Captain O'Reilly's Woman - Ashes of Love 1 (13 page)

“Look, Sam, I know women die in childbirth. More than need to. That’s why we move into every town with a full medical staff and push obstetrics training on our medics.” He held her hand when she stepped into the boat. Instead of taking the seat behind the wheel, he sat on the gunwale, watching her. His eyes were bright and intense. “I’m not going to lose you.”

Reaching out and taking his hand, Samantha stood and walked over to him. She nuzzled her breasts into his chest and stroked his broad shoulder. “There are differences between her situation and mine.” David opened his mouth to argue but she didn’t give him a chance. “One is prenatal care. I’ll get plenty. She had none. If there
is
a problem, we’ll see it coming weeks in advance and do something about it. I’m taking prenatal vitamin supplements. Yes, already,” she added when David looked at her sideways. “Two...my health and living conditions. I’m well fed. I have clean water to drink and bathe in. I’m healthy, not to mention the fact I’m three years older than her. It makes a big difference. My body’s strong enough to handle childbirth. In nine months from now and twenty years from now. Third, I have access to medical care. She didn’t.”

With a deep, quiet sigh, David wrapped his hand around her waist and lowered his head to her chest. “You made a difference today, Sam. You were there and you saved them.”

“Yes,” she answered without vanity. “And because you run your squadron like you do, I was given the training I needed to do that. It wasn’t just me in there today, David. It was me and the Army’s medical corps.” She watched him for a long moment. “Still scared?”

David bristled at her words before he realized she was right. He
was
scared. For her. Of losing her. Of not being able to do a damn thing about it.

“You’re entitled to be,” Samantha continued with quiet surety. “Every good father-to-be is. It’s part of what makes you a good man.” She brushed his short, soft hair lightly then kissed his forehead. “It’s the same, healthy concern that makes people use child seats in cars. Makes them teach kids to look both ways before crossing the street and not jump off the edge of a bridge just because everybody else is doing it.”

She chuckled and, after a moment, David did too. Then she smiled and tipped his head up to hers. “So...let’s talk about the
other
elephant in the room,” Samantha changed the subject quietly and looked at him pointedly.

“Cheryl,” David sighed. “Just don’t let her hear you call her an elephant. She’s got a phobia about getting fat.”

“Ah. Well that explains some of it, anyway.”

“Some of what?” David asked, grinning.

“Why you two are always at each other. How long were you together?”

David sighed then stroked Samantha’s arm lightly. “Almost three years. We were fourteen...yeah, I know. We were too young. But the Great War had ended only four years earlier. There wasn’t a lot of parental supervision going on back then. The relationship progressed.

“We’d been friends forever. Her family lived up here full time and I spent my summers here.” He shrugged. “A few kisses. A little groping. She was the first girl I ever made love with,” he added quietly. Looking at Samantha, he tried to gauge her reaction.

She offered him a hesitant smile. “I kind of figured.”

Sighing again, David started up the engines and watched Samantha untie the stern and bow lines before he put the boat in reverse and eased it away from the dock. He didn’t say anything else until they were back at the island and the boat was tucked up in its cradle for the night. They sat on the edge of the dock and watched the sun drop lower toward the horizon.

“When I turned sixteen, I joined the Army. I told her I wanted to marry her and that when I was promoted to corporal, I would. She seemed fine with that. Then less than six months later, I’m back here with a full squadron. With all the bells and whistles and fire-power that come with it.” There was a harsh edge in his voice now. “And she saw,
really
saw for the first time, what life would be like married to the Army. The guerilla combat the first few weeks you arrive in a new community. All the work and the hours. Building a place up just to leave and start somewhere else in six months.”

He brushed imaginary dirt off his pant leg and looked over at Samantha. “She’s lived here all her life. She never could get used to the idea of moving. So instead of marrying me, she married Jason—a thirty-two year old former investment banker who’s now managing the city’s finances. A man who’d had a family, a stable life, and wanted one again.”

“Has there been anyone else since?” Samantha asked quietly. She leaned into him and slid her arm around his waist.

