Camouflaged (Hiding From Love #0.5) (11 page)

Two minutes and ten seconds later she cried out, “Oh, Gabe. Oh, please, yes. Yes. Yes,” as she shattered on my bed, convulsing around my hand so fiercely that it was all I could do not to join her.

When she was done, she slowly opened her eyes as I stared down at her. “Shit,” she whispered. “You weren’t kidding. You really are that good.”

“Only for you, Alexis. You make me a better man.”

She slapped at my chest and laughed. “You’re a corny man anyway. Where do you come up with these lines? Do you keep a notebook full of them or something?”

I laughed and lay down next to her as she snuggled into my embrace like we’d become so quickly accustomed to the last few days.

“I want to talk to you. About us,” I said.

I felt her body tense up, but her voice was as level and sultry as ever. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anything. I know this has to end when I leave. And I don’t regret a single minute of it—well, especially those last three minutes.”

“Ha ha, you’re hilarious.” I paused. “Why does it have to end?”

She leaned up on her elbow and looked down at me. “Well, you’re in Afghanistan for one thing. And I’m not going to be.”

“So you don’t think we can make it through the distance?”

“What do you mean by make it through? Like until when? For how long? And what constitutes ‘make it through’ in your book?”

“Until I get out. In six months. That’s all I have left, Alexis—six months. Then I’m a free man and I can live anywhere, do anything. I think I’d like to go to college. I’ll have some money from the service and my tuition will be paid for by the new G.I. Bill.”

“Soooo . . .” Her hand had worked up under the hem of my t-shirt and she lightly rubbed my abs. It was simultaneously the most relaxing and most seductive thing I’d ever felt. “You’re thinking that we’d be together once you get out?”

I pulled her over for a soft kiss and then looked her in the eye. I hadn’t planned any of this. It was completely uncharted for me. I didn’t know how to do it and I was the last guy in the world who ought to be doing it, but I was anyway. I could no more let her go than I could slice off my own arm. I knew without a doubt my father had never felt this way about all those women—my mother included. There was no way he could have felt this and done what he’d done. And feeling what I felt, I knew Alexis had to agree to this or I couldn’t make it the next six months.

“Yes. I want us to be together when I get out. And I want us to be together until then too. I mean, I know you’ll be home and I’ll be here, but there’s email and Skype and even good old-fashioned letters. It’s only six months. It’ll go by in a heartbeat.” I kissed her again. “What do you say, babe? Wanna go steady?”

I waited, my heart pounding, wondering if I’d fucked this up even sooner than I would have predicted. She looked at me with those gorgeous chocolate eyes, and she was so serious, so quiet.

“So when you kept asking if I was done with Marco, my boy—or I mean my
ex
-boyfriend—you meant
this
? Being together after I go? Being together when you get out?”

I nodded. “That’s what I mean. Are you going to answer me or leave me hanging here like a total jackass?”

She licked her lips and I nearly stopped breathing. “Yes,” she whispered as she leaned down and stroked her tongue across my mouth. “Yes, Gabe Thompson, I will go steady with you.” She kissed my cheek. “I will live with you in a cave and run from enemy fire with you.” She kissed my eyelids. “And I will wait for you for six months until you get out and we can be together.” She kissed my lips. “Yes.”

“God. I think I might have died and gone to heaven.”

“I think all the blood’s rushed to your crotch and left you unable to think clearly,” she responded. “You’ll come to in an hour and regret this.”

I cupped her cheek in my palm, feeling the fine texture of her skin and the heat that flowed off the two of us. “Never, Alexis. I will never regret anything I’ve done with you. Not in an hour or a day or a year. I like who I am with you. I like how I feel with you. You’re like some damn anti-depressant for me. I feel lighter and everything looks better. You make me happy, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever been truly happy before.”

Her eyes welled up and she gasped. “Look what you’ve done now,” she sniffed. “How can I possibly live up to that?”

“Oh, sweetheart. Just be yourself and you’ll never have to worry about a thing with me. All I need is you.”

We lay on the bed together, kissing softly, and even though I was hard as a rock and knew that couldn’t be resolved anytime soon, it was perfect. She was perfect, and when I was with her I felt like maybe, just maybe, I could be closer to perfect myself someday.

T
he
next thirty-six hours flew by, and before I knew it, it was Alexis’s last night in camp. I paid—heavily I might add—to get my roommates to vacate the tent for the night, and after dinner, I brought Alexis back with me.

