Quaranteam - Hebridean Hame

A story set in CorruptingPower's Quaranteam Universe, with his permission.

As usual, my thanks go to the other QT authors who contributed to editing, made valuable suggestions, and whose work I would recommend you check out:

BreakTheBar, AgathonWrites, BronanTheLibrarian, OtterlyMindblowing, SilverRyden, RonanJWilkerson, BirchesLoveBooks, The_Licentious_Laureate, DisquietCertitude, 32inch, Ranthoron, Percheron, EldritchMuppet and 2charlie.

This story, set in Scotland during the DuoHalo/COVID pandemic, is slower-burning than most of the other QT series.

Constructive comments are always welcome!

---X---

Quaranteam: Hebridean Hame, Chapter 10

After midnight, Wednesday, 30th September 2020

Eilean Arthriagh, Inner Hebrides, Scotland

When Callum and Sarah eventually returned home after their evening at the Lodge, Sarah was absolutely clear regarding where she would be sleeping. And having mainly succeeded in keeping their distance from each other for the previous few hours, they were keen to get further reacquainted. From the point they left the lodge, Sarah had not been more than an arm's length from him.

After parking the ATV, they tended to the dogs, locked the house at Sarah's insistence, and quickly fell into bed. They grinned at each other like teenagers, hands and lips wandering at every opportunity.

Their kissing continued, and soon, the only sounds in the pitch-black bedroom were soft, breathy moans and gasps, the sound of lips on lips, and the gentle creak of the bed frame. They were lost in their connection, pouring years' worth of lost time into every kiss and touch.

Yet again, the sex was different from their previous encounters. Both were revelling in the closeness of the other, the intimate feeling of being so physically connected. Both basking in the sense of security and completeness this contact provided.

They started with Callum on top, the two of them stripping clothes off amidst giggles and light laughter. Eventually, they obtained the skin-on-skin contact they craved, with Callum slowly, comfortably and gently sliding his cock into her while they kissed, arms around each other.

Sarah moaned through their kiss as he settled his length into her, rocking her hips against him while her body squeezed his member. They languidly moved together like this, trying to maximise their contact without deliberate thrusting. His mouth sought out her jawline and moved with small kisses down onto her neck, nibbling at her collarbone, causing her to sigh in pleasure. In response, she ran her nails gently down his spine while doing the same to his scalp, causing him to shiver and goosebumps to appear on his arms.

Continuing their movement together, Sarah brought a leg up over his, holding him against herself and gaining more depth to his penetration. Still, even then, their movement together was limited and restrained. There was no discussion, only a mutual need for this connection. A desire for closeness and intimacy that could only be met by this slow coupling.

Everything they wanted to say to each other was conveyed in their touch and kiss.

Eventually, as the two slowly shifted about the bed, Sarah manoeuvred her way on top of him, her ample chest pressed firmly against his as they continued to kiss and writhe against each other. Callum was enveloped in the feel of her against and around him, the smell of her, even the taste of her mouth and skin.

Slowly but surely, the gentle movements grew more determined and deliberate. Hands wandered over each other's bodies more quickly and with greater intensity, stroking and squeezing. They squirmed and pushed, attempting to sync their movements. Their bodies pressed together, forehead pressed to forehead, as they both gasped for breath due to their kissing but also breathless from exertion and excitement.

As their coupling became faster-paced and less measured, Sarah shifted one hand to hold the top edge of the mattress. She pressed her hips down, circling them while entwining both her lower legs around his, seeking purchase as she pushed and bucked down and against him harder.

Their bodies moved together with ever-increasing urgency. Each sought to show the other their commitment, determined to express those things that were still too hard or too soon to say.

Callum groaned, aware of how deep he was inside Sarah, enjoying the pressure of her pushing her body against him, knowing her clit was being stimulated by their physical closeness and movement alone. Their rocking and pushing movements acted to edge him closer and closer. He could feel the heat of her and how willingly her body responded to him.

Suddenly, he could feel his orgasm looming as he fought the increasing urge to start thrusting upwards into her. He felt like he was plugged into the mains, knowing they were about to make another connection that seemed to push past the purely physical.

