Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

Jen

A fter the attack on Pamir, the Army decided to shore up manpower. Me and my team and two Apache crews were sent over to be on a twenty-four-hour Quick Reaction Force. They sent people from nearly every base. Even Bagram had dedicated manpower to the operation. That way if the insurgents decided to make another play for the base, we'd be there and ready for them.

I was excited about it, like a camping trip at the world's dirtiest campground. I wanted to see more bases, travel around a bit, and see the country. More importantly, it would give me a chance to avoid Mark after giving him that kiss. A chance to literally cool off. But the gods of aviation were cruel and liked to have fun at my expense, so naturally, Mark and Laura, along with Brady and Artie, had been assigned to come along. It didn't matter that there were plenty of other Apache crews, no, the Commander decided since they'd been first on scene that night that they should have the opportunity. I didn't disagree, but now I was stuck in an even smaller space with Mark. My libido rejoiced. My brain cringed. I'd never been so torn over something before, let alone someone.

We were just landing and pulling into parking, positioning the aircraft in a tight area next to the Apaches when the excitement of a new place took hold of me again. I was going to make the best of this and learn as much as possible.

After shutting down, I stepped outside to take it all in. This would be our home for the next couple weeks. In addition to the elevated threat of attack, the Beards and Apache teams would be doing nonstop operations from here. Considering that MES was nearly an hour away, it was the safest decision overall and one we were happy to help with. Especially with what had happened here before.

I met Laura at her aircraft, and we made our way to Pamir's Operations Center to see where we should drop our things. Laura looked around and laughed, "This place looks like the beginning of every zombie movie."

She wasn't wrong. There were cement walls everywhere, razor wire ran across the tops of them. And everywhere you looked were broken…things.

It looked like as soon as something broke, it was abandoned in place, or moved just barely out of the way. There were broken generators everywhere. A smashed TV screen, random pieces of pipe. Just junk, everywhere.

"Over here, Ma'am." It was Santos. He waved to us from across the flightline and brought us into a long building nearby. I stepped in and looked down a two-hundred-foot hallway. We'd walked in through a door in the middle. To our left was just a large open room with cots laid out. To our right was an actual hallway with a few rooms.

Santos was giving us the tour. "Sleeping is in the open bay here, first come, first serve." He gestured toward the cots, then turned to the hallway. "Up there on the left is the female latrine and female changing room. On the right is male latrine and male changing room. It's the best we can do with the limited space."

The last sentence must have been in response to the look on my face. No use complaining, though. There really was nothing else here. The army did make every reasonable effort to provide separate sleeping areas for men and women. Sometimes though, there just wasn't enough space. You had to make do with what you had.

Laura and I found two open cots next to each other. Most of the bunks had stuff on them, I couldn't be picky. We set our stuff down and decided to go to the Operations Center to check in. Mark was already there, naturally.

"Laura, grab your helmet. We have a mission."

"Already?" she asked. She wasn't complaining, just surprised. In fact, she sounded excited. That seemed to be a natural reaction for the Apache pilots, I was coming to realize. They looked forward to a fight.

I guess when you had the biggest guns and rockets the idea of searching out a battle would be exciting. I sort of understood, but from the opposite direction. Since my job was to grab the wounded and bring them to a hospital, it was a literal race against time. It was a thrilling experience. Though it did involve wounded allies, so I shouldn't feel too elated.

"Yeah, intel says that a High Value Target might be in town and the Beards are itching to go grab him. Rumor is this is the guy who organized the attack on Pamir." He was speaking to her, but his eyes were on me.

My face heated a little and I had to fight the urge to rub my thighs together to alleviate the ache that had suddenly started up. We hadn't had a chance to talk over the last few days. Everyone had been busy preparing to come over here. Now that we were here, I knew it was only a matter of time before we'd have to address that kiss.

"Good, fucker's gotta pay for interrupting my movie night," Laura blurted out.

With that, they left the Ops Center and headed for their aircraft. The tension in the air lingered, as I stowed my gear underneath my cot. Sarah and Karolyn came in, laughing together and took the empty cots on the other side of Laura. There was only one left next to me. Maybe I'd be lucky and wouldn't end up with a noisy neighbor.

"Jen!"

My head popped up as my name echoed around inside the huge room. Other people glanced over my head at the familiar voice who'd called my name. My eyes darted to Sarah. Her blue eyes were wide as saucers and even Karolyn was grimacing.

"Please tell me that's not-"

"It is," Karolyn said, voice soft so it didn't carry. "He's coming up fast."

Turning, I faced Scott as he stopped right in front of me. "Scott," I replied, tone cool. It was all I could do to keep the neutral mask covering my expression. He was lucky Laura wasn't here. She was unfailingly loyal and had never gotten a chance to tell him off. She'd relish the opportunity. I'd have to speak with her about it. The last thing I wanted was to cause a scene here.

He smiled at me like we were old pals and he hadn't gotten pushy with me a little over a month ago. Absolute sociopath, his behavior never required an apology, my behavior was always unreasonable. "Fancy both of us being here together."

My eyes narrowed at his choice of words, and I glared as he set his stuff down on the bed next to me. "That's taken," I told him.

"Soldier at the door said it was first come-"

"Someone else got there first," I interrupted him. "Had to go get the rest of his stuff."

He searched my face for a moment before picking up his things. "Why don't we go catch dinner together?" he suggested, giving me his most charming smile.

