There was a collective gasp from the congregated soldiers as Chase emerged from the hut. Dangling from his gloved hand was a massive spider.
Elena recoiled in horror.
“It’s okay,” he assured her. “It can’t hurt you now.”
“Oh, my god,” she breathed, staring at the creature in disbelief. “What is it?”
“The soldiers call these camel spiders.”
“Is it alive?”
Before Chase could answer, the thing made a hideous noise and began to twitch in his hand. As one, the soldiers took a step backward.
“Damn, Sergeant,” one man said, “you’re either the bravest son of a bitch I’ve ever seen or the dumbest.”
Chase held the spider up and considered it. “They’re actually not venomous. This guy was probably just looking for a shady place to hide.”
The spider was sand-colored and hairy, and each of its legs were easily six inches long. It jerked grotesquely in Chase’s hand. Elena shuddered and looked away, repulsed by the thing. Her imagination conjured up horrible images of what might have happened had Chase not captured it. What if the spider had attacked her during the night?
“Somebody get me a box or a jar,” Chase commanded. He turned to Elena. “You okay?”
She couldn’t understand how he could be so calm while holding something so frightening. “I don’t think I can go back in there,” she said, indicating her sleeping quarters. “What if there are more?”
“We checked everything and the hut is clear. There’s nothing in there to be afraid of.”
Elena gave a disbelieving snort. “Right. You couldn’t pay me enough money to sleep in there.”
A corner of Chase’s mouth lifted and his eyes gleamed with humor. “I did warn you that the conditions here are different than what you’re accustomed to.”
She bristled. “If you even try to insinuate that I’m acting like a typical female, Chase, then take a good look around. Even your own soldiers are afraid to get near that thing.” She grimaced. “Any human should be afraid to get near something that revolting.”
Chase laughed. “Okay, I concede.”
One of the soldiers came forward with a cardboard box, and Chase dropped the spider inside, quickly closing the top before it could escape. He handed the box back to the soldier. “Release it outside the wire.”
The soldier blanched. “Me?”
Chase arched an eyebrow. “You have a particular problem, Corporal, that prevents you from releasing an insect?”
The man flushed and defiantly snatched the box from Chase’s hands, although Elena noted how he held it at arm’s length. “No, sir,” he snapped. “No problem.”
He strode away, and Chase turned to the remaining men. “Okay, show’s over. Back to your posts.”
“Speaking of which,” Elena said quietly, “why aren’t you at your post? Something about insurgents preparing to overrun the compound? What are you doing here? I thought you were against rescuing damsels in distress.”
He glanced at her. “The intel was false,” he said curtly.
“Ah. Well, that’s a relief. I mean, if you’d been gone, who would have captured that little critter?” Elena peered into the hut to see Sylvia still standing on her bed, her face pale. “The spider is gone,” she assured the other woman. “You can come down.”
Sylvia gingerly climbed from the bed and came outside. Elena could see she was shaking. She held out the bag she’d carried from the dining facility. “I brought you a sandwich and something to drink.”
Sylvia grimaced. “Thanks, but I couldn’t eat a thing.” She drew in a shaky breath and faced Chase. “Actually, I’d like to speak with whoever is in charge of the DPA folks.”
Chase’s expression didn’t change. “That would be Colonel Vinson. I can walk you to his office, if you’d like.”
Realization hit Elena, and she reached out to touch Sylvia’s shoulder. “You can’t leave. Not when you’ve just gotten here.”
Sylvia turned around. “I can’t stay. I’m sorry, but I completely underestimated what the conditions would be like out here.” She glanced back into the hut and Elena saw a shudder go through her. “I can’t sleep in there, or anyplace else where there might be those spiders. Or worse. I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Chase assured her. “You’re making the right choice.”
Elena briefly narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the older woman. “Sylvia, you don’t have to do this. Granted, the spider was disgusting, but it wasn’t poisonous. We really need you out here. The
troops
really need you here. I wish you’d reconsider.”
Sylvia shook her head. “I can’t. I’m going to ask if I can leave on the next helicopter out.”
Reluctantly, Elena glanced at Chase. She fully expected to see an expression of triumph on his face, but his features were somber as he considered Sylvia. “I’ll personally ensure that you’re on a flight back to Kuwait first thing tomorrow.” He shifted his attention to Elena. “Can I persuade you to go with her, Ms. De la Vega?”
“Not a chance.”
“Fine,” he said, clearly not pleased. “But next time there’s an uninvited, eight-inch critter in your bed, don’t expect the cavalry to come to your rescue.”
Elena smiled sweetly and allowed her gaze to drift over him. “Trust me. The next time I have an eight-inch critter in my bed, it won’t be uninvited.”
