(August 2022)

The scene was gritty, with smoke blowing past battle-scarred brick buildings in its view. Overhead the clouds were grey and heavy with rain. In the background were occasional bursts of gunfire: some off in the distance, some very near. The clip would play out repeatedly across hundreds of Internet and broadcast channels over the next few weeks. It would go down in History, stop a war, and make a few people famous.

***

"This is Jonathan Cook with International News, reporting from the Hristo Botev High School," a male voice said, "just outside of the Ukrainian city of Nikopol."

The reporter's voice had an excited tone. That and it was very nervous too. Given what he was looking at, a Russian tank in the street before him. It was driving slowly through the intersection and turned towards them. The scene shook, and smoke obscured many of the details. In several windows, there were fires.

"Tell me you are getting this?" he asked someone.

You could hear gunfire in the background of the video. Occasionally, there were heavier explosions too.

"I'm getting it, I'm getting it!" the camera operator yelled back.

The tank's turret turned slowly back and forth as if seeking a target.

"We're in the middle of the evacuation, but the Russian forces have broken through the defensive lines," Cook continued to report. "And the fighting is now citywide."

A school bus drove past. In its windows could be seen the scared faces of many teenagers and a few adults.

"It's mass chaos here as everyone scrambles for any means of escaping..." the reporter's arm came into view, pointing. "Zoom in! Over there, zoom in."

Standing alone in the rubble of the street was a lone figure. It wore camouflage of the style the Ukrainian military used. It was hard to tell who or what it was until it took off its helmet. Then it was clear it was a young man.

"There's a soldier. He is facing the tank alone."

Another school bus drove past, carrying more fleeing children.

"A Ukrainian soldier is out there, by himself. I don't see any gun or..." the reporter paused. "I don't know what he is doing, maybe trying to protect the civilians. Wait, he's got something in his hand..."

The camera zoomed further in. The young soldier was tossing a small white object up into the air. The tank's turret turned and aimed directly at him. The camera could now see a single word spray-painted on the side of the Russian tank's turret, "Голиаф."

A third school bus drove past.

"Is that a baseball?" the reporter's voice asked.

The tank sat there for several moments, then one of the hatches on the top opened. A soldier appeared. It was one of the tank crew, perhaps its commander. He had one of those close-fitting soft helmets on that they wore. He reached down to his belt and began to draw a pistol. The Ukrainian wound up, and in a pitch worthy of a major league player, he let the ball fly.

It hit the hatch and bounced off.

The tank commander laughed and raised his pistol.

The tank exploded.

***

(Several Weeks Later)

"So wait here," his embassy handler Baryna said. She pulled the wheelchair out of the back of the SUV and opened it. "I'll go in and find the Ambassador's secretary, and then we can enter and get settled."

I shook my head, sitting in the passenger's seat with the door opened in my uniform. We were in the parking garage of a large hotel in downtown Los Angeles for a fundraiser among the rich and famous Americans in the city. My country would need it for reconstruction now that there was a ceasefire.

"You know," I sighed. "I can walk just fine."

Baryna laughed.

"I know it. You know it. I suspect even the Ambassador knows it," she said as she pushed the wheelchair up to his car door. Before joining the Embassy staff, Baryna had been a nurse for twenty years. "As long as the American donors don't know it."

I shook my head again.

"Politics," I muttered.

"Politics," Baryna said, "and the money in politics."

The truth was I did need the wheelchair. I could walk, but there was little likelihood I could make it the long distance to the party inside on my own. The explosion, caused by the American anti-tank missile fired by a fellow team of Ukrainian soldiers, had caught me in the blast too when it destroyed the tank. When the medics had gotten to me, I was halfway to being dead. I was now out of the hospital, but my right arm was in a cast to the shoulder. And the left one had a half cast on the forearm. The burnt off patches of hair on my head and a dozen small scars across my face rounded out the butcher's bill.

"I'll be right back," Baryna said.

The parking garage was half full of cars, parked as we were near the elevators. We had come up three, maybe four levels. I sat there for a couple of minutes alone, then another car appeared. It was a light yellow van. There were a couple of empty parking spaces next to me. The van pulled into the one, two cars over, with a space between us. Perhaps because I was sitting in the wheelchair, they wanted to leave me some room.

"Hey, how are you doing?" the driver asked as she exited. "All alone up here?"

The side of the van said "Heavenly Catering" with a stylized angel, its wings spread above the text. The driver was certainly heavenly. She was a young woman with curly brown hair and dark brown skin. Dressed in a green restaurant outfit of a cross-chest buttoned, long-sleeved top with pants popular now among caterers and wait-staff. Her name tag said "Malaika." She walked passed and started to open the back of her van.

Suddenly everything shook violently!

It only lasted a brief few seconds. I was almost thrown from the wheelchair by it.

"Holy shit!" she exclaimed. "That was a large one."

Then the violence returned.

***

I was running a few minutes late, so I was going just a bit fast as I drove through the parking garage. I reached the level they told me to park on. There were several parking spots near the elevator. I pulled into one and saw a man next to a large black SUV. He was in a wheelchair.

"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked as I got out of the van. "All alone up here?"

He was quiet and just looked at me as I walked to the back of the van. I opened the doors, and then the whole parking garage shook. It only lasted a few seconds. I was almost knocked off my feet from the motion.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed. "That was a large one."

Then the shaking began again and did not stop.