Taking in the flashing white teeth, I wondered how I deluded myself before? Sure he was handsome, but even his smile was smarmy. There was nothing redeeming or even likable about Scott Harris.

"Look. I'm not sure what you think is happening here," I told him, my voice ice cold. "But whatever it is, you're wrong." The girls snickered from behind me. "You already had your chance and you blew it."

"You can't seriously be holding onto that, Jen," he replied, daring to roll his eyes.

"What? Catching you in bed with another woman? That's not something I can forgive, Scott."

"You're being ridiculous." His eyes narrowed. "You're screwing someone."

"What?" I asked, shock melting the cool exterior I'd erected.

"Why else wouldn't you be willing to look past one little mistake?"

One of the girls snorted in disgust and I heard Sarah whisper, "Did he seriously just say that?"

A quick glance around showed that we were drawing attention. It made me want to slink away in embarrassment knowing people were watching this. It was bad enough having to just speak to Scott. Doing so publically was humiliating. I shook my head, sending him my most withering glare. "You're really something, you know that?"

A slow smile spread over his face. "I know."

Before I could respond and ask him in what world did someone take those words, said in that tone, as a compliment, one of his buddies called out to him.

He winked at me. "See you later, Jen." He strolled away as though he didn't have a care in the world.

"Ugh." Sarah and Karolyn flanked me, offering their support.

I gave them a grateful smile. Knowing they had my back meant a lot to me. "His ego could sink an aircraft carrier."

Karolyn giggled, "I bet he has a tiny dick." She gave me a prodding look and though I didn't want to spread rumors, I nodded in confirmation. After all, the truth wasn't technically a rumor. We all burst out into laughter.

Rather than wallow in self-pity over the fact that my ex was here, I decided to round up my crew and make sure everything was ready in our bird in case we were called out. It didn't matter that I'd gone over it all before we'd left for Pamir. It never hurt anything to double check.

It would turn out to be a slow night for us. Although Sheppard and the Beards were out for several hours, we never got a call.

I sat in the Ops Center and listened to the radios. When I heard that they were returning to base I told my crew to get some rest. I laid in my cot and tried to sleep. Thankfully, Scott didn't bother to approach me again all night. I had a feeling my luck wouldn't hold out where he was concerned, but there was no point in thinking about it now. I could hear someone bringing in a helicopter to land. Must be the Apaches coming back. I never heard them come into the bay, though. I was asleep before they shut down.

I woke the next morning to Laura shaking me. I rolled over and saw the wild grin on her face. She put her finger over her mouth and made a ‘shhh' gesture, then pointed over my shoulder. Yawning, I slowly rolled over. Just my luck, Sheppard was sleeping next to me. When I'd told Scott that bed was taken I hadn't been planning to save it for Mark, but a secret part of me was happy he'd chosen to sleep next to me. I blushed slightly and flopped onto my back. Laura was sitting upright, covering her mouth with one hand, and frantically pointing with the other. I glanced over again to see what was so funny.

Now that I was waking up more, I was becoming more observant. Sheppard was laying on his back. He was sleeping in his PT uniform, and his blanket had fallen off. He was hard asleep. And that wasn't the only thing hard. My eyes widened as I got a good look at him. Somehow, his size hadn't registered the other night when I'd been rubbing my body against his. It looked like someone had shoved a Pringles can down his shorts. Now I could hear Laura and Karolyn both giggling.

Did the man have no flaws? I caught myself wondering how a dick that size would feel? Amazing. Toe-curlingly delicious. Life altering. With a small squeak of either embarrassment or desire—I honestly wasn't sure which it was—I tried to shove the thoughts out of my head. It wasn't fair. How was a girl supposed to resist him when he was damn near perfect in every way? Why couldn't he just have a regular, average sized dick? Hell, even a micro penis would do. It wouldn't be as much fun to sleep with him, but at least I'd catch a small break. I fought back a giggle at my inadvertent pun.

Laura whispered to me, "I think he likes sleeping next to you."

Mark stirred slightly and opened his eyes. He turned his head and pinned me with a sleepy, slightly confused look. My eyes practically jumped out of my head as I snapped them up from his dick. Heat crawled over my skin and I knew I was blushing a furious red. He'd just caught me drooling over what he had in his pants while he was sleeping. The horror forced me to roll over and look into Laura's wide eyes. Unsure of what to say, I opted to remain silent. I'd already stuck my foot in my mouth without ever uttering a word. There was no need to make it worse.

I heard a grunt behind me and, ‘whoops' as Mark shifted around. I decided that now was a good time to not be here. Last thing I wanted was to talk to him right after being caught looking at his…bulge.

It's massive! My inner thoughts wouldn't leave it be.

I shoved that thought out of my head, along with any others that tried to stray toward thinking about Mark's dick again, and found Laura grinning even wider. She started to waggle her eyebrows at me. I scrunched my face up at her and stuck my tongue out. She wasn't going to ever let me live it down once she heard about our kiss from the other night. It was why I hadn't told her yet. That and I was still sort of savoring it just for myself. Mark didn't seem like the type to kiss and tell, so I knew my secret was safe until I was ready to spill the beans.

Sliding out from under my blanket, making sure to keep my back to him, I slipped my sandals on and grabbed my bag. I quickly made my way to the changing room.

What I wouldn't give for an ice cold shower. No woman deserved to wake up to a greeting like that while unable to take the man up on the unspoken offer.