Fraternizing (34 page)

I sent a quick
text to Alex, letting him know that I was on my way before lugging my bags down
the stairs to the awaiting cab. Lane and Hutchins said goodbye as we drove off.
I felt kind of bad leaving them behind, but they said they would occupy each
other for the weekend, making me feel a little better. I gave the cabbie the
address to Alex’s house and sat in silence as we drove off the base and into the
vast stretch of desert.

“You nervous?”
Dalton asked, breaking the silence and placing his hand on top of mine.

“A little bit.”

“Good!” He wiped
his brow, even though near arctic air was blasting through the cab as we blazed
down the sun scorched road.

“Why are you
nervous? You already know Ben.”

He blew a small
breath. “I know. It’s just that everything was done in secret at home. We never
spent as much time together as we will this weekend. I think this will really
cement things. See what we really want out of each other.”

His words could
have come out of my own mouth. I had yet to look at it that way, but his
anxiety slowly creeped into my own body. Alex and I had been interacting under
a cloak of secrecy, stealing away bits and pieces of time here and there. This
weekend was a chance for us to truly get to know one another and be a
real
couple out in the
real
world. The idea frightened me more than I wanted it to.
I grew silent once again, the thoughts clouding my head with the fear that
things would not go well.

“Hey. You are
going to have a kick ass time. Stop thinking so much.” He rubbed the top of my
hand, easing some of the tension that had embedded itself within me.

“I guess I should
be telling you the same thing.”

 
A few turns later and we were pulling
onto Alex’s street. I looked out the window as we pulled up, Alex’s truck
sitting in the driveway with him leaning up against it. His muscles rippled
from his cut off shirt, his shorts hanging low while a pair of black sandals
outfitted his feet. He was so casual, yet so delectable.

I paid the driver
then hopped out, Dalton exited as well and helped me grab my bags from the
trunk. Alex’s face was fixed in a stern mask, greeting Dalton with pure
formality.

“Hello, Pfc.
Dalton.”

“Hello, Sgt.”
Dalton tried to smile, looking very nervous as he handed my bags over to Alex.

The thick, heated
air was beginning to choke me. I didn’t like the way this was playing out, and
I didn’t want it to fester.

“I hope you have
a great time this weekend, Dalton. Remember, just enjoy it.” I hugged him tight
and saw him off. Dalton got back into the car, and I watched it drive off
before turning around to Alex. He stood to the side, holding my bags in his
hands.

“So you told
Dalton?” he asked, glaring at me.

“Yeah. You told
Riley. I needed someone to lean on, too. And besides, he’s known for a bit. Like
you say, he’s in my corner.”

He blew out a
long breath,
then
walked past me, up the driveway. I
quickly followed behind.

“He’s not going
to say anything.” I tried reassuring him, seeing that the sight of Dalton had
rubbed him wrong.

“I just don’t
want too many people
knowing.
Speculating
is one thing, but knowing is another.”

I stopped him,
then
kissed his lips, biting on the bottom a couple of times
and licking the marks. “Simmer down. We are fine.”

He smiled and
continued the walk, leading me into the house. When I walked in, the aroma of
freshly baked pizza hit me, sending my stomach gurgling with the need to be
fed. I had been so anxious about getting out and getting my weekend started
that I had forgotten to eat. Alex walked in behind me, stopping to kiss my
cheek.

“Make yourself at
home. Pizza should be about ready. I’m going to put your bags in our room.”

“Our room?” I
asked, looking over at him.

“Yes.
Our
room.”

I walked further
into the house, hearing voices and a female giggle. My stomach churned, and not
with hunger. When I stepped into the kitchen and looked over at the living
room, Riley was sitting on the couch with a very petite blonde sitting on his
lap. He was whispering things into her ear and had his hand down her shirt. I
didn’t want to interrupt whatever they had going on. He looked up and saw me
walking away.

“Hey, Bennett.”

I turned around,
hoping to hide the embarrassment flooding my face.

“Hi, Riley,” I replied,
awkwardly smiling at him and his female companion. She swatted his hand away
and stood, briskly walking over to where I was standing.

