Semper Fi

by Jane Harvey-Berrick

  “Oh, fuck this,” I snarled.

  I launched myself forward, knocking Caro onto her back, and slammed into her, pumping hard.

  I was seconds from coming when Caro smacked my shoulder, struggling to push me off.

  “Condom!” she hissed.

  “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

  I’d been so turned on, I’d totally forgotten the basics. That only ever happened around Caro.

  I pulled out of her reluctantly, then fumbled around for my pants, searching for the right pocket where I kept the rubbers. I swore as I dropped the first foil packet, but managed to hold onto the second one, hoping like fuck it was the right way around, otherwise it was going to come off inside her, and we’d been through that shit years before—it hadn’t been fun.

  “I’m sheathed up,” I grunted.

  Her next words knocked the breath right out of my lungs.

  “From behind: make it rough.”

  I sure as hell didn’t need to be asked twice.

  Caro rolled onto her hands and knees, and I gripped her hip with one hand, my dick with other, took aim, and rammed home for the second time. She cried out, then collapsed onto her forearms, stifling her cries into the pillow. I fucked her as hard as I could, hammering into her body, letting myself go, losing myself in her, just like she wanted, just like she’d asked.

  She pushed her ass back against me, and I could hear the slap of my balls against her, over and over again.

  I leaned forward, palming her left breast, pinching the nipple until she cried out. Then I reached lower to finger her clit, rubbing my shaft at the same time as it slicked in and out of her. She brought up her hand to meet mine, an insane physical and emotional connection joining us.

  I felt her body tremble as her muscles gripped around me, then she collapsed as she came and I had to hook my arm around her waist to hold her up while I released into her, stars shooting behind my eyelids from the intensity.

  Caro was gasping for breath and I was breathing harder than a recruit at boot camp. I could feel the sweat on my chest and back.

  I pulled out quickly and felt her body flinch.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” she gasped. “Apart from the fact I’ll be walking like I just got off my camel tomorrow. You?”

  I felt a huge smile break out.

  “Yeah, I think I ripped my foreskin—what’s left of it.”

  “Really?” She turned around to face me. “Are you okay?”

  God, she was too cute for words.

  I smiled and stroked her cheek. “Kidding, Caro. That was fucking awesome. You were like some wild woman.”

  “You were pretty wild yourself. But you’re right: I don’t know what got into me—other than you, of course. Do you want to go again?”

  I stared at her in amazement.

  “Christ, Caro! Are you trying to kill me?”

  “Hmm, death by orgasm. What do you think? A handful by morning?”

  I stared at her, wondering what the hell had happened to my gentle, sweet girl.

  “If you want, Caro, but you know what I’d really like to do now?”

  “Thrill me,” she teased, stroking her fingers across my damp chest and tugging lightly on my dog tags.

  I pulled her into his arms and looked at her seriously. “I want to make love to you, Caro. I freakin’ loved that, but it was just sex. Can we take it slow, baby? Take our time? I want to touch every part of your body.”

  And I don’t know how long it will be before we can have a night like this again.

  She kissed me softly, and this time, and the time after, I made love to her, showing her with my body the words that never came out right.

  Dawn was close when she woke me up. I felt her fingers drifting down my back and across my hip. My dick was definitely awake, but I could tell from the light that there was no chance of doing anything about it before I had to report for duty.

  “Time to get up, Sebastian,” she whispered.

  I blinked and tried to stretch, but ended up kicking the door again.

  “Very stealthy, Marine,” she laughed as I sat up to search for my clothes.

  “Yeah,” I grinned at her, “trained in stealth, camouflage and concealment, baby.”

  “You were certainly concealed in me last night,” she murmured. “Several times, I seem to remember.”

  “Did ya lose count, baby?” I smirked.

  She shook her head, her eyes bright and teasing.

  “By the way,” she asked, “how come you’re managing to get in here without anyone noticing you’re not where you’re supposed to be?”