“Is this the part where you seduce me?” she asked, after we got everything buckled down for the night.

“Is that what you want me to do?” I stepped closer and reached for the buttons on the front of her blouse.

She slapped my hand away. “Not so fast, mister. You have to talk to me first.”

“Oh yeah?” I started fingering the buttons again as I placed little kisses neatly along her smooth neck. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Mmm. Let’s talk about what we’re going to do when you get out in June.”

I undid the last button and slipped the top off her shoulders, letting it fall to the ground before I started running my index finger along the lace trim of her bra. It was a tiny thing that left most of her luscious breasts exposed, and I could see her nipples pebble up underneath the satin.

“Okay. After I get out in June, I’m going to take a flight to Sacramento, and you’re going to meet me there. We’ll spend a couple of days with my mom, and I’ll buy a car. Then we’ll drive to Austin.” I reached behind her and unclasped the bra, sliding it down her arms and dropping it on the ground as well. “You cold?” I murmured.

“Yeah,” she said in a rough voice. “Will you warm me up?”

“Gladly,” I answered as I palmed both her breasts. She moaned quietly.

“On the way to Austin, we’ll stop in San Diego and I’ll teach you to surf. We’ll get you a tiny hot pink bikini, and when you get tired of being on the water, I’ll rock your world at this private little cove I know about. You, me, sunshine, and steaming sex on the beach.” I punctuated my words with kisses to her lips and her breasts.

She sighed and arched into my caress. “Then what?”

“Then”—I pushed her back onto my cot—“we’ll go to Arizona and see the Grand Canyon. I’ll take you on a helicopter ride over the canyon, and we’ll camp out under the stars.” I undid the snaps on her shorts and skimmed them down her legs before I followed them with my tongue.

She squirmed beneath me and ran her hands through my hair. “Tell me about the stars,” she said quietly.

I licked up the inside of each thigh, stopping just short of the juncture between them. “There’re millions of them out away from the cities. And the sky is inky black. If you look really closely, you can see some stars are white, some are pink, some are blue. But“—I crawled up her body and hovered over her on my hands and knees, looking down at her lips that were parted as her breath came in fast little puffs— “not a one of those stars is as beautiful as you are, babe.”

She gave me a sleepy little smile before pulling my head down to hers. She kissed me long and hard. At last she stopped and licked my lips, one of her hands running up my back while the other one strayed to my fly.

“You soldiers have to wear so many clothes,” she whined.

“You didn’t mind when all my pockets were full of water bottles, MREs, and bullets,” I replied.

“You know, MREs are like the most unsexy topic I could ever think of. You should never, ever mention MREs while you’re in bed with a woman.”

I laughed as I undid my belt and sat up to free myself of the remainder of my MultiCam as well, really glad my arm was on the mend and I had the use of both hands again. Soon we were naked, lying side by side on the bed.

“Hey, I want you to know something,” I whispered as I stroked her soft skin all over.

“I’m the hottest woman you’ve ever been naked with?”

“Well, there is that too—ahhh, you uh probably shouldn’t do that too much if you want to hear my great revelation.” I groaned as she stroked her hand up and down my shaft. She chuckled and released me but continued to run a finger up and down, making me squirm as I tried to keep my mind on what I wanted to say.

“Okay. I want you to know that . . . that feels good . . . um, I meant it when I said I’m crazy about you. Even when you’re not doing that to me, although that doesn’t hurt any. Fuuuuck, babe.” I was nearly panting as she smoothed her fingers along the underside right below the head. “I want to make sure you know that this whole going steady thing means I won’t even look at any other women while we’re apart. I promise you, Alexis. I know I’ve been a player in the past, but I swear to you, I only want you. No one else. You’re my drug of choice.”

Her hand finally paused in its explorations, and I felt the absence immediately. “That’s the second time you’ve compared me to a pharmaceutical of some sort. Should I be worried?”

I chuckled and kissed her gorgeous little nose. “Because I’m high around you all the time,” I said in a low voice. “And it’s going to be hard to go without my fix for six damn months.”

“Mmm. I’m going to miss you so much. I know this has all been fast, but I don’t feel right when I’m not with you. It’s like, I don’t know, like some piece of me is missing.” She tucked her head under my chin and wrapped her arm around my back.

