When she came back around to the injury, I heard the hiss of her inhale as she looked at it. “Is it bad?” I asked, not because I really cared right then, but because I felt like I ought to.
“I doubt as far as gunshots go it’s too bad, but it looks like it hurts like hell.” She took antiseptic and gauze out of the kit and began soaking the cloth. “It’s like it made a tunnel down your shoulder and partway along your arm. It’s maybe six inches long? But even though it doesn’t look like it’s deep, I imagine infection is a risk. I need to clean it, Gabe, and that’s going to hurt like crazy.”
I nodded and clenched my jaw. “Just do it,” I responded. I closed my eyes, counted my breaths, and waited.
When the burn came, it was what I’d imagined being set on fire would feel like. It was so intense I saw sparks in front of my eyes and the muscles throughout my body clenched up involuntarily.
“Fucking hell!” I gasped as I struggled to stay still.
“I’m so sorry,” she told me over and over as she dabbed at the wound as quickly as she could.
“Are you done? Please tell me you’re fucking done,” I choked out.
She pressed down once more. “Yes, all done.”
I struggled to regulate my breath, and she sat quietly next to me for a moment, softly running her fingers up and down my arm. Soon, the burning and throbbing receded to a tolerable level and I became aware of her touch. It felt so good that the contrast with the pain was about to send my nervous system into overload.
“I want to get a bandage on it too, Gabe.”
“Okay. It can’t possibly hurt as bad as that did, so let’s get it over with.”
She took antibiotic cream and very gently smoothed it over the wound. After she got a bandage wrapped around my shoulder, under my armpit, and partway down my arm, she tied it off and her nursing duties were done. She packed away the first aid kit and sat next to me against the wall.
“I’m sorry I got the truck wasted, Alexis,” I said without looking at her. “I guess I hadn’t thought it all through as well as I should have. I really wanted to get you out of here.” I turned my head and found her looking at me with the sweetest expression I’d ever seen on a woman. It nearly stopped my breath.
She shifted toward me more and laid her hand along my cheek. “It’s not your fault. You’ve taken such good care of me. No one could have done a better job, really.”
I sighed. “I’m glad you think so. That helps. Well, it doesn’t help the shoulder, but it helps my ego a little.”
“Just a little?” She held her fingers out with a small space in between them.
“Maybe a bit more than that.” I laughed.
“So, do you want to go over to the blankets where it’s marginally more comfortable?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you offering to take me to bed?”
“You’re feeling better, I see.”
“Mmm.” I ran my good hand down her bare arm. “Possibly.”
“I can’t believe you. You were howling in pain just a few minutes ago.”
“I’m tough, babe. One hundred percent US Army. You can’t keep me down for long.”
She stood and gently pulled on my good arm to help me stand. “Well, your obnoxiousness certainly doesn’t stay away long.”
I grinned at her. “There is a bed involved . . . and you. Surely you didn’t expect me to pass that up on account of a little scratch?”
I followed her over to our pallet. I carried my rifle and pistol with me, clutching them against my bare chest and setting them down next to “my side” of the bed. Jesus, one night of cuddling and I had a “side.” What the hell?
She turned around and reached for my hand, helping me sit down. “Lie down,” she directed, her voice even more husky than usual. I did, and she lay next to me, pulling the blanket over both of us. I shifted onto my good side, facing her, so that my injured arm was on top with no pressure on it. She rolled onto her side too and we lay there looking at each other.
“I’m going to be fine, you know,” I told her.
“I know.”
“And you’re finally safe from me because it hurts too damn much to move the injured arm and the other one’s pinned under me, so I can’t even touch you.”
“What if I don’t want to be safe from you?” she asked.
“Mmm. Don’t toy with me. My poor, exhausted body can’t take it.”
“When you were out there and I heard those shots start up . . . well, you could have been killed and all I could think was, Now I’ll never know.”
“Never know what?” I asked, my voice gruff and very soft.
“What it could be like between us. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or next week, but I know that we’re . . . I don’t know. Special somehow. I don’t want to ignore that. There’s no time to ignore that.”
My breath caught and I inhaled the musty, cold air all around me. I felt the heat coming off of her and the hard ground underneath me, and I ached. My arm ached, my head ached, my dick ached, and my heart ached. But in spite of all that, I felt like I was on top of the world. I realized at that moment that I would get shot all over again if it meant she’d tell me she felt this thing between us. It was worth it. All of it.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Yeah, soldier boy, I think I am. You up for it?” she answered as she leaned up on one elbow and peered down at me through the gloom.
“Oh, I’m always up for you.”
She chuckled as she came closer to my face, her long hair falling down around us. “You are so bad, Gabe Thompson.”
“And that’s the attraction,” I whispered, and then her lips were there, brushing against mine, searching me, burning me, but not quite incinerating the niggling doubt in the back of my head.
“Hey.” I stopped her mid-kiss. “Are you sure? I mean, will you tell him? Or is this one of those ‘what happens in a cave in Afghanistan stays in a cave in Afghanistan’ things?”
