Love in Chaos Read online

  Listening to the conversations at night, she learned that everyone had to earn the ink that was around their wrist. Pete was the only one allowed to touch her with Clayton close. At night, because they didn’t have private rooms, she slept in Clayton’s arms.

  Each night she went to sleep feeling happier and content. She hadn’t felt this way since she was a kid and her parents were still alive, but this was different. Clayton was so much more.

  Glancing past Clayton’s shoulder, she saw why he’d stopped.

  They were on the edge of a town. There was no sign to give any indication of where they were and from the surrounding forests, she had a feeling it was like a ghost town.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Shh,” he said.

  She glanced behind her to see Lee offering her a smile and moving close. “Towns like this tend to have people already protecting the zone. It’s too suspicious for it to be empty. There’s way too many hideouts.” Lee made sure to whisper.

  “Right,” she said.

  “Spread out. Stay on alert. Don’t be a hero,” Clayton said.

  He grabbed her hand and she made her way forward. She noticed each member started to pull out a weapon. Some had guns, most knives, and other tools like a wooden bat with nails coming out like spikes.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked.

  Clayton didn’t answer.

  They moved further into the town until they came to a stop. They were all tense.

  “Grab supplies. We’re not sticking around,” he said. “Get what you need.”

  Everyone fanned out and she spotted the grocery store up ahead. She made to leave, but Clayton grabbed her hand. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  “I’m doing what I need to do.” She tried to let him go, but again he held on firm, not letting her go. “Clayton, I know everyone has had to help and earn this.” She held up her hand with the ink claiming her as his. “I don’t want to get special treatment.”

  “You’re not getting special treatment. You’re mine.”

  “And let me prove to everyone that I’m part of this group. I can do this. I’ve been surviving now for over three years. My parents died not long after it started. Please. Trust me.”

  He wanted to argue, but she moved toward him, cupping his face and kissing his lips.

  “Please,” she said.

  “Five minutes and then I’m coming to get you.”

  She pulled out of his arms and rushed toward the grocery store. In her bag were supplies, but she grabbed one of the shopping carts and entered the store. Opening up her bag, she took out the gun, putting it into her jeans so she had it within easy reach.

  Taking a deep breath, she made her way through the aisles. It was like this place got missed. Food was left. The freezers were off and the electric was off. The smell of rotten food was heavy in the air. Grabbing snack foods and canned goods, she rounded the corner when she heard shouting coming right outside.

  Ducking down, she crawled close toward the noise and froze when she saw Lee was on the ground. Three men were near, with one on top of her. Lee’s nose was already bleeding.

  Clayton was past the group, but with how close they were, they may kill Lee before he’d get to her. He wouldn’t risk allowing one of his people to be killed.

  She heard them talking but nothing distinctive. Pulling out the gun from her jeans, she loaded it.

  Clayton had wanted her to show him she could shoot. Well, now was the time, and she needed to act quickly.

  Heart racing, she got as close as she could. Lee saw her and the woman started to freak out, but people were going to realize she wasn’t a woman to be messed with. Firing the gun at the man on top of Lee, she charged through the doors that had been smashed open and took the other guy down while firing her weapon. The man she’d taken grabbed her arms, shoving her back. She dropped the gun and hit her head on the ground. She didn’t allow herself to be stopped as he came toward her. She shoved her boot into his crotch and he went down, cupping himself.

  With the gun in her hand again, she pointed and fired.

  In three years, she’d never fired that gun at a human.

  Dropping the gun, she covered her ears, hearing a scream rent the air and realizing it was hers.

  Arms wrapped around her and she tried to fight, but Clayton grabbed her hands.

  “Look at me, Maggie. I’ve got you.” He kept repeating the same words.

  She became aware of the people surrounding her. All of them part of Clayton’s group.

  “Is Lee okay?” she asked.

  “Babe, I’m more than okay. Thank you.” Lee came close to her, touching her outstretched arm.

  “Let me up,” Maggie said.

  “What?”

  “Please, let me up.”

  “Are you sure?” Clayton asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure. I’ve still got to get the food.”

  “Fuck the food.”

  “No, I’ve got to do this. Let me. Please.”

  He looked like he wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He helped her to her feet, and bending down, she picked up her gun, ignoring the dead bodies as she made her way back into the grocery store.

  ****

  Later that night, camped out in the woods with the sleeping bags they’d taken from the camping store, Clayton looked toward the log where Maggie was perched. She’d gotten all the food and they now had four shopping carts of food, which he wasn’t sure how they were going to carry. Maggie, of course, came back with a whole bunch of backpacks. They could wear the same clothes, but food was a must, she’d told him.

  Now as he looked at her, he saw how pale she was.

  “Is she okay?” Lee asked. The woman had a shiner and a large bump on her head from the three men who’d ambushed her.

  He’d been so fucking stupid to allow people to just go off like that. They were attacked all the time, but he always made sure they were in teams of two or more. This was a complete fucking disaster.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I’d say it was the girl’s first kill.” Lee sighed. “I’m pleased she had what it took to save us.”

