by Mia Soto
They sat toward the back in the restaurant side by side at the intimate table. He had dragged her around to sit as close to him as possible in their chairs. They ordered drinks and let their fingers play with each other’s on the table. Every now and then he'd bring hers up to place a soft kiss on them.
“So,” he cleared his throat and gave her a tepid side long glance. She thought it was adorable how the cock sure giant had slowly lost his swagger with her over the week. It made him real – that he wanted to bat her over the head and make her obey but that he knew better than to try that by then. It meant he respected her. That she might not mind a little caveman behavior every now and then but not all the time and not to a level of disrespect. “I was thinking maybe I could take you to the shooting range this weekend.”
She frowned. “But I don't really like guns.”
He kissed her neck. “Yeah I figured. But it would make me feel better if you knew how to use one.”
“I don't even own one.”
“Yeah we probably need to rectify that.”
“Wait, why?” Her voice had the slightest touch of frantic.
His arm wrapped her waist warmly. “So you're safe when I'm not with you.”
She scooted closer almost onto his chair. He didn't seem to mind. “You're always with me. Lately.”
“Not come Monday.” He finally got to the nitty of what he was trying to say. “Orders came in. We're leav…” Her kiss cut him off. She had thrown herself into his arms forcefully. Denial was her only friend.
“No, I don't want to hear this.” She gazed intently at him.
His fingers caressed her jaw and the softest light shone in his eyes for her. “It won't change it.”
She shook her head. “No, not now. Not on my date.”
He kissed her firmly and agreed, “Ok Baby.”
They made chit chat ignoring the four hundred pound gorilla in the room. She couldn't think about it. She couldn't even fathom it. The most disturbing part was her reaction because it wasn't fun. It was terrifying. She wasn't cut out for this kind of life. Her hands kept touching him more than normal and she leaned over pretty often to kiss his cheek or rub her nose against his. She wasn't trying to test his self control but she knew she was because his responses were becoming more aggressive and less appropriate for public viewing. After his last one he finally said something.
“Baby, I don't like to see you like this. All worked up. It'll be ok. I know what I'm doing. You take care of yourself. Lock your Goddamn door.” His hand was softly caressing the low side of her bottom.
She put her chin on his shoulder and admitted, “I can't calm down. How long are you gone?” He shrugged his ignorance. “And I can’t call you or you me?”
“Believe me. That's going to kill me more than you.” She gave him a disbelieving look. “Trust me. The thought of you here alone. I'm going to go crazy. Especially since you have no sense of self awareness.”
“Hey!” She hit his shoulder.
He laughed and cupped her neck. “There's my Lycée.” Whatever look she had in her eyes for him it undid him because his next words were, “we're outta here.”
He carried her newlywed style through her door right to her room. Their lips never really left each other as they gently struggled their clothes away. When she was down to the lacy nude bra and panties he pushed her onto the bed to hover over her looking at her with such a state of intensity it brought a shiver. His torso was naked and dancing in the soft lamp light. The way his open pants hung at his lean hips brought a wave of heat to her like nothing she'd felt before. He covered her with his body and kissed a path to her breasts and then onward. Somehow she ended without any clothes except her spiky sandals. As he was removing his pants she went to unlaced her shoes but he reprimanded her gruffly.
“Leave them on.”
She stopped and gave him a sexy smile letting her legs balance on the heels bent sexily and open. He groaned and reached for the condoms in her bedside table.
“No, no condom.”
He stopped short and watched her intently before smiling. “You on something?”
“The shot.”
Then he was heavy between her legs pulling her arms up over her head like they both liked. Her body stretching long under him, her breasts lifting especially when he pushed home in a long hard thrust. She cried out. He was so good inside of her. Their hands entwined as he continued his push and pull. Her legs wrapped him as they normally did but something about her shoes rubbing seemed to egg him on. Soon she was gliding them up his thighs and bottom with each stoke. She could tell it was unraveling him.
“Baby are you almost there? I can't hold out much longer.”
“Yes,” she breathed as he hit her sweet spot a few more times. It only took a few more before she gasped a breathy release clutching him, his name a hard whisper on her lips. He kissed her then went for his release with a kind of brutally beautiful vengeance. She was almost at her peak again when he growled and collapsed on her. This was her favorite moment with him. Wrapping him up in her limbs and caressing him. He seemed to like it as much, if not more. She placed some soft kisses on his shoulder and neck then laughed softly, “that was good.”
His head lifted with a chuckle, “yeah. As usual.” His hand ran her body then came back to caress her face. “We're going to need to do that at least ten times a night for the next few days.”
She closed her eyes and smiled. “Deal.”
He made good on his promise and she was spent lying across him later that night. His arms held her tightly caressing her here and there.
“You’ll come back right?” She asked.
He lifted her chin so that he could look her in the eyes. “I’ll be back, Lycée. You take care of yourself.”
“You do the same.” She warned with a worried look.
“You know what? I’m pretty good at what I do.” He smiled down at her and she smiled back. He got serious. “I’ll be back for you. I've never meant anything more than I mean that.”
