Two days later, the guilt about Natalya still gnawed at me, but I was a twenty-two-year-old guy who thought about sex—a lot—and I couldn’t help wondering where I was going to get some action now that she’d kicked me to the curb. Afghanistan wasn’t exactly teeming with ready and able women, and I’d just blown one of the only decent options for a few dozen miles.
When I’d first heard about the young half-Russian, half-Afghani widow living outside of town, I hadn’t thought much of it. The guys in camp were always going on about one woman or another, whether it was one of the other soldiers in our unit or some local chick they’d seen in the village. But after Nick had figuratively blown the entire town up, no one touched any of the local girls, and most of them didn’t even look at locals longer than a few seconds. The result was that we were a bunch of really horny dudes most of the time. I was only interested in interactions I could get in and out of easily. There wasn’t much opportunity for that in Afghanistan.
However, everyone was stoked over the widow. The base had hired her to do some basic translations for them when they met with village officials, but it wasn’t enough to alter her circumstances. She was a different species in the eyes of the local men—a leftover from the Russian occupation, damaged goods because she wasn’t a virgin, and she had no male relatives to protect her. It was sad but a fact of life in this country—the women were at the mercy of the men, and often the men were anything but merciful.
When I met her, I was patrolling the village market. Once I’d pieced together who she was, I realized quickly that she wasn’t getting enough money doing translations. She was half starved and living in a shack with no heat. There weren’t exactly a lot of jobs she could get paid for as a woman. She and I never discussed her situation, but she seemed to enjoy being with me, and I did what I could to make her little shack more comfortable. You could hardly call chocolate bars, a blanket, some kitchen utensils, and a little manual labor big help, but my options were nearly as limited as hers.
Sometime into the third or fourth month after we’d started sleeping together, it became apparent Natalya was confused about the nature of our interactions. When she told me she loved me as she came one night, I tried to blow it off as the heat of the moment, but then the questions and the hints started. What was I going to do after my tour? Did I have a girlfriend at home? What was my family like? I had to put an end to that shit fast.
She handled it well and acted like it was all good, so I kept visiting every Thursday night. But having sex with her got more and more difficult when I knew there were emotions involved—her love, and my guilt. When she finally told me to get lost, it was mostly a relief. Except to my dick, which was sorely disappointed.
“Hey, Thompson!” Benji’s voice woke me out of my haze. I gave him a chin lift in greeting. “Did you hear about the UN group coming through?”
I stayed on the ground next to the truck I was checking out. There was nothing worse than the thought of being off base, where we were always vulnerable, with a vehicle that was broken down. Consequently, before we drove anywhere, we checked them thoroughly.
“Nah, I wasn’t paying attention when Davis started into all that crap. Melanie was telling me about how she beat Corbin in poker last night. That was a lot more interesting.”
“Well, homeboy,” he said, a giant grin spreading across his face, “we’re getting a contingent of UN Human Rights inspectors in to see the conditions in the area, and included in the group are a couple of dozen college interns, homey. As in college girls! Yjola, bro. I used to watch those college girls from USC in South Central. Man. Those were some fine women, and they looove to take a walk on the wild side, my friend.”
I snorted at his enthusiasm and his barrio slang, which only came out when he was really amped about something. Standing up and wiping my hands on the grease rag I had, I said, “Dude, take a chill, will you? Number one, you don’t know if there are any women in that group. I mean, how many rich American parents would let their little princesses go to Afghanistan in the middle of all this? Number two, why do you think they’d be interested in your hairy ass?”
“Fuck you, Thompson. I try to bring you a little good news to brighten up your pathetic day and you can’t even be grateful. Fifty dollars says there’s women in the group, and another ten says I can bang one of them.”
I laughed. “You’re a lot more confident in the odds of there being women than you are in your chances of bagging one.”
At that point, he degenerated into a litany of insults in Spanish and stomped off to the DFAC. I went back to checking the truck and filled out the requisite paperwork, detailing my inspection. I was about to head to lunch before going on my scheduled patrol when I heard a big commotion from the main courtyard. I made a sharp left and headed between two of the bunk tents, walking into the middle of chaos.