She had just begun to drift off when a strident alarm snapped her into full awareness. Sylvia mumbled something incoherent and Elena heard her fumbling in the dark until finally, she hit the alarm and blissful silence ensued. But for Elena, there was no falling asleep.
With a groan, she sat up and pushed the sleeping bag back, shivering in the cool air. Reaching out, she groped for the light attached to the wall and snapped it on, illuminating her little sleeping compartment. She looked over at Sylvia, who was also sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
“What time is it?” Elena asked.
“About 4:00 a.m. Sergeant Corrente is coming to get me in ten minutes to bring me to the airstrip.” Sylvia swung her legs over the edge of her bed and scrubbed her hands over her face. “God, I’m tired.”
Elena agreed. She was exhausted to her very bones, but she knew she’d never be able to get back to sleep. “I think I’ll go grab a shower and something to eat, and then head over to the contracting center,” she announced. “Any chance I can borrow your shampoo?”
Leaning over, Sylvia unzipped her duffel bag and tossed Elena a small cosmetic kit. “You can keep it,” she said. “I’m not going to need it.”
Elena slid her feet into her boots. “Well, I guess this is it,” she said to Sylvia. “I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you.”
Sylvia gave a huff of laughter. “I’m not. I’m glad I came, if only for the fact that I now realize how lucky I am.”
“What do you mean?”
Sylvia shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “I’ve spent the past year feeling sorry for myself. My whole life changed after my husband left me. Somehow, I believed that was a bad thing.” She looked around the room they shared. “But coming over here and seeing how these young people live was a real wake-up call. They work in these horrible conditions, far away from their loved ones, and yet I haven’t heard one complaint. It’s a little humbling.”
Elena knew exactly what she meant. She considered that this was Chase’s fourth deployment to Afghanistan and that he was prepared to spend another year away from his family.
“It does make you reconsider what your priorities are,” she agreed. “I’m sure none of these soldiers take what they have for granted, not when they know they could lose everything at any time. You figure out really quick what it is that you care about.”
She wondered what Chase cared about. Who were his loved ones? He’d told her that he wasn’t married, but did he have someone waiting for him at home? She realized she knew next to nothing about the man, other than the fact he was from North Carolina. If circumstance hadn’t placed them on the same outpost together, she would never have seen him again, never known anything more about him than what she’d learned during that one amazing night.
The thought was oddly depressing.
Bending down, she unzipped her duffel bag to pull out a clean change of clothing and a towel, when something white fell from the folds of fabric and drifted to the floor. Elena picked up a slip of paper that had been folded in half, her name scrawled across the front. Her pulse quickened as she slowly opened the note, half afraid of what she might find. He’d only written two lines, but they were enough for Elena.
Write to me, Elena.
He hadn’t wanted to say goodbye.
The realization that he’d wanted to stay in touch with her caused a slow warmth to seep through her. She closed her fingers over the paper.
Write to me, Elena
. Which meant that his earlier hostility at seeing her on the base was from his own fears for her safety, and not because he didn’t want her around.
“Elena, are you sure you want to stay here for six months?” Sylvia’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “There’s room on that helicopter for you if you think you’d like to go home.”
Elena turned to the other woman with a smile. “Oh, no. I’m definitely going to stay. In fact, I’m really looking forward to it. But thanks.”
She gave Sylvia a brief hug and then hefted her backpack over her shoulder. Stepping outside into the cool darkness of predawn, she made her way to the lavatory facilities, but her thoughts were on Chase. He’d written the note believing he wouldn’t see her again, at least not so soon. But the fact that he’d given her his e-mail address and asked her to write to him was huge. She knew instinctively that he wasn’t the kind of guy to give his personal information out lightly.
Lost in her thoughts, she made her way past the other living quarters. The base was mostly quiet at this hour, although she could hear the lazy
thwap-thwap
of an idling helicopter over on the landing pad, and guessed it was Sylvia’s ride home.
She entered the showers and saw a row of changing stalls facing a wall of lockers. Beyond the locker room, she could hear the spray of water from the shower room itself, which meant she wasn’t going to have the privacy she’d hoped for. With a resigned sigh, she set her belongings in the closest stall and quickly undressed. Wrapping her towel around her, she grabbed the bottle of shampoo that Sylvia had given to her and padded over to the open shower room.
And stopped dead in her tracks.
A man stood beneath the spray of a single nozzle, steam wreathing his body. A supremely muscled, supremely naked man.
Chase.
All the saliva in Elena’s mouth evaporated at the sight of him. He stood with his back to her, his head bent as water sluiced down his body. He soaped himself, his hands moving over his chest and up under his arms, washing there before sliding lower, over his stomach. He was golden everywhere except for the paler skin of his hips and buttocks. Despite having seen him unclothed before, Elena greedily drank in the sight of him.
