by DahliaRose
“Turn around, and come back and get me,” Ian repeated.
“This is how you talk to people? I’m not your chauffeur, you know,” Tasha replied. “Nope. I’m going home.”
“Please, Tasha,” Ian cajoled her. “I feel like having Chinese food, and there is nothing to eat here. I don’t know anyone here, and I have a great view of the Potomac from my deck.”
“I don’t know,” she said, and he could hear her wavering.
“I’m starved, and I might have to walk to the PX for some Cup of Noodles.” Ian sighed. “I guess I could, but the lights on the river are so beautiful.”
Tasha laughed. “Quit the pitiful routine. I’ll stop and get you some Chinese and come back.”
“Egg fu yung, some sweet and sour pork, and house lo mein, please.”
“Anything else, Major?”
He could hear the teasing in her tone, and that, in turn, made him happy. He couldn’t remember the last time he was genuinely happy.
“Only you, Lieutenant,” he said quietly.
After a pause she said, “Let me go home and get cleaned up. I’ll see you in a bit, Ian.”
Ian turned off his BlackBerry and slipped it into his pocket. He tapped the railing of the deck before walking inside. He would take a shower and get into some civilian clothes before she came back. The night was looking up, and the possibilities were endless.
* * * *
Why am I doing this? Tasha thought as she took a shower to wash the day off her skin. Ian was her last appointment, but before that she had had a jam-packed day. Her skin smelled of different oils and liniments she had used on various patients, and now the smell of sweet cherry vanilla filled the shower as the warm suds moved down her skin.
Don’t fool yourself. You know why, Tasha, her inner voice replied. Ian brought something out in her. Something instinctive and reckless. She had to remind herself more than once to keep a tight hold on those locks around her heart. Her problem was she could fall in love so easily and see everything good in him and none of the tarnish until it was too late. His kiss already took center stage in her thoughts. She closed her eyes and remembered how it felt to have his taste on her lips and his hands on her skin. Her hand slowed to a crawl as she washed her body wishing it was him touching her breast and nipples. She wanted Ian’s hands between her thighs and touching that secret place that would make her come. She got out of the shower and dried her skin with gentle rubs from the towel and dressed with care. Tight jeans and white corset top. She wasn’t expecting anything tonight, but if something did happen, she doubted she would have the willpower to say no.
She took extra care with her hair and makeup. It was not allowed when she was in uniform, so when she had the chance to use makeup, she did. She left the house to pick up the food she had ordered before stepping into the shower. With one last look in the hallway mirror, Tasha made sure that her lip gloss was not smudged and then snatched up her keys and headed out the door. The aroma of the food filled her car as she drove back to the base, reminding her that she had only had a small ham sandwich and a cup of coffee all day. She also picked up another small surprise for Ian on her way there.
When he opened the door, Tasha had to swallow just a little bit. He was wearing khaki shorts, a blue striped polo shirt, and sneakers. He had a smile on his face that carried to his eyes, and Tasha felt all her anxiety melt away.
“So I brought you a gift.” She had her hand behind her back when she spoke. “Kind of a welcome-to-the-neighborhood kind of thing.”
“Is it a fondue pot?” Ian teased.
Tasha laughed. “No, it’s this.”
From behind her back she pulled a six pack of Michelob Amber, and Ian clasped his hand over his heart. “You are now the coolest woman I have ever met. How did you know my brand?”
“Well, it’s my favorite, and I know Corbin likes it, so I kinda took a wild guess,” Tasha said with a smile. “Are you going to let me in, or should I take my beer and go home?”
“Oh, you better come in, honey.” Ian opened the door wider and ushered her in.
As per military housing, the unit he was living in was sparsely decorated and very bland. Most military families would perk it up with their own knickknacks, but since it was just him and he would be there for a limited time, he left it as is.
“Gimme those bags, and go sit your butt on the deck,” Ian said.
“Oh, it’s no trouble for me to get this together. You go sit.” She noticed he was limping just a bit more, and she didn’t want him to strain his leg.
