Cave Men by Frankie Love
Storm
The moment I wake,I realize something's wrong—very, very wrong. "Shit," I groan, shoving Carnage. "She's gone."
"What do you mean?" he asks, rubbing his eyes.
"I mean, she's fucking gone. Her bag, it's not here. She's left camp."
"Fuck.” He sits up, looking around. "Maybe she went to get water. Maybe she—"
"No." I scramble out of the cave. "Look, she's nowhere. Fuck." I shake my head. "It's our fault. We shouldn't have fought last night. We were being so fucking stupid."
"It's your fault," he says. "You kissed her."
"You kissed her first. Look, we're not doing this. This is what got us in trouble in the first place. Damn it, she's going to get hurt. She's going to fucking—"
"Calm down," Carnage says. "Let's pack our bags and let's go. We'll follow her tracks. We'll find her. It's not too late."
"You're right," I say. We'll get her. We'll find her. We'll make sure she's okay.
Damn it. Our one job since we met her was to make sure she was protected and we failed. We failed her. How can we ever forgive ourselves?
Soon our bags are packed with water and food and we're on the trail with our guns and knives, moving through the jungle. She didn't tread lightly and that’s good news for us. Her path goes in circles though, zigzagging up and down for a while before it begins moving up a mountain.
"That was smart," I say. She must have wanted to get a better look at things.
"Damn it," Carnage says, "I hate that we fought. She must have thought we were so fucking stupid."
"Yeah, because we are. She's the kind of girl you don't fuck things up with. She's damn near perfect and we ruined things."
"No, don't think like that. We'll get her back and we'll let her know how special she is. We'll never argue again. You can have her," Carnage says. "I will do anything to make it work. Whatever she needs, whatever she wants. She's yours. I'll never mention it again."
"No," I say. "She's yours. I swear. I just want her happy and if that means she can be your partner or neither of ours, fuck, I don't care. I just—"
"I know." Carnage says, "We were fools. We were fucking cave men."
"Yeah," I say. “We really were.”
When we get to the top of the mountain, the sight we see takes our breath away. Summer's there all right, but she's not alone.
“What the fuck?” I grunt, stalking toward her and the man that her arms are wrapped around.
She's straddling him. Literally. Her mouth is locked to his.
She's kissing him hard. Her shirt? It's off. Her breasts are bare and fuck, my cock is hard at the sight.
What the hell is happening?
Carnage and I are about to go all cave man apeshit on the scene.
But then I remember last night.
I hold my arm out, holding Carnage back. Knowing if we go fucking bananas again, we're going to set Summer off.
"No," I warn, softly so she doesn’t hear, "Carnage, we can't cause a scene. That's the last thing we need. We need to make Summer happy. We need to give this girl what she wants. Anything she wants. That's our job, to protect her, not to make an ultimatum, a demand."
She pulls back, seeing us, her eyes widening. The man’s eyes lift. I know him from somewhere.
She's wearing a bra and fuck, her tits look good. She smiles, licking her lips.
Rolling off the guy, she stands. "You found me."
"Yeah," I say, "I guess we did."
"It was stupid of me to leave like that this morning."
"Well," I say. "It was really stupid of us to fight last night. The last thing you needed was two men arguing over you. What you needed was us giving you all the space you needed. You needed us to be your protectors. Not us making you choose. Hell, you had just been given a whirlwind,-. The last thing you needed was us being cave men."
"No," she says, shaking her head. "I didn't need you guys to step back, but I didn't understand why you wanted me to choose."
"What do you mean?" Carnage says, stepping forward.
"Well," she runs her hands through her hair. "I like you both."
"Which means?" I ask.
She groans. "Are you seriously so dense?"
The guy she’s with clears his throat. "Hey, this might be bad timing, but I'm kind of your mortal enemy."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"I'm Hammer. The guy you were trying to kill in the caves was my father."
"Fucking A." Carnage groans, running a hand through his hair. "Now I'm going to fucking kill you."
He lunges.
"No," I say, pushing the men apart. "That's not happening. We've been dying for human connection for the last how many years? We're not going to start killing each other now. Fighting is what set Summer off last night. We're not doing that again today."
"Anyways," Hammer says. "We don’t have to be enemies. I was after my dad too, trying to get to him before you did. I wanted to be the one to off him since he was kind of, you know, the worst man on earth."
"Wait," Carnage scratches, his head, "you were trying to kill your own father?"
"Well, yeah," Hammer says. "He was a war criminal. I mean, do you know how much blood was on his hands?"
I nod. "A hell of a lot."
"Exactly," Hammer says. "I knew you guys were after him. I had some recon following you. I thought I could take care of him as a way to clean up my family name. Only he threw a grenade before I got a chance to deal with him and, well, here we are."
"You've been here this whole time?" Carnage asks.
Hammer nods, "Yeah I have. But it seems like we’ve all been here different amounts of time."
"Have you seen anybody else?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "No, unfortunately I haven't, not until Summer." He smiles a little too warmly. He reaches for her hand and she takes it, lacing her fingers through his. Fuck, she looks happy. That makes my cock hard. I like seeing her like that, pleased.
"So," she says slowly. "Turns out we all have something in common."
"Besides time travel?" Carnage asks.
"Yes, time travel and, well, I've kissed you all," she says with a grin.
I roll my eyes. "Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"Are you seriously such a cave man?" she asks. "Look, I've already discussed this with Hammer."
"Of course you have," Carnage grunts. "How long have you guys even been together? An hour? Two?"
Hammer shrugs. "Three, actually. How long were you sleeping in? God, you could have done a better job making sure she didn't leave camp."
"Tell me about it," I say, "I hate myself for not knowing you left. I'm fucking stupid."
"No, you're just a Flintstone."
"That doesn't exactly make me feel any better," I say.
She smiles, then steps forward and ruffles my hair, cupping my cheek. Then kissing it. "You know you snore?"
"Actually I didn't."
"It's cute," she says.
"Yeah?" I smile and she kisses me right there in front of both those men. Fuck, it's sexy.
Carnage grunts.
"Hey," she says, "you don't get to pout. There's room for everyone."
"Room?" He crosses his arms.
"Yeah," she says. “Room, at my picnic." She points to her backpack. “I have a blanket and I have lots of food. I even have coffee. That means we're going to have a nice big picnic for breakfast. And we're going to have a little conversation."
"Conversation?" My cock was hoping for more than chit-chat.
"Yes," she says. "A conversation. Because before we have a foursome, we need to make some ground rules."