He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen, lean and hard, and his face…with his cheekbones and full, sensual mouth, he had a face that could make an angel weep. Elena just stood there, clutching her towel and staring. She couldn’t drag her gaze away from him, devouring the play of muscles along his sleek back. His ass was perfect, his thighs hard and sinewy. She remembered all too well the feel of them between her own, and a hot burst of yearning spread through her abdomen.
He tipped his head back, exposing his strong throat and letting the spray hit him full in the face before he slicked it away with one hand. He turned slightly, and Elena saw the heavy thrust of his penis; he was semi-aroused. Heat swamped her, churning through her veins and making her feel a little light-headed.
The plastic bottle of shampoo slipped from her fingers and bounced on the tiled floor. His head snapped around and in the next instant their gazes collided. Elena couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Chase’s eyes turned hot, and even from where she stood, she could see how every muscle in his body tightened at the sight of her, and his erection went from halfhearted to rampant in the space of a heartbeat. Her breathing quickened and with a mumbled apology, she turned on wobbly legs to flee.
“Elena.” He moved fast. He caught her by the arm and spun her around, and she found herself hauled against his wet chest. Steam still rose from his skin in a fine mist, and his lashes were spiky with moisture.
“Elena,” he said hoarsely. “What are you doing in here?”
She stared at him, mesmerized by the hunger in his expression. “I came to take a shower,” she breathed.
“This is the men’s shower. You can’t be in here.”
The sound of voices drifted toward them from outside the door. Glancing swiftly around, Chase dragged her into a changing stall and jerked the curtain closed. Before Elena could protest, he lifted her onto the wooden bench and covered her mouth with his fingers, silencing her with a single look.
“Sergeant McCormick, you in here, sir?”
Elena recognized the voice as Pete Cleary’s.
“Uh, yeah,” Chase called back. His voice was rough.
“I just thought you should know the helo’s taking off, but your girl’s not on board.”
His girl.
Elena didn’t have to guess who Pete referred to, and her eyes snapped back to Chase’s over the warmth of his hand. He was watching her intently, and twin patches of ruddy color rode high on his chiseled cheekbones. His eyes glittered, more green than hazel, and his breath came in short pants. He had a small, perfect mole on his collarbone and as Elena watched, a droplet of water fell from his hair and landed just above it, before trickling downward in a tiny rivulet. Her eyes followed its path, and she had an overwhelming desire to lap at the moisture with her tongue.
“Sir?”
Elena heard heavy footsteps enter the shower room.
“I understand. Thank you, Corporal,” Chase finally responded. “I’ll be out shortly.”
The footsteps receded and Chase slowly removed his hand from her mouth. Standing on the bench, Elena towered over him. She realized her hands were resting on his broad shoulders, and her fingers spread across his skin almost reflexively. Her glance swept downward and she was reminded he was still naked, and still very much aroused. Beneath the towel, her nipples contracted. She moistened her lips.
“I thought this was the women’s shower,” she whispered, half in explanation, half in apology.
“Elena,” he groaned, and his fingers tightened on her waist, bunching in the terry cloth and dragging it downward until the towel fell away and cool air wafted over her bare breasts and stomach.
She watched, entranced, as his eyes darkened. Then he leaned forward and very gently circled his hot tongue around one nipple. Elena gasped and her hands crept upward to clutch his head, her fingers burrowing into his dripping hair. He drew her breast into his mouth and suckled her, while his big hands cupped her bottom and pulled her closer, until she leaned fully into him.
He sucked harder and from between her thighs came an answering throb, sharp and sweet. He kneaded her bottom, and then his fingers dipped between her buttocks and found the secret spot where she pulsed hotly. He touched her intimately, one finger probing her slick entrance until Elena groaned and her legs buckled.
“Hold on to me,” he said, his voice husky, before he crouched in front of her and began laving her with his mouth and tongue.
Elena groaned. Part of her knew she should stop him, but she was too far gone. Her blood pounded hot and insistent through her veins, until she thought she might spontaneously combust. She threaded her fingers through his wet hair, and when he urged her thighs farther apart, she complied, rolling her head back against the wall of the changing stall. She was completely unrestrained in her urgency; the part of her brain that still functioned understood that an entire platoon of U.S. Marines could come marching through the shower room at any moment.
She didn’t care.
