Casualties of Love

by Denise Riley

  But, Jessica was smart, confident, and kind. She was more than pretty. He thought she was perfect. So, when she reached out to hug him, Tyson held her close. As the hug lingered, and her soft body sank into his hard frame, Tyson felt a tingle skitter down his spine, a sudden awareness of how good she felt in his arms and that he didn’t want to let her go.

  He pulled back but kept his hands on Jessica’s hips. She looked up and seemingly on impulse, stretched upward to place a kiss on his mouth. The first touch was light, innocent. Just as he would have retreated, thinking it one of her friendly gestures, Jessica’s hands rubbed up the back of his head and Tyson went stone still. He couldn’t move away. Instead, he tightened his hold on her and really kissed her. Tyson, inordinately please that the gesture wasn’t considered unwelcomed, teased Jessica’s mouth open for a taste of her. She tasted like the sweetest treat and all he could think was that he wanted so much more.

  Tyson’s tongue slid along Jessica’s, and he heard her moan softly. He licked at her tongue, sucked on it, and then nibbled at her plush lips. His hands instinctively moved down from her lower back to grasp her firm buttocks. Jessica let out a soft whimper and he had the urge to grind into her. He was about to flip her back to the wall, when he remembered that they were out in the hall and anyone might find them there. He pulled back. They were both breathing heavily.

  “We have to stop,” he said. He released her and stepped back to a more respectable distance just as a door opened and other cadets stepped into the corridor.

  “Why, because we’re friends? Or, is there someone else?”

  “No, not that. Neither of those. It’s because we’re in the hall.”

  Jessica looked around as if she had not realized where they were. She nodded in understanding. But instead of backing farther away, she took a step closer.

  “Stay,” she said looking up at him. “Come inside and stay.”

  Tyson couldn’t have turned away even if he’d remotely wanted to and he absolutely didn’t want to. They went into her room and she locked the door behind her. Jessica stood at the door with her hand on the knob behind her. They watched each other for a few seconds, before Jessica looked away. Tyson stalked over to her. He stopped just in front of Jessica and waited her to look up at him. When she did, he put a palm to her face and leaned in to kiss her. He stopped short, though.

  “Jessica, are you sure about this?”

  “I’ve wanted to kiss you for months,” she said breathlessly.

  “Yeah?”

  “Yes. I’m nervous, but I want to kiss you now. I’m sure.”

  Tyson followed through with his kiss. It started slowly, but quickly built up steam. He was soon grabbing at her clothes and she was pulling at his. Shoes were kicked off. Shirts were discarded along with dusty pants and sweaty socks. Jessica paused.

  “We smell,” Jessica said and they both laughed.

  “Take a shower with me,” Tyson whispered. His lips were hovering over hers.

  “Really?” she asked. Her shining eyes were blinking up at him.

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve never done that before,” Jessica admitted to him.

  “Do it with me,” Tyson said in a low voice.

  Jessica agreed and they quietly went into the bathroom that was situated between her room and the suite on the other side. She locked the opposite door from the inside so that the cadets in the other room couldn’t interrupt their need for privacy. She would release the lock when then vacated the shared bath.

  In the shower, Jessica was shy again. Initially, it seemed that she didn’t want to face Tyson and stood as far away as the tiny shower would allow. But, Tyson coaxed her around and closer to him. Soon, she relaxed as they kissed and touched and stroked each other beneath the streams of steaming water. He poured the lavender body wash she used in his hand and smoothed it over her slick, wet skin.

  She had a gorgeous body. Jessica was long and lean, tall for a woman. Her chin nearly reached his shoulders and he was a big guy, almost four inches over six feet. Her arms and legs were toned, but feminine and graceful. Her stomach was as flat as a board and it made the sexy curves of her breasts and hips supremely enticing. Watching the suds form on her skin and the water from the shower travel over her hills and valleys was mesmerizing. Tyson followed the path of many of the droplets, observing how they disappeared into secret places he wanted to explore.

