G.I. BABY (10 page)

She got up from the floor and quietly left.

He thought she was just going to the bathroom, but when she didn’t return after a few minutes, he got up and looked for her.

He found her reading a book on the sofa in the master’s bedroom.

He sat near her feet, touching her toes with his fingers. “Hey, you left me there.”

“Mmmm,” she simply replied and continued reading, ignoring him.

He sighed. She was giving him the cold shoulder and he didn’t want that just a day after their week together was over. He took the book from her hands.

“Hey…” she protested.

He picked her up.

“Craig, put me down—”

He brought her to the bed and lay beside her.

“So, you wanna hear war stories?”

Her eyes dropped to his chest but went back to meet his again. “Only if you want to tell…”

"Have you heard of ISIS?”

She nodded. “Very bad people.”

“That’s what I’m busy about now. To protect this country and the world from those bad people. They’re relentless and very cruel, so yeah, it’s very hard for us soldiers to fight them.”

“You’ve been in the Middle East war?”

“For more than a decade now, yeah.”

“Oh Craig!” Her reaction surprised him. She suddenly hugged him, burying her face in the crook of his neck. “I didn’t know! I can’t imagine…Oh God, I’m so sorry!” She sounded really distressed.
 

“Hey…” In all his times in the war, only Bella and his nieces had given him emotional comfort. Never another soul. Never a woman he was sexually intimate with. This was alien to him, a woman feeling for him, trying to comfort his battered body and soul.

She pulled away and looked at him earnestly, her eyes moist. “I’m sorry for even asking. That was so stupid of me.”

“No. I’ll tell you what I do. Not all but the gist of it.”

“Okay…”
 

“Iraq had enjoyed relative peace after Bin Laden’s ass got blown to bits in Pakistan. You heard about that? “

She nodded. “All over the news. Is it true, though?”

He smiled. “Smart question, sugar. Even I cannot answer that with absolute certainty but the Taliban and al-Qaeda have been neutralized, so let’s presume that the ole bastard’s indeed gone. However, it was a short reprieve. Have you been watching the news lately?”

“Some. Yes.”

“The ISIS or ISIL forces are getting stronger worldwide. They’re expanding from their Syrian stronghold with ominous speed. They’re now making violent statements in Afghanistan, Libya, Israel, Africa and at the borders of Iraq, terrorizing civilians.”

“Yes, I’ve read about that on the internet.”

“The president was not keen on getting the US troops into this new war on terror again after pulling out of Iraq several years ago but it was inevitable. Last year, the US Air Force was already heavily involved in the Syrian Civil War. I was part of the US-led air strikes on ISIL forces in that region.”

“Oh Craig. It’s really war out there again?”

“Pretty much.”

“How often do you fly?”

“Often.”

“Have you always wanted to fly planes?”

“I’ve always been fascinated by planes. I got a license when I was eighteen. I thought at first that my decision for joining the Air Force has been fueled by my father’s indifference toward me. But after receiving my wings from The Academy, I immediately took special and extensive trainings to fly fighter jets. I knew then it was what I really wanted to do. My first specialty was the F-15 Eagle, the most active all-weather jet fighter in the Air Force. The Iraq War was happening in those days and combat pilots were needed over there badly.”

“You wanted to go to war right away?”

“Yeah, but I guess I didn’t have any choice, too. Uncle Sam wasted no time in testing my skills and I was eager to apply my abilities in actual combat. What better place to let loose my eager, restless wings but on the hottest spot in those times, smack-dab in the middle of the Iraq War. Operation Iraqi Freedom was my baptism of fire into being a full-fledged combat pilot and I’ve loved my chosen profession. I embraced it with deep-seated patriotism.”

She grasped his hand and entwined their fingers together. “This is a hero’s hand. I’m honored to be holding this right now.”

In that moment, something inside him loosened, opening like a tight fist clenched around his heart for so long.
 
He was a battle-hardened soldier and sympathy was a useless emotion for him to give or to receive, for it weakened him, but now, he found out that he liked the feeling. He felt it like a gentle touch inside of him, soothing the parts of him that were damaged, and it was almost all of him.

“No. Not a hero’s hand. Far from it.”

“Don’t argue with me,” she said in a voice thick with emotion.

He smiled and kissed her. Gently.

But she didn’t want gentle.

Story-telling was definitely over.

She straddled him, tore at the buttons of his shirt. She cussed and grew impatient, yanking the lapels hard, sending buttons flying.

She removed every scrap of clothing from her body, her motions jerky.

He framed her face with his palms to slow her down. “Andi…”

She fused their lips together, her tongue ramming down his throat. Fire flashed in his lower gut, igniting him.

Their tongues clashed, preluding another duel they both can’t wait to engage into.

She pulled away and dragged his shorts down his legs. She was between his legs in seconds, holding his cock firmly in her palms, stroking him to full mast in no time.

Then he was deep in her mouth, touching the back of her throat.

Motherffff….

