by Petrova, Em
“Before we came to the house, I had some news.”
She waited.
“Remember when we were talking about me going back to Syria?”
Her face paled, and she jerked away from his hold and into a sitting position. She dragged the sheet up over her nudity, and it hurt him to see how she shielded herself. He rubbed a hand over his face, wishing this was just a bad dream.
“When?” Her voice broke.
“Week’s end.”
Her mouth fell open. “Three days?”
He swallowed hard at the pain swirling inside his chest and nodded.
She rocketed out of bed, wrapping herself in the sheet. “When were you going to tell me? You brought me here knowing this information, yet you kept it from me?” Her voice pitched louder.
He got off the bed and tried to take her in his arms, but she refused to let him comfort her. Or maybe it was her way of saying he didn’t have her at all now that he was leaving. A burning took up residence in his gut.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you first, but I didn’t want this to feel like an end.”
“What did you want it to feel like?” Angry tears made her eyes sparkle.
He spread out his hands. “I wanted it to feel like a beginning.”
A sob left her, and he took her against his chest and rubbed her back, her hair, and kissed the spot between her streaming eyes. “I’m in love with you, Abigail. That isn’t going to change once I go.”
“Damn you, Gunner. You broke down all my walls and now you’re going to leave me vulnerable and bleeding!”
He felt like such an ass. How to fix this? He couldn’t let her walk away from him. He had to go to war knowing she was his.
“Do you love me, Abigail?” He kissed her earlobe, sending a shudder through her. When she didn’t answer, he kissed the corner of her mouth. “Do you love me?”
She shook in his hold.
He brushed his lips gently over hers. Once, twice.
“Yes, I love you, Gunner! Now take me, show me how much you love me and that you’ll come home to me!” She dropped the sheet, exposing her full nudity, her peaked nipples and wet pussy.
He picked her up and showed her just that, and for a very long time.
Chapter Nine
Abigail stared into her steaming coffee mug at the little mocha-colored heart shaped there by the barista and tried not to cry. Right now, Gunner’s unit was getting ready to deploy, and he’d be gone for months. A year maybe.
Or he may never return to her.
She bit her lip and fought off that thought before it could make her despair any worse.
Trina rested her hand atop Abigail’s. Her friend looked worried for her. “It’s going to be all right, Abigail. This is how all Army wives feel.”
“I’m not an Army wife.”
“Not yet, but you will be. Gunner’s in love with you, and you clearly love him enough to wait for him.”
She nodded and used her coffee stirrer to zig-zag through the heart in her coffee, breaking it into pieces. “I don’t know how I’ll live without him. We just met and now he’s being taken away from me.”
Trina patted her hand again, her eyes mirroring the sadness Abigail felt. She turned her hand upward and squeezed her friend’s. “You’re such an empathetic friend. Thank you for agreeing to have coffee with me.”
“Of course, and the Rise and Grind beats the Fox Hole. I’m glad you suggested it.” Trina took a sip of her caramel macchiato, and Abigail tried her cappuccino. The warmth and sweetness improved her mood slightly, and her tears receded for the moment. She’d cried what felt like floods already—enough to fill up Harper’s Pond.
“You’ll just have to keep busy. Find a hobby. Maybe start running with me?” Trina asked hopefully.
“Sure, I’d like that.” With a plan under her belt, she did feel better.
The door opened and closed, the bell giving a little jangle. She didn’t look up until a shadow fell over their table.
She blinked at the big, tall, firm body of Knox. He wore fatigues and seemed to be surprised to see her here, just as she was surprised to see him.
“Knox, hi.”
“Hi, Abigail. Care if I take a seat?”
She didn’t want him to believe she was being anything but friendly, but she nodded. He took a chair from the next table and spun it backward to straddle it.
“I thought I should say I’m sorry for what happened that day in the Fox Hole. I know it made you uncomfortable, and it wasn’t your fault at all.”
“I’m sorry if you thought I was leading you on, Knox. You’re a good guy, but…” She chewed her lip.
A hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his hard mouth. “But you’re in love with Gunner.” He nodded. “I get it. Sometimes life is funny—we know the course we’re set on even before we’ve had time to examine it closer.”
She nodded, knowing his words were spot-on.
“Some good came from his love triangle we started with,” Knox said.
“What’s that?” She searched his gaze.
“Gunner and I fixed our problems.”
She smiled, unable to stop the happiness about that from spreading through her heart. “I’m so glad. And just in time to go to Syria.”
He blinked. She saw right away that something was wrong. Trina saw it too, and she set her cup down a bit too hard.
“What is it, Knox?” Abigail asked, covering his hand with her own.
“Gunner hasn’t told you yet?”
Abigail felt like puking. “Told me what?” she cried.
“Our operation’s been pushed back.”
“What?” she breathed, unable to ingest what he was saying.
“We aren’t going to Syria this week. They’re telling us six months, as originally planned.”
She shot to her feet. She had to move, walk, run, fly to find Gunner.
“How long have you known?” she asked Knox.
“A few hours. I thought Gunner would have come to find you straightaway.”