I could feel her smile against my lips. “I’ll tell him. No matter what else happens, I’ll tell him. He deserves to know. But I don’t want to talk about him. He’s not you. We were never this, Gabe.”
Yeah, there was no way they were ever this. I rolled onto my back and brought my good arm up to touch her face, her hair, her neck. My tongue entered her sweet lips and she moaned as she rested her arms on my chest and began smoothing her hands over my skin.
I lifted my head, trying to get closer to her, trying to press against her harder any way I could. “This isn’t going to work,” I gasped at her.
She lifted away from me. “Why? Am I hurting you?”
“Hell no! And if you were, it’d be the best damn pain I’ve ever felt.” I ran my hand down her back and gently squeezed her ass. “I gotta be on top though.”
“Oh. My. God. You’re kidding, right?”
“Uh, no.”
“Is this another one of those things you’ve never done? Be on the bottom?”
“No, I’ve been on the bottom plenty, but that’s for when I’m drunk or really relaxed, not about to crawl out of my skin because I’m so fucking turned on.”
I put my hand on the back of her neck and pulled her down hard. I crushed her lips to mine. After a moment, I pulled back slightly, thinking I might suffocate if I couldn’t catch my breath soon. “I need to be on top, Alexis.”
She laughed softly and then crawled off of me and gently pulled me over as she lay down on her back. I sat up on my knees, straddling her hips, and slowly ran my hand up under her t-shirt until I reached the swell of her ample breasts.
She lay very still, breathing quickly in the dark. I ran my thumb across her nipple and she whispered, “God, soldier boy, how do you do this to me?”
“I haven’t even started yet, babe. Just trust me and hang on for the ride.”
I smoothed my hand over her soft skin and marveled at how her stomach fluttered under my touch. Then I pushed her bra up and leaned down to take one of her juicy, plump nipples into my mouth. She arched into me and moaned loudly.
I left her breast to come up and kiss her face, her jaw, her throat. “It’s like popping a sweet cherry in my mouth,” I rasped at her before I headed back to that beautiful breast.
I loved women—their skin; their hair; their long, smooth legs; their round hips and asses. But I had to admit that I’d always been a breast man, and Alexis had, without a doubt, the finest pair I’d ever had the privilege of exploring. I licked all around her nipple first on one side and then the other, enjoying the sensation of their texture on my tongue.
“Gabe,” she gasped as I kept massaging and moved my mouth farther down her stomach.
“Mmmm,” I answered as best I could.
“I’m not going to last much longer. Oh! Jesus, that feels sooo good.”
I sat up. “I’m disabled here. Get your clothes off, will you?”
“Yeah.” She immediately went to work, causing me to chuckle.
“Shut up and get your damn pants off,” she grumbled.
“Man, I always knew you’d be a bossy one.”
I stood and struggled one handed with the buttons on my MultiCams, finally wrestling them down only to realize I still had my boots on.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“What?” she answered as I heard the sound of silk sliding over skin.
“Um, boots,” I managed to grind out, imagining those panties falling down her legs to the ground.
Her hand ran down my torso and I groaned. Next her tongue licked all the way down to the waistband of my boxers. Then I felt her tugging at the laces of one of my boots. I pulled my foot free and she licked all around my belly button. It took everything I had to hold still.
After I pulled my other foot out of its boot, I felt her tug on my boxers, and before I knew, it my dick was in her mouth and white noise was roaring through my head. She grasped the base and licked up one side before slowly, tortuously sliding it into her mouth. I felt her tongue circle around the tip as her cheeks pressed in while she sucked on me. My hand shot down to dig into her hair as I fought the instinct to grind against her.
“Alexis,” I gritted out.
She popped me out of her mouth but continued stroking up and down with her hand and licking from base to tip.
“God, ah, sweetheart, you’ve got to stop.” I could barely breathe, and I felt the telltale tingle in my spine warning me that things were going to explode any moment.
She gave one last stroke before she stood up, making sure to slide her entire body along my length as she came up. It was quite possibly the hottest thing I’d ever experienced. When she was standing again, with not an inch between us, I palmed the back of her head and crushed her lips to mine.
“I want you so fucking bad,” I chanted as I pressed hot, wet kisses to her cheeks and neck and shoulders. “So fucking bad. Never wanted anything this bad. Never.”
She was panting and moaning, and she went back to the hand job while she also reached around and grabbed my ass, pressing me to her hard. I kept kissing any patch of her skin I could get my mouth on and then lowered my hand from her head to the space between her legs. I took one finger and gently stroked along her hot, wet slit. She cried out, and I plunged my finger in, curving it to hit that perfect spot as I pressed in.
She threw her head back as her core clenched around my finger in wave after beautiful wave. “Ah, ah, ah, Gabe. Oh my God,” she panted.
As her tremors subsided and I felt her relax into me, I pulled my finger out and brought it to my mouth, loving the way she tasted, the way she smelled, the warmth that was always her. She leaned her head against my chest, still breathing hard.
“Come here,” I whispered. “I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”
I pulled her over to our favorite rock, covered it with one of the blankets, and sat down. She stood in front of me, her head tilted down toward my face.
