ROMANCE: Romantic Comedy: Love in 30 Days - The Best Plans Don't Always Work! (Plus 19 FREE Books Book 13)

by Jane Keeler

  "You're far from dying," she told him.

  "Again, thanks to you. But I still feel awful."

  "Awful how?"

  "Mentally," he said.

  She sat down at his feet and put the clipboard away.

  She said, "That will go away with time. I want you to know that. All of the feelings you're experiencing now are real and they probably do hurt, but in time you'll realize that you're better off than you were before."

  "You would say that," he said, face dark.

  "What do you mean?" she asked naively.

  "You don't have the military mindset."

  She said, "No, I'm afraid I don't."

  "But I do."

  "That doesn't mean you have to-,” she said before he cut her off.

  "My livelihood is gone," he said, crystal blue eyes brimming with tears. "Gone!"

  She scooted forward on the bed to get closer to him. She watched as a tear ran down his face and he tightened his lips. She put her hands on his and pressed her fingers into him lightly.

  "You'll be fine after this is all over."

  "Can you really say that?"

  "You'll have plenty of range of motion. Not like before, but I did it in such a way that-"

  He cut her off again, "I want you out. Out!"

  She was taken aback and stood.

  "I'm sorry, it's just-"

  "Say no more," she said and picked up his chart and walked out the door.

  She sighed when she had closed it, perturbed and upset. She hadn't meant to make him angry, but he was, now. She made note of his health and his mental state in case the orderlies needed to know and moved on to her other patients. The interaction weighed heavily on her and she went to his door when she was off for the night and almost went in, but stood at it and rested her head against the door, instead. She stayed there a moment before snapping out of her momentary weakness and walked out of the ER and back to the army housing complex.

  The next morning she was fresh and awake, ready for whatever the day threw at her, and so was Derek. He wasn't down trodden like she expected him to be after last night.

  "I'm stronger than I was yesterday," he told her. "The army made me that way."

  "What way?"

  "It made me a man," he told her. "It made me a man that can deal with whatever life throws at him."

  "Life certainly has thrown you a curveball," she said, sitting down on his bed again. "Are you sure?"

  "I'm strong in body, but when my body gives out, I'm strong in mind and spirit."

  "That's a good way of looking at it," she said.

  "But you don't like the army?"

  "I don't like what it does to people."

  "And what's that?"

  She said, "It can be a way of brainwashing people. Brainwashing them into doing crazy things for their country."

  "But isn't that what we all signed up for?"

  "What?"

  "I signed up to work hard for my country. No matter what the cost. Even if I get my head blown off, I'm here for the citizens of the United States of America. Not myself. Not you. Not my family, but for everyone that wants to live freely in our country."

  She remained silent as she sat next to his feet and watched him talk with conviction.

  "I'm here to fight. I'm here to make sure that people like you don't have to. That's what the army has to offer me. A place to be brave for other people. They didn't have to brainwash me into nothing."

  "Well," she said, breathing in, thinking. "I guess I should count myself lucky to be protected by someone with your convictions."

  "You aren't lucky at all, though. Because you have the same opportunities as me, but you don't want them."

  "I did," she said.

  "But what changed?"

  "The army changed me, I guess."

  "The army makes people into who they are meant to be. Are you really meant to be apathetic?"

  "Apathetic? I'm not apathetic."

  He said, "You don't want to be here."

  "That doesn't mean I'm apathetic."

  "Then what are you?"

  "Waiting," she said decisively. "And I have been. For the rest of my life to start. I'm excited for what comes after this."

  "So, the army is just a bump in the road for you?"

  "What got you into the army?" she asked.

  He sighed, looking off into the distance before looking back at her.

  He said, "I was a pretty reckless kid growing up, but then my brother died. When that happened, my whole life turned around and I realized that there are some things you have to be serious about."

  "My god, I'm sorry. How did he die?"

  "Brain tumor," he said, then pointed to the side of his head and said, "right here."

  "That's terrible," she said. "I'm sorry."

  "It turned me around, though. And I went right into the army after high school."

  "And haven't looked back ever since?" she asked.

  "Haven't. Not once."

  "What about you?"

  "A recruiter got me and enticed me with the idea of a full-ride through med school and it was too much to pass up."

  "So you traded your ideals for money?"

  "What?"

  Derek said, "You could have gone on to a civilian career as was your ideal, but you traded that for the allure of never having to pay for school."

  "Well, yeah. I traded my ideals for money."

  "Regret that decision?"

  "Always," she said. He smiled and she glimpsed the beautiful fullness of his lips spread across his white teeth. She could feel her heart in her chest pound a little faster and she felt herself leaning closer to her, putting a hand down on the bed next to his knee. "Except maybe now," she added.

  His smile didn't fade and he gazed at her for a moment, turquoise eyes unfaltering. She could see the creases around his eyes as he smiled, like he had done it a lot and the kindness in his face. She wondered if the army had pushed some of it out of him or is he had retained his utmost happy self throughout it.

