Chapter 3: Shelter in Place
The hallway was dim, the shades drawn against the strange morning. Our bedroom door at the end stood ajar, a slit of softer light bleeding onto the polished floor. Mary’s hand in mine was steady, warm. Our footsteps were silent on the runner.
Ellie’s voice drifted out, low and textured. “...just feel how much I missed you this morning.”
A soft, answering sigh from Nancy.
We reached the doorway. The scene inside was a painting Ellie might have composed: the rumpled king-sized bed, the curtains diffusing the grim daylight into something golden and private. Ellie and Nancy were on the edge of the mattress, already lost in each other.
Ellie was on her back, her long blond hair fanned out like a halo. Nancy was straddling her hips, still in her fleece robe, which had fallen open. She was cupping Ellie’s face, kissing her with a deep, reverent hunger. Ellie’s hands were on Nancy’s waist, her thumbs stroking the soft curves there.
They hadn’t undressed. Not yet. The intimacy was in the claiming, the deliberate slowness. It was a language we all spoke.
Mary paused beside me, her breath catching just slightly. It wasn’t embarrassment. It was recognition. This was our sanctuary, our liturgy.
Nancy broke the kiss, panting softly. She looked toward the door, her eyes dark and heavy-lidded. “You took your time,” she whispered, a smile playing on her swollen lips.
“We were being efficient,” Mary said, her voice surprisingly steady. “Clearing the operational area.”
Ellie laughed, a rich, throaty sound. She tilted her head back to see us. “Get in here, you glorious nerds.”
That broke the last of the hesitation. We moved into the room. The door clicked shut behind us, a soft but final sound. It sealed us in.
I sat on the bed near Ellie’s head, my hand automatically finding her hair, threading through the silken strands. She turned, nuzzling into my thigh, placing a warm, open-mouthed kiss through the fabric of my jeans. “Hi, baby,” she murmured, the vibration against my leg going straight to my core.
Mary stood for a second, a observer even now. Nancy reached for her, grasping the hem of her t-shirt. “Come down here.”
Nancy pulled the shirt up and over Mary’s head in one fluid motion. Mary didn’t resist, her arms lifting obediently. The pale morning light caught the lean lines of her torso, the small, practical sports bra. Nancy’s hands settled on Mary’s hips, drawing her closer, until Mary was standing between Nancy’s parted thighs.
“My logical girl,” Nancy whispered, looking up at her. She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Mary’s sternum, then lower, over the fabric of the bra. Mary’s hands came up, tangling in Nancy’s riot of curls.
I watched, my fingers still in Ellie’s hair, as Nancy coaxed Mary onto the bed, as they arranged themselves in a tangle of limbs beside us. It was a dance we knew, with variations invented each time.
Ellie shifted, rolling onto her side to face me. Her eyes, blue as a summer sky, held mine. “I need you out of these clothes, Amy,” she said, her voice dropping to that register that bypassed all my logic and went straight to my animal brain. “I need to feel you.”
Her fingers went to the button of my jeans. I helped her, shoving them down my hips along with my underwear, kicking them off the side of the bed. She knelt then, her hands pushing my thighs apart. She didn’t speak. She just looked, her gaze hot and possessive, taking in the sight of me, wet and exposed for her.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful,” she breathed, and then she lowered her mouth to me.
Her tongue was a flat, hot stroke through my folds, a declaration. I gasped, my head falling back, my hands fisting in the duvet. She licked into me, deep and slow, then focused on my clit, swirling the sensitive bud with a precision that made my back arch off the bed. She knew my body like she knew the grain of her favorite sketching charcoal. Every stroke was intentional, masterful.
“Ellie… god…” I choked out.
Beside us, the sounds were different but the rhythm was the same. Nancy had Mary’s bra off and was kissing her way down her stomach. Mary’s breaths were short, sharp gusts. “Nancy… yes…”
Nancy’s head was between Mary’s thighs now, her curls obscuring the view, but the wet, slick sounds were unmistakable. Mary let out a strangled cry, her hand clamping over her own mouth. Nancy pulled back. “Don’t,” she said, her voice muffled against Mary’s skin. “I want to hear you. Let the whole dead world hear you.”
She dove back in, and Mary’s hand fell away, releasing a broken moan.
The competition wasn’t between us; it was a symphony, each of us driving the others higher. Ellie was fucking me with her tongue, her fingers digging into the flesh of my ass, holding me open for her. The pleasure was a white-hot coil in my belly, tightening with every lap, every suck.
I reached for her, needing to touch. I tugged at the waistband of her leggings. “Off. Now.”
She pulled her mouth away with a obscenely wet sound, grinning up at me, her chin glistening. She wriggled out of her clothes, a vision of lush curves and warm skin in the muted light. She crawled up my body, aligning herself so our centers met. The hot, slick slide of her against me wrenched a ragged groan from my throat. We moved together, a grinding, desperate friction, kissing deeply, tasting myself on her tongue.
The bed shifted. Nancy was moving, repositioning. She came up behind Ellie, pressing her full, soft front against Ellie’s back. She reached around, her hand slipping between Ellie’s legs from behind, her fingers finding where Ellie was grinding against me. Nancy’s fingers slid into Ellie, fucking her in time with our rhythm.
“Oh, fuck, baby girl,” Ellie cried out against my lips, her rhythm stuttering.
Mary watched for a heartbeat, her chest heaving. Then she moved behind me. Her body was lean and strong against my back, a mirror of Nancy and Ellie. Her hand slid over my stomach, down, through the wet mess between Ellie and me, finding my clit. Her touch was different—firm, analytical, perfectly directed. The combined sensations—Ellie grinding on me, Nancy fingering her, Mary’s precise fingertips circling my clit—were too much.
“I’m gonna come,” I gasped, the warning ripped from me. “Oh, fuck, I’m coming.”
The orgasm shattered through me, violent and total. My vision whited out at the edges. I clamped around Ellie, my cries muffled against her shoulder. Ellie came a second later, shuddering, her body convulsing as Nancy’s fingers worked her through it, chanting, “Yes, Mama, yes…”
For a moment, there was just the sound of our ragged breathing, the smell of sex and sweat thick in the air.
Slowly, we untangled. Ellie rolled onto her back, flushed and beautiful. Nancy curled into her side, nuzzling her breast. I lay back, and Mary settled against me, her head on my chest. Our skin was damp and cooling.
We lay there in a heap of intertwined limbs, the world outside forgotten, barred by the door and the sweat-slick wall of our bodies. The silence from the streets was no longer a threat. It was a gift. It was ours..