Joe could see no sign of his wife anywhere and he quietly set down his equipment on the floor, leaning his weapon against a canvas wall. Straightening up, he stretched the stiffness from shoulder and neck muscles and felt a sense of lightness at having removed his body armor and helmet.
Looking around again, he finally observed Katie through the mosquito netting hanging across the entrance to a small tent adjoining the one in which he was presently standing. She had her back to him, doing something to her hair.
Smiling slightly, Joe stood studying her for a minute or two, feeling a warm sense of anticipation that he would be near her once he made the short journey across into the adjoining tent.
Joe had been trying to get to see Katie since arriving at the FOB two days ago but each time he completed one task, be it a briefing with the six members of the ANA in the compound, radio conference meetings with the USMC Command back at Base Independence or attending planning and strategy mission meetings, he found that there was always something else that needed to be done, taking up his time. In addition, he had also pulled guard duties in the towers and had only been able to catch a few hours’ sleep over the last forty-eight. Finally annoyed and frustrated at the lack of opportunity to see Katie, he had scheduled further meetings for a later time and now had four hours free to spend with his wife before he had to report for more guard duty. He was hoping that his absence would go unnoticed and that nobody would come searching for him.
Joe moved quietly toward the small tent and on reaching the entrance, gently pulled back the netting so he wouldn’t startle Katie, who hadn’t noticed he was there. He stepped inside the small sleeping quarters, letting the netting drop behind him and stood still, folding his arms, admiring the tall, slim figure of the woman in front of him. She had obviously just come from a shower because her hair was wet and she was drying it with a towel.
In the dim light from a second chemlamp that stood on a locker, Joe’s eyes feasted on her long, slim but muscular legs and tanned arms and shoulders. She was wearing tight cycle shorts and a white strappy T-shirt and also the pink fluffy elephant slippers he recognized from her last deployment, now a little worse for wear. She was swaying and shimmying to some hidden music and with his grin widening, he saw that she had the earphones of her iPod inserted in her ears and was completely oblivious to his presence and his hungry stare.
Joe, watching the way her hips moved and the way she swayed with a natural sexiness, felt a pleasurable ache start in his groin. An image of their night at the Marine ball, when they had left early to sneak out into the grounds of the hotel to make passionate love in a grove of trees, entered his mind and he wondered at Katie’s power to turn him on so quickly whenever he was in her presence. He had an almost insane urge to grab her, kiss her hard and hungrily, then make love to her on the camp bed.
That had not been his intention when he’d decided to visit her. He’d just wanted to make sure that she and the baby were all right because he’d made up his mind that at the first sign that she or their unborn child were suffering any ill effects from her deployment then—even if it was against her will—he would send her home.
Katie vigorously dried her curly hair with a towel, music blaring in her ears, for the first time in months feeling a sense of calm happiness, feelings that she thought she would never feel again. Now, even though it was late, midnight tipping over into the early hours of the morning and she should be feeling exhausted from the work she had been doing over the last two days, she felt energized. The music filled her ears. She couldn’t help but move to it, loving the heavy beat—and the fact that she wasn’t feeling nauseous and she felt loved and wanted by Joe.
Having finished taking most of the moisture out of her hair, she fluffed up the curls and then turned to throw the damp towel onto the end of her bed. It was then she saw the man standing inside her tent and for a split second her heart jumped in her chest and she felt a sick feeling of fear. In the next instance she recognized Joe and sagged with relief.
“What are you doing here?” she asked in a soft voice, mindful that in the silence of the desert and the FOB, sound carried. “You nearly scared the living daylights out of me.”
“Admiring my sexy wife,” Joe replied.
Katie raised her eyebrows, “Oh?” she queried in a teasing tone.
“Yeah, oh,” Joe continued, “C’mere, wife.”
Katie hesitated, the prospect of being in his arms in a few short seconds making her tingle with anticipation. She sauntered slowly toward him, feeling her heart beating unsteadily, her eyes on his face, recognizing the expression on it.
She took in his stubble-lined jaw, his tanned face and arms, and the way his khaki T-shirt outlined the muscles of his chest and stomach and she shivered inwardly with sexual excitement. Aware of the electrically charged atmosphere building between them, she stopped just out of his reach.
“You’re teasing me,” Joe announced and, reaching out for her, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her toward him. When she was close enough, he put his arms fully around her.
“I’ve missed you,” he announced. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to get to see you sooner.”
“You’re here now,” Katie said gently. “That’s what counts.”
“How have you been?” Joe asked. “You and the baby?”
Katie rubbed the palms of her hands up and down his arms. “We’re fine,” she replied, “but you look tired.”
“Briefings, planning and guard duties,” Joe answered briefly. “The mission coming up is going to be hell.”
“That bad?” Katie asked frowning. “Are you worried about it? Because if you are, then it must be a bad one.”
Joe sighed. “You can never trust in anything out here,” he replied. “No matter how well you plan things, something can always go wrong. Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about the damn mission.”
Katie tilted her head back. “So what did you come here for, Staff Sergeant?” she asked.
