“With Marine pilots, they’ll be here before you know it,” Kellan reassured himself as much as the young Marine.
“Grenade!”
Kellan didn’t get his ears covered in time and the blast left them ringing. He shook his head and worked his jaw but nothing helped. It wasn’t so bad he couldn’t hear the distressed shouts and cries from behind him.
Turning to crawl in the direction of the shouts, Kellan saw two more Marines down.
“Shit! Grenade!”
Kellan dropped to his belly and managed to get his ears covered in time. This blast was dangerously close. He looked up and was relieved to see that no more Marines were wounded.
“We need more weapons up here,” Mason snapped. He keyed his mic to check with his men in the back of the house, but at two per room, they were barely holding on back there.
The Marine whose facial wounds he had just treated suddenly appeared beside him. He kept his wounded arm pressed to his side, but he was mobile and had use of both hands.
“I got this, sir,” he said to Kellan. “You go help hold those motherfuckers off us.”
Kellan considered his options for several heartbeats. Again, the chances they would all survive were slim, if the insurgents overran the house. With his ears still ringing, Kellan crawled to the second wide window and picked up the discarded M16.
He hadn’t felt the recoil of an M16 in seven years but Kellan quickly adjusted. Muscle memory kicked in and he easily began to identify and pick off targets. It wasn’t as easy as it had been in ’03; the insurgents were better trained and more disciplined than the street fighters had been in Iraq.
“Choppers are three mics out,” Mason shouted over the cacophony. “And we got inbound friendlies.”
No sooner had Mason said that, than Kellan caught sight of two Marines struggling around a mud brick wall. One of them was obviously wounded, struggling to stay on his feet. His buddy was trying to keep him upright and mobile, at the same time he was trying to cover their six with weapon fire.
Kellan laid down suppressive cover fire. If they could keep the insurgents behind cover, the Marines actually had a shot of making it to the safety of the house.
They were about ten meters out when an insurgent leapt around the brick wall, armed with an AK-47. Kellan targeted him and pulled the trigger twice, sending four rounds into the combatant’s body. It was too late, though. A spray of bullets struck the Marines sending them both to the ground in a plume of dust.
“Fuck!” Kellan thought that was Mason. “The choppers are almost here. We gotta get them in here!”
“I’ll go.”
Kellan almost didn’t believe it was Jonah’s voice he heard. “The hell you will!” he replied, even as he forced an insurgent back under cover.
“We can’t risk Mason, he’s the NCOIC for the detachment, and you’re not gonna go,” Jonah replied quickly.
Before Kellan could further voice his displeasure, Jonah was out the door and running toward the downed Marines. Kellan’s heart leapt into his throat. He gripped his weapon tight enough to make his hand ache. The battle itself already had his adrenaline spiked but fear for Jonah’s safety made him feel weak and sick.
Kellan forced himself to focus on his task. With his peripheral vision, he monitored Jonah’s progress as he made it to the wounded Marines and began to help them struggle to their feet. He could hear the thump of the rotors of the inbound choppers and relief washed over him. But it wasn’t over yet.
The bolt of Kellan’s M16 slammed back and stayed there. He ejected the expended magazine, letting it fall to the floor. Pulling a fresh one from his back pocket, Kellan slid it home and chambered a round. He looked up in time to see Jonah, sandwiched between the two Marines, stumble and fall to his knees. As big and strong as Jonah was, two wounded Marines were taxing him.
Kellan could see the choppers now. They were small dots in the sky and growing larger by the second.
“Cover me, Mason,” Kellan said, positioning himself at the doorway.
“You two don’t know the meaning of ‘no’, do you?” Mason asked.
“Jonah doesn’t stumble,” Kellan replied. “He needs help.”
Before Mason could say anything else, Kellan darted out the door, keeping low and clutching the weapon with both hands. He reached where Jonah was struggling to get the two wounded Marines to their feet. Kellan shouldered the weight of one of them and headed toward the house.
“You’re not supposed to be out here!” Jonah shouted, even as he tossed the second Marine over his shoulders.
“You were taking too damn long!” Kellan shot back and took the lead.
The four of them fell through the doorway and onto the floor, right as the choppers passed overhead. The .50-caliber door guns blended with the low thump of the rotors as the birds made pass after pass over insurgent positions. Kellan took up his position at the window again, but there weren’t as many targets now. He was lightheaded with relief, knowing Jonah was back in the safety of the house and unharmed.
