I wondered what sort of man I’d be when I came back from my next deployment in Afghanistan. Each tour changed you, hardened you, closed off a part that you could never talk about. And I couldn’t tell her that this was one of the most dangerous missions I’d ever go on. We’d have to travel deep into the mountains in a region where the Taliban were actively recruiting. It was impossible to tell who was friend and who was enemy. And the whole point of the mission was to make friends with powerful people in hard to reach places. The guy leading the mission was from the Marine Expeditionary Unit. MEU is a quick reaction force, deployed and ready for immediate response to any crisis. Normally, this was 2,000 plus men, with air and ground combat elements and logistics under one commander. They were a tough crew, and I knew that they’d have picked a competent guy to lead our significantly smaller team of a dozen men. But if anything went wrong, air support was more than 30 minutes away. You could do a lot of dying in 30 minutes.
Caro shifted against me and her eyes fluttered open.
“Hey.”
“Ciao, bello!” she said, her voice husky with sleep. “How long have you been awake?”
“Not long. Just enough time to remind me that I’m a lucky bastard.”
She smiled sleepily and stretched, her warm body pressing against mine.
“I could get used to this, Sebastian, waking up next to you.”
But then her smile turned sad, and I knew that she was thinking about the time expiration on that.
“So, what’s the new plan?” she asked, forcing herself to be cheerful. “Do you want to see some more of Tuscany, or should we go further north?”
I was confused. Since when was that the plan? “What about Salerno?”
“It’s too much driving, Sebastian,” she said, shaking her head. “We don’t have a lot of time and you…”
“Hell, no! I want to see where your dad came from as much as you do. Fuck the driving, Caro! We’re going to Salerno. If you get your beautiful ass out of bed, we can be there in maybe five hours.”
I could see that she wanted to give in, but was worried about the miles we’d be clocking up if we carried on heading south.
“Anyway,” I said, “we’re out of condoms, and much as I’m enjoying being creative, I really just want to fuck you into next week.”
She rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide the huge smile on her face.
“Such sweet words, Sebastian. How did you get to be such a smooth talker?”
“I don’t know, baby,” I grinned, “but it works every time.”
“Every time, huh? But you know, I have to say, last night wasn’t particularly creative—we weren’t even naked.”
I laughed loudly.
“Not creative? Hell, Caro, I managed to keep a conversation going with Cardozo; I thought that was pretty fucking creative.”
“Is that the name of your CO?”
“Yeah, he’s an okay guy.”
“He must have his hands full dealing with you.” She paused, giving me the stink-eye. “What’s his wife like?”
I grinned back at her. “Blonde, attractive … about forty. Why, are you jealous?”
“Of course,” she said, without missing a beat.
I shook my head and kissed her gently. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, baby.”
I’d meant to reassure her, but as soon as our lips touched she moaned low in her throat, pushing her body against mine, her tongue plunging into my mouth. It was so fucking hot, my body ignited.
“Caro,” I groaned, as she ran her hands over my thighs.
“Shh, tesoro.”
She kissed down my chest and stomach, then took my dick in her mouth, which shut off every lucid thought I had. The feel of her warm, wet tongue working over the head of my cock—you could have shot off my kneecaps and I’d still be a happy man.
I was just about coherent enough to slide my fingers towards her pussy, working her clit so she got hers, too.
Ten minutes later, we were both flat on our backs, panting. I had the biggest fucking smile on my face.
“You ready to get up, baby?” I asked, stroking her perfect ass.
“Mmm, if I have to,” she mumbled. “But to tell you the truth, I’d be quite happy staying here all day, if someone brought us food. And condoms.”
Her comment was very fucking motivating, so I kissed her tits quickly, just to be polite, then kicked the sheets back, making her flinch.
“Hey!” she complained.
“Up,” I ordered, standing over her, waiting for her to move.
When she pouted and glared up at me, I leaned down and fastened my teeth over her left nipple, tugging gently.
“You cheat,” she grumbled, finally rolling out of bed and staggering the short distance to the shower.
I swatted her ass, just to help her along.
The water wasn’t hot, so we showered quickly, avoiding touching too much so we didn’t get turned on. It wasn’t working. I mean, come on! Hot woman naked in my shower—it was asking too much. I tried to ignore my ever-ready dick and stuffed it inside a pair of jeans, then watched as Caro ran a comb through her wet hair and tied it back.
“It doesn’t take you long to get ready, does it, Caro? You never even bother to put on makeup.
“I do sometimes,” she huffed, sounding a little defensive, although I wasn’t sure of the reason. “If I’m going out somewhere dressy. But not usually, no. Why?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. Just saying. It drives me crazy when women spend hours getting ready to go out.”
Not that I had to suffer that too often—I was more a hit it and quit it kind of guy; I didn’t stick around for dates so much. Until now. But my words had dug up another memory.
“You remember that time we went clothes shopping in San Diego? You had to buy a new dress?”
“Oh, sure, I remember that! The sales assistant was flirting with you?”
Huh, didn’t remember that.
“She was?”
I wondered if she’d been hot. Whatever.
Caro looked equal parts annoyed and amused. “Don’t you remember, she was asking you if you were a pilot from Miramar?”
Nope, definitely didn’t remember that.
“Well, I’m not surprised,” she said, smiling to herself, “in those days you never used to notice other women flirting with you. You were such an innocent. Not like now.”
“Hell, you should complain, Caro! You were the one I lost my innocence to—a hot, older woman.”
“You know what I mean,” she laughed slapping my arm away as I reached for her.
Damn, I’d really thought I was the shit back then, catching the eye of a seriously hot woman—not a girl—even though she was married. And hell, I couldn’t deny it was a turn on … fucking her behind her husband’s back, in his bed even. Not that it was the reason I’d fallen for Caro—she’d always been special to me. But yeah, I felt like The Man when she let me into her bed and into her body. No woman had meant a thing to me since then, except to scratch an itch. I knew I’d behaved like a bastard, but I was finding it hard to care. There was only one woman whose feelings mattered to me.
I caught her hand, pulling her down, until she was sitting in my lap.
“Caro,” I said seriously, “you’re all I want. You don’t have to worry about other women. Yeah, so I fucked around a lot, but you know what? It was just a game—I was using them, they were using me. It gets pretty old after a while.” I paused, tucking her hair behind her ear and kissing her throat. “But I might have to hunt down those old boyfriends of yours and beat them to a pulp.”
She laughed, which was the reaction I’d hoped for. “Double standards, Sebastian?”
“Nope, just two sets of rules … but I was thinking about the black dress you bought back in San Diego. You looked so fucking hot in that.”
“I’ve still got it somewhere,” she said, frowning, “although I haven’t worn it in years.”
Her words gave me an idea.
“We should do that, Caro; go out somewhere you can dress up.”
She sighed softly. “I used to fantasize about seeing you in a tux.”
“Really?”
“Sebastian, I spent far too many hours fantasizing about you in a variety of, um, situations. And just recently, it’s become my new hobby.”