When I woke, the sun was high in the sky and the front half of the cave was lit. I could feel the weight of Alexis’s head on my chest, and I smiled to myself, not moving for a few minutes so I could enjoy the sensation. Maybe this snuggling thing wasn’t so bad after all, although I doubted it’d feel the same with other women.
Alexis moaned in her sleep and my morning wood grew exponentially. See, there was a problem with snuggling. It was a fucking turn-on and I wasn’t allowed to do anything about it. I didn’t know what demon invented the whole idea, but I could bet it wasn’t a man.
Eventually I had to get up and see about getting us out of our little cave. I gently shook Alexis. “Hey, babe, time to wake up.”
She opened her eyes and leaned up, startling when she saw me and then flushing a pretty pink. I grinned at her. “Did you forget who you were sleeping on?” I asked.
She sat up the rest of the way, clawing hair out of her face. “Of course not,” she bluffed.
“What were you dreaming about?”
She cleared her throat and turned away. “Nothing, why?”
“You were talking in your sleep a few minutes ago.”
She blushed more. “What did I say?” she asked with a sharp tone to her voice that wasn’t usually there.
“Nothing, I swear.” I put my hands up indicating surrender. “You were just making little kitten noises or whatever. Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Okay,” she said softly, still not looking at me.
“Hey.” I decided to change tack, trying to put her in a better mood. Hell, maybe she was always cranky when she woke up. “You want to try your first MRE? All the sandwiches are gone, but you could have an MRE, and we still have a couple of apples left.”
“Maybe I should stick with an apple and water.”
“No, you need some protein. You don’t have to eat it now, but sometime today you’re going to have to. They really aren’t as bad as you’ve heard.”
“Fine.” She sighed and stood up, starting to fold up one of the blankets. I joined her and helped fold the other one before putting them away in the rucksack.
“Do you think they’ll come for us today?” she asked.
“I hope so, but we might be able to get out ourselves. That guy I shot may have been the only one. I’ll find out and then we’ll take it from there.”
“You aren’t going to do anything dangerous, are you?”
“Hey, I’m Danger Boy. Don’t you know that by now?” I joked.
“Gabe, seriously. I can wait until they get us. Don’t do something dumb because you think I can’t handle it. I can.”
I briefly wondered if she’d be able to “handle it” once the food and water ran out, because I knew there was a real possibility that could happen.
I put my hand under her chin and looked her in the eyes. “I promise I’ll only do what’s necessary, okay? Nothing dumb, nothing suicidal.”
She looked up at me, fear radiating from her face. She nodded then dropped her eyes.
• • •
We stayed in the cave until dusk, playing gin rummy with a deck of cards, eating apples and MREs. We also talked about Austin and Sacramento. I found out she loved to tube the rivers in the Texas Hill Country, and she learned the thing I missed most about home was the surfing.
I also learned her parents expected her to marry her boyfriend, and she always did what her parents expected.
She learned my mother had no expectations of me, and I usually did whatever the hell I wanted.
As we chatted and tried not to address the fact there was no sign of imminent rescue, I was going over our situation in the back of my mind. The only way I could see to get out was for me to get to the truck, back it up to the cave so Alexis would be protected while she got in, and then back it down the road we’d come up.
Frankly, I had greater faith in the possibility of making it to the truck without being shot than I did of backing the truck all the way down that steep, narrow road. I’d combed my memory, trying to recall if there was anywhere the road widened out enough to turn the truck around. I couldn’t remember a single place.
By the third time Alexis beat me in cards, I decided to take a little action.
“It’s gotten pretty dark out. I’m going to see if I can get us out of here,” I told her as I stood and stretched. I was so tired of sitting around that I was almost ready to get shot at for something to do.
“Um, okay. How are you going to do that again?” she asked, squinting at me.
“I’m going to see if I can get to the truck and back it up to grab you and then we’ll haul ass out of here, babe.” I winked at her.
“And I suppose this means you’ll risk getting shot at?”
“Yeah, but I’m bulletproof. Haven’t you noticed?”
She huffed out a little breath. “So you seem to think.”
“I waited until it was dark so it’ll be almost impossible for them to see me. The problem is it’ll also be harder to see the road while I drive the truck.”
“Isn’t that what headlights are for?” she asked saucily.
She hadn’t figured out the situation with the narrow road, and I wasn’t about to enlighten her. All it would do is freak her out. That so wasn’t fucking worth it.
“See? I knew there was a reason I brought you. Aside from the obvious, of course.”
I slowly scanned her from head to toe. She smacked me on the arm and rolled her eyes.
“So no kiss for good luck?” I asked as I got my guns ready.
“You’re hopeless.”
“Yeah, but I’m hot. You even admitted it.”
“Aagh!” she yelled in exasperation.
“C’mon, one little kiss. I’m a soldier, thousands of miles from home, about to face dangerous enemies out in the cold desert night. Don’t all warriors deserve a kiss good-bye from a pretty girl?”
I wasn’t sure why I’d decided to push my luck then. Maybe I had a premonition of what would happen. Maybe I’d gotten so sexually frustrated being with her twenty-four seven I was willing to beg for scraps. I’d heard about her relationship. I knew it was more than serious. I cared, but I also couldn’t help myself. I felt this connection to her. And it was so deep and so significant in my mind that I couldn’t believe she might share that with anyone else on the planet. I was certain she was meant for me.
I gave her puppy-dog eyes. “Fine,” she snapped. “Get over here.”
I sauntered closer, stopping only when I was towering over her the way I had the first day in her tent when I’d nearly had her panties wet from the heat between us.
So quiet it was almost a whisper, I said, “Like this?”
She swallowed, and I heard her breath kick up a notch. “That’ll do.”
“What do I do now?”
