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BECAUSE OF YOU CHAPTER 9
Her back was to him. Jen’s pale skin glowed in the candlelight and he wanted so badly to stroke his hand over the soft curve of her hips.
He wanted to savor this. This first touch. This first caress. He couldn’t believe she was really here. That she was naked and glorious and all he had to do was reach out and touch her.
His hands embarrassed him when they shook as they hovered over her shoulders. She shifted and tipped her head to one side, exposing her neck. He glanced over her shoulder to the mirror in front of them. Her arms were crossed over her chest. He closed his hands over her forearms, enveloping her. It was her eyes that caught him, huge and dark in the velvety blackness. They captured him.
Her lips parted as he leaned in to nuzzle her neck beneath her ear. He could almost taste her. Closer. Until his teeth scraped across her skin. She shivered and her eyes fluttered closed as the sensations rocketed through them both.
He tugged at her hands and urged her to lower them with a slight pressure. She resisted.
He frowned and turned her in his arms even as she pulled away.
Shane woke with the feel of Jen’s skin on his lips, the dream ending abruptly. He turned his eyes toward the door. He’d been waiting for her, he realized suddenly. Waiting for Jen and missing her as the days ticked by and she still hadn’t returned.
He wanted to see her eyes warm when she saw him. See her mouth turn up into that soft smile. It was a simple thing that he wanted. Just her.
But it had been nearly a week since he’d almost kissed her. A week he’d spent watching the door, waiting for that familiar smile and not seeing it. A week he’d spent wondering how the hell he was going to fix things this time. He wanted to ask the other nurses where she was. But he had kept quiet, not wanting to spark anything in the rumor mill.
He replayed the memory of Jen’s kiss from that long-ago night and the memory of her touch from that dream. And having her close, her body heat warming his flesh. Even though it had only been a dream, the want had nearly crushed him.
The door slammed open and Carponti strode into Shane’s room. His heart pounded against his ribs with renewed urgency. Any pleasure that lingered from thoughts of Jen crumbled as Carponti approached and plunked a netbook on the tray near Shane’s shoulder.
‘Were you raised in a barn? Quit slamming the damn door,’ Shane growled. It annoyed the hell out of him that he jumped every time Carponti banged the door against the wall, but he’d be damned if he was going to confess that to Carponti. He’d never hear the end of it.
‘Quit being such a sissy.’
‘What’s that for?
‘Check your email. The guys are bitching at me about you not answering any emails.’
‘They need to be more focused on running missions.’
Carponti shrugged. ‘The new platoon sergeant is a douche bag. They miss you.’
‘Which is even more of a reason for them to focus on their jobs instead of worrying about me.’
‘Holy crap, quit whining. Damn, did they take your balls off in surgery?’
Shane stared at Carponti openmouthed. Carponti raised both of his eyebrows, taking a long pull from a ginormous travel mug. ‘What?’ he asked.
Silently, Shane reached for the netbook. ‘How do you work this thing?’
‘Ah, power button.’ Carponti reached across him and pushed the little round button. He gave Shane a funny look. ‘How the hell did you shave with your left hand?’
‘Shouldn’t I ask you the same thing?’ Shane shot back, taking in Carponti’s recently shorn cheeks.
Carponti snorted, and whatever he’d been drinking shot through his nose. ‘Ha-ha, dickhead. So that’s how it is? Make fun of the one-armed guy?’
‘If the shoe fits.’ But Shane’s grin matched Carponti’s. It felt good, shooting the shit with his friend, even if he didn’t want to tell him that Jen had been the first to shave that god-awful beard. ‘One of the volunteers gave me an electric razor.’
‘Yeah, well, let me tell you how great it is to jerk off with my left hand. Feels like someone else is doing it.’
Shane choked on a laugh and opened his email. ‘Did not need to know that. Really.’
‘You brought it up.’
‘Great. Thanks. Now I need brain bleach to get that tortured image out of my head. I swear to God, if I dream about that tonight, I’m killing myself.’
Carponti laughed out loud and sat down in the visitor’s chair, kicking his feet up on the edge of the bed like he always did. Shane let out a low whistle.
