G.I. BABY (9 page)

Silence pervaded. He didn’t know why it was suddenly important to him to know why she didn’t like soldiers.

She said it’s personal. You don’t wanna get involved in that shit. Let it be. She’s just passing by.

He caught the trickle of fruit shake that escaped the brim of his glass, licking his finger. He cleared his throat. “Did you have a bad experience with a soldier?”

“Very bad. My father.”

He nodded. “Ah.”

More silence. He couldn’t help it. He wanted to know more. Just a bit more. “Did he…did he hit you?”

She smiled and shook her head, her eyes, wistful. “I wish he was around to hit me when I was a misbehaving kid. I wouldn’t have minded. No. I didn’t even know him. He was just my biological father. He created me during one of his fun times and never even knew I existed until I was about 12.”

She was looking at her glass pensively, lost in thought. He had opened a can of worms and he partially regretted it. It was clearly a painful memory.
 

“I was born in the Philippines, in a city called Olongapo, near Subic Bay, the former location of the US Military base there. My father was a US Marine. He met my mother when his battleship docked there for some counter-terrorism training between the Filipino soldiers and the American GIs. They had some good times. End of the story.”

He knew the place of course, was well aware of the American interests in those parts of Asia. That country used to host the biggest overseas military installation of the United States. Even after the base had pulled out two decades ago, the Philippines was always part of the battle plans of the USAF as it was the most strategic location in the Asia-Pacific Region where US fighter planes and battleships can land and dock respectively with relative safety. The United States and the Philippines had always enjoyed an amicable relationship.

He picked up his glass and rounded the island counter to where she was sitting. He put his arm on her shoulders. “Come.”

They went out to the balcony. The sun was on its decent, painting the skies and the waters like a huge impressionistic canvas.

He sat on the lounger and patted his chest as he opened his legs. This had become their favorite relaxation position, her reclining on her back against his chest, their lower limbs entwined.

“Drink,” he said of her glass of strawberry shake.

They both enjoyed the drink in comfortable silence, the soft breeze from the sea whispering around them.

“So…how did you eventually meet your father?”

He should no longer pursue the subject. Really, what for? This was not his thing. He shied away from this kind of intimacy with women.

“My mother was able to track him down through another GI that came to visit the country many years later. She requested him to petition me…so I can have a better life.”

“He wasn’t so bad then, was he?”

She sighed. “No…I guess not.” It was a hard concession, he knew.

“Do you guys get along now?”

“Officer Walker, you ask too many questions.”

He swallowed. Yeah, she was right. This wasn’t him at all. He was acting really strange this last few days. “What about you tell me about your father and I’ll tell you about mine?”

Something inside him protested vehemently at his uncharacteristic actions but he ignored it. He didn’t want to sever their little connection yet. An intimacy outside of sex.

Fuck me.

She remained silent, just staring at the sunset. He kissed the top of her head, inhaling the fragrance of her hair. She was so warm and soft and cuddly. He was afraid he was getting used to this.

“He has his own family. I only saw him maybe thrice, when I first came here. Then nothing. I guess he thought he’d done his duty as my father, brought me here, fixed my papers. He did help me out financially at first, sending money for my needs, but it stopped after a year or two. I’ve always lived with my aunt from my mother’s side and her husband. She’s my only relative here.”
 

“Are you two close?”

“Very. She’s more mother to me than my real mother.”

“Don’t you miss your real mother?”

“No.”

Her abrupt and emphatic answer told him her story had come to an end. He sensed that if he dug deeper, he would be hurting her for real. He wrapped his arms tighter round her.

If he saw this happening in his future a month ago he would have laughed. He was enjoying a lazy afternoon with a young woman he only wanted as a tension reliever during his short vacation. That she was turning into a sexual addiction, and worse, an emotional confidante should have sent him running in the opposite direction by now.

But he was staying.

And when she asked him about his own father, he opened up.

——*****——

“My parents got divorced when I was only thirteen.
I was left in the company of my workaholic father, who got custody of me as my beloved mother refused to take me along with her.”
 

He uttered ‘beloved’ like it was acid corroding his tongue.
 

Andi felt his pain. She squeezed his hand in silent sympathy.

 
“I grew up living in several penthouse apartments most of my early life, surrounded by luxuries, showered by the best things money can buy. I lived off on room service everyday.”

She turned around so that she was lying on her side, her back supported by his bent leg. She wanted to look at his face. This priceless moment will be etched in her memory forever.
 

“Okay, so the rich have these problems, too?” she teased him to lighten his somber mood.

He smiled and pinched her nose. “We all have the same problems.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never lived in a penthouse, so I wouldn’t know your kind of problems.”

“At least you lived with people who loved you. I had conversed to the maintenance and cleaning people more than I’d ever spent time with my own parents.”

She didn’t know what was worse, not having a father around or having one around that ignored you. “Still, room service…that’s the life!”

He chuckled. “Nah. You’ve been watching too many movies. Room service sucked. The food was bland. Everything tasted the same.”

