Soldier With Benefits (Military Men Book 2) (8 page)

Chapter Five

Five days later

Louie hit the shower early, untangling his body from Mac after another session of lovemaking. Every time they returned from a grueling day, they had sex. Most days, he admitted, although they were both careful about it. Sometimes they hit the gym first, either lifting weights, pummeling a boxing bag, or sprinting up and down the basketball court with the others. At other times, they met in their room and sweated out their stress by bumping body parts. Louie lived for those moments, and it was starting to eat him alive not being able to tell Mac how he felt.

“Hey, Louie. You’re up early,” Simon said.

“Yeah, couldn’t sleep.” Not without wanting to fuck Mac again. Holding her close and trying not to wake her had driven him to the shower. Luckily, the cold water had done the trick before Simon arrived.

“It must be difficult rooming with Mac,” Simon said.

Louie adjusted the water to warm and grabbed the soap. “It’s not so bad now. After seeing the way she handles herself, it’s easier to think of her as one of the guys.”

“And that’s why you’re up so early taking a cold shower?”

Louie wanted to tell him to fuck off but knew Simon would suspect something. He needed more finesse. “Can’t help being a male.”

Simon snorted. It could’ve been a laugh. Louie wasn’t a hundred percent sure on that.

“We still training this morning?” Simon stripped and turned on another shower.

Louie appreciated the change of subject. “Yeah. And a recon this afternoon. The news company wants to film out west of the city.”

“Don’t tell me. They want to go to the latest bombing site.”

“No, they want to interview some of the villagers out there. See how they’re getting on with their day-to-day lives.” Louie didn’t believe it for a moment. Carolina Eastern had an agenda and it involved Mac.

“But it’s near the bombing site?”

“Yeah.” Louie turned off the tap and grabbed his towel. After roughly drying himself, he wrapped the damp towel around his waist, scooped up his shower bag and headed back to his room.

Mac was still asleep when he entered and he tiptoed around, trying not to wake her. He’d never met a soldier like her. Just about every soldier he met slept lightly. Not Mac. Despite being a heavy sleeper, the moment she opened her eyes she was alert and hit the ground running.

Louie dressed and powered up his laptop before checking his watch. He crouched beside Mac and resisted the urge to kiss her awake. “Mac.” He shook her shoulder, and when she didn’t stir, he shook her a fraction harder and raised his voice. “Mac, wakey, wakey.” A third hard shake did the trick.

“Is it time to get up?”

“You have time for a shower before breakfast.” Louie stood and moved over to his laptop.

With a groan, Mac rolled to her feet. She lifted her arms above her head in an unconscious stretch. Louie couldn’t help enjoying the show. He cocked a hip against the desk and unabashedly stared, a smile playing around his lips. He loved her hair loose and tumbling around her shoulders. Her breasts bore a couple of bruises, small suction marks he’d made. It gave him a sense of satisfaction, knowing they were there, hidden beneath her clothes while they went about their daily work.

Her breasts pulled to tight nubs, affected by the cooler morning air. Sleek muscles rippled as she stretched, freezing when she noticed his attention.

“Having fun?”

Louie ignored the frigid tone. “Hell yeah.”

“Bastard.” Mac pulled on a long T-shirt and a pair of baggy shorts. After grabbing a towel and a shower bag, she slammed from their room.

Grinning, he signed into his email account. The first email was from Nikolai. He scanned it. Nothing new there. No one Nikolai had talked to knew much about Mac, although Nikolai hoped to catch up with some of the soldiers she served with at a reunion dinner coming up later in the month. He scanned the details again and stopped at one thing he’d missed. Mac’s father had been a soldier. He was still alive, but her mother had died twenty years ago. Interesting. He’d ask Nikolai to research that angle for him.

Aware of the need to hurry, Louie fired off a return email, sending his special love to Nikolai’s wife, Summer, because he knew it would piss off his friend. He was very protective of his wife, but an adventurer at heart, Summer didn’t make it easy for him.

Louie signed off just as Mac arrived back from her shower.

“You put love bites all over my breasts,” she snarled at him. “You’re lucky no one noticed but me.”

“I’m sorry.” Not true, but he wasn’t stupid enough to admit it. He’d never acted possessive about a woman before. Until Mac. He hated the other men seeing her naked in the shower. At least he could touch when they were in private. But if Mac re-upped for another six months…

He had to change her mind. Somehow. Even though the woman handled herself better than most, he’d worry about her.

