Operation: Endgame (5 page)

He slowly rubbed his hand up and down her back and started quietly talking. “I don’t think you ever heard about the summer Chris got caught in the cheerleaders’ dressing room. It was the summer you went to DC for that youth leadership camp. I think you were fifteen. You remember, he had that huge crush on Brittany Spencer and she was on the JV cheerleading squad. They were having a cheerleading camp at the high school for a week that summer.” Jake could feel Cassie starting to relax a bit as she started paying attention to his story.

He continued to lightly caress her spine. “He got it in his head we could get in there and hide out to see them all change clothes. I went along with him, but thought he was an idiot. We were definitely going to get caught. Well, damn, if we didn’t, but not before we got a full show. It was amazing especially for two horny teenage guys.” Jake gave a quiet chuckle as he continued to quietly soothe her. “The problem is, after they left, we were too busy congratulating each other on all the amazing sights we’d seen, and we didn’t hear anyone coming back in. That was how he met Gwen, his girlfriend in high school. She didn’t tell a single soul. Just came in with a shocked look at finding two guys in the locker room. Damn, she was awesome. She walked right up to Chris, laid on him the hottest kiss I’d ever seen at that age and then told us to never do it again.”

Suddenly, Jake realized Cassie was no longer sobbing, but she was still clinging to his chest and had started kissing it. Immediately, his cock hardened and Jake became aware he was only wearing boxer briefs and Cassie wasn’t wearing anything more than her panties and thin tank top. He started to push her back, “Cassie stop. You don’t want to do this.”

She looked up at him with her baby blues filled with unshed tears. They glistened in the low light streaming into the bedroom from the hallway. “Please Jake. Just for tonight. I need to know we’re alive.” Another tear dropped off her eyelash and rolled down her cheek as she whispered a quiet, “Please,” and stroked his hard length through his boxer briefs.

Jake groaned and looked into her tormented eyes for a second, and then two seconds more, before he gave in to what they both needed. He lowered his face to hers and took her lush lips in a kiss. She tasted like plums and wintergreen… the taste he remembered from their single shared kiss when she was eighteen years old. This had always been the taste of home that kept anyone else from claiming his heart. She felt it too. She immediately opened her mouth to his, moaned his name, and arched up to meet his body.

Her every soft curve fit the hard planes of his body perfectly. He pressed her back into the pillows as he reached up and palmed her breast in his hand. He could feel her pebbled nipples through the thin material of her tank top. She moaned under him and wrapped her legs around his waist as he caressed and rolled her nipples between his fingers.

His erection was nestled into the v of her tiny thin panties and he could feel the moist heat of her down his full length. His hips moved of their own accord trying to settle into her. Her warmth teased him even through the layers of their clothing.

Cassie was caressing him everywhere…one hand was working down the planes of his pecs while the other grasped and pulled at the muscles across his back. She nuzzled at his neck, leaving little love bites up around his ear, down the side of his neck, and across his collar bone. Her breath was a whisper of sensation that sent chills and spasms of sensations directly into his fully erect member, drawing his balls up tight to his body. He needed to be in her and soon.

He reached one hand into the waistband of her panties, seeking out her core, and found her to be dripping. A moan escaped her at his touch. She was just as aroused as he was. He rubbed the pad of his finger up and around her clit as she arched to get closer to him. He teased at her folds until finally she was desperate, “Please Jake. Stop teasing me. Touch me. Please.” Her voice was breathy.

Her pleas were urgent with a need he couldn’t ignore. He inserted one finger into her and immediately felt her muscles grasp, pull, and grab at him. She was so tight, wet, and silky smooth. The thought of having his cock within her sent another sweet torturous spasm through his balls which released a small bead of pre-cum flooding to the tip of him. He inserted another finger and Cassie whimpered as her hips moved in unison with his fingers.

She reached down below the waistband of his boxer briefs and wrapped her fingers around his generous length. She moved up and down him following the rhythm he was setting with his own fingers. The friction was driving him insane with need.