  I frowned. “It’s not that hard—I’m kind of separate from everyone. I’m on attachment so none of them know me; I’m in charge of the other interpreters, but they’re all Afghan, so I’m not part of that either. It was different when I was still with my Unit, but this way no one knows when or where I’m on duty. Except Grant, and he’s got more to worry about than where I sleep. Works out pretty well, huh, Caro?”

  I couldn’t figure out why she looked so sad. Was she worried about me? But then she smiled and leaned forward, resting her lips against mine.

  “Time to move your ass, Sebastian”, she said, running her fingers over my short hair. “I’ll see you later?”

  I dressed, kissed her again quickly, then darted out through the door, keeping low until I was out in the courtyard, casually greeting some of the other guys who were either waking up or coming off watch.

  I was trying to keep the huge ass smile off of my face, but I guess I failed because Chiv came up to me, one eyebrow raised.

  “You’re lookin’ as happy as a pig in shit. What’s with that, Seb?” He looked over my shoulder in the direction of Caro’s room. “Y’all been visitin’ with the very lovely Ms. Journalist?”

  “What are you yakking about, Chiv?” I tried really hard to look puzzled; it didn’t work.

  He grinned at me and winked. “You dog. Wouldn’t mind some of that action myself, if the lovely lady is puttin’ out.”

  I couldn’t stop myself grabbing the front of his uniform and getting in his face.

  “Don’t talk about her like that!” I snarled.

  The idiot just grinned at me. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Seb; I’m just messin’ wit ya! You two been givin’ each other the glad-eye ever since y’all got here. Gotta say it’s pretty damn obvious.” He pulled my hands off of his jacket. “But maybe that’s just ‘cause I know ya. Don’t stress it—your secret is safe with me.” He patted me on the shoulder. “But y’all might wanna quit accostin’ your fellow Marines in the quad.”

  He strolled away laughing to himself as I took a deep breath. Shit, he was right.

  I lined up for chow and chewed my way through something that may or may not have been chicken, then it was time for the morning briefing.

  Caro was being sent out with Lieutenant Sanders today. I didn’t know him that well, but he seemed like a good guy. I was with Jankowski again, leading a team into the foothills to see if we could get some more intel on what the Taliban knew about our movements—in particular about Gal Agha. Hopefully, nothing.

  The other news was that there would be a fresh food drop in the early evening. We all looked forward to that. Apart from anything else, there would be fresh water as well, so we could use up the old rations and everyone got a one minute shower—barely long enough to do more than turn the dusty dirt that coated our bodies into mud.

  But small things like that made a big difference to morale. There was going to be a letter drop, as well, but I never got any mail; well, a card from Ches’s mom and dad—usually about a month after my birthday, depending where I was on tour. No biggie.

  Grant confirmed that yesterday was uneventful, and other than our RPG contact and every guy losing about five pounds in sweat, not much else happened. Although one of the other patrols fired off a few rounds, but that was just to drive away a bunch of locals who were throwing rocks at them. Nice.

>   I strapped on my body armor and daypack, then slapped on my helmet and scooped up my M16. Jankowski ordered the compound gates to be opened and we filed out cautiously, keeping our eyes on the rooftops for snipers, the dirt under our feet for IEDs, and the foothills in the distance for ambush or RPG attack.

  I tried talking to two locals who were standing in the bullet-ripped market, but they ignored me with stony faces, then turned their backs. I heard Jankowski mutter under his breath, “Is that what you call a charm offensive, Hunter?” He was a funny fucker.

  Once we got past the last ramshackle building, we were in open countryside. There was no talking, and we were all hyper-aware of our surroundings: that’s how you stayed alive out here.

  Two guys were sent ahead to check out a mud-built hovel. There was nowhere big enough to hide a body—I mean a person—so they didn’t go any further than the periphery. Doorways and windows were favorite places to booby-trap.

  Some scrawny goats clattered past, nearly giving the guys searching a heart attack at the sudden sound. I could see a kid of about 11 in the distance watching us—probably the goatherd. He ran off when he saw that I’d seen him, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Who was he going to tell?