In the dirt plaza were six trucks flying United Nations’ flags. There were people pouring out of the transport trucks, and many of them had already begun unloading cargo. Someone bumped my shoulder on the way by and said, “Get working, Thompson. These trucks won’t unload themselves.”
I looked around and headed to the last cargo truck being opened. As I stood waiting for them to get the tarp rolled up, I heard a girl’s voice shriek, “No damn way!” right before someone slammed into my back, making me stumble forward a step. I turned around, ready to take the asshole out, and found myself face-to-face with big dark eyes, a cute nose sprinkled with freckles, and a mess of long brown hair tossed haphazardly into a knot on the top of a perfect head.
I slowly looked down, meeting up with a tight T-shirt stretched across full breasts and a tiny waist, which was followed by low-riding cargo pants that fell from narrow hips down long legs. The top of her head barely reached my chin, so I put her at about five foot four. Her crazy mess of hair was half hanging alongside her face in loose waves, and I thought it would feel really good if I dug my hands into it while I yanked her in for a hard, hot kiss on those lips slick with some kind of girly lip crap.
“Sorry,” she said, looking at me like I was the enemy. Her voice was low and rough, like a great torch singer. I wondered if she was musical, because looking at her made my head spin like there was a song ricocheting around in it.
I grinned at her a little to see what her reaction would be. “No problem, babe. Can I do something for you . . . or even to you, if you’d prefer?”
She scowled more and her eyes narrowed. “My name’s Alexis, not ‘babe,’ and I really doubt there’s anything you could do that I’d be interested in,” she snapped.
“Oh, sweetheart, you don’t know me too well. Ask around. You’ll find there’s a whole lot of things I can do that would interest you. Things that would help you relax.” I stepped closer and smiled down at her suggestively. “You seem a little tense.”
“Oh, God,” she choked out somewhere between laughing and screaming. “Are you for real? What, did you walk out of an episode of Mad Men or something?” She shook her head. “Um, take my word for it. There is nothing, absolutely not one single thing, that a guy who calls me ‘babe’ could do to interest me.”
I held my hands up in surrender. “Whatever you say, sweetheart. I’m only doing my duty. I am a soldier, after all.”
She huffed out a breath that clearly communicated she found me disgusting and went back to haranguing the guy behind her.
I turned to face the truck, thinking I hadn’t felt that much animosity from a woman I hadn’t screwed in a long time. It was fucking hot. Nothing like some serious hatred to spice up the sex.
Corbin sauntered over right about then and leaned in as he whispered, “Strike out already?”
“You want to give it a go?” I muttered under my breath.
“Hell, no,” he answered, looking over his shoulder to where Alexis was arguing with some scrawny dude in khaki pants and a button-up safari shirt. “I’d be too scared. I might get hurt.” He shivered.
“No doubt. She’s none too friendly.” We high-fived on it and went to work.
• • •
We spent the next hour unloading the trucks and stacking everything in storage, all scheduled patrols and other duties suspended for the afternoon. Then the CO told everyone to head to the DFAC for a briefing.
Corbin and I found Benji inside and grabbed a couple of the folding chairs next to him. When the CO started speaking, I leaned back, ready to be bored to tears.
“All right. Everyone settle down,” he said. “We need to get procedure straight for this UN crew visit, which will last for four weeks. The UN staff will depart on December twenty-third.”
Benji elbowed me and whispered, “Thirty days, bro. Thirty days to get down and dirty.”
I shrugged, not wanting to encourage him during a briefing, but my eyes shifted to the left, where Alexis stood along the wall of the tent with the other UN workers. That floppy hairdo of hers was still hanging around her face, and from the angle I was at, I could spy beneath those tendrils. She had the most perfect little ear I’d ever seen, a soft pink scoop, with a tiny gold earring sparkling on the lobe. I thought about how that metal would feel cold beneath my tongue while her ear would feel warm and silky. I shifted in my seat, everything south of the equator growing uncomfortable.
The CO droned on until, from the depths of my lust-induced fog, I heard him say my name. My head snapped forward. He’d already continued past me, so I tried to look like I knew what the hell was going on. Meanwhile, Benji was persistently jabbing me in the side, saying, “You lucky fucker.”
“What the hell?” I whispered, irritated at my own ignorance.
