Serving the Soldier - Part 5 (An Alpha Military Romance) (5 page)

“So what happened?” I finally asked.

Jax offered a slight shrug. “One day, our vehicle was hit by an IED. Long story short, David didn’t make it.”

“That’s terrible,” I commiserated.

“Life in a war zone,” he said.

The Jeep continued to eat up the miles, a little slower in speed now, the road a little more winding, the trees growing denser, the underbrush thicker. I had a feeling that we would soon be nearing our destination.

“Anyway, after David was killed, his family wanted Aleema killed—”

“Why?” I asked, startled, sitting upright in my seat now.

“According to their culture, she had shamed her family and brought shame to David, because they felt that she was behind his loyalty to the Americans all along. In their eyes, she had brought shame not only to their family, but their entire tribe.”

He glanced at me as I stared at him wide-eyed.

“You ever hear of honor killings?”

I nodded. I knew that in the Islamic culture, many families, especially in countries where the concept of women as the foundation of family reputation and honor were prevalent, killed family members in an effort to regain their honor. Unfortunately, I also knew that hundreds, perhaps even thousands of women were killed every year by their families in the name of this “family honor”, most prevalent in the Middle East, but also common in India and even in developed countries where large groups of ex-pats lived.

“That’s what this is all about? You’re protecting Aleema, and they’re going to kill anybody who gets in their way of killing her?”

Jax shook his head. “Not exactly, Angie.”

He said nothing more for a while. I felt exhaustion pulling at me, but resisted the urge to succumb. The danger wasn’t over yet. Finally, he continued…

“Anyway, we… the squad I mean, found out about the plot to kill her, and in saving her, ended up killing two males of David’s household.”

“So they’re here out of revenge?” I asked. “You hurt them, impugned their honor, so they’re going to hurt you… kill you all?”

He shrugged. “Of a sort,” he said. “You see, Jakob managed to smuggle her into the US…” He glanced at her. “Don’t ask.”

I wasn’t about to.

“Anyway, after she arrived, she confided to Jakob that, with David’s knowledge, she had been gathering information that... well, let’s just say she’d managed to gather Intel regarding important aspects of the enemy’s plans. Information about supply lines, munitions transfers, oil and gasoline stores, stuff like that.”

“She’s a spy?” I asked, impressed in spite of myself.

“Well, not officially, but the information she shared with American commanders didn’t bode well for the enemy, we’ll put it that way.”

“So they’re trying to kill her, and because you’re protecting her, they’re trying to kill you too?”

He nodded. “Basically. That, and we embarrassed the family by thwarting the honor killing and then killing two of their own.”

I couldn’t believe it. To be involved in such a thing was so far beyond even my wildest imaginations. A world that I knew nothing about. Jax was obviously very familiar with the culture, but I didn’t understand it. Could families really behave that way to their own relatives? Kill their own children? It was so far outside the norm that I had trouble wrapping my mind around it.

I stayed quiet for a while, and then, as Jax also grew introspective, I decided that I might as well just fess up. If we were going to die, I didn’t want to die with a guilty conscience. Of course, in the scheme of things, my confession probably didn’t amount to a hill of beans to him, but it did weigh heavily on my mind.

“Jax… I have something else to tell you.” I was surprised when he glanced at me and gave me a wry look.

“You’ve been snooping again, haven’t you?”

I nodded. “I was cleaning downstairs in the den…” He said nothing, obviously waiting for me to admit one of my greatest faults. I obviously had trouble discerning boundaries, especially when my curiosity was heightened. “I found your divorce papers.” I cast a quick look at him, but his expression hadn’t changed. He continued to stare out the window, every once in a while glancing in the rearview and side view mirrors.

“And?”

“Jax, I’ll be blunt. Why the hell did you marry Stephanie in the first place? She doesn’t really seem like your type—”

He barked out a laugh. “My type? And exactly what is my type?”

Me
, I wanted to say.

“Well, I don’t know, but she seems so… so materialistic.”

He shrugged. “I guess it was her looks that attracted me to her in the first place, and as we got to know each other, she seemed fun and adventurous. And of course, the sex between us was really hot.”

He glanced at me and winked. I didn’t know what to think about that. I gathered, from spying on them in his room the other day that it probably still was. Well, I don’t know what I was expecting, but my curiosity was definitely not assuaged. This might not be the right time to dig any deeper. So I got back on track. “There’s more,” I admitted.