Kellan was surprised at the strength of his reaction to Jonah being in danger. They’d been in combat together before and he hadn’t reacted like this. Then again, they hadn’t had a personal relationship back then.
Mason had a conversation on his comms and to Kellan, it sounded reassuring. The small arms fire had all but ceased and they hadn’t seen any movement in several minutes.
“We got corpsmen in bound to our location,” Mason said, blowing out a deep, relieved sigh. “The choppers identified an LZ several meters behind us and they’re setting down.”
That was good. They would be able to load up the worst of the wounded instead of having to wait for a cas-evac.
“First Sergeant Carver? Mr. Reynolds?” Mason called. “Captain Miller says to double time it to the LZ. He wants the two of you out of here and back at the safety of Leatherneck.”
Kellan wanted to protest. He felt as though he was abandoning these Marines, but that didn’t make sense. Sure, he’d patched a few of them up but the corpsmen would take over now. These weren’t his men, they didn’t need him. They had their NCOs and their officers.
Jonah was in motion before Kellan. He pulled Kellan to his feet, took the M16 from him and propped it against a wall. With his hand twisted in the shoulder of Kellan’s MTV, Jonah turned and shook Mason’s hand.
“It was an honor, Staff Sergeant,” he said.
“The honor was mine, Top,” Mason said solemnly.
Kellan gathered himself and shook Mason’s hand as well. “Thank you, Staff Sergeant Mason. For everything.”
“Thank you for looking after my men, sir.” Mason swallowed hard several times.
“Let’s go,” Jonah said firmly, tugging Kellan out the door.
Minutes later, as the chopper lifted off to take them back to Camp Leatherneck, Kellan realized his hands were still trembling.
CHAPTER NINE
The day after the gun battle was spent in debrief. It was a battle, like so many other battles that stem from an ambush, except this one involved a non-CIA civilian. No one had done anything wrong. There was nothing that should have been done differently, but Kellan wasn’t allowed to go home until the Marine Corps was satisfied with the stories everyone was telling.
Kellan didn’t let himself feel exhausted until the wheels of their plane touched down at Ramstein Air Base. Everyone was friendly and accommodating in Germany. They had rooms set aside for Jonah and Kellan, but Kellan didn’t plan to spend the night on base. If there were no flights to the States until the next day, Kellan wanted a private room, with private bathing facilities, for the night.
He wanted Jonah and he didn’t think that was anyone’s business right now.
Someone arranged for a car for them and before he knew it, Kellan and Jonah were checking into the Hotel Merkur. The first thing Kellan wanted was a shower. The facilities at Leatherneck were rudimentary and he’d showered nearly eight hours ago.
Jonah ordered them room service as Kellan washed away the dust of Afghanistan. As the hot water beat down on him, he realized he now had an idea of how Jonah had felt in Iraq, as he’d watched Kellan get dragged away against his will. Luck had been on their side again. Kellan still had Jonah, much to his relief.
When he finished his shower, Kellan picked through the food Jonah had ordered. Jonah went in to shower. Kellan realized he still had to be out of sorts, if he and Jonah were in a hotel room and showering separately.
He retrieved his bag and found the small plastic bottle he had in his dopp kit. It was an airline approved bottle, unlabeled, and appeared to be hair gel. Kellan had packed lubricant just in case; he hadn’t expected to have a chance to use it on this trip. Now he was glad he’d been so prepared and optimistic.
Jonah emerged from the bathroom with just a towel around his hips. Kellan thought that was perfect. He was dressed in only a pair of track pants, himself. Not in the mood to fuck around, Kellan walked up to Jonah, wrapped a hand around the nape of his neck and pulled him down for a deep kiss.
After a moment of surprise, Jonah’s arms came around Kellan’s torso. He moaned into Kellan’s mouth.
“What’s wrong?” Jonah asked when he pulled back.
Kellan frowned up at him. “We were both in a gun battle two days ago. What do you think is wrong?”
Jonah pulled Kellan close again and kissed him, licking deep into his mouth, his rough palms sending shivers through Kellan’s body. Jonah shifted and Kellan’s hair was gripped tight in one fist, his cheek cradled in the other.
The look in Jonah’s eyes when he broke the kiss sent another shiver through Kellan’s body. “That day in Iraq, I wanted you so much. I wanted to be inside you and reassure myself you were okay.”
“If it felt anything close to this it must have been hell for you,” Kellan whispered. He remembered the way Jonah had watched him that day, stayed close, but never touched. Kellan had been reassured by his mere presence and was simply happy to still be alive.
