Love Among the Ruins

Damon drowsily poured hot water over the grounds in the cone filter sitting on his mug. He had hardly slept since realizing in the middle of the night that the infernal background noise of the alien machines had stopped. He thought he would be relieved to have it stop, but the unaccustomed silence was distressing in its own way. What did this mean, this new state of things? Was the silence an indication of something yet more sinister to come? Or did it mean the aliens were done with whatever it was they wanted and would leave? That seemed too good to possibly be true. But whatever logic drove the aliens to behave as they did escaped him. If they could destroy humanity, which they surely had the technology to do, why didn't they just go ahead and do so? Why would the aliens try to imprison humanity inside their own dwellings, destroy people if they moved about, but otherwise sentence them to death by thirst or starvation? It just didn't make sense.

Damon lifted the filter from his mug and placed it in the sink. He gratefully sipped the hot black liquid, hoping it would dispel his hazy misgivings along with the fog in his head. Bobi strolled into the kitchen as Damon was finishing his first cup. He poured hot water through the grounds in the filter he had set up in advance for her, then prepared another cup for himself.

"It's unnerving," Bobi said, staring vacantly out the window sipping her coffee. "Yesterday I would have given almost anything to have that damn noise stop, but now it even makes things worse."

Damon flinched involuntarily at her use of the curse word. He used far worse nearly every day, but hearing her say it made him uncomfortable. She wouldn't have said that just a few days ago. And why should it bother him that she says "damn" when he's teaching her about blow jobs and doggy style? He involuntarily let out an ironic chuckle at the thought.

"What?" Bobi said.

"Oh, nothing.... Or everything. I guess," Damon replied.

She examined him silently for a few seconds, then resumed gazing out the window and sipped from her cup.

"Yeah, guess that's right."

"What if the silence means something?" Damon asked. "What if it means things are getting better, returning to normal?"

"That'd be great," Bobi sighed in reply, sounding unconvinced.

"No, I mean it," Damon persisted. "What if things really did return to normal? What would that mean for us?"

"Oh. I see." She sipped her coffee pensively, staring at the floor. After a long silence, "I guess that would make it complicated."

"Would it have to?" Damon countered.

Another long silence.

"I'm just getting used to seeing the world in a new way. It's hard for me to imagine going back to my old one, even if the rest of the world went back to its old self. But that's easy to say when you've lost hope, when your old world seems irretrievable. If it actually did come back... "

Bobi noticed that Damon no longer seemed to be paying attention, but was looking intently out the window into the patch of sky visible above the treetops ringing the backyard.

"What is it? Another floater?" Bobi asked fearfully.

"No, not a floater. I thought I saw a flash, up in the sky."

"A flash? What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Like the sun glinting off a plane, or something like that. It was just for an instant."

They both examined the sky for several minutes, but neither noticed anything further.

"Let's get breakfast," Damon finally suggested.

They spent the day lazily, so disoriented now by the continually unpredictable and uninterpretable turns of events that they were almost beyond caring, or at least beyond investing emotional energy. That, they saved for themselves.

At one point in the afternoon as Damon was sweeping the kitchen floor trying to find any remaining dish shards, Bobi surprised him by quietly walking up behind him and hugging him.

"What's that for?" Damon asked.

"Does it have to be for something?"

"I guess not," he replied, setting the broom aside and turning to face Bobi.

She hugged him again and then leaned back, looking up at him.

"So, am I pretty?" she asked in a serious tone.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Uh, no."

"You really have no idea, do you? You have no idea how beautiful you are."

Damon cupped Bobi's face in his hands. "You are perfection. Your eyes alone could bring a man to his knees. And your smile could melt the hardest heart. And don't even get me started what happens below the neck!"

Bobi looked down shyly in brief embarrassment, but then looked Damon in the eye and said, "I want to hear about below the neck."

"Wow. Okay. Well, let's see, hard to know where to start. First, let's go somewhere where the lighting's better."

Damon took Bobi by the hand and led her into the living room, which, even with the drapes pulled, was bright with diffused light at that time of day.

"Let's start with overall form. You have a classic hourglass figure," he observed, gently turning her around by the shoulders. "Narrow waist, generous hips, ample bosom. Right now the total effect is somewhat lessened by the loose t-shirt, but it's still unmistakable."