  Without thinking about it, Tyson had Jessica pressed against the shower wall with his raging erection locked between the two of them. He plundered her mouth, drinking her in, drowning in her. When Jessica whimpered into his mouth, he fought for the control to slow down. He didn’t want to go too fast, didn’t want to scare her. He wanted to take his time with Jessica. So, he pulled back, softening the kisses and the caresses until they finished washing and left the bathroom.

  Back in her room he lay down on the small bed with Jessica. He rolled her beneath him and kissed her until they were both breathless. Her body was quivering and his was tense with the need to be inside her. He looked down at her. She had taken her hair out of its long, tidy braid and her thick, dark tresses were haphazardly spread across the stark-white, military-issue pillowcase. Her lips were puffy from his kisses and her milk chocolate cheeks were flushed. Glassy nutmeg and gold eyes gazed up at him beneath heavy lids that were framed by long lashes still spiked from the shower. She looked amazing.

  “You’re beautiful, Jessica.”

  Jessica put her palms on his face and said, “So are you.”

  He grinned at her assessment and kissed her quickly.

  “Yeah. Nobody else if ever going to say that to my face,” he said.

  “It’s true.” She brushed her hand over his hair. Then, Jessica was quiet for a bit before she said, “I need to tell you something.”

  Tyson went still in his nibbling at the side of her neck. He had no clue what she might want to say.

  “Ok. What?”

  “I’ve only done this once before. I’m not a virgin, but I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

  Leveling himself up again, Tyson smiled down at her. She was so different from the other girls he knew. None of the girls he’d dated would have admitted any such thing to him. They probably would have bluffed their way through it. Or, more likely, he thought, they would have pretended total innocence.

  “There’s nothing to know, Jess.” He brushed her hair back and kissed her softly. “It’s my job to make sure you enjoy me, and I promise I will enjoy you.”

  Tyson was far from virginal. He wasn’t a total dog, but he had been with quite a few females. This felt different, though. Jessica was different. So, he wanted to be different with her. He wanted her to know it was special and to want it as much as he did, so he proceeded to show her just how good it could be.

  He touched every inch of her, dragging the scent of her into his lungs at each stop along her luscious landscape. He sucked at the soft skin of her neck and nibbled on her shoulders. He palmed her firm breasts, loving how the ample mounds fit into his large hands. He tweaked her nipples, licked around the dark tips, and then licked a path between them. Each tender peak budded up nice and tight for him and Tyson couldn’t resist the temptation to suck them deep into his wet mouth. He rolled his tongue over the stiffened points until Jessica was moaning and clutching his shoulders. Tyson moved his hand down her belly. He traced the path right down the center of her body to touch her warm core. The moisture he found there nearly sent him over the edge. She was wet for him, slick with her own need, and it thrilled him.

  Tyson took his time stroking her sensitive flesh. He dipped his fingers into her moist channel and then slid the wet digits over her swollen nub. Jessica gasped and pressed her thighs together around his probing hand. He captured her lips in another long, drugging kiss, and she returned the affection with such unrestrained passion that he was hurting for her.

  “I want to be inside you, Jess. Ok?” She was writing beneath him, pushing herself up i
nto him.

  “Yes, yes,” she answered him.

  Tyson spread Jessica’s thighs, reached between them, and guided his stiff erection to the entrance of her wet heat. With his eyes locked to hers, he slowly pressed his way into her. She was tight. She was so hot and snug. It was bliss just seating himself inside her. It felt so good that Tyson wondered if he would actually be able to control himself when they were fully connected, when he was finally gliding in and out of her.

  Little by little she adjusted to his size and her warm body conformed around his hardness. He grabbed Jessica’s knee and lifted her left leg. The action angled her body just right and it caused him to slip in to the hilt. They both groaned and then panted out fevered breaths.

  “Jess, you feel so good. Damn it’s good,” he said. She was looking up at him.

  “Yeah?”

  “Definitely,” he said and he plunged inside her.