“You won’t be on top,” she teased.
“Yeah, but I’ll be in control,” I quipped back at her, grinning even though I knew she couldn’t see my expression in the gloom.
“You’re impossible!”
“And I’m hard as this rock I’m sitting on. Get over here, will you?”
She paused for a minute. “Um, protection?”
Suddenly, everything south of the border went cold, which was not a good thing. “Shit,” I said, hearing the hollowness in my own voice.
“Guess you didn’t have that in the supply truck?”
I put my hand on her hip and rubbed little circles with my thumb. “They give us plenty of them. I usually keep one with me, not that there’s all sorts of opportunities. But this trip it was you. I’d promised you I’d behave. I was really committed to keeping my word.”
“That’s very sweet,” she said, running her fingers through my hair.
“Well, at the moment it seems very stupid.”
She chuckled. “You know what?”
“Huh?” I answered dejectedly.
“I’ve had a boyfriend for two years. I’ve got the birth control thing covered.”
“But you haven’t had pills with you here, have you?”
“No.” She was quiet for a minute, and I imagined if there had been more light I would have caught a blush. “I get a shot every month. God, do we have to talk about this?”
“Well if we’re really going to do it, I think we should be able to talk about it, don’t you?”
She paused, resting her hand on my hair before she started running her fingers across it again. “That was so mature, it didn’t sound a thing like you,” she said, disbelief oozing from her voice.
“Thanks. Love the vote of confidence.”
“I’m sorry, I mean, well, I don’t know. Maybe I should quit talking.”
“Look.” I wasn’t interested in her crisis of confidence right then. She was naked, about to sit on my lap, and even through all this bullshit, I was still hard. “I’ve never been with anyone without a condom. My guess is you’ve never been with anyone but college boy. You’re all amped up on some kind of damn anti-baby hormones. So if you want to do this, I think we’re safe.”
“Gabe?”
“Yeah?” Please let her say yes. Please let her say yes.
“I want to do this.”
Thank God. “Then come here,” I whispered, my heart rate climbing as I pulled her to me and she straddled my legs. She sat down on my lap, my hard-on pressed between us. I drew her face to me and kissed her gently.
“You’re so strong,” I told her, my voice rough with need. “I want you to know how much I respect you. I don’t express it very well, but you have my utter and complete respect, Alexis Garcia. And if you decide that you don’t feel right about this, all you have to do is say so. I want you to want this as much as I do.”
“I do. I want it so bad. I can’t even remember anyone else. It’s like this place and you have erased everything. All I can feel or think about is this, right here, right now. I don’t want to lose this. Please.”
Without another word, I slipped my hand under her thigh and lifted her up. She wrapped her hand around my shaft and lowered herself onto me. A hunger blossomed up from where we were joined until it reached my chest where it lodged so deep inside of me I knew right then and there I’d never be rid of it. That need would stay inside me forever. And the only thing that could satisfy it was her.
The next morning, I woke with Alexis naked, sprawled halfway across me, and the blazing pain of a gunshot wound throbbing through my arm. I knew things were bad when I actu
ally considered not trying to have sex with her because the arm hurt too much. But then she made one of those little kitten noises like she had the previous morning and rubbed her leg against mine, and I decided as long as I was conscious, there was no pain worth giving her up for.
I nuzzled her hair with my chin. “Hey, sleeping beauty. Time to wake up.”
She rubbed her face into my chest and slapped gently at my face. “Huh uh,” she groaned.
“Nah, come on, babe. The sun’s out, you’re naked, I’m naked, and we got nothing to do all damn day but get lucky.”
She lifted her head and looked me in the eye, her curly hair a matted mess hanging in her face like every morning. She squinted. “I’m starving,” she wailed as she put her head back down and started crying.
“Wait, what?” The sounds of her sobs and the dampness oozing all over my chest told me she wasn’t kidding. I was hungry too, but not to the point of tears. I didn’t think I’d ever be hungry to the point of tears.
“Shh, shh, shh. Alexis, honey? It’s all right, really. We’ve got more MREs, and you can have mine too. We’re going to get out of here soon, I promise.”
For some unfathomable reason, this only made her cry harder. Shit. I’d never dealt with a sobbing female. I walked away from sobbing females. But even if I could have walked away then, I never would have. Not when it was Alexis sobbing. I only wanted to make it better for her.
I sat up, bringing her with me as she continued to sniffle into my chest. “Hey, sweetheart, it’s okay. I’m going to get you something to eat. Hang on just a minute.”
I disentangled myself from her, and she sat huddled in a little ball, still sniffling to beat the band, her head down on her knees. I dug through the rucksack and found our last two MREs, some more cinnamon gum, and the second to the last bottle of water. I scooted back to her, stroked her hair, and commenced with the begging.
“Alexis? I’ve got some food here. Why don’t you eat this and I bet you’ll feel a lot better.”
“I hate those things,” she wailed with renewed vigor.
Camouflaged (Hiding From Love #0.5) Page 8