‘Lot of messages?’
‘A hundred and forty-three.’
‘Best get to typing.’
Shane shook his head and started with the oldest message first. He rubbed his hand over his mouth. He couldn’t find any words at the moment that would fit past the blockage in his throat. ‘Man, did you know that Adkins had a baby boy?’
Carponti nodded. ‘He didn’t get home in time for the birth. Named him Shane, though.’ His grin was absolutely wicked. ‘I would have thought that meant you’d boned his wife, but apparently he just thinks a lot of you. Can’t imagine why,’ he mumbled as an afterthought.
Shane blinked rapidly, turning his face back toward the computer and away from Carponti. He’d never hear the end of it if his eyes started watering. Instead, he changed the subject. ‘How’s Osterman?’
Carponti didn’t answer for a long time. ‘I went to see him when I got back from Austin yesterday. He’s having a real bad time.’
‘Define bad time,’ Shane said warily.
‘Just . . . bad. Look, worry about yourself for once. I’ll worry about Osterman. But get your ass out of this bed so he can see that it’s possible to get hurt and get better. He doesn’t believe me when I tell him that losing a limb isn’t the end of the world.’ Carponti looked down at his shortened, bandaged arm. ‘Can’t imagine why I don’t have more credibility with him.’
Silence hung in the air between them for a moment as Shane continued to read his emails. The next email was from Trent and Shane read it out loud, needing to change the subject. ‘Get your ass back to work and find out what the fuck is going on with LT Randall and the Rear D. The little bastard won’t respond to my emails.’ Shane frowned and glanced at Carponti. ‘Randall’s back on rear d?’
Carponti leaned forward, setting the travel mug down on the floor. ‘Oh, you’re not going to believe this crap. They sent him back to interview all of us about the missing sensitive items.’
‘What missing sensitive items? I turned that report in to LT Miller before we rolled outside the wire that night.’ Shane scrubbed his hand over his eyes, trying to remember if he’d done an inventory before they’d left. He had to have. He never rolled without conducting his precombat checks.
‘Yeah, well, apparently not. The company is missing a couple of night vision optics and an M4.’
‘What?’
Carponti shrugged and leaned back in his chair, taking a large draw from the cup. ‘Yep. It’s a real big deal. Has Captain Davila’s nuts in a vice, too. Hence the reason Randall is back in the States. So far the hospital staff has been keeping him out of here, but I’m sure he’s just dying to see you since you two were such BFFs before and all,’ he said dryly. ‘At least I can avoid him.’
Shane snorted and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. He was going to have to deal with the annoying lieutenant if and when he made his way to the hospital. ‘What happened after we got sent home, man?’
‘I don’t know, but it’s better that Randall’s back here. At least here he can’t get someone killed.’ Carponti laughed suddenly and Shane gave him a sharp look. It was always a bad sign when Carponti made that sound, but Shane couldn’t help the slow smile that spread across his own face. ‘Randall is better at Intimidating Shout in the World of Warcraft than he is at doing his job.’
‘Huh? What the hell is World of Warcraft?’
‘Online role-playing game. Like Dungeons and Dragons or something. Randall is like a level seventy-six or some godlike level. It’s all he does. Other than annoy the shit out of all of us, that is.’
Shane grinned and fired off a reply to Trent that he’d do what he could to figure out what was going on as soon as he got his happy ass out of the hospital. Shane wanted to ask after the rest of the boys but Carponti pushed abruptly to his feet.
‘I’ve got to run. You can borrow the netbook, but for the love of God, answer your damn emails.’
If only everything were as simple as Carponti made it seem sometimes. His former platoon was going to shit. His legs looked like they were held together with chicken wire and hundred-mile-an-hour tape, and he’d run off the one good thing he still had in his life. He was still reading through his emails when the door slapped open. Shane looked up, hoping the weeklong drought of no Jen was over. Instead, his week took a turn for the even worse.
Lieutenant Randall stood in the doorway.
ONE CLICK BECAUSE OF YOU
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