Bad Boy Romance: Bad Marine (Bad Boy Military Romance) (Alpha Bad Boy New Adult Contemporary Male Stories)

by Joyner, GP

  The only times she saw Western civilization was when her parents brought her to their home in Florida so they could restock on supplies and give Sara a chance to visit with her grandparents before venturing out to save another group of lost natives. As the years went by, Sara started to find it harder and harder to leave the comfort of Florida.

  “Where are we going again?” Sara asked her mother as she pulled her battered and faded suitcase from its resting place in her bedroom closet.

  “Central Africa to go live amongst the Nguntu people,” Emily responded as she helped Sara fold up her clothes and pack them into the suitcase.

  “How do you and dad even hear about these people?” Sara asked as she ran her hand through her long, dark hair.

  “Your dad has friends in a lot of places,” Emily said, tossing Sara's socks into the suitcase. “One of those friends works for the UN and he tells your dad about people who need our kind of help.”

  “If dad's friend is such an important person, then why doesn't he get someone else to go?” Sara asked as she tossed herself onto her bed.

  “How many times have we gone over this?” Emily asked softly as she sat down on the bed next to her daughter. “This is what your father and I do. We are blessed to have such nice things like running water and electricity and medicine. Other people in the world aren't that lucky. We are just trying to help them out. This world would be a better place if more people did what we did.”

  “I know that you and dad enjoy this kind of stuff,” Sara said as she crossed her arms across her chest. “I used to really like it, too. I just want to be home where I can make friends and go to school and maybe chase my own dreams.”

  “What kind of dreams do you want to chase?” Emily asked in an effort to console her pouting child.

  “I don't know,” Sara sighed. “Maybe I could get into fashion and design or become a journalist. All I know is that the Nguntu village probably doesn't have a lot of college options for me.”

  “You're right,” Emily admitted as she stood back up and finished packing Sara's clothes. “You do deserve the opportunity to follow your own heart. It isn't fair of your father and I to force you into doing what we want anymore. You're a grown woman now. It's time for you to leave the nest.”

  “Do you really think so?” Sara asked as she bolted upright in her bed, suddenly feeling excitement in her chest.

  “I really think so,” Emily said. “I'll make you a deal. You come on this one last trip with us and when we get back, you can go to any school you want. Your father and I will pay your tuition for whatever you want to study.”

  “Is dad going to be okay with this?” Sara asked, her heart pounding and a smile stretching across her face.

  “He will if I talk to him,” Emily said with a wink. “You're father can never say no to me.”

  “Thank you so much, mom,” Sara shouted as she threw her arms around her mother and squeezed her tightly.

  “Why don't you go shower and get ready for dinner tonight with Grandma and Grandpa,” Emily said as she returned her daughter's hug.

  Sara released her mother and looked down at herself. She was still wearing her yoga pants and sports bra and smelled of sweat. She had been out for a run and received the news that she was moving just as she got home. Sara shrugged and skipped off to the bathroom to go clean up.

  She closed the door to the bathroom and turned on the hot water. She couldn't stop smiling as she thought about how her days of dirty mud huts were almost behind her forever. As steam filled up the bathroom, Sara stripped off her exercise clothes. She admired her form in the mirror and did a little turn so she could check herself out. The upside to living in jungles her whole life was that she was in very good shape. Her muscles were toned and firm from a lifetime of running and climbing. Her breasts were perky and a solid C-cup and her hips and ass gave her a perfect hourglass figure. Her long, dark hair in combination with her brilliantly blue eyes had gained her many marriage proposals from many chiefs and princes in her life. Fortunately, her parents knew how to deny those proposals.

  Sara washed herself quickly under the hot water and thought about how much she was going to miss hot running water when it was time to leave. Once she was done rinsing herself off, she shut the water off and wrapped herself in a towel. Back in her bedroom, she put on a light blue sundress and a pair of white high heels. She was really going to miss being able to dress up.

