder. I moved my hips, driving my cock deeper inside him. Cipher arched upward and groaned in pleasure, the sound like a shot of adrenaline through my already amped-up body. I wanted to make him feel amazing, better than he’d ever felt before. Reaching one arm around him, I grabbed hold of his hips to anchor him to me, his legs braced just inside mine, so he didn’t have to work so hard. All he’d have to do was enjoy it.

“This good?” I asked as I began to move, rolling my hips a little at the end of my thrust to really drive my dick home. Gentle but steady, I was making him mine.

“Yeah, so good.” He dropped his head between his shoulders and panted.

I found the spot inside him that made him keen with pleasure and kept angling toward it, taking him higher and higher. He was so wonderful. It felt like a religious experience to have Cipher share himself with me in this way–this beautiful, capable body that had fought off countless Rabids and carried me to safety and constantly watched my back.

“I love your body,” I said. We were moving as one, same as when we’d fought Rabids or cooked dinner, how we breathed when we were lying in bed.

“I love you. I’d only do this for you. With you.”

“I know. You feel so good. I’m trying to make this last, but I don’t think I can for much longer. Are you close?”

“So close,” he said as if it were painful.

“I’ve got you. Let go now, Cipher. Show me how you fall apart.”

His beautiful back arched upward, and he let out a howl that sounded more animal than human. I reached underneath him and had only just wrapped my hand around his cock when I felt him tighten around me. His muscle milked me from the inside while his cum spilled over my fist. I stroked him through it, finding my own peak at the tail end of his pleasure.

And then I was cresting on a wave of euphoria so deep and so wide that it felt like I was flying. I’d never swam in the ocean, but I could imagine it felt just like this–weightless, free.

I cradled him to me, pushing inside as I released into the sweet clutch of his body. His muscles were probably tired from having to hold the position, so I grabbed him in a big bear hug and rolled us to the side, still half-hard and buried inside him.

“I don’t want to leave you,” I said.

“You don’t have to.”

Locked together in an endless embrace, this was how we were meant to be. I hated it when I finally slipped out of his body. Still, I gripped him tightly, unwilling to give him even an inch. I nuzzled the base of his neck, his buzz cut tickling my nose. Cipher had been so pissed when the military made us cut our hair. He’d petitioned Captain Crenshaw to have me excluded but she’d denied him, even after he pulled the remember-when-we-saved-your-asses card. She refused to show us special treatment, and I think Cipher secretly respected her more for it. And as it turned out, I didn’t have a lumpy head.

“How was your first time up the butt and around the corner?” I asked, trying to inject some humor into the gravity of the moment.

He laughed, his whole body shaking in my arms. “I can’t believe you.”

“I know, I’m a brat, but I do want to know how it was for you,” I said.

“It was good. So good. But only because it was you.”

“You’re safe with me,” I told him because at times, we both needed reminding.

“I know.”

“I’m going to clean us up. Don’t move.”

“Ugh, wet spot,” he said, so I tucked the top sheet that had fallen to the floor underneath him. I wet a rag with water and wiped us both off, tossing the soiled cloth into the sink. Then I scooped up two bowls of dinner and brought it over to him so we could eat in bed.

“This is good. What kind of mushrooms are those?” I asked.

“Chanterelles. And I added a bit of that goat cheese we brought with us.”

“Yeah, creamy,” I remarked, using a crust of bread to wipe up the last bit of sauce.

“There’s more, you know,” he said, smirking at my terrible table manners. Sex made me hungry and sleepy, but one thing at a time.

“Later,” I said, “You finished?”

“Yeah.”

I set our bowls aside, but instead of our usual position of me lying on top of him, I wrapped him up in my arms so that he was the little spoon. I had a million things I wanted to tell him, but I didn’t want to overwhelm him if he still needed time to process.

“I never thought it would feel like that,” he said after a few minutes, when I had just started to doze off.

“Like what?” I asked, kissing each tiny freckle on his shoulder.

“Like coming home.”

I smiled against his skin, thinking how lucky we were to have found each other, to have fought for each other and survived. “I hope it feels like that every time,” I said.

He rolled over and met my gaze with his dark, serious eyes. “You’re my everything, you know.”

I nodded because even though we had our family and our friends on base, I felt the same way about him; we were two parts of the same whole.

“I have something for you,” he said, suddenly sitting up in bed. His hair was adorably messy and there were still flakes of cum on his stomach. “I’ve been holding onto it for a while now, trying to find the right time, the right moment, but I don’t want to wait any longer. I already talked to your brother about it. Macon too, though that was more for advice than permission.”

“Cipher.” I laid a hand on his arm because this sort of rambling commentary was so out of character for him. “Are you okay?”

He shot out of bed and walked toward his duffle bag, reached into what we called the secret pocket and pulled out something small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. I sat up in bed, no longer tired, and watched as he slowly, painstakingly got down on his knee and stared up at me, still naked, eyes shining, maybe even crying a little?

“Cipher, what’s going on? You’re freaking me out.”

“Don’t be freaked out, but give me a minute. I gotta get this out.” He took a deep breath, exhaled, then stared up at me again. “Joshua Perrin-Rogers, Kitten, will you marry me?”

The shock of it all struck me silent, and later I would laugh at myself for thinking he was having some sort of psychotic break, but that concern passed quickly because there was a ring and Cipher’s earnest, almost pained expression to assure me that he was dead serious as he waited for my response.

“Of course I’ll marry you,” I told him, the fool. We’d never talked about marriage before, but it was a given that we’d be together forever, from my perspective at least. I’d never thought he’d be so conventional as to want to get married. I even recalled him referring to marriage as nothing more than a “piece of paper,” but people could certainly change.

Ha! I was going to make a married man out of my anti-establishment, non-conformist boyfriend. No longer my boyfriend, but my sweet, sentimental fiance. Cipher wanted to marry me, to be my husband. It was all too much.

I scooped him off the ground and pulled him into a naked full-body hug, all of my limbs wrapped so tightly around him that he wouldn’t be able to escape if he tried. He mumbled something about not being able to breathe, so I loosened my grip a little.

“You have to wear the ring,” he said with a bigger smile than I’d ever seen before. I put my hand out for him to slip it onto my finger, a perfect fit.

“Where’d you get it?” I asked, admiring the silver and onyx band. Tiny diamonds glittered in the dim lighting. I wondered how long he’d been holding onto it, trying to work up the courage to ask.

“It belonged to my dad, his wedding ring. I saved it. I’m a little sentimental, I suppose.”

“A little? You’re a lot sentimental, you big softie. I love it. And I love you. I’ll be the best husband ever.”

“I know you will. My ride or die,” he mused.

“If I’d known all I had to do was top you to get you to pop the question, I’d have done it a long time ago,” I teased him.

“It wasn’t that exactly. More like I wanted to prove that I could.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to me, Cipher.”

“To myself. I wanted to give you that.” He shrugged, looking adorably awkward about it.

“There’s nothing you have to do to be worthy of my love because you deserve it every day by just being you. You’re the only one for me. I’ve always felt this way, since the moment we first met. That’s one constant you can always count on, my love for you.”

He nodded, wiping his eyes to reveal thick black lashes wet with tears. I pulled him into my arms and peppered the side of his head with soft kisses.

“This is what it feels like,” he said, clutching his heart as if he was in pain. “I honestly don’t think I’d ever experienced it before you, Kitten.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Happiness.”