“Hell,” she said in disgust. “You’re not sorry at all. What is wrong with you? Do you think the others will respect me if they think we’re fucking each other? They’ll start watching me like I’m a bug in a jar. I’ll have to prove myself all over again.”

She was right. It wasn’t fair, but that was the way it went. “I’m sorry. Okay? Why don’t you tell them you did it when you fell yesterday?”

“If they ask questions I will, but I doubt they’ll believe me.”

“They will after training today,” Louie said. “We have a grueling session in store. You won’t be the only one with bruises by the end of the day. Do you want to check your email before I turn off the laptop? You have time if you’re quick.”

Mac dressed rapidly in her neutral-colored shirt and trousers. “Thanks. That would be great.”

“I’ll leave you to it. Power the laptop down for me once you’re done.” Without waiting for her reply, he left their room.

Halfway down the passage, he smelled the coffee. Most of the team was already there, plowing through a huge breakfast.

“Hey, Louie. Word is you and Mac have something going. Is that true?” one of the men called.

Shit. Louie forced a huge grin. “Aside from the fact that Mac’s fiancé would likely try to gut me if I touched his woman, the lady isn’t interested in me.”

“And what about the bruises?”

“What bruises?” Hell, they’d noticed the bruises but hadn’t said anything to Mac. Yet.

The guy gestured at his chest.

Louie turned away to pour a coffee. “No idea. She fell pretty heavy at training yesterday.”

“So you didn’t look?” another asked.

“Not polite,” Louie said. “Like I said, she has a man. She’s not interested in any of us.”

“Damn straight,” Mac said entering the room. “Why would I want any of you when Sam is waiting for me at home?”

“You really engaged?”

“Yep,” Mac said. “Getting married soon.”

“Why are you here?”

“Why are you lot so nosy?” Mac countered.

“Not much else to do.” They all laughed at that.

“I’m here for the money, the same as most of you. And you do realize I’m doing you all a favor sharing with Louie? The boss snores like a freight train.”

Louie grinned at the hoots, playing along. Mac wouldn’t know because she slept through anything, especially after sex. He shrugged, accepting the teasing and winked at Mac on the sly. They could say what they liked about him. It was better than letting them hone their wits on her.

Mac moved up the mess line beside him, the good humor absent now that her back was to the rest of the men. When he looked closer, he noticed the faint redness of her eyes. Hell, had she been crying?

“You okay?” he asked gruffly. Like most men, crying women scared him half to death. He never knew what to do and usually ended up making things worse. Yeah, he had a healthy respect for women and tears.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” The snap in her tone warned him to tread lightly.

“No reason.”

“I’m fine. What time are we back from training?”

“Only a couple of hours today. Should be back by eleven at the latest.”

Mac gave a clipped nod and moved away to join some of the others. Louie wanted to follow but forced himself to take a seat with Simon.

“Have you seen a photo of her fiancé?” Simon asked.

“Nah, Mac’s a pretty private person.”

“Don’t you think that’s weird? Everyone else carries a photo of their wife or kids or girlfriend. Don’t you think Mac would show everyone?”

Good point, but then he knew Mac didn’t have a fiancé. It was a cover to keep her fellow soldiers away. Not a bad strategy. Producing a photo would bolster her story and give it the ring of truth. Maybe a ring as well, although not many of the married security force wore rings on their fingers. “As I said, she’s a private person. You want to know, you ask her. I’m not about to snoop through her things.”

“So, you’d leave your room open so one of us could do the snooping?” one of the guys asked.

“Hell no,” Louie said. “I didn’t come down in the last shower. That would give you free range to rummage through my stuff as well.”

The banter continued throughout the meal, a way of dealing with the stress of their job. Louie kept a surreptitious eye on Mac and noticed she didn’t eat much, pushing her food around her plate. Something had happened after he left the room. She’d intended to check her email, which suggested she’d received news from home. He wondered how to handle the situation. With most of his men, it was easy. He called them into his office and they talked the problem through. Other times, his men approached him. Personal problems wreaked havoc on a soldier, taking their head out of the game. They were a team. They relied on each other. One screw up could mean loss of their VIP or that one or all of them died.