They had way too many clothes on for this. Obviously Cassie agreed because as he started to pull off her tank top, she ripped his boxer briefs off his body. As he lowered her panties down her legs, he took in their long, tanned, smooth length. She had a runner’s body, but still managed to maintain a gorgeously feminine amount of curves. As he looked over her beautiful body, his mouth started to water with the wonder of her. She was so damn gorgeous. He met her eyes and saw matching desire there. Her pupils were blackened with desire and her lips swollen from their kisses.

He laid her back against the mattress and slowly crawled his way back up her body pressing kisses along his way, starting at her feet, past her ankles. His hands curved around behind her toned tanned thighs, but he had to pause when he spotted her moist folds. He licked his lips. Cassie had been watching him as he progressed, breathing harshly, but when he licked his lips, she moaned. It was a temptation he couldn’t resist. He dipped his mouth in to taste. She even tasted like plums here. As he inserted his tongue into her, she met the thrusts of his tongue. When he flicked her clit, she shattered as her climax exploded within her.

He continued to lap at her while she rode the waves of ecstasy, but once the pulsing subsided; he continued his exploration up her body. He dipped his tongue into her belly button and caressed the side of her hip with a sprinkling of kisses while he fondled her breasts with his hands. Finally his mouth found the hard nubs of her nipples, and he could sense the fireworks building again.

She needed him inside her. While he laved her breasts with sensual kisses, Cassie fumbled one handed in the drawer of her side table and snagged a condom. Her other hand continued to stroke him up and down. She ripped open the foil packet and leaned up to roll the latex over him. She spread her thighs and drew him up her chest to look him in the eye. “Jake, oh God.” She could feel him nestled against her folds and it felt so right. “Jake, I need you. Now.” He could hear the desperate arousal in her voice.

Jake leaned down to kiss her and slowly, so slowly, started to enter her. As he felt her moist heat engulfing him, he couldn’t control the groan which tore from his chest. He watched her face as he entered. Her pupils dilated with passion and lust. Finally he was fully seated within her and it felt so good, so tight, so right. Jake took a deep breath to try to bring down the out of control feeling which meant this was going to end too soon if he didn’t find some semblance of calm. But when she shifted her hips up to meet him, all calm and control was gone. He couldn’t stop his body from acting on instinct and pulled almost completely out before slamming back into her….over and over again.

Cassie’s hips rose up to meet every thrust with equal passion. Jake felt the tingling start at the base of his spine which meant eruption was imminent, but he wasn’t going to come without her. He reached down between their bodies and tweaked her clit, once, twice, and then he felt her muscles start to contract around him as her control shattered and she screamed his name. Jake couldn’t hold off any longer as he levered into her spasming muscles. He groaned long and hard as his release shuddered.

Jake pressed his forehead against hers and closed his eyes, while his breathing leveled out. He was in Heaven, but he was also in Hell. Damn, what had he just done?

After getting up to discard the condom, Jake crawled back into the bed. Cassie snuggled into his chest, but neither one of them said a word. He laid there calling himself all sorts of an idiot internally for about 15 minutes before he felt the wetness on his chest. She was crying. It was silent, but there was no denying she was crying.

The guilt assailed him. It was bad enough he’d let Chris die, but now he’d taken advantage of Cassie in her grief. He was the lowest of low and, even worse, he didn’t know how to fix it. He just caressed her bare back slowly up and down. How had things gotten so out of control? What the hell happened and how did he let it happen?

Finally, he felt Cassie relax into sleep, but Jake couldn’t force himself to fall back to sleep. He just laid there cursing himself in self-flagellation. He was the biggest sort of scum.

Finally, at 5:00 AM, he couldn’t handle the heaven of lying there with her in his arms any longer. It was wrong. It was wrong for the memory of Chris. It was wrong for his friendship with Chris. Hell, it was wrong for his friendship with Cassie.

He gently shifted her sleeping form out of his arms and got dressed. He went into the guest room and grabbed his duffle.