  The next time she saw him, she noted his recovery, which was taking longer than she had expected, but his days in her care were limited. He would soon move on to the USO Warrior Center instead of the ER or ICU where she could check on him while she worked. She kept going back to him, though, to check on him and talk about his health and the army.

  She was nervous and worried that he took his status in the military too seriously. He could be just like all of the other jarheads, she realized. Focused only on his job and the military and nothing else. She wanted to get to know him, but realized that she could be disappointed in him if she did. In that way, she avoided talking about herself and trying to ask too much about his. Instead, they talked about their opinions and the shows they watched. They went over old news in the war. They were both interested in the events that were keeping the war going and news of terrorism and attacks in countries outside of the Middle East. He told her about what the war had done for and given him and the experiences that he had to make him the person she was.

  The first day he was there in the USO trauma center she went to volunteer during the afternoon hours, where he sat by the window and watched as she put autumn leaves.

  She spent several weeks like that, checking on him in the trauma center and helping him to rehabilitate. At one point early on, she didn't need to keep going to see him at all, and she wondered if he noticed the way that she stopped picking up the clipboard and stopped making notes. Because she was here for him, now, for some strange reason even she didn't understand.

  She came in one day to find him out of bed, staring out into the gorgeous mountain range covered view beyond the hospital.

  "I've never asked you about yourself," he said to her. "I don't know how I've never thought to ask you about that."

  She wanted to check his chart, see how he was feeling, do something to check and see why things had changed so suddenly, but she sat down on the edge of it, instead.

  "I think it's
because you were in the fog of pain from the surgery."

  "Why now? You expected my recovery days ago."

  She was baffled, "How did you know that?"

  "I've gotten good at reading you, by now."

  She looked down, smiling.

  Derek continued, "I want to know about this woman I have grown so dependent on. No, close to."

  "You want to know about me?" she asked.

  He grinned out of his full lips and she noticed the tan-ness of his face.

  "I am... an open book, really."

  "Not the case. Are you like this with everyone?"

  "What?"

  "So closed."

  "Well, I guess I am."

  "How long have you been like that?"

  She thought for a moment, then said, "Once I got out of my residency."

  "How do you figure that?"

  "Before, in high school, med school, and at my residency in America, everything seemed so much simpler. Talking to people was simpler. Developing those relationships with patients and other doctors."

  "What kind of relationships?" he asked, an eyebrow up.

  "The normal kind," she said, her own eyebrow up as she gave him a look. "But, also..." she trailed off, exposing herself, then realized she could trust him. She had been fully open about her anti-army sentiments and he had disagreed, but never made her felt awful for it. She felt like she could have opposing viewpoints to him and it wouldn't be that bad.

  She continued, "Also the other kinds. Here, not so much."

  "You don't get along with anybody?"

  She thought back, "No, I just don't try to get to know anybody."

  He asked, "Is that why you never ask me about myself?" He felt a barrier go up between the two of them and he faltered to get back their intimacy, saying, "I only ask because this is the first time I've asked about you."

  "Maybe we're cut from the same cloth," she said as she got up. She went to the window and stared out at the crests of the mountains, their peaks beautiful to her. She wondered what it would take to see them closer, to be near to them.

  "I do want to know," he said lightly from behind her, "about you. Where did you grow up?"

  "California."

  "How was that?"

  "I was next to the coast in San Diego, so spectacular."

  "Oh yeah? I trained at Pendleton. Where did you live?"

  She turned, "That's so funny. I went to the movies a whole bunch in Oceanside where the Marines hang out. I might have seen you."

  "Maybe, I definitely went down there a lot."

  "Were you a partier?"

  He shook his head and smiled, then ran his hands through his black hair and said, "I worked hard, I played hard."

  She smiled, too, and said, "We are cut from the same cloth."

  "Oh yeah?" he asked. "How did you ever get through med school if you were partying all the time?"

  "How did I?" she asked. "Not very carefully."

  "What, did you sleep with a professor of something?"

  "Happy to say I did not."

  He sighed, exaggerating his relief.

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "It means I wouldn't want to have a crush on a girl that goes at it with professors to get good grades, is all."

  She smiled and leaned in to him, saying, "Oh, is that so?"

  "Oh, it is." He wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "I would like to find out what type you are interested in."

  She pushed her hips closer to him as she took a step forward, pressing against the bed. He let his hands move up and down her back, feeling the tight muscles under her scrubs.

  "Certainly not a jar-head," she said in a hushed voice.

  "Certainly not?" he asked, looking up to her.

  She lifted her hands and ran them through his thick black hair, saying, "Oh, no."

  He lifted himself up on the bed more and faced her fully, pushing his body into hers. Her breasts were at eye level and he pressed one of his hands against one as he reached up his face to hers by pressing against the bed with his other hand. They kissed and, for the first time, they both felt what it was like to kiss someone they were falling in love with.

  "Prove it," he said.

  "That I don't like army guys?"

  He kissed her again, pecking her lips with a smile, then kissed her more fully. He felt his tongue slide past her lips into her wet, waiting mouth. Her tongue wrapped around his and he felt it press against his wet gums. She opened and slightly closed her mouth around his and moved with his rhythm.

