Meeting up with his unit outside, Scout slapped Mack on the back, “So are you guys looking to party on?”
Mack squeezed her hand, “Never.”
Scout scoffed, “What, you’re never gonna party again?”
“It’s up to the lady, I said ‘never’, what does she say?”
There was only one answer and it would confuse the hell out of their friends, “I’m sure.”
Mack
“So, this is really happening?” he drove her car off base to her nearby unit. About fucking time he got to see and play with what she had on under that skirt.
“Unless your monkey disappoints, and then I’ll have to hand you back to your unit for a refund.”
“Funny girl,” he’d never pulled into a driveway so quickly and hoped she was at least a little impressed at his smooth slide over the bonnet to open her door before she had the chance.
“So, you’ve got the girl back to her place, now what’s your move,” she teased.
“I don’t know,” as he jiggled the key to open her front door. He’d never previously been in this situation. “Usually, it’s been a drunken evening or a night of flirting that leads to ending up in bed. I’ve never … well I’ve never actually done it like this before.”
“I can’t drink because I’m on call, so you’ll have to pull out your plan B.”
“I don’t have one,” he shrugged, walking around the small bedsit. No room for a man in her place, but what about her life? “I mean, what does a guy usually have to do to take you to bed?”
“First, they need to give me a reason,” she handed him a beer and he noticed she had stocked his favourite even though she didn’t drink the stuff.
“Well, Miss Davies, I’m a soldier and at any time I could be called off to war and die.”
He loved her laugh, even more than her smile if that was possible. “Really, that’s your line – fuck a soldier before he dies!”
“When you put it like that,” he put down the half-finished beer to take her back in his arms. She had called his kisses “panty-removers,” now was the time to see if they really worked. “It sounds almost your patriotic duty.”
“But is it a good enough reason,” she asked, unbuttoning his shirt to reveal his camo singlet as they stood at the end of her bed. “I mean, if you’re about to go off and die, then why should I bother?”
“Because, Xanthe, there is no other woman in the world I want to see my monkey.”
He pushed her down onto the pale blue doona, loving how the soft down feathers cradled round her body. Where to start first? He knew that after dreaming of her nipple rings for months, once he saw them they would demand his full and undivided attention. They could wait a little longer. Reaching around, he undid her skirt as she released his pants.
“Impressive, but do you know how to use it?” He ignored her challenge as his kisses lead a trail up her inner thighs to the black lycra teddy.
“New?” He tensed, knowing the question was unreasonable but he needed to know that no other man had touched her wearing the lingerie, damn it he couldn’t stand the thought of anyone touching her before him.
“Would it matter?” she pushed his head away. “I get the protective, but not the possessive. If I tell you that I’ve worn this for every lover I’ve ever had, will you walk away?”
“Have you?” Seriously, he knew he was being unreasonable but she was doing his head in. He’d been honest about his jealous streak, even how it was the reason that one-night stands were easier for him than relationships because he had seen too many of his unit get the “dear John” letters.
“Does it matter?”
Those pale-green eyes that had drawn him in their first night looked for the truth without revealing hers. He hated the thought that they had ever softened for another man.
Xanthe or no Xanthe. His undeniable truth was that he wanted to be her only man for now and forever.
“The only thing that matters is that as long as we’re together, you never wear it for anyone else – male or female or both.” He held himself over her body in a one-handed push up. She’d never know how frigging difficult it was to hold straight on the soft bed but the only way he was going to play with the nipple rings was if he lifted her top.
“I bought it last week, for you,” her words soft music to his ears. “I kind of killed my credit card by replacing all my underwear and lingerie. Nothing will have memories other than you, if you’re ready for the challenge of working through them one,” she leant up to kiss him. “By one.”
“Fuck, I want you,” to hell with the nipple rings, one hand went low to open her as he tried to see how far she’d let his kisses could take them.
Xanthe
In the passion of the kissing, feeling his fingers tease her to the point of no return, she almost didn’t hear the on-call buzzer go off.
“Shit,” he rolled off and threw her the buzzer and her phone.
“I’ve gotta …”
“I get it.”
Xanthe tried not to look at Mack as she checked her message and called back. “Yes, it went through to message bank before I could pick up … absolutely, I’m at home but will be there in fifteen … fine … see you then.”
“Five more minutes, if only we had …” she pleaded with Mack for understanding.
“Speak for yourself, I want our first time to be like our first time sleeping together – all night and all the next day. What happened?”
“There’s a plane landing with a dozen injured. No details, but they want me there to help with the initial assessments and …”
“You don’t have to explain, at least not to me.” It wasn’t one of his panty-stripper kisses, but enough to show he understood. “Let’s get you dressed and back to work.”
Xanthe stood in front of him, wishing things were different when she removed her top, and then slowly dropped the teddy from over her shoulders, giving him his first look at her breasts wearing his gift.
