by Bex Dane
"It was. They extended my training three weeks because of Takoda."
"You could've called."
"I couldn't call. I told you before I left."
"Men have died during special ops quals before."
She really thought I'd get killed during selection? "There's been a few rare accidents, but the last seven weeks were child's play compared to the real thing."
"I made you a cake." She looked to where the cake had hit the mirror, but I'd cleaned up the mess while she was sleeping.
"You don't need to do that. All I need is you when I get back." I crawled into bed beside her. "I'm sorry you went through this. But you need to be strong for us. This is how it's gonna be. I'll leave and you won't know where I am or when I'll be back. You can't count on anything with the military."
"I grew up in the military."
"Then you know."
"I know sometimes you don't come back at all. Sometimes they bury you at Wilmington."
"Yes, sometimes they do. That could happen to us. We talked about it before we got married."
"It's just so real now."
Shit. This is what I was worried about. She's not going to be strong enough to handle the stress.
"What's your favorite kind of restaurant?"
"Italian. Why?"
"Tonight we're going out for Italian food. I'll get us a reservation at a place on the coast."
"I don't want to go out."
"I think it'll help. I'm asking you on a date." I kissed her cheek and she closed her eyes. "Let me court you."
"I don't know."
***
The candlelight at Brios flickered in her eyes. Her blue dress hung loose on her, but she looked beautiful.
"Eat, babe." She needed to put at least ten pounds back on.
"Did you make Delta?"
I glanced around to make sure no one was listening. "Shh. I can't tell you."
"You can't tell me? Why?"
"You weren't even supposed to know I was going through selection."
"Well, I did know. And I can guess you made it. They wouldn't have given you a dog otherwise. Congratulations. You trained hard. I'm sorry I didn't ask about it sooner."
I looked down at my empty plate, hating that I couldn't talk to her about this.
"When's your first mission?"
"I don't know. Could be weeks. Months. Days."
"Days? You'd leave again in days?"
"I could."
She gulped down her bite and slumped her shoulders forward. "Days?"
"I don't know. Please don't focus on that. I'm here now and we need to make the best of our time together. Now eat."
She feigned a smile and picked at her food.
"I want you to schedule an appointment with the psychiatrist the doctor referred you to."
"God, Rogan. Don't treat me like a basket case."
"I came home to find you curled up in the corner, covered in old food. Don't give me shit for being concerned about you. It's only going to get harder from here, so let's solve this now while we're together."
As I talked, her jaw hardened and the fire returned to her eyes. If anger brought that on, so be it. At least life had returned to her.
"All right." She placed her napkin over her plate and stood up. She chewed her lip and devoured me with her eyes. "Let's go home and work it out."
"Oh, really? You challenging me again?"
"No."
"Yes, you are. Challenge accepted." I paid the bill and grabbed her hand. I marched her out to my truck and cornered her against the passenger-side door. "You think sex will fix this? Make you brave?"
She didn't answer, just grabbed my neck and pulled me in for a kiss. My dick swelled and I pressed my front to her soft curves. My fingers trailed up her thigh and teased her thong. It had been too long. After having her whenever I wanted her, being away from her was torture.
"Here. Now," she said, breathless.
"Get in the truck." I opened the door for her and she scrambled inside. She turned to face me, spreading her legs. She moaned as I pulled her panties aside and attacked her with my mouth. God, sweet as candy. With her elbows back on the seat and her breasts pushed high in the air, she screamed as she came on my tongue.
I kissed up her belly to her chin. "You win round one." Because damn if she didn't seem stronger now.
"Round two. Now. Right here," she demanded.
"No. Taking you home. Sit up." She righted her dress and sat in her seat. "Buckle up. Ten minutes we'll be there."
She rubbed my dick through my pants the whole ride across town. As soon as we hit the drive, I was out of the truck and around her side, pulling her out. She wrapped her legs around me, and we kissed as I carried her up the steps and through the front door. Falcon wasn't home. I pressed her back to the wall, thinking I couldn't wait to get to the bedroom. Wait. For what I had planned for her, we needed the bed. I carried her to our room and dropped her on the bed.
"Hands and knees."
She eagerly turned and offered me her ass. I hadn't spanked her yet. The first month we were married I'd been too exhausted after training, we'd just fucked. Right now, she needed a good spanking to wake her up. And I knew she loved it.
Under her skirt, her royal-blue thong matched her dress. My palm cracked on her right ass cheek.
"Yes!" She lowered her head and raised her butt higher for me.
"Damn, woman."
I spanked her over and over with my palm until a nice rosy blush bloomed on her cheeks.
"More," she said. More?
In the closet, I grabbed the cherrywood paddle with a square tip that I used for whitewater rafting. "Brace yourself." I smacked her with the flat of the blade, giving her only moderate pressure.
She screamed and laughed. "Again. Harder."
"Fuck."
I increased my force, but only incrementally. I wanted to make her ass red and get her attention, but I didn't want to hurt her. She took five more thwacks before she grimaced.
"Alright, baby. You've had enough."
"More," she cried.
"No more. Hush…"
I rubbed her raw ass with my palms and licked it to soothe the burn.