I ran my hand through her hair, marveling at its texture, the way it was so thick but so soft at the same time. I could smell her floral shampoo, and I really wondered how I’d make it without that scent for months on end.

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything for you, soldier boy.”

“Can you leave your shampoo here with me?”

She laughed. “My shampoo? Jesus, don’t tell me you’ve got some sort of weird hair fetish.”

“Nah. I, um, I love the way your hair smells. I’ll miss that when you go.”

“That is so sweet,” she crooned.

“I’m not sweet, babe.” I tried to get up the desire to be huffy but really I liked it that she thought I was
sweet
of all things.

“Only to me. And now you’ve promised to keep it that way while we’re apart. I will too. I’m going to study my ass off until I can get on a plane to Sacramento and we can be together.”

That was all I needed to hear. I felt like all was right with the world. My mouth found her neck, and I whispered in her ear, “I want inside you. Turn over.” Her eyes flew open, and I looked at her as I waggled my brows.

She didn’t say a word, but I could tell she and college boy had never done it that way. God, I loved being first in something.

She rolled onto her stomach and I lifted up her hips. I folded over her back and said, “You’re going to love this, I promise.” Then I entered her hard. She gasped and her hips rocked up in reflex. I held her waist on either side and pumped slowly in and out, running one hand underneath her until I reached her clit. While I began circling that magical little nub, I used my other hand to anchor her hips as I stroked faster and faster.

Soon she was panting and moaning, and I could feel her tightening around me. “Gabe?”

“Yeah,” I grunted out, not slowing my rhythm.

“Make me come. Please.”

I pressed against her clit as I thrust into her hard and then held myself still. “Ohh,” she nearly screamed as she contracted around me over and over again. I felt my balls tighten and I exploded right after her. As I came down afterwards, I lay over her, idly touching her everywhere as I kissed her neck and back. Finally, I slipped out and collapsed next to her. She melted into the bed on her stomach, turning her head to look at me.

“So I can see the benefits of dating a player now,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” I could barely keep my eyes open, but I ran my hand along her back gently anyway.

“All that practice makes you incredible in bed.”

I chuckled. “Well, you haven’t been playing the field and you’re the best I’ve ever had, so maybe we’re a great combination no matter what.”

“Mmm. We are,” she whispered as her eyes closed.

The morning came far too soon, but we managed to get another new position in before it was time to go to breakfast. As soon as we’d eaten, I walked Alexis to her tent and grabbed her bags before I took her to the main yard where the trucks were loading up the UN volunteers.

She was quiet as we walked, and I knew she was thinking the same things I was. How were we going to make it six months without this? Without being able to touch each other or look into each other’s eyes or hear the inflection in each other’s voices? Modern communication was great, but Alexis and I were all about the looking and touching and playing off of each other. You just couldn’t do that the same way when you were separated by a few thousand miles.

When we got to the courtyard, it was chaos—soldiers and UN staff loading trucks, people milling around saying their goodbyes, orders being shouted, engines idling. I got Alexis’s bags set up in the right truck and then we found her ride. I stood with my arm around her as the space near us slowly cleared, UN workers loading into their transports and military staff leaving to start their workdays.

Finally, when the whistle blew to announce the deadline for UN personnel to load up, I turned to face her and took her hands in mine.

“It’s Christmas in a couple of days,” I said, my voice rough.

She nodded, her eyes glistening, and her sweet lips trembling.

“There’s no way to get any Christmas presents here unless you start your orders in like September.”

“You don’t have to give me a Christmas present, Gabe. You big idiot.”

“But I have something I want to give you.” My heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute and my stomach felt like there was a huge ball of sludge sitting in it. I heard the doors slam on the truck next to us. It was now—or maybe never.

I leaned down, kissing her softly on the neck and then the mouth. “I love you, Alexis,” I whispered before I pulled back.

The tears streamed down her face and she opened her mouth to speak.

I put my finger against her pillow soft lips. “Shh. Don’t say a word. I don’t want you to feel like you have to say it back right now. When I see you in June, you can tell me what you feel. Until then, just kiss the blazes out of me, babe.”

She did exactly that, and then she pulled away, her eyes telling me everything I needed to know—that she’d be waiting for me, that she’d miss me, that she wanted me.

“Go,” I whispered. “Go.” And she did, taking my heart with her.

The End