Castles Burning Part Two (5 page)

I stared at him, my mouth parted slightly as I took in the heated look in his black eyes.
He slowly crossed the short distance between us; his gaze locked on mine, and brought his hands to my ear muffs, looking down at me as he did so. I gazed up at him, held magnetized to his powerful eyes as he slowly pulled the muffs apart and lifted them from my head. His hand smoothed my hair and he licked his lips, I sat very still on the pipe, I couldn’t have spoke even if I’d wanted to.

He stared at my mouth
carefully as his face descended slowly, his hand lifting to the side of my face, and held his lips over mine just a breath away. His dark eyes slid up to mine for only a second, stealing my breath before they trailed back to my mouth, and he pressed his soft lips to mine. A small sign escaped my lips as he began his exploration of my mouth. His hot tongue sent chills through me and I found myself leaning into him, my breasts pressing against his firm chest when he stepped closer and stood between my legs. I let my arms circle around his neck and his hands moved down caressing my breasts and hips before resting on my thighs.

In an instant his hands slid under my knees
, and he lifted me from the pipe; I hadn’t realized how thin I’d become since the attack, so it surprised me when he lifted me so easily. I gripped his shoulders as he slammed me against the steel wall of the compartment, his eyes locked on my mouth. I nodded frantically at him and he clamped his mouth over mine, harder this time. I hugged his neck tight as I twisted my fingers into his short blonde hair, holding his face to mine as his body pressed against me. With him pinning me to the wall, and my legs wrapped around him I could feel him hardening against me, it excited me more than expected, and I moaned against his mouth.

Suddenly I heard footsteps on the aluminum steps above us, I unlocked my ankles
from his legs and Cross stepped back from me, my lips felt red and swollen. He stared at me for a second, pulled his bottom lip through his teeth, and then wiped his lips before stepping under the manhole and looking up to see who it was. He glanced back at me again, wiped his mouth on the back of his hand once more, and shook his head at me as if telling me not to worry; I released the breath I’d been holding unknowingly, and waited.

“Harlow?” Cross
called up the manhole.

“Yep,” Harlow
’s easy reply came. I was beginning to notice that he was very rarely truly enthused about anything. “What’s happening down here?” He finished as he easily climbed down the rungs and stood beside Cross, then started a bit when he noticed me, perched on the pipe again.

“We just dumped the tank.” Cross said.

“Well, I was just wondering if you needed any help. Forgot Sonny was on the watch tonight, I didn’t hear you wake anyone up so thought I’d come check and make sure you were okay.” He said, smiling at me; his eyes were glittering with mirth and he held one corner of his mouth up as if holding back a grin.

“Thanks. We better g
et back to central.” Cross said.

Harlow easily climbed back up the rungs, his long arms not having a fraction of the struggle I had. I looked at Cross, he motioned
for me to climb up after Harlow, who held a hand down to help me up.

***

              Over the next few weeks at sea I got my sea legs, learned the basics to the layout of the ship and no longer got lost. I got used to being on call twenty four hours a day, and had gotten back into a routine of running a couple miles each evening with Johnson, my visits to the ship counselor were nice, and I’d worked out a lot of the traumatic events of the attack. I was looking forward to the new civilian psychologist who was going to be coming on board when we arrived in Dubai, the Chaplain had already approved me to see her.

There were more activities for us th
an I had thought there would be, on Wednesday evenings in the old mess hall that was closed most of the time, we had Karaoke. The Morale Welfare and Recreation team on the ship were more than happy to help us with it, and they also set it up on Sundays. Most of the people who went were from my Division, but there were also some from the Hull Tech division whom we worked side by side with on a lot of things. We called them our brother Division. The last few weeks seemed more like months, the days were long and the work was longer, we were all looking forward to seeing land again and getting to catch up on sleep.

             
Cross and I had started to spend a lot of time together, we had dinner together every night with a few others from our shop, and because of our last names, I was always paired with him for watch. Our division Officer had decided after I had only stood three watches alone, that Johnson and I wouldn’t stand watch alone anymore, because the guys were annoyed with being woke up in the night to dump the tank so often. The upper chain of command got tired of the complaining so decided that they would just stand a full watch with us instead. She and I approached him about pairing the two of us up, we didn’t want to be burdens on the guys, but our division Officer insisted on having us paired with a male.

             
Cross and I were standing in Central passing over the logs and utility belt to the next watch stander, who was an HT. It was seven thirty exactly, so we headed straight up to the hanger bay for quarters. Everyone was lined up and the Chiefs were already standing in front of the Division when we came to stand in ranks with the others.

“Nice of you to join us.” Chief said, winking at me.

“So sorry Chief, we just got off the Watch.” I said as I held back a yawn.

“Very good.” Chief said,
his eyes following Cross before clearing his throat. “Well, as you all know, today is the big day. We are pulling in to Singapore.”

There were some quiet exclamations of excitement, and an excited squeal from Johnson who had told me numerous times over the past week that she adores Singapore more than any other country she had made a port stop in.

“Now,” Chief continued. “There will be underage drinkers there; your shipmates who are fresh out of high school will more than likely do something fucking stupid. If you see them doing something stupid, tell them to knock it off and tell them to get back to the ship. The rules in Singapore are very simple. Do not fuck up or they will cane you. Anyone have any questions?”

When there were no responses DC1
Lewis stepped up to stand beside him. “Ok, so here’s the liberty deal. You go out with us. DC’s are to stay with DC’s. End of story. You have to have a liberty buddy here so be sure that it is someone from our division and you’ll be set. Those of you who have been approved for overnight liberty, you must be sharing a room with someone from our division, of the same sex.” He looked pointedly at me and Johnson. “Sign out with that person and stick with them, you must return and sign back in together as well. Cleaning stations for an hour, we are scheduled to pull into port at ten hundred, liberty call at eleven hundred.”

