Cat Snips - a Short Story Collection by Cat Johnson (11 page)

David let out a groan as long
absent sensations assaulted him. She bit his chest hard while pulling
him deeper. He tangled his fingers in her hair, yanked it to the side
and retaliated with a bite of his own. With a moan that cut straight
to his core, she angled her head to give him better access.

Feeling like a teenager again,
David worked the spot below her ear until he’d left his mark.
He pulled back, admired his work, then let his gaze move down her
body to appreciate the rest of her. In particular, he took in the
tantalizing view of where their bodies met.

He continued to thrust into her
like there was no end in sight. Like he was eighteen again and he
could go all night. As she cried out her pleasure beneath him, he
knew she’d let him.

Her body tensed. She grabbed his
hips and held him tight against her. He didn’t fight it as he
felt her body clutching his. He squeezed his eyes shut and enjoyed
her muscles pulsing around him. When her grip eased up enough he
could move again, he rocked into her hard and fast until he roared
with his own release.

Collapsing heavily and breathless
upon her, David laughed, his heart feeling whole again for the first
time in a while.

“
Sleep now.” She
stroked his hair as her voice poured warm and thick over him.

David opened his eyes to a room
flooded with brilliant morning sunlight. Her words filled the room
but they had a distant quality. He turned his head and saw the radio
was on. It was the source of his siren’s voice. She wasn’t
there at all.

He frowned as memories crept into
his head. He still lay on top of his neatly made bed in his PT
shorts. Reaching down, he plucked sticky fabric away from his skin.

It had been a dream. An
incredible one that had him coming in his sleep like a pubescent boy,
but still just a dream.

Running a hand over his face and
hair in frustration, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. The
voice from the radio chattered on, each syllable making his body
crave more of what he apparently had never had. Her.

“
We’re broadcasting
live this morning from the PX. Come on down and join me. We’ve
got t-shirts to give away…”

Out of bed and on his hurried way
to the bathroom, he didn’t hear the rest of what she said. It
was crazy, yeah, but he had to meet her.

Faster than even when he’d
been under fire, David finished his shower, got dressed and was out
the door. Sprinting across the post, he was out of breath by the time
the radio station van parked in front of the PX came into view. He
dodged around the vehicle to see a small crowd pressing toward banks
of speakers and a woman seated behind a table.

Long chestnut hair pulled into a
knot at the back of her head. Dimples a man could get lost in. That
voice, amplified so it filled the air and surrounded him. Defying all
logic, the woman of his dreams sat before him, chatting with the
crowd.

The station took a break to play
some music and someone official-looking organized the visitors into a
line. Numbly he got on the end, not knowing what it was for, just
that it would lead him to her. Eventually, it was his turn to stand
before her. She smiled that smile that was familiar even though there
was no earthly way it could be.

“
Hi. You look like you need
an extra-large.” She reached for a pile next to her on the
table and plucked a t-shirt off the top. “Here you go.”

Blindly, he reached out and took
it from her, unable to draw his gaze from her face. “Thanks.”

She smiled brightly. “You’re
very welcome. I’m taking questions for when we go back on air
after the break. Anything you’d like to ask?”

“
Um, yeah. Can I buy you a
cup of coffee or…lunch when you’re done here?”
David swallowed hard, waiting for her probable rejection.

Her surprise was evident from her
expression. The long pause during which she didn’t answer
didn’t bode well, yet still a spark of hope lived inside him.

Finally, she nodded. “Yeah.
I think I’d enjoy that.”

A wide grin he couldn’t
control and didn’t want to spread across his face, stretching
from ear to ear. “Me too.

The End…or just the
beginning?

FIREWORKS

“
Who the hell schedules a
leadership training over the fourth of July?” Leaning back from
the computer, Joe huffed out an annoyed breath. “And we’ve
got freaking homework to do too. On a holiday. It’s
un-American.”

