“God, I’ve missed this. Missed you. Being inside you. Watching you,” Reid says while we both catch our breath. The mattress dips as he rolls onto his side.
The tips of his fingers trace the outline of my tattoo. I flinch because it tickles when he touches me there, and he grins because he knows this. He’s been doing it since the day we got them.
“The flowers were beautiful, but I think I liked the second gift better.” My voice is lazy, and my words drawn out.
He stops running his finger across my skin and leans over me. “Flowers?”
“For my birthday. The tulips?”
He props himself up on his elbow, his hand cradling his handsome face. “Someone sent you tulips for your birthday?”
There’s no mischief in his eyes or playfulness in his tone. He’s not being coy or playing dumb. That was a lot of flowers. If Reid didn’t send them, who did?
His eyes meet mine. “Should I be worried?”
No. Maybe. I don’t know.
It was just flowers. Maybe they weren’t meant for me. Maybe they were delivered by mistake.
That’s an awful expensive mistake. The delivery guy would have been back to get them if that were the case.
I make a decision in this moment not to make a big deal of it. However it happened, it brought sunshine to an otherwise shitty day, so no harm done. Right?
“Not unless you plan on getting out of this bed sometime soon,” I reply with a grin.
His bright eyes grow dark, and I pull my bottom lip between my teeth in anticipation. I reach between our bodies and wrap my fingers around his cock. His mouth twitches, and the flesh pulses against my hand as it begins to get hard.
“Good. Because I’m a selfish man, babygirl. And this…” he growls, running a finger over my clit. “This is mine.”
For the next twenty-four hours, we don’t even bother getting dressed. Reid suggests at the rate we’re going we should get some calories in our system before we burn out. So, I finish up a load of laundry and get my shower out of the way, then walk into the living room to find him watching, but not watching, the Braves play the Astros on ESPN. I’ve missed walking into this room and seeing him here like this.
“I’m thinking we should just order pizza tonight,” he says.
I curl up next to him. “Pizza’s good.”
He pulls me close to his chest, and he stares out into the room in silence for what seems like hours. It’s so quiet I can perfectly time his breathing. Something is definitely off balance in the universe tonight.
“You want me to call it in?” he asks, finally.
I sit up straight and study him. “I’ll do it.”
“Okay.” His voice is quiet, and his eyes never leave mine.
“After you tell me what the hell is going on,” I add.
More awkward silence.
“Reid?”
He pinches the bridge of his nose and splays his arm along the back of the sofa, grabbing a lock of my hair and twirling it as he does. “I got my papers.”
I stare at him in silence. The seconds tick by. Then minutes. The air is thick with unspoken words.
He swallows. “I’m being deployed, Makenna.”
I knew what he meant the first time. I just can’t find the strength to reply. It’s like someone has reached inside and taken my heart and ripped it out of my chest then thrown it on the ground and stomped on it until nothing is left but hundreds of broken little pieces. It is my resolute opinion that fate is a severe bitch. In the time since Reid has joined the Marines, I have had maybe a whole month with him. That’s not nearly enough time. I’ve just gotten him back, and already he has to leave again.
“How long?” I ask through eyes blurred with tears.
I’m not sure if I’m asking how long we have until we say goodbye again or how long he will be gone, and I don’t know if I honestly want to know the answer to either one.
“I’ve got three weeks, then I leave for six months. Maybe longer.”
Well that answers both questions at once. As fate would have it, he hasn’t even been home two days, and he’s already telling me they’re flying him across the world to dodge bullets and find bad guys. In my head I understand this is exactly what he signed up for—the chance to be a hero. But six more months without him, and I’m pretty sure my ovaries will explode, not to mention my heart. A little less than a month from now I lose him for another half year.
I inhale a sharp breath and resolve that pouting isn’t going to change anything. So, I take the lick and keep on moving, hoping like hell the sands fall slowly through the dreaded hourglass.