Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
“You’re going to kill me is what you’re going to do,” Mateo sobbed. “How is it possible you’re still hard and horny?”
Noah chuckled, pressing his forehead to Mateo’s chest. “Guess I have good stamina.” Each thrust pushed him closer toward the edge. “Plus, I’m really having a good time. If we could stay like this forever, I would.”
“I’d never get anything accomplished.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. We’d have fun, though.
” Right now, he contemplated all the things he wanted to try with Mateo.
Where he wanted to go, once Noah was settled on a team.
Introduce him to his small group of trusted friends.
Getting way ahead of yourself, he knew that, but he didn’t care.
This was more than just a good piece of ass, causing Noah to go crazy. Just had to convince Mateo of that.
“Fuck,” he breathed. “I think I’m coming.”
“You think?”
Noah groaned. “Fuck, I am.” He rocked into him twice more than shoved, as deep as Noah could go before floating on that blanket of euphoria.
His mind stopped spinning. The voice inside his head quieted.
There was peace for a change instead of the chaos he dealt with daily.
Nothing mattered except for them and their time together.
He gathered Mateo in his arms and situated them, so they were both comfortable.
He didn’t want to pull out. He wanted stay right where he was for as long as he could.
In less than twenty-four hours, he’d have to leave Mateo and head back to the base.
The thought left him gut-punched. Noah hadn’t expected the evening to progress as it had, but he also wouldn’t have changed it either.
Had he not gone to the party, he’d have never met the love of his life. It was instantaneous.
Shocking yet settling.
“Please tell me you feel this too,” Noah murmured, pressing his lips to the crown of Mateo’s head. “Tell me it’s not all one-sided here.”
“If you’re talking about the object lodged in my ass...”
Noah snorted, causing them to moan as he flexed his hips. “I’m going to have my hands full with you, aren’t I?”
“This is crazy. But sexual chemistry doesn’t make a relationship, Noah. We don’t even know each other.”
He was right. Again. They didn’t know a lick about each other besides what little they said at the diner. “Then I’ll make a deal with you. Give me six months to prove I’m the guy for you. If I do anything to fuck you over, you’ll never have to see me again.”
“What if I do something you don’t like?” Mateo peered up at him, wariness and indecision warred with the excitement Noah saw there.
“Same goes for you, too. Either way, we’ll figure out if this is all about being horny or if we’re compatible. If we’re compatible, let’s see how far this relationship will take us.”
His fingertips traced a pattern across Noah’s chest and down his side. “What about your job?”
“You being in my life won’t ever hamper doing my job, Mattie,” he said with confidence.
“Though I am sure there will be places I’ll go that I won’t be able to tell you about.
There will be times when you hear about my team, somewhere in the Middle East, or some place just as volatile, and you won’t hear from me until we’re clear.
Those times, we’ll have to trust each other to make it through. ”
“You’re putting a lot of faith in me and our threadbare pseudo-relationship,” he answered, sighing. “I never saw myself with a military guy, especially one like you.”
Noah chuckled softly. “Never saw myself with a history teacher, to be honest.”
“Six months?” He glanced up at Noah, and a thread of hope wiggled free.
“Six months.”
2011
SOMEWHERE…
The incessant beeping of a machine in the distance grated against Noah’s nerves. Darkness shrouded his eyes, and his body felt like he weighed a thousand pounds. Where the fuck am I? How had he gotten there, and what the fuck happened?
The last thing Noah remembered, they were back in Afghanistan, running a mission.
Him and Simon were on a rooftop waiting for their target to arrive, like the guy always did every Thursday.
.. Shit, what day is it again? The pounding in Noah’s head intensified, and his ears began to ring.
The twisting burn of his stomach added to the confusion still swirling within him.
What the fuck...
“Are you with me, Hanover?” A voice echoed in his ear. “Are you able to move?”
A sickening dread filled his gut. The beeping of a machine somewhere in the distance increased. What had he missed? Where am I?
“It was touch and go... Should be lucky to be alive. Stubborn son of a bitch.”
Who was lucky to be alive?
A cool hand touched Noah’s, and he wanted to grab hold, demand answers, but the burn of something washing through his veins tugged him back under to the dark place. A place where there was no light and no sound. Only the void kept him company.
