By Honor Bound (5 page)

Abe ducked from under her skirt and slid up her body, holding her close. The thickness of his erection pressed against her and she couldn’t resist reaching down to trace it through his pants.

“Never in my life have I imagined anything like that, Abe.” She touched a hand to her cheek. “I must be blushing like crazy.”

“Yeah.” He grinned. “Your pretty cheeks are about as red as the devil’s hiney.”

She grasped a dishtowel and playfully slapped him with it. “That was a wicked thing you did! I was on the phone with my mother!”

“And you looked mad enough to say something you might have regretted later. I was just trying to save you from yourself, darlin’.”

Angela laughed. “You, Master Sergeant Forbes, are incorrigible.”

“And damn hungry. So how about those eggs?”

While Angela finished preparing breakfast, Abe switched on the small television at the end of the table and turned to the news.

“Maybe they’ll say something about when this ice will melt,” he said.

“Good idea. I hope it’s not too—” Angela’s voice faded as she approached the table, spatula in hand, and stared at the television screen. Rage boiled inside her at the sight of police attempting to restrain a group of screaming war protestors. Shouts of baby killers and murderers accompanied hand drawn signs depicting anti-war symbolism.

“Stupid bastards!” Teeth clenched, she turned off the set.

 “I suppose that’s why we fight, so stupid bastards like that can have the freedom to protest if they want to.”

She turned to him, her stomach twisting. “I really don’t give a damn about them. All I know is my brother is dead while these protesting weasels sneak across the border or sit in some college lecture hall to avoid their duty.”

“Not everyone has the guts to do what Jim did.”

“Or what you do.” Some of her anger faded as she slipped her arms around his neck and he tugged her onto his lap. “Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with anyone who’s against fighting, but they have no right to treat you badly. I shudder to think what would happen to this country without soldiers protecting us.”

“I knew a boy from the Army against fighting in ‘Nam. Nice kid. He protested by not carrying arms.” A far-off expression clouded Abe’s eyes and Angela nearly shivered. “I watched him die. Legs blown off. He had guts, though, in his own way. I have to respect him for holding onto his beliefs but not shirking his duty.”

“I can’t stand to think about what you went through over there, Abe. When I see those
people
shouting, waving signs, and spitting at soldiers, I feel mad enough to wring their necks!”

Lifting his head he smiled and took her chin in his hand. “I’ll be damned if you don’t have quite a temper, Miss Franco.”

“When it comes to people I care about not being treated right, I can get riled very easily.”

“So it’s safe to say you care about me, even though we haven’t known each other long?”

“I care about you, Abe.” She held his gaze. “If I didn’t want to sound like a fool, I’d say I’m already in love with you.”

“You could never sound like a fool, Angela.” His lips hovered over hers. “Not to me.”

His lips grazed hers when she jerked away, startled by the scent of burning food.

“The eggs!” She jumped off his lap and raced to the stove where smoke rose from the charred eggs in the bottom of the frying pan.

While she turned off the stove and flung the pan in the sink, he opened the kitchen window to clear the air.

Raising an eyebrow, he said, “So much for scrambled eggs.”

“I’m not usually such a bad cook. I guess I’m distracted by a handsome hunk of Marine sitting in my kitchen.”

A hint of a blush colored his ears, yet he teasingly said, “The ladies find us boys irresistible.”

“And modest.” She winked. “Jim was just a shy wallflower, too.”

He couldn’t resist another hug and kiss. Keeping his hands off her was next to impossible. Why hadn’t he accepted Jim’s offer years ago to visit his family? He and Angela would have gotten together long before now and been able to spend time with Jim, too. Abe mentally chastised himself. What good would have come out of them meeting sooner? Then she would have had two POWs to worry about.

Damn it, Forbes? How dumb are you?
He swallowed hard. If this relationship continued, it certainly wouldn’t ease her concerns. He was a United States Marine. It was all he knew how to be. Would she want to spend the rest of her life with him, traveling from base to base, waiting months, sometimes years, for him to come home, hopefully alive and in one piece?

“Keep kissing me and we’ll miss breakfast completely.” She gazed at him with those big, beautiful eyes and his heart, frozen by battle, melted. “How about some hotcakes?”

