“You’re really good at this,” she mumbled. “Think you should put down ‘I give good shower’ right after ‘I iron’.”

That made me laugh. “I’m building quite the resume.”

“You had the skills already. We’re just itemizing them now.” Turning around, she embraced me, and we stood like that for a moment, for maybe five or ten heartbeats, just holding each other as the water sluiced around us. My heart was about to burst when she raised her face to me.

“I love you,” she said. “I know you said it’s temporary, and this may send you screaming out of the shower, but I can’t keep it in anymore.” Reaching up, she brushed a thumb over my eyebrow and then traced a path to my temple, down my cheek to the other side of my mouth. When I opened it to tell her that I couldn’t live without her, she shushed me. “Don’t say anything. Not yet.”

On her tiptoes, she kissed my neck and then the underside of my chin. Hoisting her in my arms, I met her lips head on. So she wouldn’t let me say the words, but I could tell her how I felt with my kisses and my caresses. Twisting the knobs, I shut off the water. I draped a towel over her back but didn’t let her go. I could care less about the water.

“We’re wet,” she half protested, but her heart wasn’t in it. I tossed her down onto the comforter and crawled on top of her.

“Not wet enough,” I said and spread her legs open for my mouth. I’d been down here before and loved it, but this time I went slow, savoring every scent and flavor her body exuded. My tongue lapped gently, caressing every sensitive inch. Her lips were pinker closer to her body, and they were flushed and plump with arousal. The droplets dotting her pussy weren’t just water, but tasted of a special tang only her body could produce. The small offering only whetted my appetite.

“You taste so good, baby,” I told her before plunging my tongue directly into her channel to gorge. Her hands threaded into my hair and pressed me closer.

“Don’t stop,” she panted.

“Won’t. Ever.”

Her thighs closed around my head, and I had to push one away so I could maintain my contact with her delicious cunt. As she climbed closer to her release, her body began to quiver, and her hips began undulating. I used both of my hands to keep her right against my mouth. I could spend hours down here, eating her, licking her, savoring her. Blood pounded in my groin as my body screamed for its own release, but I ignored it because there was nothing I wanted more in that moment than to have her come all over my tongue and face.

“Ohhh…God…please.” Sam’s body thrashed, her back arched like a bow off the bed. I bit her, gently, right on the clit and she started screaming. “Gray, Gray, Gray…” It was the best damn music I’d ever heard. I lapped all her juice as she quivered, her walls contracting rhythmically and then more sporadically as her orgasm shuddered on. Keeping my mouth over her cunt, I licked tenderly at her engorged flesh, trying to soothe her. Her screams turned to whimpers and then to sighs.

Sitting up, I wiped the back of my hand across my face and took my painfully erect cock in hand. “You ready, baby?”

Glassy-eyed, she nodded. Easing into her, we both gasped as I felt the bare flesh contract around the tip of my penis. Shit, I wanted to be inside her without anything between us. I’d never wanted that, not since Carrie. It was shocking but felt right.

“You on anything, Sam?” I heard the faint pleading note in my voice and shook my head in wonder.

Her face was crestfallen when she answered in the negative. “No, I’m so sorry. I’ll get on it right away.” Then she turned her face to the side as if she remembered that my time here was coming to an end. But it wasn’t the end for us. I slid another inch inside her and nearly cried at the amazing sensation.

Turning her head back with one hand, I pinched her chin lightly. “Yes, go on the pill so that when we see each other, we can do this anytime, anywhere.” I pushed all the way in, until I was seated up to my balls inside her hot, wet, tight cunt. The feel of her walls clenching around me made me want to shoot all I had inside of her until she was filled with nothing but my come. I wanted to experience her orgasm against my naked cock more than I wanted anything else at that moment. I had to restrain my lower body. Staring at the wall above her, I started counting the bricks until my head cleared enough to withdraw. It was painful coming out of that hot sheath and the urge to shove back in almost did me in. “We’re not done yet,” I told her. “We may not ever be done.”

Her eyes widened in understanding and a smile broke out that lit up the entire room. I heaved myself off the bed while I still had an ounce of self-control left and went to find my shorts. Tucked in my buttoned back pocket, I had three condoms. I might need all of them before we were done here. It was, after all, only mid-afternoon.

“I’m sorry,” I told my dick. “But hang in there, someday we’re raw dogging her until we both can’t see straight.”

“Are you talking to your penis?” Sam called from the bed. She didn’t sound nearly breathless enough. I hurried back and flopped down beside her, my erection hitting her on the hip.

“Yup, I’m consoling it and telling it to stay inside the condom.”

She giggled and then reached down to squeeze me. It still felt good. Hell, any contact with her felt good at this point.

“So you’re going to come back and see me?” Her eyes were serious, belying her light tone.

“I want to,” I confessed. Smoothing her hair back, I told her what I’d been wanting to say since I caught her in the air and tumbled to the ground with her. “I love you, baby. I don’t want this to be temporary. I don’t want it to end.”

Her eyes became wet with tears, and before I could do anything, she was leaking all over the place. I swiped as many as I could with my fingers but they were falling fast so I leaned in and started kissing her. She pushed me away.

“These are happy tears.” She laughed and then used the back of her hand to dry her face off.

“Women.” I shook my head. “Don’t understand you at all.”

Sam’s response was to take my hand and place it between her legs. She was wet there too. “Do you understand this?”