“You got one of the women to escort, you dick,” Corbin answered.
“A woman? How? That’s against policy.”
“Melanie’s on emergency leave and Traci’s confined to camp until her security training’s done. All the other female personnel are assigned to escort duty with other UN chicks. There aren’t enough women to go around, dude,” Benji whisper-screamed before the captain in front of us turned around and gave us the “you’re one second from KP duty” stare. We all shut up for the remaining five minutes until the CO dismissed us.
I turned to Corbin, keeping my voice low, “Who the hell did I get assigned to? I wasn’t listening.”
Corbin stroked his chin, eyes rolled up to the ceiling. “Hmmm, who was that? Let’s see, was it Anna? No, not Anna. Maybe Adrienne? No, not that either . . .”
I stepped closer to him and leaned my head next to his ear. “Quit fucking around right now or I’ll make your life a living hell for the next three days. Now. Who. The fuck. Is. My. Assignment?”
He squared his shoulders and glared at me. “Relax, man, I’m just screwing with you. It’s Alexis somebody or other.”
“What?!” I sputtered loudly, causing several staff milling around us to turn and look at me. I managed to grit out a smile at them and then looked back at Corbin, lowering my voice. “So what does that mean?”
He shrugged, and as I was about to explode in frustration, the CO came up, Alexis trailing behind him. “Thompson, there you are. I wanted to introduce you to your escortee, Alexis Garcia. Alexis, this is Sergeant Thompson, who hails from California, isn’t that right, Sergeant?”
I cleared my throat and looked at Alexis, raising one eyebrow at her. Her face was pink and her lips were pressed tightly together. “Yes, sir, I’m from Sacramento.”
“Wonderful. Ms. Garcia is from Austin, Texas, so you’re both westerners. Now, Sergeant, your job for the next thirty days consists of escorting Ms. Garcia to her daily assignments. She’ll be doing some work here in the camp but also visiting the nearby villages with the UN convoys. You’ll need to make sure she follows all the safety and etiquette protocols when she deals with the villagers. She’ll be delivering supplies to various entities, including individual families.”
I looked at the little fireball, who practically had steam coming out of her ears.
“Sir,” she gritted out, “I really don’t think all of that’s necessary. I can go with the other staff for my visits to the village.”
The CO just patted her on the arm and then said, “Nope, it’s not optional. We’ve got very strict rules about civilians in the area, especially temporary volunteers like you. The sergeant might look mean, but I promise he won’t bite. And Thompson . . .” He crooked his finger at me and stepped a few feet away from Alexis.
I followed and waited for him to keep talking. “As commanding officer of this camp, I hear everything, soldier. Everything. Your, shall we say, extracurricular activities don’t go unnoticed. I would also have to be blind not to notice that Ms. Garcia is a very appealing young woman. I’d suggest that you think very carefully before you follow your normal tendencies.” He gave me a hard stare and then a really unfriendly smile. “Things will not go well for you if you engage in any fraternization of a sexual nature with that young woman. Are you clear on that?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes, sir.”
The CO stepped back to Alexis. “I wish you luck, Ms. Garcia,” he said. Then he glared at me really fucking hard. I tried not to cringe.
“Sooo,” Benji, who’d been standing there, watching this whole exchange, said. “I guess that’s my cue to move along.” He struggled not to laugh. “I’ll be seeing you around, Thompson. It was, uh, nice to meet you.” He nodded at Alexis, who gave him a barely there smile, then he grabbed Corbin by the arm. They were gone and I was faced with one hot, angry mess of a female.
“Well, babe, looks like it’s you and me,” I said, smiling at her.
“Don’t. Call. Me. That.”
“Okay, okay. Whatever. How about Alexis? Will that work?”
She sniffed at me and said, “Can you just show me where I’m staying? I need to put my stuff away.”
“Sure thing.” I gestured for her to go ahead out the doorway.
“They left all our bags in that main yard,” she told me. We headed that direction.
“So, you’re from Texas, huh? I don’t hear much of an accent.”
“Yeah, well, I’m from Austin. We don’t sound like a bunch of hicks there.”
“I think those accents are sort of cute,” I responded.
