Page 37 of My First Time Fling

“I’m gonna come,” I groaned, clutching the bedsheets with my fingers. “If you want to stop, now’s your chance.”

But Mark didn’t stop. He just sucked me faster, and teased my hole, and my orgasm came over me, overpowering my senses and rolling through me in waves. I rode each one, releasing into his mouth, feeling practically knocked out.

I wasn’t sure how long it took before I came back down to earth, or when, exactly, Mark had slid back up in bed next to me. All I knew was that I never wanted this evening, this moment, to end.

I rolled onto my side and tucked my head into his neck. He stroked a hand down my back, tracing my skin with his fingertips. He was so quiet, I began to wonder if something was wrong. What if he’d actually hated that? What if his first experience with a guy turned out to be his last?

“Regrets?” I made myself ask.

He just laughed. I could feel the vibration in his chest.

“Only one.”

“Yeah?” I asked, bracing myself for—well, for anything, really.

“Yeah.” He tilted his head down and brushed a kiss across my cheek. “That we didn’t do that sooner.”

12

Mark

Machine-gun fire rang out through the smoke. The truck had turned over. I was trapped inside.

I could smell the smoke as much as I could see it, acrid and burning, like a network of gray mesh wires piercing into my brain. And heat—immense, indescribable heat. There was a fire somewhere close to me. I just couldn’t see where through the smoke.

Suddenly, something was pulling me backwards, dragging me across the ground. Shit. My back hurt, like it was on fire itself. Why was I moving?Howwas I moving?

“Lieutenant Riordan? Sir? Are you alright?”

Hernandez’s eyes swam into view, and as soon as I saw them, everything snapped into focus. We’d been hit. Our convoy had been traveling through a remote pass in the mountains, an area we were sure we’d cleared the day before. But we must have missed something. An IED, maybe.

It didn’t matter now. What mattered was finding the rest of my men. Hernandez helped me drag myself to my feet, back pain forgotten, and I surveyed the scene. Christ, it was carnage. The forward truck was in flames, the one I’d been in had flipped upside down, and the third, where Hernandez had been riding, was on its side.

My heart broke when I thought of the men in the first vehicle. Nothing but a burned-out shell remained. But there wasn’t time to mourn them now. As men crawled out of the third truck, I threw myself forward toward my own. There were three more men in there.

The smoke felt thick enough to touch as I lurched back to the vehicle, like I should have been able to part it with a knife. Shit. I could hear groans. Freeman and Polakowski were in the back, or at least, they had been. I couldn’t even see them now. The body of the truck down had crumpled around them, trapping them inside. There had to be a way to get them out. Maybe with more men.

I turned to Sergeant Miller up front. He’d been driving, and was more accessible for the time being. His eyes were closed, but he was groaning as I approached on all fours, trying to keep myself low and not breathe in too much of the smoke.

“Miller, Miller, can you hear me?”

Miller’s eyes flickered open, dazed. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it, hoping the pressure would help him focus, before I realized his arm was crunched against the ground at an unnatural angle. God, no wonder he was groaning.

“Miller, I’m going to get you out of here, I just need you to stay with me.”

“Sir, is that you?” Miller’s brow furrowed as he tried to focus on me. “Fuck, it hurts. Have we been hit? Oh, fuck.”

“It’s okay, I’m going to get you out. Just stay with me.”

“Sir, you’ve got to back up, it’s not safe.” I heard Hernandez calling behind me, but I ignored him. I could get Miller out, if I could just reach in and grab him from the other side.

“I’m gonna get you out of here, Miller,” I told him. “You’re gonna be fine.”

“Sir, we’ve got to move. The fire could—”

“Not now, Hernandez,” I shouted over my shoulder, before putting him out of my mind. I turned back to Miller, his body crushed up against what had been the roof of the vehicle, now lying against the ground.

“Miller, I’m going to reach around you and try to get you out that way, okay?” I narrated what I was doing, trying to keep his attention on me and keep him conscious. I could hear someone, Polakowski or Freeman, groaning in pain in the back. As soon as I got Miller out, I could focus on them.

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