“
Forget about the holiday.
Who the fuck decided a training at a post in Georgia in July was a
good idea?” Brad wiped the sweat from his face one more time.
It figured the air conditioning in their room would be on the fritz.
Just his luck. Sometimes a guy just couldn’t catch a break.

“
You northerners are big
sissies when it comes to the heat. Don’t forget, I grew up not
far from here. This is nothing. Once when I was a kid, my brother and
I fried an egg on the sidewalk. That was a hot summer.”

“
I guess I’m supposed
to count myself lucky then that it’s only in the high nineties,
and not egg frying weather?” Brad cocked a brow as the sweat
trickling down his back soaked through his third shirt of the day.

“
That’s right. You
should.” Joe’s chair scraped across the navy carpet that
had seen better days and he got up. “That’s it. I have to
get out of this room.”

“
Good idea. Where are we
going?” Brad stood too. He wasn’t getting anything done
anyway. Even the t-shirt and shorts he wore felt like body armor in
this heat.

“
One of the guys in the
mess hall was talking about going to see the fireworks tonight. I
reckon that will at least make it feel more like the holiday would be
if I were back home. Though at home I’d be able to have a
six-pack of cold beers and a hot girl or two while I watched the
neighbors try not to blow off their fingers or set the woods on
fire.”

A hot girl was always nice, but
right now, just the mention of an icy beer had Brad’s mouth
watering. Even without the beer, getting out of their oven of a room
sounded good to him. “All right. Let’s go. It’s got
to be cooler outside than it is in here.”

Shaking his head, Joe led them
out the door with a mumbled, “Sissy Yankees. Can’t take a
little heat.”

A quick questioning of one of the
soldiers on their floor let them know the location of the fireworks
display. A detour to the bowling alley for a quick pitcher quenched
his thirst, and by full dark, Brad was much happier as he and Joe
carefully picked their way through the many spectators seated on the
grass.

He glanced around. Quite a crowd
had assembled. “Where do you want to sit?”

Joe grinned broadly and cocked
his head to the left. “Right over there.”

Brad followed his gaze, and then
saw the reason for his roommate’s decisiveness. “You and
your red heads.”

“
Hey, don’t knock it
until you try it, my friend. My first girl ever was a red head. Mary
Jo Warren. She was more than a handful in every way, if you know what
I mean. Curves like a racetrack. Thighs like tree trunks. When she
wrapped those legs around me, I thought I’d died and gone to
heaven. She spoiled me for all other women.”

Brad raised a brow. In the two
years he’d known Joe, the man had never shown as much
enthusiasm as he did when describing this Mary Jo. Though his tale
did explain why he always gravitated to more curvaceous women, and
whenever possible, red heads. “And…what happened to you
and her?”

“
I joined up. She cried her
eyes out, swore she’d never forgive me and I guess she didn’t.
I went to boot camp and never saw or heard from her again. That was
fifteen years ago.” Joe sighed.

The first of the fireworks shot
into the air. “Come on. Let’s go take a seat next to your
red head.”

Joe grinned. “She’s a
bit on the thin side for me, but hey, who am I to be picky?”

“
Exactly.” Brad
laughed.

Joe was a chick magnet. Brad
figured there were two scenarios for tonight. Joe would go home with
this woman to her place, or Brad would be homeless for the night
while his roommate snuck her into their shared barracks room. Oh
well. It would be too hot to sleep in there anyway.

“
Hey there. Mind if we
sit?” Joe flashed her his patented grin, sure to reel in the
ladies.

Surprise crossed her face before
she nodded. “Uh, sure. Go ahead.”

“
I’m Joe and this
here is my friend Brad.”

Waving a greeting as Joe
introduced them, he couldn’t help but wonder what had this girl
so flustered. She was pretty in a girl-next-door way. He would think
she should be used to guys hitting on her.

“
Um, hi. I’m…MJ.”
She shook the hand Joe had extended.

“
MJ. I like it. Like the
girl on Spiderman.” Joe took his seat on the grass, though Brad
noted he managed to have his thigh touching hers.

