Paradise Valley (Virgin River #7)(34)

She fed him sweet kisses and he swallowed her little moans. “Shh,” he said to her. “We’re going to get in so much trouble.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I pulled the curtain.”

He glanced and saw that they were as alone as they could be in a barracks, the privacy panels separating his bed from his neighbors. And the sounds of sleep and dreams were all around him. He went after her mouth again. Her perfect, soft, round mouth, her full lips. He ran a hand down her side to her hip and over. She was wearing that tiny denim skirt. Ohhh, that little skirt. He slid his hand under and she was bare. He let his fingers explore while she kissed him; his baby, she was wet and ready. This wasn’t a good idea, he thought. Not here. But he was ready, too.

“Come here, baby,” he said, lying her down next to him. And she answered with that soft little moan he knew so well. “Come here, I need you. I need you so bad right now.” It was crowded in his little bed, but he rose onto his side, looking down at her. His Liz, his beautiful, sweet, loyal Liz. He slipped one hand under her shirt to capture a breast, the other went under her skirt to probe her a little. He had to cover her mouth with his to silence her moans. But then he pushed up her shirt and pulled her pretty nipple into his mouth and he didn’t care if she moaned. He was in heaven.

Sometimes this was all it took; Liz had always been so hot. He’d run his tongue around her nipple, suck a little, stroke her between her legs and she’d plunge right into an orgasm. “Don’t wait for me,” he whispered into her mouth. He licked, sucked, stroked and she came apart, hot and wet, gasping. He heard himself laugh softly. Then he positioned himself over her, mounted her, rising above her, finding and entering her. God, she felt so good he thought he was going to die.

He pumped and drove into her and heard her hum. “Don’t forget,” she whispered. And his hand snaked down between their tight bodies to find that clitoris again, rubbing it. He knew his woman; this was what she wanted.

“If we don’t get caught, I’m going to put my face in you and stay there an hour,” he promised her. “I just can’t get enough of you.”

“Please,” she said softly. “Please please please please…”

And he erupted. Went off like a rocket, pulsing and coming until there was nothing left inside him. His eyes were pinched tight, he was bathed in sweat, and for a second he wondered how she’d gotten him on his back. And then he opened his eyes and realized he was alone.

She’d only been there in his mind, in his dream. But God, what a dream. It was so real, so perfect, exactly as he remembered.

He panted for a while, catching his breath. He looked and there had been no privacy screen. But it seemed everyone was asleep; no one was sitting up looking at him. He had a momentary hope he hadn’t been talking in his sleep, but a glance around told him it had all happened in his head, under his sheet.

And then he realized that in his dream, he’d held himself over her with two complete, undamaged legs, kneeling between her legs. He gasped at the memory, so vivid. Soundless, hot tears rolled from his eyes across his temples. Oh, Liz… Oh, baby….

Mel and Jack struggled to get their family back to normal. Jack had been home for two weeks. He had talked with Rick, but he wasn’t getting very far with him. Rick would take his calls if he was near the cell phone, but he neither initiated nor returned them. “This might require more patience than you have,” Mel said. “He isn’t headed for a quick fix. It’s going to take months. Maybe years.”

“Months,” Jack mimicked, disappointment drawing out the word. And then, “Years?”

“Jack, even if he weren’t wounded, catastrophically wounded at that, his return from a war zone would be a serious adjustment. Every family of every soldier goes through this. And you know that.”

But while Jack knew it, he didn’t really know it from experience. He’d always been active duty and had only visited his family. He moved on to the next challenge and if anyone thought he’d gotten depressed or crazy, they didn’t mention it. Certainly Jack knew he was adjusting after a combat assignment, he just didn’t think anyone else knew. And of course he’d never sustained an injury that would retire or discharge him.

Although Rick was on Mel’s mind every bit as much, she had other people to care for. She had called Liz regularly and talked with her in person when Liz came to town to help her aunt Connie in the corner store. She convinced her to visit that counselor who helped her after her baby had been stillborn, a definite step forward. A couple of women from town were prenatals and she did all she could to assist Cameron in the clinic with other patients.

At the end of March spring teased the mountains—one day pleasantly warm and a few days later, an icy rain, a threat of snow. Mel was seeing a prenatal patient one afternoon when she heard a commotion in the front of the clinic. Fortunately she wasn’t doing internal exams; she stepped out of the room to see a breathless, skinny man who looked to be in his sixties in a panic as he yelled at Cameron, waving his arms excitedly.

“She’s dyin’, I know it! You gotta come! She’s dyin’!”

Cameron looked over his shoulder. “Mel?”

She stepped forward. “Where are we going, sir?” she asked calmly.

“A couple blocks. Hurry!”

“Let me excuse my patient, Cam. Fire up the Hummer, get the gentleman in it and I’ll be right there.”