"Roll over."
She turned to her back. I removed my pants and freed my dick. Pushing her knees up to her chest, I lined my cock up. "You feel me?"
"Yes, god."
"Your ass is on fire for me." With my tip in her entrance, I massaged from her thighs to her hips. Slowly, I sank into her.
"Home," she said.
"Yes, baby. I'm home." I pressed a soft kiss to her lips. Moving her legs up to my shoulders allowed me to sink in to the hilt. We rocked in a slow rhythm for a long while. I circled her clit with my fingers, teasing her to the edge and stopping. I felt it rising up in me from deep within my balls. She groaned out a loud orgasm and I grunted mine right after hers. We collapsed into a sweaty heap on the bed.
I rolled to my back, pulling her on top of me. My hands struggled to swipe the hair away from her face.
"You win round two," she said, laughing.
"I call a tie."
She snuggled into me and sighed.
"You like pain?" I asked her.
"I do."
"Pain is weakness leaving your body." I stroked my palm over her back, smoothing out her wild hair.
"I never thought of it that way."
"How'd you figure that out?" I asked her.
"What do you mean?"
"How did you know you like it? Someone teach you?"
"Um…"
"What?"
"Hector…" My arms tensed around her waist at the mention of the fireman's name. "We experimented. As friends."
"Right. Friends. You're my wife now." Hector the firefighter was no longer a threat. "No matter what happened between you two, you belong to me."
"Yes, Rogan. And you're mine."
"I am."
She looked up at me. "Do you like pain?"
"Love it. Means I'm getting
stronger."
"Do you want me to spank you?" she asked with a serious look on her face.
I let that humor roll through me. We needed it tonight. Her tits jiggled as my chest rumbled with my laugh. "No, babe. My line of work is almost constant pain. When I'm with you, I want soft and easy."
"I can do that."
"You gain some weight, we'll talk about exploring your enthusiasm for pain."
Her eyes widened. "Then go get me a chocolate malt and some chili cheese fries."
My laughter deepened to my gut, the whole bed shaking against the wall.
Chapter 11
Five weeks later
"I gotta fix the sheets."
Eden groaned and made her body heavy on top of me, trying to hold me down. "Stay."
She liked to fall asleep after we made love, not wanting to break the magnetic bond we created with the friction of our bodies rubbing together. But we'd made a mess of the bed, and I'd be up all night if I didn't take a minute to sort it.
"The sheets should be tucked before we sleep." I lifted her off me and settled her on her side of the bed.
"Who cares if we have military corners or not?" She propped up on her elbows and watched me tuck the corners.
"I do." I snapped the sheet over her head.
"We're just going to pull them out again." She threw the sheet off her.
"We put clothes on. Don't we?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"We put clothes on and take them off again. Doesn't mean we don't get dressed."
"That's not the same at all. You have to wear clothes. You don't have to tuck in the sheets."
"You don't have to wear clothes. You can walk around this house naked all day if you like."
"Might shock Falcon if I did that."
Blaze and Diesel had gone back to Boston, but we'd decided to stay with Falcon in Wilmington until we were given our first deployment date for Delta.
"He's seen you naked." Don't fight with me over the damn sheets, woman, because you will lose.
"Fuck you, Rogan."
"And you do. Every night. You fuck me good."
"Tuck in your stupid hospital corners and get back in bed. I'll fuck you again so they can come out again, then you can get up again and tuck them in again. Huge waste of time and energy."
I finished with the sheets and climbed in next to her. She turned her back on me with her pouty lips and a huff of air.
"Oh, you're mad now?"
"No."
"You are. You're mad I tucked in the sheets."
"No. I'm mad you fought dirty."
"I'm sorry." I kissed her neck but she brought her shoulder up to her ear to block me. "C'mon, babe. Let's make up."
"No."
"You're gonna make me work for it. Aren't you?"
My burner phone buzzed on the nightstand. I twisted behind us to grab it and rolled back into her.
A message in code from her dad.
Langley 0900 tomorrow ASU Brightman
I was to report to CIA headquarters at Langley in the morning wearing my Army service uniform for a meeting with the director of the CIA.
We'd be getting our orders for our first Delta Force mission. My heart beat fast in my chest. A new challenge at a whole new level of difficulty. What I lived for. Falcon and the rest of the team probably received the same message. I wanted to jump out of bed and run to Falcon's room. We could be headed back to the Stan, but Syria was becoming more of a hotbed.
Eden wiggled her hips, bringing me back to her. Oh yeah, we were pretending to fight so we could make up.
"Don't be cross, Violet." I trailed open-mouthed kisses up her spine, making loud, sucking noises. "Would you forgive me if I kissed you here?" I licked the sensitive spot behind her earlobe. "Or here?" She shivered when I moved her hair aside and nipped the nape of her neck. "Damn, you've got beautiful hair."
She sighed and lowered her shoulder, offering me full access to her delicate neck. With my arm around her waist, I pulled her snug in front of me, letting her feel my hard cock at her back. "You over your little stint about sheets?"
With a growl, I bit her neck and dug my teeth in. She hummed and opened her legs for me.
