“I’m sorry, Caro. I just go a little crazy around you.”
She didn’t look happy.
“Well, you have to get it under control. Now please, please tell me your assignment to Ryan Grant is temporary.”
“Fuck! I was wondering why they’d seated you next to him. Are you embedded with him? Shit!”
Her mouth twisted in a wry grimace.
“Exactly my thoughts. He can’t know, or it’ll really screw things up for both of us—well, mainly for me. Sebastian, you’re going to have to act like you did in Geneva, as if you still dislike me—or at the very least, ignore me. Can you do that?”
Probably not.
“Fuck, Caro,” I sighed. “Yes, I can do it. But I’ll hate every fucking minute of it.”
She gave me a small smile.
“At least if we’re in the same Camp, I’ll know what you’re doing and that you’re safe.”
“Same goes for you. Yeah, there is that. And we might get a chance to … hook up?”
Her eyes darkened, but she shook her head.
“No, too dangerous. You can’t risk it and I definitely can’t risk it. Grant isn’t an idiot.”
“No, he seems on the ball.”
“On the plus side, Grant already thinks you dislike me.”
That was news to me. “Because…?”
“Liz: she mentioned that we’d met in Geneva, and at that stage, she still thought you were an ass. Well, that hasn’t changed, but just a different sort of ass now.”
I felt a reluctant smile pulling my lips upward.
“An ass?”
“Big time.”
I leaned against the door, smiling down at her.
“What happened with your little friend, Natalie?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
I frowned with instant irritation.
“She’s no fucking friend. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, and then Grant kicked me out because of her.”
“What did he say to you?”
Yeah, didn’t want to repeat that conversation.
Caro shook her head. “Oh, well, never mind—I can guess. She didn’t look pleased either—I think she was planning to have you for dessert. Was it you who told her to cover up?”
“Yeah, not that it made any difference.”
“She must have listened to someone. At least you tried. And you are very trying, Warrant Officer Hunter. Part of me wants to slap some sense into you…”
“And the other part?” I asked, licking my lips automatically, like some fucking starving dog.
“Well,” she said, running a finger down the front of my uniform, “I was wondering what we could do for the next…” she checked her wristwatch, “…115 minutes?”
One hundred and fifteen minutes: was that all we had? It was never enough. It was just never fucking enough. I closed my eyes, the familiar fear pumping through me. I was losing her again.
“What’s the matter, tesoro?” she asked quietly.
“I really fucking hate this, Caro. We’re always running in different directions, we’re always running out of time. I just want to wake up with you in my arms every day.”
She sighed, her expression sad.
“I know, Sebastian, and I feel the same. But it won’t be like that forever—we will be together. We just have to be patient.” Her warm fingers stroked my cheek, “And for now, we have 113 minutes left.”
My eyes snapped open.
“Fuck!”
Suddenly we were tearing at each other, touching and tasting and fighting to get free of our clothes. So many damn buttons. Fucking uniform!
“Damn it, Caro,” I groaned, as she pressed her bare skin against me.
I backed her toward the bed, my dick pushing against her. She fell onto the hard mattress and then burst into laughter.
“What?”
“The whole pants around the ankles thing—it’s not a great look.”
I grinned as I toed off my shoes. Yeah, probably not my smoothest moves.
“Guess I’d better lose the socks, too.”
“Definitely.”
As Caro stared up at me, I pulled off the rest of my uniform, tossing it to the other side of the room and stood beside the bed, staring down at her, my dick as rigid as a divining rod.
“You like what you see, Caro?”
She nodded, silent now. I tried to get the words out, to explain what this moment with her meant to me.
“After tonight, well, we don’t know when … so I want you to remember me like this … when you look at me—see me like this, wanting you.”
I gripped my dick and stroked myself, letting the insane attraction that I had for this woman, the intense, terrifying love flood through me.
“And when I look at you, this is what I’ll be thinking about: close your eyes.”
She let her eyelids flutter close, and I sat at the bottom of the bed, gently pulling her legs apart as I kissed up her thighs.
My lips pressed against the damp curls of her pussy.
“This is me telling you that your body is mine.”
I dipped my tongue inside her, tasting and teasing, and she moaned and arched against me.
“This is your body telling me that I am yours.”
I nipped at her clit, and her hands tried to grip onto my short hair, instead pressing the flat of her hands against my head and forcing me deeper inside her.
“This is me saying that we need to be together.”
I stroked inside her with my fingers and she climaxed quickly.
“And that’s your body agreeing with me.
Her hands dug into my shoulders as she gasped, trying to slow her breathing. I sat up, pulling a condom out of my pants pocket and rolling it on quickly, resentful of the time it took me away from her.
Then I moved back onto the bed, my body hovering over hers. Caro’s eyes locked on mine, and she pulled her knees upward, creating a nest for me to settle my hips between her thighs.
I pushed inside her slowly, gritting my teeth with the pleasure that coursed through me, fighting the base urge to fuck her to a standstill.
Caro arched her back, then pulled my face up to hers, kissing me softly.
“And this is me saying that you’ve come home,” she whispered.
Her words brought tears to my eyes. Home: that word had never meant much to me before, but now it meant everything. Caro was my home—wherever she went, that was where I was meant to be. Forever.
The feeling was overwhelming: emotionally, physically, mentally. I answered her with my body, moving faster, moving deeper, taking her again and again, my dick thickening and heating inside her until I couldn’t hold on, coming hard and fast.
I rested on top of her body, my heart racing furiously. But then she pushed on my shoulder gently, and I just had enough presence of mind to realize that I was crushing her. I rolled onto my back, taking her with me so she was resting on my chest, her hair sweeping across my face and neck.
We stayed in each other’s arms, peaceful and silent for now.
Suddenly, an explosion erupted outside, rattling the windows of the hotel. Even as I was yanking Caro to the floor, on the side of the bed away from the window, I was calculating the likely distance of the blast, what kind of IED it might be, and whether there would be more explosions or gunfire. I counted to ten, but all I could hear was the sound of alarms from cars and buildings, voices shouting. I stood cautiously, moving to the side of the window and pulling the curtain open a fraction so I could peer out.
“Probably a car bomb—about half a mile away.”
Caro was still shivering on the floor, her eyes wide, but she didn’t look like she was going into shock.
“It’s okay, Caro. We’re okay.”
And we were, for now, but we both knew that luck could run out—especially in a warzone. Soldiers died every day, hundreds of civilians a week, and journalists, too. Lady Luck was a callous bitch.
I wanted Caro out of here, I wanted…
Caro stood up hesitantly, her naked body hardening my dick even as the sound of ambulances tore the night. But she was staring toward the window, and even though my body was reacting to her, I knew that wasn’t what she needed from me now—I wasn’t a fucking caveman. Well, not all of the time.