After the End

Author's note:

This is the eighth chapter of

After the End - Part 3

, the final novel in my dystopian erotic romance trilogy. If you enjoy intensely provocative sex with a power play twist, handsome male heroes in emotionally satisfying relationships, and unconventional happily-ever-afters -- you are in the right place! These books are full-length, publication-quality, and currently being offered free of charge. :)

Descriptions of each book can be found in my bio by clicking my user name. Feel free to drop in on specific chapters or sections based on your mood or interest, but the dramatic tension is strongest if you start from the beginning of Part 1. As always, I appreciate hearing your reactions and feedback. It truly does help me create the best stories that I can for readers to enjoy.

Content warning:

This chapter includes a brief mention of past sexual assault. Helpful resource: https://rainn.org/articles/sexual-assault-men-and-boys.

Tags for this chapter include: #bisexual male, #dystopia, #novel, #romantic, #polyamory, #triad, #submission, #domination, #male submissive, #denial

_______________

Avery:

It was late May and several days past my birthday before Rowan managed to get away from the med center long enough to celebrate with me. Now that she'd officially completed her apprenticeship and assumed full responsibilities as a practicing physician, Dr. Atherton had started taking more time away in preparation for a much-deserved retirement. He was still available for emergencies and infection surges, but Rowan and Vik covered as much as they could themselves, along with our community's small but dedicated team of nurses and aides. The elderly doctor had given up plenty of his golden years in order to teach and guide my two friends; I knew they were happy to be in a position finally to repay the favor.

The night I actually completed my twenty-eighth revolution around the sun, Rowan had been called away to perform emergency surgery and ended up missing most of the party. It was never quite as much fun when she wasn't there, but I'd gotten used to her erratic schedule ages ago. Being constantly available for other people's health needs -- and unavailable for social events -- meant she was also ready with her scalpel, clamps, and intravenous infusions in case any of

us

needed immediate medical care. A benefit for which we were willing to sacrifice reliable RSVPs.

She'd insisted on another chance to observe the occasion, and although this get-together wasn't nearly as lively as the liquor-fueled original, we were still having a good time. Lamont and Tara had carried a reluctant curly-headed Verity home to bed, and Gavin had left with Vik, who had an early shift in the morning, but five of us were still gathered in the main hall around a jug of last autumn's fermented cider.

Rowan poured another round of golden brew into the chipped ceramic mug she was sharing with Rae, the Echo Company captain, and started to raise a toast. From the head of the table, Julian offered me the pewter tankard that was still half full, but before Graham could reach for his own glass, Rae swiped it with her trademark mischievous grin, leaving him empty-handed.

"Many happy returns!" she crowed gleefully, clinking her cup against mine and promptly draining it. I took a long tangy pull myself, adding fuel to the buzz in my bloodstream.

I passed the tankard back to Julian while Rae refilled the glass for my other partner, who was sitting beside me on the bench. Graham contented himself with a single sip -- he wasn't technically on duty, but as the ranking commander for the several hundred service members based out of Fort Laurel, he also wasn't ever really

off

duty.

"Enjoy this year, Chase," Rae smirked at me, tossing her blonde bangs out of her eyes. I'd noticed she was a little better at enforcing regulations than following them, but only a little. "Turning twenty-eight was a breeze, but that twenty-ninth birthday hits like a bitch-slap in the face. I'm a hell of a lot closer to the end of my youth than I ever wanted to be."

"Don't listen to her," Graham laughed. "You both have plenty of youth left. Being in your thirties just means having enough experience that every single situation isn't brand new. It's something to be proud of, and it saves a lot of energy. I wouldn't trade to be in my twenties again."

"We have a sage among us, and he's not even thirty-five!" Rae mocked. "Besides, that's not the attitude I recall you having on

your

twenty-eighth birthday," she directed at the other captain. "You made me get you blackout drunk because you were

already

in your late twenties and you'd just broken up with that guy...what was his name? Isaac?"

"Isaiah," Graham corrected, then continued good-naturedly. "But that's exactly what I'm saying. It seemed like a big deal to me at the time, and now it's very clear that we weren't right for each other, and it was nothing to be upset about. The wisdom of age," he pronounced with a healthy dose of comedic irony.