  “Sargent Freeman!”

  Harry Freeman winced as he heard his name shouted from his commander's office. He recognized the tone and knew that once again he had been caught doing something against regulations. Of course, he knew that he had been breaking rules left and right, the only question was which one he had been caught breaking. As innocently as he could, he strolled into Captain Harrison's office.

  “What can I do for you, Captain?” Harry asked with a smirk on his face.

  “Wipe that stupid grin off your face, Sargent,” the Captain spat as he stood up from his chair. “You really think you could get away with this bullshit in my unit?”

  “I don't really know what you are referring to,” Harry said nonchalantly.

  “You know damn well what I'm talking about,” Captain Harrison said, his face turning red. “Somebody deflated all the tires on Bravo company's jeeps. Their Major is climbing up my ass looking for the culprit. He's looking to hang somebody over this. This kind of childish behavior will not stand in my Army.”

  “You can't prove that was me,” Harry said throwing his hands into the air. “Even if it was me, I only would have done that because Major Dawkins is a major asshole.”

  “God dammit, Freeman,” Captain Harrison shouted. Harry began to fear that the veins in his neck were going to rupture if he yelled any harder. “You are a Sargent in the United States Army. You are supposed to be a leader. I expect better of you. This kind of behavior can't go unpunished.”

  “So, you are blaming me?” Harry asked, knowing that testing the Captain any further was probably a bad idea.

  “Of course I'm blaming you,” Captain Harrison said, spit spewing from his mouth.

  “Is it because I'm black?” Harry asked, putting one more toe over the line.

  “I don't give a shit that you are black, Freeman,” the Captain spat. “I only care that you have a history of pulling this kind of crap. You were disciplined just last week for using the medic's saline packs to cure your hangover.”

  “I know a lot of guys that do that,” Harry said, trying to defend his actions.

  “It was a Wednesday for Christ's sake!” Captain Harrison shouted out. Finally, the anger seemed to burn itself out and the Captain calmed down and took his seat again. “What am I going to do with you?” he asked, sounding exasperated. “I can't keep you around base. You just get into more and more trouble. I'm afraid of deploying you into combat because I don't know if you can control yourself in that kind of environment. You might get somebody killed with you shenanigans. I would have your ass kicked out of the Army, but you are too damn good at your job to lose.”

  “It's true,” Harry chipped in. “I'm the best vehicle mechanic in the entire unit. I believe I hold the record for the fastest transmission replacement on the base.”

  “And that's your problem,” Captain Harrison said with frustration in his voice. “You're a damn good worker and you are smart. You just don't have enough to keep your mind busy so you find other projects to work on and those projects make everyone else's life hell.”

  “It's not exactly the Army life that my recruiter promised me,” Harry said with a smirk.

  Suddenly the Captain sat straight up in his chair with a twinkle in his eye. “I think I know the perfect place to put you. It's an opportunity for you to stay busy and it gets you out of my hair.”

  “I hope it's somewhere nice,” Harry said.

  “I got an email yesterday asking for volunteers to go to Central Africa working with some people there doing some charity work. It's some shit hole vil
lage in the middle of nowhere. It's so remote that a couple of surplus Army vehicles are being used to transport people and supplies in and out of the jungle. The Army is looking for one of us to go with and make sure that our trucks are taken care of properly.”

  Harry had stopped listening when he heard 'Africa'. Being shipped off to the middle of nowhere made his stomach drop. The last place on Earth he wanted to be was around some hippies trying to put shoes on a bunch of natives who made their houses out of sticks and cow droppings.

  “I don't want to do that, thanks,” Harry protested.

  “Too damn bad,” Captain Harrison said turning to his computer. “You are going. Go home and get your bags packed. You ship out in the morning,” the Captain said, typing furiously.

  “Fuck this,” Harry said as he stormed out of the office.