“Next time, let’s spend less time watching movies, and focus on playing with these,” he said. She shivered as he twirled each ring with his tongue before expertly removing them.
“I’m gonna hold you to it,” she moaned, dropping the rest of the teddy and pulling herself away from his arms to get changed back into work clothes.
Luckily the base was close-by and he found a car park outside the clinic.
“So go off and save the half men,” he joked.
Xanthe couldn’t let his comment stand, “I judge a man on more than his wheelchair.”
“Then you’re a better person than me.”
Mack
He knew as soon as the words came out of his mouth it that it was a fucking stupid thing to say, and he didn’t even mean it.
How on earth could he tell her that the fear of every soldier, whether he admitted it or not, wasn’t dying but coming back half a man. Not dead, but not able to be a soldier again. Anything less than a soldier, unless he retired of old age, would make him half a man.
There would be no reason for him to live, they might as well send him off on a kamikaze run and do some good.
If Xanthe stuck around long enough, she’d understand and if she didn’t, well, he’d go back to one-night randoms and give up on the idea of ever being a one-woman man. Black teddy or no black teddy.
Given what Xanthe had said about the incoming injured, the call to report for duty the next morning didn’t really surprise him.
Captain Greenwood addressed the briefing. The unit was needed to uphold their reputation with an immediate surge and strike manoeuvre. An immediate communications black-out with no time for a last call home.
“Rule one,” the Captain, otherwise known as Rip shouted to end the briefing.
“REAPERS COME,” the shouted reply.
“Rule two,” even louder.
“REAPERS SEE,” they matched him and waited for the final rule.
“Rule three!”
“REAPERS CONQUOR.”
Reapers See
Xanthe
It shouldn’t be possible to be able to work seven days without a break, but all of the medical unit managed to do that whenever the call came. Of course, they all grabbed short “power naps” when they could on stretcher beds propped up in corridors and offices.
Whatever was happening overseas, they were seeing the raw impact back home. Most of the guys were transported to Kandahar for treatment, but when that was full, or when it was assessed that they should be bought back home, then they ended up back here. Sometimes, the risk of moving them to base was weighed up against the benefit of being closer to family and the services they’d need for long term recovery. Whatever they needed in the hope that one day they’d return to active service.
Xanthe saw it all, and spent as much of her time listening and waiting for these men she saw as heroes, to realize that life was still a precious gift and there was still one out there for them. In each of them, she could have seen her father, or Mack or one of any of Mack’s unit she knew as people not just patients. Each of these men were hers to care for, support and listen to. Whatever they needed. Writing up treatment plans and even working with the physio. Apparently, her massage therapy training was a blessing and not a curse. It gave her the opportunity to gain their trust, after all none of the soldiers knocked back a good massage.
Hours spent under her hands and they were willing to open up about anything, even the possibility of life after the Army.
Too busy to worry about her broken date with Mack, or even to check her phone to count his messages. Time for that later, after all he wanted a full night to experience their coming together! She sighed, too tired to raise a smile at the thought. One full night’s sleep in her own bed, would do wonders, if only she had the time.
“When was the last time you heard from Mack?” Charli grabbed her in a hallway rushing in between clients. Jodi’s ashen face hovered in the background.
“Seriously, I told you we’re taking it slow. You don’t have to worry about me,” she didn’t have time for this gossip or Charli’s jealousy. Not when the hospital was full and all she needed was a solid ten hours sleep. Scratch that, she’d love five hours of uninterrupted sleep in a nice dark place, preferably her own bed.
“Xanth, have you heard from him since the movies?”
“No, but I’ve been busy here. My phone charger’s at home and …”
“Xanthe, the unit left the day after the movies, there’s been a comms blackout for four days. You know what that means.”
“No,” she felt the icy chill start at her face and quickly cover her body.
“Xanth, word is that something went wrong, really wrong.”
Xanthe closed her eyes, squeezed them to try and not react. Yes, they’d been close, but really what was she to Mack. Certainly not a next of kin who’d be notified if something happened.
The words, “really wrong” reverberated in her head until the repeating words took the place of her breathing.
“Xanth, are you okay?” Charli called Jodi over. “Get her out of here and find someone who knows something, yeah?”
She didn’t fight Charli who found them an empty office and forced her to sit before getting a soda from small bar fridge. “Drink.”
Minutes seemed like hours while they waited for Jodi’s footsteps to return.
Xanthe watched Charli’s face slowly crumble, first listening to Jodi’s whispers before snatching a piece of paper from Jodi’s hands.
“What’s wrong?” Xanthe didn’t want to know but needed to. They came so close … she was still wearing his chain, she didn’t even take it off to shower. It was with her always, he was with her always.
“One dead, multiple injuries, they’re bringing the unit straight here.”
“Any names?”
“Need to know basis, and we don’t.”
