Free HOSTILE: A Military Romance Novel (Military Men Book 1) by Leila Haven Page A

it, I took a few deep breaths to calm my raging boner.
     
    Getting back to base and handing Ariana over couldn’t come soon enough.
     

Chapter 9
Ariana
     
     
         ҉     ҉     ҉     ҉     ҉     ҉
     
     
     
    I hated him.
     
    He had no right to use me for his pleasure and then decide it meant nothing. When we were lying together after having sex, I’d thought there was something more between us.
     
    I’d felt it somewhere deep inside. It was a feeling of content and completion. It wasn’t just an easy fuck. It may have started off as one, but I know it didn’t end that way.
     
    If Derrick was now denying it, then he didn’t deserve me. He could continue on with his one-night stands and stay the clichéd bachelor forever. He would die an old and lonely man with huge regrets.
     
    One of them would be me.
     
    I just wished my brain wouldn’t keep playing back the highlights for me. Every time I closed my eyes I felt his capable hands on me, his thickness between my legs, those eyes burning with intensity as he gazed at me in the throes of passion.
     
    My body yearned for him. With every beat of my heart I wanted to feel his hands on me again. It wasn’t just the situation now. I needed his intimacy more than I’d ever thought possible.
     
    Corporal Derrick Watson had a hold on me and I couldn’t shake it off, no matter how hard I tried.
     
    I’d never been that kind of a woman, one that needed a man and went crazy if she couldn’t have him. Now I was starting to question it. But it wasn’t just any man that I was insane for; it was Derrick, and he was being completely impossible. It was like he didn’t even want me around.
     
    Our room only had one bed, so we had to share. I was tempted to sleep naked just to tempt him but decided against it at the last minute – I wasn’t that brazen. More likely, he would just be able to tell how horny he made me and then gloat about it.
     
    It felt almost normal sharing a bed with Derrick. The weight of his body next to mine as we tried to find some rest felt right. All I wanted to do was turn over and snuggle into his side.
     
    I was asleep before I could enact any of my ideas, slumber taking me away with sheer exhaustion.

 
    * * *
     
     
     
    “Ariana, wake up.”
     
    Someone was shaking me, trying to get me to wake up, but it was so nice being lost in my dreams. The current nightmare of our situation didn’t exist in my wonderland.
     
    “Ariana, we don’t have time for this. Get up!” Derrick’s face came into view through my blinking vision. One look and I was instantly awake.
     
    I sat up. “What’s wrong?”
     
    “We need to get moving before the sun comes up. We’ll cover more ground that way.”
     
    So it wasn’t like there was an insurgent in our room waving a gun around, then. “You made it sound like an emergency.”
     
    “It will be if we don’t get to a military base. Get dressed, you’ve got five minutes.”
     
    He was already fully clothed and ready to go. I bet it had taken him more than five minutes. I didn’t waste any time arguing, though, just found my clothes and changed back into my stolen outfit. I would have killed for a laundry and fresh clothes.
     
    Derrick waited by the door, growing more impatient by the minute. I was ready to leave in four minutes, but that still didn’t seem to make him happy.
     
    “Keep your eyes down and don’t look at anyone or anything,” he instructed. “Do exactly what I say, when I say it. Understand?”
     
    I saluted him, mainly because I knew it bugged him. He wasn’t the only one who could be a jerk when they wanted to be.
     
    He led us out of the small hotel and into the street. It was hot already, with the sun only just starting to peek over the horizon. It was going to be a scorcher of a day.
     
    The only people out and about were traders or people going to work. Only the occasional one gave us a second glance, but it was enough to make