  Harry stormed back to the barracks cursing his situation the entire time. The only bright spot of the day was the look on some young Lieutenant's face when he tried to scold Harry for failing to salute him and only got a middle finger. The memory of that Lieutenant's jaw dropping to the concrete gave Harry a nice chuckle.

  Once back in the barracks, Harry pulled out his green duffle bag and began to shove his clothes into it. He didn't even bother to make sure that things were packed properly. He simply shoved things into the bag until it was able to close.

  Sure, maybe it was true that Harry could be a bit 'mischievous', but it was only because things in the Army were so regimented that it drove him crazy. He felt like his innocent pranks were taken way too seriously.

  “The problem is that all the officers have brooms shoved up their asses,” Harry muttered to himself as he changed out of his uniform. “It's not like I killed a man. I wonder when the last time any of them got laid. That would probably calm them the fuck down.”

  Finally free of his uniform, Harry put on a pair of basketball shorts and a grey Army shirt that showed off his bulging muscles and laid down on his bed. He laid there staring at the ceiling and steaming at this unfortunate turn of events until he eventually fell asleep. He never even once thought about what was going to come out of this assignment.

  Sara managed to sleep through most of the flight from Orlando to the airport in Kenya. In the times when she was actually awake, she would watch a movie on her laptop and try to tune out the droning sound of the airplane engines. Her parents sitting on either side of her kept their noses buried in a book. Her dad, being the reader that he was, finished two books on the flight.

  From Kenya, the Harpers boarded a small bush plane that took them to a remote airstrip in the middle of the desert and from there they flew to another patch of dirt in the middle of a jungle. Sara felt like each new plane that they boarded became smaller and more dangerous. No matter how many times she flew to new places, flying always made Sara nervous.

  Finally, after too many hours of traveling, Sara and her parents landed on a dirt runway at the foot of a rugged mountain range. Sara stepped out of the plane as soon as the door opened and wiped the sweat off of her forehead. This wasn't her first time in Africa, but the heat still bothered her. Even in her short khaki shorts and tank top, she overheated.

  Looking around, she saw nothing but trees and a few old, green trucks with white stars on the doors. She had seen similar trucks before in movies and in pictures. They were obviously old Army trucks. Two of them were huge flatbeds with crates stacked on them. The third was an old Jeep driven by a muscular black man wearing a green jumpsuit. Sara assumed that these trucks were for her parents' work and the driver had been provided by the local government to take them into the village.

  Sara's father helped the pilot unload the baggage from the plane and Sara watched as he carried it over to the Jeep. Sara was far too exhausted to even consider lifting heavy baggage. She reached into her backpack that she always kept on her and removed her canteen. As she took a long drink of cool water, she watched as her parents talked with the Jeep driver.

  After quenching her thirst and stretching her legs out nicely, Sara heard her father call her over to the Jeep. Sara slung her backpack over her shoulders and walked over to where her parents were standing.

  “Sara, I want you to meet Sargent Harry Freeman,” Sara's dad said as he gestured towards the driver. “He's here to take care of our trucks so we can get supplies in and out of the village.”

  Sara was a bit surprised. In all of their travels, they had never been sent in with a military escort. “How long are we going to be here that we need a mechanic?” Sara asked.

  “Only about six months,” Sara's mom said sweetly. “We are going to be building a brand new clinic in the village as well as a new school. We need these trucks to bring in bricks and mortar and such from the other side of the mountains.”

  “The roads are pretty rough,” Sara's dad interrupted. “You could barely even call them roads. So, we were able to hire out these trucks and we were lucky enough to get the mechanic as part of the package.”

  “We should get on the road pretty soon,” Sargent Freeman piped in. “The sun isn't going to be up much longer and I would like to have everything unloaded while there is still some light out.”

  “We can get going in a minute,” Sara's dad said. “I just need to check the inventory in the trucks so that I know what I will need to put on order before we cross the mountains.”

  “Whatever, Doc,” Sargent Freeman said as he stepped out of the Jeep. “I'm just here to make sure the trucks run right.”