  She let her hands slip downward, where they worked to take the sheets off of Derek and she sat atop him. She was so ready, so willing, that she took off her scrub top and undershirt.

  She raised one of his hands and put it in her mouth. He hooked it into her cheek and pulled it out slowly, seeing a trail of spit follow his finger. He rubbed his finger against her cheek and held her jaw, then pushed up to kiss her again. He could feel the special tenderness she felt for him when he did, like she was accepting him into her life, not just her mouth.

  He pulled away, to look at her face, then smiled and pushed his lips back onto hers. She held either side of his jaw and squeezed her body as it was on him. They kissed again, appreciating for long moments the feeling of being in unison with one another. They let go of one another's mouths and inhaled deeply, then kissed again and again until the sun changed its tilt into the room and it became early evening. She didn't want to leave the room, though, and eventually they were grinding against one another's bodies. She slipped her bra off and he put his hands up to cup her breasts, then squeezed to feel the soft flesh push against his fingers.

  Her pants came off and she let his dick come out of his pants. She sat atop him and positioned his dick under her lips. She slowly inched down on him and went up and down on it, almost letting it fall out but holding the head of his penis inside of her enough so that it didn't. She began to move her hips up and down as he kneaded her breasts like they were dough. He held onto them and jiggled them up and down as she gained a rhythm on him.

  She kept her hands to either side of him on the bed, then propped herself up while she bounced on his sturdy erection. He put his face up and made his mouth open and lick at her breast, putting a bit of it in his mouth as she rode him. She bounced up and down on him and he brought his mouth off of her and lay back down. When she slowed and nearly stopped, he began thrusting his hips into her with a quick intensity. He pushed up and down into her and she felt the push of him against the inside of her vagina. She could feel her body pulse with desire.

  She began to bob back onto and off of his dick as he slowed his rhythm and he put her hands on her butt cheeks, grabbing and pulling them apart as she glided onto and off of him. Her feet lifted up and she put them against his thighs as she bounced up and down on him. His dick was going into places she had never felt anybody go before and she couldn't take the amount of pleasure she was experiencing from riding his lusty dick. She went quickly, then would slow herself to be going up and down on him slowly. He reveled in the feeling and wanted more of it. His fingers splayed on her cheeks and then pushed together as he squeezed her and felt her soft flesh.

  "I want you on top of me," she told him.

  "I want to be on top of you, he said,

  He got above her on the bed and leaned over to kiss her, feeling the hot wetness of her mouth. His engorged dick fell over her and he felt it, then put it against her lips. He rubbed the opening to them with his head with one hand as his other held the bed just next to her head. He pushed his head against her lips and slid them across the area, gliding easily with her juices. He put the tip of his head against her clit and pushed into it a few times, making her shiver and close her eyes.

  He pushed one last time into her clit gently, then let his dick slide into her hole and fill it up with its mass. He noted how much bigger it was now than it ever had been for any other woman or himself. He watched her tits jiggle as he pushed in and out of
her and how they moved with him. He pushed into her like that as she moaned lightly.

  "I want you deep, deep inside of me," she told him.

  "I can go deeper," he told her.

  "That's right where I want you," she said as she felt him go into a part of her that she loved having touched.

  "Right there?" he asked.

  "Right there," she replied.

  He could cum, but he backed off of the feeling and slowed his pushing into her so as not to cum too early. He continued to feel the sensation of pumping into her, though, and quickly resumed doing it fast and hard into her. She squeaked and smiled in delight. She took his dick into her and felt it press against her inner walls, pressing and pushing against her. She loved the feeling and couldn't get enough of it.

  He continued to rhythmically pound into her and she splayed underneath him. He then slowed and dipped down low to kiss her. He put his lips around hers and let his mouth show her how he felt. He continued to pulse in and out of her. She felt so good, like all of her tensions were being released and like she could finally breathe feely again. Stresses she hadn't known were accumulating simply vanished and she felt lighter, more buoyant as he enjoyed her and let her enjoy him.

  "This feels so good," she told him.

  "I can't help but feel so good, my god," he replied.

  "I love having you deep inside of me."

  He agreed with a nod and said, "Want me to go deeper?" He pushed into her with added vigor and she felt him pushing against her uterus walls. It was intoxicating and she wanted more.

  She told him as much, saying, "Give me more, I want more!"

  He pushed into her until she was gripping the bedsheets and squeezing her eyes shut in orgasm. He continued to make her feel like she was walking on water, or up among the clouds. She felt like she had never felt before. She felt so happy and complacent while he made her orgasm that she smiled and opened her eyes, looking lovingly at Derek.

  "You look so hot," he told her, putting a hand on her jiggling tit. He lightly touched her and moved his hand to watch her move under his fingers. "I love being able to put it inside of you."

  He pushed further and then slowed, gyrating his hips to slowly move his head inside of her so that it was pushing deeper and deeper each time. He pushed then straight and backwards and felt the way her walls contracted and expanded to push him out and take him back in again.