He said nothing and I continued. “Jax, I also saw some military papers… you’ve been placed on disciplinary leave? Charged with consorting with the enemy? What’s that about?” I held my breath, not sure I really wanted to know the truth. Was Jax a patriot or a traitor?

He said nothing for several moments, and then the car began to slow. He took a turn-off that I didn’t see until we were nearly upon it, heading deeper into the woods. My heart skipped a beat. Had I overstepped my bounds? Obviously, but how badly? If he was a traitor, was I safe? I didn’t get the impression the Jax would hurt me, especially not after risking his life to save me, but then again…

“Those papers? They’re fake.”

He pulled the car deeper into the forest and a cabin appeared before us. A hunting or fishing cabin by the looks of it. “Fake?”

“Yes, fake.” He glanced at me. “You didn’t see the mess they made out of the house, did you?”

I shook my head, instantly regretting the decision when my head started pounding again.

“Michael and I put them there in the hopes that the terrorists would find them, if they ever breached the house, that is. We also launched a few rumors suggesting that the Army didn’t trust me.”

“But the paper was buried under an inch of other papers,” I commented. “What made you think they’d look there, or even if they did, that they’d find that one?”

He shrugged. “They were looking for Intel. They would have known I wouldn’t have made it easy for anyone to find it.”

I stared at him, wide-eyed. “But why?”

“Dealing with terror cells in the US isn’t easy,” he said. He pulled the car in front of the cabin, put the gear shift into park, and then turned off the engine. “In fact, eliminating them is a highly secretive business, most commonly dealt with by the Department of Justice, the CIA, and sometimes—”

“Special ops teams?” I broached.

He nodded. “We all had those papers, the squadron members and I, those charges of consorting with the enemy, placed somewhere in our homes, not sure which one of us they would come after next. Since the entire squadron was involved in rescuing Aleema, it stood to reason that sooner or later they would come across them. You see, Angie, we had to give them the impression that we were somewhat… rogue, operating outside the law.”

I still didn’t understand.

He sighed, somewhat impatiently. “We couldn’t deal with these terrorists ‘above board’ I guess you could say. We had our orders, and I’m not going to tell you from whom, to deal with them. We’ve been watching them, tracking them, for about six months—”

“Six months!” Should he have told me about it? I wasn’t sure.

“We needed to draw them close, to entice them to make their appearance. Only then would we know exactly who we were dealing with and how many of them—”

“Jax, why didn’t you tell me?”

He frowned. “I told you after the incident with the car that you should leave. Don’t forget, Angie, you’re the one who decided to stay.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t insist without instigating more curiosity on your part. Your boss would have merely sent another nurse in and… well, you were already there, so…”

He was right. I still had a myriad of unanswered questions racing through my thoughts, but all of a sudden, the fatigue, the strain, and the trauma of the day caught up with me. Without warning, I began to weep, my shoulders shaking with emotion. He quickly got out of the car, stepped to my side and opened the door. He reached inside and unclicked my seatbelt and then reached for me.

“No, Jax, no, I’ll get out by myself.”

He ignored me, lifting me from my seat. I was afraid he would hurt his back. “Jax, put me down!”

He continued to ignore me. He pushed the car door shut with his foot and then stepped to the door of the cabin. He kicked at it with his foot, and seconds later it was opened by Michael.

“About time you got here,” Michael growled.

“Shut up,” Jackson swore at him. “Everyone okay?”

He placed me gently onto a cot placed against one wall, and I collapsed in a heap as Michael stared at me. Then he glanced at Jax and made a gesture with his chin. Jax nodded.

Again, the events of the day overwhelmed me. Perhaps it was because I was safe now, but again the fear, the anxiety, and the panic took hold of me. Here I was relatively safe and sound with Jax and Michael, but I couldn’t stop the trembling. I had no control over it. My hands twitched so badly I had to wrap them around my knees. I winced as I did so, forgetting how sore my wrists were. I pressed my back up against the side of the cabin. My teeth began to chatter. I felt like a weakling, but I couldn’t help it and I couldn’t make myself stop.

Jax had seen me wince. He stepped to the side of the cot and then sat down, gently reaching for my left hand. He noticed the abrasions, the bruising, and glanced at Michael. “Get the first aid kit out, will you?”

I started to protest, but Michael had already turned to dig in a duffel bag. He retrieved a small box and handed it to Jax. I saw them exchange of glance, and then Michael turned toward a cupboard placed over the sink against the far wall. I saw him open the cupboard and retrieved a bottle of amber liquid. He grabbed a glass as well, setting them both on the counter, his back to me.