I'd never heard of this Isaiah guy, and the pang of jealousy was as automatic as the alcohol dropping my blood pressure.

"Well obviously he wasn't right for you," Rae emphasized. "I mean, he was a hot piece of ass, and you made a cute couple. But I told you from the beginning it wasn't going anywhere."

Rowan must have noticed I wasn't eager to hear the gory details of Graham's previous relationships during my birthday celebration. "What about you, Julian?" she asked, steering toward clearer waters. "What was your twenty-eighth birthday like?"

My husband's patrician features softened when he met my gaze. We both remembered that one well.

"It happened right around the time Avery finally admitted he loved me," Julian surprisingly shared with the whole table. "So I'd say it was one of my best."

"Aww," Rowan crooned. She was a sucker for romance, as long as it was happening to someone else. She didn't make time for much of her own.

"Which reminds me," Graham said. "We have something else to celebrate: next week will mark one year since Major Demos here tried to ambush my whole company coming down from Barksdale."

"To be clear, I

did

ambush your company, quite successfully," Julian returned, refined humor layered over the subtle warmth that almost always seemed to be present when our uniformed partner was, these past few months. "I could hardly have been expected to know that the U.S. Army would be marching into Coushatta. You're lucky we didn't take you for Lone Star Defense Force."

"Wasn't nearly the only thing lucky about that day," was the captain's indulgent response.

Those memories were almost like something out of a dream: Crouching in the brush beside the grass-grown highway, pulse pounding with adrenaline and dread, expecting a battle we were probably about to lose to the marauding militants. Praying to the gods that I wasn't about to be shot, or watch Julian get shot. Then Graham emerging from the column of soldiers, camouflaged and helmeted and shouting orders in shorthand, miraculously offering heavily-armed reinforcements. The auspicious moment of our first meeting, shaking hands among the late afternoon shadows of the ruined river town.

"That means Rae's also been here nearly a year," Rowan pointed out, recalling me from my reverie. She borrowed my drink and clinked it against the one the other woman was holding. "Cheers, babe."

"Cheers," Rae agreed, taking another long drag of cider. "For an alligator-haunted, mosquito-infested steam bath, Louisiana hasn't been a half bad place to spend a deployment." She directed a broad grin at my best friend, and I wondered, not for the first time, if something more than friendship had passed between them. Rowan was usually as enthusiastic about sharing news of her sex life as she was to hear about mine, but when I'd asked about Rae, she'd offered nothing but a vague dismissal and a cryptic smile.

"Anyone been over to see Iris and Shawna's bundle of joy lately?" Rowan asked next.

I hadn't, since I wasn't that close to Julian's former colleague and her partner, but Rae spoke up.

"I checked in the other day. Little sucker's got a healthy set of lungs on him, that's for sure. I didn't stay long -- mommas both looked like they hadn't slept since last year, but there's no denying how happy they are to suffer through it."

"He'll be rounding that ten-week corner soon," Rowan empathized. "It should be at least slightly downhill from there."

We took turns trading the mismatched glasses of fermented apple brew along with bits of news and friendly jibes, while the alcohol cast its familiar hazy spell on my over-productive brain. I'd slightly lost track of the conversation, being distracted by Graham's hand folding into mine under the table and coming to rest against my thigh, when the sound of my name caught my attention.

"...Realize Avery's slept with everyone at this table except for me?" Rae was asking, her well-shaped eyebrows arched in a particularly roguish expression. "Can't help feeling a bit left out in this crowd."

I took the opportunity to swipe another drink from my mug, hoping my face wouldn't give away too much. Rae wasn't an unattractive woman, at all. But even though her brazen ways weren't that different from Graham's swagger, they mostly had the opposite effect on me.

"You two ever consider letting him off the leash?" She directed the question toward Julian and Graham, adding a flirtatious smirk at me. "Doesn't seem fair for him to be deprived of female companionship altogether."

My boyfriend intervened before I had to reply. "Who says he's on a leash? If he were interested in you, Larsen, you'd have heard from him by now."

