by Gennita Low
“Should be over soon. Your freed prisoners are slowly but surely surrounding the hostiles. Take a breather, man. The lady looks like she needs it. I got you two covered. Mink is helping the brother in the M-ATV.”
“Thanks, man.” Liam slowly put his bundle down. There was just enough light that he could see the shimmer in her blue eyes. “Hey, don’t cry.”
“I’m o...kay,” She bent over and gagged. She put a hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God, I killed a man.”
Liam understood. He’d tried to stop her but failed. Automatically shooting at someone, even during a fire fight, wasn’t something that came easily for anyone, much less a person who had only a couple months’ training. The first kill stayed with you forever. And Ella had done it with deliberate choice, like a sniper. She didn’t have the mental training of one and it worried him how the experience would affect her. But this wasn’t the time to deal with this and he knew it.
“Look at me,” he ordered. “Straighten up and look at me.”
She slowly did so. Her mouth trembled slightly.
“You did good,” he told her.
“I—Calak...”
He shook his head. “You did exactly what a good soldier does in a unit. Just as Calak had done for his team. If you hadn’t done so, the hostile would have thrown another grenade. So, you did what a good shooter would. Do you hear me, Fitz?”
“Yes.” She swallowed again. Closed her eyes for a second. When she reopened them, her expression was calmer. She took a deep ragged breath, then asked, “Did you just call that big guy Cucumber?”
* * *
An hour and a half later, Ella looked around her. They were in one of the mess halls where there were enough chairs and tables to accommodate them all. The “hostiles,” as the SEALs called them, had been secured and put onto the arriving helicopters to be taken to another base. The injured were either being attended to by medics or being readied to be transported. The border fort was mostly in ruins and had to be repaired. Liam had told her the Iraqis were sending in laborers, and American engineers would be arriving in a few days to assess the damage.
But none of that mattered right now. Everyone who had been in the battle was here and that was what counted. They had just finished prayers for the dead, including the Canadians, and everyone was still in a solemn mood.
Then, Wolf, her Peshmerga commander, Noor, and the SEAL in charge of Liam’s friends, Jazz, went up to the front and stood together. They waited until the room quieted down.
“Everyone must be accounted for,” Lieutenant Noor said. “We have to be vigilant of traitors in our recruits from now on. Insha Allah, we’re safe, thanks to these men.”
Wolf leaned forward. “We wouldn’t be here without Miss Fitzgerald’s and Miss Zainab’s actions. Thanks to them, we’re all here now. Thank you, Ella and Zainab.”
Everyone turned and voiced their appreciation. The women nearby came over and gave her a hug. She hugged them back fiercely.
Then Jazz said, “Mission accomplished. At ease.”
A cheer rose and there was much rattling and thumping of tables and chairs. It was a good way to release some of the aggression they all still felt. Ella exchanged more hugs and handshakes. Lieutenant Noor came over.
“Any time you want to really join the Peshmerga, you’ll be welcomed,” she told her. “You’ve been an exceptional recruit. From now on, you’re an honorary member of our team. We’ll take you into battle any time you want.”
Ella smiled. The praise felt good because she had really put 100 percent in her training. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m honored.”
“A hell of a good shot,” Jazz said.
“You should have seen her climb the wall,” Mozart chimed in. “Like a regular monkey.”
“Oh, we saw her,” the big SEAL she’d met earlier said. “We were waiting for your signal and watching with the night scope.”
“We haven’t been introduced,” Ella said. “I’m Ella Fitzgerald. Do you have a name besides Cucumber?”
The big guy grinned. “Lucas, but you can call me Cumber for short. This is Mink and Dirk. And you’ve met our commander, Jazz.”
The journalist in her started buzzing questions in her head. “How did you get your nickname? And I heard Liam called the three of you The Stooges. Is there a reason?”
“Guys, be careful what you say in front of her. Not only is she a journalist, but she’ll psychoanalyze the shit out of you, including your names,” Liam said.