Am I dead?
Am I in a coma?
Didn’t people say when they were in a coma, they heard everything?
Nurses. Doctors. Their family? If that was true, why was he suspended in this blackness where his world disappeared?
Where was Mateo? What happened to his partner?
His husband was in every way that counted, even if the country didn’t believe his marriage was equal or should even be legal.
“Hey...” A whisper made his ear twitch. “Come back to me, mi amor. I can’t do this life on my own.”
Mattie—Mateo. Noah’s everything. His life.
His love. The reason he got up in the morning.
The one thing that kept him company at his darkest hours while in the field.
He was Noah’s meaning and then some. Noah reached for him, or at least he thought he did, but there was nothing to grab onto. He was still there, in oblivion.
Waiting.
Hoping.
Noah didn’t know how long he lie there. How much time had passed before he heard Mateo’s voice again, and this time, Noah did reach for him.
He took Mateo’s hand in his and cracked his eyes open.
Fuck, that was the strangest dream I’d ever had.
Felt like forever since he’d been awake.
The whole world was blurry around him, like he’d had the best hangover and sleep of his life, but he couldn’t remember going to a party with Mateo or getting blacked out drunk, either.
“M-Mattie?” He coughed, his throat drier than the Kandahar Province. His tongue felt worse than sandpaper.
“Noah, mi amor,” he hurried. “You’re awake? Oh, thank God. Thank God.” He took Noah’s hand and squeezed it. “He’s awake. Please tell the doctor he woke up.”
Nothing he said made sense. Doctor? Was he in a hospital? Hanover, what’s your twenty? We’re taking heavy fire... The words whispered through his mind, followed by the crack of gunfire and fragmented pieces of a time before he ended up there?
What the hell happened to me?
“Ah, Mr. Hanover, you’re back with the living,” the doctor said, joining them. “How are you feeling?”
Noah blinked several times as Mateo put a straw to my mouth. He sipped, groaning as the cold water drenched his swollen, rough tongue. Fuck he missed that. Wished it was a beer, though. The whole situation had him fucked up. “Like death.” The hoarseness of his tone had him wincing. “How long?”
“Two weeks,” the doctor replied. “We started bringing you out of the medically induced coma a couple of days ago when your vitals stabilized, and you were finally out of the woods.” He leaned over into the bed and forced Noah’s eyes open.
The penlight burned his corneas, but if he could react to it, he could see.
So, that wasn’t what was wrong with him.
“Let’s go over what happened, shall we?”
He turned his head to the side and spotted Mateo sitting next to him. “Sure, Doc. I’ve got time.”
“You were ambushed on your mission, soldier. Your team took casualties, three to be exact, while you and your spotter were severely injured. When you arrived at Bagram Air Force Base, you were stabilized for transport and airlifted back home to Walter Reed, where you are currently receiving care. Compared to Simon, your injuries are minor. You’ve been shot in the thigh, nicking your femoral artery, and once in the right upper quadrant of your chest.”
“Simon?” Noah coughed and groaned as everything inside of him tightened with pain. “Fuck...that sucks.”
“Burned over thirty percent of his body. He has a graze wound to his head and took one round to his back. We couldn’t retrieve the bullet without paralyzing him,” the doctor answered, cooly and efficiently.
“Callahan...” Drew and him were best friends. Wherever he went, so did Noah. He was also at Noah and Mateo’s commitment ceremony. Though it was more like a party than anything else. Just them, professing their love for each other.
“Unharmed,” the doctor answered. “He’s been pacing the hall outside. Same with your friend here, Mr. Aquino. The remaining members of your team have hovered around yours and Simon’s room, peeking in from time to time.”
“Prognosis?”
“Son, I have to tell you something else.” The doctor’s tone took on such a serious quality, Noah was sure he’d tell him he’d lost a leg or some shit.
Mateo took his hand as the door opened, and the bounce of sun-kissed sandy blond hair joined us. Noah knew that man anywhere. The fucking pretty boy. “Sorry, doc was just being relieved of my duty at Simon’s side. Hadn’t realized sleeping beauty woke up.”