"Oh-ho!" she cackled, eyes sparkling with mirth. "Is that how it is." Unlike a lot of people, she got a kick out of being on either side of her edgy jokes. "Well, you ever want to round out your catalog, birthday boy, give me a ring. You must be pretty decent in the sack to keep this one so enthralled." Her elbow on the table nudged Graham's.

Between the knowing tone of her comment and the proud grin Graham aimed at me, I could feel heat rising to my face after all.

Thankfully, he only squeezed my hand affectionately and redirected to Rae. "What about you? You still seeing that guy from the volleyball match with the unreturnable serves?"

That launched her into an animated story, and the conversation flowed on into the night.

We'd finished the jug of cider and were starting to wind down when a messenger arrived from the military's side of the base. He stopped a couple of feet from the table and snapped to attention, shoulders back and feet square.

"Captain Lansing -- apologies for interrupting your evening, but there's been an incident."

"Are we under attack? Anyone injured?" Graham asked, switching immediately into commander mode.

"Not an attack, sir. There is a...minor injury. Can we speak privately?"

Graham nodded and rose to his feet, then led the soldier outside to hear his report. After a couple of minutes, he came back alone.

"Sorry, guys -- I'll have to go to sort this out. Apparently one of my lieutenants has been accused of fraternizing with a sergeant, and the dispute came to blows during that field exercise two of my platoons are engaged in." He glanced at Rae, then at me and Julian. "I'll probably have to take over the exercise so all our setup doesn't go to waste. It's scheduled until 0600 hours."

"I'll walk back with you," Rae said, rising from the bench on her side of the table.

Rowan followed suit. "Probably time for me to call it a day anyway. I need to round on my post-op patient before shift change."

We all made our way from the hall into the breezy spring air, and Graham turned toward me and Julian.

"I'll see you two in the morning," he said, then stepped a little closer and clasped my shoulder. "Night," he told me, his voice velvet and his gaze significant, and somehow that was all it took to make me very much regret that he wasn't coming to bed with us.

"Night," I echoed, but as he started to turn away, Rowan broke in.

"Ah, come on. It was his birthday. Give him a proper goodnight."

"What?" he laughed in surprise.

"You know," she replied, slipping into her seductive mode. "We're all friends here. Don't hold back on our account."

Graham advanced on me again, turning up the smolder for the benefit of our spectators. "You want a proper goodnight, Avery?"

Rowan had begged me more than once to let her watch me and Graham make out, and Rae had slept with him in the past anyway, so I didn't mind giving them a bit of a show.

"Mm," I assented, subtly shifting to welcome him into my space. His magnetic pull on me was as strong as it had been during those early days when I was futilely trying to deny my attraction.

"Come here, then," he invited in his sexiest tone, one hand curving at the back of my neck. When his mouth reached for mine, I met him eagerly.

He

didn't

hold back: his smooth yet assertive lips caressed mine with sensual expertise, deliberately waking all the nerve endings there, plus lots more elsewhere. I gravitated instinctively closer, and his other palm pressed my lower back to encourage me.

Graham kissed me like he was trying to make me hard on the spot -- unhurried but intent, eminently self-assured, with his tongue dipping into my mouth -- and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't working. Or that I wanted to resist in any way. Knowing that Rowan and Rae were watching, that they craved Graham's arousing attentions and couldn't have them, made this even more exciting. Our groins must have been millimeters from grinding together.

Finally he pulled his lips away to murmur, "Goodnight, baby. Sleep tight."

"You too," I returned, so entranced by his intent stare that I completely forgot he wasn't going to be sleeping. He gave me one more deep taste of his sizzling mouth, then let me go.

"Damn!" Rowan exclaimed. "Even I wasn't prepared for how steamy that was. I'm going to have to excuse myself; I have some...important business to take care of, right after I see my patient."

One of Graham's melodious laughs rang out as she hurried away. "Night, Rowan!" he teased. With a last wave to me and Julian, he strode away with Rae. More laughter floated back before they were out of earshot.

Julian and I walked to our quarters, and apparently the display had affected him too, because as soon as we were inside, he pulled my mouth to his and picked up where Graham had left off.

"Kind of hoping we might have some important business before bed too," my husband told me when he released my lips.

