“Sam, wait,” I called after her but she didn’t slow. If anything, she sped up, almost running but not quite. Clearly my fuck talk by the fire only pissed her off instead of turning her on. Had I miscalculated or what? I could either chase her down—and there was no question I could—or go back and toss myself into the pool. To hell with it, if I was going down, I was going to do it hard. I sprinted and caught her in about ten strides.

“Why are you following me?” she cried.

“I thought you understood back there that I—”

She cut me off. “I understand that you can turn your heat on and off like a light switch but I’m not that way. What do you have to be confused about?”

The unfairness of it made me explode. ”You think I’ve got it all together? Let me tell you, sister. You know why I’m struggling with the decision to stay in? Because if I do, I’ll be in charge of people. People who could die. It’s one thing to make sure that your armored vehicle works or your rifle but people, Sam! I need to make sure my team has got it all together upstairs,” I pointed to my head, “and here,” I pounded my chest.

“Because if one part of the platoon is weak, we could all be in danger. I have to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing and what they should do and how they’ll react. I’m fucking terrified of that, and I’m completely disgusted at myself for even hesitating. Hesitating can get you dead outside the wire.” I was yelling at her, but Sam didn’t move away. Her gaze, well, I couldn’t read it at that point; I was too caught up in my own misery.

“And women? Shit. My girlfriend of four years cheated on me during my second deployment with the local Marine recruiter, an officer!” I threw out my arms. “And she was going to climb back in bed with me when I got home. If it hadn’t been for the LT deciding that it’s bros before hos, I could have slept with her when she had an STI.”

Sam stood stock still as I yelled. Scrubbing my hand over my mouth, I looked around and gave a mirthless laugh, embarrassed at the shitstorm I just spewed all over her. “Sorry.” Could I pass it off as drunken behavior? I cradled my head in my hands so I couldn’t see her expression of disgust. “By the way, I’m clean,” I mumbled through my hands.

Instead of running away, Sam came closer. Her hand fell on my shoulder and then trailed down to my elbow. Looking up, I saw that she’d lost her angry and hurt expression and replaced it with a tender smile. Her other hand came up to cup the back of my neck and pull my head down to hers. There was no logic to her behavior. She should have been sprinting away from me and my mess, but I didn’t correct her. I wasn’t so stupid or so inept that I didn’t know how to seize opportunity when it presented itself. Still as a hunter lying in wait, I remained motionless as her lips brushed my cheek, her soft breath feathering across my skin. The streetlights made her skin luminous, and this close I could see her pale lashes fluttering over her eyes. Her hand pressed against my forearm for balance as she leaned in, moving her mouth from my cheek to my ear.

“I’m thirsty. You thirsty?” she whispered, and her breath traveled straight from my ear down to my groin.

For a moment I didn’t get it, didn’t get what she was trying to say to me but then I recalled her smile, the light touch on my arm, and the tender way she kissed me. The lights inside my dimwitted head turned on. “I’ve never been so thirsty my entire fucking life.”

“Come on then.” She threaded her fingers confidently through mine. Her taking control in this moment? So very hot. “Is my Rover okay?”

“I could care less the place, but why?”

“Because I don’t think I can wait to get somewhere else.” She gave me a tremulous smile, and I was instantly hard.

“Let’s go.”

Her truck was parked outside her parents’ house. I climbed into the passenger seat and she drove me up the hill to a park at the end of the development. There were no lights here. I pushed my seat back and pulled her onto my lap. I was going to be inside her before the night was over, or I’d be dead because nothing short of a bullet in the chest was going to stop us tonight.

Samantha

GRAY’S TALK OF HIS FAVORITE positions and what he liked in a woman had dampened my swim bottoms and made my clothes feel too tight. He was a mess inside but I liked that. I understood it. Another guy who was more put together would make me feel anxious and inadequate. That Gray was confused about life and where he was going and how he felt about women suited me perfectly and strangely bolstered my own confidence. Tonight he was going to be mine, I’d decided. I wanted to have an orgasm that wasn’t brought about by my own fingers or just rubbing against him. I wanted his fingers to touch me and I wanted to hold his head between my legs. I just wanted.

We fumbled with my top, pulling off my T-shirt and then my bikini top. The strings fell away with a few tugs of his fingers and then his breath caught as he stared at my bare breasts in the moonlight. I’d always been a little self-conscious of my nipples because they were rather large and had a tendency to poke out of every shirt I wore unless I wore a well-padded bra.

I moved to cover my breasts but he brushed my hands away, cupping one breast in each large hand. “Goddamn, Sam, my mouth is fucking watering. I can’t wait until I’ve sucked on both your tits.”

But instead of heading right to my breasts, he began kissing the hollow of my throat, running his tongue along the ridges of my collarbone. His hands circled the sides of my breasts, measured the weight of them, and plumped them together until a valley formed for his questing tongue, but he didn’t touch the tips. And the longer that he ignored them the more sensitive they became. The night air was sultry and heavy but I still felt every slight movement.

My sex ached. Moaning, I tried to move closer, tried to get him to ease that ache, if not with his dick, then his fingers or even his thigh. “Oh please, Gray,” I gasped.

“What is it that you want?” His mouth moved against the top of my breast, licking and nibbling, but leaving the nipples untouched. “Tell me,” he ordered.

“I need you to suck me, touch me,” I cried out in frustration.

“Here?” he asked, stroking the sides of my breasts. “Or is it here?” His hand drifted down toward the waistband of my skirt.

“Everywhere,” I gasped.

It must’ve been enough because he latched on, practically sucking my whole breast into his mouth. The ache between my legs only intensified. With one hand he plucked and pinched the other nipple. His free hand undid the button on my skirt and we struggled to push it over my hips and then his fingers were inside my bikini bottom. We both groaned when his fingers slid between my labia, just slightly inside me.

“You’re dripping for me,” he groaned. “I made you hot. My words turned you on. This arousal is mine, and I want it.” I was barely paying attention to his words because I just wanted his fingers farther inside me. I slid forward on his hand, rubbing my clit against his palm. God, I could come just from this. Then his two long fingers slid all the way in until I could feel his entire palm covering me. The slick heat of me was making him breathless. I could hear the harsh panting in my ear as he thrust into me with his fingers.

“Do you want to ride my cock?” he growled. “Does this pussy want my cock inside it because, baby, I’m so hard right now. I need to be inside you.”

Gray’s words worked me up harder, higher, hotter. I rode his fingers while he described how he was going to take me after I’d come all over him. He told me he’d lick his fingers then stroke his own cock with our combined moisture. He whispered that my hungry noises made him want to come in his shorts but that he wasn’t going to because he wanted to save that for me. He whispered hotter and filthier things until I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. All I could think of was how big his fingers were and how the pressure of the pad of his palm against my clit was perfect and how I wanted to come so hard. I gripped his shoulders and ground down and down until the sensation I’d been chasing exploded and I was gone.