“I’m Natasha, Nat
for short.”

Her bubbly
personality put me at ease. I had to remember that I wasn’t the student screwing
my instructor this weekend. I reached out my hand and shook hers. She was
short, maybe five feet tall, with large, ample breasts that clung to her V-neck
tank top, and a pair of shorts that barely covered her ass. Her arms were
elegantly decorated in quarter length sleeves of elaborate flowers and
butterflies, with pink and orange shading. The nose ring topped off her
ensemble,
probably making her the prettiest girl I had ever
seen.

“It’s nice to
meet you, Natasha. I’m Cassie.”

“Are you a
Marine?” she asked, her eyes taking in the length of me.

“Yes.”

“Oh, wow. That’s
bad ass
. You’re probably the hottest fucking female Marine
I’ve ever seen. And I see quite a few where I work.”

“Where do you
work?” I asked, wanting to know more about this girl that had me so intrigued.

“Custom Ink, just
outside the back gate.”

Just then Alex
walked into the room, coming up from behind me and wrapping his arms around my
waist, nuzzling his nose into my neck.

“Can I fuck you
right now?” he asked, sending chills down my spine and blood to my clit.

“Don’t be rude,
Alex. You can fuck her all night. I want to get to know her,” Natasha
interrupted before I even had a chance to tell him no. I liked her; she had a
lot of spunk.

“Riley, come get
your cock blocking fucking chick,” Alex said, turning for the kitchen and
grabbing two oven mitts to pull the pizza from the oven. He turned back around
and smiled at Natasha. “You know I love ya, Nat.”

“Yeah, yeah! Hurry
up and feed me, you asshole,” she replied. The banter between them calmed me. It
seemed that they were quite comfortable with one another and that things would
not turn awkward.

We ate pizza and
had a few beers. Riley explained how he and Natasha had met when he went in for
a tattoo, and she had been the only one with an open hour time slot. He said
he’d been leery because he’d never had a chick do it before, but the second she
stuck out her tits, lowered her eyes, shook his hand and sucked his fingers on
release, he’d been a goner. The story couldn’t have been less romantic if they
tried, but I found myself laughing and liking both of them even more.

“Let’s play Phase
Ten,” Natasha called out, running into the hallway closet and coming back with
a deck of cards, ones I had never seen before. “Chris, grab the Jose and four
shot glasses.” Her mention of his first name caught me off guard. She wasn’t a
Marine, so it was normal that she would refer to him that way, but the use of
it seemed weird and a little out of place.

“What is this
game?” I asked, once again showing that I knew nothing about anything that most
people liked and participated in.

“It’s Phase Ten. It’s
a frustratingly, fabulous game. Here is your phase card,” she said, tossing a
card at me that held ten different phases. I looked it over, none of it meaning
a damn thing to me. “You’ll get dealt a hand, and then with that hand you have
to try and make each phase.
One at a time.
You lay a
card or pick up from the deck, and then discard. The person with no cards left
wins the hand. But I play with a twist. If you don’t get your phase, not only
do you have to repeat it, but you also have to take a shot.”

“So anyone can
get their phase?” I asked, still slightly confused.

“Yes. We could
all get our phase, and then we move on to the next one.”

I sort of got it.
Alex sat back in his chair, eyes glued on me, lowly hooded by his dark lashes,
with a deep smirk on his face. He knew how out of my element all of this was
for me and was probably hoping I would lose. I was hoping for beginners luck.

The first few
hands were easy. I caught on rather quickly, easily getting my phases and
avoiding the dreaded Jose. After a few more hands and a few too many stuck on
phase four, I was three shots in and slowly feeling the buzz from the alcohol. Natasha
was leading everyone, moving all the way up to phase seven. Alex and Riley were
both right behind her on phase six. The room was beginning to get hot, leaving
my skin damp, even with the air blowing from the vents and the ceiling fan
circling overhead. The guys kept passing glances at one another, small covert
eye twitches letting me know that something was up. Every skip card that they
got was given to me, putting me further behind, leaving me with a multitude of
cards and unable to complete my phase. I probably took three more shots before
my body felt like it was overheating and I removed my tank top, without even
thinking.