His toes curled. They’d been at it like rabbits but every time they’d start all over again, it always felt brand new.

He could only stare at her.

Her eyes remained connected with his as she pleasured him like he was her sole reason for existing, her lips and tongue conveying an urgency and desperation to connect with him in the most elemental way.

He was a time bomb ticking towards an inevitable explosion and she controlled his detonator.

“Andi…baby…slow down…” he pleaded.

But she didn’t slow down, didn’t let go. Not even for a second.

He grasped fistfuls of her hair as his orgasm swallowed him whole.

He unloaded in her mouth with a guttural shout.

His cum shot with ferocity down her throat, along with it, something from deep inside him. He didn’t know what it was, only that he’d never get it back.

It was in her now.

Deep inside her.

Hers to keep.

——*****——

How do you say goodbye to great sex?
Especially when you hadn’t had your fill of it yet? Now she knew the feeling. She’d scoffed at her friends blabbering about their exes, lamenting about how they missed the hot sex. She was not experienced yet then but she’d always thought they were full of drama. She had always believed that sex was overrated, that people can certainly live without it.

Boy, was she wrong. There was a man who can make her sing the highest notes. For whatever cosmic fluke there was, he seemed to know exactly what her body wanted. He knew the right moves, the exact pressure, the best position to bring her towards incredible orgasm every time. Without fail.

She definitely stood corrected.
 

How can she ever forget him?

Was this what happened to her mother?

The thought left her cold.

Very cold.

No.

No way.

She will not be like that woman.

Craig Walker was a pleasurable means to an end.
 

Nothing more.
 

——*****——

He forced himself to stop kissing her.
She was at the door, about to leave.

“Listen, Andi—”

No. Don’t do it.

“Hush. Don’t make this hard.”

Listen to her.

But his common sense just wouldn’t. “I want your number.”

“Not interested in an encore.”

His temper rose at her outright rejection. It was strange coming from her after she’d spent the entire week screaming his name, demanding for more. “Liar.”

She smirked. “Why, officer? Is it so hard on your ego that a woman can actually say no to you?”

He clenched his jaw.
 

Shut up now, idiot. Let her go. Just another pussy. You can have three the moment she’s gone. Call Tommy for the real pros.

His fingers clamped around her wrist like a vise. “Give me your number.”

“You’re breaking the rules.”

“They’re not mine.”

“You agreed to them.”

“You broke your own rules first by asking questions.”

She sighed. “Let me go.”

He didn’t.

“I’ll just take out my pen.”

Moments later she was slowly scribbling her number on his palm. The sensation made him hard again he was tempted to back her on the wall and fuck her standing in the hallway.

In the end he let her go, fists clenched at his sides, fighting the urge to pull her back. He was used to people walking away from him, mainly for the fact that he told them to go. This was new to him. Watching someone leave him on their own volition, detesting every step she took.

How can she walk away?

But how can she not?

What was it between them?

Nothing.

He felt strange. Helpless. Like something was slipping from his grasp and he was powerless to stop it. Why he wanted to hold on to her longer escaped him. What more did he want from her? He’d fucked her more than a dozen times, way past his limit in casual sex.

He should leave it at that.

He turned way and entered his apartment again, shutting her out.

He stared at his palm.

A few numbers. Their last connection.

Shaking his head, he took a shower.

CHAPTER
7

IT TOOK HIM ONLY TWO DAYS
of wrangling with his pride to dial her number.

But it wouldn’t connect. It was a prepaid cell number so it wasn’t searchable.

Swallowing his pride, he finally went to see Tommy who’d been calling him all week. Calls that he all ignored.
 

The Shooter bar was full that night. He immediately felt suffocated. The carefree female laughter, the scent of smoke, the atmosphere of total relaxation made him jumpy, as if it was a deception, a decoy, and any moment the entire place will blow up.

Fuck, he needed to see his shrink. He knew what it was. Usually, after a tour, he would meet with one of the shrinks assigned to Air Force combat pilots and de-clog his mind of desert filth. He’d skipped that this time, even if it was mandatory. He’d broken a lot of rules in his profession.

No amount of expensive psychiatry can erase all that he’d done and seen, anyway. Too horrible to put in words. Only time. Maybe. Or maybe he was stuck with it till the end.

“Man, where the fuck have you been? Been calling you!”

Tommy gave him a bear hug. They did the usual brotherly fist bump and shoulder-clapping.

“I’m so fuck happy you showed up, bro! You’ve been missing a lot of action! C’mon, let’s go to the bar.” Tommy was in his element, the king of the Miami club circuit.
 

They made their way to the bar amid bodies wrapped in skin-tight sorry excuse for dresses they might as well be naked. Some deliberately rubbed their saline-bloated assets on him. He avoided looking anybody in the eye to acknowledge their blatant flirting. His cock was not interested. Strange. And not good.

Tommy went inside the bar counter to personally serve him his usual drink, Jameson on the rocks. “Place’s packed tonight. Seen anybody you like?”