“Not really,” David answered then lay his chin on the top of her head. “My first couple of years, I had nothing to offer a woman and nobody was interested. Then, after I got accepted at officer’s school, women in the different communities my unit worked in
were
interested. But I realized pretty quick they were interested in regular meals and a patched roof over their heads more than me. I can’t fault them for that,” he added sadly. “
And
I suppose the moving around seemed glamorous to some.”

“Do you still love her?”

“Cheryl? Yes,” David answered with brutal honesty. “But now it’s more like how we felt about each other when we were kids. She never wanted the life she would have had with me. And I never wanted to give it up for her. She’s happy. And so am I,” he added, kissed the top of Samantha’s head and breathed in the scent of her hair.

“She still loves you too,” Samantha said with quiet certainty.

“Why do you say that?” David grinned.

“Because she wouldn’t bust your chops like she does if she didn’t.”

David exhaled sharply. “I guess you’re right. We fight like brother and sister, and don’t hate each other like ex-lovers. But...you know what
I
want?” He changed the subject and was now wearing a decidedly lecherous grin.

“Hmm?”

“I want...” Smiling crookedly, David kissed Samantha one more time then stood and helped her to her feet. “To get in the shower with you and rinse the stink of today off us.” He loped his arm around her waist and headed up to the cottage. “I want to get you out of those stupid, paper shoes you’re wearing. And I want to make love to you in our bed.”

Samantha laughed softly. “We actually haven’t done it there, have we?”

“Nope. And I want to
still
be making love to you when the sun comes up.” Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to the base of her ear.

*
   
*
   
*

Early the next morning, as the gloom outside their bedroom windows began to brighten, David lay on his back and sighed at the exquisiteness of the sensation as he lifted Samantha’s small, supple body off his replete cock. She lay down beside him, her damp shoulder touching his while their breathing slowed.

“Wow,” she murmured. Her voice was low and ego-strokingly satisfied.

“Wow indeed,” David parroted. He turned to her and stroked the moist, soft skin on her abdomen. “I thought about doing that to you during my staff meeting last week.”

“Er,
hard
keeping your mind on your work, Captain?” Samantha drawled teasingly, glancing at his now flaccid cock.

“Definitely,” David grinned then kissed her. His mouth brushed her swollen lips, loving the sweet taste of her.. Still grinning, he thought about how it felt when he made love to her, how warm and eager she was, and how hard he got just being around her.

“Well I’d like to do something about that,” Samantha said then rolled onto her side. Propping her head up in her hand, she looked at him. “When our leave is over, can we live together?”

“I didn’t think we wouldn’t,” David replied.

“In your quarters or are you going to move back into the enlisted barracks?”

The squadron’s CO had his own mobile home. It was set far enough away from the other buildings to allow for some privacy while remaining within the secured base perimeter. David laughed softly. “Mine,” he answered decisively. “I’ve come too far to go back to sharing a communal bathroom with anybody except you,” he added, kissing her nose then leaning back so he could try and read what was going on in her head.

“Good,” Samantha replied, got out of bed and padded over to the closet. She returned carrying a hand-held computer. “Time for me to flex these RI muscles of mine,” she said and climbed back into bed.

His brow furrowed, David watched as, bare-breasted and propping a pillow behind her back, Samantha leaned against the headboard and flicked on the light on her night table. She turned on the computer. It was standard-issue medic’s equipment and looked like a pre-GW text-capable cell phone, used mostly for patient records and internal communications. But it could also tie into the Army’s main computers for information download, memos and such. Peeking over her shoulder, David saw she’d activated the memo feature. She worked in silence for a few minutes. David left for awhile and, when he came back, he was carrying mugs of tea.

“Okay. Tell me what you think,” Samantha said finally, handed him the computer and, with her other hand, picked up her mug and blew across the hot tea before taking a sip.

He read her memo. It was addressed to an MD with the rank of Colonel in the Medical Corps in charge of, amongst other things, the RI program.