With a nod, he released her and watched as she opened the cupboard and got out supplies for making hotcakes. He imagined what it would be like if they were married. What would she look like plump with his baby inside her? How would it feel knowing that no matter where he was or what happened, she was waiting for him?

Selfish son-of-a-bitch
. But he couldn’t help it. Master Sergeant Abraham Marley Forbes had fallen in love.

Chapter Five

Knees bent, crouching as low as seventy-five pounds of equipment strapped to their backs would allow, Abe and his unit moved silently through the jungle. Their senses so heightened by survival instinct they could almost hear their heartbeats, they knew death was out there, waiting. They smelled it, felt it. How many times had they already escaped it and when would their luck run out?

Abe motioned with his head for them to start moving in the direction of a clearing. The village was ahead. They were friendlies. The unit had lived with them for a while, providing some much-needed medical care and getting to know some of the families. If they were lucky they could stop there now.

It took only moments to reach the village. Strange. No one was around, even though it was the middle of the day. Abe tensed, sweat trickling down the back of his neck, his gear suddenly too heavy. He took a step closer to one of the huts and the gear pushed him ankle deep into the muddy ground. Glancing around, he noticed several of the others were already waist-deep in the muck. Another step and Abe was in it to his knees. His hand tightened on his rifle and his pulse raced. He tried licking his parched lips, but his tongue was just as dry.

A little more and he’d be at the nearest door.

He reached out to push on it and shouted, shielding his eyes as the door blew off. His skin burned, but to his surprise he was still in one piece, though waist-deep in mud. Pushing through what was left of the door he stared for a moment at the carnage. Severed heads, the eyes wide in horror, scattered around him. Scraps of wood, dark with blood, lay amidst piles of bloody feet, arms, legs, and hands.

* * * * *

“Abe!” Angela shook his shoulder, her pulse racing.

He turned so fast she didn’t have a chance to react and pinned her beneath him, his eyes glaring into hers. Sweat misted his face and his breath came in short pants. His anger faded suddenly and he sat up, glancing around the room.

“I’m sorry.” He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Must have forgotten where I was.”

Still shaken, Angela also sat up, pulling the sheet around her. Moments ago, she’d awakened to his groaning and thrashing. Moonlight bathing the room told her it was late and Abe was having one hell of a nightmare.

 “Are you all right?” She cupped his cheek in her hand. “Want to talk about it?”

“No.” He jerked away from her touch.

She rested her hands on his chest. “But—”

“I said no!” He grasped her wrists and placed them firmly at her sides before lying down with his back to her. “Go back to sleep.”

Angela gritted her teeth. A smart woman would have been afraid of an angry six-foot-three Marine, but a smart woman wouldn’t have slept with him so fast in the first place.

“Give the orders to someone else, Master Sergeant,” she snapped. “I’m not one of your damn soldiers!”

Not bothering to see if he’d reply, she left the bed, taking the covers with her, and trudged to the living room.

She’d just settled onto a corner of the couch and closed her eyes when she felt the cushion beside her sink. Abe wrapped his arms around her and held her to his chest. Still angry, she contemplated shoving him away as he had done to her.

“I’m sorry,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “I shouldn’t have turned you away like that.”

“I was just worried about you, that’s all. When I woke up I wasn’t sure what was wrong at first.”

“It was only a dream. I get ‘em sometimes.”

“Was it about what happened to you?”

“It was about ‘Nam, if that’s what you mean.”

Slipping her arms around his waist, she tilted her face up to his. “Isn’t there someone who can help you with…with that kind of thing?”

“What, you mean a shrink? I’ve been talking to them. They can’t just fix it, though. The mind isn’t like some broken part of an engine or something. At least that’s the kind of shit they tell me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need pity. I’m proud of the job I do.”

“I don’t pity you. I guess I’m sorry we need people like you to experience those horrors so the rest of us don’t have to.”

He cupped her face in his hand and stroked her cheek with his thumb. She was so soft, so gentle, yet there was underlying strength to Angela. Not only was she getting over the loss of her brother, but she was raising his child on her own while dealing with those crazy parents of hers. She shared her thoughts and feelings with Abe, and she encouraged him to do the same. How many other women would take some battle-scarred Marine into their bed and want to know about the nightmares haunting his sleep?

