Crazy Enough

Crazy Enough: Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Corkie lay on her bed, facing the wall, and trying hard not to cry anymore. She left her door open, praying that a cross-breeze from the window would cool the stuffy room and let her sink into a deep sleep. But she couldn't shut down, or ignore those emotions of guilt and heartache...or the feeling of abandonment by Alex's rejection, which was stupid of her because she didn't fall for lug-headed Army Rangers.

All that energy between them burst inside her, and it was their three days together, all over again, compacted into a single heartbeat. She could not imagine spending another three days, or months, or lifetimes, without him around to tell her what to do, where to go, or locking her behind furniture and doors. But his dismissal from his room splintered her soul. In the few minutes with him that night, while he comforted her, held her, kissed her, she felt more at peace and safer than ever.

She knew that his work and mission were more important than she'd ever be. How she yearned to be with him now, craved him like a tonic that would soothe her body, mind and reckless spirit. She laid there, eyes clenched tightly shut, hands clasped against the pain in her heart, legs and arms rigid with the misery of her loneliness...

Then a floorboard creaked behind her, metal pressed to the base of her skull, and a pistol cocked, an echo of sound in her small room. "Don't make a move or a sound."

Corkie smiled in the darkness. Alex. He came to her...he was here, when she needed him most...

"It took you long enough," she whispered thickly. And just like that night at Juan's, she flipped over, disarmed him, and he tumbled into the bed with her.

"Hi," he said, settling on top of her.

"Hello," she replied politely enough, though her heart was singing and her eyes suddenly stung with the elation of him with her. "Was that loaded?"

"No," he said with a laugh. "I wasn't taking the chance you'd shoot me."

"What are you doing here? I thought you said this was stupid."

He smiled as he gazed warmly into her eyes. "I'm stupid; you're crazy. There's no rationalizing this, Corkie." Then he kissed her, and she felt that familiar burning sensation in her belly.

"Alex," she sighed when he began to lick down her neck. She touched his jaw, scratching her fingernails on his day-old whiskers. "I missed you."

He raised his head. "I missed you, too, Corkie," he said honestly. "I've tried like hell not to, but..."

She waited for him to finish. "But what?"

He smiled into her eyes. "But you're damn difficult to forget. You and those big blue eyes, and your laugh, and don't forget those rainbows of yours. I tried, I really did. You are reckless and insane and too damn trusting." He kissed her softly. "But you're captivating and adorable and so damn sexy, I ache for you."

Shivers of delight shot through her extremities, contrasting with the warmth of the room and his body on hers, and she said, "I ache for you, too."

He claimed her mouth again, running his hands down her sides, stopping to murmur against her lips, "What are you wearing?"

"My pink pajamas," she said, arching her back into him, loving how he felt along her legs and belly, and she touched his bare back, his muscles rippling under her fingertips. "I thought you liked them."

"I'll like them better on the floor," he said, sliding the straps down her arms and pushing the whole ensemble, both pieces, down to her knees.

"Okay," she moaned and traced her fingers down Alex's spine, until they hit the waistband of his cotton shorts, and she pushed, baring his sculpted butt to her touch. "The door...I left it open."