  He couldn’t agree more. If Maggie hadn’t been there, Lee wouldn’t be talking to him right now. “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Me? It’s not the worst that I’ve been through, and I’ll live. You know I will.” Lee nodded toward Maggie. “I think you should go talk to her. I had doubts about her, but not anymore. Go, we’ll hold the fort.”

  Without another word, he got up and made his way toward where Maggie sat.

  “Hey, beautiful,” he said.

  She rubbed her hands together. “Hey.”

  “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m fine. I mean, I always knew that taking a life wasn’t supposed to be fun, but you should feel something, right?” She looked toward him.

  “And you don’t.”

  “I feel a little sick, but I’m glad they’re dead. That’s wrong, right? I should be sad for taking a life. I should hate myself for what I did.”

  “I’m not going to tell you how you should feel. I imagine in normal circumstances, you’d feel what you’re supposed to feel.”

  “But these aren’t normal circumstances. If life was normal, my parents would still be alive and men wouldn’t grab a woman and treat her like that.” She got to her feet and took a few steps into the woods. She didn’t go far, leaning up against a tree. “If we were all normal, you’d still be a teacher.”

  “I still am a teacher.” He cupped her hip, pressing his body against hers. “Tell me how I can make this right.”

  “Nothing can make this right, Clayton.” She put her hands on his chest. “You know, I used to think about you too. I … I’d watch you. How you’d command the class. You didn’t take crap from nobody, and if anyone disrespected anyone else, you’d be all over their ass, humiliating them.” She tilted her head to the side.

  “I was in your thoughts, huh?”

 
; “Yeah, but I think you can tell that, can’t you?”

  She lifted up and her lips were on his. “If it were normal,” she said, her hand running down his body and going to his cock, “I wouldn’t be able to ask you to fuck me against this tree.”

  He closed his eyes as her hand moved up and down his length through his jeans. “Maggie, you’ve been through a lot.”

  “I’ve been through a lot for a lot longer. I wasn’t going to let those bastards hurt Lee. You’re my family and so is she.” She pressed a kiss to his neck. “And you said I belong to you.” Another kiss to his neck, her teeth nipping at his pulse. “So why don’t you take me? I need you, Clayton. I need my teacher’s cock. I need you to do what you do best. Teach me.”

  He spun her around, putting her hands against the tree before he worked the button of her jeans, sliding the zipper down. After shoving her jeans down to her knees, he angled her hips and released his cock from his pants.

  “Anyone could come and see,” she said.

  With his cock at her entrance, he slid in an inch, returning his grip to her hips, and slammed in deep, going to the hilt. She was already wet for him, but not nearly enough to satisfy him.

  Reaching between her thighs, he stroked her clit, holding himself perfectly still within her.

  “No one will come and see. They know who you belong to and what I will do if they disturb me.” He used two fingers, rubbing her nub. With his other hand, he cupped one of her large breasts, pinching the nipple between his fingers.

  Her answering cries were music to his ears. If this was what she needed to get herself through the day, then he was more than happy to oblige.

  All it took were a few strokes, and she came hard around his cock. Before her orgasm had even subsided, he held her hips again and began to pound inside her, going as deep as he could get. She rocked back against him, his name spilling from her lips.

  Slamming in deep, he didn’t go easy on her. He obliterated the events of the day by fucking it right out of her. He let her focus on his cock, on the pleasure he was giving her and nothing else.

  In their world, there was no room to dwell on what had happened. They could only keep moving forward. As he shoved his dick inside her one final time, he spilled his cum, filling her up. In the back of his mind, he thought about kids. Each time he took her without a condom, there was a risk of having babies. He wasn’t afraid to have kids. He wanted them, but first he had to make sure he found a safe place for all of them.

  Chapter Five

  One month into belonging to Clayton, and Maggie couldn’t think of a single negative thing to say about him. As a teacher, he was … thorough. Each night, when they found some moments of privacy, he awakened her body in ways she’d only ever dreamed about.

  Every time the sun came up, she was by his side, helping the crew, guiding them. Clayton was a natural-born leader. Everyone turned to him for advice, and she understood why. He settled all quarrels fairly and she knew he cared deeply for the people he’d saved. In the past month, she’d even found a friend in Lee.

  “You keep looking at him like that, you’re going to drown us all in this lake,” Lee said.

  Flicking some water over to Lee, Maggie made a point of averting her gaze. They had all decided to take a break from hunting for a spot to settle to enjoy the last rays of summer. With each day that passed, Clayton’s worries were easier to detect. Her man was worried about the coming winter.

  From what Lee had told her, they’d always found a safe spot to last out the few months of winter, but it seemed they hadn’t gotten lucky this time.

  Wringing out her clothes, she took them over to the rocks to dry out.

  Like the rest of the crew, she stood in a vest and a pair of shorts. The clothes had been taken from a stop at a clothing store during their travels.

  Lee went off with a couple of the other women while she climbed on a rock, leaning back on her hands to soak up the sunshine. Closing her eyes, she didn’t think it was possible to be at peace. She did feel a little self-conscious as she was still the only overweight woman around. Even though she wasn’t greedy and stuck to her rations, her curves chose to stay firmly in place.