His gaze darkened for a moment. “I’m not a complete invalid, Tasha. There’s no need to coddle me. I can get a few plates of food together and two beers.”
“I didn’t mean…” Tasha began. But she should’ve known better. You can never treat a man like Ian like he was incapable of doing anything. It made the situation worse for him. Tasha said brightly, “You know what? You are right. Go feed me while I take in the view.”
Ian smiled and turned toward the kitchen carrying the bags with the food and the beer. Tasha stepped out onto the deck, where the stringed lights along the banks of the Potomac glittered over the dark water. Ian had set out tea lights in small glass holders along the edges of the rails and in the corners of the deck. The flickering flames cast a dreamy glow and set a sensual scene. Can’t get to the PX, my ass, Tasha thought with a smile when she sat down. The PX was military shopping on any base in the United States or overseas. Families had the option of shopping at a cheaper price and without taxes if they wanted, as opposed to going off base. She was positive base housing did not come stocked with romantic lighting in the cupboards.
He came out first with two beers, one in each hand, and threw her a grin as he placed them on the small table between the two chairs. Then he returned with two steaming plates of food that he set down slowly before sitting himself.
He handed her a fork and a napkin. “There, no spills.”
“I didn’t think you would,” Tasha said. She pointed her fork at him. “By the way, you’re a fibber.”
“Me?” He feigned surprised. “Now I’m wounded. How can you sit here and malign my character?”
Tasha snorted. “Malign your character, my tush. Where’d you get tea candles, hmm?”
“Um …I plead the fifth?” he said before taking a bite of dinner.
“No, you can’t. How did you get to the PX?” Tasha asked.
“Fine, you caught me,” Ian admitted. “But I didn’t go shopping. I had them brought to me. I have made a friend or two here in the last day or so.”
“Oh, you are so bad!” Tasha laughed. “And you call me up with that piteous voice.”
“Hey now. I technically have nothing in here to eat, and I was lonely,” Ian pointed out. “Who better to spend the evening with than with you?”
“Oh, let’s see, a girlfriend?” Tasha hinted. She threw it out as an offhanded question, but her curiosity was piqued to see if there was someone else in his life. No one could kiss like that and be a cheater, but then, she had dated a man who said he loved her but was secretly married.
Ian met her with a direct stare, and she could see honesty in his eyes. “There’s no one, Tasha.”
“Okay,” Tasha said simply and took up her fork.
They ate in companionable silence with intermittent episodes of conversation. He revealed that he had one too many tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. While Tasha told him about her life and how she got her alternative rehabilitation center started, she could see how surprised Ian was. She told him the hoops she had to jump through and the red tape that was involved with her getting started. It still hurt her to know that some higher-ups in the military saw what she did as a luxury for soldiers and retired veterans. Cutting costs on all fronts had become a priority at VA centers of late. It was an uphill fight for her to stay open or find outside funding to keep her patients in her care.
She pointed out to Ian her thoughts on the subject. How could they think it’s a
luxury for men and women who gave up their lives and put their all into fighting a battle and got hurt in the process? If these men and women could do this willingly and with honor, she wondered why the government and the hierarchy of the military treated its people like they deserved less as they gave a hundred percent to defend life and liberty. By the time their conversation was over, she could see on Ian’s face a new respect for what she did.
He cleared their plates away and came back with another beer for both of them. Tasha turned the chairs to face the scenic view spread out in front of them. He sat down with a small grunt, and she looked at him with concern on her face.
“Are you hurting?”
“Just a bit more than when I came home,” he admitted. “I think I might have to live in your whirlpool.”
“You’ll become a raisin,” she teased.
“I just want this damn leg to get back to where it’s supposed to be,” he muttered. “I feel like if I don’t, my career’s been useless. I want to end it on my terms, not because some fucker got the drop on us.”
“What if you can’t go back?” Tasha asked quietly.
“Then I don’t know what I’ll do.”
