Encounter with a Commanding Officer

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.’