She lifted one side of her upper lip in a sneer. I hadn’t ever seen anyone sneer except in movies. She might be the meanest girl I’d ever encountered and it was the biggest fucking turn-on in the world.
“Well, in my world, Sergeant, those cute accents usually mean you’re an ignorant, gun-toting, peace-bashing cattle rancher. I go to the University of Texas. We try to look at solutions for world problems that don’t involve shooting other people.”
I stopped in my tracks, mouth agape, temporarily speechless. When I was able to take a breath, I tried to regulate my voice so I didn’t come off sounding like I was yelling. It was difficult.
“You do realize,” I said, “that this is a mil-i-tar-y base, right? I mean, you’re surrounded by people with guns. We shoot if we have to, and a lot more often we get shot at. This is the Army, sweetheart, not a freaking hippie peace rally.”
She looked down at the ground for a second, and I expected her to apologize. Instead, her head popped up, and I stared into the face of fury. Her brows were drawn down into a scowl, her luscious lips were pursed, and her eyes were blazing sparks. My damn pants got unbearably uncomfortable as my groin tightened. Holy shit, how could someone piss me off and turn me on so much all at one time?
“I’m aware this is an Army camp, Sergeant Thompson. And believe me, it’s the last place on earth I want to be, but I’m committed to bringing relief to the people here who’ve had their homes and their lives invaded by a hostile foreign force.”
I turned abruptly, kicked a nearby trash can, and stomped off toward the center of camp. She was hot on my heels, like a little nipping dog.
“What’s the matter, soldier boy? You don’t have a retort for that one? Ha! I’ll bet not, because how could you argue with the truth? We caught bin Laden, and yet here you still are, with your guns and your occupation and your violence. Imagine what it’s been like for these poor people living here the last few years. They don’t know anything about international politics. They don’t care about American interests. They just want to feed their families and follow the customs they’ve followed for the last few centuries.”
I stopped again and turned lightning-fast to face her. She slammed into me, and I grabbed her arms to keep her from winding up on her ass.
“Oh!” she squeaked before she shrugged out of my grasp. I looked at her hard. She licked her lips, the color climbing in her face as her breath quickened. There. She felt it too. She might hate me, but she also wanted me. I stepped closer, and I could hear the rapid little breaths she was taking.
When we were chest to chest, both of us audibly breathing in each other’s air, I said low and slow, “Have you ever seen what the Taliban does to women, princess? You think they just keep those veils on them because it’s tradition, right? You ever seen what happens to a woman here who lifts that veil in public? Or maybe a woman who lets a man other than her father or brothers or husband speak to her?”
I saw the fear flare in her eyes. Good. You ought to be afraid, little girl. It’s an ugly world out here. This is not the University of Fucking Texas.
“You ever seen what the punishment is if a girl is caught letting a guy kiss her? Well, guess what, babe? I have. Don’t you ever talk to me about how this occupation is what brought violence to these people. Until you’ve seen what I’ve seen, until you’ve watched people die in front of you, you have no right to judge me or the work I do here.”
I looked at her for one more moment, my chest hurting so bad I thought it might explode all over her nice white T-shirt. Then I turned on my heel and walked away.
• • •
The problem with being in the Army is that you have to follow orders. They get really pissed if you don’t. Consequently, my girly dramatic exit leaving Alexis in the dust between a couple of tents only lasted about five minutes. I was supposed to follow her around and protect her, so I couldn’t really walk off. Fucking job. What I did was take my sweet damn time winding through camp until I got to the main plaza and dug through the pile of rucksacks and duffle bags, where I found the matching set with her name tags on them. When I stood up, one on each shoulder, she was standing there, watching me.
“What tent are you assigned to?” I said as coldly as possible.
She looked at a slip of paper she’d taken out of her pocket. “R-thirteen.”
“Follow me,” I said and took off, not bothering to see if she followed.
Pretty soon she caught up, huffing and puffing alongside me. “I’m sorry,” she ground out.
“Excuse me?” I glanced down, watching the hair alongside her face swing to and fro as she jogged to keep up with me.
“I’m sorry,” she said more clearly. “I shouldn’t have said that stuff to you. I know you’re just doing your job and that it’s probably a really hard one. It’s the military-industrial complex I hate, not the soldiers. You can’t help what they tell you to do.”
