HOSTILE: A Military Romance Novel (Military Men Book 1) (10 page)

Until she spoke. “I’m glad I’m lost with you. I don’t think this would be bearable with anyone else.”

“I’m going to get you to safety,” I promised, not for the first time and probably not for the last time either. I would go to the ends of the earth for this woman. But I would never admit that to anyone.

I’d never even had thoughts like this about a woman. They were supposed to be easy fucks, clean and simple so I didn’t have to wake up next to them the next day. I’d never considered having a relationship before, never pictured myself the settling-down type.

Ariana was changing everything, and I couldn’t let her. I was a soldier; I was married to the job. I couldn’t have someone waiting for me at home.

It wasn’t how I worked.

I couldn’t have that kind of responsibility resting on my shoulders.

“I know you’re going to save us.” She was quiet again for a while. I started stroking her back, hoping to lull her into a restful sleep. “Derrick?”

“Yeah, babe.”

“I’m not going to want to leave you.”

Those words.

They crushed my heart into powder so it would blow away with the wind.

I couldn’t think of Ariana leaving and what I would do when she was gone. It was inevitable, something that could not be avoided. She didn’t belong in this war zone, and I didn’t belong in the normal world. We both had commitments that we were too stubborn to ignore.

For just a moment I entertained the thought of what it would be like to have a regular relationship with her back home. I pictured the house with a picket fence, the mornings we’d wake up to the smell of fresh coffee brewing, watching a movie before retiring to bed for the night.

It was all there in my imagination, the whole scene. But it wasn’t realistic. I’d tried to live in the normal world, and my drug habit had almost killed me. It was the Army that had gotten me back on the straight and narrow. The military was where I belonged.

But I couldn’t share any of that with Ariana. She didn’t know of my past, and I wasn’t about to share it with her. She wouldn’t look at me the same way if she knew how many people I’d hurt with my habit. I still couldn’t look my mother in the eyes after what I’d put her through.

I steeled myself for the words I had to say. I took a deep breath, ready to tell her she wouldn’t even give me a thought when she saw the plane that would take her out of here. That I would be a forgotten memory by the time she arrived home.

My words caught in my throat, remaining unspoken.

The truth was I couldn’t think about her leaving. Otherwise, I might have made sure she never reached that plane.

     ҉     ҉     ҉     ҉     ҉     ҉

I woke up in the passenger seat. If I wasn’t still naked I might have thought the night with Derrick was just an erotic dream.

My pussy was pleasantly sore, another reminder that I hadn’t dreamed the events. Derrick had promised to fuck me and I had let him. No, not just
let
him. I’d wanted it too. I’d wanted to feel the closeness and intimacy, to know that I wasn’t alone so far out in the desert. It was easy to think the entire world had disappeared when we were stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Derrick was awake already. Dressed, too. He was used to waking with the sun, but I wasn’t. Sleeping in and late breakfasts were my preference. None of this early bird crap.

I caught him openly ogling my naked body. He didn’t even have the decency to look away. “I hope you’re enjoying the free show,” I mumbled.

“Ain’t nothing free about it, babe,” he replied. It was too early to try to figure out what he meant by that. I let the comment pass over me.

“Can you at least pass me my clothes, please?”

He looked around, as if only just realizing he might have the offending articles. Derrick finally found them on the floor of the vehicle. I tried not to think of all the dirt that was probably down there too. He handed them to me. “Don’t feel like you need to get dressed on my behalf. Naked works fine with me.”

“I don’t think the locals would like it, if we ever reach civilization again.” His lips quirked into a panty-dropping smile while I dressed. He finally looked away when I had my clothes on again. “About last night—”

He held up a hand, interrupting me. “It was the last time. It can’t happen again. I understand that we both needed someone and some comfort. But it can’t happen again. We’ll be at a base soon.”

Derrick was back to being the cold Army officer again. All traces of the man I had been with the night before were gone. He was truly a walking contradiction, and a part of me hated him for it.

How could I be so attracted to a man who didn’t care about my feelings? Who could have sex with me and stroke me so gently, but then be so harsh to me just hours later? I couldn’t figure him out.

My chest felt like it was going to cave in. I forced myself to take some deep breaths so he couldn’t see how upset he’d made me. I didn’t want him to know how deep my feelings flowed for him. It wasn’t just the trauma of the situation. I knew Derrick was more to me than just my savior.

But it seemed I was nothing to him. A one-night stand who had hung around for a second night and was now overstaying my welcome.

I clamped down my feelings so I could match his cold tone. “So are we going to go, or what?” I fixed my gaze straight ahead so I didn’t look at him and melt into a puddle. He was not going to get the best of me. No man ever had, I made sure of it.

It seemed like forever until Derrick started the car. “There’s some food on the backseat if you’re hungry. I stole it when I took the car.”

I didn’t answer him, but I did take a few slices of the bread he had stashed. We drove in silence, just us and the endless plains of the desert.

* * *

“Ariana, wake up.”

Derrick poked me a few times to make sure I followed his direction. I rubbed my eyes and sat up straighter in the car, taking in our new surroundings.

We were in a city, more modern than the last one. The buildings here were higher, the streets paved with tar and not bricks.