“Yeah, I’m a quick learner.” I slid two fingers inside her and felt her readiness. Pulling her hips to mine, I pushed into her again. It was easier this time because she was so wet and I had prepared her well. And even with the condom on, being inside of her was like heaven. It was better than a free fall from the sky. Better than shooting a M249 Saw, one of the heaviest, most bad-ass guns in the Marine Corps arsenal. Better than sitting down after a twenty-mile ruck through the woods carrying a hundred pound pack. It was better than anything I’ve ever experienced. And I never wanted it to end.

Rolling her over onto her back, I glided inside of her, looking for the minutest change in her reaction so I could be sure I was hitting the best spots. When her breath hitched or her eyes widened or she gasped out loud, I’d stroke that flesh over and over again. Her mouth turned and latched on to my wrist, which was braced against the side of her head. Ordinarily I’d tell her to scream out her pleasure, but I liked the fierce bite of her teeth on my skin. It was like she was marking me, making me hers.

Plus it was one more way I could tell she was totally lost in the pleasure I was giving her. I leaned down and fused my mouth onto hers, trying to tell her how much she meant to me. Her hips rose to meet mine, and we were caught up in our own rhythm. She was so beautiful, her golden hair spread out on the pillow, the edges of it lit by the fingers of sunlight reaching the upper loft through her floor to ceiling windows. The orgasm I’d given her earlier and her current arousal painted her skin with a rosy hue. Her eyes were closed and a light sheen covered her forehead.

As I thrust into her, I felt the connection in every part of my body from the tip of my cock to the ends of my fingers and toes. I was electrified by the feel of her. As her teeth bit into my skin and her fingers clenched my ass, I could feel her orgasm closing all around me. I gritted my teeth and held the pace, knowing what brought her to the point would tip her over. Reaching between us, I rubbed her swollen clit and she broke away from my wrist to release a long, sustained wail as she convulsed around me.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Sam. I wish you could see yourself,” I panted in her ear. “Your face looks so amazing, so fierce.”

She sighed. “Your turn?”

“My turn,” I growled. I slung both her legs over my shoulders and began thrusting into her, fast and hard. She pressed her palms flat against her headboard and pushed back. The wet sounds coming from her cunt and the slap of our flesh against each other all added to the sensory overload. My balls tightened and I could feel my orgasm tingling at the back of my spine. Then I lost all control and let go, pistoning my hips against her ass until I felt my come jetting out. Clutching her to me, I fell to the bed, muscle memory taking over and rolling us to the side so I wouldn’t suffocate her with my chest. Still snug inside her, I ran my hand over her spine, feeling for the hole I was sure I’d made when I shot my load.

“What’re you doing?” she asked drowsily.

“I came so hard, I’m sure I blew a hole out your back.” It was, thankfully, still intact. She chuckled weakly.

“I’m so exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for a week.” She snuggled into me and we lay like that for a while until I had to get up to take care of the condom. Sliding back into bed with her, I tucked her body close to mine and let the exhaustion of the day take us under.

Hunger woke us up a couple of hours later. Sam was still sleepy when I climbed out of bed and went down to scramble some eggs. The full extent of my skill in the kitchen was making omelets and sandwiches, but if she thought I was shit hot in the kitchen, then I wasn’t going to correct her. The microwave was my bitch, though, and I could dial for delivery as good as anyone. But I’d take fucking cooking classes if it meant keeping her with me.

She stumbled down the stairs dressed in my T-shirt and looking so fine I wanted to carry her back up and make use of my second condom. Fuel first, fuck second.

“Where’s your permanent duty station?” she asked between forkfuls of eggs, which she declared delicious. She must be in love because they weren’t anything to write home about.

“Right now my duty station is Pendleton, but I think I might still have to do a two year unaccompanied in Okinawa.” The eggs tasted like sawdust as I thought about being away from Sam for two years. There would be almost no way for me to come home for more than a few weeks during that two-year period. “Good thing we have Skype, right?”

Sam didn’t answer, just stirred her eggs around her plate. Then she took a deep breath. “I’ve always wanted to travel.”

“You have?” If an unmarried Marine went overseas, he usually went alone because few partners could take a couple years off and afford to live wherever he went but it wasn’t unheard of. Some lucky bastards had girlfriends who would move over and teach English or other shit. I held my breath.

“Yup. I don't have any debt. I've got the death benefit, and Will's life insurance. His dad bought it and half went to me and the other half is Tucker's. I could rent out the condo. I’ve always wanted to learn about other countries’ fiber arts history. You know, needles were invented in China.”

“What if it didn't work out?”

She took another bite of her eggs and chewed. “Well if I still had places to visit I would do that, and then I'd decide what to do. Maybe I'd continue to travel to New Zealand to get my hands on their Merino wool. Merino is some of the softest wool yarn around. Then maybe I’d come back here and sell my baby stuff at craft fairs or online. Set up an Etsy shop.”

“You wouldn't regret it? Like not going to college and shit like that?” My heart was beating faster than a rabbit’s. Any faster and I might have a heart attack. It never occurred to me that Sam would move with me. That she would give up her home and family and college dreams and move across the country or even across the world to be with me. I hadn’t ever had anyone say that they would make that kind of commitment—not even Carrie. My throat closed up and I had a hard time swallowing my eggs.

“No. Not for a minute.” She gave me a sad smile, and I knew instantly she was thinking of Will. But this time it didn’t bother me one bit. “I don't ever want to stay home again. Be left behind. That's what I regret. If I went and the relationship failed, I’d enjoy the experience and the new friends I'd made. I can always come home.”

I set down my fork then and picked her up. “I’m going to take you upstairs now and we’re going to fuck—no, we’re going to make love so hard neither of us will be able to walk tomorrow.”