“Hop on and I’ll give you a ride to your car. Then I’ll follow you home,” I instructed.
She didn’t waste time, practically hopping on it like an excited child.
Grinning because I couldn’t help it, I got on the bike behind her and started it up.
“My dad and I used to do this,” she said seconds before I started the engine.
She pointed me down a long street, then around the corner of a building where her car—a 1970 Buick painted an olive green—lay in wait.
I grinned at her explanation for parking so far away.
“It’s just that I don’t like people parking next to my car. My dad and I spent a lot of time on this bad girl, and I don’t want anything to happen to it. I love it so much,” she explained.
I patted the outside of her thigh. “There’s no shame in loving your car, honey. Especially when you have such sentimental value in it.”
Looking up at me, she pressed a kiss to the underside of my chin, then poked a small spot right next to where she kissed me. “You have a spot right here that no hair grows.”
I grunted out an affirmative sound. “Never has. I’ve given up on any sprouts coming in there. That’s why I keep this.” I grabbed the longer part of my beard. “So long because it covers up the bald spot.”
“So it’s kind of like a comb-over for your beard?” she teased.
I dug my fingers into her ribs, causing her to shriek with laughter.
She looked so fucking pretty right then that I couldn’t help myself. I had to kiss her.
Guessing my intent, she tilted her head back and turned slightly, allowing me better access to her mouth.
I took possession of her lips, deepening the kiss while also allowing my hands to slide up her sides.
I didn’t move them around her front, but I wanted to.
Especially when she shifted on her seat in an acrobatic move I would’ve been proud of had I not been thinking with my dick at that moment in time.
One second she was facing the correct way, and the next she was kneeling on the bike’s seat between my legs, her at a higher vantage point, making me lean my head back now.
Then she took possession of the kiss, pulling back slightly to tug on my bottom lip.
My hands clenched into fists against her sides, and even though it made my bad arm thrum with a dull throb, I didn’t let up. Because if I let them go, it’d be all over her.
Her hands went to my hair, and she pulled. “How much longer do I get to enjoy this hair?”
I grinned against her lips. “Not much.”
That was a lie. Kind of anyway.
My hair came and went depending on whether I was allowed to have it during whatever mission we were on. I did what they told me to do, and if they told me to shave it all off and have a clean, baby face? Then I’d do it.
It’d hurt my heart, but I’d do it.
Luckily, those ops were few and far between.
I hadn’t had to actually shave all the way down to basic training standards grooming in a really long goddamn time.
A flash of lights had us both turning to look at the set of headlights that were pointed in our direction, and again I saw Kelley.
“Son of a bitch, does that fucker ever go away?” I grumbled, sounding as exasperated as I felt.
“No,” she answered, giving me one last chaste kiss on the mouth. “Now, follow me home so I can eat whatever you brought.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
***
Two hours later, I was aware of a few things that I hadn’t been before.
One, Pru had to be the only woman on Earth that didn’t like sweet and sour chicken. Luckily, I’d gotten a few extra kinds just in case. She was more of a beef and broccoli kind of girl.
Second, Pru liked my favorite show—Forged in Fire. It was a contest show where three metal workers competed to make the best knife or sword, and a group of judges chose the winner.
Three, Pru was a cuddler.
And I’m not talking about a minor cuddler, either. She was a major cuddler. She was also a happy cuddler. When she was curled up into my side while we were eating, her entire demeanor changed—became sweeter.
“You finished?” She held out her hand for my empty boxes.
I nodded but didn’t hand them to her. Instead, I took her empties out of her hand and walked them over to the trash with mine before coming back and picking up a fortune cookie.
“Here,” I tossed it to her.
She ripped into it and started to break hers open with the same enthusiasm that I did mine.
“A short stranger will soon enter your life with many blessings to share,” I read. “What does yours say?”
She squinted and pulled her paper in closer.
“Sometimes you must wait for what you most desire,” she read. “I think they’re both kind of creepy.”
I snorted and picked the little piece of paper out of her hand and placed both mine and hers on the coffee table in front of us. Then I leaned back in the couch and put my feet up on the table beside the fortunes. “Come ‘ere.”
She dove under my arm and cuddled in next to me, groaning like a contented cat.
Chuckling, I reached for the remote that was on the arm of the couch and scrolled through her DVR for the next recorded show of Forged in Fire.
“This episode is one of my favorites,” I told her as I hit play.
She hummed in agreement. “I like the way the judge gets all animated about the scroll work that the contestant had time to do. I think that’s what won him the show.”
