Encounter with a Commanding Officer

by Charlotte Hawkes

  With anyone else, Fliss knew she would have prayed for the dusty ground to open up and swallow her. Her mother had told her that they were unattractively oversized, unsuitable for a dancer, and made her look fat. But the gravelly lust in Ash’s tone, raw and unrestrained, suggested a different story. No man had ever spoken to her in quite that tone. It made her feel attractive, glamorous, even sexy.

  Something ignited deep inside Fliss. It was like a sign. In two days’ she’d be out of here. Tonight was her last chance to do something utterly out of character with the only man who had ever dislodged her professional mask.

  * * *

  If she didn’t stop jiggling those incredible breasts around, he was seriously going to lose it.

  Ash shifted as discreetly as he could—he was so aroused it was a kind of torture—and he had never been more grateful for his slightly baggy cargo running shorts as he stood, his hands still seared to her bare flesh. Surely no red-blooded male could watch that provocative show without having such a primal reaction? And what made it all the more arousing was the fact that such a stunning woman could be so wholly unaware of just how incredibly sensual she was.

  He would stake his life that the bikini didn’t belong to Fliss. From the colour to the cut, it just didn’t seem like something she would choose for herself. But she looked absolutely sensational in it. Then again, she looked equally stunning in even the most unflattering army uniform, complete with dusty body armour. All of which would be considerably harder to divest her of than those three scraps of siren temptation which wouldn’t even stand up to the briefest run-in with his teeth.

  A ferocious need pounded inside him. An urge to touch her, taste her, every last hot, slick inch of her. So much for his promise to himself that he would avoid her for the couple of days until the end of her tour. With a supreme effort, Ash dropped his grip and stepped away from her as casually as he could.

  It was a mistake.

  Instead of lowering the sexual tension, it only seemed to increase it as he was treated to the full head-to-toe effect of Fliss’s body. She had the softest, most feminine curves he thought he’d ever seen. Not to mention a backside that was so perfect he ached to cup it as he pulled her against him.

  What the heck was wrong with him?

  She swallowed hard before speaking, her voice loaded with intent.

  ‘Going somewhere?’

  Ash could only cock an eyebrow in response. Had any other woman ever had quite this overpowering effect on him?

  ‘Be very careful, Felicity,’ he warned.

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  She took a step towards him but the slight quiver behind the seductive tone only confirmed his suspicion.

  ‘Because I can’t offer what you want.’

  ‘I think you can.’

  Another step. His body tightened further but he valiantly ignored it.

  ‘I can’t give you more than sex.’

  ‘Who says I want more than that?’

  ‘You did. When you told me you didn’t do this, remember? But I don’t go for meaningful relationships, I don’t do intimacy. I just do sex.’

  Fliss closed the gap between them, so close they could have touched if either of them had raised their arms.

  ‘I know,’ she murmured. ‘Because sex is what you use as a defence against intimacy.’

  Her gentle observation sliced right through him, hitting its mark. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d been accused of that. Just as he’d been accused of using his career and tours of duty to keep from putting down roots back home.

  He could still recall every stage of his father’s cycle of self-destruction when his mother had died. His father had lost all control, all reason, and he hadn’t cared who he hurt in the process. Even a six-year-old boy who was trying to cope with the loss of his mother.

  Ash couldn’t remember how old he’d been when he’d sworn to himself that, whatever happened to him for the rest of his miserable life, he refused to become like his father. He would never let anyone close enough to be so torn apart by their loss. That way, he’d never be in so much pain that he’d hurt anyone, and he’d never, ever lose control.

  ‘I don’t want to have to think about someone else,’ he lied, the proximity without contact only cranking up the sexual tension another intolerable notch. ‘I’m an infantryman; my life is too dangerous to inflict on a girlfriend or a wife, and certainly not a family.’

  ‘Rubbish,’ Fliss retorted evenly, her hands finally raising to his chest, her fingers running gently over the contours of his body, tracing the ridges of the shameful circular scars as though she saw none of the ugliness behind them.

  ‘You protect yourself because you had an appalling childhood and you got hurt. But I’m not asking you for more than you’re willing to give, Ash. I’m accepting it will only ever be this moment between us.’

  He needed to shut this down now. Keeping things as just sex would be one heck of a task. It would be so easy to fall for a woman as unique as Major Felicity Delaunay.

  He moved to step away from her but instead Ash found himself placing his hands on her hips and drawing her close, her skin decadently smooth beneath his fingers. Then he hooked two fingers beneath her chin, tilting her head up to his as he lowered his mouth to finally claim hers the way he had back in that supply room what felt like an eternity ago.

  Her lips parted for him with a soft sigh, her eyelids seeming to grow heavy as they fluttered closed and her body moulded to his, skin to skin but for her insubstantial bikini and his shorts. For now he resisted the urge to peel either away; he was barely holding onto his self-control with his fingertips as it was, and he could already feel Fliss’s nipples through the material as her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths. Ash rubbed his thumb along her jawline before tugging the hair elastic from her ponytail and slipping his fingers into the silky curtain as it tumbled down, even richer and more luxuriant than he’d imagined it would be.