The situation with Mac was different because of their personal history. Louie scowled down at his plate. He’d play it by ear. Observe. It was the only thing he could do in the circumstances.

* * * * *

Missing
. Her father was missing from the home. At some stage during the night, he’d climbed out of bed, dressed and wandered outside. The director of the nursing home had assured Mac when she’d phoned in a panic that they were searching for him and had called the police.

Mac was worried sick and couldn’t do a thing from half a world away. She couldn’t leave Iraq on a whim, had known it when she signed up for six months. She didn’t know what to do. Somehow, she managed to get through the training session by channeling her impotent fury and sense of helplessness.

Mac worked through the training exercises with focus. A military machine. She’d scared the hell out of her team with her icy precision and concentration. A bitter laugh escaped as she strode toward their room. She hoped Louie turned up rather than heading to his office or going to the gym. Restless energy hummed through her limbs, and she couldn’t keep still. She yanked the door open and did her usual pacing.

A glance at her watch told her it was the middle of the night in New Zealand. Mac powered up Louie’s laptop anyway to check her email. Nothing. She fired off an email and tried not to think about her father, confused and alone in an unfamiliar part of the city.

The door flew open just as she hit send. Their eyes met and Mac’s heart turned a hard somersault, slamming against her ribs. The hungry glint in his eyes, the hard mask of desire he didn’t try to hide told her they wanted the same thing.

She stood, quivering, her womb clenching in a hard pulse of need, her breasts exquisitely sensitive beneath the plain cotton of her bra. Each breath was an exercise in torture.

The lock on the door turned, the click loud in the tension-filled room. With two giant steps, Louie crowded her, pushing her up against the wall, his mouth slamming down on hers. She gripped his head, melting into his chest and molding herself to his body. This was what she wanted. Hard and fast. The edge of roughness. His tongue thrusting into her mouth, his dark flavor heady and alluring.

She moaned, ripped his shirt from his trousers and slid her hands over his warm flesh. This was what she needed. Without pulling away from the kiss, she fumbled with his fly, desperate to free his cock and feel the smooth skin spearing against her belly. He winced at her feverish attempts to get off his clothes.

Louie ripped his mouth off hers. “Jesus, woman. Let me do that.”

“Sorry.” With Louie taking care of his clothes, she went to work on her own, bending to unlace her boots and unfasten her trousers.

Louie was ready before she’d started on her shirt and bra. He advanced, crowding her against the wall again, taking her mouth in another hard kiss. The surface was cold against her arse, the thin panties no barrier to the chill. She started when Louie roughly spread her legs, sighed when his fingers stroked across her swollen folds. A zing of pleasure shot through her, the friction of his fingers on the thin cotton a tantalizing drag over her flesh.

Not enough. Not nearly enough.

As if he read her desperation, he yanked her panties, ripping them off her body and running a questing finger the length of her cleft. He grunted at the warm arousal, thrusting one finger inside her while he unfastened the buttons of her shirt. Seconds later, he shoved her bra aside and sucked hard on one nipple.

Mac moaned, not caring who heard, merely wanting to drive away her pain and to feel instead. She arched into his touch. So good. Louie knew just how to touch her, he knew what she liked. She almost cried when he lifted his head and removed his finger. A protest built on her lips then the crown of his cock pressed at her entrance. He lifted her effortlessly, pressing her against the wall and working his way into her tight channel. She flexed around him, a needy cry bursting from between her lips. Her fingers curled into his shoulders, nails digging into his flesh.

“Too much?”

“Louie, I need you. Fuck me hard. Make it go away.” She bit into the cushion of her bottom lip, aghast at her words. He’d ask questions, maybe not now but later. To her relief, he started to plunge into her body. Hard, deep strokes that made them both gasp. She shuddered, the rub of his cock against her delicate tissues almost turning her inside out. Her eyes fluttered, closed and she sank into sensation. Pleasure so good it hurt. She drowned in the desire, the building need. The bliss. Wedged between him and the wall she writhed, the delectable agony almost too much. Then the tension snapped and she flew, falling apart in his arms, shuddering through her orgasm. Louie shafted her deep. Two more hard strokes and she felt a flood of wetness. They both stilled, breathing hard. Then Louie crushed her mouth under his before gentling the kiss and moving back. He lifted her off his cock, the resulting emptiness bringing a frown.