  “Oh, wow,” she murmured as he pumped his hips. Her head rolled on the pillow. The motion exposed her neck and Tyson began to suck on the tight skin as he stroked inside her. Tyson could hear people shuffling around out in the hall, but the sounds seemed distant, far, far away from the sensual sanctuary they’d created in Jessica’s room.

  “It’s perfect, Jess, perfect,” he crooned at the side of her neck.

  There were few words after that, just the sounds of their heavy breathing and groans of ecstasy. Her legs had wrapped around his waist and she was arching her body in time with his thrusts. Her hot, sweetness pulled at him. It tugged on his hard flesh and beat at his control. He could feel her inner muscles working in a rhythmic cycle - contract and release, contract and release.

  Tyson knew Jessica was close to climaxing when the walls of her sex began to pulse; they gripped his shaft tighter and tighter. The slick moisture inside of her increased. Her sheath quivered around him. In response, his rod expanded, lengthening and becoming thicker inside of her. With his mouth latched onto hers to catch her cries of pleasure, Tyson stroked her over the edge. As she reached fulfillment, Jessica’s internal flood poured over Tyson’s shaft and it flung him into the climactic storm with her. He wrapped Jessica closed to him, thrust into her again, and then he groaned as he came hard. It was so good he wanted to shout.

  Afterward, Tyson held Jessica in his arms. Over and over, he pressed his mouth to hers as he cradled her. She accepted every kiss. Even after he’d reluctantly pulled out of her warm body, he couldn’t bare much distance between them. He maneuvered her to lie on top of him in the bed. Holding and caressing and kissing, Tyson couldn’t get enough. Somehow through the haze sexual satiation, he had the good sense to consider that they hadn’t used any protection. He asked Jessica about birth control and apologized for not bringing it up before they’d had sex. She told him she was on the pill and they assured each other they were disease free. While he wouldn’t have taken the word of anyone else, he believed Jess. It wasn’t anywhere near his normal attitude about sex, but it was what it was.

  They talked and touched until they knew they had to get dressed. Her roommate wouldn’t stay away forever and he had to go back to his own room, no matter how much he wished he could spend the whole night with her, to make love to her again. When they were clothed, he made his way to leave. There were a few seconds of awkwardness as he stepped out of her doorway. He wasn’t sure what to say, and she suddenly appeared shy. They avoided eye contact for a moment, and then Tyson quickly stepped back toward Jessica.

  “Go out with me,” he blurted. He had his hands braced on either side of her doorway as he faced her.

  “What?”

  “When we get some free time, time to be normal, go out with me.”

  “Ok,” she said with a smile.

  “Ok,” he said with a grin. Tyson grabbed Jessica’s chin and gave her a quick, hard kiss before walking away.

  Present Time; Military Hospital in Afghanistan

  Tyson shook his head, marveling over how long ago that all seemed when it had only been a few years. After that first evening, things between him and Jessica had progressed fast. They had been crazy about each other and had started to date, officially becoming a couple. In many ways they had seemed like complete opposites. One might have thought it was because of their races, but it was in ways that had nothing to do with the fact that she was Black and he was White. In fact, they never even considered their races as part of the differences.

  It was the fact that she was a small-town girl and he was a big-city guy. He liked rap; she liked everything except rap. His family was from old money and he was a West Point legacy. His military career was bred, born, and expected. Her family was middle-class at best and her grandmother thought the military was no place for women, especially Black women. The woman hadn’t supported Jessica’s decision to attend West Point at all. His life was deeply entrenched in family tradition. Her small family barely got along. With the loss of her mother, her father and maternal grandmother cooperated solely for the purpose of seeing Jessica reared. Jessica had indicated that there wasn’t a great deal of love between those two.