  ‘So beautiful,’ he marvelled, not merely referring to her hair.

  The clipped sound she made was accompanied by her dragging his mouth back to hers and Ash indulged in the kiss without reservation, tasting every millimetre of her lips, her mouth, as her tongue danced with his in perfect synchronicity. She was clinging to him as if all the strength had gone from her legs, and it only made her feel all the more delicate in his arms.

  Tantalisingly slowly, he allowed his hand to trace a line back to her chin, gliding slowly down her neck to the fluttering pulse, the smooth collarbone and the generous swell of breasts he ached to touch, to lick, to tease. With deliberate precision, he glided his hand down to cup one full breast and let his thumb sneak beneath the red triangle to graze over one straining peak.

  Fliss trembled beneath his touch as she breathed his name with such bliss that he couldn’t help himself. He lowered his head and took one peak in his mouth, his hand caressing the other. As she rocked her lower body against his there was no mistaking the heat emanating through the thin layers of material from her very core.

  ‘Ash...please.’

  White-hot need tore through Ash, infinitely hotter than the sun beating down on their bodies. It would be so easy to tear off what remained of their clothes, wrap those endless legs of hers around his hips and thrust inside her. But if this was the one chance they were going to get then he owed it to both of them to make sure they didn’t rush it.

  He didn’t hear his pager when it first went off, the sound slowly permeating through the hunger of their exploration. For a split second he was tempted to ignore it.

  ‘You know I have to get that, don’t you?’ he managed hoarsely.

  Reluctantly, Fliss released her grip and he eased her back, struggling to retrieve the pager, given her position and his arousal.

  He shot her a rueful glance then checked
his pager.

  His blood ran cold, nausea surging and churning. When he finally spoke he didn’t even recognise his own voice.

  ‘I have to go.’

  The message he’d been dreading had finally arrived.

  CHAPTER SIX

  FLISS SANK INTO the metal chair in frustration.

  Delays weren’t uncommon—especially during Relief in Place—with the sheer volume of air traffic, thanks to the change of troops at the beginning and the end of tours of duty, but she still didn’t relish the prospect of being stuck at the Air Force base for the next thirty-six hours, waiting for a new part that had to be flown in for the aircraft.

  At last they were finally out of the overheating tin can on the runway. Seven hours stuck out there in the blistering sun, after what was supposed to have been a brief, routine refuelling stop-over, had been quite enough.

  But it wasn’t just about where they were. Or the delay. It was the fact that Ash Stirling was still in her head. A dark bleakness stabbed at her. He hadn’t sought her out the previous day. He hadn’t summoned her. He hadn’t even got a message to her. Something, anything, it wouldn’t have mattered.

  Logically, Fliss knew the way tasks were at Camp Razorwire; they had a habit of swallowing up days before you even noticed it. But she couldn’t shake the rejection and it attacked her more violently than it had in many, many years. It was over. Done. She needed to relegate to the past an imperfect experiment. But if she closed her eyes she could still feel the sheen of moisture on that impossibly hard body, take in the citrus and leather scent, hear the sensual huskiness of his voice.

  Dragging herself back to reality as she exhaled a deep breath, Fliss pulled her bergen in between her legs and began to untie it to grab a couple of items packed closest to the top.

  Regrets were useless; the situation had been taken out of their hands. She needed to straighten her head out. Starting with accommodation. Cot-beds had been set up in the neighbouring hangar and if she was quick enough she might even bag one of the choicest locations in the quietest corner.

  ‘Ah, Colonel Stirling, your driver is ready to take you.’ A voice from behind snagged her attention. ‘You have a seat on the first direct commercial flight out of the main airport in the morning. Unfortunately, the airport hotel was already fully booked but I took the liberty of booking you into a hotel in the nearby tourist resort.’

  ‘That sounds fine, Sergeant.’

  If merely hearing his name had set the hairs bristling on the back of her arms, pausing in the action of retrieving her wash-bag, the sound of that rich, steady tone was enough to make her heart falter before galloping off.

  What was he doing on a flight out of here too?

  His infantry battalion wasn’t due to leave for another week, which could only mean something bad. Without stopping to second-guess herself, Fliss stuffed the items haphazardly into the top of her rucksack, snatching at the closing ties and dragging it onto her shoulder as she sped across the floor.

  ‘Colonel?’

  There were too many soldiers around to risk using his first name but she trusted that he would see beyond the clipped tone. However, he didn’t stop, striding confidently away from her and towards the main doors so that Fliss was forced to call again, barely concealing the note of panic in her tone.

  To her relief he stopped, turning slowly, aviator-style glasses in his hand and an expression she didn’t recognise cloaking his handsome face. She stopped abruptly, thrown. He looked like hell.

  ‘Major?’

  He was the very definition of poker-faced. She swallowed nervously. How was she supposed to do this with people all around them?

  ‘I’m in a hurry,’ he bit out. ‘Walk with me.’