I had lived through the El Mayor-Cucapah earthquake back in April of 2010. It had been a big one at a magnitude of over seven. I had been only thirteen, and I could remember running to my bedroom doorway as the house shook and shook. Remember as things fell around me. This one was worse.

There was a huge crashing noise, and then the rooftop above me dropped. I fell to the pavement to protect myself, not that it would have helped. Luckily the side of the roof towards the elevators held, but everything else pancaked down. A cloud of dust pounded me. I heard the sound of cars crushed and lights exploding. The SUV next to me jumped as something hit its front. The back end jumped off the pavement, then slammed back down. Both tires exploded. Another cloud of dust hit me from that direction. I was plunged into darkness as the lights went out. The shaking went on and on.

Finally, like all earthquakes, this one stopped.

I huddled there, praying. An emergency light kicked on, then a second one. Both were cocked at strange angles, though. I climbed to my feet, coughing from the dust. Then I remembered the man in the wheelchair. I looked toward the last place I had seen him, next to the SUV, and all I saw was debris and a wrecked car. A slab of concrete had dropped and flattened the front of the SUV. Around me were scattered many other large chunks. Then I saw a hand among the ruble. I hurried over to it. Luckily, the man was between a few of the larger ones. His legs were trapped in the mangled remains of his wheelchair, though. He was out cold and did not react when I shook him.

I stopped myself from just trying to pull him free. I had worked my way through culinary school at an elder care place in the Valley. Which for me had been changing sheets and bedpans, bringing food, and talking to the residents. I had picked up a few things from the nurses, though. I took a moment and carefully checked him for injuries.

I did not see any blood or obvious trauma on him. He did have a cast on both arms, but they looked old. One to his shoulders, while the other was just on his forearm. He had some fresh scars on his face and a few short patches of hair on his head, like they had burnt off a while back and now starting to regrow. He wore a uniform as well. There was a blue and yellow patch on the shoulder.

Ukrainian, maybe? I thought.

His feet were up under one slab, but they did not look crushed. Which was good because I do not think I could have sat there and watched him die. First thing, I had to get him free. I stood and made my way back to the driver's side door of the van. I had a milk crate of tools behind the seat. I grabbed the tire iron and my big flashlight. Then I got to work.

***

"Hey, welcome back to the Land of the Living," a woman's voice said.

I blinked dust from my eyes. I was lying on my side.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Earthquake," the woman from the van explained. "Look's like LA finally got the Big One."

She was kneeling next to me, doing something to the wheelchair with a prybar. I tried to get up but found myself pinned.

"You injured?" she asked. "Any pain?"

There was a loud metallic snap. The woman crawled to where she could grab my shoulders and pulled. I slide forward. She pushed herself back and crawled back to my side.

"Lay there and let me look you over real quick," she ordered. "Make sure there's nothing I missed."

She ran her hands over me, turning me this way and that. The parking garage was a mess. Dust was everywhere. There was a large slab of fallen concrete across the front of the Embassy SUV. A small chunk of it was what had had me trapped. Other large slabs were down all around us. A couple of emergency lights were on, but they canted up at odd angles.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Twenty, twenty-five," she answered. She stood and held a hand out. "Can you get up?"

It was awkward with my arms in casts. With the woman's help, I got to my feet. I was a little unsteady, and my head hurt.

"Have you looked for a way out yet?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Getting you free was my first priority."

Now that I was standing, the situation looked worse than I had first assumed. The entire concrete ceiling above us had come down, perhaps even the floor above that one too. We were lucky to be so close to the elevator tower. That had protected us some. We were in an open space of perhaps fifty feet square. There were a half dozen cars, a couple of SUVs, and her van not flattened under tons of rubble and slab concrete.

She held out a hand, "my name is Malaika."

"David," I replied and shook it.

"Well, Dave, I hope you didn't have plans," Malaika chuckled, "cause I don't think we're getting out of here anytime soon."

***

First impressions, he was a couple of years younger than I was. Maybe nineteen or twenty, I guessed. He was a few inches taller than my height of five foot eight. Muscular, stocky, and with light brown hair in a military cut. And he was cute too! He had one of those sexy European accents to his otherwise well-spoken English.

Down girl, I thought to myself. In the middle of the biggest disaster in LA history, and you're thinking with your crotch.

He appeared to be a soldier. He wore a formal uniform, with some of those colored bars that denoted awards above the pocket on his right breast. And a name tag that read "Vojtenko" on his left breast. He had a medal hanging from a ribbon around his neck too. If he had had a hat, it was in the SUV. That name was familiar, but I could not place it or his face. If he was Ukrainian, he was probably here for the same event I was a fundraiser for their war recovery effort.

"We should look for a way out then," he said. "First though..."

He walked over to the row of undamaged cars on the other side of the space. I followed him. I still had the flashlight and the tire iron. David stopped next to one car and tried opening the driver's side door. It would not, so he took the tire iron from me and shattered the window. I was surprised by the casual way David did that bit of vandalism. Like it was not the first window he had broken out. He opened the door and reached in to turn the headlights on.

"Check to see if there is anything we can use," he ordered. "Watch out for the broken glass on the seat and check the trunk."

I nodded. David walked to the last undamaged car on that side and broke the window on that one too. He turned the lights on and opened the trunk. We both took a couple of minutes to see what we could find. I came up empty, but David found a couple of blankets and a small road kit. We carried them to the van, set them inside, then started to explore.

