Tequila

by Rebecca Sharp

  I watched her eyes flicker and flare at my tortured expression as she rolled the condom down over my length, cupping my balls when she got to the base.

  “Trying to kill me?” I hissed.

  She reached up and bit into my lower lip, pulling my mouth down to hers. “Isn’t that what tequila usually does?” she taunted.

  With a low growl, I positioned myself against her weeping pussy and pushed steadily inside her, the sensation like coming home.

  The way her muscles peeled apart to take me deeper and vibrated around my cock drove me insane. The pleasure made me want to squeeze my eyes shut. The look on her face… the widening of her eyes, the delicious parting of her lips… prevented me from doing anything but stare at her as I claimed her body as mine.

  Just as I nudged against her sweet spot, she bent her knees and I sank the final inch inside her, bumping up against her womb.

  Our heavy breaths mingled between us for a moment before I began to rock into her.

  I knew how I felt about her was special the night we met.

  I knew it was more than I wanted to believe the night I realized she wasn’t coming back.

  But tonight… I realized how I felt about her was a force of nature. It had come and conquered me. It had shown me what I could have—and everything I would lose if I lost her.

  And there was only one force of feeling strong enough to do that…

  There were so many things I wanted to say but none of them seemed right. So, instead, I covered her mouth with mine and worshipped her wordlessly.

  Her hips rose to meet mine until the room was filled with a symphony of heavy pants, desperate moans, and the slick sounds of our hips meeting.

  I felt how her orgasm began to take hold, tensing her body and causing her tight pussy to seize around me, pulling me deeper inside her. Her hands ran a ragged course over my back, skimming over taut muscles as I shoved my cock inside her welcoming heat over and over again.

  God, she was so tight and wet.

  My head dipped against her shoulder as a long groan tore from my chest. She needed to come, otherwise I wasn’t going to make it.

  Reaching between us, I found the sweet bundle of nerves eagerly jutting between her slick folds and begging for attention.

  “That’s it,” I grunted, rolling her clit between my fingers and feeling how it made her clench and spasm against me. She was so close. “Come for me, Bae. I’ve got you…”

  This time a scream ripped from her chest as her body fractured around mine.

  My eyes squeezed shut as I rammed my cock into her clenching hot muscles one more time before my release tore through me, pumping one long jet of cum after another into the condom like it was never going to stop.

  Collapsing on top of her, she held my weight as we both found our way back to earth. Minutes later, I savored the feel of her nails softly and soothingly scoring into my scalp before I hefted myself up and gently kissed her swollen lips.

  “Bedtime.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  Like sated and exhausted zombies, we quickly cleaned up and climbed back into bed.

  Shay was in my arms. In my bed.

  I wished I wasn’t so fucking drained so I could properly relish as my fucking dream became a reality. But delirious with exhaustion and how much I needed the woman in my arms, all I could do was pull her tight to my chest and hold her close.

  Pressing my lips against her hair, I mumbled in delirious lethargy, “Don’t leave again, Shay.”

  Now that I’d had her, my only cognizant thought was that I wouldn’t survive losing her again.

  “I won’t,” I heard her murmur against my chest. “I’ve got you, Logan.”

  All morning the choppers had been reporting in with victims lifted to the evacuation headquarters outside Estes Park in Fort Collins.

  After what felt like weeks of fighting against raging rain and relentless waters, we’d turned the bend. The number of unaccounted for persons began to drop, digit by digit.

  And what I felt for Logan grew second by second.

  “How you holdin’ up?” Bruce slapped me on the back and asked.

  “Alright.” I smiled and glanced over at Logan.

  That was the thing about tragedies, the darkest moments made the light of the human spirit shine even brighter. Stronger. Unquenchable.

  “How are his hands?”

  “Better, but going to heal slowly because he keeps using them.” I shivered, remembering the rough feel of the raw and injured flesh as it tormented over my body last night and this morning.

  “Your story is all over Facebook.”

  My head swiveled. “What?”

  “The community Facebook page,” he said as though that meant something to me. I hadn’t seen Facebook or the internet in almost a week now, though I knew there were spots—islands of cell service through the canyon that grew each day the water receded.

  He went on, encouraged by my blank stare. “There’s a page for the community. It’s how people have been getting the word out to family and loved ones that they’re alright until communication lines are restored.”

  “Oh.” I swallowed over the growing lump in the throat.

  “Margie—Barry’s wife—shared about you rescuing him.” He nudged me with his elbow and teased, “You’re famous.”

  I felt my face warm.

  Facebook. The internet.

  I was already famous. Or maybe infamous.

  I didn’t want the flood. I never would’ve wished it on this community or the people.

  But at the same time, it had created a very real, very imposing wall between me and the reality I’d fled from. And now, that reality was starting to eat away at the fringes of this distorted haven I’d been trapped in.

  “Something like that,” I murmured softly with a sad half-smile that awarded me a querulous tilt of his head.

  “So, where’s home for you?”

  My mouth opened, trained to respond with the name of a base rather than any particular place.

  But this time, nothing came out.

  I had a home base but never a home.

