Page 43 of Prognosis Temporary

If she seemed surprised, she didn’t show it, just shimmied back so she was resting against the head board, opening her arms to him again. He went to her, settling between her legs, his back to her front, her arm slung over his shoulder and across his chest, cradling him against her.

‘It happened last year, in Afghanistan. I was travelling with a supply division to get to another base. There was a roadside bomb.’ She gasped softly and her arm banded around him tighter. Sebastian slid his palms onto her shins, needing to ground himself. ‘The vehicle in front was blown to smithereens. I’d just been talking to the driver a few minutes before we left. He was supposed to be going home a month later.’

‘Did he...?’

Sebastian stared into the darkness, his mind awash with the desperation of men trying to save their comrades. ‘He didn’t make it. None of them did.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ she murmured, her arm tightening even more, her legs wrapping around his thighs. ‘That’s terrible.’

Sebastian nodded, the terror a little less here in her embrace. ‘It was.’

‘Do you have nightmares often?’

‘No, not really. Not anymore. Only when I’m really tired, I guess.’

It shouldn’t have surprised him, then, that this had happened tonight. He’d come to Callie’s from Frank already totally exhausted. And then there’d been the sex. Sex that had felt so much more than all the other times and not because he’d been bare but because it had reached much deeper than physical gratification.

And he was pretty sure she felt the same.

‘Have you seen anyone about it?’

He grimaced. ‘Ironic, isn’t it? The foremost expert on PTSD suffering from it himself?’

She rubbed her chin against his hair. ‘No. It’s just life.’

‘I have talked to someone about it. An army psychologist. It was him actually who suggested I ease back into work. That I should take a break from twenty four seven PTSD.’

‘Well, he sounds very smart,’ she murmured.

Sebastian chuckled. ‘Yeah. He is.’

They sat locked together for a long while, neither saying anything. Just touching. Nothing sexual. Trailing fingers. Dropping a kiss. Rubbing a cheek. Not wanting to move, to disconnect.

Sebastian liked the weight of her legs wrapped around him, the feel of her breasts squashed to his back. But when he glanced at the time it was almost one and he stirred, knowing he had to go. Talking had been cathartic and the last thing he felt like doing was getting out of Callie’s bed.

But it was the rule.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, easing out of her embrace, rubbing the fatigue from his eyes. ‘I should go. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.’

She put her hand out, touched his shoulder. Slid it along the ridge that thickened into his neck then trailed it down his back. ‘Stay.’

Sebastian stilled, his heart suddenly thumping loud in his ears. He turned slightly, capturing her gaze. She knew him, this woman. Callie. She knew more about him than he’d ever let another woman know and he wanted to leave her bed about as much as he wanted to drill a hole in his head but he also knew her and she had to be sure.

If they were going to do this — it couldn’t be undone. ‘If I stay tonight, I’m going to want to stay every night.’

‘Good,’ she said with a smile and opened her arms.

––––––––

‘Here you are.’

Callie looked behind her and smiled. ‘Here I am.’ She’d woken early and had slipped out of bed to enjoy the early morning ambience of her deck. Leaning against the railing she could see over the rooftops of the neighbourhood, hear the stirrings of suburbia.

Wearing only a towel slung low on his hips, Sebastian padded across to her, stopping directly behind and placing his hands on her shoulders. He felt good and smelled better and she leant into him, turning her face slightly so she could rub her cheek against his hand.

‘Having second thoughts?’ he murmured, his mouth brushing down the side of her neck.

Callie sighed as goose bumps broke out beneath his lips. ‘No.’

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