***

"No way out over here either," I said.

Two things were quickly apparent to me as Maliaka and I searched.

First, there was no exit. The parking garage had suffered a near complete collapse. Only the area around the elevators was clear. We were lucky to be alive. We were not getting out of this without outside assistance.

The second thing was that I had to pee very badly.

"Why don't you go over by the van for a minute," Malaika said.

I gave her a wondering look. She gave me a strange look back.

"Ohhh," I said and realized she was in similar need. "Okay."

She went into an out of view corner, behind some rubble. It only took her a few minutes.

"Wow, I was fit to burst there," she said as she opened the back of her van.

"Malaika..."

I was embarrassed to ask for her help, but it was that or pee in my pants.

"Dave?"

"I need your help."

I wiggled my arms in their casts. Maliaka looked at them then she looked at me. Then she glanced down at my crotch.

"Ohhh," she giggled, "you too?"

My face turned a bright red. I nodded. We walked back to where Maliaka had done her business.

"So, Dave," she asked, "what brings you to the City of Angels?"

Maliaka reached down and casually grabbed the front of my uniform trousers. She had no trouble figuring out how to unbuckle the military belt. Undoing the top button, she unzipped my fly. Once my pants were open, she stepped around behind me. I took my left hand and tried to fish into my boxers to remove my cock, but did not have much success. Malaika sensed my difficulty. She reached around, took my boxers in hand, then pulled them down. I started to thank her, but then I felt her hand grasp my cock.

"I... I'm here, my government..." I stammered. "There's a fundraiser."

The contact between her hand and my cock had me frozen. Any thought of urinating had fled.

"Relax, Dave," she said. I felt her breath on my ear. "I worked my way through culinary school doing health care at a retirement home. Your penis isn't the first one I've held in my hand."

Her hand was warm and soft on my cock. I smelled her perfume, and I could also feel her breasts pressed against my back. My cock began to stiffen in her hand. I tried to make it stop, but I had no such luck. It had been over a year since I had been with a woman, and Maliaka was very attractive. My cock stiffened and lengthened until it pointed straight out in front of me. Luckily, before it got more embarrassing, I began to pee.

"You really had to go," she said as she put my pants back in order. She smiled up at me. "Let me know if you need anything more."

I blushed even redder as she turned and walked away. I was not sure if she had meant just innocent banter or if she had just given me an invitation. My cock was still hard. I took a moment to try and put my pants to rights.

***

Oh my god! I thought. I did NOT just grab his cock.

I was glad I was walking away from him, or David would have seen my face blush bright red. I had not even thought about it when I reached for his penis. It had just been habit and training from my days helping residents. Some of the older men there had had memory problems. They forget why they were in the restroom. I had learned that you could act quickly to help, or you could clean up the mess.

Though none of them had had a cock that looked that good!

***

"Domestic?" Malaika asked, "or Imported?"

We were standing at the back of her open van. She had pulled a cooler out and opened it. Inside were bottles of champagne on ice.

"Sorry..." I muttered.

"Do you drink?" she asked, pulling out one bottle. When I nodded, she said, "let's do Imported."

Malaika handed me two plastic glasses. With a quick twist, she popped the cock on the bottle. It went flying, and a bit of champagne gushed out. She took the glasses from me and filled them. She then handed me one. While I stood there, she drank hers in one long gulp, then refilled it.

"Oh, sorry," she laughed. "Cheers."

I took a sip. I was not sure of what to expect. I had never had champagne before. There were the customary bubbles, of course. And an unexpected taste that hinted at something I could not put my finger on. I took a second, deeper sip.

"What's your story there, Dave?" she asked.

"I'm here for the reception," I answered. I waved my glass slowly around, indicating the collapsed parking garage. "Which I guess is now canceled."

"Well," she said, "small world. I'm your caterer."

She stood up and turned back to the inside of the van.

"Hungry?" she asked.

***

I tried to keep a lid on my anger. David did not need me to flip out. Not in the middle of everything that had happened.

I am completely screwed, I thought. 

I had banked everything on this job and the contacts I would have gotten out of it. With the earthquake, I doubted anyone would be holding events needing catering any time soon. And now my van was trapped by hundreds of tons of fallen concrete. All the work I had done to get this business off the ground. All the long hours of school and study. All the sacrifice. All of it wasted.

I tried Mama. I tried.

***

"What is this again?" I asked.

I took another of the small sugary treats and popped it whole into my mouth. I was sitting cross-legged next to the food.

"Mandazi," she answered. "Flour dough infused with sweet coconut milk and cardamom, then doused in icing sugar and a little drop of chocolate. My mom's recipe from her homeland of Kenya."

We had carried a few foil-covered pans to the area near the elevators. Malaika had spread down the blankets I had found earlier. She had also pulled a bench cushion from her van to sit on. We were on our second bottle of champagne.

"It's all delicious," I said. "But should we be eating it?"

She leaned over and topped off my glass, then hers, which finished the bottle.

"Might as well your Embassy paid for it," she replied. "If we don't, it'll go bad before we get out of here."

Maliaka drained her glass. I was a little concerned. She was drinking twice as fast as I was. Something was bothering her, but I could not tell if it was just earthquake jitters or something more. I had seen others react strangely during the war, so I did not ask. Instead, I reached down and grabbed another bit of food. There was a plate of small fried flour triangles that you dipped in a banana and veggie salsa. I could not get enough of them. I took another one and popped it into my mouth.

