Oh, my God. Rylen and I were a couple. A jubilant laugh bubbled in my chest and I bit my lip against a smile as I gazed up at him.
The grin he gave me was sexy, lazy even. He bent his head and nuzzled his mouth against my ear, whispering, “You tasted good this morning.”
His erotic words caused a immediate full body reaction in me, from a throb in my core to my tingling toes and heated face. I pressed my forehead to his shoulder and let out a short laugh of surprise. I never in a million years imagined Rylen saying something naughty like that.
“You’re bad,” I muttered. He pulled back enough to see my face, which I kept turned down.
“I made you blush, Pepper.” He sounded proud. I let out another laugh of embarrassment. What other shocking things was this quiet, intense man capable of?
“Um . . . hey?” A sweet voice stood nearby, and we both looked up at Remy, whose smiling eyes gobbled up the scene before her.
“Hey,” I said, pulling back just slightly. My cheeks were still warm. I tried not to laugh at the look on Remy’s face—I knew she was about to burst at the sight of us together.
She grasped her hands in front of herself and asked, “Are you guys coming to breakfast?”
We stood and walked together to our regular table, where I sat between Rylen and Remy, with Tater on his other side. Everyone at the table looked between Rylen and I, noting, grinning, but nobody said anything. A sense of comfort filled the space.
For the first time in these months of darkness, I felt a ray of hope. Not just for myself personally, but as I looked around at the people at our table, and the people in this room, every one of us a hard worker willing to fight for our way of life. And I thought about Rylen’s words that we had a chance. I desperately wanted that to be true.
I tried to eat slowly, but my body was famished from skipping dinner last night. After I finished the small breakfast and weak coffee, I downed two glasses of water to trick my stomach into thinking it was full.
“You working tonight?” Rylen asked me as everyone stood to go.
I nodded.
“Get some rest,” he said.
I nodded again, and my tummy flipped, wondering if he would kiss me right here in front of all these people. But he didn’t. With a squeeze of my fingers, he left toward the door of secrets, and Remy cleared her throat next to me. I turned to her and had to press my lips together at her bug-eyes staring a hole through me.
“Well?!” she said impatiently. “Don’t even try not to tell me! I’ve been waiting too long for this moment. Not that it’s about me, but I have to live vicariously through you!” She bounced on her toes. This was the least I could do for her.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the empty loveseat on the other side of the room. And then I forced myself to tell her the conversation that led to our feelings finally coming out and being accepted.
She stared hard. “And then?”
I squirmed.
She prompted, “And then you had sex?”
“No.” I sighed, smoothed back my hair. I needed to fight this instinct to keep every detail to myself. “Not yet. We just made out andthenhewentdownonme.”
She grasped my hands and bounced on the springy cushion, making it squeak.
“All right, enough,” I said laughing. “I need some sleep.”
Remy pulled me into a tight hug and I held her back. When we let go, she headed to work and I headed to the tunnel. Back in our room, I slept for six much-needed hours until it was time to get up for my evening med shift.
I stared at the shelves of prescription drugs, alone in the supply room, and I felt nervous. The clinic here had a large supply of birth control, and it had grown after the recent pharmacy raid. But I’d never been on birth control. I took several of the boxes out and began to read through the pamphlets, deciding on the shot that would last three months.
I readied the vial and needle, and swabbed my arm with an alcohol pad. Then I pressed my lips together and administered the shot to my left upper arm. It stung, and I exhaled loudly when it was finished. The informational packet said that my periods would get lighter and eventually stop. But now that I thought about it, I hadn’t had a period in two months. That was normal, I supposed, considering all that my body had been through. I tossed the needle in the sharps container.
Weird, I thought as I rubbed my stinging arm. I was probably going to be sexually active soon. The thought made my blood rush with nervous excitement. Rylen. Me and Rylen. Together . . . naked.
The door opened and I jumped. First Sergeant eyed me.
“Sorry to startle you. Captain King has been cleared.” Ah, the new guy. “I’ll need you to check him over to make sure he’s ready to be shown to a room.”
“Sure.” I got up and followed him into Michael’s room. The man was sitting on the edge of his hospital bed, dressed in camo pants and a white T-shirt. There was color under his freckled face now that complimented his shock of red hair, but his green eyes were sort of blank when they looked at me.
