by Michael Todd
“You are not a habitual drinker then, Mr. Jacobs?” Solaratov asked with a grin.
“True words,” he responded, his voice unusually hoarse.
“Now, with politeness out of the way, we move to business.” He opened a couple of paper files on his desk with a brisk movement. “Reports tell me that you first helped one of our officers, Sergeant Gregor Popov, as his suit was damaged and the man himself in need of medical assistance. Then you helped the rest of his team when they were attacked by the monsters inside the fucking jungle.”
“How do you already know about Gregor?” Sal asked.
“Well, we received a message from your Staging Area base about one of our soldiers who was recovered,” Solaratov said with a smile. “Part of your team abandoned your mission to help him return to civilization for medical treatment. We are deep in your debt, and we will be sure to compensate you all for the money that you might have made from your mission if you had not helped.”
“Well, we want to ensure that the relations between our two bases remain as cordial as possible,” Sal said smoothly. “If only because we’d like to think that if your people were faced with a similar situation, they would do the same.”
“Absolutely,” the commandant assured him. “Your gesture of good faith will not be forgotten, my friend. And now, we move on to you saving my son’s life. I know, as member of the military, I am not to show favorable treatment. But since I am personally grateful for your actions, I will reward your team most generously from my own private funds.”
Sal raised an eyebrow. “That’s…very magnanimous of you, Commandant.”
“You saved my son’s life,” Solaratov said, and his tone became grave. “The doctors tell me that he has improved so much that they may not even need to remove the leg. His foot might also be saved as well. I don’t know how you did it, and the men who saw what you did refuse to tell me how it happened—”
“It’s a proprietary recipe,” Sal interjected and smiled to take any possible slight out of the words. “We’re actually independent contractors and work from a very small startup, so our profit margins depend on things that we’ve developed personally during our time here.”
“I can respect this.” He nodded. “Either way, it will take a few hours for me to be able to withdraw my funds all the way out here, so I invite the two of you to spend some time with us. Living arrangements are being prepared, and you can spend the night. Your payment will be wired in the morning, and once that is in order, we will find way to escort you safely back to your base—or anywhere you want to go.”
“That’s…incredibly generous of you, Commandant,” Sal said again and stood as the man pushed himself slowly from his office chair, which squeaked under the weight.
“Please,” he said and offered his hand for Sal and Kennedy to shake. “It is the least I can do. Now, get some rest. You will find your accommodations completely furnished and well suited for a short stay.”
“Thank you, Commandant,” Kennedy said and grinned as she rubbed hand. “If it’s not too much to ask, could you perhaps assist us to have our armor cleaned and repaired? The suits got a little banged up while we were out there.”
“Of course. We will have it handled immediately.”
The officer who had led them there waited outside the door when they exited. It seemed that he already knew where they were going and he simply directed them back to the vehicle. They complied and took a short drive to what Sal was surprised to see were a couple of small apartment buildings.
Actual buildings. With multiple stories and various apartments, not tiny little houses.
Although, once they had been taken to the second floor and the accommodation that had been provided for them, he realized it was extremely small. Even smaller than his place, as a matter of fact, but he was sure that wouldn’t be a problem. It wasn’t like they would stay there long.
“Dibs on the shower,” Kennedy said once the door closed behind them. Sal chuckled but allowed her to go first. He knew from experience that she still lived the life of a military woman in that she went the “navy shower” route that only lasted about five minutes. The whole building was plumbed to an ancient boiler system for hot water, so he could stand to be sweaty and sticky for five minutes more if it meant he would step into a piping-hot shower. He needed the kind that made you feel like all your troubles were burned away in righteous flame—or, in this case, scalding liquid.
While he waited, he set his pack down in the small living room-kitchen and used the time to inspect the food they had been supplied with. It wasn’t much and mostly the typical ration-type packages that would be found in any military installation. Everything had, of course, been dehydrated and efficiently packed.
He’d lived through worse, he recalled. There was a time when popcorn and ramen noodles had been his food of necessity rather than choice. It felt like a lifetime ago, even though it was less than six months.
He wondered who would recognize him back home after only half a year. He caught a glimpse of himself in the bedroom mirror. He had put on weight during the months there, but it was almost entirely muscle mass. If the truth be told, he had been rather scrawny when he first arrived. Kennedy had to have been insanely drunk to even consider getting into bed with him.
Literally and metaphorically, Sal thought with a smile.
They’d given them an apartment with two bedrooms, both with queen-sized beds which took up virtually all the space. They looked comfortable, even though the place had a motel vibe which extended to the generic art that hung from the walls.
He would never have thought that Russians would even put art, generic or not, on the walls of their accommodation. It was like they actually expected people to live here.
Ten minutes later, the lock turned on the bathroom door and Madigan stepped out of a very steamy bathroom wrapped in a clean white towel.
“Ten minutes?” Sal asked, with a small smile on his lips. “Your control is slipping, Kennedy.”
She smirked, clearly in a better mood than before. “Get in there, Sal. The water’s nice and hot for you. Oh, and there’s an extra towel hanging in there.”