  Although…

  My gaze slid over to Logan once again as he climbed into his ATV and pulled away from the center. There were still people in the canyon able to be reached by high-water and off-roading vehicles, so Logan offered to go. I didn’t want him to go alone, but we both knew he could carry more passengers if I didn’t tag along.

  My distraction was just long enough for Bruce to give me a knowing nod when my attention returned.

  “He’s a good guy.” The kind ranger nodded.

  “I know.” I smiled and drawled softly, “I knew that from the moment I met him in the park six years ago. Him and his rules.”

  My small laugh was stopped short when his eyes widened in recognition.

  “Wait. You’re the tequila girl?” he gaped.

  My brow furrowed. “What?”

  “The tequila girl,” he repeated. “The one Logan fell in love with after one night who disappeared and he never heard from again…”

  I gulped. Guilty, once again, as charged.

  “We had some tequila that night.” I shrugged, forcing myself to appear calm. “But he didn’t fall in love with me that night,” I scoffed softly with a slight shake of my head.

  Bruce burst out laughing. So hard he even put a hand on his stomach. So loud he began to draw attention. And then shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe this. This whole time we’ve been out here, risking our lives, and he never mentioned you were the tequila girl…”

  “Maybe because it’s not that big of a deal.” Wishful thinking.

  “Shay, there’s only one reason you swear off tequila for the rest of your life.”

  “A bad night,” I surmised easily.

  Bruce chuckled. “Yeah, except you and I both know Logan would never drink enough for it to have been that kind of bad night.”

  I huffed and went back for another bag of rel
ief supplies we were loading into a military truck to take up to the evacuation shelters.

  “I think Logan was right, and you are a Master Exaggerator,” I teased him.

  “Yeah, okay except the looks he’s been giving you all morning tell me that what you two have going on now is a hundred times stronger than it was that night.”

  I grunted, hefting the bag into the back of the vehicle and wiping my hands on the pair of borrowed cargo pants donated to me by a woman from the fire department crew that we’d rescued the other day. I couldn’t turn down the stack of fresh clothes she’d eagerly handed over to me, hearing how I’d been stranded here without any of my things.

  “I guess we’ll see what happens when the dust settles.” I blew a strand of hair out of my face and rested my hip against the back of the transport.

  We’ll see what happens when he finds out the truth.

  “Hey…”

  I looked back down to see Bruce standing in front of me. The laughter was gone from his eyes as he continued with soft seriousness.

  “I’ve known Logan for a long time and for him, everything is black and white. Good or bad. Love or no—”

  “Excuse me, ma’am,” a young army soldier ran over and addressed me. “Are you Shay?”

  “Yes,” I said slowly, standing up straight as fear zipped like a shock down my spine. “Is everything okay? Is Logan—”

  “Shay Covington?” My stomach dropped right back into a dark pit filled with electrical wires, only this time, when he asked the next question, I didn’t escape the trap unscathed. “The crazy-good F-16 pilot they just removed from command?”

  I felt Bruce’s eyes whip to me and recognition glazed over his features.

  I folded my arms across my chest defensively. “I am an F-16 pilot, yes,” I replied carefully, giving him a stare that had reduced many men, much larger and much older than him, back into the realm of respect they never should’ve left.

  Regardless of whether or not I was allowed to answer any more questions, I wasn’t going to. Not now. Not like this.

  “I… Umm…” he stammered and stumbled. I knew what he came over here to ask. He wanted to know what everyone else in the world would want to know when the news broke.

  Why?

  Why the loss of confidence in the best female fighter pilot in the Air Force?

  “Never mind,” he squeaked and jogged back over to his buddies in partial defeat—confirming my identity but not my downfall.

  There were a few moments of silence as I turned back to Bruce.

  “I thought you looked familiar,” he said softly. “I caught the news on TV last week right before…”

  Right before the storms came and wiped out all thoughts of anything except surviving the flood.

  My chin rose slightly.

  “Does Logan know?” It didn’t go unnoticed that he didn’t press for the information himself, and I respected him for that.

  My throat burned as I swallowed and admitted, “No. Not yet.” I looked down at the ground and tried to compose myself. “Guess we’ll have to wait and see if those looks change after I tell him.”

  Bruce winced at the bitterness in my tone. “It’ll be okay.”

  “You said it yourself,” I told him steadily even though my emotions felt threadbare. “Logan lives in black and white. Good and bad. I was the best, and I made a mistake. I broke one of the rules,” I confessed thickly. “And breaking the rules might be what tips the scales of his love for me.”

  I was afraid it would.

  The wheels of the ATV bumped and slid as I carefully maneuvered down the muddy, rock-infested mountainside to the last house on the list Chief Larimer had sent me out with.

  Ten people previously unaccounted for were now safe and being taken to the evacuation shelter. The family inside this house would be another three more.

  There were still hundreds to go, but every person counted.

  Leaving the engine running, I jogged up to the front door, avoiding the streams of water that trickled down to the river that ran only about fifteen feet from the front porch. Any additional storms would put the house’s foundation in peril.

  “Logan Daniels here with the emergency rescue!” I yelled, knocking on the door.