She shook her head and found all of her was shaking as well. “He hasn’t. Where will I find him, Knox?”
He laughed. “Man, you’re as tough as my sergeant.”
She took him by the shoulders and shook him. “Tell me!”
Trina giggled at Abigail losing control.
“My guess is in front of the hospital. We were just cut loose for the day, and he’d come looking for you, wouldn’t he?”
Before the words were out of his mouth, she was running for the door. She pushed out into the warm air and hit the sidewalk at a dead run. The blocks between the hospital and the coffee shop were too long and too plentiful, but in what felt like a minute or two later, she spotted Gunner strolling toward the building.
“Gunner!” Her scream carried to him on the air currents, and he turned.
Her big, strong soldier, staring at her as if he could eat her up. She shot forward as he ran to her. When they collided in an embrace and a long, deep, passionate kiss, she never wanted this moment to end.
“I’m not going—”
“I know. Knox said—”
“Staying here and marrying you—”
“A thousand times yes!” She broke the kiss and their disjointed banter to look into his eyes.
He swept down on one knee and took her hands in his. She shivered with emotions coursing through her—he was really going to do this, propose right here on the street in front of the place where they’d met.
“Abigail,” he said in his deep tone, “I’ve loved you since the moment I set eyes on you, and that has only grown the past few weeks. I know it’s soon, but I know it’s right. Will you be my wife?”
Though she’d said yes already, the heaviness of the situation struck her, and tears overflowed. She squeezed his fingers and choked, “Yes, I’ll marry you, Gunner.”
A few catcalls and whoops from passersby, which they ignored as they hurled themselves together. When they finally brok
e apart, Gunner stared at her with a grin as big as the whole state of North Carolina.
“It’s a good thing you said yes, because it will make it easier for us when we go to the bank.”
“To the bank?” she echoed, confused.
He kissed the place between her brows where they must be furrowed. “To ask for a loan.”
“A loan for what, Gunner?”
“To buy the house on Harper’s Pond. My buddy’s getting stationed in Texas, and they have to sell fast. How do you feel about living on Harper’s Pond?”
“Oh my God, Gunner, are you serious?” She jumped into his arms, and he swung her around and around.
“Dreams do come true,” she said when he set her down.
He cupped her face. “For us, they do and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it stays that way. I love you, Abigail.”
“I love you, Gunner. Thank you for pushing me to go out with you.”
He laughed and lowered his mouth to hers. “I figured I was in good hands. If you broke my legs for being too forward, you’d have to set them.”
She playfully slapped him, and he caressed her ass cheek, where he’d last spanked her. Need rose up between them, and they agreed they needed to get off the street before they tore each other’s clothes off.
Hand-in-hand they walked back to her apartment, where they spent hours celebrating.
THE END
More in the Soldiers in Arms Series:
In Love and War
TOEING THE LINE
Allyson Lindt
Chapter One
Car exhaust and espresso—the scent combination was all wrong, but Zane found the familiarity comforting. It had been way too long. He scanned the cars passing the wooden shack, which was barely big enough for a coffee maker and a couple of employees. Where was Riley?
It was April, too early in the year for many people to be occupying the plastic benches surrounding the drive-up coffee shop. He grabbed their drinks from the barista, knowing what kind of coffee she’d want, and picked one of the empty tables, to set the cups down on.
He tapped his toes inside his shoes in time with the passing seconds. Why was he so on edge? Aside from the obvious answer of my past haunts my every waking and sleeping moment. He redirected his energy away from the psychological demons, to examine the thought.
It was as if the nervousness came from the anticipation of seeing Riley again. Which didn’t make any sense. Sure, he’d been deployed in the Air Force for the last six years, but they kept in touch, emailing, hanging out when he was on leave, chatting online whenever possible.
His body tensed, his nerves flaring to life at the rush of pleasant memories that replaced the bad. Chatting was a bit of an understatement. He’d barely been gone for a year, when their conversations changed. Got more intimate. Jesus. The things they’d said to each other, wrapped in excuses like we’re thousands of miles apart and it’s just two friends helping each other out. For the sake of their friendship he hoped those conversations wouldn’t come between them now, but that didn’t stop his fantasies from running rampant with images of stripping her down. Pinning her against the wall. Making her scream with pleasure…
He shook the vivid thoughts aside. The last thing he wanted was for this to cause a gaping rift between them when they were face to face.
His pocket vibrated, and he reached for his phone. Was she canceling? He wasn’t sure if that would be a relief or a disappointment. When he saw the messages, he rolled his eyes, his irritation surging. They weren’t from Riley.
Checking in.
How’s civilian life?
I’m in your part of the country. Meet me for coffee?
He glared at the phone. No matter how many times he told Sabrina he wasn’t interested; she kept trying to recruit him. The reminder sent a new brand of images speeding through his mind, along with a series of emotions he didn’t want. Guilt. Horror. Resignation. The thoughts tightened in his chest and danced in front of his eyes.
“Sexy love letters from your girlfriend?”
