Page 16 of Relentless Surrender

“So, any way, we’re in the middle of the biggest offensive since Fallujah in the Helmand River Valley. Dawn breaks and boom! We start taking on small arms fire from outta nowhere. I turn to Spike and I’m like what the fuck! Oh! Excuse the language ma’am. I’m like what the fudge! We try to communicate to base but nothing’s working right when outta nowhere comes Captain Conner and Dirty Sandy. Oh, that’s his SuperCobra ma’am. That’s an attack helicopter. He starts laying down all kinds of strafing hellfire along the tree line. Saved our asses. Oh, sorry ma’am. I meant saved our butts,” related Hippie with barely taking a breath in all his excitement.

Sage started to laugh. “Well fuck me! That’s one hell of a story, Hippie!”

There was a moment of silence at the table before everyone erupted in a cheer at her jest. Sage really enjoyed the easy camaraderie and friendship of the group. It was a true brotherhood.

* * *

Time passed too quickly and before long Conner was taking her home as promised.

Once again, he insisted on walking Sage to her door.

Pushing a silken lock of hair behind her ear, he caressed the line of her jaw. “You know how much I want to ask you to invite me in?”

Sage didn’t trust herself to speak. She was afraid she would invite him in if she did.

“I’m not an idiot, Sage. I know I’m on leave and I know getting involved with a Marine is no fucking picnic with the deployments and all the other crap. Trust me, feeling an attraction to someone like you is the last thing I wanted either.”

Sage’s back went up. “What do you mean? Someone like me?”

He leaned in. Placing his forearms high above her head, caging her in. Making her feel frightened by his leashed power and yet safe all at once. “What I mean is someone I can’t seem to stop thinking about. Someone I can’t seem to want to let go of. Someone who deserves more than she thinks I can give.”

“Oh,” she answered lamely, not sure what to say.

Conner gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead. “I won’t ask for your phone number because I already stole it off your phone when you were sleeping. I also programmed mine in.”

He stopped her angry retort by covering her lips with his finger. “I don’t know where this is going. Maybe nowhere but unlike you I’m not going to run away from what we got just because it might blow up in our faces. A Marine never retreats,” he said with an arrogant smile. “Life’s too short, Spitfire.”

CHAPTER 4

Sage closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh.

Shaking her head, she stepped into the living room, tossing her purse onto the sofa.

This whole thing was crazy! Absolute lunacy! She must be out of her mind. All of this was so unlike her. She never slept with a man on the first date…technically she had slept with Conner before their first date. She didn’t like arrogant, overbearing men who acted all primal and protective and…made you feel all safe and warm and feminine...did she?

Her fingertip grazed her lower lip as the memory of his touch came unbidden to mind. The feel of his rough kiss as his powerful body pressed against her own. The confident way he touched her. Tasted her. And dammit…the way he wouldn’t take no for an answer when her body was clearly saying yes. Damn him!

The soft sound of rustling startled Sage out of her musings.

“Sage is that you,” came a hesitant voice from the bedroom.

“Melly?”

Sage crossed to the bedroom. “Why are you sitting in the dark?” she asked as she reached for the light switch.

“No! Leave it off,” whined Melissa.

“Melissa, what’s going on?” demanded Sage sternly. She didn’t mean for her voice to sound harsh but her friend was alarming her. It wasn’t the fact Melissa was in her place, she had a spare key. It was the sound of her strained almost pained voice.

“I lied to you, Sage,” whispered Melissa.

The awful desolation in her voice sent a chill up Sage’s spine.

“It’s okay, sweetie. I understand,” responded Sage immediately afraid to move further into the room not wishing to alarm Melissa.

“I didn’t have to work last night. I saw…him.”

Sage didn’t have to ask who Melissa meant. Ricardo. The man had a strange pull on her friend. Sage only saw a loser without a job who made off-color jokes and didn’t treat her friend well. Melissa thought he was some hero returned home broken from the war. As if it were her patriotic duty to put up with his violent mood swings and awful treatment. A baby bird with a broken wing. More like a vulture in Sage’s mind. She thought after the apartment incident that Melissa had truly put him behind her. Apparently not.

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