Page 20 of Found

He gave me a tour of the shop, showing me what containers to use for the various types of bait and what the prices of each were. Then he showed me where the food was stored and how to work the machines that cooked them. Afterward, we restocked the shelves with snacks and fishing gear, cleaned the windows and floors and checked the temperature on each of the bait tanks.

Things were slow. Only three customers had been in and we had nothing left to do, so we grabbed a couple of stools behind the counter and sat down beside each other. Zach pulled a deck of cards out of his back pocket and I arched an eyebrow at him.

“The night shift is always slow, but I knew tonight would be even worse since everyone’s getting ready for the weekend,” he said with a shrug. “I figured we’d need something to help pass the time.”

“Sounds good to me. What are we playing?” I asked him with a smile.

Zach smiled back. “Are you a poker man?” he asked.

“Hell yeah. I’ve played for years. That’s how my buddies and I would pass the long, boring nights in between missions,” I told him.

“Missions?” Zach stopped shuffling the cards and looked up at me, his brow pinched in confusion.

“Yeah. I spent twelve years in the Air Force. Ten of them were as a special ops pararescueman,” I explained.

“Pair of what?” he joked, and I laughed.

“Pararescueman, but we’re also known as PJ’s. It’s part of the Air Force’s Special Operations Command as well as the Air Combat Command,” I told him.

“I’ve never heard of that before. What kind of things did you do?” Zach asked. I could see the genuine curiosity in his gaze.

I pulled the deck of cards from his hands and began passing them out. “Occasionally, we’d get called to help NASA recover their astronauts after they’d landed in the water, but most of the time we ran recovery missions and provided medical treatment for people involved in combat situations.”

“Wow! Are you some kind of doctor then?” He looked at me suspiciously.

I shook my head. “No, not at all. I’ve had some medical training, but I worked more on the rescue and recovery parts of the operations. I would jump out of the choppers and find the missing or wounded person we were there for and bring them back to the actual doctors to get medical treatment.”

I looked up and found Zach staring at me, his jaw hanging open. “That sounds really dangerous. Were you ever under fire?”

My jaw clenched as I nodded. “Nine times out of ten,” I told him quietly.

“Weren’t you scared?” he whispered.

I shrugged my shoulders. He didn’t need to know about the night terrors I had suffered the first few years on the job or the images that refused to leave me of the people that I wasn’t able to get to in time, their mangled bodies and lifeless eyes staring back at me.

“Our motto is ‘These things we do, that others may live,’” I answered instead.

“For what it’s worth, I think you’re incredibly brave,” he said quietly. The eyes staring back at me were filled with sincerity and I gave him a small smile. His next question had the smile slipping from my face as pain lanced through my chest. “So, why did you decide to leave the Air Force?”

“I got a call one day that my mom had suffered a heart attack. I was her only kid, the only family she had left, and I wasn’t there when she died. I decided then that I needed to get out,” I said, my voice cracking at the end.

I’d never spoken to anyone else about that, about the guilt I still carried over not being there for my mom when she needed me the most, but it felt good to talk about it with Zach. He reached out and covered my hand with his. I glanced up at him in surprise and saw a mixture of pain, sadness and complete understanding in his eyes.

It hit me then that Zach probably knew exactly how it felt to carry the weight of that kind of burden on his shoulders because he’d been through the same thing when he’d stood there, watching helplessly as the paramedics tried to save his mom, knowing there was nothing he could do. The same connection I’d felt when I’d held his hand surged between us once again and it was as if we were the only two people left in the world.

We continued to stare at each other and I felt the subtle shift between us as the sadness in his eyes was replaced with desire. My eyes dropped to his lips and I had to fight back a groan as his tongue darted out to wet them. His bottom lip was full, almost pouty, and it begged for me to lick it, nip at it and tug it between my teeth. Without even realizing we were doing it, we’d begun to lean in towards each other, like two magnets being pulled together.

I stared into Zach’s eyes, searching for any hesitation, but there was none to be found. I reached for him and slid my hand along his jaw. He shivered under my gentle touch and his breath puffed out against my face as I moved in closer. My heart beat frantically inside my chest as my hand continued its journey to the back of his neck. My fingers sifted through the silky strands of his dirty-blond hair and he sighed. Zach tilted his head and his eyes slid closed, his thick lashes fanning against his cheeks and I thought that I’d never seen a more stunning sight.

“Beautiful,” I whispered as my lips brushed against his.

I took my time, savoring the moment I’d been waiting for. My other hand came up to hold him in place as I nipped at his bottom lip with my teeth and then licked over it in a soothing gesture. Zach moaned in pleasure and he stood without breaking the kiss, moving forward until he was between my spread knees. He took charge then, letting his tongue sweep through my mouth and a deep growl echoed up from my chest.

Our tongues danced around each other, tasting and exploring all the hidden treasures within our mouths. My cock strained against the fabric of my jeans, begging to be let out to play and I nearly lost all control when Zach shifted his hips and his own impressive bulge pressed up against mine. My body felt like it was on fire and I desperately wanted to drag him to the back room and sink to my knees for him.

I was about to suggest it when the door flew open and two older men walked in, fishing poles in hand. Zach spun away from me quickly, his face turning a brilliant shade of red as he faced them. He stepped all the way up against the counter, letting it hide the evidence of his arousal, but there was no hiding the lust-glazed look in his eyes or the kiss-swollen appearance of his lips.

If the two men noticed, they didn’t say anything, and I was grateful. I sat quietly as Zach gathered the supplies they needed and rang their order up on the register. After they’d paid, they walked out, shutting the door behind them. Zach turned to me then and I tensed, waiting for him to be angry about almost getting caught. He smiled at me instead, a small, shy smile and my heart tripped all over itself. I stood and walked towards him until our chests were pressed together. My hands cupped his face and his hands went to my waist, his fingers curling into the belt loops on my jeans.

---