Patriotic Duty (4 page)

CHAPTER 5

“Are
you hungry?” I asked as we entered the limits of my small town. “There’s a
Mexican restaurant on the boulevard.” I glanced at him as we stopped at a
light. He had a look in the deep depths of his eyes that definitely looked
hungry. I wasn’t quite sure it was for any sort of food, though.

He nodded. “Sure. Anything
you want. I’m easy.”

Yes,
you are.

As we ate chips and salsa,
waiting for our meal, he reached over the table and grabbed my hand. My chip
paused halfway to my mouth as I looked at his hand on mine, and I followed it
up his arm and into his face. His gaze was on mine, and he was looking at me
curiously.

I glanced back to his hand
and then back up at his face. “What?”

“I had a great time today.
Thank you for showing me Frisco. It was unforgettable.”

“Of course, it was my
pleasure. But just a word of advice,” I giggled a little and lowered my voice
as I looked around the restaurant. He leaned in a little bit. “Don’t call it
‘Frisco’ or people will definitely know you’re not from around here.”

He shook his head and
laughed.
“Duly noted.”

We ordered chicken tacos
and finished them fairly quickly. I had one margarita, too, but I doubt it had
any alcohol in it.

We drove the two miles
back to my house, as the sun was beginning to set. Pinks and reds sat lazily on
the horizon and a star-filled sky was beginning to poke through overhead. It
was a beautiful end to a beautiful day.

We walked into the house,
and while it wasn’t as hot as it had been the day before, it was still pretty
warm and I felt a bit embarrassed.

“God, it’s so hot in here.
I’m sorry about that,” I said sheepishly as I tossed my keys and purse onto the
coffee table and started opening up windows and made sure all the ceiling fans
were on.

I admittedly felt a bit
awkward, as we were both now stone-cold sober and I wasn’t sure if we should go
right to bed or what. Thankfully Riley spoke first. “How come you don’t have a
TV in your bedroom?”

I smiled. “The
ex got
the TV in the divorce so I had to buy one,” I said,
pointing at the one in the living room. It really wasn’t the whole truth, as
the bastard had moved in with his girlfriend and her fully furnished house, but
we’d only had the one TV anyway and I kept it in the living room so my son
could watch his DVDs.

He laughed. “I can
certainly understand that.”

He walked slowly up to me
and grabbed my hands and looked down at me. I held my breath a little as he stared,
not saying anything.

Clearing my throat, I
looked up at him. “So, uh, how tall are you?” What a stupid question, but I
couldn’t think of anything else to say.

He gave me a half-cocked
grin and said, “The Army says I’m five-eleven-and-a-half.”

“Ah, ok. I was
gonna
guess about six feet so I was close.”

He leaned down and kissed
me, slithering an arm around my waist while he put the other in my hair. I
shivered and kissed him back. It was sweet and soft and I remembered how much I
had been reveling in his kissing ability the night before. I could feel the
heat inside me rise and flush every nerve ending as he deepened the kiss. I put
my hand on the back of his neck and ran circles on it with my finger and I felt
him shudder.

He grabbed my hand and led
me towards the bedroom but I stopped him and pulled him back down to sit on the
couch.

He gave me a confused
look. “Is everything okay?”

How do I answer that? I
don’t know if everything’s okay. I mean, sleeping with the guy on the first night
I met him had been… well, probably not smart but it was fun. But it was
supposed to be a one-night thing. Here he was spending the night again, and he
actually seemed to be into me. Was it too late for me to be having thoughts of,
“What would he think of me if I slept with him?”? Yes, yes it was. However, I
really don’t want to just keep hopping in bed with this guy.

Yes
you do,
the little voice in my head said.

I smiled at him. “Can we
just talk for a little bit?”

Oh,
geez what a girl thing to say!

He smiled at me with an
amused look on his face. “Sure.
You not in the mood for
something else?”

“No it’s not that – trust
me. Now that I know you want to stay with me, I thought we could maybe get to
know each other. You know, since you’re staying over and all that. I mean, we
have a lot of time for other stuff...”

He cut off my rambling. “You
don’t need to explain, Cara. I don’t want this to be awkward between us. I like
you a lot. I know we just met and everything, but there’s something about you
that I’m drawn to.” He smiled and ran his hand up my thigh.
“Aside
from your sexy body.”

I
blushed
a little and looked away.

He stared at me and
grinned. “Can I ask you something?”

“Okay,” I said cautiously.

“Uh, are you on some sort
of birth control? I mean, I haven’t been using anything…” he trailed off.

I nodded and blushed. “Yes,
been on the pill since Aiden was born.
Irregular cycles and
all that.”

He looked visibly
relieved.

“
Alrighty
then.
Do you want a drink?” I
couldn’t take the awkwardness.

“Do you have beer?”

