“Actually, Sebastian,” she sniffed, trying to hide her amusement, “you’re in my bed.”
“Oh, yeah. You must be one of those fast women I heard about at boot camp.”
“Hmm, well, I think that lecture was supposed to warn you off them.”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t hear it right. Explains why I didn’t get into Officer Candidate School.”
She looked at me closely.
“Did you try?”
“Nah, not really. Not my thing. I took some college classes for a while, but then…” I knew you weren’t coming back, so I gave up caring. “I was already fucking around. Guess I pissed off the wrong people.”
“You’d make a good officer, Sebastian,” she said seriously. “Maybe you should think about it.”
Did that mean she wanted me to stay in the Marines? I shrugged. “I’m a Warrant Officer—highest ranking for noncoms.” Then I grinned at her sheepishly. “Yeah, you know that stuff. Sorry. I did get asked to join the Navy SEALs, though.”
“Really?” she said, her face lighting up. “That’s great! I mean, that’s a real honor, isn’t it? You’d like that—all that super-macho stuff.”
I smiled at her description and ran a finger along her arm. “I turned them down.”
Her jaw dropped open and she looked amazed. “Why?”
“Caro, there’s no way I’d join the same service that my father is in. Fuck that! Can you imagine if we ended up at the same Base?” My voice started getting louder as the old anger surged through me. “I’d end up killing the bastard.”
“Shh,” she said, resting a finger on my lips. “We’re in Italy; it’s a beautiful day, and we’re going to go and find some waves for you to surf.”
I took a deep breath and calmed the fuck down.
“Okay,” I said, letting my hand drift down her thigh, until I was tugging at the material of her panties. “You know what would make this day even better?” I asked.
“Oh no, Sebastian,” she said, shoving my hand away. “I’m not falling for that. I’m going to take a shower, and you’d better have some damn clothes on by the time I get back.”
She jumped out of bed, then stomped around the room picking out a clean shirt to wear. She was so cute when she was mad.
“Are you sure?” I asked, letting my hand disappear under the sheets as my cock started to throb.
She muttered something under her breath, threw me a look that should have scorched my eyeballs, and slammed the door as she left the room. I lay there, lazily stroking myself, imagining it was her hands on my dick, her fingers working the sensitive head. Desire and need spiked along my shaft almost immediately, and I groaned as a long stream of cum landed on my stomach. It was her fault I was so damn horny.
On deployment, most of us lived like monks. Unless you got lucky with one of the women working in the Motor T—the vehicle shop. I preferred not to hit on female Marines. Apart from anything else, I didn’t shit on my own doorstep. You fucked your CO’s wife, c’mon Seb.
I cleaned off as best I could, then pulled on a pair of jeans, waiting for my turn in the shower.
Caro’s temper didn’t seem to have improved as she stormed back into the room.
“You shouldn’t wander around like that,” she chided, trying not to look at my bare chest. “You’ll give Signora Battelli a coronary.”
She wasn’t fooling me. Looked like my tactics were working. I gave her a grin then headed out for my shower. I planned on having Caro back in my bed tonight.
When I strolled back, she was looking at a blog on surfing in Italy. Even though she was still punishing me by not fucking, she hadn’t stopped caring about me or what I might like to do on vacation. God, I loved this woman.
“Whatcha find?” I asked, standing behind her as she studied the screen on her laptop.
“We seem to be in between surf spots here, but about 30 miles away, there’s a place that looks like it might be okay. There’s a big campsite there and it says they rent out boards, so it seems like a good bet. Want to try it?”
“I’ll try anything with you, baby.”
“Sebastian, focus,” she huffed out, pointing at the map then folding her arms.
“Sure, baby,” I said, winking at her. “I just need to fill up the gas tank, but otherwise we’re good to go.”
I wrapped my hands over her shoulders and planted a quick kiss in her hair.
“Come on then, Hunter,” she snorted, reaching into our bag and throwing me a t-shirt. “Let’s go see what Signora Battelli has got us for breakfast.”
When we walked into the dining area and saw the table covered with mouth-watering food, my eyes widened, and I had a hard time not drooling: fresh fruit, warm bread, sweet rolls, cereal, yogurts, Italian cheese, salamis and cold meat. Fuckin’ A!
Signora Battelli probably hadn’t counted on having a Devil Dog at her table, and I made three trips to the buffet before I finally called quits.
It hadn’t escaped my attention that a couple of American girls were sitting at the table next to us. They’d been eye-fucking me every time I’d gone to get more food. Once I might have been interested, but why go out for burgers when you’ve got steak at home?
One of the girls was asking Signora Battelli questions about cooking pasta.
“But how much should I give guests at a meal?” she asked. “How will I know how much to buy back home?”
“Young woman,” said Signora Battelli, resting her pudgy hands on her enormous stomach. “You buy a half pound of fresh pasta per person … except for my son: he eats one pound of pasta!”
I wondered if the son was another fat fucker who ate all the pies. I could eat anything I wanted and I was in the best shape of my life. Going into a warzone was very fucking incentivizing.
But then the girls started flirting with me in front of Caro. I would have told them off, but I knew Caro wouldn’t like it. So I answered politely, tolerating but not encouraging them.
“I’ve never ridden a motor-sickle,” said the one called Lydia.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it when you get the chance,” I replied then stood up, having reached my limit of tolerance for their amateurish flirting. I held out my hand to Caro impatiently.
“Come on, baby.”
She took my hand, a huge smile on her face, and I couldn’t resist bringing her fingers to my lips and kissing the inside of her narrow wrist.
Her smile got even wider, and there was something in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before.
“What?” I asked, curious about what she was thinking.
“Sometimes you can be very sweet.”
Her words were like a punch in the gut and I couldn’t look away from her. Ask any of the guys that I’d trained with or fought with and ‘sweet’ is not a word they’d use to describe me. But to hear it from her for the first time in ten years, all the walls I’d built around me crumbled.
“Tesoro, what did I say?” she whispered, her forehead creasing with concern as I continued to stare at her.
I looked into her eyes, so she could see the truth of my words.
“I love you, Caro, so much. I haven’t changed how I feel. I still love you—I’ve always loved you. It’s only ever been you.”
I stopped breathing as she gazed back at me, her lips moving wordlessly. And then she spoke.
“I love you, too, Sebastian. More than you’ll ever know.”
That was all I needed to hear.
I leaned down and trapped her lips with mine, kissing her softly and sweetly because I wanted so badly to mash my mouth against hers, bruising her lips, showing the world that she was mine. Maybe that would come later, but now I needed to be the man she thought I was—the man I could be, for her.
I felt everything. I felt the moment when she let herself believe in me, in our fierce love that a decade apart hadn’t been able to kill; the moment she believed in herself, and everything that I knew she felt, too; and the moment that my heart knew I’d spend the rest of my life with this woman … this amazing, brave, fearless, loving woman.
“You mean everything to me, Caro,” I whispered, my voice raw with emotion.
I knew she could feel the weight of my words.
“You’re so brave, tesoro,” she said simply. “You’ve never been afraid to love.”