Mack
The room was dark and silent when he woke. He expected pain somewhere, but that was for Petherick. Poor, dumb bastard was standing next to Mack when the …
He didn’t know how long he’d been out but this time he heard the whispered voices at the foot of his bed. “We can either operate on him here or get him home, I don’t think it will make any difference to his legs.”
There must have been someone else in the room, his legs were fine, if they weren’t he would have felt it.
The third time he woke to fight the straps being bound around him. Bastards, they couldn’t take him alive.
“Calm down soldier, we’re taking you home.”
He felt a warmth up his arm as the drowsiness overtook him, again.
He needed to scratch his leg, insects were crawling all over him and he needed to brush them off and stop the itching. All he could reach was a wooden chair leg, but why couldn’t he get past the wood and to his leg? Why were people lashing his arms to the bed?
Like a warm bath, he welcomed now familiar wooziness, and sleep.
“Lieutenant Mackenzie, can you hear me? We’re back home soldier, it’s time to wake up.”
This time, he wanted to open his eyes and join his unit. He couldn’t believe he’d slept through the flight, whatever the drugs pumping through his body, he’d have to flush them through with a good detox otherwise he’d never complete the track work and no one would trust him to spot their weight sessions.
“Mack, are you awake?” Captain Darby Greenwood grabbed his hand. “You had us worried, if you ever pull a stunt like that again,” Mack didn’t have to say anything about Petherick, he could tell by Rip’s face that he already knew.
“I couldn’t save him.”
“I know mate, we brought him back for his family.”
“Good, I couldn’t find him …”
“Mack, how much have they told you?” Rip was talking to him but his interest and gaze was for something or someone outside the room.
“Nothing much, they’ve kept me pretty much knocked out since … I can’t remember anything after Petherick …” the damn itching leg but still he couldn’t feel it with his fingers.
“Captain, stop him!” A young nurse knocked over a trolley on her way to grab his free hand from trying to find his leg. “You need to stop him from scratching, he is unresponsive to touch or pain below the waist, you need to stop him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing and he’ll make himself bleed again and the infection will get worse.”
Words failed him.
Rip already knew, the anguish on his face said it all and the stupid bitch was quickly pulled away by one of the magically appearing doctors.
Now that he was trying to look down, Mack could see his feet, but they might as well have belonged to someone else. Willing his toes to move, or to feel something – even the weight of the blanket.
Anything!
Move now, his inner voice screamed. C’mon you dumb son of a bitch. Move!
Damn it, he needed to get answers, find out who was in charge and how long it was going to take to get him back on his feet. Not only standing, but smashing his personal bests on and off the track.
“Lieutenant Mackenzie, the first thing you need to understand is that you are exceptionally lucky to be alive. You owe your life to your Captain here, and the other men that stabilized you until recovery came back for your unit. Our first priority was to keep you still until we could be sure the extent of any spinal damage.”
“Obviously my spines’ fucked, I can’t feel my legs. What did that nurse say – I’m useless from the waist down?” He made no attempt to hide the bitterness, focusing on the rotating blade of the ceiling fan. What would happen if it dislodged – how many people would the blades decapitate before it fell to the floor?
“Mack, listen to the doctor dude,” Rip shook him.
“I did, I’m fucked. Just amp up the meds and drop me over a cliff.”
“We’ve arrived back on base and I need to go and sort ou
t some paperwork and see the other guys off, but I’ll be back. We’re getting you to the hospital and we’ll get the Aussie medicos to have a look at you. Okay?”
“Whatever,” he rolled his head away wishing his body would follow him, but that was part of his problem. His arms could scratch and move, play the drums or learn guitar. But his hips wouldn’t even raise off the bed, and his legs ... Next to bloody useless.
“Go, be with the boys, do your duty with Beth Petherick and tell her I’m sorry. If I’d been standing half a metre over, Peth would be safe.”
“And you’d be dead, and that’s the fucked-up world of chance we live in.”
“Amen to that.”
Xanthe
Xanthe knew the boys had arrived on base. Families had been invited to meet them in private. The medical unit knew the broad extent of injuries on route, but names of the injured still hadn’t been put to the cases. Apparently there were still some next of kin that needed to be advised and until that happened, Army was keeping everything under wraps.
No one had ever seen anything like it.
“Miss Davies, can you come with me, please,” Doctor Hunter called her into his office and shut the door.
The trembling started with her arms and continued until her body was waiting for the words that he was still yet to say. If Mack was dead, surely they would have someone here with her, make sure she wasn’t alone to hear the news? They wouldn’t just dump it on her, even if they weren’t officially a couple, surely there was a protocol for telling her that the guy she had been almost dating was dead!
“Here,” Dr Hunter offered her a glass of water. “I understand that you and Lieutenant Mackenzie have become close.”
Xanthe nodded, sending up silent prayers for Mack and his family. Hell, they didn’t even know she existed!
Protect Her (Aussie Military Romance Book 2) Page 5