I shook my head. “You know
what, I’m sorry, I don’t. I don’t drink it and don’t have visitors very often.
I have some wine coolers and a couple of bottles of the hard stuff.”

“Surprise me.”

I nodded and walked to the
kitchen, and I could feel his eyes on my back. I pulled open the high cabinet
above the stove and pulled out a bottle of Jose
Cuervo
Gold tequila and two shot glasses. Thankfully I had a lime in my fridge and I
sliced it in half. I put the items, along with my salt shaker, on a tray and
carried it waitress style out to the living room. I twirled carefully and said,
“Shots, anyone?”

He laughed as I set the
tray down. “Shots, huh?”

“You said to surprise you.”

“Well, you did. Not that I’m
shocked that you’re drinking tequila. I know how much you like it.” He gave me
a wicked grin.

I shook my head and handed
him his nearly full shot glass. I grabbed his free hand and licked the area
between his thumb and forefinger, then tossed some salt on it. “Drink,” I
commanded.

He slammed the shot back
like a pro, then licked the salt off his hand while I handed him the lime. He earned
points for not wincing at the shot.

“Your turn,” he said. He
picked up my glass, handed it to me,
then
licked my
hand. My heart raced a little as I watched his talented tongue lick it slowly. Then
he shook some salt on it and told me to drink.

I pounded the drink back,
definitely wincing at the taste, even letting out a shudder. I licked the salt
and sucked on the lime.
Then smiled.
“That was
awesome.”

“Let’s do it again,” he
said.

I think he just wanted to
lick me again.

***

We spent the remainder of
the weekend in bed. It was quite amazing to me that he wanted to stay. But the
longer I thought about it, I realized he really had nothing else going for him.
Why would he want to stay in the cramped, smelly barracks when he could crash
at my place? I tried to whip away the insecure thoughts and live in the moment.
I was 26, newly divorced, and definitely did not want or need anything serious.
Riley was fun, and I was going to enjoy it.

When early Sunday
afternoon rolled around, I had just come out of the shower to find Riley lying
lazily in my bed with his muscular arms behind his head, staring at the
ceiling.

“A penny for your
thoughts,” I said, toweling off my hair. I had another towel wrapped around me
and was a bit embarrassed that he would see me in such a natural state, but I
quickly flicked away those thoughts. It’s not as if he hadn’t seen me in more…
vulnerable positions.

“Freshly showered, mmm,”
he said, eyeing me from head to toe.

I shook my head and
grinned shyly. “You’re crazy.”

I could see his expression
in the mirror of the dresser. I was fishing through my underwear drawer and saw
him studying me carefully. “So I guess
it’s
back to
business tomorrow, right?” he asked.

I slid my white thong on
under the towel and started brushing my hair out.
“Today,
actually.
My son comes back tonight so I’m
gonna
have to drive you back in about an hour.”

He gave me a fake pout,
then
sat up, still looking at me. “Okay.
Gonna
use your shower, if that’s all right.”

“Of
course.”

After he showered and I
resisted the urge to lure him back into the bed, I drove him back to the
barracks. We said our goodbyes in the car with his promise to call me during
the week. I wasn’t holding my breath, but it would be nice.

As I drove the eight miles
home, I thought about this cute soldier and wondered why I was so smitten by
him so quickly. He was very good-looking, not to mention extremely charming,
but he was nothing special. He was like all the other guys out there, so I was
trying to figure out why he had managed to get under my skin so quickly. Maybe
it was because I expected him to leave and he didn’t. Riley was a quiet guy. He
didn’t gush over me with tons of compliments; in fact, they had been few and
far between all weekend and I actually liked that. I wasn’t big on receiving
compliments so it worked just fine for me. He was a good listener and attentive
and aggressive in bed and there really wasn’t more I needed to analyze about
him. If he called me, I’d definitely be game to see him again and we could have
a fun summer until he returned to Colorado. If not, there were other fish in
the sea.

Before I knew it, I was
home and my ex’s pickup truck was just pulling up at the same time as me. I
really couldn’t stand my ex after what he’d done, so I quickly got out of the
car and grabbed Aiden as his dad set him on the ground outside his truck. I
hugged him tight and kissed his little nose. “Hey, buddy.”

I looked at my ex and took
the red Cars backpack from him. “Thanks.”

I turned and walked inside
and closed the door behind me, kissing Aiden on the top of his auburn hair.

CHAPTER 6

I really
hated Mondays, especially working at the stupid prison, but I had to do what I
had to do. I had a son to take care of now, and I had to work. Not that I’d
been a real big on being a stay-at-home-mom, but working fulltime with a kid is
hard, especially by myself.