"I don't know what I like best," I said, indicating the meal. "Did you cook all of this yourself?"

"Mostly," she said, leaning her back against the elevator wall. "My dad barbequed the meat, though he was unhappy I couldn't get a goat as he wanted. Tradition is tradition, he would say."

I laughed. I raised my glass.

"To tradition!"

Maliaka echoed the toast. She reached into her pocket, took out her cell phone, and looked at it. She shook her head and put it back.

"Still no service?" I asked.

She nodded.

"We could be in here for several days," she said. "Maybe more unless we can let someone know we're in here."

"The Embassy knows I'm down here," I said and sipped from my glass. "So there will be people looking for me, I'm sure."

"If you don't mind me prying, Dave," she asked. "What's your story?"

"The doctors say there might be some nerve damage to my shoulder from the tank explosion," I started to explain, but she interrupted me.

"I knew I had heard your name," she exclaimed. "You're David and Goliath!"

The soldiers, the ones in the tank in Nikopol that I had faced, had named their vehicle Голиаф, or in English, Goliath. It was a powerful name for a tank. I guess they thought it would bring them luck. Unfortunately, the luck it had brought them had been all bad. They had found a Ukrainian soldier named David with the predictable Biblical results.

"Holy shit!" Maliaka laughed. "You're famous."

I nodded.

"Let me get us another bottle of champagne," she stood, "and you can tell me the whole story."

Once she got fully up, she swayed and nearly fell. She caught herself with an outstretched hand against the wall.

"Or maybe not," she said with surprise. "Wow, I'm fucked up!"

I started to rise, but Maliaka waved me off. Holding onto the wall, she slowly sat back down.

"You sit there," I said. "And let me clean this all up."

It took me several trips to get the various pans of half-eaten food back to the van and put them away. I stacked a couple on the crook of my shoulder cast and carried another with my other hand. The few empty pans and the empty champagne bottle I put together, then put it all in a garbage bag and into the van. After my last trip, I found Maliaka had laid down on the blankets. Her head rested on the bench cushion. I sat down near her with my back to the wall. Her eyes were closed. For a moment, I thought she had nodded off. Then she opened them.

"You know, there's room on the cushion," she said, looking at me. "You've got to be tired too."

I hesitated.

"Lay down, Dave," she chuckled. "After letting me help you pee, sharing a bit of blanket should be easy."

I blushed, remembering what else had happened then, Maliaka holding my penis. Finally, I stretched out next to her on the blanket. We both lay there and stared up at the concrete. We did not speak for several long minutes.

"Your parents still alive?" she asked.

"My dad died of Covid at the start of the Pandemic," I answered. "My mom evacuated to Poland. She's going to come back when I return."

"My dad is still here," she said. "My mom passed away three years ago from cancer."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"My mom would have liked you," she said. She gave a soft chuckle. "She would have thought you skinny though and tried to feed you."

I smiled.

"She was why I went to culinary school," Malaika continued. "She was always cooking, cooking, cooking. Wonderful dishes from her homeland."

Her eyes were closed.

"I'm glad she's not here," Malaika said softly. "She didn't get to see me fail..."

I waited for her to explain that, but she stayed silent. It took me a few moments to realize Malaika had fallen asleep. I was left to wonder what she meant. Soon sleep came to me as well.

***

My head hurt just a little.

Blame that on the champagne, I thought. I really shouldn't have pounded it down like that.

I opened my eyes. There was brown in front of my face, and it went slowly up and down. So did my head. I realized I lay with my cheek on David's chest. I must have rolled over and snuggled with him while we slept. I raised my head and looked up at him. He was still asleep. It felt good, laying there with my arm around David and my body pressed to his. I felt safe. I did not know how long I had been asleep, but it was a little darker now. The farthest car's headlights were dim, though the other car's lights were still burning. So probably at least a few hours.

I really should get up, but it's nice right here.

I closed my eyes and let the sound of David's breathing lull me back to sleep.

***

I lay where I was and let my eyes quickly look around. Nothing jumped out to answer why I had awoken. I started to sit up but found I had something draped across my chest. Something soft, warm, and very female draped across my chest.

Much better than how I was used to waking up.

Malaika's hair was just beneath my chin, and I smelled the light scent of her perfume. She was softly breathing and still asleep. She had one arm and one leg across my body.

It was darker than when we had laid down. The headlights of the farthest car were dull and almost out. The headlights on the other one were still good. I needed to get up soon and turn another car's headlights on. I was not in any hurry to get up, though. I saw Malaika's flashlight next to my folded uniform jacket. If I had to, I could use the flashlight to see. This time I would unplug one headlight to make the battery last longer.

I was about to close my eyes when a faint rumbling came from the concrete. It grew louder, and then the whole place began to shake.

Malaika gave a loud scream and grabbed me very hard, burying her face into my chest. I threw my arms around her as best I could, given my casts. We held each other as the aftershock rolled over us both.

I heard things falling and loud crashes of concrete blocks. One smashed the last car and knocked its lights out for good.

After an eternity, the shaking stopped.

"I could do without any more of those," Malaika said softly, her face still buried in my chest.

"Me too," I said in agreement.

She raised her head and looked at me. Her face and mine were inches apart. We stared into each other's eyes for several silent moments, and then Malaika kissed me.

***

"I could do without any more of those," I said, face in David's chest.

