“I thought he was dead. I thought I lost my best friend right in front of me. And it made me think of everyone else I’d lost. All that I have to lose and how it can just be taken in a heartbeat.” He looked up at her.
Harper wiped away the silent tears coursing down her cheeks and wished she could touch him.
“I felt helpless.”
“He’s going to be okay.”
“He got really fucking lucky, Harper. So many times it doesn’t go that way.”
“I need to know that you carrying this on your shoulders isn’t going to make you do something stupid.”
“Like what?”
“I’m new to this military thing, but I assume you have plenty of poor choice options, like going on a rampage, developing a drinking problem, getting careless.”
He sighed and smiled a little. “I’m not going to do any of those things.”
“I know you won’t. I just need some reassurance that you’ll take care of yourself. I need you to come home safe and sane.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that happens,” Luke told her.
“That’s all I ask.” She swiped a hand under her eyes. “Isn’t it the middle of the night there?”
Luke smiled. “It’s the only way I can get this place to myself.” He turned his laptop around, giving her a view his tiny room.
It was Harper’s turn to smile. Intensely private at home and at war.
“Good, that means you can take your shirt off so I can lick my screen.”
That got a real smile out of him and even a hint of dimple. “Baby, if one of us is taking our shirts off, it’s going to be you.”
“Well, if you insist.” Harper tugged her tank top up and flashed him.
She watched those hazel eyes go dark as he set his jaw. She wondered if he had any idea how sexy he was.
“Do you know what torture it is to be able to see you and not touch you?” His voice was raspy, low.
She felt her color rise. “I miss your hands on me. I feel so empty without you touching me. We only had a little time before. But when you were inside me I felt like all the pieces of me were stuck back together.”
He growled. “Baby, you can’t talk like that when I’m seven thousand miles away. His hands cruised the back of his head. God you get me hard even through a shitty video connection. I miss you so fucking much.”
Harper closed her eyes and nodded. “Back at you, Captain.”
“Every time I think about fucking you, I go to the gym. I’m going to need to size up in shirts soon. My bench PR is up 15 pounds already.”
“That’s hot,” Harper teased. “You’re gonna give Aldo a run for his money when you both get home.”
“Have you heard when he’s coming home?”
Harper shook her head. “We’ve exchanged a handful of emails. He thinks it’ll be sooner rather than later. Has he mentioned Gloria to you?”
“I’ve only heard from him twice. Once to assure me he was alive and that I better not be moping around about it, and the other to show me a picture of his surgeon in Germany who looked like Wolverine from X-Men.”
“Gloria’s emailed him twice now and hasn’t heard back. I asked him point blank if he got them and he ignored me.”
Luke shrugged. “I’m sure he’s got a lot on his mind.”
Harper was sure he did, too. And that’s what worried her.
“Show me again,” Luke ordered.
“Show you what?”
“Your perfect tits.”
She wondered if she’d ever stop blushing when he talked to her like that. “You’re sure you’re alone?”
“The WIFI signal is strong enough to work in quarters tonight. I’m all alone, baby. Show me.”
His voice sounded like gravel but still felt like satin on her skin. Harper bit her lip and pulled her tank top up and over her head, baring her breasts to the screen. “Are we going to —”
“Quiet,” he ordered. “I want you to do exactly what I tell you.”
Harper nodded breathlessly. Even from thousands of miles away, he could make her wet enough to soak through her underwear. She angled the phone so he could see more of her.
“Good girl. Now take your shorts off.”
She leaned her phone against one of the couch pillows and stood, shimmying out of her shorts.
“Fuck, baby,” Luke sighed, his gaze glued to the screen. Harper ran a finger over the edge of her light blue cotton of her briefs.
“Get on your hands and knees on the couch. Face me.”
She slid back onto the cushion bracing her weight on her hands. Her breasts hung down, and she ached for his mouth on her sensitive peaks.