“Thanks.” He closed the door but didn’t bother to lock it as he stripped down, placed his clothes on the lowered toilet seat, and stepped into the small shower stall. The water was scalding, exactly the way he liked it. He let it wash over him for a full ten minutes before he actually scrubbed himself.
The steam was almost impenetrable by the time he stepped out to shave and brush his teeth.
“Thirty minutes,” Madigan said with a grin. “And you have the gall to criticize my time? For shame.”
“Hey,” Sal said and secured the towel that wrapped his midsection as he joined her on the living room couch. “You’re the military woman here. You’re a sergeant. I’m not even a doctor. You need to be held to higher standards than I am. It’s the way of the world.”
Madigan grinned. “Former sergeant, remember? I turned my papers in when I decided to sign on with your sorry ass.”
“You didn’t think my ass was sorry that long ago,” Sal said. “Or is that why you insist on grabbing it so much while we have sex?”
She smiled and tilted her head as she looked at him with an odd expression. It was similar to what he’d seen when she had stared at him before.
“You’re wondering if Courtney and I slept together, aren’t you?” Sal asked. It was a blunt way of going about it, but if she wouldn’t do it herself, damned if he would beat around the bush with her.
“Well…yeah.” Madigan looked confused for a second but quickly came to terms with the fact that they were having this conversation. “I mean, I don’t judge you for it. Believe me, I know that the fact that we live out here and risk our lives almost every day makes all the societal rules that would usually surround us a little warped. But I’d have appreciated it if—if you did have sex with her at all, of course—you had simply come out and told me about it.”
H
e nodded and chewed lightly at the inside of his mouth. To be honest, he had expected her to be a lot less understanding. Her candor caught him off-guard for a second, but he regained his composure quickly.
“I’m not the best when I have to express myself,” he said and created a metaphorical net for him to drop into if needed. “I think I’m even worse at it when it comes to all this…” He wasn’t sure what “this” was supposed to be, so he merely made a hand gesture and was relieved when Madigan nodded. “I’m not any kind of player. Honestly, I didn’t have much of a sex life before I got here, so when it comes to knowing the rules and stuff…well, I don’t.”
“Get to the point,” Madigan said with a laugh.
“Right, sorry,” he said quickly. “The point is that while it’s more complicated than that, the short of it is that…well, yes, Courtney and I did sleep together. Well, we had sex. Not much sleep.”
She nodded, and an odd smile touched her face. “Well, thanks for being honest with me, Sal, I really appreciate it. I don’t suppose I can persuade you to share what about the whole situation makes it more complicated than simply two people who have a lot in common having sex? I mean, she told me that she had something of a crush on you, so it’s not really a surprise that you’d have one on her too.”
Sal shook his head. “I’m sorry. Again, all the unspoken rules aren’t that clear to me, but I feel like whatever needs to be said about the situation shouldn’t be said by me. She should probably tell you about that.”
Kennedy leaned back in her seat and shoved a strand of wet hair out of her face. “Okay, but if you think that the fact that I have to wait until we see Courtney again means I won’t dig into this stuff, you’d better have another think coming, and fast.”
“Why are you talking like you’re in a standoff in a Western movie?” he asked.
“Shut up,” she retorted with a grin and pushed to her feet. “I need to get some sleep. The bouncy ride in that vehicle last night did me no favors, I’ll tell you.”
“Hey, Madigan.” Sal stood and caught her attention before she disappeared into the bedroom on the right side. “Are we okay? Did this talk help?”
“Yeah, we’re good, Sal,” she said, and her smile was genuine. “I merely need a second to collect my thoughts is all. Thanks for being honest with me. You know, eventually.”
He grinned as she vanished behind the closed door. For a moment, he wondered if he should go in after her, but the moment passed, and he slipped into the left bedroom instead. He needed a nice long nap too.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sal muttered unintelligible curses and yanked the soft, thin pillow over his head in the hope that the knocking would go away. It was too soon. He needed his sleep. Honestly, it didn’t even need to be beauty sleep. Ugly sleep would work as long as it was uninterrupted.
He finally popped his right eye open when the knocking resumed for the third time. He would have thought that people would take the hint by now, but apparently not.
“Fucking hell,” he grumbled under his breath. The pounding on the door sounded like drums—those in the deep that he used to have nightmares about. Unfortunately, there was no way to wake from this nightmare. He would have to get up and answer the door if he wanted to silence the noise.
There was the random and somewhat confused consideration about whether he would prefer to face a room full of goblins and a cave troll instead of getting out of bed. It was quickly settled when he slipped out from under the covers in only a pair of boxers and stumbled around the tiny room to the door. He stifled a massive yawn with his hand. The knocking resumed, more insistently now.
“God damn it. I’m coming, I’m coming.” He yanked the door open and immediately regretted his choice of words when he saw Madigan waiting on the other side. A grin spread across her face as she stepped into his room without waiting for an invitation.