"Me too," he said.

I raised my head and looked at him. I was going to thank him, but I stopped. His eyes were staring right into mine. I realized right then that there was a good chance we could die here. And I realized I did not want to do that before I did one important thing. Something I had been thinking about for a while now.

I kissed David.

I do not know what I expected, but I had not expected him to kiss me back with passion. My brief kiss of appreciation turned into a long soulful kiss that went on and on. When it finally broke, we just looked at each other, smiling.

Then David kissed me.

This second kiss was even better. David took his time doing it. I felt one of his hands on my back, pulling me into his embrace. He was on his back, with his head on the cushion. I let one of my hands reach up and touch the side of his head. I let the other slip between us. His eyes lit up when my fingers grasped his cock through his pants. He broke our kiss.

"Are you sure, Malaika?" he asked.

To answer him, I sat up and began to unbutton my top.

***

"How do you tie your shoes?" Malaika asked.

She was kneeling at my feet, taking my boots off. She already had one boot off and was unlacing the other. I enjoyed the view. She had taken her caterer's top off. Under it, she had a sexy blue bra.

"I have someone who helps me get dressed," I said.

"Aren't you just so important?" Malaika laughed and tossed my boot with the other. "Mister Famous with his own valet."

I grinned and started to say something in reply, but then she stood and kicked off her shoes. She grasped the top of her pants and slowly slid them down to her ankles. She was wearing a matching blue pair of panties. I managed to get my belt undone and my pants unbuttoned. Malaika knelt, grabbed my pants at the cuffs, and helped me get them off. They joined the growing pile of clothing next to us.

She straddled me, with her legs on each side of my hips, then sat down. My cock had started getting hard in my boxers, and her crotch settled right on top of it. The heat of her pussy as it pressed against me through the two thin layers of cloth made me groan. Malaika smiled, her face close, and kissed me.

As we kissed, she slowly moved her hips forward and back. She rubbed herself across my cock.

***

Poor guy, I thought, with those casts on, he can't do much of anything.

The hand in the cast to the shoulder was resting on my leg. I could feel David's fingers on me there, lightly stroking my flesh. The other hand had a little more flexibility. David had it behind my back, and I felt him trying to unhook my bra. He was not having much luck.

I broke our kiss and leaned back. I reached behind me and unhooked the bra, then tossed it to the side. David grinned and leaned forward, taking one of my nipples in his mouth. I felt him softly suck on it. After a moment, he switched to the other one. He played with it with his tongue.

Maybe not THAT hampered.

I felt his cock between my legs. It was very stiff, and it was very hard. I had teased him by rubbing myself across it. The teasing had worked both ways. I was wet inside my panties. Before I fucked that cock, I wanted to taste it first. I broke our kiss and slid down his legs. I took the waistband of his boxers, then slowly pulled them towards me. David's eyes went wide, and he lifted his hips to help.

With his cock now free, I pulled the boxers off the end of his legs. Standing to the side, I pulled my wet panties down as well. I knelt down, facing his feet, and took his cock in my hand, leading it to my waiting mouth.

***

Neither of my last two lovers had shown much interest in sucking my cock, except just enough to get it wet. So when Malaika not only took it in her mouth but began to slide her lips up and down it, I sighed and just laid back to enjoy the experience.

One of her hands was around the base of my cock and was holding it upright. The other hand was along the side of my leg. She bent over my stomach, and her butt was next to my shoulder. I leaned over and kissed it. I could clearly see her naked pussy, but it was out of my reach.

She was taking her time. Her strokes were slow and went from the tip down to her hand. My cock was not unusually large. Average if what I had seen with other men in the barrack's showers was a good sample. Malaika did not seem to have any trouble sucking it, but I had had so few blowjobs I was not sure. What she was doing was amazing. It felt so good, too. Better than my hand had ever felt. I let my hands come up and touched her bobbing head. Her hair was soft between my fingers.

Malaika moved down my side so that she faced across my body. Her hand slid down and cupped my balls. I groaned, and she started taking my cock deeper into her mouth.

***

I smiled around David's cock, as I took it deep in my mouth. He seemed to enjoy my attention. I was enjoying it myself as well.

My previous lovers had all been black like I was. When we had shared a bed, they had been pushy when it came to oral sex from me. Maybe it was from watching too much porn. They tried to force things to go too fast. And they had been larger than David too. Having hands pushing my head down had become a real turn-off.

I knew then what I had been missing.

David was my first lover who wasn't black. And the first with physical limitations. I liked that he just let me take my time. The feeling I got from his stiff cock in my mouth made me very wet. I scooted down his body so that I could turn towards him. I could hear his excitement, but I wanted to see it too. My tongue worked along the side of his cock. I moved a bit more, and then I slid it along the softer bottom of the shaft. When I came up to where just the tip was between my lips, I stopped and let my tongue wiggle across the area just under the crown. I had heard this was a sensitive spot and his loud groan seemed to prove it. I started to do short bobs with my head as I licked him there.

The taste of him changed. It got sweeter. Whenever I let my tongue slide across the top, where the little hole was, that taste got intense. He was leaking pre-cum.

My hand played with his balls. They were now wet with my saliva. It had dripped out around his cock as I sucked it. I looked up at him. He had his eyes closed and his head thrown back. I smiled and watched him, taking his cock as deep as possible. Eyes still closed, he smiled and gave a groan. I bobbed up and down, keeping it as deep as I could. He groaned even louder, and his eyes shot open. He saw me looking at him.