Even with the minimal strength Noah had in his body, it made sense why everything felt so heavy. Even flipping off Drew took what strength he had. “Asshole.”
“Yep, he’s going to be just fine.” Drew smirked. “Laissez les bons temps rouler...”
The doctor exhaled, and the gravity of the situation changed. “I was about to tell him the news before he saw it.”
“Don’t worry about it, Doc,” Drew glanced at Mateo, who nodded. “We’ll tell him.”
He felt like everyone was talking around him, instead of to him.
What was he missing? He’d been in a medically induced coma for two weeks, and when he woke up, Noah found out members of his team were dead, and Simon and he were on the IR list. He sounded like a broken fucking record trying to figure out the situation.
“Fine,” the doctor said. “I’ll leave you to it. We’ll speak again at the end of the day, Mr. Hanover. Until then, you’re on a soft diet. Your nurse will help you, should you need it. Stay off that leg as much as possible for now. Your recovery will take a while.”
“When can we take him outside?” Mateo asked, his voice wobbling.
“Tomorrow. Let’s give him some time to wake up and reacclimate to the land of the living.”
Jesus, fuck, how close was I to dying?
When the door closed, Mateo stepped closer, helping Noah into a sitting position while Drew grinned like a fucking idiot who was way happier than he should be.
Guess he shouldn’t be too rough with Drew, though.
Something had gone horribly wrong if they were ambushed.
Plus, there was the thing they were going to tell him, hanging over them. “Rip the bandage off.”
As quickly as that smugness was there, it vanished, and sadness swamped Drew’s features. Mateo pushed Noah’s greasy hair from his eyes before placing a kiss on his forehead. Someone died. Yes, three members of their team, but there was more. He could feel it.
“The same day our team got ambushed, so did SEAL Team 6. Their Chinook was shot down over the Tangi Valley, killing fifteen of their gold squad. Thirty-eight in all perished.”
Suddenly, Noah couldn’t breathe. Every inhale and exhale was a fight. Gone. Three of theirs and fifteen of team six, in the blink of an eye. How? How had this all happened? “Fifteen?”
Drew grunted. “Yeah, man.”
“Fuck...” He closed his eyes, swallowing hard. “Is it connected?”
“It’s being investigated. You know how this shit goes,” Drew answered. “There was a memorial.”
Goddamnit. Goddamnit all to hell. “Fuck.”
“Mi amor,” Mateo whispered. “I’m so sorry. Drew called me and arranged for transportation here. Everyone has been so worried about you.”
“The guys haven’t left your sides,” Drew added. “We’ve been trading shifts. The guys are with Simon now, relieving me to be here with you and Mateo.”
Fuck... “Of all the shit that could have happened.”
Drew grunted. “Got you a shiny purple heart. Heard a rumor when you get out of here, you’re up for a bronze star.”
Noah couldn’t wrap his head around what Drew was saying. “What?”
“You brave and stupid son of a bitch,” Drew joked, yet was serious at the same time, “you put out the fire on Simon’s back, then went back to shooting while you were leaking fluid. Didn’t stop either until you passed out when the medic got to you.”
He had? “I don’t remember shit.”
“Probably won’t,” he replied. “You lost a lot of blood.”
Noah glanced at Mateo for confirmation. When he nodded, Noah shook his head. “I’m a fucking idiot.”
“You saved all of us, is what you did,” Drew replied. “Take the win.”
Yeah. Right. The win.
Noah spent three more weeks in that bed, going through rehab, working on walking again.
Eventually, all the stitches came out, and all that was left of the incident was two pink scars, reminding him how close he came to death.
It was also the day Mateo and he agreed, it was time to retire.
Noah gave twelve years of his life to Uncle Sam, now he wanted to move on and do something different.
What that was or how their lives would change, he couldn’t say. But he looked forward to it.
As Noah stepped onto the balcony of Mateo’s apartment, breathing in the brine of the bay overlooking the Pacific Ocean, he felt a sense of freedom he hadn’t known he’d craved or been so fucking afraid of.
Not having a routine. Not having to set an alarm to wake up in the morning.
.. Shit. He had to find something to do, or else he’d go stir crazy or worse, drive Mateo insane.
That’s when Noah was marked for private security, and their lives changed one more time.