Free Hold On! - Season 1 by Peter Darley

staging?”
    He looked away, loathing having to give the only answer he could. “Yes. All I have is the equipment I stole. There’s nothing else I can do. If I’m apprehended, I’ll be charged with desertion and theft of government property. They could put me away for a very long time.”
    Belinda slapped the arm of the chair. “It’s absurd. They could take your freedom from you because you tried to save innocent people? What kind of a world do we live in when the law could allow something so cruel and ridiculous?”
    He placed his hand on hers appreciatively.
    “I’m so sorry, Brandon. At least now I understand what you’re all about. I wish you’d have told me this before.”
    “I had to know if you could handle it,” he said. “I mean, this is terrifying stuff.”
    There was a long silence as they stared at one another. Her compassion and understanding touched him profoundly, and the moment caught him by surprise. His heart raced, but he wasn’t afraid or uncertain this time.
    She touched his cheek, and for once, he permitted himself the luxury of responding. Regardless of the outcome, the fact that the burden had been taken out of his hands brought a sense of liberation to him.
    Their mouths met, ensnaring him in the grip of passion. His body cried out for her touch, but his sexual inexperience consumed him again. My God, what the hell am I doing?
    Flashes came before his eyes—his experiences on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and the sight of his buddies falling to enemy fire. Every one of them had been cold in their treatment of women. He questioned if that was why? Was it because they knew they were going to die? That screwing so many women was their only chance of preserving their genes? That can’t be what this is all about.
    “It’s all right,” she whispered, her breath coming in short, excited bursts.
    He knew there was nothing unknown about it to Belinda. But to him it was an experience both alien—and yet strangely familiar. Somewhat free of his burdens, he felt he knew what to do instinctively.
    He gently picked her up in his arms and lowered her gracefully onto the rug in front of the log fire. Regardless of how many times he’d visualized this moment in his mind, nothing could ever have prepared him for it. He unbuttoned his shirt, discarded it, and knelt down. The situation had taken hold of them both with such spontaneity. It was a moment that had been given to them so perfectly.
    Slowly easing his way forward, he cautiously removed her jeans. He noticed the skin on her thighs was smooth and flawless, with the most delectable bronze coloring.
    In a dreamlike state, he brought his mouth to her groin and kissed her intimately, drawing her into a frenzy of passion. The pure, sensual scent of her gripped his senses, inducing a tempest of unbridled desire within him.
    She pressed her hips downwards and moaned, revealing to him that he’d found his target. That knowledge urged him on to caress her tenderly with an intense need to please her.
    After a few moments, he stood and cast off his pants. He knelt down again and rested his elbows on either side of her, his torso inches above hers.
    She cried out as they became as one for the first time. For Brandon, it was a moment of wonder. The tenderness he felt for her was so real, he had difficulty imagining they’d ever been anything other than lovers. The sensation of her body was beyond his most vivid fantasy.
    He’d heard of how men usually finished far too early on their first time, but he was determined not to disgrace himself in that way. Control. Stay in control.
    For long, exquisite minutes, they drowned in one another’s eyes as he took her breath away with each gentle stroke of his pelvis. It was an agony of ecstasy for him as he was repeatedly forced to slow down and resume, determined to keep going for however long he needed to.
    After a seeming eternity of surfing the line between sensual torment and delight, the cabin came