She touched his face gently and looked in his eyes deeply. This was indeed special. More than sex. “It was loneliness you were tasting,” she said softly.

He dropped his eyes and coughed, looking uncomfortable. “Well…yeah…”
 

“Go on.”

He pulled in a deep breath. “Right after the divorce, my opportunistic mother moved on quickly to husband No. 3 and she ran off to New York with him.
 
My Dad got custody of me as the divorce was a result of my mother’s infidelities. The only good thing that came off of that woman was Bella, her daughter from husband No.1. Bella and I got along just fine the first time we met.”

“She’s really beautiful.”

“Yeah. She’s got the biggest heart, too. Bella’s different from our mother. She’s warm, simple and creative. She’s the best thing that happened to me.”

She smiled, glad that he was loved by someone, at least. She saw it in his glowing eyes as he spoke of his sister. “Tell me more about your father.”

“Lewis, that was his name, was a shrewd motherfucker in the investments and trading business, lording over the stock and currency markets before he suddenly keeled over from a massive stroke.”

“You seem to hate your father more than I hate mine.”

“He’s dead now so my hate has no meaning as he’s not here to hear my shit.”

She stroked his forearm idly. “What was he like with you?”

“He was a control freak. He wanted me to be a corporate shark, like him, but I went to the Air Force Academy, instead. We never saw eye to eye again after that. Lewis died just before my graduation from the academy. He would have been proud because I finished at the top of my class. Or maybe not. I’d never know.”

She held his hand and brought it to her lips, not saying a thing. She hurt even more as she knew exactly how he felt. How many times had she wished that her father had attended her high school graduation where she was class valedictorian and the recipient of many other extra-curricular awards?

“Before he died, I tried contacting him, but he turned me away every time. That did a huge number on me, you know? How can a man turn his back on his only child?” His voice shook a little as his emotions betrayed him.

She framed his face with her palms and kissed him, wanting to erase the pain from his heart, from her own heart.

“We haven’t fucked in the balcony yet,” she whispered.

It took him a moment to react.

He burst into laughter, the sound bathing some of her pain away. She hoped to God, it washed away some of his, as well.

“No, we haven’t.”

She winked at him, grinning in mischief. “Then let’s!”

“Sugar, you learn fast.”

CHAPTER
6

HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE
that the week was almost over and he still had not gotten his fill of her?

Like a horny teenager, he was inside her almost 24-7 for six consecutive days, giving her a reprieve mid-week so her banged up pussy will recuperate.

He’d ordered their meals from his favorite restaurants as he did not want to waste time dining out or cooking. It was ridiculous, the way he was so attuned with her, as if she was made just for the purpose of pleasuring him. She was like food for the gods, addicting and he was a mortal who couldn’t get enough.

Fuck, Walker,
 
you’re, waxing poetic like Shakespeare on crack.

Tomorrow, their week together would end. He couldn’t sleep thinking about it. She was already dozing off soundly beside him, spooned by his frame. Her softness and warmth were a blanket comforting the emptiness inside him. He had been solitary most of his life and he liked it that way, but he didn’t mind her presence in the past days and nights.

He sighed, nuzzling her nape. She smelled so good, even after a marathon sex. His nose had gotten used to her scent and he liked inhaling it until he was lulled to sleep.

His cock was hard and he cursed it for being too horny where she was concerned. Even now, after taking her four times tonight, he was partially-aroused. It won’t take a lot to turn it into a full-blown erection. Just thinking about her tight, wet, hot—

Shit. He was VERY hard again.

But he did not obey his need. She was sleeping so peacefully in his arms he won’t disturb her just to assuage his ravenous need.

He sighed. This was going to be a long night.

He was wrong. He did slip into oblivion, his dreams filled with an angel instead of his demons.

——*****——

“Is it hard?”

“My cock?” He grinned at her lasciviously.

She threw a piece at him from the bag of chips she was munching on.

They were in the living room, lounging as he checked his emails from his laptop. He was sitting on an extended arm chair, his legs stretched out in front of him. She was on her stomach on the plush carpet at his side, eating junk food and guzzling a lot of soda. He detested the unhealthy shit but she’d asked for some to be delivered to his place. She said she was craving carbs after those acrobatics they did together. He’d laughed at that. Yeah, poor babe was probably feeling worn out. They’d done it practically all over the place.

“No. Being a soldier.”

“Mmmm,” he just said, his eyes going back to the laptop’s screen.

They’d been sharing personal stuff the past days and maybe she was feeling too close she wanted to know more. But what he did at work were stuff he wasn’t comfortable sharing with anybody, not even with his sister, not even the ones that can be read on wiki. He liked to keep business from pleasure.

“Okay, sorry, your job has a lot of top secret shit,” she commented then kept silent.

He glanced at her on the floor, so young and innocent in the ways of the world. She had no idea what he did out in the desert, what he had done, what he will do. If he told her, would she look at him in a different light? Would she feel repulsed?