Joe grinned, remaining silent.
Katie laughed. “Are you flirting with a lower rank?”
She snuggled closer to him, pressing her body against his, the palms of her hands flat against his back, feeling the play of his muscles as he moved and gently rubbing her hands across them, wishing she could feel the warmth of his skin.
Joe withdrew his arms from around her and slowly ran his hands down each side of her body, ending at her hips before drawing them inward to rest on her stomach. She shivered and her stomach muscles quivered as Joe gently began to knead her lower stomach, moving them downward, lower and lower.
She sagged, feeling hypnotized at the slow, exquisite circling motion of his thumbs, moving tantalizingly millimeter by millimeter to the place that was crying out to be satisfied.
“Nope,” Joe responded at last, keeping up the movement. “I’m just flirting with my beautiful woman.”
With this last remark, he lowered his head and gently kissed her.
At the touch of his mouth, Katie parted her lips and closed her eyes. The kiss was gentle at first and she sank into the sensual searching contact, then the kiss deepened and she put her arms up around Joe’s neck. She pressed herself closer to his warm body, sandwiching his hands between them, the touch of their bodies increasing the pressure of his thumbs against her abdomen. He kissed her harder and with increasing passion, Katie moaning softly, grinding her hips against his, feeling his hardness and relishing the way it pushed against her lower extremities.
At last, Joe pulled his mouth away from hers and withdrawing his hands from between them, cupped her face. “Christ, you turn me on so much,” he said.
“Are you going to stay with me for a bit?” Katie asked hopefully, her voice breathless, running her fingers through his short hair.
“I go back on guard duty at 0400 hours,” he answered then glanced at his watch. “You have me for three and one half hours. What do you have in mind?”
Katie offered him a smile, stepped bac
k, and took his hand. Turning, she led him to her camp bed and gestured to it.
“Make yourself comfortable,” she said.
Joe sat down on the bed, swung his legs up and moved to the far side, lying down and resting his head on his hand, watching her as she too sat, then lay, down beside him.
There was a small silence as they stared at each other, not yet touching.
“You are such a bad influence on me, Katie Anderson,” Joe suddenly said with a hint of seriousness in his voice.
“Really?” Katie asked teasingly, “How’s that?” She put the palm of her hand on his chest, resting it there.
Joe glanced down at it then back up at her.
“I should be setting an example,” he replied. “Not seducing a female on the FOB.”
“Aaahhh, but I’m not just any female,” Katie murmured. “I’m your wife and, as my husband, you are well within your rights to demand your conjugal rights, any time and any place, and who am I to argue?”
She began to rub his chest in slow circular motions.
“Conjugal rights?” Joe responded, grinning. “Is that what it’s called?”
Katie slid across the bed, closer to him.
“You can call it what you like,” she said, a gurgle of laughter in her voice. “I have a few names for it and not all of them are polite.”
Joe raised an eyebrow. “Enlighten me,” he urged.
Katie turned onto her side facing him, propping her head on her hand. For a moment, she stared at him, licking her lips.
Leaning forward and stopping with her face inches from his, she murmured, “What would you say…if I told you that I love you so very much?”
She continued to move her face slowly toward his then closer still until their lips were touching. As he moved to deepen the kiss, she drew back away from him.
“Go on,” he said, his eyes staring intently into hers.
Katie moved her body even closer. “What would you say if I told you that I can’t wait for you to kiss me again and that your kisses turn me on?”
Her voice sounded husky and low and she moved her mouth back to his and this time parted her lips, making the kiss longer and deeper.
Joe put a hand on her waist, preparing to pull her toward him, but for a third time, Katie drew back.
She stared silently into his blue eyes—which had grown darker—and for a few minutes studied his face, at the twisted line of the scar marring his tanned cheek and the small smile playing about his mouth.
Licking her lips again with the tip of her tongue she asked, “What would you say if I told you that I wanted you to…fuck me?” and this time, when her mouth met his, it was hot and eager.
Joe groaned slightly and tugged her body toward his, pressing his groin against hers so that she could feel the hardness of his cock.
Katie fell back onto the bed, her hands going up behind his head to pull it down so that his mouth pressed forcefully against hers. He ran his hands up and down her body, his touch sending electric shocks up to her nipples and down to the cleft between her legs.
She felt his warm, rough palm run up the smoothness of her leg and on to the hem of her T-shirt, where he pushed it almost roughly above her breasts. She watched as he stared at them, then, bending forward, he kissed her stomach with a feather-light touch, before licking a swirling trail teasingly and slowly to the valley between her breasts. He paused there before his mouth moved to her right breast, his tongue creating slow circles around her nipple until he almost savagely took the hard bud in his mouth.
Katie clutched his hair and arched her back, tossing her head from side to side at the exquisite sensations coursing through her body. The almost teasing touch of the tip of his tongue on her nipple made her want to savagely grasp his cock and guide it to the place that was wet and aching for his penetration.
She eventually wrenched her mouth away from his and said almost pleadingly, “Make love to me, Joe.”