"Here, does this help?" Bobi asked, stepping back with one hand bunching the fabric of the shirt behind her, which pulled the shirt tightly around her waist and breasts.

Damon observed her with a quickening pulse.

"Yes, that helps. Fortunately, your beautifully shaped legs are unhindered by obscuring garments, which allows one to admire your well-defined calves and smooth thighs."

Bobi stood on tiptoes and twirled slowly, still holding the shirt bunched behind her.

"They're not too fat? Everyone on TV is so slim."

"Sweetheart, people on TV are scarecrows. You are all woman! Including your gorgeous behind, which, sadly, is well hidden by those baggy shorts, so I'm working from memory here. But if it serves me correctly, your bottom is exquisitely round and enticingly, no, provocatively shaped."

"Here, let's see if you're right," she beamed at him.

Pulling the bunched fabric of the t-shirt behind her up higher with one hand, with the other she slid down her shorts, eventually stepping out of them and slowly turning around.

"Yes, exquisite," Damon affirmed, feeling the blood rush to his groin.

"And then your breasts. How can I describe them and do them justice? It's impossible, words are completely inadequate."

"Try," Bobi commanded, somewhat huskily.

"Well, I would describe them as full and womanly, slightly pendulous but with a well rounded form that retains its shape even when hanging from a horizontal torso. The aureole are large and the nipples become erect when aroused... as I recall."

Bobi looked very intense now as she very slowly lifted her t-shirt from its hem up over her stomach and breasts, finally pulling it off entirely and tossing it aside.

Damon's heart was racing now and his cock throbbed into an aching erection.

Bobi slowly twirled around once again and said, "Anything else?"

"Yes, there's something else," Damon said, his voice almost breaking. "Your womanhood, your pussy."

He saw Bobi blush and her neck and upper chest became mottled pink, as well.

Stepping forward, Damon lightly ran his hands along her sides and waist, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from her.

"Your pussy is a marvel. Your lips may shyly attempt to hide beneath your curls, but they blossom outwards, unable to conceal their beauty and desirability."

Damon brushed a hand between her legs, barely touching her labia.

Bobi stood rock still with eyes closed and breathed deeply, chest rising and falling.

Damon stepped back and Bobi looked at him.

"Finished?" she asked.

He looked at her a moment longer and nodded silently.

Bobi stepped forward, carefully lifted Damon's shirt over his head and pulled down his shorts. He wore no underwear. His erection bounced in front of them.

She stepped back and they regarded each other silently for a moment.

Damon stepped forward and Bobi almost leapt on him, hugging him tightly to her and kissing him fiercely.

"Take me like there's no tomorrow, because maybe there isn't," she panted between assaults on his mouth.

Damon's erection was a throbbing rod now and putting his hand between her legs he felt her almost dripping with need. He directed them both towards a couch, but rather than lying on it he bent her over the back of it and entered her from behind, slamming into her without thought now, driven by pure, unrestrained lust.

Bobi's breasts swung violently back and forth as Damon wildly thrust into her. As urgent and powerful as his thrusts were, he felt strangely immune to his lust, like he could go on forever. After some time, he heard Bobi moan and her pussy clenched spasmodically around his cock. She went limp, but he was nowhere near ready, so he pulled her up, spun her around and kissed her, almost forcing his tongue down her throat.

Kissing her, Damon backed her into the wall, never letting his lips leave hers. He grabbed one leg beneath her knee and lifted it so the top of her thigh pressed against her abdomen, then entered her once more, thrusting up into her again, and again, and again.

Bobi's head lolled backwards, her eyes open but gazing into space unfocused, arms wrapped around Damon's neck. With each thrust she grunted as Damon's body pressed hers against the wall.

Once again Damon dragged her with him, now to the middle of the room, and pulled her down with him onto the carpet. He turned her to lie on her stomach, spreading her legs, and he lay down atop her, entering her from behind in this position, his thrusts less violent now, but still steady and deep.