He stepped back into Cassie’s room and watched her sleep. She was so damn beautiful with her flaming red hair fanned out over her pillow. He found heaven for an hour last night, but it had cost him. Two weeks ago, he had two of the best friends a guy could ask for. One he’d let die. The other he’d taken advantage of in the worst possible way. He felt the tears well as he silently stalked over to the bed and gently brushed a kiss to her shoulder. “I’m sorry…so damn sorry,” he whispered to her, his voice shuddering and cracking with emotion. “Goodbye Cass,” he murmured into her hair.

As the front door clicked with a close, Cassie sat up in bed and pressed the pillow to her face. It smelled like Jake and she felt the tears stream down her face once more.

Six Months Later

Jake fumbled to get the key in the lock, when he heard the phone ringing inside his apartment. Damn crutches. They made everything that much harder including getting his damn door open. Finally, the lock slid home and he limped over to the phone. He didn’t have time to look at the caller id, so he just picked it up, “Madsen here.”

“Jake? I was beginning to think you weren’t home, man.” Aw, damn. It was Colton. This was just the perfect fucking ending to a perfectly awful fucking day…make that month…hell, it had pretty much been a fucking awful six months.

“Hey, Colton. Sorry. I was just coming in the door and I’m on crutches, so it’s fairly slow going right now. What’s up?” He hadn’t talked to Colton in a few months. They may have all been friends, but without Chris and Cassie, his ties to Colton had disappeared.

“Crutches? What happened?”

“I landed wrong on a jump and broke my left tibia. Another week or so and I should be rid of the cast and the crutches. It can’t happen soon enough.”

Colton chuckled. “I hear you on that. Are you still able to drive?”

“No problem. It’s my left leg. Why?” Jake had a sinking feeling he wasn’t going to like where this conversation was going.

“Listen, Jake, I need a favor. Something’s going on with Cassie. I’d go home and check on her myself, but they’re about to ship me out on a deployment and it’s not a mission I can get out of. I know things haven’t been great between the two of you since the funeral, but I think she needs some help. Can you go check on her for me?”

Jake groaned inwardly. He wasn’t sure he could handle seeing Cassie yet. He missed her desperately, but that night haunted him.

“I wouldn’t ask, but I’m just getting a really bad vibe from her. This is her first Christmas since Chris died and she’s all alone. I didn’t know who else to call that I could trust. You know her. Anyone else, she could snowball them into believing whatever she wants them to. Whatever else you two have been, you’ve always been able to figure her out and convince her to do the right thing. I’m worried about her Jake. Something’s not right and it’s not just her grief over Chris.”

Jake closed his eyes and leaned his head up against the cabinet with a big sigh. “Yeah. No problem. I should be able to take leave for the weekend. I’m just doing desk jockey duty anyway, so it’s not like they’ll miss me. I’ll talk to my commander tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Jake. Believe me, I’m not requesting this lightly, but I’m worried about her. I’m getting a bad vibe and she’s all alone. She needs you, especially now that Chris is gone. Whatever happened back in May…” He paused. “You two have been friends for over 20 years. I can’t imagine anything’s worth throwing that away. She needs you and I think you need her too.”

“Thanks, Colton. We’ll see.” But Jake had to wonder if Colton would still feel that way if he knew exactly what did happen. Not bloody likely. “I realize you’ll probably be out of communications while downrange, so I’ll send you an email if I figure out anything with Cass, okay?”

“Sounds good. Thanks Jake…and take care of that leg. No more bad jumps, kay?”

Jake chuckled. “You can count on it. Bye Colt.”

The next day, Jake hobbled into the commander’s office and up to Sally’s desk. Sally was the 79
^th
Rescue Squadron Commander’s secretary. She’d been on base forever and knew everyone. Jake guessed her age to be somewhere between fifty and one hundred years old and he couldn’t nail it down any closer than that. There were days she seemed ancient and she could scare the bejeezus out of the toughest of soldiers.