  Without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked out of the doors, the wall of heat from outside hitting her despite the air-conditioning within the hangar. She stared after him, then her legs acted for the rest of her body, carrying her right along behind him. He’d walked to the end of the path to the road where the car was waiting for him. They’d moved out of the line of sight from the glass doors and no one was around.

  ‘Is everything okay, Ash?’

  Something flickered over his face, perhaps pleasure at seeing her, but then it changed to something she couldn’t identify, and it was gone as quickly as it had arrived.

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to speak to you.’ His clipped tone gave nothing away.

  She waved it away as though it hadn’t mattered.

  ‘But are you okay?’

  ‘Of course.’ He hesitated a fraction too long. ‘But I have some...loose ends to tie up in the UK. My promotion was never meant to take place until the battalion had returned from Razorwire; it just got accelerated after Colonel Waterson’s accident.’

  ‘You’re booked on a commercial flight?’

  ‘It’s time sensitive.’ He shrugged.

  If she was overstepping, he didn’t show it. In fact he showed no emotion at all. Unease rippled through her.

  ‘Should I...would you like me to come with you?’

  It had taken Fliss a lot to make the offer. The look he cast her was flat, expressionless. Her stomach pitched.

  ‘Why would you do that?’

  ‘Just to talk? Or...to finish the other day, if you like?’

  Flat eyes stared at her. Then, all of a sudden, Ash’s gaze turned hard and demandingly hot. It raked over her, as though virtually stripping her right down on the concrete. She could barely breathe, let alone move.

  ‘You want to do that?’ he demanded harshly.

  ‘I want to,’ she confirmed.

  ‘All right, Major.’ She hoped his use of her rank was because someone was approaching—his driver, perhaps. ‘You can share my ride. Inform the duty sergeant and ask him to book you a flight and a hotel room.’

  Had he misunderstood?

  ‘Wait—’ she lowered her voice ‘—I meant...’

  Without warning, he pivoted, advancing on her so quickly they were almost toe to toe and she had to tip her head right back to look up at him. Every nerve-ending sizzled.

  ‘I know exactly what you meant, Felicity,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘But if you want to keep the illusion of propriety, you’ll want the duty sergeant to book you your own room with your own bed. Understood?’

  ‘Understood,’ she murmured in response.

  He was so close she could feel his breath on her skin and the effect on her body was an immediate pooling of need between her legs. No man had ever affected her the way Ash did.

  ‘Good. Then I suggest when I step away you look as though I have just given you a bit of a rollicking.’

  ‘Right.’

  Allowing him to step away, Fliss ducked her head and looked respectably contrite.

  ‘Understood, Colonel, I’ll deal with it right away.’

  She turned to return to the duty sergeant at the desk.

  ‘Leave your bergen here, Major.’ He softened his voice just a fraction but it was enough to quell some of the fluttering in her chest. ‘I’ll get the Corporal to load it into the car while you make the arrangements. We don’t have all day.’

  * * *

  ‘Major?’

  Ash peered over his shoulder, not expecting to see Fliss’s soundly sleeping form. He paused, catching his breath. She looked even more breathtaking in slumber than she did when she was awake, as though she didn’t have a single care. Thick, dark lashes rested gently on her smooth cheek. Her breathing was slow and steady, for once not waiting to jerk awake at any unexpected disturbance.

  Anger punched at his gut.

  He shouldn’t have agreed to this. He’d been in shock for the last two days, working on autopilot and remembering none of it. He’d only consented to her coming because th
e moment she’d stepped up to him in the hangar, the bright energy spilling from her had seemed like the very thing he needed to help him keep the darkness at bay. Without her, he knew it would engulf him and he didn’t know if he’d ever make it back ashore.

  Dragging her with him now was selfish and cruel. He was using her.

  But if he made damn sure it was the best night of her life, then did it matter?

  ‘Major—’ he increased his voice whilst keeping it deliberately cool. ‘Time to wake up; we’re here.’

  She finally stirred and offered a decidedly feline stretch, and as the seat belt running down the valley between her breasts grew taut, so did Ash’s body.

  It was ridiculous, the effect she had on him.

  But it was also exactly what he needed.

  The last time he’d experienced such unrestrained lust he’d been sixteen and still discovering the thrill of sex. Unsophisticated but exhilarating. He’d soon unlocked the skill and perfected the sophistication. But Fliss brought back that youthful excitement—the innocence.

  She peered out of the window then gazed back at him through sleepy, lowered lashes, which did little to calm his racing pulse.

  ‘Already?’ She looked shocked.

  Second thoughts, perhaps?

  Ash waited until the Corporal had climbed out of the four-by-four and was headed around to the back to collect their bergens before speaking urgently.

  ‘If you’ve changed your mind, you can always go back.’

  She could also stay in the room that the desk sergeant had booked for her, but he didn’t want her to feel under any kind of misplaced obligation.

  ‘I haven’t changed my mind.’ The gaze she shot him was both loaded with promise and a little nervous. ‘I just expected the drive to feel a little awkward.’

  So had he.

  As the Corporal opened the back door, they both climbed out of the vehicle.

  ‘Do I remember passing though somewhere and seeing a lot of floats, or did I dream that up?’ she asked the young lad politely.