“Hey!” Ella poked him in the arm. “That’s not true. I was just interested in how everyone got theirs because I don’t have a nickname.”
“Oh, but you do have one,” Abe said.
Ella frowned. “I do? What?”
“Legs!” Abe, Wolf, Cookie and Mozart said in unison, and then all four snickered.
“Why would you call me that?” She looked at them, puzzled.
“Ask him. He’s the one who called you that first. Several times.” Wolf pointed at Liam.
She glanced at Liam. He was leaning against a shelf, lazily perusing her, a drink in his hand. He was scruffy and looked like he’d been rolling in mud all day. And she still wanted to jump his bones.
“I could call you Bounce,” he offered.
“Oh, bet I could psychoanalyze that,” Cookie said, with a chuckle.
“Don’t or I’ll hurt you,” Ella warned.
“You better watch it, Cookie,” the SEAL named Mink said. Liam had told her he was a medic and she’d seen him working on Cookie. “She might shoot you in your other cheek. One painful ass is enough and I sure don’t want to look at your ass twice in one night.”
There was much bantering about Cookie’s injury after that, for which Ella was grateful. These SEALs were unmerciful with their teasing and she didn’t want the ‘Bounce’ nickname to stick.
Liam’s hand curled around hers. “You okay?”
She nodded. “I don’t know about tomorrow, but right now, yes.” It was going to take some time to get over her actions today. She pulled him away slightly and told him quietly, “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
He looked into her eyes for a long moment, then said, “We’ll be on the next chopper out of here. I’ll get Sean to book us a suite.”
* * *
Liam shook hands with the SEAL team he’d been part of. He liked all the men and knew they would keep in touch. Wolf slapped him on the back.
“Come visit if you get back to the States,” he urged.
“Will do,” Liam said. “Maybe we can meet on Hawk’s island where there’s no possibility of being shot at.”
Hawk had a private piece of property that Liam had visited now and then. It was the perfect place for down time from everything. Come to think of it, it was the perfect place to get to know a woman better.
“That son-of-a-bitch owns a fucking island?” Wolf’s eyes narrowed. “What did he do, win the lottery?”
Liam laughed. “Nah. He inherited it from one of his grandfathers.”
“Let me guess. Grandpa Steve,” Abe said, dryly.
Jazz, standing nearby, chuckled. “So you all know about the Steves.”
Jazz was Hawk’s best friend and had spent a lot of time with the McMillans, so Liam knew him well. Being Cajun and from a family of mostly women, he’d once told Liam it amused him to be with a macho Irish family like the McMillans because they knew nothing about women. Which was so not true. Hawk, Liam always pointed out, had only to wag his finger and women would appear. Jazz always just gave him one of his odd half-smiles and shook his head.
“Not all the Steves, God, no. There are too many of them running around, including Liam here. At least most of them have an alternate name so we could tell which one we’re talking to. One day, we’ll have a navy song about all the Steve McMillans who were sailors,” Wolf said.
“I’ll be sure to tell Hawk what you suggested,” Jazz said.
“Yeah, and thank him for sending you guys to help us out. My team will do t
he same for yours some day.”
“A pleasure.”
They snapped a salute to each other.
“Where’s Legs?” Cookie asked.
“She’s saying goodbye to Zainab and the other recruits,” Liam said, looking in the direction where a crowd of women had gathered. “She’ll be here to say goodbye, I’m sure.”
“You’ll take care of her, right?” Abe asked. “You know what it’s like.”
Liam nodded. Abe was talking about a soldier’s first kill. The men were worried about Ella and how she was handling it.
“Yes. I’ll take care of her,” Liam replied. In more ways than one. In fact, he planned to take care of that woman in so many ways, she’d only have time to call out his name. Over and over.
“She’s tougher than you think,” Wolf said. “I have a good feeling about you two. Here she comes.”
