Archive for September, 2010

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The day wore into the evening without much further event. I’d got over my nervousness enough to sit in contact with him – yeah, pretty close to his package, at that – but it wasn’t gone entirely; besides, the last few days had left me pretty well sated. So things stayed casual; a bit more conversation, a few hours of gaming with some idle chatter mixed in, a light dinner. After the last, I was starting to feel a bit ragged from a high-strung day; despite how much sleep I’d got in the past few days, more of it was the main thing on my agenda.

The thought of going back upstairs to that big bed made me quail, though. I didn’t know why. It seemed like it’d be a big step, though – like I’d be moving in – if I were to occupy that bed. And I wasn’t ready for that.

When I asked Sam if I could borrow their spare room for the night, he didn’t seem surprised or dismayed. A little wistful, yeah – just enough to let me know he’d have welcomed my company – but he helped me get settled without a word of complaint. Gave me a kiss goodnight, too – strong enough to make my heart pound, not so much that it felt like he was going to slide in with me. Or into me. At any rate, one last nuzzle to my ears, one more squeeze to my shoulder, and he left me to it.

Another time, that kiss would’ve probably left me with a raging hard-on and the question of what to do with it. This time, though – well, even I had to admit that I’d got an enviable amount of sex in the past few days. Either that or general exhaustion was enough to keep things from getting beyond a slight stirring.

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All in all, it had been a satisfying day.

The platoon being on leave didn’t mean there was nothing to be done. Strictly speaking, the leave didn’t even include Valan himself; he had a portion of administrative work to do, including some reports to catch up on. Even the marines under his command needed to make sure they were ready to leave when their leave was up. It did mean light duty, though; a few hours filing reports, a few more hours organizing some packing with those soldiers who had energy to burn and wanted something to do, all interspersed among as much time again in idle pursuits.

Still, light duty or not, satisfying or no, the skunk was fairly sore by the time the sun set – not from the physical activity so much as the desk work, and the makeshift workstation hadn’t helped, even if it had been nice to be outdoors while he worked – and it was with anticipation and relief that he brought his toiletries and slouched over toward the pool.

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Rank had its privileges.

In this case, Valan’s rank was nothing substantial – an acting subbie was hardly in the rarefied upper reaches of command – and his privilege was correspondingly simple: he had a private room. It was enough, though; enough space for the hefty cooler-box that he now lifted from the place it had occupied for the past few weeks.

The door opened on its own ahead of him, and closed behind; a glance over his shoulder confirmed that it had locked itself. Not that he was particularly worried. Most of his gear was with the quartermaster, not in his cabin, and the burden he now bore was the main other thing worth taking – even if anyone had the nerve to try to steal something from the barracks of a Star Lane Authority training camp.

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It didn’t take long for anxiety to set in. Once Sarah was no longer right there, it was hard to stifle the conviction that I was cheating on her, that she’d object, that she’d kick me out of the house or worse. I tried to remind myself that she’d been right there and said it was okay, tried to catch some lingering trace of her scent, but it was an uphill fight for sure.

It also didn’t take Sam long to notice, sliding his fingers along my jaw. “What’s wrong?” came his inquiring murmur.

“Nothing,” I replied, not quite able to contain my frustration that I was getting wound up despite knowing there was nothing wrong. “Just being neurotic.”

He sighed, his hand moving to my shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “Damn. I’m sorry for that.” (more…)