Breaking from their kiss, he gasped a whispered warning, managing to utter, "Sarah, I... I'm gonna..."

Sarah let out a low moan of her own, the pace of her gyrations increasing as he felt her clenching and tightening around his length, her body trying to hold him inside. "Just..." She gasped, "Just a little..." The gasp turned to a moan, conveying her need and desperation for the connection, for him to bring her to that point.

Callum gritted his teeth, trying to fight back the increasingly intense feeling of pleasure, of needing to release, to buck and thrust into her. To claim her again as his. He closed his eyes, frantically searching for a mental distraction, something to think about other than the overwhelming need to empty himself into Sarah.

His traitorous mind instead returned the memory of how pleased the ladies had been at his decision earlier that evening, along with the knowledge that they would all soon be his sexual partners. Unhelpfully, he imagined them gathered around the bed, watching and masturbating as Sarah ground herself to orgasm on and against him. He tried to shake his head to clear it of the unhelpful imagery, instead bumping noses with Sarah as she pressed down over him.

He could no longer hold it. He needed to pull out, to push her from him, as the plan had been until seconds before.

But he wanted her. He wanted to cum into her, to make her 'his'. The caveman-like thoughts caused his hips to jerk up against her as his mouth desperately sought hers, and his hands gripped her hips, pulling her onto him.

Seconds later, Sarah buried her face in his shoulder, letting out a long, sultry moan as she reached her peak.

Instead of withdrawing, Callum began thrusting his hips frantically upwards against her. Into her. Sarah's muscles were already contracting around his length as her body quivered. Welcoming him, trying to hold him inside.

He found himself pushing as deep into her as possible while simultaneously pulling her down onto him as hard as he could, his hands now squeezing her ass cheeks, his cock still buried deep in her pussy. His legs moved against hers, seeking purchase as he physically humped his hips off the bed in an effort to bury himself as deeply as he could inside her and prevent her from withdrawing from him.

He fucked himself into her with wild abandon, fingers digging into her flesh as he used her pussy to sate his increasingly urgent need for release.

The first spine-tingling pulse of his orgasm sent a rope of his cum deep into her. Finally finding the level of connection he had sought, Callum let out a deep-throated groan of his own. His vision had failed, but he realised it was because his eyes had screwed shut. The room was spinning slightly, or the bed was. That first ejaculation was both quickly and, from his perspective, excruciatingly slowly and pleasurably followed by the next. Then the next.

At the first pulse of his cock inside her, Sarah managed an "Oh, shi..." before the vaccine-induced orgasmic reaction to his cum overwhelmed her, pushing her already intense natural feeling of pleasure to new heights. She shuddered and spasmed against him as if she were having a fit. Her nails dug into his skin where she desperately held him, clinging to him as her wail of pleasure was barely muffled by her mouth pressing against the flesh of his shoulder and neck.

Then came darkness and stillness.

Neither was aware of how long had passed as they lay limply clinging to each other, bodies still locked together, gasping for breath and attempting to regain the power of speech.

They knew they had a lot to say to each other, but somehow, they had just said a lot without uttering a word.

****

Callum shifted aside, pulling open the duvet as Sarah hurried into the bedroom after her bathroom visit. She dashed towards the bed and immediately cuddled into him, causing him to flinch as her cold hands touched his warm skin.

"That was deliberate." He said accusingly as she giggled in the darkness. With her head on one of his arms, he brought his other over hers, holding her cool body against himself.

They lay in comfortable silence as she slowly warmed up.

Eventually, she shifted slightly, raising herself so he could withdraw his arm. They settled back, now facing each other in the darkness.

"Speaking of deliberate..." She said quietly. "We're going to have to address the bareback thing. Not that I'm complaining. And I do want to have kids. But..."

"But right now isn't ideal." Callum finished for her. "I know. There are too many unknowns and unresolved questions hanging over us."

Sarah sighed. "You'll have to have a conversation with the others, too. You'll need to know what they want in the long term and whether any of them want children. I know Mira isn't that much younger than us. Catherine's older and might want to try. Either of them might want to be pregnant sooner rather than later."