"Very important," I agreed. In here, I didn't have to stop myself from pressing my erection against him and finding out he was growing one too.

We got naked and moved to the bed, but before I went further than sliding a palm over his heated length, I had a request to make.

"I know we already had birthday sex, but there's something else I've been...wanting to ask you. Something I want to do, with the three of us. Well --" I decided it would be more accurate to rephrase. "Something I want you to do."

"Oh? What's that, babe?"

My hand brushed idly along Julian's swollen cock. "Want you to let Graham control your body and orgasm for twenty-four hours." It was the original proposition he'd made to me years ago, when he'd decided to give me a serious introduction to power exchange.

There was definitely some kind of reaction under my palm, and not a discouraging one. "Graham? Not you?"

I shook my head. "I've tried it, and you know I've never been very into making you obey me. But...if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm pretty into you obeying Graham."

There was another twitch at Julian's crotch, but all he said was, "I'd noticed that, yes."

I leaned in to kiss his neck a few times, along the side where his skin was hairless and more receptive, and let my hand find a firmer grip. "So?" I prompted. "Is that something you could be into?"

He seemed to consider a moment before replying. "I could do that for you. I think it would be more fun if you gave him control of yourself, also."

God, why hadn't I thought of that? Graham withholding my orgasm and Julian's at the same time...teasing us simultaneously... My own cock pulsed at the images that scrolled through my brain.

"Absolutely. Great idea."

My husband's fingers found one of my nipples. "You going to tell me what you hope he'll do to me?" he asked provocatively, but I shook my head.

"I'm not going to tell either of you, so you'll have no way of knowing what his plans will be."

Julian's cheeks lifted in a smile. "I look forward to finding out."

A week went by before we had a good opportunity to start the game I'd proposed -- a long one, filled with work and with tantalizing visions of Julian surrendered and exploited. I stuck to my word and didn't share any of my fantasies, but I did find time to talk with Graham. I made sure to let him know that I didn't want my preferences dictating our encounters. It would only be good for me if he were truly the one in control.

The last of the late-spring daylight was fading from the horizon when we got underway. Graham was over at our room, as he was most evenings that one of us wasn't spending alone with him. We'd had a thorough pre-session conversation yesterday, but just to be safe, he started by reviewing rules, safe words, and limits. Thrillingly, Julian hadn't set anything off-limits. Over the past five months, I'd been pleased to see how much more relaxed he'd grown when it came to intimacy with our third partner. He'd even experienced something of an anal renaissance since he'd first let Graham penetrate him. Stimulation there no longer seemed triggering, and he suggested it a lot more often.

"Here's what I know about you, Julian," Graham opened when we were ready to begin. He was watching my husband with a knowing glint in his lush, forest-hued irises. "What gets to you the most isn't actually what happens to you. It's what happens to Avery."

There was no denying that. It was the main weapon I'd used, the one time I'd requested to do this with Julian.

"So, little one," Graham directed at me. "I hope you're prepared to spend most of the next twenty-four hours just as horny as he's going to be. Because that's the most effective way for me to fulfill your wish for this scene."

Involuntary tightness crept into my trunks, but I'd been able to guess what I was getting myself into. "Yeah..."

"Good. Clothes off," Graham commanded. "Both of you."

While we undressed, the captain turned down the lamp and removed his own shirt and pants, leaving his briefs on. Then he sat cross-legged at the head of the bed, his back against the center of our wood-slat headboard. He directed me to lie face up in front of him, with my head on a pillow he placed over his lap. He had Julian sit beside me. I looked at my boyfriend's face above me, unable to guess what his intentions were for this position, but already hard in anticipation.

"I have the right to keep you pent up until tomorrow night, just like him," Graham reminded me, sinuous and sensual. "But I'm going to give you the chance to earn an orgasm this evening, by passing a challenge I'm about to set for you. And the beauty is, I'm fairly certain your husband will find it just as arousing whether you succeed or fail."

Well that was ominous. And exciting. "What do I have to do?"

"Reach up and grab onto the headboard," he instructed, and my stomach did a somersault. Nervously I obeyed, stretching my arms out beneath his increasingly predatory gaze, and he guided them into place. "Hands all the way apart."