Chapter 5
ADAM
The only easy day was yesterday.
Some might have thought yesterday wasn’t easy. I was a POW, but I’d made it through the day alive. I’d lived to fight another day. That was what mattered.
I wasn’t so sure about the person they’d dragged out of the box next to me that first day. At least, I assumed it was a box next to me. There was a distinct sound of metal gliding on metal like when I had been shoved into this fucking box.
I was lying down, my arms folded behind my head, my knees bent so I’d fit inside my dog crate.
It was the best way to describe the metal box they’d shoved me into.
The front portion of the box was so fucking hot during the day.
It had to be sitting out in the open with the sun hitting it from sunup to sundown.
There wasn’t any other way for it to be that fucking hot.
It was only the first few feet from the door, though.
The rest was hot inside the box, but the metal itself wasn’t hot to the touch.
Stuck inside this box for what I believed to be a week, I had nothing to keep me occupied. Other than the times they came for me. The times they tortured me. I didn’t let that shit into my mind. So whenever they popped up, I pushed them out of my mind.
I had to keep the good shit in my head. I couldn’t allow them to break me. That meant I had to find other things to keep my mind occupied. The thing was, there was nothing but thoughts of what I might lose if I never made it back home to right the fuck-ups I’d made.
SPRING 2004
My cock was hard as fucking rock. Nestled up against something soft and warm. The body spooned in front of me felt soft and lush, but the one under my hand wasn’t.
My eyes popped open. Sunlight streamed through the blinds that hadn’t been closed the night before. The brightness pierced my skull, burning a hole through my head into my brain.
I blinked several times until my eyes adjusted to the light. When things finally settled into place and I no longer felt like the sun had taken up residence in my head, shock filled me.
Holy fucking shit!
I was in bed with Brock. My hand gripped his thigh just below his fucking ass. And my dick was half-hard.
What the fucking hell?
A soft sigh came from between him and me. I looked down and saw a mane of dark curly hair covering a girl’s face where she had it pressed into Brock’s thick, hairy chest. Her hand was curled under her chin, twisted in his chest hair.
Chest hair that looked soft and springy. My fingers tingled with the urge to touch it. I closed my eyes and refocused on the girl.
What is her name? Chelsea? Cami? Car…Carly! That’s it.
Her ass was nestled into my lap. Brock’s legs were twined with hers and mine. I took a deep breath, ready to roll away, but Brock’s eyes opened.
Those bright blue eyes that seemed to be able to see my soul peered at me.
They burned with a heat I’d recognized from last night.
His leg twitched under my hand, and when Carly burrowed deeper between us, I realized where Brock’s hand was and that it wasn’t just Carly’s ass that had caused the massive boner that was making me lightheaded.
Brock’s hand gripped Carly’s ass cheek…and also my dick. Lust pooled in my balls, making them ache so bad I couldn’t hold still. I thrust forward, and his hand tightened around me.
I swallowed. Brock’s eyes dropped to watch my mouth and throat. He leaned in, pressing himself closer. His eyes never left mine. I stared at his mouth as his tongue came out to lick his lips. My cock was hard enough to pound nails.
Watching Brock come closer, the heat in his eyes flashed. His lips were wet and pink, maybe even a little swollen and puffy from the night before. It sent a shot of adrenaline to my heart and lungs, causing my heart to race, and my breaths come in soft, shallow pants.
My brain screamed at me while my eyes drifted closed, reminding me that I wasn’t gay. I ignored it because everything in me wanted to know how his lips felt against mine. If they felt half as good as his hand did against my cock, I would…
BUZZ!
BUZZ!
Twin buzzes caused my eyes to flash open. Brock’s gaze met mine. The fire in his smoldering blue eyes went out immediately as the walls flew up, shutting out all the emotion as he backed away.
“Turn off the alarm,” mumbled a girlish voice. The sound was muffled by Brock’s chest and from under the riotous mess of hair.
I rolled my ass out of the bed to find our phones. My pants and Brock’s jeans were in a heap with a pair of tiny-ass tennis shoes and a miniskirt. I pulled my jeans on, leaving the fly open. I grabbed Brock and Carly’s clothes and headed back to the bedroom.
Brock was sitting on the side of the bed with his head in his hands while Carly climbed out of the bed, wrapping the sheet around her as she stared over her shoulder at Brock’s back.
Carly walked by me, stopping to drop a kiss at the corner of my mouth.
Brock glanced over at us but quickly turned away.
Carly took her clothes from me and said, “I had a blast last night, but I’ve gotta get out of here. Y’all be safe.”
She disappeared into the bathroom.
“You cool?” I asked once the bathroom door was shut.
Brock huffed a laugh. “Yeah, man. I’m cool.”
He stood, taking his jeans from me. I couldn’t help it when my eyes roamed his chest and abs. That need to touch and explore flared back to life as I stared at him.
My eyes returned to his face when I finally pulled my gaze away from his body. A confused Brock stared back at me. He’d been watching me check him out.
I sighed and pulled my phone from my pocket. “Fuck! We’ve been called to base. They’re deploying us today.”