All that mattered was the man who knelt before her, pleasuring her with his hands and tongue. She glanced down and the sight of his dark head at the juncture of her thighs, combined with the erotic sensations he created, was too much. She gave a strangled cry as her orgasm crashed through her. Even then, Chase didn’t stop, drawing her pleasure out until she thought she couldn’t take any more and still survive. Her fingers were still tangled in his hair, and she didn’t let go, even when he worked his way up her body, pressing warm, moist kisses along her heaving stomach and breasts. When he finally stood upright, he cupped her face in his big hands and slanted his mouth hard across hers, kissing her deeply. Elena could taste her own essence on his lips.
She wreathed her arms around his neck, boneless with release, and kissed him back. “Now it’s your turn,” she breathed into his mouth. She could feel him, hot and hard against her thighs, but as she slid a hand down to touch him, he captured her wrist, halting her.
“You have to go,” he muttered. “Someone could come in.”
Elena drew back just enough to search his eyes, but his expression was shuttered. “I don’t
have
to go,” she protested softly. “Not if you don’t want me to. I could stay. I
want
to stay.”
With a low sound of frustration, he stepped back and reached into a backpack that was on the floor, dragging out a pair of black boxer briefs and pulling them on in quick, jerky motions. Elena slid down the wall until she was sitting on the bench. She watched him fish through his gear until he found a T-shirt and hauled it over his head, yanking it into place.
“You’re upset.” She picked her towel up and covered herself with it, feeling exposed and vulnerable and defensive. “You were the one who dragged me in here, remember?” she said tightly. “I was leaving.”
His head snapped up and his eyes blazed. “Listen, it was fun but it’s not going to happen again.”
Elena stared at him. The sexual buzz she felt from her orgasm was fading fast, to be replaced with a sense of confusion and the beginnings of a simmering anger. “Oh, that’s right. I remember now—no sex on the base. Right?” Chase didn’t answer, but she knew from the rigid set of his shoulders that she’d hit the mark. He had laid down the law and nothing would induce him to break it. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh?” she continued, boiling. “Everything on your terms? You make the rules and I’m just supposed to obey them?”
“Damn right.”
“Well, you can forget it. You’re not the boss of me. I do what I want.”
It was a childish retort, she knew, but the man infuriated her. He made her do and say things that were totally out of character for her. She’d always prided herself on maintaining her composure, but he completely upset her equilibrium.
Before she could guess his intent, he pinned her against the wall, his face inches from hers. “What, you think this is a
game?
”
Elena refused to be intimidated. “What am I supposed to think? One minute you’re telling me that sex is strictly forbidden, and the next you’re—you’re—”
“Like I said, it was a mistake,” he grumbled, releasing her shoulders. His voice was full of self-disgust. “This whole thing was my fault, not yours.”
“What a relief. I feel so much better.” Elena stood up, but the changing stall was so cramped that it brought her into full body contact with Chase. He flattened himself against the opposite wall as if she carried some contagious disease.
“Don’t worry,” she said with false sweetness, wrapping her towel around herself and securing it tightly over her breasts. “I’m not going to touch you.” She let her gaze drop with deliberation to his crotch, where the fabric of his boxers molded to the impressive outline of his erection.
He still wanted her.
The knowledge pleased her. She knew what self-denial felt like; she’d spent most of her life denying her own desires and impulses. She wanted him to suffer, at least a little. “As much as I’d like to help you out, this looks like a problem you’ll need to, uh, handle yourself.”
Without waiting for a response, she yanked back the curtain of the tiny stall and stalked out. She paused only long enough to snatch up her own belongings, clutching them against her chest. Without waiting to see if he would follow, she made her way blindly toward the exit, where she saw the women’s showers were directly next door.
She just managed to dump her stuff on a bench and turn the shower on before her tough-girl facade crumbled. Stepping beneath the spray, Elena turned her face into the water. She was close to tears. Even when she’d found Larry with that woman, she hadn’t felt as miserable as she did right now. Then again, she’d never wanted Larry the way that she wanted First Sergeant Chase McCormick. And she’d known Chase for just two days, so what did that say about her?
She’d thought she could have him for just one night, with no inhibitions, no complications and no regrets. And no chance of ever running into him again.
She’d been shocked to find they were both assigned to the same forward operating base, but had convinced herself that she could handle it. On some level, she’d even understood that his initial hostility toward her stemmed from his own concern for her safety. The knowledge had made her feel…special.
But now she had to acknowledge that they had no real relationship. What they had was purely physical, and now it seemed that Chase didn’t even want that. She shouldn’t feel so upset. She didn’t even know the guy, so what did she care if he rejected her? He was probably a Class-A jerk, anyway. One of those arrogant, know-it-all alpha males who believed a woman’s place was in the bedroom.
Which, if she was honest with herself, was where she wanted to be.
In
his
bedroom, in
his
bed.