POV Captain Rosalie Winters

  I stood, leaning on the crutches Solomon had gotten for me, watching him dig through the snow to find the bckbox. It was unbelievable. I'd found a literal fucking mountain man. Like Paul Bunyon, minus the giant ox, and plus a whole lot of stink. It wasn't a nauseating smell, but he definitely needed a shower. Still, I found myself inexplicably attracted to him, in a way that I had never been drawn to a man in my life. Was it just because the st two months had drastically changed my views? Maybe...

  A shout of triumph preceded Solomon's emergence from the cockpit holding the bckbox. He brought it over and handed it to me.

  "Thank God! Finally, some luck! They’ll be able to track us with this, but we should start moving away from here. If it’s on the move, it will be obvious that the wreckage was found. Hopefully that will put a fire under someone’s ass to recover us." I said, neglecting to mention that it also had the pictures of Base Camp Gamma stored in it.

  A deep, threatening growl sounded from the other side of the downed Strike Eagle. I watched in abject terror as a literal fucking bear strode out. It's huge frame was contrasted by the cutesy ears, but they did nothing to soften the obvious danger presented. It reared onto its hind legs, and I nearly wet myself as it roared at us. I started backing away, dropping a crutch and the bckbox and reaching for my sidearm. It was useless as far as trying to actually kill the thing, but I might be able to scare it away.

  I drew, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

  Click.

  Ice-cold dread flooded my veins like adrenaline, but it froze me in pce. I was going to die, right here in the middle of the mountains, eaten by a fucking bear. I felt like my heart was going to explode with how hard it was thumping, then Solomon leapt in front of me as the bear began its charge. The noble idiot. Then I heard the faint sound of an aerosol spray, just barely audible over our own heavy breathing, the panting of the bear, and the crunching steps it was taking through the snow.

  Then the bear roared again, but it was different this time. Suddenly, Solomon shoved me backwards and we colpsed in the snow. I watched in fascination as the horrifying beast snapped at us, and a stream of something flew out from the can Solomon was holding, straight into its maw and all over its nose. The bear growled, sneezed, and backed slowly away before turning and fleeing towards the treeline. I looked over at Solomon, and found that his stench didn't bother me quite so much anymore...

  ***

  We stepped up onto the road, leaving the wrecked pne and the scene of the bear attack behind us.

  "Where to?" Solomon asked.

  "We need somewhere that will keep us warm tonight." I responded, trying not to focus on the warmth I felt building within me at his proximity. I looked anywhere but at him, fearing he would see my distress in my eyes. I was acting, feeling, like a fucking hormonal teenager again. Why did he have this kind of influence on me? "It’s likely that we’ll be here for a day or two before they can recover us, so we’ll probably need to go back to the grocery store again as well."

  I chanced a gnce at him, and saw him shake at the mention of the grocery store. It must be a horrific scene, to make the guy who jumps in front of bears hesitate. Without thinking, I reached out and touched his shoulder. "I’m sorry. I wouldn’t make you do it if I was able to get in and out by myself."

  It was true; if I were in serviceable condition, I would never send a civilian in to do a soldier's job, especially when he was so attractive. I mean, especially when he was such a valuable asset, now that he was one of perhaps thousands of males alive on the pnet. I didn't think about how insulting it might be to him.

  "I'm not a fucking pansy." He growled back at me.

  I flinched back and looked at my feet, every bit the rebuffed college girlfriend and not the confident captain I had grown into. "I mean, you’ve already been exposed by being around me, so I guess sending you in doesn’t really have any effect at this point. If you’re not immune, you’ll likely be dead in a couple weeks."

  He wrapped an arm around me and squeezed. It was the first hug I'd been given by a man since my father died, and I positively dissolved into him. It was comforting, supportive, and everything I didn't know I'd been craving for the st two months. Until I inhaled, and was hit with the stink of his unwashed self. I wrinkled my nose at it and pushed away.

  "Even for the apocalypse, Solomon, you fucking stink."

  ***

  The apartment was dingy, but comfortable enough compared to breaking into a house and clearing out any dead occupants. I set about unpacking everything Solomon had gathered in the grocery store while he got a fire going outside. I was impressed with how much he had thought ahead on. Everything from clean clothes to drinking water and food to the big pstic water bottles and the thermal bnket. Singur. I was going to suggest we sleep together... not together... in the same bed for practical, heat-sharing purposes, but the single bnket seemed a bit presumptuous to me.