My gaze shifted from Michael to Jax as he opened the first aid kit. “This isn’t really necessary,” I said, my voice still shaky. “The abrasions are merely superficial, but I think I struggled so hard and so long that I gave myself some stress fractures.”

Jax nodded. “I’ll wrap your wrists anyway.” He proceeded to do just that, unrolling a strip of gauze and wrapping both my wrists. Then, ever so carefully, he squeezed some ointment from the kit onto another square of gauze and gently dabbed at my various scratches and cuts. He frowned as he tended to the wound near my temple.

“You might have a mild concussion,” he stated matter of factly.

I nodded. “I know. I’ll watch for the signs.”

Michael approached, holding out a glass filled with a sip or two of amber liquid.

“Drink this,” he said, extending the glass to me.

I glanced at Jax, saw him nod, and then reached my hand for the glass. As I brought it to my lips, the glass shook so badly that Jax made a noise low in his throat, clasped his warm, strong hand over mine and the bottom of the glass, and guided the glass to my lips. He exchanged a glance with Michael.

“She needs to rest, and we have plans to make.”

I barely had time to absorb what Michael had said when Jax tilted the glass gently against my lips.

“Get it down in one big gulp,” he said. “It’ll help you relax.”

I did. The liquid burned as it went down, filling my chest and then my stomach with warmth. I coughed a little, but began to feel its effects nearly immediately. Surprisingly, I felt a warm sensation flow through me, and then a nearly overwhelming sense of lethargy.

“Get some rest,” Jax said.

His voice began to fade away, as if he was speaking through a tunnel. For a second, I was frightened and confused. I glanced at him, my eyes wide with renewed panic.

“It’s just going to help you sleep, Angie. Don’t fight it. I won’t leave you. You’ll be safe.”

With those words of assurance, I allowed the edges of darkness to close in around me, enveloping me until everything faded to black.

I moaned softly. Khalil was watching me with a despicable grin on his face while Ajmal stroked the length of my thigh. Though I began to struggle wildly, I couldn’t move. My heart pounded in terror. Had I dreamed the rescue? Had I dreamed the attack in the clearing? Had I dreamed that Jax had saved me, carried me away from danger in his arms?

My mind was fuzzy. My head throbbed. I couldn’t make sense of anything. Where was I? I felt the pressure of hands on my shoulders and tried to push them away, uttering denial.

“Angie! It’s me, Jax. Wake up, Angie.”

I felt a hand brushing the hair away from my forehead. For a second I cringed, not wanting to believe it. If I open my eyes and it wasn’t Jax, I knew right then and there that I would fall apart.

“Open your eyes, Angie.”

I did. The sob of relief that bubbled from my throat contained a mixture of joy, relief, and affection. Glancing quickly around, I realized that I was in the cabin, lying on the cot. Jax lay next to me, his arms wrapped around me, his face only inches from mine. His features appeared worried, his gaze studying every inch of my face.

“Oh my God,” I gasped, my voice a harsh whisper. “He was trying to—”

“Shhh,” Jax soothed. “He won’t ever touch you again.”

I snuggled closer to Jax. He pulled me close to him, his arms wrapped around my back, offering me a greater sense of protection than I had ever felt in my life. My face nuzzled against his neck where it met his shoulder, and my left hand reached up to settle on his chest. It was then that I noticed the elastic brace on my left hand, like the kind used by people with carpal tunnel syndrome. My right hand, lying down by my side between us, also felt like it had a brace on it. I glanced up at him.

“Jakob brought them.”

He continued to brush the hair from my face, his large, warm hand caressing my cheek, his finger tucking stray strands of hair behind my ear. I guess he saw my frown of confusion and explained.

“Michael and Jakob had to go back to the clearing to clean up the… clean up the mess,” he explained. “Then they took Aleema to the regional FBI office where they can make arrangements to get her into the witness protection program with the US Marshal’s Service. She can provide a lot of information that will help protect our troops, and her husband’s family will no longer be able to find her.”

“Is she okay?” I asked. I was pleased to hear that my voice wasn’t trembling anymore.

The sound in Jax’s throat made me smile.

“You nearly get killed and you’re worried about someone else?”

I lifted my head slightly away from his shoulder, looking up at him. My nose brushed up against his stubbled jaw. “She’s very brave,” I said. “She risked so much, lost so much…”

He nodded. “She is a good woman, but she will make a good life for herself here.”

I placed my head back on his shoulder, my fingers caressing his chest. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” I said. “I didn’t even know if you would ever find me.”

