I swallowed, trying to bring myself back into the here and now.

"Yeah, let's go."

We walked out of the schoolhouse, sunglasses pulled down over our eyes, covers thankfully protecting our heads from the broiling rays of the sun as we made our way over to the base bowling alley. When we walked in, Castillo and Collins were already sitting down at one of the lanes, motioning for us to join them. Shortly after we sat down and got situated, Riley, Newsome, and Smith walked in, meeting us in our area.

"Let's put a friendly wager on today's game," Riley called out, making the rest of us shake our heads. "Whoever scores the lowest is footing the bill all night at Coyotes on Friday."

"That's not a good bet. Cruz has duty Friday night. He won't be around to pay for our binge fest," Jensen answered, making everyone break out in laughter, including me.

"I'm not that fucking bad. And I'll take your shitty little wager, Riley, because I'm damn near certain that it won't be me paying up to kill your livers."

Everyone else nodded their heads, agreeing to the bet.

Before long, we were five frames into the game and I was holding on to second to last place. Collins, luckily, was pulling up the rear. It was my turn to throw when I heard that annoying voice of Pfc. Dalton making his way into the bowling alley. When I turned around, I found Bennett and two other Marines whom I didn't know walking in with him. The female I had never seen before, but the male looked like he was in Smith's and Riley's class; perhaps a friend of the kid who made me want to spit nails.

I turned and cracked my neck, trying to erase her presence from my mind. It wasn't an easy task. In fact, it was downright shitty because the more I tried not to think about her, the more she was there, smiling that perfect little naïve smile that had hooked me from the very beginning.

I walked up to the lane, throwing my ball and cursing aloud as the ball made its way to the gutter for the first time in the game. Of course it would have to happen when she was around, possibly looking over at me.

"You better hope Collins rolls a gutter too, or else your ass is flying solo in last place, Cruz," Riley yelled out. My eyes narrowed at him, or so he thought it was him, but truth be told my eyes were focusing in on Bennett in the background, getting what looked like a back rub from Dalton as she prepared to make her first throw.

Son of a bitch.

My insides were turning, pushing me to stomp over there and remove his hand from any part of her body. Innocent or not, it was pissing me off that he could touch her and I couldn't. And I hated being told no.

She stood, grabbed a ball, then walked up the lane and situated herself. When she threw, she knocked down seven pins, leaving a very simple spare to pick up extra points. Dalton made sure to high-five her, holding on to her hand a bit too long for my liking. I had completely checked out of our game as I remained focused on what was happening down the row from us. She threw her second ball and easily picked up the spare, throwing her hands into the air while the rest of them clapped and hollered for her. Her easy going nature had me wrapped around her finger without her even having to say much to me. She was so different from me, so carefree, and I liked it.

Fuck, I loved it.

I tried hard to come back to our game, but I couldn't get my mind or my eyes to keep from wandering to where Bennett was driving me mad, even though she was unaware of the affect she had on me. She high- fived Dalton when he walked back after throwing a strike, their fingers lingering as they pulled away. His excessive celebration was grating my nerves, and even if there was technically nothing wrong with what they were doing, I just couldn't take his flirtations with her any longer.

"You all need to keep it down. This is still a place of business," I growled, standing over the four of them. Bennett's eyes loomed large as she looked up to me. My presence must have caught her off guard as shock filled her face, almost as if she had no idea that I was in the building.

"I'm sorry, Sergeant," Dalton offered up, further pissing me off by his cordial demeanor when I was anything but. "We'll try and keep it down."

"It's fine," I backtracked, realizing that I was losing my shit in front of her. "Just bring it down a notch. You don't want to get too rowdy in here," I lied. They all nodded and answered. I looked back down to Bennett, her bottom lip tucked into her mouth, held down by the top row of her teeth. The look sent blood streaming down to my cock, exciting me in a way that I couldn't deal with, not in public anyway. I closed my eyes and exhaled, quickly turning and walking back over to where my own group sat.

"I'll catch you guys later. I'll take this loss and pay for your shit, I just have to get out of here," I said, quickly gathering my things before walking out of the bowling alley. Before I walked out, I turned back to catch a glimpse of Bennett who still had her gaze hooked on me. She sucked on that bottom lip of hers again, this time making me do the same.

I wanted her so bad. I wanted to show her just how much she affected me, but I couldn't. I couldn't do a God damned thing about the lust, the friction, or the crazy erections that she often times gave me. No, all I could do was walk back out into the searing sun and stew on my thoughts that were never going to become a reality because the Marine Corps made sure that I couldn't act on them without losing everything that I had worked so hard for.

If someone had asked me a year ago if I could disobey a Marine Corps order, I would have laughed in their face and offered them a punch to the gut for such an idiotic fucking question. The Corps was everything I have ever wanted to be, and it's made me everything that I am. The rules and regulations were set in place to maintain proper conduct and order, two necessary components for running the world's most elite branch of war fighters.

Now, after meeting Bennett and going half way with her—and desperately wanting to taste that second half— I'm not so sure those rules and regulations weren't set in place to test me and make my life a living hell. Could I turn my back on the Corps and what it stands for? For Cassie Bennett, I wasn't sure, but this was more than just saying no as I would for almost every other female. This was a dire straits game of tug-o-war, a self-depraving inner struggle, a test of wills. On the outside, I was winning, but deep inside...deep inside I knew I was losing badly.

My mind was swirling and jumbling with the thought of betraying one of the main rules that had been put in place to protect all parties involved. For the first time in my career, I wasn't ready to staunchly defend an order that had been given. I was ready to toss that bitch aside and forget that it even existed if that meant I could finally taste Bennett and every ounce of her vanilla and fruit scented body.

I hated what she was doing to me in terms of who I was as a Marine and my standing within the Corps. I didn't make it to where I was because I cut corners to get there. I worked hard, never taking shortcuts or doing shit in secret. But now, not only was my mind grappling with the idea of doing those things, I was fucking salivating at the opportunity to break that one, cock blocking rule. Because by not breaking that rule, it was destroying my mind while also slowly, tortuously breaking down my will power. 

Cassie

The bowling alley was completely and utterly frustrating. What started out as a fun idea to quickly pass along the lunch hour, turned into a panty wetting, lip biting, image-producing fiasco within my own mind. I pictured Sgt. Cruz's lips on mine, biting and tugging as I bit down on my own. His response was not lost on me, and I could only hope that it wasn't that obvious to everyone else in attendance. If Sgt. Cruz was serious about forgetting what had happened that night at Coyotes, he wasn't making it easy on me. He could have very well stayed away from us because honestly, we weren't that loud. And even if we were, it was a bowling alley for crying out loud; people get loud and rowdy in there.