I slowed down a bit, shifting the weight of her bags. “And what if I said I agree with the complex and am totally committed to their mission here?”
She looked up at me for a minute as if considering her reply, something I got the impression she didn’t do very often.
“I’d say maybe we should just not talk about that anymore and try to start fresh.”
“Oh, fresh I can do, babe.” I grinned at her as we reached the tent she’d be occupying and I pushed back the flap to let her inside.
She stepped in, took a cursory glance around, and then grimaced. “Does that crap work for you?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean.” She continued in a deep, mocking voice, “The whole ‘Oh, babe, let’s get busy, you and me.’ Are there girls in the world who find that attractive? Do you get laid with lines like that?”
I dropped her bags on the floor of the tent and stalked over to her, recent instructions from my CO completely forgotten. Her eyes got bigger the closer I got, but she kept the stony, disapproving expression, and I had to give her credit for standing her ground while a six-foot-one, two-hundred pound soldier got up in her face.
I stopped just shy of touching her in a full-body press and leaned down toward her.
“Yeah, it works for me,” I said in a very low voice. Her cheeks flamed with color, and her tongue darted out of her mouth to lick those plump lips. My own breath hitched for a moment before I went on.
“And you know what I think?” She shook her head the tiniest bit. “I think it works for you too.” I stroked one finger down her cheek. She sighed and her eyes closed for the briefest moment.
I focused on those gorgeous lips. “I think you’re all bark and no bite, and that you’re trying to chase me away with your bad attitude because you’re afraid of me. I bet you like to be in control of everything all the time, don’t you?” She swallowed and I felt everything below my belt tighten to the point of pain.
I dug my hand into the hunk of hair at the back of her head and gently pulled her toward me. She didn’t resist as my heart rate picked up and her breaths came in little pants. “You’re afraid you won’t be able to control a guy like me, aren’t you? And you know what? You’re right. You wouldn’t be able to control me. But I’d take you on the ride of your life, and you’d thank me for it afterward.”
I leaned in ever so slowly, my lips hovering over hers as her eyes fluttered shut. I could feel the heat from her face, and her chest grazed mine, setting off sparks all up and down my spine. Her hair was like strands of silk, and I gripped the back of her head tighter, pulling her that infinitesimal bit closer. She had a quick intake of breath and I felt my chest clutch.
“And if y’all get bored sitting around in here, there’s almost always a card game or somethin’ goin’ on in the DFAC after dark.” Jefferson’s voice and his twangy Arkansas accent burst into the tent as Alexis jumped away from me. I turned around, ready to rip Jeff a new one, when I saw him and a short, plump girl in glasses standing there, gawking at me. Jeff swallowed and I realized I must look like I was about to hurt someone, so I took a deep breath and pasted on a smile. Jeff visibly relaxed.
“Hey, Gabe, I was, uh, just showing Megan here where her tent is . . .” He shifted from leg to leg awkwardly.
Alexis stepped past me, her hand extended. “Hi, Megan. I guess I’m your roomie. I’m Alexis.”
The two girls shook hands while Jefferson fussed with bags and played the part of host, telling them all the finer points of base life like they’d checked into some sort of fucking spa.
I leaned against the support post in the middle of the room and watched Alexis, who was working hard not to look at me. Finally, I tired of seeing Jeff act like an annoying puppy. I pushed off the post and stepped up to them, making sure to stand a little too close to Alexis. I worked to suppress a smile as she gulped audibly and tried to scoot away from me discreetly.
“Hey, Jefferson. Let’s let the lovely UN girls get settled in. We can come back and pick them up for dinner in an hour or so. How’d that be, ladies?” I directed the question to them both but kept my eyes pinned on Alexis.
“Sound great to me,” said Megan. Alexis nodded. Jeff turned to go and Megan followed, thanking him for his help.
I leaned to Alexis and whispered in her ear, “You and I have unfinished business, babe. I’ll be seeing you soon.” I stepped back and grinned at her. She scowled, eyes narrowed, lips pursed once more.
Oh, yeah, I thought as I strode out of the tent. We had a lot of unfinished business, and I was just the entrepreneur to handle the transaction.