Bobi stretched her arms in front of her, head perched on her chin looking straight ahead, trying to breathe deeply enough to keep the blood that was pounding through her veins oxygenated enough to keep her sane. Incredibly, even though she had just climaxed, she could feel the pressure building again, nerves tingling into the recesses of her body, pulling every ounce of energy and feeling from her extremities down, down into a shadowy and mysterious part of her being.

Yet again Damon was tugging at her, pulling her up and drawing her to him. Now he was sitting with his legs outstretched and he pulled her atop him facing him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck as he likewise enveloped her. She felt him slide into her once more and smoothly, steadily, thrust into her. She swiveled her hips to engage each of his movements, the warmth and pressure steadily building until she thought she would explode. But she didn't, nor did she experience the sudden flush and precipitous ebb of pleasure that she had in her previous orgasms. This was perhaps less intense, but drawn out over a timeless, breathless moment, until she felt his cock expand within her and, with several last explosive thrusts, expend its load.

They were both slick with sweat as they lay clasped together, their breath gradually returning to normal. She stroked his hair and face, losing herself in the sound of his breathing.

Bobi finally broke the silence. "Now I understand why they're afraid of sex."

"Huh? What do you mean? Who's 'they'?"

"The people who make the laws, who write the religious texts, uphold the unwritten rules of society. They're all afraid of this, of letting the animal out of its cage and maybe never getting it back in again. They're afraid of losing themselves in the overwhelming power of the moment and forgetting there's a future. I guess I could only do this because right now I think there probably is no future, there's only 'now'. But some people can do this even when things are normal and we hate them for it, and fear them even more than we hate them. We fear them because we think if we go to that place we might never come back, and we hate them because secretly, we desperately wish we could go there too."

"Maybe you're right. I've never gone 'there' before like... like what we just did."

"Until a few days ago, I didn't even know there was a 'there'."

"But you don't always have to go 'there,' do you? I mean, you can always just enjoy making love as part of your normal life, right? It doesn't have to be all consuming, does it?"

"I don't know. I'm new to this, remember?" Bobi said, leaning back and inspecting Damon with an enigmatic look. "But think of our last few days. How many times have we made love? Five, six times? Is that normal?"

"Well, not much about our current situation counts as normal, I'd say."

"Maybe not, but I'm already starting to think about the next time we can do it. My insides are mush, but just thinking about you lying next to me, me touching you down there and feeling you get hard in my hand, even just thinking about that makes me start tingling. And when I'm thinking about that, I'm not thinking or worrying about what's going on out there, or thinking about anything else in the future, for that matter, bad or good. It's just my base desire, just giving in to that."

"It doesn't have to be just that," Damon countered. "Don't you think there's more to what we have than just the way our bodies respond to each other? The other night you said you were falling in love with me. Doesn't that count for something?"

Bobi hugged Damon to her and rested her chin behind his shoulder. "It must, I guess," she said in a quiet voice, "but I've got so many unfamiliar feelings churning inside me right now, I don't know how to sort them out. So I guess for now I'll just look forward to that next moment when my animal me takes over and I don't have to fret, or sort anything out, or even think at all."

She disentangled herself from Damon, retrieved her t-shirt and shorts from the floor and strolled out of the room, the dangling garments trailing from her hand.

As he watched her receding form, hips swaying, buttocks muscles flexing with each step, a hint of breast swinging to either side, Damon was amazed to feel blood flushing his groin and his dick begin to firm. Maybe she's right, he thought to himself. Maybe we can fall into that abyss of desire and never come out. But if the last few days with Bobi were any indication, that abyss was a place he would welcome.

------------------

The wind turned from the south by late afternoon. The humid air and late summer sun made the house unbearably close and warm. By bedtime, after the skies had turned dark, they decided they just had to open the windows.

"I'll get the kitchen and living room windows, you get the bedrooms. That should create enough of a cross breeze through the house to cool things down to a bearable level," Damon instructed Bobi as they prepared for bed.

As Damon was opening the last window in the living room (the scent of their lovemaking still faintly permeating the room), he heard Bobi exclaim from the back of the house, "Damon, Damon! Come here, now! Come see this, hurry!"

Damon dashed through his darkened home and found Bobi in the main bedroom standing at the largest window, which looked out on a corner of the backyard.

"Look," she said, pointing into the almost completely dark early evening sky. "Look up there! Do you see it? All the little flashes? They're like little sparks."