She stared up at me and licked her lips.
It took every ounce of self-control I had not to pounce on those gorgeous plump lips, but I wanted this too much for that. For once, I didn’t want to be the instigator. I wanted—no, I needed—her to do this. I needed to know that she felt this thing between us like I did. I needed to know that I wasn’t forcing her to forsake college boy back home. She had to choose, and God, I wanted her to choose me.
“Now,” she answered as she put one hand around the back of my neck, “you lean down.”
I lowered my head, smelling the dust and sweat of two days with no showers but also the wildflower smell that was Alexis in my mind. I stopped a hair’s width from her mouth, her breath sweeping over my face. My voice was hoarse when I spoke.
“What next?”
“Hold still and hold on,” she whispered in her low, sultry voice.
The moment her lips touched mine, my self-control broke. Want raged through me from my cock to my chest and everywhere in between. The adrenaline surged in my fingertips and my toes, and I put one arm around her waist and pulled her against me. My other hand wound its way into her thick, wavy hair, and she moaned as I slid my tongue across her lips.
I lost the ability for rational thought—the cave, the danger, the desert, all of it gone in a flaming tower of need. I had never felt anything like it, and I was half afraid my heart might not be able to stand the shock.
I slid my tongue into her mouth, tasting the cinnamon gum she’d been chewing, and felt her hips press against me. She shifted her mouth slightly and I crushed her lips beneath mine as I skimmed my tongue across her teeth and nipped at her bottom lip.
My hand at her waist slipped lower and I cupped her ass, pushing her hard against my throbbing crotch. With my other hand, I pulled her head back and dropped my lips to that gorgeous, tender little earlobe I’d watched and dreamed about for days. I loved that little gold earring as much as I’d fantasized I would. I gently licked her warm, tender earlobe, and she gasped as I sucked it into my mouth and ground against her harder.
“God, Gabe,” she breathed.
“You’re not kidding,” I answered as I moved lower on her neck, sucking and licking, tasting the salt on her skin and feeling her soft hair against my rough cheek.
Her hand on the back of my neck stroked the skin there and I felt her other clutching my biceps. “Gabe,” she said again, her voice strained.
“Mmm?”
“I think . . . I think we need to stop.”
“No,” I answered as I took her lips again.
She pushed gently at my chest, and I reluctantly pulled away from her mouth.
“Really?” I said with my forehead leaning against hers.
“For now,” she answered.
“So does that mean there might be more of this later?”
“Maybe.”
“And what about college boy?” I asked, terrified to mention him but not willing to have hope if he was still in the picture.
“I need to think,” she said. She lifted a hand to my face and stroked the scratchy stubble there. “I know there’s something here—I know that. But he’s been with me so long. I’m not sure what to do with it. With him.”
“It’s all right, because you want me. I know it. And I want you, but it’s more than that. I’ve wanted plenty of women, Alexis. This is more. I don’t want to pressure you, but we may not have that much time to figure out what this is.”
“Okay,” she answered, and I released her, stepping away, feeling the damp cold in the cave for the first time that evening.
I tapped her on the nose. “Remember what I told you to do if I don’t come back, okay?”
She folded her arms around her waist and looked at the ground. “Don’t talk about that.” Then she looked up at me with a small, shaky smile. “I’ll see you soon.”
I nodded and took off for the outside.
• • •
Getting from the cave to the truck proved to be uneventful, as I’d expected. It was dark enough they couldn’t see me. The guy I’d shot still lay motionless, and my gut churned as I skirted past him, trying really hard not to look or think too much. In the back of my head, I knew I’d someday need to deal with the fact I’d erased another human being—someone’s son or brother or father—but now wasn’t the time, and I was pretty damn good at ignoring feelings that weren’t convenient for me.
Except for my feelings about Alexis, which I couldn’t seem to shake no matter what I did.
I slunk into the truck and laid my rifle on the seat. Looking around, I saw nothing. No campfires or electrical lights, no forms in the shadows of the surrounding hills, and aside from the occasional gust of wind, no sounds of any sort. I slid the keys into the ignition, took a deep breath, and started up the engine. It roared to life, echoing around the canyon.
“Jesus. If they didn’t know I was here before, they sure do now,” I muttered to myself.
I shifted into reverse and was just letting up on the clutch when the first shot rang out. It flew through the passenger-side window that had been blown out by the original IED. I slammed down on the seat next to me as I felt a burning sting in my right shoulder and knew I’d been hit. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I hissed, the pain radiating down to my elbow and up into my neck. Before I had a chance to process more, though, new shots flashed around the truck.
The front windshield cracked from the impact. I heard the thunk as bullets hit the metal of the truck’s body, and then a popping noise followed by the sputtering of the engine before it shut off completely. I lay still, gritting my teeth against the pain, and waited. As a faint hissing sound became clearer, I realized a tire was punctured. The truck was done for—and so was my chance to get Alexis the hell out of there.
My arm hurt like crazy, and I was sick of this shit. Sick of being helpless, sick of sitting around in a cave, and sick of tiptoeing around Alexis because of her fucking college boy. My shoulder hurt, my pride hurt, and my heart hurt. I sat up, kicked open the door of the truck, and walked out.
“All right, motherfuckers!” I yelled when I got on the open road. “If you want me, here I am. Just try it, you fucking dicks. Go on, take a shot!”
I waited, standing there, stock-still, listening for the sound of a magazine clicking into place. Nothing.
“Yeah,” I hollered some more. “That’s what I thought.”
I walked toward the cave, angrier than I could ever remember being, but then nearly pissed myself when the shots began ringing out all around me, kicking up dirt and rocks that stung my skin. I ran like hell, making it into the cave moments before the last shot finished bouncing off the hillsides.