“
Yeah, I guess so. I never
thought of that before.” She shot Brad a quick glance then
leaned back on her arms as the sky lit with more bursts of color.
Just when he assumed she was done talking and Joe’s efforts had
been shot down, she asked, “So, you guys stationed at Fort
Benning?”

Joe was so busy staring at the
girl that Brad had to answer her question. “We’re here
for a few weeks for training.”

“
Did you grow up around
here?” Joe studied her face so intently, a wrinkle formed
between his brows.

“
Um, yeah. Kinda. Not too
far.”

Something very interesting was
going on and Brad watched it with fascination. When Joe’s eyes
opened wide and he actually let out a curse in front of a lady, which
Joe never did, Brad’s suspicions were confirmed.

“
Holy shit. Mary Jo?”
Joe’s eyes bugged out of his head, but after what he’d
said, Brad’s attention refocused on the female in question.
Joe’s first. The one that got away.

“
Yes.” Her answer was
so quiet it was nearly drowned out by the explosions in the sky above
them.

“
Oh my God. I didn’t
recognize you.”

She shrugged. “I’ve
lost about fifty pounds since I saw you last.”

A deep frown furrowed Joe’s
brow. “You weren’t going to tell me who you were if I
didn’t recognize you, were you?”

“
No.” Mary Jo shook
her head. Her eyes glistened, and Brad suspected it wasn’t just
from the reflection of the fireworks.

For once, Joe was speechless.
Brad cleared his throat. “Uh, should I leave you two alone? It
sounds like you have some talking to do.”

“
No. Don’t. I’m
leaving, just like he did fifteen years ago.”

She jumped up and before Joe
could stop her, she was through the crowd.

“
Mary Jo, wait.” Joe
called after her retreating back as she kept going and disappeared.

Brad blew out a long breath, not
really knowing what to say. “Wow. What a coincidence, huh?”

Looking a bit shell-shocked, Joe
nodded. “Yeah.”

“
You want to go back to the
bowling alley and get another pitcher?” His friend needed more
than fireworks to cheer him up right about now.

“
Oh, yeah.”

They’d barely made it
twenty yards when she stood before them again.

“
Hi.” Her eyes
flickered from Joe, to Brad, then down to the ground.

“
Hi,” Joe repeated,
his gaze never leaving her face.

She kicked at the ground with her
toe and Brad began to feel as uncomfortable as she appeared.

“
I’m sorry.”
Mary Jo let out a short laugh. “It’s absolutely
ridiculous of me to still be mad at you after all this time. You
obviously made the Army your career. I’d thought it was just a
whim. I was wrong. I apologize.”

Joe reached out and rubbed her
arms. “It’s all right. I reckon I could have handled it
better too, back then.”

She shrugged. “We were
really young.”

“
Yeah, we were.” Joe
leaned his head down nearer to hers.

“
Um, now I really think I
need to go. Nice meeting you, Mary Jo.”

“
You too.”

Intent on giving them time alone,
Brad turned on his heel to leave when Joe called after him, “I’ll
see you back at the room later.”

“
You got it.”

Brad knew it was too good to be
true that he could actually fall asleep in the sweltering room and
stay asleep. Though with the windows open and the fan he’d
borrowed from one of the other guys who actually had air conditioning
blowing on him, he may have had a chance of making it until morning,
if Joe hadn’t come sneaking in.

Elephants made less noise
entering a room, and soon, the reason became apparent. The shushing
and giggling was his first clue. The slow crescendo of moans coming
from Joe’s rack was his second. He’d brought Mary Jo back
with him.

Now what? It wouldn’t be
the first time he’d feigned sleep while a roommate got busy.
Not that he was a pervert voyeur or anything, but honestly, why
should he be put out of his own bed just so somebody else could have
fun? Tonight, Brad was crankier than usual and wasn’t about to
give up his bed. And, inexplicitly, he was also suddenly horny as
hell.