Riley’s voice came from behind and jolted him back to the now. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her slender frame pressing into his back when she hugged him. She was almost as tall as he was, but experience told him, she had to stand on tip-toe to do that. The familiar scent of cherry lip-gloss mingled with everything else and made it easier to stash his sins behind thoughts of her. Her soft curves molded to him and rested against his shoulder blades.
He smiled and concentrated on falling into the sensations of her. “Hey, stranger.”
Riley settled her forehead against his shoulder. “Hey, yourself. I’m not interrupting, am I?”
He forced himself to relax against her and get comfortable. Act the way he would have before he was deployed. He pocketed the phone. He could tell Sabrina no for the fiftieth time later.
“Not interrupting at all. I’m here for you.” He spun to face Riley, and couldn’t stop from tracing his gaze over her. Damn, she looked amazing—the way her long-sleeved T-shirt hugged round breasts, her blonde hair framing a pixie-like face and a teasing smile. “How have you been?” he asked.
“Not nearly as great as I am right now.” She locked her gaze on his, eyes bright blue and dancing with mischief. “I can’t believe you’re really back. For good. We have so much to catch up on. So much to do.”
His sex-starved imagination seized and taunted him with the concept of what they could be doing. When he pushed aside the mental images of tasting her cherry-flavored lips, they left an empty spot for a new tension to dive in. A pang clattered in his gut, bringing memories of what he’d left behind in the Air Force. That was one bit of catching up on that could wait until later. Or never. She didn’t need that kind of burden. He swallowed the response, not letting it show on his face. “What have you been up to?”
“This and that.” She turned her attention to the ground, fingers flying to the silver heart resting at the base of her throat.
She still had that thing? The realization warmed him. “That’s specific.”
She grabbed one of the cups from the table. “Is that for me?”
“Only if you still like caramel lattes.”
“Only if you need air, to breathe.” She kissed him on the cheek, took a long drink, and then dropped onto the bench across from him, fiddling with the paper sleeve on the cup.
“The last few years have been so good, you don’t even want to talk about them?” Apparently, he wasn’t the only one with secrets.
She met his gaze. “Wrong.” Her voice was a combination of finality and teasing. “You’re the one who dropped off the radar two years ago. You don’t get to waltz back into town, as if you were never gone, and interrogate me about my life without giving me details in return.”
He really wanted to avoid sharing details of where he’d been. He swallowed the bile rising in his throat. “What do you want to know?”
“Where are you staying?”
He could answer that question. “One of Archer’s spare rooms. He’s letting me have it cheap, until I find work.”
Riley’s expression shifted in an instant, as her furrowed brow melted into wide-eyed realization. “Really? And you’re still wondering what I was up to?”
“Yes.”
She gave a short laugh, but she didn’t sound amused. “I’m kind of surprised he didn’t mention it; that’s all. We… Um… I was staying there for a while too.”
Zane dropped his face into his hand, as the pieces clicked together. Riley and Archer, his two best friends, had a perpetual on-again, off-again relationship. “Funny how he didn’t think to bring that up when I told him I was meeting you. I thought you two were done.”
She shrugged. “We are, this time.”
“That’s what you said the last three times.”
“This is different from any other time.”
“How?”
“No. I answered your question. You answer mine. Give and take, right? Where di
d you go?”
Technically, nowhere. In truth, everywhere he hadn’t wanted to. “Afghanistan. Iran. North Korea. You already know that.” Her comment back then, when he gave her the basic details of his job, was I always thought Air Force equaled being some hotshot, flying fighter jets. You really get to hone your hacking skills instead? He’d told her it was called intelligence. Someone had to keep those hotshots safe in the air.
He should have stuck to doing exactly that. Guilt tried to worm its way back in, and he scrubbed it out.
She made a clucking sound with her tongue. “All of that happened before you dropped off the radar. Where have you been for the last two years?”
“How’s the drawing coming?” He snatched the first topic he could think of. Riley was a brilliant artist. She kept saying she wanted to go pro. Step up and teach at the community college at least. Maybe try to publish one of her graphic novels. While he was deployed, she talked him into sending her photos for reference shots—of him, of his Air Force buddies, all of it. He was happy to comply if it meant she took her art more seriously.
She twirled her cup on the table, watching him in irritation. “It’s good. Now that you’re back, you and your truck can model for me in person.”
He knew she’d come back to the original topic sooner or later, but he was grateful she didn’t push the issue now. “You drew my truck into your story?” It was an older model BMW 1602 he and Granddad converted into a truck when he was a teenager.
A hint of a smile crept back in. “It’s got character. I love your truck. Your granddad let me take pictures whenever he pulled it out of storage for maintenance.”
That made sense. Granddad adored Riley.
Silence fell between them. Their conversations had never been stilted. He needed to find something to bring things back to normal. Why did she have to hook up with Archer? Again? Not that Zane deserved a say in who Riley dated… And they never made him take sides, but it still made things awkward. “What else have you been up to?”
She clenched her jaw for the briefest of moments before her playful smirk returned. “There’s not a lot to tell. Kenzie landed herself a sexy rich guy—you got a wedding announcement, right?—so I took over her condo payments. I may buy the place from her.”