Callum almost giggled at the thought of Catherine wanting to have kids with him. "Catherine? That'd be one hell of a contract." He muttered, struggling to maintain a straight face.

Sarah nudged his shoulder lightly. "Don't be mean. I think a lot is going on with her. She seemed really nice when I spoke to her, but her behaviour around you is different. The girls also commented on it when you were having your meeting."

"Sorry. It just amused me, given how she spoke about having a 'transactional sexual entanglement' with me." Callum offered in response. "I know she's a lot more relaxed with the ladies than with me."

"A wha..." Sarah managed before she began to laugh, bumping his shoulder again.

"Yep, that's how I felt," Callum responded. "I think she's spent more time battling against male egos than most other women. I'm not sure there isn't something else there either. Though I'm not sure what."

"Oh, yeah," Sarah said, having calmed herself. "Even from just talking to her tonight, there are some autistic traits there. But at the same time, I think she's just... posh. Like, 'I've so much money I don't have any other worries' posh. The type whose parents never hugged them, and now they don't know how to deal with emotions."

Callum gave a half shrug. "She did seem quite entitled when she first arrived. I wasn't sure she'd stay long. I had to pull her up pretty quickly about how she was treating Alison."

"Really?" Sarah asked, the surprise evident.

"Yeah. She hadn't realised that Alison had hearing problems and was being really rude, expecting everything to be done for her, raising her voice, snatching and barging about. Being a proper Karen, basically. We had to wait for Mira to arrive that same afternoon. It was just before lockdown, and Mira had to get public transport, so she ran late. I bit Catherine's head off when she started snarking about waiting 'for the staff'. She was mortified when she realised Alison had hearing problems. Her sister is deaf." Callum smiled wistfully, remembering that first encounter way back in March.

Sarah tutted in the darkness. "So she turned up the entitled toff, and you tore a strip off her right away?"

"Absolutely. No one deserves to be treated like that. I explained that Mira had never been here before, and I wouldn't leave her waiting in the middle of nowhere at the side of a loch on a wet day so that Catherine could stick to some irrelevant timetable she had in her head." He sighed. "Those were tough times. All the bookings we had for the year were disappearing. We had no certainty that a lockdown was coming or how long it would last. Your mum and dad were still in Glasgow, and I felt like I had just sunk their business. I accepted Catherine's booking as we had nothing else on the books for the rest of the summer. I'd hired Mira because of her nursing experience, and I thought it might be useful when things started to open up again. Things started to go south before she arrived, but I didn't have the heart to tell her not to come."

Sarah shuffled forward, bringing her lips into contact with his. "It's a good job you didn't." The words that followed were laden with remorse. "You two would... will... be a great pair together. I can see how you'll get on with most of the ladies, but I'm most worried about Mira." She paused for a moment. "That didn't come out right. I mean, I'm worried your relationship with her will surpass... well, ours."

He pulled her gently into a hug. Holding her there while he composed his thoughts. "I can't picture how it'll work." He knew it wasn't what Sarah would want to hear, but it was the best he could offer. "I don't know what type of relationships everyone will want or how I go about being what each person needs. Just the basic logistics of it make my brain itch just thinking about it."

Sarah softly chuckled in amusement. "Like what?" She asked.

"Well... take this right now. You and I are cuddled together, basking in the glow of our recent activity. But what happens when there are four other women? Do we all sleep together in one bed? Or do I have a rota for whose turn it is to sleep beside me each night? Or do I just sleep alone?" He let his forehead rest against Sarah's. "And that's just sleeping. Don't get me started on who stays where."

"Oh, I see what you mean. And there's no way that bitch Mira gets to sleep beside you more than I do..." Sarah almost growled. He could tell she was joking even without seeing her face in the darkness. "We're just going to have to communicate, compromise and be sensible. We all want to stay alive and keep you alive. And it's obvious that the ladies all have a connection with you, even Catherine."

They lay silent for a while before Callum circled back to the original issue. "Top of the agenda in the morning will be finding out about contraceptive options. Or else we're all going to have to be pretty disciplined."