We stayed like that for hours, talking about the show. What we wanted to do the next day, and whether or not I was attending a party in two weeks’ time.
Which ended up taking us somewhere I hadn’t really wanted to go.
“You’re leaving,” she guessed.
I nodded, not wishing to put voice to the words.
She sighed. “I was expecting it, to be honest. I was just hoping we’d have longer.”
As much as I wanted to remain right where I was, I had other responsibilities.
Knowing that she wanted me to stay, though? That was making my heart warm.
“When I was fourteen, my mother and father committed suicide.”
She gasped. “Oh, no.”
I nodded. “I was lost and alone. I had Bayou and Brielle. I had my grandfather, Dixie. I had my other aunts and uncles…but I was lost. I acted out. Seriously, the only thing that kept me in line was this Army recruiter I met at the mall.”
“You met an Army recruiter at the mall?” she asked.
I nodded. “I was trying to steal a dildo from Spencer’s—the gag gift shop?”
Her lips turned up at the corners.
“I had it down my pants and one of the salesmen ran after me. I was a fast little fuck and made it out of the mall and to the front doors when I was caught around the throat by an Army recruiter. He power slammed me like those wrestlers do and that goddamn dildo nearly rammed up my ass. It was awful.” I grinned. “After returning the dildo and being humiliated by not just the recruiter but the salesman, I went back home only to find that the recruiter followed me. He told my uncle—Bayou’s father—who I was living with at the time what happened. Then I was forced to join their ROTC program.”
Pru’s lips went wide as she smiled full out. “My sister did that. I went with her once. It sucked so bad I never went back.”
“It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but when I went into it, I found a place in the world that was all mine. A place where there were other kids that didn’t have their parents there either. And when I turned eighteen, I joined the Army and then never looked back.”
“You want to do it for the rest of your life?” she asked softly.
I had.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I do.”
But if there was one person in this world I’d give it up for, it’d be you.
I didn’t tell her that, though. We were too new. She wasn’t ready to hear the depth of emotion that I was feeling for her.
She’d run, and I’d have to chase her to get her back.
I wasn’t sure she was ready for my kind of chasing, though.
“So the point you were trying to get across as you explained all of that was that you’re married to the Army and that you want me to know that no matter what I say or do, you’re not leaving it.” She sobered.
She didn’t waste time, practically hopping on it like an excited child.
Grinning because I couldn’t help it, I got on the bike behind her and started it up.
“My dad and I used to do this,” she said seconds before I started the engine.
She pointed me down a long street, then around the corner of a building where her car—a 1970 Buick painted an olive green—lay in wait.
I grinned at her explanation for parking so far away.
“It’s just that I don’t like people parking next to my car. My dad and I spent a lot of time on this bad girl, and I don’t want anything to happen to it. I love it so much,” she explained.
I patted the outside of her thigh. “There’s no shame in loving your car, honey. Especially when you have such sentimental value in it.”
Looking up at me, she pressed a kiss to the underside of my chin, then poked a small spot right next to where she kissed me. “You have a spot right here that no hair grows.”
I grunted out an affirmative sound. “Never has. I’ve given up on any sprouts coming in there. That’s why I keep this.” I grabbed the longer part of my beard. “So long because it covers up the bald spot.”
“So it’s kind of like a comb-over for your beard?” she teased.
I dug my fingers into her ribs, causing her to shriek with laughter.
She looked so fucking pretty right then that I couldn’t help myself. I had to kiss her.
Guessing my intent, she tilted her head back and turned slightly, allowing me better access to her mouth.
I took possession of her lips, deepening the kiss while also allowing my hands to slide up her sides.
I didn’t move them around her front, but I wanted to.
Especially when she shifted on her seat in an acrobatic move I would’ve been proud of had I not been thinking with my dick at that moment in time.
One second she was facing the correct way, and the next she was kneeling on the bike’s seat between my legs, her at a higher vantage point, making me lean my head back now.
Then she took possession of the kiss, pulling back slightly to tug on my bottom lip.
My hands clenched into fists against her sides, and even though it made my bad arm thrum with a dull throb, I didn’t let up. Because if I let them go, it’d be all over her.
Her hands went to my hair, and she pulled. “How much longer do I get to enjoy this hair?”
I grinned against her lips. “Not much.”
That was a lie. Kind of anyway.
My hair came and went depending on whether I was allowed to have it during whatever mission we were on. I did what they told me to do, and if they told me to shave it all off and have a clean, baby face? Then I’d do it.
It’d hurt my heart, but I’d do it.