  A relieved woman answered, ushering her husband and yelling to her son who sat at a computer desk in the far room, staring down at his phone.

  “Jack! We have to go!”

  “One sec, Ma!” he returned. “There’s a story—”

  “Jackson.”

  The chair squealed as he shoved it back and obeyed her call.

  “Thank you, Mr. Daniels,” she gushed, putting an arm around her son and closing the door behind her.

  “It’s going to be tight, but two of you can climb in the back. You’ll probably have to hold on to some of my emergency bags. And then, ma’am, you can sit up front,” I instructed, helping them into the small but effective vehicle and securing them inside.

  With all the weight, the trek back up took longer especially when the thought of being so close to having Shay back in my arms was fighting for attention in my mind.

  “That pilot is here, Mom.”

  My eyes snapped to the teenager who’d bent forward to address his mother.

  “W-What pilot, honey?” she asked, clearly looking for a distraction from the bouncing and rocking of the ATV that made her white-knuckle the safety handles.

  “The one who was removed from commander of the Viper team! I told you about her last week,” he huffed as though she should already know and my world began to shake, though it had nothing to do with the unsteady ride.

  “I-I don’t remember, Jack. W-Who are you talking about?”

  I knew. I knew before he answered. I could taste her name on the tip of my tongue. Bitter and tart and stinging. Like tequila and lime.

  “Shay Covington.” The kid’s answer felt like the flood had swallowed me whole. “She’s like the best pilot ever. I don’t know why they did that to her. Loss of confidence is such a BS excuse.”

  “I-I don’t know either, honey.”

  I heard them but their voices sounded like they were in a tunnel.

  Viper pilot. Removed from command.

  I dragged in a breath, recalling the report on the news that night in the bar. All the phrases sounded familiar, but I hadn’t stuck around and watched for long enough to see that they were talking about Shay.

  A soft, bitter laugh escaped me.

  Just think, another couple minutes at the Tavern and I would’ve found out who Shay really was and why she’d left. Maybe then none of this would’ve happened. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel as hurt as I did right now.

  This was the reason Shay came here. She’d been running. And not to me, but from whatever happened.

  Loss of confidence.

  I couldn’t imagine a scenario where anyone would lose confidence in Shay’s ability to lead. No, I couldn’t imagine any professional scenario.

  My stomach rolled. This was the reason she’d come here, and I was having to find it out from some teenager.

  And no matter how many times I promised her I’d have her, she hadn’t trusted me with this.

  “‘Xcuse me, Mr. Daniels.” He turned to me. “Do you think Shay Covington will be at the place we’re going? I’d kill to meet her.”

  Pain speared through my gut.

  “Sorry,” I said tightly, pulling back out onto what remained of the roadway. “I don’t think so.”

  My jaw set and I focused on my duty, clinging to anything until I could get Shay alone.

  Until I could get to the truth.

  I knew something was off as soon as we climbed into the ATV to head home for the night.

  Logan was drawn and silent. Mountains had more movement in them compared to how rigidly he sat in the seat next to me; I wondered if something had happened on his rescue missions this afternoon.

  I almost asked but my tongue was too thick with all the words I needed to say. The
incident with the army soldier replayed mercilessly in my mind.

  Truthfully, maybe it was dumb luck no one had recognized me all week, but the short conversation reminded me this disaster was temporary. The waters were clearing. The world was being pieced back together around us, reviving my unfortunate reality.

  And my disaster wouldn’t be so easily cleared away.

  And if Logan wanted to stay with me like he said he did, he needed to know the truth.

  He pulled into the garage and held the door to the house open for me.

  “Logan, are you alright?” I blurted out before he even got his second boot off.

  The worn mud-covered rubber thudded to the floor with the finality of a gavel.

  Every inch he straightened—and there were a lot of them—tightened the band around my chest. It felt as though the truth hung in the air as he walked by me and into the kitchen. “Want a drink?”

  I nodded, noting how he didn’t answer my question.

  Pushing the bottles of whiskey aside, he reached in the back for another bottle of amber-colored liquid.

  “Tequila?” I balked at his choice, knowing what it meant between us. “I thought you didn’t have a taste for it anymore.”

  His eyes flicked to mine as the resounding pop filled the silence, announcing the opening of the dusty bottle.

  “I didn’t. Until a week ago.”

  “When your tequila girl returned?” I prodded, searching his eyes, looking for any sign on unrest to distract me from my own.

  “Who told you that?” He paused. “Never mind. I know it was Bruce.”

  I shifted my weight, watching the tiny muscles in his capable hands flex and tighten as he palmed the bottle. I didn’t remember being this nervous when I’d asked to meet with Commander O’Shaunessey to inform him of what happened as soon as I realized.

  He poured two fingers worth into one glass.

  “I didn’t have much of a taste for it either after that night… at least not by itself,” I admitted.

  Not without him.

  He set one glass in front of me and without hesitation, I picked it up and tossed it back.

  Damn, I missed this flavor.

  Logan’s face that night, underneath the sunrise, flashed in my mind. It tasted like promises—promises of forever.