“We need to ditch this car,” Derrick continued. “We need one with local license plates. Someone will notice us if we stand out as being different. Do you have any money on you?”

“My money was with my laptop. The one I left in the truck when we were ambushed,” I replied. At least I was completely anal about backing up my work to the cloud. My work would still be there when I logged on again. I hadn’t lost my thousands of typed words.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong? I thought you were fine stealing anything we needed.”

He hit the steering wheel with the palm of his hand before replying. “We need accommodations. I can’t steal a hotel room.”

“Can’t we go straight to the base?”

“I don’t know if there is one here. It’s a city I’ve never been to before. There’s no telling what’s waiting for us here.” His brow was furrowed, causing a deep line down the middle of his forehead.

If Derrick was worried about something, that meant there was something to be worried about. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, I’ll figure it out,” he said tersely, hitting the steering wheel again with frustration.

Still, I racked my brain trying to work out what we could do. Lying low hadn’t exactly worked perfectly in the last place. We stuck out. It was inevitable when we didn’t look the same as the locals. Our traditional clothes helped immensely, but they were not miracle workers. Our faces were still uncovered and visible for anyone who wanted to take a second glance.

After a few minutes, when we reached a densely populated area, Derrick pulled the car over and turned off the engine. “This car is a liability now. We have to go on foot from here on out.”

“Maybe we should keep driving and leave the city, go somewhere you know there is a base?” I suggested. Derrick was already shaking his head before I finished speaking.

“Too many people are looking at us, and we need gas. Stealing fuel will attract too much attention. We need to disappear on foot.”

He climbed out of the vehicle, leaving me no choice except to do the same thing. Without saying a word he started walking, quickly slipping between two buildings while I hurried to keep up with him. He didn’t seem to care too much if I was there or not.

We wove a maze through the buildings, our heads down and not making eye contact with anyone. The heat was trapped in the small streets, hugging the sidewalk and refusing to relent. I was thirsty, sweating, and exhausted. Derrick seemed unaffected by the elements, I guessed because he’d spent a lot more time in Afghanistan than I had – he was acclimated.

There was no point asking him if he had a plan. He would only snap at me. All I could do was shut up and follow him like an obedient puppy. His silence was making me angrier with every step we took.

We walked down another alleyway before Derrick’s arm shot out to stop me moving forward any further. He froze, his body strained and ready for action. A dread started to pit in my stomach.

“What—”

“Shh,” he hushed, stopping me.

He cocked his head to the side, listening to something I couldn’t hear. It felt like my breath was too loud, like someone would hear it and our position would be betrayed. No matter how many times I looked over his shoulder, I couldn’t see the danger he saw.

“Someone’s following us,” he whispered. He shifted around so I was positioned in front of him, Derrick shielding my back now. “See that hotel over there?” He nodded forward to an entrance of a building, its name written in English and Dari. I nodded in return. “You need to go in there and hide. Pretend you have a room there and they shouldn’t bother you. I will lead them away and come back for you. Do it now.”

I didn’t want to be separated from him and I didn’t want to send him into danger either. But he was the soldier, he knew what he was talking about. He may have been a jerk but I did trust him.

“Now, Ariana.”

With him still standing as a barrier between us, I started walking. Every shaky step took me closer to the hotel and further away from the man that was my security blanket.

Risking a glance backward, I could see he was watching me, all the way until I was inside. Then he moved.

He would come back for me.

I was almost certain of it.

The hotel opened into a large foyer, crystal chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling. People mingled around, checking in or waiting around with a cell phone stuck to their ear. It was mainly populated by Afghans. I was the only Westerner in the area that I could see.

A man at the check-in counter glanced up when I first entered. He was busy with a guest but he still kept an eagle eye trained on me. I didn’t need the attention. Derrick would have expected me to be invisible, unremarkable, unnoticed.

I’d pretended to be things I wasn’t before; sometimes it was necessary in my line of work. I could do this. I could convince them all that I belonged there and wasn’t lingering for any shady reasons.

My back straightened as I rolled my shoulders back. I strode confidently over to the large couches they had in U shapes around the lobby. Taking a seat in one, my gaze remained on the door, but not like my life depended on it.

Every time my eyes wandered around the foyer, I noticed the check-in counter guy looking my way. He could tell I didn’t belong there. I could see it in his doubtful frown. It would only be a matter of time before he did something about it.

I rose and followed the signs to the restroom, needing just a moment of solitude to gather myself together. The mirror was the first thing I saw when I went inside. I barely recognized myself. I carefully took off the scarf from around my head. My face was dirty, covered in a layer of dust from the desert. My clothes were the same. My dark hair was messy, the ponytail coming loose at the ends. No wonder I’d stood out so well. I looked like a beggar.

I cleaned myself up as best I could, redoing my hair and washing my face. I put the scarf back on, covering my head once more so that only my face was visible. My clothes needed a good launder, but there was little I could do about that in the restroom. My attitude would have to make up for the unkempt attire.

Going back to the foyer, I resumed my seat and waited, praying Derrick was okay and that he would be the next one through the front doors.

He couldn’t come fast enough.