I could feel the excitemen
t of everyone buzzing around me back in my shop. I sat with my legs crossed under me on top of one of the large tool boxes and listened to stories from the guys in my shop who had been to Singapore before.

“If you get lost or
if you get turned around, just remember to go back to Orchard road, you can get a taxi back to the ship there.” Smith said as he drank a cup of the black coffee I’d made.

“Ye
ah, Four Floors of Whores. You get back there and you will be able to get back to the ship just fine, there are always sailors there.” DC1 Lewis added.

“What?” I
asked turning my wide eyes at him as I blew on my steaming cup of coffee. I looked around at the guys to see if DC1 was pulling my leg as he often did, they all looked amused but didn’t discredit him.

“You’ll see.” He said
exasperated. I handed him a cup of coffee.

“Are you goin
g out with us DC1?” I asked him, turning my head to the side, his sour mood was surprising.

“No, I have had my fill of Singapore. I’ve got work to finish up here and a nice hot shower and sleep waiting for me when liberty is called.” He said, smiling kindly at me.

I nodded and my eyes flitted to Cross, the guys continued to talk excitedly about what they wanted to do with their first day on land in a month. He was sitting in a chair with his ankle propped on his knee, his elbows rested on the arms of his chair and his hands were steeped below his chin. He was watching me very intently, I’d felt his eyes on me all morning, as if he were studying my moves. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from his, I chewed on my lip as my thoughts went wild, fantasizing about his lips on mine again… I wanted them everywhere; I wanted to touch him everywhere, to do whatever he wanted me to do.

“All right, enough chatting,
get to work.” DC1 said, and everyone hopped to it.

***

              Johnson and I were going to sign out together as liberty buddies, I hurried to our birthing and got dressed and put a change of clothes into my bag along with my shower caddy. Johnson and I planned on going to the mall and getting a couple pairs of clothes while we were here, we were also going to go out for dinner and lots of drinks tonight, so we were going to get some nice cocktail dresses. We waited in the liberty sign out line for a half an hour before we finally got our overnight passes and left the ship. We met Harlow, and Cross at the gate, the four of us were splitting the cost of a two bedroom suite for the next two nights. They had a taxi van waiting for us when we got there and we quickly got into the cool air conditioning.

             
As soon as the van was out of the gate Harlow put his arm around Johnson and she turned to smile at him. Cross and I were sitting in the seat behind theirs and I noticed that Harlow had a ring tattooed on his left ring finger.

             
“We’re at the Pan Pacific.” Harlow told the driver then turned back and smiled and Cross and I. “First things first. Don’t call me DC2 or Harlow for the next two days. I’m on liberty. I am simply Ty, or Tyler.”

             
Cross chuckled softly beside me; his hand was on my thigh, and he slid it to rest in the apex of my thighs, I snapped my head up to look at him as heat flooded my groin. Johnson turned around, her brows pressed together.

“Cross, I just realized I don’t know your first name. We’ve never gone out on liberty together.” She said.

Cross smiled at her his deep dimples flashing, “Dean.” He said.

“Jessica.” She held out her hand to him.

I looked out the window as the van sped along the crowded streets, the motion made me feel weird after being on the ship all of these weeks; when the van stopped in front of the beautiful hotel, and we stepped out, the ground felt too firm, it was as if my foot met with the pavement an inch before it was supposed to.

“Let me carry your back pack.” Dean said quietly as he took it from my shoulder.

“Thanks.” I smiled at him.

“Oh my God! Look how gorgeous it is, totally worth all months pay.” Jessica said as she grabbed
Tyler’s hand and he smiled down at her.

“Let’s go and get checked in so we can go get food. I’m so hungry.”
Tyler said.

When we stepped into the lobby the air was cool and refreshing, it was decorated in warm cream and orange colored curtains and chairs. There was a sleek black bar in a lounge area that had very modern chairs and a beautif
ul display of high end liquors, there was a black grand piano in the corner and a few couples were enjoying lunches at tables while the pianist played a lazily cheery tune. I wandered over as Dean and Tyler checked in at the desk. Jessica appeared at my side and handed me a tall champagne glass.

“Mimosa?” She asked
in a strange Asian accent, grinning at me idiotically. I laughed and took it from her.

“Thanks.” I said.

“Cheer up; I will continue to act like a dork if you don’t. Look at this… we couldn’t afford to stay in a presidential suite in a place that looked like this back home! Enjoy it.” She said gesturing to all of the fine things around us.

I nodded and smiled at her, I was happy, and I was excited, but I was overwhelmed.
It had only been a little over two months since I had lost Aden. I wasn’t sure why I was so drawn to Dean Cross, he was magnetizing and I couldn’t seem to make myself stay away from him as much as I thought I should. It was against the Commanding Officers orders to have a relationship with someone we worked with, but many people did it anyway. I felt so anxious, so out of sorts, I hated this feeling.

“Will you do me a favor?” I asked her.

“Of course, anything.” She said turning to look at me.

“Will you and Tyler hang out down here for a bit? Maybe get some lunch, I’ll take your bag upstairs
for you.” I sipped the tangy liquid.

Jessica grinned at me wickedly, her large teeth gleaming. “Oh… yeah I can do that. But you and Dean get to go out for dinner tonight.” She winked at me.

“Thanks,” I laughed. “We will.”

“We will what?” Tyler said, he and Dean coming up behind us.

“Carry our bags up. I want to stay here and have lunch.” Jessica said. She placed a hand on his chest as he stepped up beside her and I thought how miraculous the shift was between their behavior on the ship and here, away from it. I also couldn’t help but wonder about Smith.