Gazing down at her, his breathing rapid and uneven, Joe asked, “Are you sure? Won’t I hurt the baby?”
Katie shook her head, slightly amused. “No, you won’t hurt the baby. Just don’t get carried away. Okay?”
Pressing his rock-hard penis against her leg so that she could feel it, he smiled, “I’ll try not to,” he said.
“In that case…” Katie gently ran her hand down his chest, over the waistband of his combat trousers and rubbed the palm of her hand against his cock. “Don’t wait on my account.”
Moaning, Joe began kissing her again. He gently teased her nipple with the tips of his fingers and Katie arched her back and moaned as the feelings inside her body soared to a new intensity.
“Joe,” Katie whispered, “Please.”
She moved her hands down to his combats then quickly unzipped him, pulling the cloth away to release him. She grasped the hot length of his dick to gently rub it, alternating the pressure of her hand from light to firm. She lifted her own hips so he could pull down her shorts and when they were almost down, she kicked them off.
Joe was instantly between her legs, resting on his elbows so that his full weight was off her body. Staring into his eyes, Katie reached a hand down between them to grasp the hard, hot length of him, then guided him close to her until he glided smoothly and silkily inside her.
Sensing intuitively that he was on the verge of losing control, she began to move her hips slowly and gently, wanting him to orgasm deep inside her, to feel the power and strength of him.
“Katie, I can’t…” Joe began.
“Love me, Joe,” Katie whispered, “Fuck me hard. Please.”
As he moved inside her, Katie immediately felt the exquisite sensation of her orgasm soar outward and upward. She arched her back and her neck, biting her lip to stop the moans that wanted to spill from her lips. She dug her nails into Joe’s back through his T-shirt, her internal muscles tightened on his cock with the spasms of her climax and she felt Joe let his control go as, with a final thrust, he came, his body shuddering with the force of it.
Katie closed her eyes and clutched Joe’s body as though he was a lifeline that if she let go of she would float away. Her heart was thundering in her chest and Joe’s body trembled with reaction to their lovemaking.
It hit her with the force of a hammer that this man was her world and if something happened to him and she lost him then life would not be worth living. She opened her eyes and found Joe staring down at her.
He brushed the damp curls from her forehead and smiled. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked gently.
Katie shook her head. “No,” she answered. “Joe, I love you so much.”
Joe gently kissed her mouth. “I love you too. You, Josie and the little one are my life. All I want to do is protect you, get this mission over and done with and take you home.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful,” Katie announced, “I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, if you were taken away from me.”
She suddenly felt filled with sudden panic. “Please promise me that you’ll stay safe, that nothing will happen to you.”
Rolling off her, Joe pulled the crumpled sleeping bag up over their nakedness then took her in his arms, running his hand gently across her hair.
“Katie, I can’t promise you that. You know I can’t.”
Pressing her face against his shoulder, Katie shuddered with the force of the fear that was gripping her for no apparent reason.
“You have to promise me, Joe. I need you to tell me so that I can get through each day.”
Joe tried to lift her face up to his but she resisted and eventually he said firmly, “Look at me, Katie.”
Reluctantly, Katie raised her face.
“I promise you that I will do my utmost to stay safe,” he said softly. “That’s about the best I can promise.”
Katie nodded, “That will have to do,” she murmured.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, “What brought all this on?”
Katie shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I think I’m just tired or maybe it’s hormones.” She managed a small smile.
“C’mere,” Joe said and pulled her toward him so he could hold her tight. “Nothing is going to happen to me. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to get rid of an old marine like me. There’s too much shit left to deal with.”
Katie relaxed against him, loving the warmth of his body against hers. She nuzzled his chest and sighed in contentment.
“I want to go home,” she whispered, “so we can have a life together with Josie and this baby.”
“I know, honey. A few more weeks and we can kick this place in the teeth and leave. I will promise you that.”
For the remainder of his time with her, Joe held his wife, talking to her quietly, attempting to reassure her and allay her fears that he thought were unfounded until eventually he glanced at his watch.
“I need to get going,” he announced.
He felt Katie stiffen and heard her sigh.
“Okay,” she agreed in a small voice.
As Joe rose from the camp bed, Katie pulled on her shorts then sat and waited for him to do up his combat trousers. Once he had finished, he stood and stared down at her. Reluctantly he said, “I’m sorry to do this to you, honey, but I’m out on patrol tomorrow, a coupla days.”
He watched as Katie raised her eyes to his, anxiety materializing on her face again. “Patrol?” she queried.
“Yeah, but I’ll be fine. Come here.”
Katie rose from the bed and moved toward him, walking straight into his arms.
“Be careful,” she murmured, eyes roaming over his face.
Joe kissed her mouth. “I will,” he answered.
He stepped away from her and walked backward a few paces, his gaze still on her. On reaching the exit to her sleeping quarters, disappeared out into the medical tent.
Katie stood staring at the empty place where he had been standing, then sat down on the edge of her camp bed and bowed her head, knowing that the next forty-eight hours were going to be hell.
A Fallen Hero Page 23