I have settled on a partner to meet my obligations to the Reproductive Imperative Program: Captain David M. O’Reilly, Squadron Commander of the Army’s Third Reclamation Division. I trust there will be no issue with the difference in our ranks and the fact that the Captain is my commander. Please send confirmation on those specific points. After discussion with Captain O’Reilly, we have decided that I and, eventually, our children will take up residence in his quarters on base. Please confirm that approval for this move is added to the Captain’s personnel file.

David grinned wryly and handed the computer back to her. “You’ve got more balls than me, Cooper. Whenever I communicate with somebody with the rank of colonel, I have to ask. You get to tell.”

Samantha shrugged lightly and enjoyed the way his eyes fixed on her breasts when they moved. “He’s a nice guy. I’ve spoken to him already, although this will be the first time your name has come up. I wanted some time with you away from base before I committed you.”

“Very diplomatic, Corporal,” David nodded approvingly then sat up beside her and started drinking his tea. “Although you did leave out some important points.”

“Like?” Samantha asked anxiously.

“Oh, like mentioning you’re butt naked and sitting in bed with me. That we’ve just finished making out like rabbits all night long and that the last time you came you screamed like—” He chuckled behind the hand she lay over his mouth.

*
   
*
   
*

Beginning their second full day of leave, they settled into a comfortable pattern. There was a path that followed the perimeter of the island and they ran it every day. David did about ten kilometers. Samantha did six. In addition to utility and storage rooms, there was also a modest workout room on the first floor of the cottage, mostly free weights and a resistance machine. David spent at least an hour there each day and, after watching his workout routines, Samantha quickly understood how he’d managed to get so big. They swam and lay out in the sun, reading or just talking. He taught her how to fish and how to drive the boat and, twice, as promised, took her to the marina for fries. Sometimes, in the evening, they’d watch an old movie or just light a fire on the beach.

And they made love.

Three Saturdays in a row, they went to the farmer’s market in town. Samantha got to meet a lot of people and always made a point of visiting Rebecca to see how she and the baby were coming along. Rebecca wanted to stay and, she said, was working on convincing Ethan that it was the best thing for them and the baby.

The day before they left, she and David attended the ground-breaking ceremony of the extension on the local emergency room.

“You want to drop me off outside base so nobody will see us arrive together?” Samantha asked hesitantly when they were about twenty minutes outside of base. She fidgeted with the short, flared hem of her skirt. She’d picked up the outfit—the skirt and a matching short-sleeved top that left a thin band of her waist exposed—in a shop on their first week of leave. It would probably be some time before she’d have a waist again so she wanted to show it off while she still could. Besides, she’d liked the way David’s eyes had flared when she’d modeled the outfit for him.

“Having second thoughts?” he asked quietly. He stilled her fidgeting by laying his hand over hers, then raised her fingers to his lips. Although he’d spoken quietly, Samantha had developed an ear for his mood. She knew how his voice deepened, ever so slightly, when his emotions were running high.

“No. No second thoughts,” she answered adamantly. “Just...”

“Jitters?”

“Yes.”

David smiled thinly and felt his shoulders come down. “This will be a big change for you. Are you ready?”

Samantha exhaled slowly. “I wish I was
more
ready. My old fears...you know, the ones where I want to be accepted. When we’re back on base, I’ll be the COs official squeeze. Not just plain old Corporal Cooper who doesn’t put on airs.”

“You’ll never be plain
anything
, Samantha,” David insisted. He shifted down to second as he turned onto the road that led to the base. “You’re an outstanding soldier and you’ve got a brilliant medical career ahead of you. Part of that means you will always stand out. Your talent and personality will get you noticed, and I’m not saying this just because I love you or because I think you’ve never looked sexier than you do in that outfit.”

He grinned when she blushed.

“In a lot of ways, you’re like me, Sam. Outstanding—and I’m not bragging here. It’s the simple truth. Not everybody’s got the brains or the drive to make it as an officer, let alone a doctor. After you’re finished medical school you will be an officer, Sam. You didn’t ask to have rare genes and you can take no credit for that. But they did make it possible for us to be together before you became an officer. I’ll never regret that.
Never
.” He shook his head adamantly but kept his focus on the road. “The question you have to ask yourself is whether you’re ready to step up and live your potential.”