"Malaika," he said. "If you keep that up, I'm going to come."

Instead of answering him, I slid my mouth off his cock. I held it pointing up, and I climbed onto my knees, then swung one leg over his lap. I took his cock and rubbed it between my pussy's lips. I was soaked, and it easily fit. We both groaned at the touch.

"Not yet," I whispered.

I let the head slide completely into my and then slowly sunk down on his cock. It opened me up, and I shuddered. It felt so good. We both groaned again. Once our crotches touched, I sat there for a moment and enjoyed the feeling of being filled. David's hands came up and grasped my legs. He smiled up at me. I smiled back down at him and put my hands on his chest. I raised myself and let his cock come out of me a little. Then I dropped back down. I did this a few times and let more and more of the length come out of me. It felt better the longer my strokes got.

David watched me. Every once and a while, he grabbed my legs and squeezed hard. It happened each time I dropped onto him completely. I understood his excitement. Each time his cock filled me, I felt pleasure go through me like a wave.

I leaned back and put my hands on his legs. It made his cock rub along the front of my pussy inside. That felt even better. Then David moved one of his hands to the top of my pussy and began to rub me there. I could feel his thumb across my clit. It was as stiff as his cock. When he did that, I felt even more excited. I could feel an orgasm building the longer I fucked him.

I wanted to cum on his cock so bad.

***

Watching Malaika suck my cock had been amazing. Watching her beautiful body ride my cock was beyond amazing. Her pussy gripped my cock tightly. She was breathing heavily, and her dark brown skin glistened in the pale light. I rubbed my thumb across her stiff clit. I started to thrust gently upward each time she dropped onto my cock. It brought a sigh to her lips.

I wanted to see her come on my cock so badly.

***

It happened as I was lifting myself upward. My orgasm exploded in my belly, spreading outward. I shuddered on David's cock, and my legs gave out. I sunk slowly down onto him. My pussy squeezed tight, and I heard him groan. My hands grasped his shoulders. It was unlike any of my previous orgasms. Beyond them by a mile.

What have I been missing? I wondered. Was it always supposed to be this good?

With his cock in me, as deep as it could be, I rocked slowly back and forth. My orgasm slowed, then came back even strong. I came a second time around his cock. We both groaned. I fell forward, my breasts pressed into his chest, and kissed him. David kissed me back. We lay there together as my body quivered.

It took me several moments to calm down enough to move. I sat up slowly and smiled down at David. He had a big grin on his face. Then he reached up. Taking my waist as best as he could with his casts, he rolled me to the side. His cock came out of me, and I looked back at him. He pulled himself up onto his knees. Taking my waist, he pulled me up onto my hands and knees.

I smiled. I realized that David just wanted to fuck me doggy style. He took his cock, and I felt it part the lips of my pussy. Then he pushed himself forward, and his cock sank into me. I was still shaking from my orgasm, so I let him do all the work.

David slowly pushed himself in and out of me. I swore he felt twice as long, but I knew that was just the sensations I was feeling. I had never come that hard. Not with any of the men I had had sex with before. None of them could compare. I wanted to be here in this garage forever while David fucked me. The pleasure began to grow again.

His hands were on my hips, and he pulled me back each time he pressed forward. One of his hands came up and slid along my side to cup my breast. His finger touched my stiff nipple. He moved forward and back a little faster. Our crotches made a soft slap as they hit.

I felt the sweat on his body with my hand. I heard his breathing increase. I started pressing backward each time he moved forward. His cock was going in me deep, and it felt amazing. I swore he reached places even my previous lovers never had.

My orgasm was building again. I looked back at David, and I could tell he was as excited as I was. Our eyes locked, and I wanted to kiss him so badly. Instead, I came again. This orgasm was even more intense than the first. My head fell forward as I shuddered around his moving cock. My hands clenched the blanket under me. I groaned and called his name softly as I came.

I fell forward, the pleasure taking the strength from my arms. I lay there for a moment then I heard David groan. I rolled and looked up at him. He had a hand on his stiff cock, stroking it. I had let my pleasure rob him of the chance to come inside me, and I wanted to make it up to him. I looked up at him and called his name. He looked at me.

"Come here," I told him.

I pointed to my breasts and opened my mouth for him. He looked down at me and smiled.

"Come for me, David," I whispered. "Here, in my mouth."

He moved forward until he knelt beside me, furiously stroking his hard cock. I reached up and pressed my breasts together. My tongue was out. I offered myself to him as I had never offered myself to another before. Never let anyone come in my mouth.

David gave a loud moan, and his cock shot its first string of cum forward. It landed between my breasts. Then the second landed in the hollow of my neck. Both felt warm and wet on my skin. I reached up and grabbed his cock. I leaned it down and pressed the tip between my lips. The third shot of come filled my mouth. Then the fourth followed.

"Oh my god," he softly said and gave his cock a few final strokes. "Malaika..."

I smiled and let him see my tongue, now covered with his come. I closed my mouth and swallowed.

He slowly lay down beside me, taking me in his arms.

***

"I want to ask you something," David said.

We had been snuggling under the blanket together, still naked, for the longest time, it seemed. I did not know about David, but I hoped for more sex once I caught my breath. I lay in the crook of one of his arms, my face against his chest. One of my fingers idly played with the fine hairs on the skin of his belly. Occasionally I reached down a little further and touched his cock.