After a long workday, I was
home and had just fed Aiden his dinner. I began running him a bath when I heard
my phone chirp with an incoming text. I had just stripped Aiden out of his
clothes and he took off running, naked and laughing. I chased him down and
plunked him into the warm suds and went to grab my phone. I walked back into
the bathroom to watch my son in the tub and looked at the phone. It was a text
from a strange number:

I
miss you already

I laughed and hoped it was
Riley, as it occurred to me that I never got his number. I decided to have some
fun.

Who
is this? :)

It was a good five minutes
before the next text and I started to stress a little.

I breathed a sigh of
relief as I heard the phone chirp again, just as I was dumping water over
Aiden’s head with a cup to rinse out the shampoo.

Your
sexy soldier ;)

I laughed and replied:
Well now I have your number. You can’t
escape me now!

I hit send then realized
that last text made me sound like a total stalker.
Oh
freakin
’ well.

***

The following weekend I
made plans with Miranda to go to Cowboys. Riley had “duty”, as he called it,
telling me he was stuck in some tower with nothing but a gun, some binoculars,
and his cell phone to keep him occupied. I purposely told him I was going out
to see what he would do. Why I decided to play these games, I didn’t know.
Guess I wanted to test his jealousy meter. He had told me to “have fun”… so I
did.

Miranda and I spent the
evening at Cowboys doing shots and drinking beer. About an hour after we got
there, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and saw a text from Riley.

Having
fun?

I had to make a decision
on whether or not I was going to engage him in a text conversation, so I
decided not to. Miranda was already giving me the stink-eye and had asked me a
million questions on the 45 minute ride to the club.

“So I can’t believe that
guy is still talking to you!” she said, while checking herself out in the
rearview mirror.

I pulled a piece of lint
from the thigh of my jeans. “Excuse me?” I replied in mock offense.

She laughed. “Come on,
those types of guys usually don’t call again.”

“He’s probably bored.
Think about it, he’s stuck here for months. What else does he have going on? He
can’t be all that happy stuck in those barracks with no car. I have a car, and
a house, and a super-hot body for him to play with. Of course he called.”

I barely got the last
sentence out because I was laughing so hard. She was laughing, too. “All right,
I see your point. Just don’t fall for the guy. Military guys are such players
and cheaters!”

“You would know,” I
snorted.

Miranda moved back here to
the Bay Area four years ago, having spent two full years at U.C. San Diego, and
had blown through more Marines and Navy guys than I could count. Okay, that’s
not fair, I don’t know how many, but she had quite a few stories from Tijuana
that I hoped her daughter never found out about when she got older. I did love
hearing her stories, though, as I’d gotten married young and was stupid and
never finished college.

I was knocked out of my
reverie when a somewhat cute guy in a cowboy hat came up and asked me to dance.
I accepted reluctantly, as it was a slow song and sometimes that could get a
bit iffy in a club like this.

Sure enough, after some
lame conversation and name exchanges, it didn’t take his hands long to find my ass
and his mouth to find mine. I backed off when he tried to kiss me, as he reeked
of alcohol and had too much cologne on. I excused myself mid-dance and went
back where Miranda was leaning on the bar, talking to the female bartender.

“Ugh, gross,” I said.

She looked surprised.
“That was fast, the song isn’t even over and he was cute.”

“He was nasty.
Had his hands all over me.
And get
this,
he said his name was Jack Nicholson. Can you believe that shit? Get real.”

She threw back her head
and laughed, her long hair swishing down to her butt as she did.
“Oh, my God.
He should have just said Bradley Cooper or
Channing
Tatum,
he would have gotten more play!”

“I know, right?
Says his parents were big fans or something.”

The truth was
,
I couldn’t stop thinking about Riley. I knew it was stupid
and dumb, but the guy sent seriously delicious shivers up my spine and made my
stomach twirl with butterflies. I wasn’t about to tell Miranda that, though.
I’d never hear the end of it.

I actually had forgotten
about Riley’s text until that moment, so I slid my phone from my pocket and saw
two more.
Him asking me what I was doing and if I was
ignoring him.
Then I felt bad. He had to be bored silly.

I replied with a few nice
texts, telling him we were bored, the club was dead, et cetera. Which was kind
of a lie, but I knew it made him feel better.

We left after about two
hours, and when I got home around midnight, Riley was sitting on my doorstep
with a red rose in his hand and his overnight bag.

I couldn’t hide the shock
on my face. He stood up and smiled, then picked me up and twirled me around,
kissing me softly. He was in his BDUs and boots, and I almost fainted at how
hot he looked.

I pulled away and said,
“What are you doing here? I thought you had to work.”

He gave me a half grin and
said, “I got Dan to cover me. But now I owe him.”

I looked down at his bag
then back up at him. “How did you get here?”

He laughed and pointed to
my carport.
“With Dan’s car, of course.
He has to
work, what does he need it for?”

I shook my head. “Man, you
must have some serious dirt on that guy!”

He almost choked when he
spit out, “Uh, yeah, he got a blow job from a totally hot blonde. I don’t think
his wife needs that information, do you?”