Damon followed the line of her finger and immediately saw what she meant.

"My god!" he exclaimed. "It's like a fireworks show, but impossibly high up in the sky. Look! There are streaks of light, like a falling star, but the trails are so short."

"No, look, did you see that one?" Bobi asked. "Sort of to the left of the others. It ended in a little flash. There! It happened again."

"Yes, I saw that," Damon replied. "And it just happened again."

"Oh my god! Did you see that?" Bobi exclaimed.

"It's still lit up. Almost like a sparkler."

They watched in fascinated silence for a few minutes.

"Look, it's moving," Damon observed.

"And it's got a tail now," Bobi added.

"It's turning into a falling star," Damon said. "And it's getting brighter."

They watched for another few seconds before the bright trail ended in a brilliant flash.

"It must have burned up in the atmosphere," Damon speculated.

"But what was it?" Bobi asked. "What's going on up there?"

"It's got to be related to the aliens," Damon replied, "but I can't tell just what's happening. Whatever it was, it seems to have stopped now. I don't see any more lights at all."

"Me either," Bobi said.

They anxiously scanned the heavens from their window viewport for another several minutes, but didn't see anything else remarkable. After that, they tried various other vantage points through the house without result.

"Seems to have stopped, whatever it was," Damon said.

"Just another thing we can't understand," Bobi mumbled, almost to herself.

"Well, maybe we'll know more tomorrow."

Bobi shrugged noncommittally and turned to go to bed. "Why should tomorrow be any different?"

Damon slept fitfully that evening, whether due to the warm, sticky conditions or the unsettling events at nightfall he couldn't tell. Bobi seemed unaffected, soundly asleep every time Damon awoke. He even got up several times to peer out the windows, hoping to see more clues from the sky that might give an indication of what was going on, but clouds had slowly gathered and soon there were no stars to be seen. He finally managed to fall into a deep sleep.

He was awakened by a warm, moist sensation behind his ear. He was on his side and Bobi was spooned behind him. With one hand she was lightly stroking his chest and stomach while gently licking and nibbling his ear.

Softly crooning in musical tones, she said, "Good morning, sleepyhead. Time to get up."

Her hand slid down to his crotch and she fondled his penis.

"Yes, time to get up," she repeated as she felt it harden in her hand.

Damon tried to flip over to face her, but she tightened her arm around him.

"No, just stay where you are for a bit. I want to enjoy you just like this."

She lightly stroked his shaft with the back of her fingernails, then cradled his balls in her palm.

"I hear these are sensitive. True?"

"Very true."

"So I've got you at a disadvantage right now, huh?"

"I guess that's right. You do."

"You might even say I've got you at my mercy," Bobi concluded, giving his balls a slight, quick squeeze.

Damon flinched involuntarily.

"Oh my! I do have you at my mercy, don't I?"

Bobi nibbled at Damon's ear but he didn't respond.

"Don't I?" she insisted, giving another quick squeeze, but a little more firmly this time.

"Yes!" Damon blurted out, flinching again. "I throw myself on your mercy!"

Bobi rotated his balls as if she were trying to hold two eggs and keep one from rolling out of her hand.

"So I can dictate terms here, can't I?"

Silence.

"Can't I?" with a quick, but gentle squeeze.

"Yes ma'am, you can. Whatever you want."

"Okay, then..."

She released his balls and stroked his thighs with the back of her nails.

"Okay, then here's the deal. You don't move. You just lie there. Only do what I say. Got it?"

"Yes ma'am, got it."

"Good, you're catching on," she said, nibbling his ear. Then grasping his balls once again and giving a quick flinch-inducing squeeze, "Don't forget it!"

Bobi turned his head toward hers and gave him a long, deep kiss.

"Now, flat on your back, middle of the bed," she instructed, throwing back the sheets which had been their only covering during the humid night.

Damon did as instructed. Bobi leaned down and took his already somewhat firm penis in her mouth, rolled her tongue around the base of the helmet, then firmly closed her lips around the shaft and moved her head up and down several times.

When he was pulsing hard, she straddled him, leaned forward to grasp the headboard with both hands and trapping his penis between her pussy lips and against his lower abdomen, slid up and down.