  We walked another couple of miles before we saw any further signs of life. A man with a lined and cracked face of a village elder shouted at us from his tiny house. I could see a collection of barefoot children hiding behind his robes. His teeth were yellow with half of them missing.

  He shouted at us, then slammed his door. His words nearly stopped my heart.

  “Hunter?”

  Jankowski was waiting impatiently for a translation. I swallowed several times, feeling like my throat was just about dry enough to shit sand.

  “He asked what kind of cowards brought a woman to do their fighting for them,” I said, trying to hide the concern in my voice.

  “You think he means Ms. Venzi?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Ah shit,” he sighed. “The boss was afraid that would happen.”

  So was I.

  We were the last patrol to return to the compound that evening. I could see Caro sitting across the quad from the entrance and I felt a surge of relief that she was safe. For now.

  I went to Grant’s office with Jankowski to report on what I’d heard. The boss was worried and pissed.

  “She’ll have to go back to Bastion. I’d get her on the water drop helo but they’re dropping not stopping.” He looked across at Mark. “She’ll need to stay in the compound until HQ authorize a ride, but maybe we can get her on the new personnel flight next week.” Then he turned to me. “Tell Ms. Venzi that I’d like to speak with her.”

  I saluted and walked over to where Caro was sitting with a bunch of the younger guys who seemed drawn to her like she was sunshine in winter. I knew how that felt.

  “Captain Grant would like to see you, ma’am,” I said, keeping it formal while we had eyes on us.

  She stood up immediately, reading the stiffness in my body, and she didn’t ask any questions.

  Grant’s office seemed appropriately gloomy. I stood to one side as he waved her into the only other unoccupied chair in the room.

  “Ms. Venzi, your presence is causing some interest among the local population,” he announced, cutting right to the chase. “Hunter heard some talk while on patrol that concerned him.”

  She glanced at me quickly.

  “And what does this talk say?” she prompted.

  “At the moment it’s vague, but the news of having a woman with us will spread quickly now. We have a new medic arriving in six days, so the helo will be putting down briefly. If you become a person of interest, as I think you will, you’ll be at risk and you’ll be putting my men at risk, too. I want you on that flight, Ms. Venzi. And until then, for your safety, you’ll remain in the compound.”

  I saw her shoulders tighten and she took a deep breath.

  “I see. Well, thank you for being so candid and explaining the situation to me, Captain Grant. I’ll ensure that I get as much work done as I can, and I’ll be ready to leave when you advise.”

  The boss looked relieved; perhaps he’d expected her to argue, but there was no way Caro would be selfish while chasing down a story if it meant putting guys in danger. Hopefully she’d still be able to write her articles even if she wasn’t in Now Zad.

  She stood up and let me escort her from the office.

  “Sorry, baby,” I said quietly.

  “That’s okay,” she replied, her voice tired. “I don’t want to cause more problems out here. Besides, I can get some stories from Leatherneck so the paper won’t be shortchanged.”

  “If anything happened to you…” I began.

  She interrupted me quickly. “I told you, Sebastian, I’m not going to take risks. If you care about me, you won’t either.”

  “If I care about you?” I snapped, my temper flaring.

  “You know what I mean,” she said calmly, “and keep your voice down.”

  There were too many people watching us, so I zipped my lips and left Caro outside her room, trying—and failing—to keep my eyes off her.

  We’d just finished chow and I was sucking down the piss-weak coffee, when Sanders reported that the helo would be here soon.

  “Supply chopper on its way,” he announced, then picked out a platoon to retrieve the goodies before the locals decided to put their thieving hands all over it.

  A few minutes later, we heard the distinctive thrum of the Black Hawk’s twin engines chewing up the air around it, and small parachutes began raining down.