  I carried it to the doorway, calling out for him as I went. He was bent over the fire, ensuring it wasn't going to blow itself out. When he looked back at me, I held up the bnket and raised an eyebrow. A blush formed over his ears, but his expression was neutral.

  "You tough enough to get through the night without one?"

  He shrugged. "We’re going to have to share body heat. We might be indoors, but these walls are thin. I have more insution in my cabin and I still woke up frozen this morning."

  Those were all good points, though I still didn't trust that he wasn't pying some kind of angle here. "Just keep your drawers on." I sighed and went back inside.

  ***

  The shower was a nice commodity. It wouldn't have killed me to go a couple days without one, but Solomon definitely needed it. When I stepped out and dried off, I picked up the bra I'd been wearing, along with the boy shorts he'd gotten me in the store. They didn't fit particurly well, but they were closer to comfortable than he would've gotten trying to guess at panty sizes. He hadn't gotten me a bra either, which I just chalked up to him being a guy. If he had gotten one, it would've been the wrong size. Even I had to try them on to make sure they'd fit, unless I knew the brand pretty well.

  I donned the underwear and strode out of the bathroom, shouting for Solomon to take his turn, and deposited my dirty clothes in a corner. He came in the door while I was still standing by the bathroom, and his eyes shamelessly looked me up and down. It wasn't lustful, but appraising. I felt self-conscious, but refused to let it show. Instead, I cocked a hip and waited. His eyes eventually found my own, and I put on the best impression of a confident, sexy seductress that I could.

  "Been a while, huh?"

  He blushed and averted his eyes, and I let out a tinkling ugh at how fucking cute it made him look. I tried to throw him a lifeline, at least.

  "Don’t worry about it. I didn’t exactly py fair, coming out like this." He still didn't respond, and I giggled again before doing my best hip-swaying saunter over to the bed, ying down and pulling the bnkets over me before teasing him one more time. "Don’t take too long now, or I might freeze to death."

  He huffed and shuffled around before pcing two hot water bottles under the covers with me before heading to the shower with a scrubbing brush and the kettle. I heard him filling the shower bag, then the telltale trickle of water, starting and stopping as he conserved water for wetting and rinsing only. He was grunting and hissing as he scoured himself, and my mind drifted to him making those sounds during more fun activities. I was getting myself kind of worked up, and was half annoyed, half relieved when his shower was over.

  I pretended to be asleep, listening carefully as he came out of the bathroom. He walked to the other side of the bed, and I heard a towel drop. I peeked over my shoulder and saw him, clean as could be, and totally nude. He bent over to pick up some underwear, and I saw his length hanging between his powerful thighs and firm butt. I gasped ever so slightly, and saw him freeze. I quickly faced back towards the bathroom, hoping he wouldn't think too much about it. He just caught me doing exactly what I was teasing him about.

  He didn't say anything, thankfully, and just climbed into bed. He barely got close enough for me to feel him there, then stopped moving and steadied his breathing. A brief war broke out in my mind, and the needy, wanton side cimed victory. I snuggled back into him, reveling in the heat he provided, then reached back and pulled his arm around me. I was in heaven; being held by this incredibly strong man, who rescued me from my parachute, braved the infection of a deadly virus to provide for me, and jumped in between me and a bear instead of saving himself.

  Affection for the wild man welled up within me. "Thank you, Solomon." I whispered.

  "Not exactly the most heroic thing, climbing into bed with a beautiful woman." His deeply masculine voice sent a thrill right through me.

  I forced myself to rex and tried to reply evenly. "I meant the bear, you jackass."

  A soft chuckle escaped him. "Anytime Rosalie."

  ***

  The same dream man came to me that night. This time, however, he was bearing Solomon's face. He held me, ran his hands over my curves, whispered sweet nothings into my ear. He spun me around, and I felt him tease my breast with one hand while his other brushed over my mons pubis, carefully avoiding touching me directly until I begged him for it. His hard cock pressed into me, and I thrust my plump ass back into him, moaning his name at the contact.

  "Solomon. Yes, Solomon. Take me." My dream man, Solomon Vine, whispered another naughty thought in my ear, and I wrapped my hand around to grasp his ass, pulling him even harder into me. He pulled back to line up, and I reached between us to point his cock into my core...

  A gasp woke me from my dream. I was ying in bed, Solomon's cock in my hand and my breast in his, and I was fairly certain he'd just heard me moaning in my sleep. My logical brain completely shut down, and my cave woman slut brain took charge. I started stroking him firmly, and my base desires flew from my mouth uninhibited.