“What the hell
are you doing?” Alex asked, his voice a deep growl while picking up my top and
sweeping over to me. I looked at Riley who had a goofy grin on his face, and
Natasha who just looked aroused.

“It’s hot in
here.”

“You’re drunk. Enough
cards for the night.”

“I’m good. I want
to keep going.”

Riley filled his
glass with tequila and took the shot for good measure.
He and
Alex had only taken three
,
Natasha had only taken two
.
Alex picked me up from the chair and held me in his arms, bidding the two of
them goodnight. He burst through the door, his big, strapping body holding me
close as he walked me into the room and gently lay me down on the bed. The fan
was turning at full speed, sending much needed air in my direction. Music
played from his phone, the smooth rock music infiltrating my ears and rocking
me to a melodious sleep. I awoke a few minutes later, or so it seemed, to Alex
standing over by his dresser with nothing but beads of water coating his light
caramel skin.

“You want to take
a shower?” he asked, turning around and giving me an eyeful of his thick and
wondrous cock. I shook my head no, using my index finger to signal him over to
me. He sat down on the bed, running his hands through my
sweat
dampened
hair that now left slight tendrils sticking to parts of my
face. “What’s running through your mind?”

I peered up into
his golden hued eyes, the gleam inside making me want to jump him at that very
second. I was much too drunk to make such sudden movements, so I grabbed his
head, pulled him down to me, and licked him up. I licked his lips, his nose,
his cheeks, then gently kissed each spot, urging him on and spurring a quick
and bulging erection from him. He wrapped one arm around my waist, the other
going to my hair, and began kissing me with tenacious want. His tongue, velvety
soft with just hint of tequila, took my mouth and claimed me as his hand
grabbed hold of my ass and squeezed hard, making me moan with pleasurable pain.

Alex slowly
pulled away, removing the rest of my clothes and nuzzling down in between my
legs when suddenly, stupidity hit me.

Now would be the
best time to get some things off my chest.

I grabbed his
head and pushed him away. His frustrated, panting body sat up, his eyes glaring
down on me with aroused irritation.

“What?” he asked,
trying to hide the annoyance laced inside.

“I just want to
know. Why? Why Castillo?”

He shut his eyes
and blew out a breath. “You aren’t really asking me that right now, are you?”

“Yes, I am. I
need to know.”

He shook his head
and sat up on the bed, looking down on me.

“I was fucking
stupid, and she was readily available. I told you, I thought I could fuck you
out of my system, but I realized then that I couldn’t even take another chick’s
mouth on me. I’m sorry. I don’t know how else to make you believe that.”

I watched him
silently go through all sorts of emotions. This probably wasn’t the best time
to be asking about all of this, but I had liquid courage and a plethora of
questions that needed to be asked.

“So you went out
that night looking to fuck someone?”

He shut his eyes
again. I could tell the inquisition was growing too strong for him.

“Yes. I did.”

I lay quiet,
unsure how I felt about his answer.

“But I’ll tell
you this, even though there was no exclusivity between us, it felt wrong. I
hated it, and I put a stop to it. You’re
in
me. I need you, Blondie, and I’m going
to do everything to make you realize that.”

The rest of the
questions I had in mind dissipated into tiny particles with his words, filling
my head with insignificant specs of nothing. His words flowed out with deep
sincerity, and the look in eyes shifted to adoration as he spoke about me.
 

I sat up, the
alcohol rushing to my head and leaving me in a slight daze. My hand caressed
Alex’s strong bicep, the feel of his body making me want him me even more.

“I need you
to—“

“Shut up and fuck
me, Alex.”
 

He pounced,
pushing me back down on the bed and hovering over me. I stared up at him, my
drunken haze seemingly gone as he smiled down on me, shaking his head.

“This is the only
time I will take a command from you. You understand that, Pfc. Bennett?”