  Once the swag had been collected and relocated to the compound, guys gathered around to sort out the supplies: ammunition, water, fresh rations, but only a small bag of mail and no parcels. I wasn’t surprised by that—water was heavy and took up a lot of room. Larger items of mail would have to wait their turn or be stockpiled at Leatherneck.

  Suddenly, my name was called.

  “Hunter: you got mail, sir,” and one of the younger guys I hadn’t met yet waved a thin envelope at me.

  There was no return address on it so I wondered who the hell it was from. I pulled it open and started reading.

  My beautiful boy,

  I hope I can see you reading this, because I want to watch as your eyes darken with lust and your lovely mouth widens in a smile, and maybe you’ll shift uncomfortably as your glorious cock hardens, pushing against the rough khaki of your uniform. Because then I’ll be imagining the moment I take you inside my mouth or inside my body, your breath hot on my back as your naked flesh…

  My eyes widened in shock, followed by a grin that I couldn’t hide as I glanced up to see Caro watching me, a knowing smile on her face. She winked at me, then carried on helping sort the mail, although I could see she was still watching me from under her lashes.

  I read through the whole letter, sitting in the dirt, leaning against the mud wall of the compound. Hot damn, my girl really was good with words. I was so fucking turned on, so happy that she’d written to me so I had something of her to keep by my side, so fucking grateful to have her in my life. I closed my eyes and let my head rock back against the mudbrick wall, imagining everything that she’d written.

  Then one of the other guys scrunched up his own letter and dropped it in the dirt.

  “What’s up man?”

  “Fucking ‘dear John’ letter,” he answered bitterly. “She said she didn’t want to spoil my last few days of leave, so she thought she’d wait till I got out here to tell me she was seeing someone else. Bitch.”

  Yeah, pretty much every one of us knew what that felt like. Girls went for the uniform—not so much the months of being left behind with an empty bed and time on their hands. Some couldn’t help the constant worrying, they said. Another reason for not getting attached, although that had all changed for me now.

  The sun had sunk behind the mountains and the compound was shady for once. I was just thinking I should check on
my terps and call into the comms room when the guard on duty in the observation post yelled loudly.

  “Incoming!”

  Everyone scrambled for their body armor and weapons. I slapped my helmet over my head and yanked on my Kevlar vest, but I lost sight of Caro and my heart lurched.

  The first RPG exploded about 200 yards outside the compound and a spray of dirt rocketed 90 feet into the air.

  I grabbed my M16 and ran to the nearest observation post. Then the durg-durg of the heavy machine guns started.

  Another RPG exploded: 100 yards this time. Looked like the Taliban gunner was getting his sights lined up. Not fucking good. But there weren’t any further shots and I wondered if it was just to stop us from getting any downtime. If that was the reason, I was a little surprised that they didn’t wait until night time so they could disturb our sleep: fucking amateurs.

  Before the all-clear had been called, I ran to Caro’s room and stuck my head around the door, making her cry out in fright.

  “You okay, baby?”

  “Yes, fine. Don’t worry about me,” she replied breathlessly.

  I nodded and sprinted to the comms room.

  I guess I’d spoken too soon, because after that the Taliban had a new tactic: sleep deprivation. Intermittently throughout the night, they’d fire random RPGs that never landed near enough to be dangerous, but stopped the guys getting any rest. Not that sleeping in body armor was that easy anyway—at least not until complete exhaustion had set in.

  I spent the night in the comms room listening to a combination of insults broadcast in broken English, threats of what they’d do if they captured us, plus two terrorist cells talking to each other.

  By dawn, we were all tired and pissed.

  Guys were starting to line up for breakfast when I heard some of them singing the old Beatles classic ‘I’m So Tired’—the lines that said the guy had his mind on the blink because he hadn’t slept a wink.

  When I looked out of the comms room, nine fuck-ugly Marines were singing and grooving, surrounding a smiling Caro who was singing along with them and shaking her hips. More guys joined in, making me want to punch the ones who were staring at her ass, but then Grant appeared from his office, and even he couldn’t help smiling. I didn’t know the guy had teeth.