There was an honesty in his voice that almost killed her to hear. He was so lost in his own head not being able to see past his own injuries.
“Don’t give up, Ian. We just started, so just have faith.” Tasha grabbed his fingers and squeezed.
“That something I seem to have a short supply of.” Ian sighed.
“I’ll hold on to enough faith for both of us,” Tasha whispered.
“Come ’ere.” Ian’s eyes smoldered. “I need to kiss you again.”
Tasha moved instinctively toward him and knelt next to his chair. With candlelight that fluttered in the cool breeze and created a sensual halo around them, he kissed her. His hands framed her face and tunneled into the thick tresses of her hair while his tongue forayed into her mouth. Tasha loved how he kissed her, slow and deep, as if he was drinking in her taste. He intoxicated her, and it felt like she could never have enough.
Their kiss deepened. She nibbled and nipped at his lips, then soothed them with her tongue. Tasha did this until the teasing drove him to the edge and he buried his hands in her hair again and took her mouth, ravishing it like a man dying of thirst. She moaned in pleasure. He tasted of the honeyed hops of his beer. She moved her hands across his back to his neck and face when the need to feel her body closer to his burst free.
“God, I want you!” he whispered. “Say yes. Please say yes.”
“But your leg…” Tasha began to say. His lips were doing delicious things at the sensitive skin of her neck.
Ian gave a small laugh in between his passionate kisses. “Honey, that is not the part of me that is hurting right now. I want to make love to you.”
“Yes.” Tasha gasped when he cupped her breasts. “Oh, yes.”
Ian stood slowly, and Tasha looked up at him from where she had knelt. He was so much bigger than her, and she licked her lips in anticipation of feeling this man inside her. They walked to his bedroom hand in hand, and passionate kisses were shared as they undressed. Ian sat on the dark green coverlet, and his hands roamed her body. Tasha stepped over his legs so she straddled his lap, taking care not to put any weight on his leg.
They became lost in their ardor. Tasha stroked his cock that stood rigid between them. His fingers caressed down her back, across the firm line of her ass, and to her thighs. Ian’s lips and tongue plucked at her sensitive nipples, and Tasha pulled him closer, begging him in unspoken words to suck at the tender flesh. She raked her fingers across his back and felt his body shudder. Tasha had always been giving. It was the same way in her response to his lovemaking. He broke the kiss and teased her like she had teased him minutes before on the deck, biting her lips, then soothing them with his tongue. Tasha moved against him in frustration, and Ian chuckled softly. She bent her legs so the tip of his cock rubbed against the dripping entrance to her pussy.
Ian moaned. “Give it to me, baby. Let me feel you.”
“Soon,” Tasha promised. “Soon, I’m going to have your cock buried deep inside me.”
One kiss, then two, and longing exploded into a seductive dance enticing his tongue to join hers. She slipped her hands between their bodies and took his hard cock. Tasha’s grasp was firm as she stroked him, and Ian’s body surged in pleasure, pressing more intimately against her smooth palm.
“Jesus, Tasha you’re going to make me come if you keep that up,” Ian said harshly. His forehead was pressed against the valley of her breasts, and his breath was hot against her skin.
Tasha pushed his shoulder to encourage him to lie back on the bed. She grabbed the brass rails of the headboard and rose above him. Ian held his thick cock while she slid it into her hot velvet sex. Their voices mingled when their bodies merged and the dance began. He felt so good buried so deep inside her until he touched the halo of her cervix. Tasha wanted to savor the feeling as long as she could.
“Hold on, baby, hold on.” Ian panted. “You’re so tight, darling.”
Tasha smiled. She had other plans. She moved against him slowly, letting his cock slide from her body. Then she took him into her pussy again, inch by torturous inch. She could hear the little moans coming from her own lips. His strong hands massaged the firm globes of her breasts, and she bent low so he could take the nipples into his mouth. She threw her head back and cried out when he sucked her nipple into his mouth deeply. While straddling him, she writhed her hips in a wanton seduction, pumping against his cock and driving them both into a frenzy. She ground against him faster, taking his hard rod deeper inside her. His fingers tangled in her hair, and he pulled her down to kiss him.
