And then, she begins to move. She rocks her hips, rising up and sinking down until she finds her rhythm. Riding me until we’re both breathless.
When she leans back, her light-blonde waves trail over my heated skin, tickling my thighs and my balls, I have no doubt that she’s close. I pinch her clit hard between us, catapulting her into oblivion. I flip her to her back and pound into her, riding out her climax and extending it until I find my own.
Afterward, I hold her in my arms, our breaths sawing in and out of our lungs in tandem, and then I place a tender kiss to her mouth. We can do this, I reaffirm. We’ve got this.
“You’re mine and I’m yours,” I remind her. “Don’t pull away from me again.”
“I won’t,” she vows when she opens her eyes. It’s not a declaration of love, but I’ll take it. “I won’t.”
I pull out and help her from the bed. Together, we shower and dress. I watch in awe as she braids her hair, a style I realize she favors under her helmet.
This time, I’m the one in civilian clothes. Jeans and a T-shirt with a hoodie pulled over. The morning air is cooler with the marine layer rolling in. I lace up my running shoes while she ties her boots blouse them under the legs of her flight suit.
We eat scrambled eggs and drink coffee silently side by side in the kitchen. She seems to be lost in her own thoughts, but this time, she isn’t intentionally putting up walls between us. It isn’t much, but I will absolutely take what I can get. She grabs her keys and says, “I’ll see you at the flight line.”
And then she’s gone.
I finish up around the house before grabbing my own keys and wallet and tucking them in my pockets. I pick up my phone. My seabag is loaded with the things I’ll need when I hit Virginia Beach. My flight leaves later this afternoon.
I jump in my truck and drive out to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. I show my driver’s license to the Marine on duty in the guard shack.
“What business do you have here today?” he asks me.
“Saying goodbye to my girlfriend,” I answer. “She’s flying out today.”
He looks a little surprised and then says, “Have a good day.”
“Thank you, you too.” And then I drive to the airfield where we’re to have our “family kiss and cry.”
I’ve watched married guys before when they left and came home, leaving wives or girlfriends behind. I never thought I’d be the one left behind, but I am totally okay with it. For Mack, I will do anything. I had joked before that I’d make a decent Marine Corps girlfriend, but it’s true. I can keep the home fires burning while she’s gone. I can work to build our lives stateside so that we can continue our lives when she comes home.
Now, I wait at the chain link fence with the wives and girlfriends. Some have kids dancing around with them, dancing around with nervous energy; all give me curious glances, but no one approaches. I don’t fit the mold and that’s okay. With MacKenzie and me there is nothing that fits the mold but it’s so much better, it’s so much more.
Finally, the pilots walk out of the squadron building. Mack stands out amongst the crowd—not because she’s tall or tiny, but because I’m drawn to her on a cellular level. She sees me as they make their way to the fence line and I feel the air between us crackle and spark.
The other pilots pick up their kids or kiss their wives, but I only have eyes for MacKenzie Black. I take her in my arms and kiss her deeply, licking into her mouth, savoring the moment, because it’s going to have to last us nine fucking months unless the company miraculously gives me a contract that will take me back to the desert. I’ll probably fantasize about taking her in a tent in the desert even though it’ll never happen. The erotic imagery will be enough to add to my spank bank for the better part of the next year. But hey, whatever it takes.
We’re both breathless when I pull back, but this time she smiles open and honestly. She’s happy that I’m here with her, saying goodbye and staking my claim before all the wives and girlfriends, that I’m with her and only her. Never before have I wanted to belong to a woman, to be possessed by one person so thoroughly, but MacKenzie owns me, heart and soul. And she doesn’t know it yet, but when she gets back, I’m going to put a ring on it and make her make an honest man out of me once and for all.
A bell chimes from the loudspeaker, and the tension ratchets up in the air. There’s only one thing that sound means. MacKenzie looks sad, but she rallies. That’s my girl, so fucking strong and so brave. I squeeze her tight, letting her know it’s okay; we’ve got this.
“I have to go,” she says, and I know it and hate it, but even hating it, I loosen my hold on her, never wanting to hold her back. I will not ever hold her back and I will always make sure that she has her wings, or what she needs to fly.
And while she doesn’t want to leave me, she loves what she does without a doubt. She even told me that she only feels free when she’s flying. So I would never take that away from her. Not ever.
“You have to go,” I repeat. I kiss her again, this time short but no less deep.
“Kiss me,” she orders when I pull back, and I touch my lips to hers one more time.
“I’ll be waiting,” I promise.
“Have a safe flight to Virginia,” she says as she picks up her helmet bag from the ground.
“You too,” I reply with a wink, making her smile.
She turns to walk away, and then she looks back at me. I know she wants to say something, and I wonder if it could be that she’s ready to share her feelings with me. That she loves me like I’ve been loving her the whole fucking time. But instead, she hesitates and asks, “Think of me?”
“Every fucking minute of every day.”