“I put a GPS tracker into your phone,” he said.

My eyes widened and, once again, I leaned my head back to look up at him. “You did? When? Why?”

“When Stephanie went down to yell at you by the pool. Considering that everything that had happened up until then, I figured it was a good idea. Besides, you’re such a snoop, I had to keep track of you, didn’t I?”

For a second I froze, not sure what to say. Was he serious? Then I saw his grin and I laughed, or tried to. I should have been angry that Jax had invaded my privacy, installed a GPS chip into my phone—wait a minute, I told myself. How could I be angry with Jax for invading my privacy when it seems that’s all I had been doing with him? “I guess I deserved that,” I said.

With that, his expression changed. I watched as his face hardened, and also leaning back, he reached up and placed both his hands on each side of my face.

“I thought I was going to lose you, Angie,” he stated bluntly.

I said nothing, dismayed by his words. I felt a frown form on my forehead. My left hand lay frozen on his chest. Warm tears gathered in my eyes. I tried to speak, but the only sound that escaped my throat was a mewl.

What was he saying?

Was he saying that he had feelings for me?

His face leaned closer to mine and, in the next moment, I felt his warm lips caressing mine, ever so gently at first, and then more firmly. After only the briefest of hesitations, I returned the kiss. The effect of his kiss warmed me almost as much as that drink he had given me—

My right hand, lying between us shifted slightly and I felt his cock harden with desire. I felt an overwhelming urge to reaffirm my life and survival. I rubbed my hand up and down against his dick several times until I elicited a low moan from his throat. Before he could stop me, I sat up, and his arms dropped along my thighs, each one settling on a knee. Without saying anything, I straddled him. He scooted over so that he lay in the middle of the cot.

We stared at each other for a moment, my gaze taking in every distinct feature of his face. I didn’t know how this was all going to end, but at this moment, my heart overflowed with affection for him. He had risked his life to save me, but it was more than that. Since the first moment I laid eyes on Jax Andrews, I had started losing a little piece of my heart to him.

At this moment, I didn’t care if he reciprocated. It didn’t matter. All that mattered to me right now was that I could show him at least a modicum of the gratitude I felt for him saving me.

Balancing my weight on my forearms, I kissed him, taking control, leading the way. He seemed more than willing to allow it. My lips caressed his for several moments, my blood racing through my veins, the tingling of desire erupting throughout my body. It was hard to believe I could feel sexual tension after such a life-threatening experience, but every sensation in my body seemed to be heightened, on an exquisite level of desire that demanded completion.

His hands still braced against my thighs, my tongue intruded between his lips and began tangling with his. My breasts were pressed against his chest, my hips straddling his groin. I felt his heart pounding beneath mine. Finally, I pulled my lips from his, stared down at him a moment, and then brushed my lips along his jaw line until I reached his ear. I nibbled at his ear lobe and then my tongue traced a trail down the length of his neck.

I sat upright, my pussy pressed up against his erection, still trapped by his pants, but I didn’t reach for it. Not yet. I slid my hands up underneath his shirt and caressed the solid mass of muscles along his ribs until my fingers found his nipples. They hardened beneath my touch. I pushed his shirt up, leaned down, and lathed each of them with my tongue, and then suckled them as he had done to mine. To my intense surprise, he groaned and his hips thrust upward.

I teased him for several moments, wishing more than ever that his own hands would move to my breasts, but they remained firmly planted on my knees. I sat upright again, and then, slowly and carefully, I pulled my t-shirt up over my head. I wasn’t wearing a bra, and my breasts were now bared to his full view.

With his hands still on my hips, I once again leaned down, positioning myself so that my left breast hovered just over his mouth. He obliged and I arched my neck, throwing my head back at the ecstasy his tongue sent through me as he took my entire nipple and areola into his mouth, suckling, sending waves of pleasure through me. My hips began to grind against his, and in a matter of seconds I was wet, throbbing, and heavy with desire.

Finally, I allowed myself to pull my breast from his mouth. I began to slither slowly downward, my tongue tracing a trail down the center of his chest, and then his upper abdomen. His abdominal muscles tightened, then relaxed as my tongue followed a trail down toward his belly button. His hands stroked up my thighs and finally left my hips as he worked the buttons of his cargo pants. Such a gentleman, I thought. He knew it would be difficult for me to work the buttons with my injured wrists, so he was making it easier on me.