Ten hours later, we were wheels up and headed to the sandpit. The brass had decided to send our team ahead of the rest of the unit to relieve the team already in country so they could rotate home after a couple of bad ops.
I’d wanted desperately to talk to Brock about what happened before we left so that we had all our shit together and there wasn’t any weirdness, but even after a week in Iraq, I still hadn’t broached the topic.
I was a complete chickenshit, but a week or so later, Brock found the nerve I didn’t think I ever would’ve.
“Do you do stuff like that often?” Brock asked as we sat out next to the fire pit, trying not to freeze our nuts off.
“Stuff like what?” I asked.
I knew what he meant, but I wasn’t ready to discuss it. I was fucking confused as fuck. The realization I’d had while I was balls-deep in Carly’s pussy had me fucked up.
He looked around before he simply said, “Carly.”
I stared straight into that fire, hoping the heat in my cheeks could be blamed on the heat from the flames.
“Woody? Did you hear me?” Brock asked.
I grabbed water and chugged it, tossing the empty bottle toward the trash can.
“Yeah, and no. Not often. I’ve done it a couple of times, but it’s not a regular thing.” I leaned forward, propping my elbows on my knees. I lowered my voice and asked, “Um, what about you?”
He shook his head no but didn’t say anything for the longest time. “No. I’ve never done that before.”
I stared at him, trying to decide whether he was okay with it or not. He was down at the time. His cock had been so fucking hard I could see the veins popping out along the shaft.
Worried he was weirded out about sex with a dude, even though we hadn’t touched—much—and the shit the morning after had been interrupted, I said, “You okay with how shit played out?”
“Yeah, man. I’m cool,” he said.
But Brock Jones and I had been pretty much joined at the hip since the first day of boot camp.
His mouth said one thing, but his tone and body language said something different.
I was just getting ready to say something when he stood from the chair he was sitting in and walked away, mumbling about getting some sleep.
Over the next week, I pushed gently, trying to get him to open up about whatever was bothering him. He shut me down every time, saying he was fine with it, but I knew there was something he was keeping from me.
Finally, a couple of weeks later, we were again sitting out at the fire pit.
We’d been outside the wire more than we’d been on base.
We were all tired and just trying to chill.
We grabbed showers and chow and then planted our asses here.
We’d been here for hours. It was late, and most of the camp was sacked out.
My pushing finally shoved him over the edge, and the issue came to a head.
“Damn it! I’m fucking fine. I’ve said it over and over. Why are you harping on it?” he yelled, but kept his voice low, flat, and even.
I didn’t believe a word of it. He’d been twitchy since it happened. The longer time wore on, the worse he got. He was quiet, and that scared me because you couldn’t ever shut the fucker up. Now it was like pulling fucking teeth to get a word out of the jackass.
I sighed. “Because you’re not telling me the truth. You’re not yourself, Rocket.”
He had a right to his privacy, but he’d never kept shit from me before. Sometimes he shared too much.
“I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m the same guy you’ve known for four fucking years.”
“Goddammit! Talk to me! If you don’t, I’ll wipe the ground with your motherfucking ass until you get square,” I growled under my breath to keep from cluing anyone around us into our conversation.
“What do you want me to say, Woody? Huh? It’s a little fucking odd sharing a chick with your best fucking friend,” he sighed.
“I want to know that a drunken romp with a chick didn’t fuck shit up with my best fucking friend,” I whispered as I watched someone approach the opening the firepit was in.
Brock sighed, scrubbing his face and head before looking at me seriously. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. I promise.”
A few more weeks went by before Brock’s true feelings came out. We were outside the wire—again—sitting back to back. We were watching for a car to show up so we could take out the guy riding in it and hightail it back to base.
“I wouldn’t mind a hot shower, a hot meal, and a decent bed to sleep in,” I said. My ass had gone numb, and the numbness was trickling down the backs of my legs.
“I wouldn’t mind another night in bed with you,” he whispered.
I spun my head around, trying to get a good look at him. Was he thinking…did he mean…? He’d said with me. But did he mean just me? Or did he mean me and Carly?
“What did you say?” I tried to play it off like I hadn’t heard him, but I had.
The zing of interest that pulsed through my body shocked me. It shouldn’t have because that night with Carly, it was Brock’s name, not Carly’s, that had choked me as I came.
“I didn’t say anything.”
Liar!
Brock had an uncanny knack for altering my life with seemingly little effort. That comment would not leave me alone. I thought about it day and fucking night. It was with me inside the wire and out. Every time I saw Brock’s face or heard his voice, it played in my mind like a song stuck on repeat.
What am I supposed to do with that?
Several weeks later, we were returning from a week-long trek outside the wire, searching for intel on an HVT, and I was fucking exhausted.
I closed my eyes and dropped off to sleep.
I was plagued by dreams all night. The night with Carly replayed itself like a movie, only I wasn’t a participant.
I was an observer who knew the inner workings of one participant’s mind. Mine.
I saw it all. Every sneaking glance I took at Brock. The way he stared at me. How he gripped my thigh and not Carly’s or her hair while she sucked him off. Every single vivid fucking detail was right there, and it scared me.
But it also excited me.