"Anything but my weight," I joked.

He did not chuckle, so I turned and looked up at him. He had a strange look on his face, a serious one.

"You said earlier that you had failed?"

I looked away.

"If you don't want to talk about it," he said. "I won't pry."

I sighed. Something about David's soft tone made me want to tell him.

"I told you my mother died three years back," I started talking. "I was going to school and working too. I was so busy I never noticed her getting sicker and sicker. One day I came home, and there was an ambulance."

I sighed again. I closed my eyes because I did not want to cry in front of David.

"My dad and mom, they were covering it up. They didn't want me to worry. They didn't want me to know they weren't seeing a doctor either. Money was so tight. We couldn't afford both, and they thought I'd drop out of school if I knew." I wiped at my eyes with one hand. "The last time I spoke with her before she died, Mom said how proud she was and that she would always be there watching me cook."

A tear dripped down my cheek.

"Now, with all of this, the earthquake, and everything I have trapped here in my van." I sighed, wiping at my nose. "It's too much. I'll never be able to get my business going again. She died, and I failed her."

David hugged me tightly as the tears finally came.

***

I woke with my arms around a sleeping Malaika. A bright light shone into my eyes.

"Are you Lieutenant Vojtenko?" a woman's voice asked from the darkness. "Are you injured?"

I raised one arm, trying to block the light.

"Yes, that's me," I said, "and no, I'm okay."

I heard the squelch of someone keying a microphone.

"I've found him," she said. "Vojtenko and another survivor."

I could not hear a reply, but my rescuer was probably wearing an earbud. Malaika stirred. I clutched at the blanket, realizing my nudity and hers under that cover. I heard a chuckle from the figure behind the light.

"You better get dressed, Romeo," she said. "You're about to have company."

***

David was arguing with our rescuers.

"I don't care what your orders are," he said firmly. "Malaika goes up first."

There was a woman and a man. They were in the gear you see on the television when there is a disaster, and they were in the rubble searching. I gathered they were from the LA County Fire Department. Both of them had headlamps turned on. The woman was in charge, and she was not happy.

"Look, Lieutenant, I know..." she started to explain.

David cut her off with a finger pointed at her face. She raised both her hands as if to shield herself from his wrath. It was a side of David I had not seen. Very commanding and not willing to take no.

"Okay, okay," she said. "Her first, but you're taking the heat if anyone says anything."

David nodded.

Our rescuers had come down through the elevator shaft from somewhere above. The man was standing in the open elevator door with a rope still attached. It led up. There was just an empty shaft behind him. I guessed the elevator was lower because I could see the cables. The woman grabbed my arm and guided me over to him. He had a harness in his hand, and he quickly got me into it. He clipped me to the rope.

David was standing close to the woman. I saw him talking into the radio on her harness. He had her ear bug pressed into his ear. He nodded several times at what he heard.

The male rescuer smiled at me and tugged at the rope. I felt it go taut.

"Gonna be a piece of cake," he said to me. "Just relax, and we'll get you out of here."

I edged my way into the shaft. I looked up. I could see some light coming from an open door above us. The rescuer held onto my rope, and together we stepped out. We spun a little, then I felt a tug, and we began to rise. I looked down. David, with the woman, was watching me. He gave me a nod.

The elevator door on the floor above us was open. That level was in worse shape than ours. There were large blocks of fallen concrete right up to the door.

I looked up and could see several people looking down from the floor above that floor. There was a mechanical rig across the shaft, above the top door. The rope came down from that. We got even with them, and one man reached out and pulled our rope towards them. Suddenly, I had hands all over me, pulling me out of the shaft and onto the parking garage roof.

The first thing I noticed was it was nighttime. I guess we had been down there longer than I thought.

The second thing was there were lots of people on the roof level with me, over two dozen of them. Half appeared to be fire and rescue. Two looked to be reporters.

Over to one side, there was another group. There were a couple of tough, big men in dark suits standing. Between them, an older gentleman was sitting on a folding chair. He had grey hair, was well dressed, and looked important. Sitting next to him on another folding chair was a middle-aged woman, plain and ordinary. She had a worried look on her face.

There were also two men in military uniforms talking together. They were all watching me and the elevator shaft intently.

"Are you injured?" a paramedic asked me as others got me out of the harness.

I shook my head, but he took me by the arm and led me to a small pop-up canopy on the roof anyway. There was a woman, on a stretcher there, with other paramedics working on her. There was also another stretcher nearby, draped with a white sheet.

Not everyone had been lucky as David and I.

The paramedic sat me on a chair, then started to check my vitals. He looked over me for signs of injury. I ignored him and looked towards the elevator shaft, waiting for any sign of David.

"I need to get you off this roof," he said.

***

"I'm okay," I said with difficulty.

Baryna chuckled and relented her fierce hug. She had been squeezing me so hard that I could not breathe. Behind her, the Ambassador and several of the Embassy staff looked on.

"I shouldn't have left you," she said, wiping a finger at her eye. "I was scared something had happened to you."

Something had definitely happened to me down there, I thought. Just nothing I'm going to share.

"No earthquake at the next reception," I said instead, and she smiled.

"Twice lucky it seems, Lieutenant," the Ambassador said and held out his hand. "I'm glad to see you safe. You had us all very worried."

I shook it. The others pressed close and held out theirs as well. While I shook hands, I looked around but could not see any sign of Malaika.