I smiled as he shoved his pants down as far as he could. His cock bounced free, escaping the confines of his pants and nestled against my breasts. I had never felt such exquisite power and sensation, even in the previous sexual encounters we had enjoyed. I continued to scoot down over his legs until both my breasts had trapped his cock in between them. Gently, I rubbed my breasts against his dick and, very carefully, shifted my weight onto my right forearm and elbow while my left hand reached between his thighs to grasp his balls.

The sigh I elicited from him gave me an incredible sense of power and pleasure. He was now at my mercy, and I was going to take full advantage. His hands settled on my shoulders, one of them slowly inching downward to caress my breast. As his fingers twiddled with my nipple, I encouraged him to spread his legs apart. He did so, giving me access to everything.

My lips found his balls and my tongue lapped and suckled their surface. They grew incredibly firm, and as I replaced my tongue with my hand, rolling the firm balls in my palm, I stroked the length of my tongue up from the base of his cock to the very tip. It was engorged, almost purple, its head glistening with desire.

My pussy was throbbing, aching for release, but I tried not to think about me. I took him into my mouth, as deep as I could, and then curled my tongue around his shaft, trying to reach every centimeter of its surface. I lifted my head until he was almost out of my mouth, and then I wrapped my lips and my tongue around his shaft, stroked all the way down to the base, and then back up again. He made a low, growling sound in his throat.

I shifted my position, making sure that my breasts and my hard nipples rubbed against his thigh as I pleasured his gorgeous cock with my tongue. He made another noise low in his throat. His hand couldn’t reach down to my pussy, so I wrapped my leg around his, centering my pussy so that it rubbed against his leg, just above the knee.

He groaned again.

I knew why.

I was so wet he surely felt my desire. I took him into my mouth again, sucking hard, and then pausing to swirl my tongue around the tip of his head, and then sucking again. I pumped my pussy against his leg a couple of times. In the next instant, he was grabbing my waist, urging me upward.

I was so hot with desire I could hardly stand it. I felt as if I would cum without him even touching me, but before I knew it, I was positioned over his very erect and throbbing cock. I thrust myself onto him. Hard. I began to pump faster and faster as my lips returned to his own. My tongue surged into and out of his mouth in tempo with my pussy encasing his cock. His fingers twisted, rolled, and tweaked my nipples, and then, as I felt his climax rippling upward, he suddenly lifted me up and off of him.

I understood and immediately grasped his penis with my hand as I half sat beside him, pumping, urging him to cum. Then, beneath my fingers, and as firmly as I was holding his cock, I felt the muscular contractions. I watched as hot, milky liquid squirted from his head onto his abdomen.

I had never watched a guy cum before, but found it extremely titillating. Before I could move, Jax had shifted his position onto his side and flipped me onto my back. He positioned himself in between my legs and then gently spread them apart, my knees bent. I watched as his head dipped ever closer to my pussy. My lower lips reached out for him, waiting for his exquisite touch. Then, I felt the warmth of his lips and tongue sweeping up along my wet slit, and then wrapping around my clitoris.

Oh my God, I thought, my fingers digging into his shoulders. I spread my legs even further apart, as if in doing so could bring him closer. His tongue worked magic, licking, flicking, sucking, stroking. Then I felt a tightening, my own climax building. Moments later, I grasped his head as he brought me to the most earth-shattering orgasm I had ever felt in my life.

He continued to lick, suckle, and stroke with his tongue until the blinding white flashes of ecstasy and the contractions in my pussy finally began to ebb. Then, slowly, he slithered up between my legs and lay on top of me, his arms bracing his weight.

I stared up at him, my eyes wide, and my heart still pounding. I felt the pulse throbbing through the vein in my neck. “Jax… Jax, I—” I wanted to tell him I loved him, wanted to tell him what I felt about him, but I was afraid.

The thought of rejection humbled me.

Then again, why wait?

Today had proven to me that life was short; that one never knew when the end would come. Why waste time? Did it really matter how he felt about me? Wasn’t it enough for me to let him know how I felt about him? No strings attached? No expectations?

“Angie,” he said, his voice soft and low.

I stared up at him, searching his eyes. Was he going to tell me it was over? Or, oh no! Had I hurt him? For the first time, I remembered his back. I was no better than Stephanie! My eyes widened. It was as if he could read my thoughts.

“I’m fine, Angie,” he said. “But there is something you need to know.”

I stared up at him, trying to imagine the worst. This was it.

“When Khalil and his men kidnapped you and you called me on the phone… I’ve never been so scared in my life.”

Jax, scared? It didn’t compute.

“The thought of them hurting you… of never seeing you again... it took me by surprise.”