Read Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Awakening Aubrey (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Jack 'Em Up Book 7) for Free Online Page B

manning the front gate as he waved us through.
    Fort Hood wasn’t exactly a tourist destination, but I found myself wanting to share a piece of myself with her. The Army, and Texas in particular, had become my home away from home and I longed to share that with someone.
    I showed her the squadron, the base gym, the barracks I’d lived in until I gained enough rank to move to my own place. She took it all in stride, asking lots of questions like she was truly interested. Not just in Sergeant Cortez, not the guy with the garage and more than a passing knowledge of cars, not the Mexican guy from the Bronx. Just me. Just Jude.
    She shifted to me as I pointed out the base park, illuminated by the moon and one streetlamp. “Pull over?”
    I parked in the empty lot and killed the engine to follow her as she headed for the swings. I leaned against the support beam and watched her sit and kick her legs to get started, a carefree smile on her face as she gained speed and height. The breeze rustled her copper curls around her face as she swung even higher. To her left, the lone streetlight cast a lonely pool of light on the ground, so we were virtually in the dark except for the moon above that painted her features like some kind of sweet fairy.
    “What? Too old to swing?” she taunted, her giggle floating on the air like fairy dust.
    “Nope.”
    “How old are you, anyway?”
    “Twenty-four.”
    “And your mom already wants you to settle down?”
    “It’s a cultural thing.”
    She nodded, but didn’t say anything else as she kicked her legs and turned her face to the sky.
    I couldn’t resist. I sat in the swing next to her and began pumping my legs to catch up. The wind whooshed through my ears as I mimicked her carefree joy. Joy I hadn’t experienced with such abandon in so long, too afraid to shirk my obligations to everyone but myself.
    “I’ll bet you think I’m just a kid like the rest of the guys.”
    I glanced over as our rhythm lined up and we swung back and forth, back and forth, in perfect sync. “Not at all.”
    “What do you think?” Her voice had become breathy and windblown.
    “I thought I already told you at dinner.”
    “Anything else?”
    What did she want from me? Her eyes, dark as night, caught and held me captive as we rushed through the summer breeze together, the creak of the swing echoing around us. In that moment, the truth bubbled up in my chest and burst free. “I think I really want to kiss you.”
    She said nothing, just studied me as she stopped kicking and let her swing slow to a stop. I toed the sand and halted next to her.
    “Really?”
    I nodded, my eyes dipping to her mouth. Who wouldn’t want to kiss those lips?
    “Why don’t you?”
    Those words, the promise in them, filled the warm air like a raincloud promising the relief of rain. And I had been living in the desert.
    I gripped the chain on the side of her swing closest to me and drew her over. Keeping her close, I gently unpeeled her white-knuckled grip from the chain and thread our fingers together. I licked my lips and sucked in a deep gulp of her scent. Her pupils dilated as I inched closer until our breath mingled. I’d swear I could hear her heart galloping like a wild stallion in her chest, but maybe that was my own.
    Her eyelids fluttered closed as I grazed her lips with mine. God, she was sweet. I tasted the seam of her lips and she opened to me with the same abandon she’d shown as she swung through the air. She clutched my shirt and leaned into me, our mouths fused like magnets. It was like we’d been born for this moment, everything within us lining up like two halves finally making the whole they longed to be. Peace and lust and fireworks and a tinge of fear roiled within me as I kissed her with the fervor of a religious experience. In that moment, she was my salvation.
    She pulled away, her breathing ragged as she faced the sky.
    I studied her profile, struggling to calm my raging emotions. I’d never felt