She smiled and kissed his chest over his heart and rested her head back down. “Good,” she said then realized she was ready for sleep so shifted to the pillow. Falling asleep on him was like sleeping on a brick wall. She met his eyes intently and said, “Because you’re a lot of fun. And I’ve never had more fun with anyone like I’ve had with you. I want to keep having fun.”
He nestled her deep into him and whispered, “I totally agree.”
Chapter 7
Time was passing and he was wondering if she was on her way. He told her specifically she better call him from the car and he would come out and walk her in from wherever she parked. Any other woman, any other woman and he would have gotten that call. He had no doubt. Lycée, he wasn’t so sure. She hadn’t exactly liked the tone in which he ordered her to call him. Then he’d cut her off with a final warning and hung up before she could make further argument. That she didn’t call back to continue the argument wasn’t a good sign as he was finally realizing.
“What’s wrong big guy?” Hawkeye slapped Ork on the back and fell heavily into a chair as he gulped deeply from his beer bottle.
Ork shrugged, “nothing, wondering where Lycée is.”
“Man I thought you said that was just fun,” Beehive laughed.
Ork scowled, “it is.”
“Doesn’t sound like just fun,” Doc laughed. “She’s got your number.”
“Shut up, Doc. No she doesn’t.”
“Oh yeah, you coming for poker night tomorrow?” Doc gave him a knowing grin. Truth was he didn’t even want to go to poker night. Spend a night in Lycée’s bed or drinking beer listening to his friends bitching about their women or complaining about domestic bliss or worse lecturing about how great all that was and how it was time he joined them. Yeah, he’d take Lycée’s bed over that about anytime. Still, it irked him how on the mark they all were. They knew each other too well.
“I haven’t decided.” He shifted uncomfortably under his lie
.
Beehive leaned forward with a wicked grin and said, “you tell her second Saturday night of the month is poker night. Don’t matter where we are. And she needs to get used to that.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” Ork mumbled. He looked up to see them looking back at him confused. He admitted a little sheepishly. “I think she’d get pissed if I said it like that.”
“Then so what? You tell her to deal.” Beehive continued.
“Yeah, that really doesn’t sound right.” He’d only been with her a week but given her reaction to his meddling with her door among other things he was pretty sure talking to her like that might possibly get him a black eye. He looked up again to see their bewildered faces.
Doc raised his beer and said to the other guys, “boys, lets’ drink to our dearly departed Ork. Because he is done for.” The others joined in the toast laughing wickedly.
“Ork, I never thought I’d see the day,” Beehive tilted his beer to Ork’s scowling face.
“Look it’s not like that. She doesn’t like when I get all macho and in her face like your women do. I changed her locks earlier this week and she’s still pissed.”
“You changed her locks? Why?” Hawkeye was giving him a curious once over.
“She had this flimsy thing on there. And some creep living across the hall who better stay the fuck away. So I changed them to give her some security. She didn’t like it. Not that it fucking matters because every night I get there she never has the damn thing locked anyway.”
“You been at her house every night?” Doc’s question was filled with astonishment as were the faces of the other guys.
Realizing they were realizing how far down the love rabbit hole Ork had fallen, he scowled and heavily pushed his chair away to look out into the crowd. As he did who should materialize in the doorway but Lycée. Goddamn, woman. He growled and shot up determined to give her a piece of his mind for not listening to him. Then she saw him as he was stalking toward her and gave him that smile she always gave him that melted his heart in two. Then he saw she had on a sexy white t shirt with tight little jeans and brown cowboy boots, and every guy in there was sizing her up making him proud and insanely jealous all at the same time but she still only had eyes for him. And any remaining anger crumbled. He gathered her in and kissed her fully and said quite gently after, “Baby why didn’t you call me like I asked?”
“It seemed silly. I’m only a few blocks away.” She ran her fingers along the short stubble on his neck.
His arms tightened. “But it’s dangerous around here. I don’t like you walking alone around here.”
“I did it last week.” She was infuriating on every level and he loved it.
“I didn’t know you last week.” He expected the argument to continue but she surprised him.
“Ok,” she nodded with a look he didn’t quite know how to read yet. Then she did that thing where she rubbed her nose against his and she could have taken him by the balls and led him right over a cliff and he would have gone. “Next time I’ll do what you ask.”
He didn’t know what to do with her acquiescence. He never expected it. So he cupped her face and kissed her gently once more as the crowd jostled them. “Let’s eat. I saw they have fish tacos and a few salads on the menu.” It had never even occurred to him to look for something like that on the menu before that night, but he wanted to know she had something to choose from or he would have taken her somewhere else. She widened her eyes with a smile and wrapped her arms around his waist for a warm hug. Fuck the guys. He didn’t care what they thought. When she was with him, everything was right.
They sat under the knowing smiles of the guys which he totally ignored. Drinks were ordered and he listened to her going on about work. He loved how she tucked her locks behind her ears and occasionally ran her hand through her hair. It would fall back in this soft curtain around her face. Sometimes he would help her by tucking one of the soft locks for her. She was still going on about work when he started to realize what she was saying.
“Wait, what?” His mind snapped to attention and out of the sexual fantasy he had been having about her.