Luckily, those ops were few and far between.
I hadn’t had to actually shave all the way down to basic training standards grooming in a really long goddamn time.
A flash of lights had us both turning to look at the set of headlights that were pointed in our direction, and again I saw Kelley.
“Son of a bitch, does that fucker ever go away?” I grumbled, sounding as exasperated as I felt.
“No,” she answered, giving me one last chaste kiss on the mouth. “Now, follow me home so I can eat whatever you brought.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
***
Two hours later, I was aware of a few things that I hadn’t been before.
One, Pru had to be the only woman on Earth that didn’t like sweet and sour chicken. Luckily, I’d gotten a few extra kinds just in case. She was more of a beef and broccoli kind of girl.
Second, Pru liked my favorite show—Forged in Fire. It was a contest show where three metal workers competed to make the best knife or sword, and a group of judges chose the winner.
Three, Pru was a cuddler.
And I’m not talking about a minor cuddler, either. She was a major cuddler. She was also a happy cuddler. When she was curled up into my side while we were eating, her entire demeanor changed—became sweeter.
“You finished?” She held out her hand for my empty boxes.
I nodded but didn’t hand them to her. Instead, I took her empties out of her hand and walked them over to the trash with mine before coming back and picking up a fortune cookie.
“Here,” I tossed it to her.
She ripped into it and started to break hers open with the same enthusiasm that I did mine.
“A short stranger will soon enter your life with many blessings to share,” I read. “What does yours say?”
She squinted and pulled her paper in closer.
“Sometimes you must wait for what you most desire,” she read. “I think they’re both kind of creepy.”
I snorted and picked the little piece of paper out of her hand and placed both mine and hers on the coffee table in front of us. Then I leaned back in the couch and put my feet up on the table beside the fortunes. “Come ‘ere.”
She dove under my arm and cuddled in next to me, groaning like a contented cat.
Chuckling, I reached for the remote that was on the arm of the couch and scrolled through her DVR for the next recorded show of Forged in Fire.
“This episode is one of my favorites,” I told her as I hit play.
She hummed in agreement. “I like the way the judge gets all animated about the scroll work that the contestant had time to do. I think that’s what won him the show.”
We stayed like that for hours, talking about the show. What we wanted to do the next day, and whether or not I was attending a party in two weeks’ time.
Which ended up taking us somewhere I hadn’t really wanted to go.
“You’re leaving,” she guessed.
I nodded, not wishing to put voice to the words.
She sighed. “I was expecting it, to be honest. I was just hoping we’d have longer.”
As much as I wanted to remain right where I was, I had other responsibilities.
Knowing that she wanted me to stay, though? That was making my heart warm.
“When I was fourteen, my mother and father committed suicide.”
She gasped. “Oh, no.”
I nodded. “I was lost and alone. I had Bayou and Brielle. I had my grandfather, Dixie. I had my other aunts and uncles…but I was lost. I acted out. Seriously, the only thing that kept me in line was this Army recruiter I met at the mall.”
“You met an Army recruiter at the mall?” she asked.
I nodded. “I was trying to steal a dildo from Spencer’s—the gag gift shop?”
Her lips turned up at the corners.
“I had it down my pants and one of the salesmen ran after me. I was a fast little fuck and made it out of the mall and to the front doors when I was caught around the throat by an Army recruiter. He power slammed me like those wrestlers do and that goddamn dildo nearly rammed up my ass. It was awful.” I grinned. “After returning the dildo and being humiliated by not just the recruiter but the salesman, I went back home only to find that the recruiter followed me. He told my uncle—Bayou’s father—who I was living with at the time what happened. Then I was forced to join their ROTC program.”
Pru’s lips went wide as she smiled full out. “My sister did that. I went with her once. It sucked so bad I never went back.”
“It’s definitely not for the faint of heart, but when I went into it, I found a place in the world that was all mine. A place where there were other kids that didn’t have their parents there either. And when I turned eighteen, I joined the Army and then never looked back.”
“You want to do it for the rest of your life?” she asked softly.
I had.
“Yeah,” I answered. “I do.”
But if there was one person in this world I’d give it up for, it’d be you.
I didn’t tell her that, though. We were too new. She wasn’t ready to hear the depth of emotion that I was feeling for her.
She’d run, and I’d have to chase her to get her back.
I wasn’t sure she was ready for my kind of chasing, though.
“So the point you were trying to get across as you explained all of that was that you’re married to the Army and that you want me to know that no matter what I say or do, you’re not leaving it.” She sobered.