Liam turned and watched as Ella approached, hair tumbling untidily, her top with missing buttons. Her graceful strides had his full attention. Yeah, those legs were going to feel good wrapped around his waist.
“I hope you’re right, Wolf,” he said, softly. For the first time in a while, he didn’t feel empty inside.
CHAPTER SIX
Liam turned on the shower. Hot water. Life was good.
It was also good to have top-notch connections. Hawk had somehow gotten them a direct military flight out of the country to Paris, France, which was where Sean wanted to meet Ella. He suspected the location had something to do with the Big Four, the Peshmerga leaders for whom the hostiles were looking. Certainly, something was going down.
Everything was in a folder for them on the plane—the hotel Sean had booked, where and when they’d be meeting, credit cards in an envelope. Hell, even a check with partial payment for his job. There was even a fresh change of clothes and food.
“Courtesy of Admiral Madison,” Hawk had said during their last phone call. “You helped prevent a big mess from happening. If the fort had been taken and those women imprisoned and sold, all our efforts to get their own people to fight the war would have gone down the drain. Bombing that convoy was cream on top. They were planning to use the captured fort as a way to transport their militants in and out of Iraq. The admiral is pleased with how things turned out. So am I, Liam. I hope this brings you some closure about what had happened and that you’ll come and work with the teams now and then. Glad you’re safe and sound.”
“Thanks again,” Liam had said, and asked because he didn’t know when he’d get another chance to talk to Hawk any time soon, “Can I bring a guest to your island? Since you’re all pleased with my getting all able to function like a SEAL again and all that.”
A slight pause, followed by a chuckle. “I ought to build a hotel there for romancing bros, what with all the requests I get. Sure. Leave a message before you go, in case I get some time off and find myself interrupting your rendezvous.”
Rendezvous. Liam turned off the shower.
Shakespeare used that word to mean a refuge, some place to fly to. How appropriate and also, strange. He’d been looking for refuge from his own demons and never thought he’d find it in the guise of a redheaded woman manning a machine gun.
He walked into his room and almost tripped. Sitting on his bed was Ella in a towel, her damp hair a dark red, tumbling down milky shoulders, her long, long legs dangling off one side. There was a sly smile on her face.
“I like the suite,” she said, teasing the bedsheets with one hand “because of the two bathrooms. But not the two beds.”
“I was going to do the gentlemanly thing and have a talk first,” Liam said, his gaze following that hand while trying to not let his brain cells melt all away.
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk or think or cry. I just want to feel you inside me. I bought condoms downstairs when you were checking us in,” she said, her teeth catching her lower lip. She shook the package in her other hand. “Do you still want to talk? I truly am done with talking.”
Hell, if she put it that way—Liam dropped his towel. “I’m ready for some bouncing,” he announced.
* * *
Ella could not take her eyes off the muscular man striding toward her. Good Lord. Those camos with all the pockets really did this fine specimen of a body a disservice. There was not an ounce of fat on the man. The wide shoulders, the light coating of hair on that fine chest, the flat stomach...and the very happy penis resting against it.
He was on her in no time, his big body covering hers, his mouth possessing hers. This was what she wanted—to taste this man, to feel his heartbeat under her hand. She hardly knew him and yet, somehow, her body eagerly responded to his touch. Desire didn’t come easily to her. She’d spent most of her life chasing her dream to be an overseas correspondent. Her ambition hadn’t been very conducive to any kind of dating life.
She gasped at the touch of his hand cupping her intimately. His tongue tangled with hers, copying the movement of his exploring fingers. She groaned into his mouth as his tongue circled, then slowly thrust deeper. His knees spread her legs open for more access to her wet core.
He lifted his mouth off hers. “Too fast?” He asked, his fingers still moving intimately against her heat. “You sure you don’t want to talk?”
Ella’s eyes were closed. She could hear the smile in his voice. Damn man was a tease. She arched up in frustration when he slowed his ministration of that very important part that was screaming for release.
“I’m...sure,” she gritted out.