He could feel Sarah nodding against him. "Yes, it'll be worth knowing what we can do before you need to give the four ladies the best orgasm of their lives."

"I'm not sure it counts when it's medically induced," Callum said.

"It certainly fucking does." She responded with a snigger.

****

Late morning, Wednesday, 30th September 2020

Eilean Arthriagh, Inner Hebrides, Scotland

Waking when it was barely light, his routine long since set by the needs of Piper and Skye, it had taken an effort to pull himself from the warm bed. Made even harder by the fact he'd been curled up tight behind Sarah, his morning erection pressed between their bodies, and one of his hands around her, holding a breast.

The temptation to initiate something was strong, but after all she'd been through, he quickly dismissed the idea.

Instead, he slowly and carefully withdrew from her embrace, leaving Sarah to sleep. She murmured her disapproval at the withdrawal of his body heat but otherwise remained still.

The dogs, barred from the bedroom the previous night, were pleased to see him. Callum noted that Karl moved much easier, even placing weight on his injured front leg. The three animals were allowed out for their morning toilet before Callum began distributing their food, water, and Karl's medication.

Letting the dogs out and then back in let him feel how cool it was outside--not enough to cause frost, but enough to make him light the fire in the sitting room. This would warm the whole house and keep him comfortable while he worked, without returning to the bedroom for more than yesterday's trousers and T-shirt he'd grabbed from the floor on his way out.

The underfloor heating and air source heat pump Rory installed during the house renovations were old. They were an early example of their type, and while they kept the house at a reasonable temperature, log fires were sometimes needed to create a cosy feeling. An upgrade had been considered, but most of the Buchanan's spending had been focused on the rental properties.

With the fire going, a mug of tea in hand, and some cereal consumed, Callum was sitting at his laptop, beginning his morning trawl of pointless TrueCheck emails, when he heard the bedroom and bathroom doors opening and closing.

His mobile vibrated immediately after that, showing an incoming call from a withheld number.

Picking the handset up, he frowned momentarily, not expecting any calls. Although there were any number of people it could be, including Steven.

Callum hit the button to answer, taking a breath but letting the other person speak first. Seconds ticked past with neither party speaking. Callum gently cleared his throat, signalling the call had been answered.

A rather officious-sounding English woman broke the silence. "Hello? Mrs Campbell? Hello?"

'Bugger' was the first thought he had. He had no idea who was calling, but someone could be trying to confirm Sarah's location. The trick would be finding out who they were without giving anything away. "Hi, you've actually come through to my phone. Can I ask who's calling?"

The woman paused before demanding, "And who are you?" Avoiding Callum's question.

"I'm Callum Scott. And you are?" He asked, keeping his tone level.

"I am looking for Mrs Campbell. Is she there?" The unknown woman sounded irked. Angry even.

Callum had handled many such calls in his career and knew this one was going nowhere. Neither party was willing to give anything away. He couldn't determine who might be calling, but it was a real possibility that someone linked to Steven was trying to confirm Sarah's whereabouts.

He assumed that anyone calling for a different reason would reach him through another method, so he terminated the call. He slightly sighed before simply stating, "I'm sorry, I don't recognise anyone by that name anymore."

Then, he hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Sarah's voice came from the kitchen, causing the three dogs to jump up from where they had formed a trip hazard in front of the fire and dash off towards her.

"Morning," he called back. "They wouldn't say. Some English woman with an attitude. They were asking for you by your married name. I thought it might be best not to engage with them, just in case."

Sarah moved to the doorway, both hands busy petting the jumble of dogs around her feet. "You think it was to do with him?" She asked with a slight quiver in her voice.

She didn't say the name, but both knew who they were talking about.

"I don't know 'Rah. Better safe than sorry. Until I know who's calling, I'm not confirming you are here."

****

She joined him after she'd eaten, sitting on one of the sofas where she could benefit from the heat of the fire, clutching her mug tightly. Karl joined her on the sofa while Piper and Skye took to the floor around her feet. "You should have woken me," she said before blowing on her steaming drink.

Callum looked around from the document he was commenting on and turned ninety degrees in his office chair to face her. "Sorry. I was tempted. But I thought..."