“Brandt is trying to get me to go to Bora Bora with him. He's taking his new girl but says we have work and I need to go too. I don't know why we can't conference. He says the time is too different. It'll be easier if we're together. At least it’s next week. Help me keep my mind off things.” She turned to look at him and faded when she saw his look.
“You’re not going with that prick to Bora Bora.” Every hair on his body was at attention.
She seemed surprised. “Yeah, I said I’m trying to get out of it. But if I can’t at least it’s when you’ll be away too.”
“Fuck that. If you can’t get out of it, you quit.” He knew this was not the way to approach this battle with her but she had blindsided him. No fucking way she was going to Bora Bora with that shit. He’d been through Bora Bora once on his way back from a deployment. The only person she was going there with was him.
“I can’t quit. I need my job.”
“Don’t go there with him,” he warned.
She bit her lip angrily and looked away for a decently long time. He could tell she was trying to get her emotions under control. When she looked back she sighed heavily, “I don’t want to fight.”
He breathed a sigh of relief because he was damn sure that was where they were headed. She wasn’t one to take being ordered around. “Me either, Baby. But you can’t go there with him. Fake sickness. Let’s get you a different job. You say you want one.”
She looked down as he took her hand in his. “I do. It’s a lot of money to walk away from.” Her free fingers were rubbing the top of his hand.
He didn’t have any other arguments so he stuck with emotion, “please. Don’t go.”
She swallowed and gave him a wry look, “ok I won’t. I’ll figure a way out of it.”
When he visibly relaxed, she smiled. It seemed to make her happy that he was happy with her. She leaned over and rubbed her nose to his again basically killing him softly. “I’m going to go say hi to Ash.”
He looked over and saw that Ashley and Jennifer had walked in. So he nodded and let her go since she was within arm’s reach. When he finally looked away from her and back at the table again the guys all busted out laughing. Fuck it. He laughed too. She made him happy. He ordered a round for the table.
After awhile he decided that she was too far away from him so he got up and went to her to wrap her up in his arms. She melted into him and turned her face up to his so he planted his mouth on hers only intending a full but short kiss. But her tongue came out and her arm snaked up his body and around his neck and all bets were off. Then she turned in his arms and after a few moments he knew they were probably attracting a lot attention. He broke it and said against her mouth, “let’s go.” There was no fight over that.
There was no poker that weekend. He spent every free moment with her. He took her to the shooting range and promptly decided getting her a gun was a terrible idea after she pointed one at her face looking for the safety. Not to mention the fact that she couldn’t seem to hit the broadside of a barn with an elephant. He’d have to find another way of keeping her safe. He made good on his promise of making love to her an obscene amount of times.
Sunday came and he was so deep in love he felt sick to his stomach. He wondered how people survived the feeling or was this love so much more special than ordinary love? They were lying pressed together touching and kissing. He kissed her gently loving how soft her lips were underneath his. They moved so well with his always following his lead. She seemed perfectly content to let him lead in this area. Her mouth broke from his to kiss his jawline. The feel of her naked in his arms had every protective instinct buzzing inside of him. He said quietly, “we should probably sleep.”
“I don't want to.” She nestled deeper into him finding her spot. Everything about her fit him so well.
“Me either, Baby. But w
e need to.” He folded her in, their bodies seared the length of each other.
“I love how soft I am next to you.” She whispered and his hand ran over her bottom to press her closer. “How am I going to sleep without you?”
He was wondering the exact same thing. Had it only been a week since he met her? He held her until she fell asleep that night.
It was so easy being with her, even when she was driving him totally out of his mind. In fact, that made her that much more intriguing. Sometimes he couldn’t relate to the relationships his friends were in. Their women never seemed to question them at all or push them or challenged them. He couldn’t relate to that type of relationship, not that there was anything wrong with it. But that sort of thing, having been the primary example of what a relationship was for a military man, particularly ones as Alpha as he and his buddies, it hadn’t been enough for him to want the same for himself, until now.
If anything, she was calling the shots and maybe he liked that for once. There was something terrifically infuriating that the one person he wanted to listen to him didn’t seem to listen to anybody, especially him. He thought about some of her more careless behavior. No, he needed her to listen a little if they were going to continue but he’d seen signs over the weekend that she could be docile. That was all he needed, her willingness to listen to reason.
She whispered something in her sleep and he smiled and kissed the top of her head. He tried to roll away from her to spare her the force of his body heat but she whimpered a little so he stayed put. He wanted to hold her anyway. He finally forced himself to sleep for a few hours holding her tightly trying to forget how tortuous it was going to be being away from her.
Chapter 8
She was so exhausted that she didn’t even feel him ease out of bed at his early morning hour. It was only his soft caress of her hair that woke her. She rustled awake to find him kneeling by her side smiling down at her. She smiled sleepily and stretched a little before jerking up. Her mind came fully awake and realized why he wasn’t just kissing her in her sleep and whispering he’d see her later. She gave a little cry and wrapped her arms around his neck. He obliged her by folding her into his arms so tightly she thought she might pop. When he let her go she settled back onto her pillow under his caress on her hair. She was biting her lip and she knew she looked worried. He didn’t look much better.