"Let's get off this roof," the Ambassador ordered.

***

(Ten days later)

"Malaika," my dad said. He was standing at the door to the kitchen, where I was drinking tea. "There's someone here to see you."

I recognized the woman. She had been on the rooftop that night. She had been part of the group waiting for David. She introduced herself, and I asked her to join me. My dad left us alone.

"You are a very hard woman to find," Baryna said.

She sat down and put her thin briefcase on the kitchen table.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

The truth was I was just a little mad with everything. I had called the Ukrainian Embassy repeatedly for the first week after the earthquake, trying to get a message through to David. All I had been getting for my trouble had been the run-around. I had stopped calling a few days ago. I did not know if someone at the Embassy was behind the stone-walling. Or if it was David's doing. He had disappeared on the roof and left me there without a word.

"We tried calling the number on your business card," Baryna reached into her pocket. She slid it across the table. "The person who answered did not know you."

It was one of my new cards, which I had printed just before getting the job for the reception. I had really splurged too. Getting the foil embossing and raised logo. I had used the first of them for the job too. I picked it up and looked at it.

"Oh, bloody hell!" I exclaimed.

I instantly saw the problem. The printer had made a mistake on the phone number, switching the last two digits.

"Your website and online info are not yet up, so I had to ask one of the Embassy staff to do some digging," Baryna continued. "Major Chornyj made calls to some of his more colorful friends in your government. The CIA has probably started a file on you now, wondering what our interest in you is."

I gulped. I hoped Baryna was pulling my leg. I suddenly remembered that the woman across from me worked for a foreign government. There was an icy coldness to her gaze, and I did not know the first thing about her. Baryna smiled, and then like a switch, she turned into a kindly older aunt sitting at the kitchen table.

"Your absence has had David in quite a state," she said. "He thought you were mad at him for some reason and did not want to talk to him."

I sat there staring at her.

"Speaking of David," she continued. She opened her briefcase and took out a piece of paper, sliding it across the table to me. "You'll need to sign this before we go much further."

I looked over the form. It had a lot of big words in small letters, none of which I understood. The one thing that did stand out was the title, Non-Disclosure Agreement. It had the seal of the government of Ukraine. It also had a check stapled to it. It was a rather large check for eight thousand dollars.

"You need to look at this," my dad yelled from the front room.

I got up from the table and went to see. Baryna went too.

My dad was at the open front door. I saw a small crowd of our neighbors outside. They watched several men unload a white van from the back of one of those tilt-down tow trucks onto the street before my house. It was one of those larger cargo vans made by Mercedes. I would have loved to have bought one, but they were way too far out of my original budget for me to afford.

There were also a pair of those tough, big men like I had seen on the roof, standing next to a black SUV nearby.

"The government of Ukraine would like to thank you for saving the life of our hero and national treasure, Lieutenant David Vojtenko when he was trapped," Baryna said, sounding very official and formal. "In the spirit of friendship between our two countries and recognizing the loss you suffered in the earthquake, we would like to compensate you by replacing your van."

She held up a set of keys.

"We also got most of your catering equipment from your van out of the garage," she continued. "At first, the officials weren't going to let us go down, but the Ambassador said something about state secrets in our SUV. Since our people were in there anyway..."

She smiled. My eyes went wide as I realized what she was saying.

"You can thank David for that. He was very insistent with the Ambassador about you," Baryna explained. "There will be some interviews about the rescue. Perhaps a reception or two, which you will have to attend."

She gave me the keys.

"There is also a commitment to hiring you to cater official Embassy events during the next coming year," she said. "We can speak of the specifics later."

She pulled me back inside and pressed me against the wall.

"It turns out that Major Chornyj was in Africa for a while. He told me something. That Malaika means Angel in Swahili." Baryna said, looking intently at me. "One question for you, do you want to see your David, oh Angel of Los Angeles?"

Everything was happening so fast. I could not speak. My head was spinning, so I just nodded.

Baryna smiled again.

"He went in for an operation for his shoulder this morning," she looked at her watch. "And he should be getting out of surgery soon. Want to go wake him up with me?"

I was excited and amazed by the gifts. That was not the big revelation, though. It was that David wanted to see me. I had been so worried he did not. I knew now that the reason he had not called me had been just a misunderstanding. I grabbed Baryna, kissed her, then ran to get my purse.

Behind me, I heard her whisper.

"With angel's wings, she flies to her hero..."

***

The anesthesia left me slowly and with a slight headache. It left me with a dry mouth as well. I felt someone holding my hand.

"Some water, please," I whispered.

The hand did not leave mine, but a straw touched my lips. I took a slow sip. It was cold and felt very good.

Not champagne, I thought with a giggle. But still pretty good.

"Welcome back to the Land of the Living," a woman's voice said.

I felt my hand get squeezed.

"Get your ass out of bed, soldier," said a second woman's voice. "You're not getting paid to sleep."

I knew those voices.

I slowly opened my eyes. Malaika was sitting next to me, and she was holding my hand. Baryna was sitting on the other side of the bed, watching me. Both women were wearing hospital gowns over their clothing and had masks on their faces. The way their eyes sparkled, I knew they were smiling behind the masks. I smiled back and gave Malaika's hand a squeeze of my own.

If this was a dream, let me never wake.

She lowered her mask, then leaned down and kissed me.

Yes, let me never wake.