“Oh,
my God.
You are a bad, bad boy.” I unlocked the door, and
after we were inside, I closed and locked it behind me.

Riley dropped his bag onto
the floor and picked me up again. “I
am
a bad boy,” he whispered in my ear, dragging me to the bedroom.

He kissed me more eagerly
there, running a hand through my hair and I wrapped my arms around his waist.
He yanked the green tank top off over my head and broke the kiss, looking down
at me. He then spun me around and gazed at my ass.

“Those are really nice
jeans. But they must come off.
Now.”

With that, he pushed me on
the bed and I loved his aggressiveness. It was such a turn-on and something I
hadn’t yet experienced. My ex was a total dud in bed and never took control.
Riley peeled off my jeans and unbuttoned his BDU shirt, and it was then I
noticed his last name: Forrester. I had never even thought to ask for it
before. I tucked it away in the back of my mind. At least I had a last name to
add into my phone’s address book now.

After dropping my jeans to
the floor below, the majority of his uniform followed and he began running
kisses up my leg and thigh, and I was secretly glad I had shaved that morning.

His tongue came out to
play as he reached my lime green thong and he hooked a finger around them,
pulling them to the side as he began to lick at the damp heat between my legs.

“Oh, Riley,” I groaned as
my legs began to shake at what he was doing with his tongue. The boy had
mastered the art of tongue play and I was glad to be a recipient of his talent.

He removed his tongue,
then my panties, and slid his hands up over my taut stomach and strummed his
fingers over my hard nipples. I reached down and stroked him with one hand as I
stretched behind my head and held onto the iron bars of my headboard with the
other. His warm tongue found my other nipple and a low groan made its way out
of my throat. I removed my hand from his member and reached around and caressed
his rock-hard ass. His mouth moved more aggressively around my breasts and
suddenly he was inside me, stroking
himself
in and out
until an explosive orgasm ripped through my body and made every hair stand on
end.

“Oh, Riley… you feel so
good,” I breathed into his ear.

“That’s it, sexy. Come all
over me.”

I felt another one begin
to build and he reached down and kissed me hard on the mouth while his hand
stroked my face, my neck, my hair. He ran kisses up my neck and when his tongue
lightly snaked into my ear, I began to feel my body shudder with pleasure as
another wave hit me and I dug my fingernails into his back. At the same time,
Riley stopped his movements and lost himself inside of me with a moan.

We stayed that way,
kissing more as he smoothed my hair back from my face as he smiled down at me.
I was very sleepy now, and as he rolled to his side, he flipped me over and spooned
me once again. I fell asleep feeling very safe and sated.

The morning came quickly
and I woke up as happy as I had been when I fell asleep the night before.

We both dressed and
decided we’d go to the local art and wine festival that was happening in town.
As we walked around the different booths and displays, Riley held my hand the
entire time, occasionally looking over at me and smiling. It made my stomach
lurch with nerves. When he looked into my eyes, I held my breath. Why was this
beautiful soldier boy so into me? As I realized I had been staring at him a
little too long, he called my attention to a booth selling homemade dips and
crackers.

“I love this stuff,” he
said, sampling some of the dips. “Let’s get some and make it later when we get
to your house.”

I nodded, smiling at him. “Sure.
I love this stuff, too.”

We picked out three
packets of dips and bought a bag of the homemade pita chips and began walking
again. I grinned to myself how excited he was over something so simple. I
wondered if he did these things back home.

“So, uh, who do you hang
out with back home? I mean, aside from your wife and girlfriend?”

He looked at me shocked
until he could see the teasing on my face. “Quit it. I’ve told you I am not
with anyone. I’m divorced. No girlfriend.” We stopped walking and he placed
both hands on my face. He leaned down and kissed me softly right in the middle
of the street fair, people milling back and forth around us. But I didn’t
notice. I saw stars behind my closed lids and the entire world seemed to spin around
us then disappear as he kissed me. I never wanted it to stop.

We spent most of the day
at the festival, and as we drove by the amphitheater on our way home, he made a
comment about the upcoming rodeo the following weekend.

“Oh! We have to go to the
rodeo,” he said, pointing at the marquis.
  

I rolled my eyes and
groaned.
“Seriously?
You pollute my radio with country
music, now you want to drag me to a rodeo?”

He laughed. “Excuse me,
who was at Cowboys last night?”

“That’s different,” I
said. “We only go there because we know there aren’t any thugs and gangsters
that hang out there. They love Miranda too much, with her L.A. face and her
Oakland bootie.”

He burst out laughing and
shook his head.
“Seriously?
Well, I guess I could see
that. Come on, it’ll be fun.”

I couldn’t resist his
crooked grin so I said, “Okay. But you’re not
gonna
make me wear a cowboy hat, are you?”

“Only in bed, naked,” he
growled.