I mumbled under my breath, while trying to reach behind my dress for the zipper, “Your house is literally a couple yards away; go eat your own food.”
“What was that?” he said, now at my door, I jumped back to glare at him once again. It was becoming a reoccurring thing: me glaring, him grinning.
“Go away,” I said, still reaching for the zipper.
“Whatcha got there?” he asked, pointing to the picture that I’d half-laid on the dresser.
I pushed it back quickly, so it didn’t fall to the ground.
I answered, “Nothing.”
But before I could shove it away even further, Luke sauntered up and glanced down at it. The corners of his eyes crinkled just a bit and his mouth twitched. He stared at it, memorizing it just as I had done several times before. His voice was soft when he asked the next question.
“Alex?”
His eyes found mine and I felt my heart drop a little. I nodded and grabbed the Polaroid around its edges and placed it back on the corner of my mirror, just under the soft glow of my lamp.
“Afghanistan, right?” he asked.
I whispered, “Yeah.”
Out of my peripheral vision, I saw him nod his head and then look back at me. I didn’t meet his stare, though. I felt too insecure, and that was never a safe way for me to feel around him.
Never.
“You looked beautiful, tonight.” I felt my cheeks heat.
“Let me help you,” he said, moving behind me. I looked up into the mirror and watched as he stood behind me. Luke was at least a foot taller than me, especially now that my heels were kicked off and thrown to the side of my dresser.
I could feel his warm breath on my neck as I pulled my heavily hair-sprayed curls to the side so he could reach my zipper. His hand brushed against my back when he found the clasp. My breath caught in my nose. I continued to hold it as he slowly unzipped my dress, its ricocheting noise the only sound in the room.
His gaze was steady and focused on my back, but in the mirror I could see the way his jaw ticked back and forth and how his chest was rising a bit faster than before. Me, on the other hand…I was still holding my breath.
The warmth emitting from his body caressed my back as the zipper dipped even lower and finally reached its destination: the very top of my lacy, black underwear. Luke’s eyes slid up my back, and he quietly growled when he noticed I wasn’t wearing a bra. His eyes traveled further and further upward until they reached my face, staring back at him in the mirror. I shifted my gaze back to myself and my cheeks were already flushed with a dark pink tint. My round, hazel eyes looked wild with hunger and I finally let out a shaky breath.
Our eyes jolted to one another the instant I took another gulp of air. It only took half a second for him to whip me around and pin me against the front of my dresser. The second his lips collided with mine, I felt stunned. My mouth parted on its own accord and his tongue swept inside. He cupped one arm around my waist and the other around the back of my head.
There was no way our bodies could have been any closer unless we’d been literally glued together. My dress fell slightly downward, and my bare breasts were pushed up against his soft, cotton t-shirt. My hands found his hair, and I ran my fingers through it, plunging my tongue deeper into his mouth.
I was captivated by his mouth and hands on my bare skin. He pulled me back, and his eyes dipped to where my round breasts were exposed. His eyes danced with aroused excitement. Before I knew what he was doing, he bent down low and took my nipple into his warm mouth. My head fell back effortlessly and I let out a breathy noise. It felt so good. It felt so good to have his mouth on me. It was earth-shatteringly good. Was that the earth shattering?
I felt a familiar tug in my lower stomach and I was mere seconds from pulling him away and ripping the rest of his uniform off, when his phone started shrieking with a god-awful noise.
We paused, me standing there with an expensive red gown bunched around my hips, chest exposed, panting like a dog. He stood there, chest rising and falling as if he had just run a marathon. His face glistened with sweat and his cheeks were a splotchy red.
His darkened green eyes never left mine as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He answered it sharply and a few seconds later, he very hoarsely said, “I’ll be there in ten, Sir.”
That’s when the realization fell on me like a ton of bricks. It was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over my head.
Fuck. What did I just do?
“I gotta go…” he started. He rubbed his hand along his clean-shaved jaw. “Two of my guys just got into a fight, so I gotta go pick them up now. That was my commanding officer on the other end.”
I breathed deeply before I spoke, “That’s probably for the best.” I pulled my dress up to hide my breasts, and he narrowed his eyes in frustration.
His head shook back and forth when his eyes bounced between the pair of mine.
“And…there it went.”