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.”Swelling with pride, I replied.“I love you, my queen.”“I love you, too.”My eyes slammed open as my alarm clock woke me.My body was painfully strained under my shorts, and I decided the only way I was gonna concentrate at work today was to relieve myself in the shower.This was the part of deployment I hated.When I had been deployed the other two times, I had hoped to meet some girl I could have a fling with, but nobody really held my attention.There had been one or two, but they never showed much interest past an abrupt fuck here and there… and those were definitely quick fixes that really didn’t satisfy me.Everything I’d been taught and grown up hearing was that love and sex were two separate things.Men used love to get sex, and women used sex to get love.While I knew that was true for the most part, I also knew that when the two combined… when I got myself tangled up with Miranda and poured my love into her body through sex, there was nothing like it.Nothing.The ecstasy combined with emotion was explosive and irreplaceable.I hadn’t had this with Sam.I thought I did, but I didn’t.I knew that now.Miranda truly was my first love, and I couldn’t be happier that I’d never have to search for that again.She was mine forever, and now she was having my baby, and I truly was the luckiest guy I the world.The hot water cascaded down my body, the strain of my erection not going away, not even a little bit.I tried to think of other things, but my mind kept drifting back to Miranda’s delectable hourglass figure.The flat of her beautiful stomach and the swell of her perfect breasts and pink nipples kept me hard as a rock.I didn’t want to have to do this, but I was gonna have a very miserable day if I didn’t get rid of this thing.I lifted my face against the water as my I used my left hand to reach down and reluctantly grab myself, finding little consolation that it would be only four months until I could get home and make love to the queen of my entire world until I couldn’t breathe.***It was go time.A month after my meeting with the general and my CO, intelligence gathered told us the insurgents were planning an attack involving some bombs.They had planned to send three suicide bombers inside a Humvee rigged with explosives through the gates of our base.Oh, hell no.That wasn’t going to happen.Thankfully, we had enough intelligence to know the day, and almost the hour as to when this was going to happen.I felt like a cop on a stakeout as night blanketed the dark desert.Using my binoculars, I watched the front gate of the base for anything suspicious.A few Marines had infra-red equipment and could see a lot farther out than I could.After what felt like hours but was probably more like 45 minutes, I heard the radio transmission through my earpiece that a Humvee was headed our way.It wasn’t American military issued, either.It was definitely the one we’d been waiting for.The other Marines signaled for us to get to the front gate.A tripwire loaded to detonate was set up and armed, and we all hid behind a barricade and waited for the Humvee to hit the wire, hopefully foiling their plans.The problem was, if the suicide bombers were strapped with explosives, and the car was, too, we were in for a hell of a hot lightshow.I placed my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and waited.When the Humvee drove over the wire, only a very small, unimpressive explosion went off.It took out the front two tires, but the three individuals inside remained unscathed.It did succeed in stopping them from entering the base, but it seems we’d also pissed them off.Royally.We were all standing with weapons drawn as the three insurgents exited the vehicle, pointing their own weapons at us and shouting in their language.“Open fire!” someone said, so I began to shoot.They shot back.Thankfully, we took out two, and the other surrendered, his arms in the air, his rifle dangling across his chest over the crude vest he wore.The MPs quickly took his weapon and subdued him.I stood back and let them do their job, as they placed handcuffs on him.“Do not touch that vest, guys,” I said, pointing at it.One of the MPs nodded at me.“Didn’t plan on it, sir.”Two MPs and one Lt.Col.assisted in loading the prisoner into a waiting Hummer, and as the last one about to get into the vehicle, I felt a sharp sting hit me in the back of my right thigh.I cried out in shock, and then yelled again as another painful burning pierced me in the upper back, then the front of my chest.In the moonlight, I looked down in shock to see the vest I was wearing begin to bloom with blood.My right pant leg was also turning black with the spread of blood, and I fell to the ground, grabbing my leg.Hearing screaming, yelling, commands, and finally my name, I tried to respond, but I felt a light was extinguishing inside my head.It was already dark outside, but things turned even blacker as I began to fade away.I tried to keep my eyes open, but they drifted closed, and as the blackness found me, my last thoughts floated to my stepdaughter, my wife, and the tiny life growing inside of her, hoping I would get to see them again.Chapter 23I had to force my eyes open.They wanted to stay closed, heavy and feeling like lead.Lead… like bullets.Bullets! My eyes slammed open.I had been shot.I had been freaking shot.Holy crap.I blinked rapidly, my eyeballs feeling like they’d be dusted with powder.I was in a hospital room.The head of my bed was slightly angled, but not enough for me to see the entirety of the room.I tried to sit up some more, but an excruciating pain shot through my chest, and I gasped in agony.My eyes drifted to the side of my bed where there was a cup and a pitcher.I needed water badly.I felt like I’d been sucking on cotton.My head was pounding.I reached out with my right hand and the pain in my chest intensified.I used my left hand to gingerly pull my hospital gown away and saw a large bandage covering most of the right side of my chest.There were also electrodes attached, whose wires led to a machine, which was beeping on the left side of my bed.I looked down groggily to see a small device attached to the machine lying next to my left hand.It had a button on it, so I gathered up the strength to wrap my hand around it and push the button with my thumb.I was hoping this was one of those self-help things that pushed more medicine into my body.Instead I heard a buzz, and a nurse came in my room quickly.Her graying blonde hair was twisted up to the back of her head, and her pink scrubs fit her snug.The name badge on the lanyard around her neck read “Ella.”“Hey! You’re awake!” she said, smiling.Her smile comforted me, and I tried to be polite and smile back, but I just couldn’t.I felt weak.I didn’t like that feeling.“Water,” was all I managed to croak out.“Of course.” She poured some into a cup and handed me the cup.I drank greedily and sighed at the small relief it brought me.“I need some aspirin or something, ma’am.My chest hurts.”She smiled.“You probably need more than aspirin [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]