"She's over it." I worked my cock inside her, sinking into another taste of heaven. We'd talk about the message tomorrow after the meeting when I knew more. Not that I could tell her anything, but at least I'd know what I couldn't tell her.
***
Media photos of Marla Brightman always showed her with an evil scowl and more wrinkles than a Shar-pei, but in person the director of the CIA appeared softer, like someone's beloved aunt. When I shook her hand, I felt her strength beneath the surface. Marla Brightman was an iron tank. I had no problem taking orders from a woman. She'd proven herself over thirty years with the U.S. government to be shrewd and level-headed yet not afraid to call in force when needed, even if it garnered her a reputation as a ruthless killer.
We assembled by rank, Falcon to my left, Diesel, Blaze, Ruger, and Oz on my right. The new Alpha Squadron of Delta Force gathered in an official capacity for the first time. In the stark-white meeting hall of CIA headquarters, the collective skill and experience in the room humbled me. I felt honored to be included. Formal meetings like this always reconfirmed for me that the work we did on the ground four thousand miles away made an impact. Our actions trickled up the chain of command all the way to the director of the CIA. The President may have even personally approved this mission if the purpose was high profile enough.
"Congratulations on being selected, men. I have your first assignment. Hostage rescue." She clicked her computer, and an image of a man with gray hair appeared on the overhead screen. "Vadim Kovalev— an American citizen and Russian double agent, spying for us, posing as a Russian diplomat. Al Qaeda captured him six weeks ago. He's being held in Mosahi in a makeshift tent camp. The plan is to go in hot and take him out surgically before they contact the Russians and blow his cover." She switched the screen to an image of plans for the tent and flicked through aerial and ground level photos of the area.
We went over the intelligence data the CIA had gathered for two more hours. It was dangerous, but nothing we hadn't done a million times. If we had the right equipment and timing, we could get in and out fast. The sensitive issue was rescuing him before the Russians found him and killed him.
"You'll get your flight arrangements via the dark web connection. A jet will take you to Kabul International. You'll land on the military side, but the flight won't be recorded. You'll have air support based out of Bagram."
The perks of being Delta. Private jets and specialized helo pilots.
"When do we leave?" Falcon asked.
"Five days," Brightman answered.
"Good. The quicker we get there, the better," Falcon replied.
Now I had to tell Eden my departure date.
***
The candlelight flickered on Eden's face as she gave her order to the waiter at Brios. She offered him a genuine smile and kept it on her face as she turned her head back to me. I put that smile there. Seven weeks of regular, multiple orgasms and having her man at her back returned that smile to her face. My girl wanted her spankings so she'd been eating well. Her cleavage filled out her blue dress.
The waiter walked away after taking our orders. "That first night we met, you were showing off your tits."
"Was not." She gave me her innocent look, total bullshit.
"You were leaning over the table, pushing them together, bending extra low to clear the dishes."
She laughed. "It wasn't intentional."
"Sure it wasn't. What about the bar and your little darts display?"
"I found you incredibly sexy. I had to pull out all the stops."
"Wasn't necessary. I noticed you straight away when we walked into your parents' place. I saw your worldliness in the way you held your shoulders. You had this raspy voice. Made me think about how it would sound with my cock bobbing in your throat.
"
"Oh. Um. So, did it work?"
"God, yes."
"You looked so handsome in your slacks and starched dress shirt. You guys were stiff and nervous during dinner, acting all formal with my dad."
"Your dad has a hard-nosed reputation for a reason. We didn't know why he invited us to dinner. Thought we might be getting demoted for skirting protocol on our last deployment."
"And you got the recommendation instead?"
I nodded. "Four months since that night. Tonight's our anniversary."
"Happy anniversary."
"Never thought I'd get married." I smiled at her and gazed into her eyes.
"And are you happy?"
"Yep. Got a beautiful wife who loves me. Not as bad as I thought it would be."
I kept the news I was leaving to myself through dinner and chose instead to watch her eat. Once she knew, her content smile would fade, the worry would return to her face, and the weight of it all would rest on my shoulders.
"Got the orders today."
She set her fork on her plate and looked up at me. "When do you leave?"
"Five days."
"Five days? That's all we have? How long will you be gone?"
"No idea."
"You don't know? I mean what kind of mission is it? Where are they sending you?"
"I can't give you any information. Sorry."
"Will you be able to call?"
"Most likely no phone calls. If I end up at a base where communications are set up, I'll do everything I can to hear your voice."
"Kay."
She faked a smile, trying to play it cool, but the panic was building in the tense rise of her shoulders and the high pitch of her voice.
"Send messages using the secure email addresses I gave you. I'll check them when I have access. I might not be able to reply, but I should be able to read them at some point."
"Can I write you letters or something?"
"No. There's no address. Black op. Don't tell anyone anything."
"I won't. I know how to keep a secret."
"You've done great so far. Haven't caught you bragging to any of your friends."
"No. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize your career."
"Love you for that, babe."
"This sucks."
"Yeah, but you need to be strong. Enjoy your freedom. Sleep with the sheets untucked."
"I don't care about the sheets. I just want you."