“It feels that way now. Only this time I can touch you.” Jonah emphasized his words by cradling Kellan’s face, his thumbs caressing Kellan’s cheekbones.
Kellan pressed their mouths together again, making a sloppy mess of it. Their wet lips slid against each other and he liked the desperate feel of it. He tugged on Jonah’s towel and it fell away easily.
“Climb up on the bed for me,” Kellan whispered against Jonah’s swollen mouth. He ran his palms over Jonah’s muscled chest, enjoying the feel of the warmth of his skin.
Jonah slid his hands under the waist of Kellan’s track pants and gripped his ass firmly. Kellan pushed his hips forward, rubbing his growing erection against Jonah’s hip. He moved with Jonah as he backed toward the bed, their mouths never quite fusing as they licked at and tasted one another.
As Jonah climbed up onto the bed, Kellan pushed his pants down over his hips, his hard cock bouncing freely as he kicked them off. He joined Jonah on the bed, pushing him with a hand on his chest until he lay back on the pillows. Kellan crawled between Jonah’s thighs and lowered himself so they were chest to chest. “I wanna be inside you so bad,” he breathed as he kissed along Jonah’s jaw.
“I just wanna be with you, I don’t care how.” Jonah buried his hand in Kellan’s hair and pressed his face Jonah’s throat, encouraging the kisses.
Kellan kissed his way down Jonah’s chest. He felt the muscles of his stomach clench as he dragged his tongue along their edges. He rose up briefly to snag his small bottle from the bedside table.
“Is that actually lube?” Jonah asked with a soft laugh. “I thought we were going to have to use spit.”
“You always said you admired my logistical planning.” Kellan smiled down at him, heart threatening to burst from his chest.
Kellan’s cock was hard and aching. Part of him wanted to draw this out, take all night. His body just wanted to spill his seed deep inside of Jonah’s body. Kellan wet his fingers with some lube and slid down between Jonah’s open thighs. He circled his fingers around Jonah’s tight opening, feeling it clench at his touch. He spread the lube around slowly, slicking Jonah’s outer rim. With his other hand, Kellan steadied Jonah’s growing erection and placed a kiss on the very tip.
Jonah inhaled sharply, his hips lifting slightly. Kellan wrapped his lips around the reddened head of Jonah’s cock and slowly swallowed him down. He kept up the steady circle of his fingers on Jonah’s hole, waiting for him relax.
Kellan added lubricant to his fingers and pressed them again to Jonah’s hole. He slid his mouth down the length of Jonah’s shaft, pushing the flat of his tongue along the thick vein. Jonah’s hips flexed and he moaned, his hole clenching rhythmically, the muscle not quite as tight as before.
Kellan pushed against Jonah’s hole, working his mouth rapidly up and down Jonah’s length. When Jonah’s hand rested on the back of his head, Kellan pushed one finger past Jonah’s tight muscles and into his body. Jonah moaned, his hand on Kellan’s head clasping convulsively.
Still working his mouth on Jonah’s cock, Kellan pushed two fingers into his hole, spreading the lube generously and waiting for the muscles to relax fully. He pulled off of Jonah’s erection, circled the head with his tongue, and pushed his mouth down to the base in a smooth motion. Jonah groaned decadently. Around Kellan’s fingers, Jonah’s body relaxed. It was like Jonah’s channel was drawing Kellan’s hand inside.
Pulling off, Kellan got to his knees. With trembling hands, he coated his own cock with slick. Propping one hand beside Jonah’s head, Kellan used the other to line himself up with Jonah’s opening. With all the lube and as relaxed as Jonah was, Kellan slid into Jonah’s body easily. One long, easy push of his hips and he was buried all the way inside the tight heat.
Jonah arched up to meet him, fingers digging into the muscles of his back. Jonah’s legs came around Kellan’s hips, pulling him deeper. He looked up at Kellan, blue eyes luminous and needy. Jonah’s heat engulfing Kellan’s cock was the final piece. Kellan felt alive and complete.
He groaned, low in his throat, as his skin seemed to tighten on his body. Kellan slid his hands beneath Jonah’s back and curled them up over his shoulders. He slid down on top of him, pressing their chests together. Kellan worked his hips in a steady rhythm. Jonah made low, rough sounds with each thrust. Kellan pressed his lips to Jonah’s cheek and watched the flush on his cheeks rise. The heat of Jonah’s body was intense, it meant Jonah was alive. Jonah was alive and he’d let Kellan inside of him.