Shattered

Chapter 8

Carter

Her lips were heaven, I mean soft and sweet and electric. I have kissed my share of women, but nothing ever felt like this, I knew right then and there, she was the one. The last woman I would ever kiss. If I could have gotten away with it, I would have married her right here, right now. When we broke apart for air, she looked nervous. "OK, let's go eat. I'm starving." She said, sliding off the sink and slipping on a pair of snug-fitting yoga pants. Dear God, they hugged her perfect, tiny, round ass. She had fantastic legs, well everything, but the toned legs that I could picture wrapped around my waist were perfection. 

I followed her back to the kitchen, making sure her leg wouldn't give, but it seemed almost good as new. I had made grilled chicken, baked potatoes and a salad for lunch, she was practically drooling. "It smells great in here. Hero and cook, nice, maybe I will have to keep you locked up in my house. Tell me, do you do windows?" She wiggled her eyebrows at me and I laughed, thinking that I wouldn't mind being locked in her bedroom as long as she stayed there with me. "Of course, raised in a foster home, everything was spotless." She didn't give me pity, she simply knew that it was a touchy subject and left it alone. 

We ate and talked about safer things, her work, Davis and his family, her brothers, my team on our downtime. After lunch, she insisted on washing up, since I cooked. She turned to face me, "Now what? You got me home safely, made sure that  I took care of my leg, cooked, kissed me, we talked, what's the plan now?" She was nervous, but I saw the desire in her eyes, she wanted me as bad as I wanted her, but I wasn't doing that with her. I wanted to take my time. I didn't want one night with her, I wanted all of them. Before I could answer, my phone rang. It was Admiral Connors. "Sir?" I answered, watching her face. She nodded and turned to walk outside, giving me my privacy.

"Stevens, you need to be here in three hours time, ready to go, your team has a job to do. I can't tell you how long you will be gone, but plan for three weeks." Connors barked out. "Yes, sir." Then the line went dead. Well, it looked like that wooing would have to wait. I stepped out on the patio and she turned to look at me, I sighed and rubbed my face, "I have to leave in a couple hours, probably be gone about three weeks, at least that was the word."  She walked towards me and cupped my cheek, "Then allow me to give you a going-away present." 

I wanted to wait and woo her, I wanted her for my wife, to have my children, but then I also knew I could leave here and never come back alive and I wanted to taste her before I died. I lifted her into my arms and carried her upstairs to her bedroom, I paused at the door. "I know that this is fast, but I want you to be mine. If we do this, it's for real. I am tired of one nighters, I want the real thing, Lee and I want that to be with you." She smiled, "Open the damn door, Soldier." I searched her eyes, begging for an answer. "I'm all yours, Carter. Please, don't make me wait." 

I was a goner, I carried her to the bed and made love to her, slowly and tenderly and then the second time was hard and fast. I kissed her goodbye, "I promise to call as soon as I can." She rolled her eyes, "I know the drill, don't worry about me, just bring your team home safe, your whole team, including yourself." She slipped a small picture into my pocket and gave me one last kiss before I drove off. I felt like I was leaving my soul standing on that porch. I plucked the picture out of my pocket and it was one of her, smiling into the camera like she was laughing at the person taking the picture. I flipped it over and she wrote on the back, "Davis said you will want this someday, so I'm taking it under protest, good luck, Soldier. Love, Cap." 

Four and a half months later.............................................

The mission was a cluster fuck, we went into the location with four teams, two teams were captured and we had to work on getting them all out and then, we were quarantined when we returned stateside, due to a diphtheria outbreak in the country we were in. It took forever and I had no contact with Lee, I was dying inside, hoping she had waited for me. I was planning on retiring, I was done with the bureaucratic bullshit of the military. The mission had gone to hell due to someone in an office wearing too many metals, telling us that what we were seeing was wrong. I was done. 

After driving off the base, I drove straight to LT's is was one of the nights I figured Lee would be working the door. I waved at LT at the bar and he came over, "God, man what the hell happened to you?" I snorted, "The same shit as always. Where's Lee, I figured she would be here?" He looked nervous, "You should call her. She can't work the door right now, in her condition, it isn't safe." It felt like the world stopped spinning, "What do you mean, Lt? What's wrong with her?" He shook his head, "Call her, you need to talk to her." My head was spinning, "Did she have the surgery and something go wrong?" He sighed, "You need to talk to her, she couldn't have the surgery because they found something else that made it too dangerous." 

I flew out of there like my ass was on fire, driving straight to Lee's house. I barely had the car in park when I flew to the door and started banging, "Lee! Lee!" Grant opened the door, stress pinched his face, "You're back, thank God. She needs you, be strong for her, Ok" I ran full speed to her room and saw her sitting on her bed, covered in blankets and looking pale as a ghost. "Baby, talk to me. What happened?"