“That means Rae’s also been here nearly a year,” Rowan pointed out, recalling me from my reverie. She borrowed my drink and clinked it against the one the other woman was holding. “Cheers, babe.”
“Cheers,” Rae agreed, taking another long drag of cider. “For an alligator-haunted, mosquito-infested steam bath, Louisiana hasn’t been a half bad place to spend a deployment.” She directed a broad grin at my best friend, and I wondered, not for the first time, if something more than friendship had passed between them. Rowan was usually as enthusiastic about sharing news of her sex life as she was to hear about mine, but when I’d asked about Rae, she’d offered nothing but a vague dismissal and a cryptic smile.
“Anyone been over to see Iris and Shawna’s bundle of joy lately?” Rowan asked next.
I hadn’t, since I wasn’t that close to Julian’s former colleague and her partner, but Rae spoke up.
“I checked in the other day. Little sucker’s got a healthy set of lungs on him, that’s for sure. I didn’t stay long — mommas both looked like they hadn’t slept since last year, but there’s no denying how happy they are to suffer through it.”
“He’ll be rounding that ten-week corner soon,” Rowan empathized. “It should be at least slightly downhill from there.”
We took turns trading the mismatched glasses of fermented apple brew along with bits of news and friendly jibes, while the alcohol cast its familiar hazy spell on my over-productive brain. I’d slightly lost track of the conversation, being distracted by Graham’s hand folding into mine under the table and coming to rest against my thigh, when the sound of my name caught my attention.
“…Realize Avery’s slept with everyone at this table except for me?” Rae was asking, her well-shaped eyebrows arched in a particularly roguish expression. “Can’t help feeling a bit left out in this crowd.”
I took the opportunity to swipe another drink from my mug, hoping my face wouldn’t give away too much. Rae wasn’t an unattractive woman, at all. But even though her brazen ways weren’t that different from Graham’s swagger, they mostly had the opposite effect on me.
“You two ever consider letting him off the leash?” She directed the question toward Julian and Graham, adding a flirtatious smirk at me. “Doesn’t seem fair for him to be deprived of female companionship altogether.”
My boyfriend intervened before I had to reply. “Who says he’s on a leash? If he were interested in you, Larsen, you’d have heard from him by now.”
“Oh-ho!” she cackled, eyes sparkling with mirth. “Is that how it is.” Unlike a lot of people, she got a kick out of being on either side of her edgy jokes. “Well, you ever want to round out your catalog, birthday boy, give me a ring. You must be pretty decent in the sack to keep this one so enthralled.” Her elbow on the table nudged Graham’s.
Between the knowing tone of her comment and the proud grin Graham aimed at me, I could feel heat rising to my face after all.
Thankfully, he only squeezed my hand affectionately and redirected to Rae. “What about you? You still seeing that guy from the volleyball match with the unreturnable serves?”
That launched her into an animated story, and the conversation flowed on into the night.
We’d finished the jug of cider and were starting to wind down when a messenger arrived from the military’s side of the base. He stopped a couple of feet from the table and snapped to attention, shoulders back and feet square.
“Captain Lansing — apologies for interrupting your evening, but there’s been an incident.”
“Are we under attack? Anyone injured?” Graham asked, switching immediately into commander mode.
“Not an attack, sir. There is a…minor injury. Can we speak privately?”
Graham nodded and rose to his feet, then led the soldier outside to hear his report. After a couple of minutes, he came back alone.
“Sorry, guys — I’ll have to go to sort this out. Apparently one of my lieutenants has been accused of fraternizing with a sergeant, and the dispute came to blows during that field exercise two of my platoons are engaged in.” He glanced at Rae, then at me and Julian. “I’ll probably have to take over the exercise so all our setup doesn’t go to waste. It’s scheduled until 0600 hours.”
“I’ll walk back with you,” Rae said, rising from the bench on her side of the table.
Rowan followed suit. “Probably time for me to call it a day anyway. I need to round on my post-op patient before shift change.”
We all made our way from the hall into the breezy spring air, and Graham turned toward me and Julian.
“I’ll see you two in the morning,” he said, then stepped a little closer and clasped my shoulder. “Night,” he told me, his voice velvet and his gaze significant, and somehow that was all it took to make me very much regret that he wasn’t coming to bed with us.
“Night,” I echoed, but as he started to turn away, Rowan broke in.
“Ah, come on. It was his birthday. Give him a proper goodnight.”
“What?” he laughed in surprise.
“You know,” she replied, slipping into her seductive mode. “We’re all friends here. Don’t hold back on our account.”
Graham advanced on me again, turning up the smolder for the benefit of our spectators. “You want a proper goodnight, Avery?”
Rowan had begged me more than once to let her watch me and Graham make out, and Rae had slept with him in the past anyway, so I didn’t mind giving them a bit of a show.
“Mm,” I assented, subtly shifting to welcome him into my space. His magnetic pull on me was as strong as it had been during those early days when I was futilely trying to deny my attraction.
“Come here, then,” he invited in his sexiest tone, one hand curving at the back of my neck. When his mouth reached for mine, I met him eagerly.
He didn’t hold back: his smooth yet assertive lips caressed mine with sensual expertise, deliberately waking all the nerve endings there, plus lots more elsewhere. I gravitated instinctively closer, and his other palm pressed my lower back to encourage me.
Graham kissed me like he was trying to make me hard on the spot — unhurried but intent, eminently self-assured, with his tongue dipping into my mouth — and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t working. Or that I wanted to resist in any way. Knowing that Rowan and Rae were watching, that they craved Graham’s arousing attentions and couldn’t have them, made this even more exciting. Our groins must have been millimeters from grinding together.
Finally he pulled his lips away to murmur, “Goodnight, baby. Sleep tight.”
“You too,” I returned, so entranced by his intent stare that I completely forgot he wasn’t going to be sleeping. He gave me one more deep taste of his sizzling mouth, then let me go.
“Damn!” Rowan exclaimed. “Even I wasn’t prepared for how steamy that was. I’m going to have to excuse myself; I have some…important business to take care of, right after I see my patient.”
One of Graham’s melodious laughs rang out as she hurried away. “Night, Rowan!” he teased. With a last wave to me and Julian, he strode away with Rae. More laughter floated back before they were out of earshot.