  "Come on, dude. Are you going to fuck me or not?"

  "Rosalie?" He sounded shocked, which hurt a little bit, but was more funny than insulting.

  "Did you invite someone else into our bed st night?"

  “You’re awake?”

  I drew in breath and set my face with an amused expression before rolling over to look at him. I was all bluster at this point, and could only hope that he'd woken up hard. Otherwise, I was already making a huge embarrassment of myself, and I was about to make it worse.

  "Since you first poked me in the ass with this." I squeezed his cock again for emphasis before cave woman Rosalie continued. "You know, it’s really rude to tease if you’re not going to follow through."

  He tried to stammer out an apology, an expnation, and I thanked my lucky stars that my gambit had paid off. I kept stroking him, eyeing him with amusement that I truly didn't feel, and hoping he didn't see the panic I was feeling.

  "Don't you think I'm pretty?" Cave woman Rosalie used my lips to pout at him, and I internally screamed at myself.

  He blushed hard. "Of course you are! I just… we were asleep… I wasn’t trying…"

  I ughed, releasing some of my tension while keeping the seductive smirk pstered on my face. "Oh, well if this is you not trying, I can’t wait to see what kind of moves you can put on me with your full effort. I can’t imagine anything more romantic and suave than getting woken up by you groping and dry-humping me."

  He broke. His mind decoupled from the workings of his mouth, and he just sat there dumbly, gaping as I embarrassed him to avoid my own shame. Eventually, I couldn't take it. I didn't want to make him feel bad any longer. In fact, I really wanted to make him feel good. Especially now that he smelled like the pine trees of his home, and the mint of the body wash he'd gotten. I slipped beneath the covers and yanked his boxers off, cave woman Rosalie leading the charge with enthusiasm.

  "My, my. You really do have a gorgeous cock, Solomon." I heard my own sultry tones, and was vaguely impressed with myself, though not as impressed as I was with the truly gorgeous cock before me. He was perfectly proportioned, with a slight upward curve. Longer than my hand, from the tip of my middle finger to the base of my palm, and thick enough that one hand barely fit around him. He wasn't setting any records, but it was plenty big enough to make my mouth water.

  I leaned in and, following cave woman Rosalie's instructions, as well as a hefty dose of porn-based studying, began my first ever blowjob. He tasted like mint, having just showered, and his warm length quickly had my mind all crossed up. I was thoroughly enjoying him, and he was thoroughly enjoying me. He moaned and bucked and twitched under me. Far before I wanted it, I was rewarded with his hot, salty spunk. I swallowed it all down like a wanton whore, and crammed cave woman Rosalie back into a box before she could escate anything. I slipped out of the bed and started getting dressed.

  ***

  I couldn't believe my eyes when Solomon showed me the basement of his grandpa's house. He had enough firearms in here to outfit a whole ptoon of soldiers, which was about one fourth the total size of personnel at Upsilon. These weapons were sorely needed, and the ammo with them was as good as gold. Then my eyes nded on the reloading table. My jaw nearly dropped off my face. The production of new ammunition was something Lazarus desperately needed, and this kind of small setup was exactly how it would start.

  We loaded up some of the arms and ammo, trekked it back across town, then went back for the rest. We ended up leaving the reloading table and a lot of the ammo, but I made a mental note to have Gabrielle park her chopper on the street to pick those up when she came to get us. It would be easier, actually, to leave all the weapons here and load them directly into the chopper, but I didn't trust myself to spend the whole day sitting around and talking with Solomon, and the work would hopefully keep his mind off the virus he'd just learned about.

  That night, I refrained from snuggling in quite as close as I had the night before. I couldn't risk doing the same thing to him twice. The bullshit excuse of "keeping him focused" was already paper-thin, practically transparent. I just hoped they weren't going to take too long.

  ***

  I was so gd to hear the chopper coming in, that the next few hours went by in a blur. I barely remembered anything beyond Master Sergeant Simmons betting me he would throw up when we took off. I was only halfway paying attention when I agreed, and the girl was so overjoyed that I had to refocus. I was clearly slipping if I'd done something to make her that happy without noticing what she was celebrating.

  We loaded the second round of guns and ammo, and strapped ourselves into the chopper. I heard the crinkling of pstic over the headsets, and looked back to see Simmons handing Solomon an airsickness bag. I rolled my eyes and faced forward.

  "You better not puke in my bird!" Mendez ordered.

  "You better not puke anywhere." I muttered in response.