Free Big Guns Out of Uniform by Nicole Camden Page A

would have to go back to the real world all too soon.
    Their time was so limited.
    â€œIf I have to die for my country, Joe, then I’d like to know what the hell I was living for.”
    Those angry words haunted him now as he remembered saying them to Joe right after he and Retter had blown their way out of the Middle East.
    Marianne was the answer, but he couldn’t stay with her. His duties were elsewhere. Men like him didn’t have liabilities, and Marianne Webernec was a huge liability. He didn’t need to have the stress of worrying about the widow he would leave behind if he died.
    Such things guaranteed death with cold-blooded certainty. In the field the best soldiers were the ones who had nothing to focus on or worry about except the job.
    The job was everything.
    But at least now he understood what it meant to be alive. To feel deeply for a woman and to know, while he was getting the crap shot out of him, why his job was so important.
    It kept people like Marianne safe. She was no longer some faceless stranger. An abstract ideal.
    He had something real to hold on to.
    Closing his eyes, he leaned his cheek against hers and just held her in the quiet solitude, wishing that time could stand still and that he could make this moment last for eternity.
    He never wanted to leave her.
    He never wanted to leave this island.
    Marianne sighed as she absorbed the sensation of Kyle’s whiskers lightly scraping her skin. His strong arms were wrapped around her chest as if he were afraid to let her go.
    She loved that feeling, but more than that, she suspected that she might actually love him.
    These last few days they had shared so much of themselves with each other. She had told him of her fears of dying alone without ever having one spectacular moment to say Marianne Webernec had lived. That she was important to someone other than her rogue tomcat.
    Kyle had listened and he, too, had shared his sad past with her. And with every nugget he had entrusted her with, she had fallen for him more.
    No one had ever been closer to her. Never meant more to her. Kyle was wonderful.
    She didn’t know how much of what he’d told her was truth and how much was made up, but she didn’t think he was lying about the important things, such as his best friend and mother dying. The pain in his eyes when he spoke of them was too real to be faked.
    No, he had opened himself up to her, too.
    Her heart thrilled at the thought. Warmed by him and his concern, she turned around to face him. The firelight played in his hair and across his face, making shadows along the sharp, handsome planes.
    â€œYou are so delectable,” she said.
    He arched a brow at that.
    Smiling wickedly, she reached for the button of his jeans.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” he asked.
    She unzipped his fly. “Why, I’m having my wicked way with you, sir.”
    His swollen cock, nestled by his short, dark hairs, jutted out, arching back toward his stomach. Luckily his underwear was still drying from where they had washed their clothes earlier, so now he was all naked and exposed to her.
    Mmm, how she loved the sight of him like that. Hard and ready for her. She ran her hand down the length of him and delighted in the way his cock followed the motion of her caress. The way it lifted and arched in reaction to her touch.
    She brushed her hand along the sensitive tip, letting his wetness coat her fingers.
    Kyle watched her with hooded eyes as his breathing changed to sharp, intense breaths.
    Marianne licked her lips and lowered her head so that she could draw the tip of him into her mouth. She closed her eyes as she tasted the salty sweetness of him. How she loved the taste that was Kyle.
    He hissed in reaction.
    She growled deep in her throat as she took more of him into her mouth, while running her tongue around the large vein, and allowed the vibration of her voice box to add to his pleasure.
    He cupped her face in his hands and ran his