“I hope you’re ready to go again soon, Sal,” she said with a teasing grin and brushed her fingers across his lean stomach as she passed him. “Although this has to be some kind of record. It’s the first time I’ve ever gotten a guy to come before he even saw me.”
“Ha ha.” Sal laughed sarcastically. “Very funny. There was a time when people would have simply said ‘phrasing’ and moved right on.”
“Was this time recent, by any chance?” she asked. He realized that she still wore the towel that he’d seen her in last and nothing else. When she sat, it rode up higher on her lean legs.
“Not particularly,” he replied, effectively distracted at the suddenly very disturbing woman on his bed. Madigan noticed his stare and smiled as she crossed her legs coyly to push the towel up further. “You know me, though. An absolute sucker for the classics.”
“I do know you,” she said and smiled even wider at his dumbfounded look. She liked that she still had this effect on him, despite all the time they had spent together. “Although, knowing you, I would have expected you to be down and out right now.”
“Is that why you tried to break my door down?” Sal asked, sidetracked once again when she leaned back on the bed. Invitations for him to join her on his bed didn’t come much clearer than this.
“A girl has needs,” Madigan responded, and her full lips pouted. “Do you think you can recuperate?”
“As you like to point out, I’m still young.” Sal moved in closer so that he now stood over her. “My recuperative powers are impressive.”
“Oh?” she asked and raised her right eyebrow. “How impressive?”
“Not to be competitive, but much better than yours,” he said with a smirk.
Madigan chuckled and pushed herself to a sitting position once again. Sal could tell that she wanted to stand and stare him down, but he was too close for her to do so. She elected to remain on the bed and looked up at him while she bit her bottom lip.
“If you’re trying not to be competitive, you’ve failed pretty miserably,” she said finally, and her eyes drifted to where there was little left to the imagination by the boxers he wore.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t try to not be competitive, then.”
“Just to be sure that we’re both on the same page…” She moved closer to where Sal grew rapidly larger and let her towel fall open. “You’re saying that you can outfuck me here, right?”
Sal tilted his head and pretended to take a moment to think. “I’m saying that I can outlast you and keep going until you beg me to stop—and until you can’t take it anymore.”
Madigan smirked and ran her fingers over Sal’s growing cock through his boxers. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever been able to outlast me when it comes to fighting, drinking, or fucking. I’m not bragging, by the way, but I think you ought to know what you’re claiming here.”
“I’d never think that I could outdrink you,” he said honestly. “And I’ll wait for a while before I think I can outfight you. But I do think that I can leave you walking bowlegged like a cowgirl after a long ride. A very long ride.”
Sal wasn’t sure why he’d become this cocky. He figured that if he had to brag, he might as well go hard—pun intended—or go home. He simply wasn’t sure that he could live up to his claims. And if he didn’t, she would never let him live it down.
Unless he actually managed to fuck her to sleep. It was the best way to prove her wrong, he supposed, although he somehow had difficulty focusing on the thought.
“Do you want to make this interesting?” Madigan asked and yanked his boxers down to lean in to press her lips to the heavy head directly at eye-level.
He needed a moment before he answered and his eyes fluttered shut as she teased him. Driven by pure instinct, he ran his fingers through her hair.
“Bragging rights are in there,” she said and held her mouth close enough that he could feel her hot breath on him. “Let’s say that if you fall asleep or take ten minutes or more to get going again, you forfeit.”
“Well, that’s hardly fair,” he growled.
“It is
a game rigged in my favor,” Madigan admitted with a teasing smile. “But it’ll make it so much sweeter if you win.”
“When I win,” Sal growled in response. He placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her roughly onto her back. She squealed with delight. “And you never said that I can’t rig the odds in my favor either.”
He tugged her towel free and left her completely naked on his bed as he dropped to his knees between her spread thighs and leaned in hungrily to kiss at her lower lips. While he had a certain confidence in his stamina, that didn’t mean that he would simply go for it without tipping the scales in his favor.
“Oh…fuck!” Sal gasped and ran his hands over her back as his hips bucked against her again and again. He’d left a couple of handprints on her ass and they were still red, so he might as well give her a rest there. A light sheen of sweat coated his skin, which was a sight better than the sweat that dripped from Madigan.
She was thoroughly drenched, he thought, and pulled out of her. She dropped to the bed, and her thighs shuddered as she rolled onto her back.
“Five,” she declared and looked at him with a determined expression on her face. “Is that…” Her voice trailed off as an aftershock from her last orgasm rippled through her body. “Is that all you got, Jacobs?”
Sal grinned. She looked like she was a bare step-and-a-half from done, but then again, he was the one who did most of the work, at least after her second orgasm. After she’d coated his cock with her cum, she had been more than willing to let him take the reins in their time together.
“Where have you hidden all that?” she asked when she saw he was still hard and even now, simply watched while he waited for her to recover instead of the other way around.
“I’m a geek, remember?” he said with a grin, only slightly out of breath. “All I think about is sex and science, and not necessarily in that order. Ready to go again?”