He dipped his head and she moaned when he lapped at her sensitive nipple. His finger penetrated deep into her. Then he sucked at her nipple, and each pull corresponded with his finger sliding in and out of her.
“Liam!” She gasped and shuddered as pleasure rocked her into quick orgasm. She arched up again and again. He continued to stroke in and out of her, his thumb playing with her clitoris, stretching her orgasm until she forgot to breathe.
She lay there, panting. She heard a plastic package being torn.
“Is it my turn to talk yet?” He asked, nudging a very hard erection against her swollen flesh.
“If that thing could talk, what would it say?” She countered.
“That thing is my very big penis and it’s saying, “Hear my soul speak. Of the very instant that I saw you, Did my heart fly at your service.” He pushed against her swollen flesh, sleek and slippery with her come. And so sensitive still. Her toes curled as he leaned forward, bracing his weight, and slowly entered her. The slide of his flesh sent tingles up her spine. His voice was low and sexy as he continued, “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.”
Ella sighed. “Who knew a big penis could be such a poet?”
Liam’s thrusts became rhythmic as he whispered erotic promises in her ear, his breath hot against her cheek with each push. She held on tightly, her pleasure coiling tighter and tighter.
Her inner muscles squeezed the length of him and she heard him breathing heavier. He stretched her hands over her head and pushed in deep inside her. He nibbled her an erogenous spot on her neck that made her squirm under him helplessly, which pushed him even deeper inside her.
She gasped as he tucked both her hands inside his and use his free hand to cup her breast, pulling at the sensitive nipple while his lower body thrust in and out, a slow push and pull that made her feel every inch of him. Want. More. She wrapped her long legs around his waist, demanding more. He obeyed.
There were no more words, just his breaths and hers, mingling, as their bodies moved with their own poetic language. He called her name and put his hand between her legs, knuckling her clitoris. She gave a small scream as pleasure rocketed through her whole being, hitting her in hot waves. His lips met hers in a desperate kiss and she responded in kind. His whole weight came on top of her body as he joined her in a powerful orgasm.
* * *
Liam could count on his hand the number of times h
e’d slept well the past year and a half. Last night, he slept like a puppy in the arms of this woman who didn’t even know how deeply she was affecting him. Or maybe she did, because she had petted him all night. He woke up with her kisses.
Contented puppy.
With a hard-on.
“Must we talk?” She asked, eyeing the little tent his happy puppy hard-on was making. “Because I’d rather spend the morning bouncing.”
Liam turned. “Ella, what about us? Do you want to see where this is taking us?”
Her blue eyes had a gleam. “If I say yes, does that mean you’ll let me travel with you as an embedded journalist?”
He blinked. “Wait. What?”
She was a journalist. She would never let something worthy off the hook. “Well, how else are we going to get to know each other? You travel around and guard and deliver stuff. I travel around and watch and report stuff. Why not let me watch and report while you guard and deliver? You’ll make a good story.”
His brows shot up. “Is that all I am to you? A good story?”
She leaned over and kissed the corner of his lips softly. Small butterfly kisses. The kind that made a man’s heart turn to mush.
“We get to talk a lot...long, interesting stories you can tell me. Your big penis can get in on these conversations too, if you like.”
“Oh, yeah?” His penis seemed to be agreeing to this without any fight.
“Yeah. I kinda like the way he gets all Shakespearean and then he weeps in joy.” She lifted the bed cover and peeked under. “There he is, all weepy again.”
Liam threw back his head and laughed. “You win. We’ll have to negotiate the details later. But right now, I know a way you can make him very happy.”
He watched as Ella pulled the covers away and got on top of him. Her legs climbed on each side of his body, trapping him.
“Bounce, bounce, bounce,” she said.
They both laughed. Liam pulled Ella down for a full kiss. She might not know it yet, but he intended to keep this sassy and brave woman by his side with the longest stories.
EndNotes
Peshmerga female fighters
