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Chapter 1

Riley

November

“Guys.Guys.” I laughed as I nudged the three cats back so I could shut the apartment door. “Can I at least take off my boots?”

From the meowing, head bumps, and demands for attention… no, I could not take off my boots. This happened every day, so I just chuckled, tossed the mail on the shelf above the shoe rack, leaned against the wall, and carefully untied one boot, then the other. Once I’d put my boots on the rack, I headed down the hall with the fuzzy trio on my heels.

They were a hazard, to be sure, but they made me laugh. From the demands for pets and attention to the dramatic insistence that they were wasting away from starvation (yeah, right), they were hilarious and cute. Kind of made me wonder how I’d made it through my first year on this island without them.

I’d had a shitty day. Usually did—my command was toxic as hell from leadership on down, and getting stuck on traffic detailmeant even more attitude from people than I used to get as a sentry at the damn gate.

“Dude, come on. That ticket is bullshit.”

“When did the speed limit change?”

“Do you know who I am?”

Or my personal favorite:

“Do you know who my husband is?”

Needless to say, it was a relief to get home to the melodramatic creatures who acted like they didn’t get any attention, any food, or any stimulation from me or my roommate.

Now I just needed to get out of this damn uniform. Though we weren’t allowed to wear them off-base, we were allowed to wear them on our commutes as long as we went straight to or from work. Sometimes I changed before I left. Sometimes I just needed to get the hell home before I pistol-whipped someone. Today had been one of those days.

After I’d changed out of my utilities and into shorts and a T-shirt, I played with the cats on my bed for a few minutes. Then I led the little parade of creatures into the kitchen so I could get myself something eat. And them, of course. I wasn’t a monster.

Arrow and ShiShi got on the counter while Velcro chilled on a barstool. They all watched intently while I made my sandwich, and they purred like machine guns when I gave them each a piece of turkey.

Then Arrow decided he was more interested in pouncing on ShiShi’s tail, which had her leaping off the counter and thundering down the hall. While they did their zoomies, I chuckled to myself and moved into the living room with my food. Velcro, true to his name, stuck close, perching on the armrest, watching me with those big yellow eyes as if to say, “But Uncle Riley, I didn’t get any.”

“Yes, you did, you little scam artist,” I told him as his brother and sister went stampeding past. They crashed into something in the kitchen, then went back the other way. I just rolled my eyes and hoped our downstairs neighbors didn’t get annoyed.

While I ate, I flicked on the TV. I’d heard tell of a time when service members on Okinawa could only get local Japanese channels and the Armed Forces Network. Fortunately, that was no longer the case, and we could stream just like we could back home.

I kicked back to watch some mind-numbing TV, and before too long, all three cats were on the couch with me. Velcro was in my lap. Arrow sprawled across the back of the couch. ShiShi parked on the cushion next to me and noisily licked her butthole.

Typical afternoon after I got home from work, and I loved it. I’d been living with Nolan for a few months, renting a room in his enormous off-base apartment for a song. My commute was a little longer now, but I had no complaints. I had this swanky ass place, cheap rent, three cats who kept life interesting, and… well, I definitely couldn’t complain about sharing fairly regular handjobs and blowjobs with my roommate-slash-landlord. Roommates with benefits? I guess. Because we definitely weren’t dating or anything like that. Hell, I barely knew the guy aside from his housekeeping routines and what his dick tasted like.

Whatever. Better than living on-base and beating off all the time because of the island’s less-than-stellar hookup scene.

It definitely made it easier to live with my high-stress, high-bullshit job and the isolation that came with living on a tiny remote island.

Beside me, ShiShi whipped around to look at the front door. Arrow lifted his head a second later. Then Velcro lazily twisted in the same direction.

And that was when I heard what they already had: boots on the concrete stairs outside.

A second later, keys jingled, and before the door had even opened, all three cats flew off the couch to greet their dad.

Nolan stepped into the apartment, and my heart did that same little flip it almost always did when I saw him.

Holy fuck, he was gorgeous.

He’d had the jarhead look when I’d met him, but over time, he’d grown out his dark hair into a high-and-tight, which was sexy anyway but lookedcriminallyhot on him. Like me, he’d worn his utilities home, and even after living with him for a while and getting each other off with some serious regularity, I never got tired of seeing him like that. Whoever had designed the Marine Corps utilities had done the Lord’s work, that was for sure. The camouflage blouse and pants made him look even more built than he already was, and they were magic on that perfect ass.

That ass, which made my mouth water as he crouched to greet his cats.

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