  “Mind if I join you?” Clayton asked, causing her to smile.

  “Have a seat. What is mine is yours.”

  She didn’t open her eyes, just enjoying the closeness of him.

  His lips went to her neck. “You’re making me hard.”

  This did make her turn to look at him. “According to you, I always make you hard.”

  He took her hand, placing it on his cock. “You feel that?”

  Glancing past his shoulder, she nodded at his crew.

  Clayton’s answer was to pull her to her feet. She didn’t argue. Each time he took her away from the crew, the pleasure was intense.

  They moved further down the lake until she couldn’t even hear the sounds the crew made. Clayton sank his fingers into her hair and pulled her close, slamming his lips down on hers. Pressing her body against his, she wrapped her arms around his neck, opening for him. He plundered her mouth and she ran her hands down his body, going toward the button of his pants.

  Breaking from the kiss, she stared into his eyes while dragging down the zipper.

  “I know that look,” he said.

  “There’s something I’ve been wanting to try for a while, but you keep on distracting me.” Easing out his length, she wrapped her fingers up and down, relishing his groan. Emboldened by his reaction, she went to her knees before him. “You do this to me all the time, and not once have you let me please you.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “You don’t want my lips around your dick?”

  “I do, but I don’t want you to—” She didn’t give him chance to finish as she placed her lips around the head of his cock and began to suck him into her mouth.

  Glancing up the length of his body, she kept him in until he hit the back of her throat. Easing off his cock, she bobbed her head before finally letting him go.

  “Do you want me to stop?” she asked, flicking the tip with her tongue.

  “Fuck! Suck my dick,” he said.

  His hands gripped her hair. As she opened her lips, he thrust inside. She moaned as his dominance overtook everything. She wasn’t afraid but desperate for more of what he could give her. She didn’t want him to ever stop.

  In and out, he thrust between her lips. There were a few times he hit the back of her throat and seemed to go in further, causing her to gag, but he pulled himself back.

  Her own arousal grew with every passing second.

  She slid a hand between her thighs, stroking her clit as she sucked his length.

  “I’m going to come, Maggie. You better be ready for it. I want you to swallow every single drop.”

  She murmured her appreciation and then swallowed as he pulsed inside her mouth, filling her with his seed. Once she’d milked him dry until he shook, she opened her eyes and he moved out of her mouth.

  “Show me,” he said.

  She opened her mouth to show him she’d taken every single last drop. He ran his thumb across her lip, sliding it into her mouth.

  “Suck.”

  Maggie did.

  Clayton got to his knees and tipped her back onto the ground. She was thankful he’d found a less stony part of the lakeshore. He removed her shorts and spread her thighs. His fingers plunged inside her.

  She was wet.

  He buried his face between her thighs, making her close her eyes as he licked and sucked at her clit. On their last stay in a hotel room, he’d found some razors and shaved off all of her pubic hair. He sucked each of her lips into his mouth and she moaned his name, not wanting him to stop.

  Like so many times before, though, Clayton knew her body way better than she did. He knew what buttons to press and how to bring her to a screaming orgasm with just a few strokes of her clit.

  She came hard for him, her man.

  ****


  Clayton stared out across the horizon and knew he was running out of time. It had now been three months since Maggie had joined their crew. He’d taken her nearly every night and he’d noticed another little detail: she hadn’t once had her cycle.

  His woman was pregnant. There was no way to detect how far along she was, and in all honesty, he’d been careless. Running a hand down his face, he knew this was the first time in three years that he hadn’t been able to find a suitable place for them to stay.

  “Hey,” Maggie said, wrapping her arms around him.

  When she was asleep, he’d been feeling her stomach, trying to find any way to detect if she was pregnant.

  Pulling her in close, he tilted her head back and kissed her lips.

  “Morning, beautiful.”

  “The rest of the crew want to know when we’re heading out.”

  “Immediately.”

  She squeezed him a little tighter. “What exactly are you looking for? We’ve passed so many potential places.”

  “All of them are exposed. I don’t like to put any of my crew at risk.” He already hated that Lee had gotten hurt on his watch.

  “But in time, we can make it secure, right? We haven’t seen anyone else for ages. Surely, we’ll be safe for a short time and we can build any place to be how we want it.”

  Clayton smiled, stroking the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “You’re right, we can. But what about supplies?”

  “Oh,” she said.

  “Yes, exactly. I’m looking for the right place with the right supplies, so we can settle and build. So far, nothing.”

  “You must have found places before now. I haven’t seen you for quite some time.”

  Clayton sighed. “We did. The only problem was … we couldn’t get the grounds to grow the necessary food.” He nodded toward where they’d set up camp. “The canned food is only going to last so long. Once it’s all gone, we’re screwed. We all know this. The only real chance of survival is to be able to fend for ourselves. It’s why I’m looking for many factors in our searches.”

  “You can’t control everything, Clayton. You need to narrow your search.”