  None of it had mattered though, not a whit. They had made each other happy and Tyson had known at the young age of twenty that he’d never want anyone else the way he wanted Jessica Watts. He had known that she had been made to be his wife, to be the person he would spend the rest of his life with. He had never loved any woman that he wasn’t related to, but he had loved Jessica totally and completely and supremely. And he had known that she loved him - in the way that she lit up when she was with him, they way she touched him and looked at him, the way she said his name when he made love to her and the way she smiled at him. There hadn’t been anything that could tear them apart... until there was. He had never imagined that the thing to break them up would be her. Even now it hurt thinking about it and not knowing where they’d gone wrong. To bad it didn’t stop him from wanting to see her, to touch her, again.

  “Hey.”

  Tyson turned and watched as Marcus wheeled himself back into their hospital room. The other guy had been moved and it was just Tyson and Jones in the space now. Soon Tyson would be there alone. Marcus would soon be able to go back to the barracks. He would transition to crutches and finish his “vacation” in his own room. They’d already been told they weren’t being moved anywhere. Even needing to stay in the hospital a while longer, Tyson wasn’t going to be sent anywhere else for recovery. They would stay in Afghanistan until they were well enough to get back to work or until it was time for them to go home.

  “Hey,” Tyson replied to his friend.

  “I’m about wheel myself down to see Collins. You want me to see if they’ll let you go?”

  “Hell, yes. I need to get out of this room.”

  He needed to stop pining after Jessica Watts.

  After a several minutes of growling and throwing his Captain status around, plus the additional minutes of fussing about how to get him in a chair so he could get to Collins’ room, he and Marcus were talking to their teammate. Collins was a little worse for the wear after the attack but he was in good spirits.

  “Cap, it’s good to see you.” Collins slightly inclined in his bed. His skin was a little pale and gray, but there was a smile on his face.

  “You too Collins, you too,” Tyson said gripping the man’s offered hand.

  “It was too bad about Lassiter. Hell, I still can’t believe he’s gone. It was like I went to sleep, woke up, and he was dead.”

  “Yeah,” Tyson said. It had felt the same for him and he knew Marcus was taking it hard, too.

  “How you holding up, Jack?” Marcus asked Collins.

  “What? The foot? Man, shit. I’m just glad to be alive. I’m gonna trick that thing out with some titanium and steel and rock a Lt. Dan.”

  They all laughed. Collins was referring to his amputated foot. Despite the efforts in the field and in surgery, the doctors couldn’t save the badly damaged extremity. But, Collins always took stuff, however it came, with the mos
t positive outlook he could. In the life of a warfighter, there really wasn’t any other way to remain sane.

  “Seriously, though. I get to go home to my family still breathing. I’m grateful, man. I’m bummed the foot’s gone, but I’ll get over it at some point. Don’t know how I feel about not being able to come back, though. Can’t imagine not being on the team.”

  “I hear you, brother,” Marcus said.

  “What about you, Cap? They gonna let you back after this one?”

  Collins gestured to Tyson’s leg injury.

  “Probably,” Tyson answered with a shrug. “They say I should be able to get back to normal. Or as close to normal as we are after seeing and doing this shit for so long. Nothing’s broken. The artery wasn’t nicked like they thought. Just a lot of flesh to heal because it was kind of deep. And hopefully the headaches will stop…hopefully. At this point, I’m wondering how many more lucky breaks I’m gonna get. Three tours and injuries that get worse each time. Maybe I’m running out of luck. Maybe I ought to hope that I don’t get put back.”

  “Yeah, but what the hell would we do if we didn’t do this?” Marcus asked. “I don’t know how to do anything else.”

  “I’ll let you know, Jones. Looks like I’ll be figuring it out.”

  “The team won’t be the same without you, Collins,” Marcus said sincerely.

  “Course not. Who’s gonna be the pretty one?” Collins tired voice said in a superior tone.

  “Fuck you, man. I’m the pretty one,” Marcus argued with an exaggerated expression.

  “You’re both nuts. I’m the pretty one. Hell, if for no other reason than I’m the boss!” Tyson said.

  “His ass is always pulling rank,” Marcus said jerking a thumb toward Tyson. “You know he’s thinking he can just order us to say it’s true.”

  They all laughed and it felt good. It felt like a release. They had lost a buddy, but they all knew they were blessed to be alive.