“Do you like how that feels, lover?” she asked. “Do you like being inside me, filling me, fucking me?”
“Yes, oh God, yes,” he growled in response.
Tasha could hardly bear the feelings he brought out in her. Ian was like a fire in her blood. He turned the tables and flipped so she was the one on her back and he was over her.
“Ian, no, your leg!” Tasha gasped.
But it was already too late. Ian was already pumping his engorged rod deeper inside her, and she arched and gasped in pleasure. Tasha held on to his shoulder as he took her. This was a man who was accustomed to being the alpha. Nothing could keep him from pleasing her they way he wanted. He bit her neck, and her body shivered. She lifted her hips to meet his thrusts. Tasha cried out when she felt the beginning of her body’s ultimate reaction.
Ian whispered against her ear, “Feel me. Feel how much I want you, how much I need you. Let go, baby, and come for me.”
Flesh met flesh over and over again in an ancient rhythm, her body trembled, and Tasha’s low cry of pleasure heralded her release. Her body bucked under him, and her womanhood overflowed as she came. It was like waves, one against the other, until her tears fell from the pleasure of it. Ian gave himself over to the swirling pleasure around him, losing himself in her and all she gave. She felt his seed, hot and thick, as he came. Their bodies were slick, and each breath panted from two heaving chests when he fell against her weakly.
“Oh, Ian, your leg. Why did you do that?” Tasha gasped and struggled to get out from under him.
His cock was still inside her, and Ian chuckled. “Keep wiggling around like that, and we will have an encore very soon.”
She moved him and saw him wince as he lay flat against the bed. She tenderly checked and rubbed the tightened muscles until they relaxed. “Where’s your medication?”
“In the bathroom.” Ian looked at her and smiled. “Are you going to be my nursemaid? Can you get the little outfit with the hat and stuff?”
Tasha swatted at him. “That’s so demeaning to me as a professional.”
“What’s my punishment? Please punish me.” Ian spread his hands wide.
Tasha got up and went into the bathroom to get his medication. She looked at the prescriptions, and ther
e were two muscle relaxers and a pain reliever. The scars were already healed on his legs, but the internal muscles and nerves would be his enemy to fight now. As she took the pills from the bottle, he called out to her.
“Tasha, can I ask you a favor?”
She looked around the doorway. “What?”
“Stay the night,” he asked before he flashed a charming smile.
Tasha walked out with his pills and a glass of water. “Okay.”
Ian took the pills, and she slid into bed next to him. While he pulled her closer and she laid her head against his chest, Tasha bit her lip with worry. His range of motion bothered her from when he had his first exercise. If she couldn’t get him back full use, per military standards, how would he take it?
Chapter Four
“Come on, Ian, push through it,” Tasha encouraged him. “Five minutes left.”
It was two weeks later, and Ian sat sweating in the gym part of the rehabilitation center on the exercise bike. Tasha had set digital read out on it for added resistance, and with each turn he grunted with exertion. She had seen him gain strength in his leg, but the numbness was what she was worried about. She read over the incident report in his service record. After he was hit with the shrapnel, the medic had to dig around in his leg to find the severed vein. Tasha believed that either the foreign heated metal that embedded in the leg, or the medic, had damaged the nerves.
He would always have some kind of pain and numbness. She had to get his leg back to ninety-five percent, or he would not be allowed to be back at the head of his unit. Along with his therapy, they had found a connection outside the military and in each other’s arms. The last few weeks had been filled with fun and nights of pleasure. Ian had practically moved out of base housing and into her home. He stayed with her every night since it was much closer to the center and because they had grown accustomed to sleeping next to each other in a short amount of time.
The machine beeped, signaling its slowdown, and she heard Ian sigh with relief. “How did I do, sweetheart?”