 “It’s late. We should go back to bed,” he said. “Unless you’re afraid to sleep with me now.”

“Terrified.” She smiled, grasping his wrist as she stood and tugging him to his feet. “Let’s go. Maybe I can think of something to get us both tired enough to collapse into a deep, dreamless sleep.”

Raising an eyebrow, he followed her to the bedroom and remade the bed.

She slipped beneath the covers and settled between Abe’s spread legs.

“Umm,” she moaned with lust as she slipped an arm beneath his rock-hard thighs and pressed her lips to his balls. His cock twitched awake from where it lolled in its nest of hair. She laved it and traced the head with her tongue.

His fingers wove through her hair and he bent his knees. Sliding her hands from his legs, she cupped his balls in one fist, squeezing gently, and clasped the base of his rapidly stiffening cock in her other, pumping the shaft as she continued licking and sucking the head.

“Damn it, woman, you’re a fast learner!”

She smiled around his cock, loving the warmth of his soft skin textured with veins, the muscle beneath rock-hard. Taking the head between her lips, she sucked quickly over and over until his breath rasped. One thing about Abe, he wasn’t a man who moaned and groaned as passion grew. Only at the final moment would he let loose a cry that made her shiver from head to foot just from hearing it. Knowing that her kisses and caresses provided enough pleasure to shatter the control of this modern day warrior thrilled her. She waited for that cry of surrender, that audible proof of his need for her touch.

Taking his cock so deep into her mouth that the head brushed the back of her throat, she withdrew it slowly. It popped free and she kissed the tip before sliding lower, wrapping her arms around one of his thighs and rubbing her breasts against it. The sensation of his curling hair and hard muscle hardened her nipples and made her wet with need.

“You have the longest, sexiest legs of any man I’ve ever seen,” she breathed, kissing him from thigh to knee. “I feel like I’m making love with a granite carving of Odin or Zeus or something.”

“I guess I’m a classical beauty, huh, darlin’?” Amusement laced his voice.

“From what I can see.” She kissed his hips and lapped his hard, muscle-ridged belly. God, she could kiss him day and night and never grow tired of it! “And taste.”

“And feel?” He grasped her arms and hauled her up his body until her breast dangled over his mouth. He took her nipple between his lips and sucked it gently. As his tongue swirled over the sensitive nub, she gasped. Clasping his sides with her knees, she took his cock and slid it inside her.

“Umm,” she groaned, reluctantly pulling away from his teasing mouth so she could ride his big, sleek body as fast and hard as she liked.

As she bucked and writhed atop him, her hot, drenched pussy filled by his thick, hard cock, he fondled her breasts. Pleasing him inspired such passion within her that she couldn’t leave him even if it meant her life. She needed him so badly! His thumbs rolled over her nipples and he watched her through half-closed eyes.

God, she was beautiful, with her head thrown back, lush breasts thrust toward his hands, and curvaceous hips working against him. The soft, smooth expanse of her bottom continually brushed his thighs. So many sensations had him panting, his cock straining as he tried holding off his climax just a little longer, just a little—

With a throaty cry of fulfillment she came, her face and breasts flushed, her moist lips parted, and her eyes tightly closed. Abe’s eyes squeezed shut and he groaned deep in his chest as his hips lifted and he pumped into her. Intense pleasure shot through his entire body.

Angela melted onto his chest. His arms wrapped around her, and he murmured, “I love you, Angela Franco.”

“I love you, too, Abraham Marley Forbes,” she whispered in a drowsy voice before they both drifted into a deep, contented sleep.

Chapter Six

“Angela! Where are you, darlin’?”

“Abe?” she shouted from the basement. He opened the door, watching as she trudged up the steps, her rubber boots squeaking. “It’s flooded down here! One of the pipes broke.”

He opened the door, his brow furrowing as he glanced from her to the water on the floor below. She could only imagine the sight she made, dressed in her old dungarees and plaid shirt with her hair tied up in a red kerchief.