  Sara leaned against the Jeep and prayed for some shade to protect her from the harsh African sun as her parents climbed into the flatbeds and began inspecting the crates. She took another sip of water as Sargent Freeman leaned against the front of the Jeep and lit up a cigarette.

  Watching this big, black man in his green jumpsuit and polished black boots with the sun shining of his shaved head, Sara felt a familiar turning in her stomach. In all of her travels, she had seen many attractive men, but none that spoke English unless she was back home. Unfortunately, she had never had the chance to pursue any romantic interests because she was constantly traveling. However, Sara thought, with this muscular mechanic with them, things might change. At least she would have a companion while her parents were busy making the world a better place.

  As she stared, Sargent Freeman turned and looked back at her. She quickly turned her head and tried not to blush, embarrassed at being caught ogling him like that. Sara prayed that he hadn't noticed or at least would just ignore it. Sadly, her hopes were dashed when he walked over to her and stood directly in front of her.

  “So, what do you do?” Sargent Freeman asked as he exhaled smoke.

  “What do you mean?” Sara asked, looking up at this soldier who stood a good foot taller than her.

  “Your dad is a doctor, your mom is a teacher. What do you do?” Sargent Freeman asked again.

  “I mostly just help out wherever I'm needed,” Sara answered. “Sometimes I help my parents, sometimes I just help the villagers cook food or clean up or whatever needs to be done.”

  “Can you turn a wrench?” Sargent Freeman asked as he killed his cigarette against the sole of his boot.

  “I can,” Sara answered as she ran her hand through her hair. “I like to help my Grandpa out in his garage when we are home.”

  “Good,” Sargent Freeman said bluntly. “I'm probably going to need an extra pair of hands working on these trucks. If you don't mind getting dirty, you could come help me out.”

  “I don't mind being dirty, Sargent Freeman,” Sara said. When she heard Sargent Freeman chuckle, she felt embarrassed again knowing how suggestive that statement must have sounded.

  “You can call me Harry,” he said, either ignoring or just not catching what Sara said.

  “Well, Harry, I'm glad that you are going to be with us,” Sara said with a wide smile.

  Harry had flown from his base in North Carolina to an Air Force base in Germany where he had been loaded up in a cargo plane with the trucks an
d crates of gear and equipment only to be dropped off at the base of some mountains in the middle of Africa. As soon as everything was unloaded from the plane, it took off again and Harry was left all by himself with nobody else around for miles. The only sounds that he could hear were the distant calls of birds in the trees.

  With nothing else to do, Harry took a seat in the Jeep and waited for more people to come along. He was given very little instruction on what to do. The only thing that Captain Harrison told him before the flight was that he would be working for some doctor and his wife. There were plenty of spare parts for the trucks and even a few weapons just in case there was a need for them. Aside from that, Harry didn't really know what to expect.

  After a few hours of sweating away in the intense African heat, Harry heard the familiar hum of an airplane engine cut through the air. A small bush plane landed on the dirt air strip and came to a stop. Harry's jaw almost dropped when he saw a young woman with black hair, tan skin, and legs that must have been a mile long climb out of the plane.

  “Maybe this trip won't be so bad,” Harry thought to himself. As he looked at this girl he saw a couple that must have been her parents climb out of the plane. The older man stepped out of the plane and started carrying some bags over to the Jeep where Harry was waiting.

  “I'm Doctor Harper,” the man said after he tossed the bags into the back of the Jeep. “You must be our Army mechanic that I was told about.”

  “Yeah, I'm Sargent Harry Freeman,” Harry said. “I wasn't really told much about what I'm supposed to be doing. I was just told that I'm going to be working for you.”

  “You won't really be doing much,” Dr. Harper said, “Just keep our trucks up and running and make sure that me and my family don't get hurt.”

  “Is there a big risk of injury on this trip?” Harry asked. “I thought you were just going to be building a few new buildings and then we would all be going home.”