I take a long drag from my cigarette, the long, slender stick delivering a dose of sweet, sweet poison into my body.

I lean my back against the wall in the dark alley and flick off the ash forming at the lit end of the cigarette, watching it disintegrate into thousands of little white bits mid-air.

The door opens just as I exhale the smoke out of my mouth. Before it has a chance to dissipate, a girl walks out the door and right into it.

“Jesus,” she says in the middle of her coughs. She waves her hand in front of her face and makes a face at me. “Dude.”

“Sorry.” I shoot her an apologetic look.

As I look more closely at her face through the thinning veil of cigarette smoke, I realize she’s the stripper Andy creeped on earlier tonight. This is my second apology to her, and we’ve only exchanged exactly three words so far.

“Oh, hey, it’s you,” she says, her face lighting up with recognition. “That’s fine. Thanks for rescuing me earlier, by the way.”

“No problem.”

“I had no idea military guys smoked. I thought you guys were the fit, healthy types,” she says, her lips curling up to form a dazzling smile. I guess both my apologies have been accepted.

“No. Plenty of us smoke. You’re confusing us with gym rats.”

She flashes me her straight rows of pearly whites, tiny little lines appearing on her nose and around her eyes. A small girlish giggle escapes her rosy lips.

There’s a lot of makeup on her face—probably something her job requires. She has beautiful natural features, though. Perfectly pouty lips, fiery red hair, and big green eyes. I bet she’d look amazing with a bare face.

Although she’s wearing a loose black T-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans now, I already know how tantalizing her body is underneath. Perky tits that defy gravity, full hips, and a slender waist.

So far, I’ve seen her body almost naked, but I haven’t seen her natural face yet. This seems a little backward and upside down as far as introductions go, but I’m not complaining.

“I actually did quit, though. Smoking, I mean,” I say quickly before she decides to walk away and disappear into the night.

“Oh?” She crosses her arms in front of her chest, inadvertently pushing her tempting tits up and out. It’s strange how she looks sexier like this than she did dancing with her top off. Maybe it’s the way our bodies gravitate naturally toward each other. With her right arm propped against the wall, she turns to face me. “And now you're picking it back up just so you can quit again later?”

I should be offended. There's nothing I hate more than self-righteous people.

But the way she says it, I don't feel like she's judging me for my admittedly poor decision-making skills. Instead, it feels like light teasing, like she's an old friend who's gently making fun of me—if that old friend were sexy as hell and looking at me with obvious want in her eyes.

“You must know a lot of smokers,” I say, chuckling.

“Uh, hello? You do know where I work, right?”

I have to laugh at that. Damn. She's hot and funny.

“Yeah, you have a point there.” I take another drag from the cigarette and blow the smoke out the side of my mouth, away from her. “I really don't smoke much anymore, though.”

“Life getting stressful?”

“Yeah, you can say that again.” I take a deep breath. “They're shipping me out in a couple of weeks. I just found out today.”

“Shit.” She shoots me a look of sympathy that somehow doesn't look like pity. How does she do that?

“Yeah. Shit.”

She goes silent, her gaze distant, like she’s thinking about something.

I take the moment to drink her in with my eyes, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she breathes. It dawns on me that I can just grab her, pin her against the wall, and take her right here, right now. A dainty little thing like her, I can overpower her without even trying. And I have a feeling she wouldn’t mind either.

We seem to have hit a conversational dead end, where neither one of us knows how to get back on the easy track. I don't want her to leave yet, though. And she doesn't seem to be in a rush either.

“You hungry?” I break the silence.

“Depends.”

“Depends on?”

“Whether you’re asking me out.” Her deep green eyes look straight at me, her pupils dilated in the darkness. She has a cheeky smile on her face.

“What if I am?” I smirk and trap her gaze with mine.  

“Then I’d say yes. But that’s only if you were asking me out.” Her smile grows wider as she challenges me with her eyes.

“So, if I were asking you out and you were to say yes, where would you want to go?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “You’re the one who’s hypothetically asking me out on this hypothetical date.”

I square my shoulders and stub out the cigarette on the wall, a chuckle escaping my mouth.

Holy hell. I’ve been stressed out all day and not even a night out with my brothers could take my mind off the mission, but just a few minutes with this girl has turned this night around.

* * *

“You’re not going to believe this, but I’ve never done this before,” she says breathlessly underneath me while I slip one hand inside her shirt, feel the warmth of her skin on my fingers, and cup her breast.

“Mm-hmm.” My mouth is too busy tasting the salty sheen of sweat along the column of her neck to answer.

“I’m serious. I…” Her voice trails off and turns into a raspy moan when I bite down on her flesh. I roll her hardened nipple between my fingers.

She hasn’t even touched me yet and I’m already painfully hard. My cock strains against my jeans.

She gently pushes me with her small hands. Everything about her is so fucking delicate. It makes me want to protect her and crush her all at once.

“I’m serious. I never go out with guys I meet at the club.”

“Technically, we met outside the club.”

Before she can protest, I grab a fistful of her hair and yank her head to the side, exposing her long neck to my hungry mouth. My free hand travels south to unbutton her jeans and pull them down her thighs, along with her cotton panties.

“Take them off,” I say as my fingers explore her soaked folds and find her clit.

She gasps, her eyes glazing over. Her body is so damn sensitive, too. My cock pulses in my jeans and I press it against her bare thigh, showing her my impatience.

“I said… Take. Your. Jeans. Off.” I press her clit with every word I say, making her shudder deliciously against my chest. I let my thumb rest on her clit without moving. I can see this is driving her crazy by the way she lifts her hips up to gain more contact. I pin her down with my weight. “Be a good girl and take off your jeans. Your panties too. And then I’ll continue.”

She wiggles her legs to get out of her jeans and panties, her eyebrows taut with concentration. Every time it looks too easy for her to complete the task, I press lightly on her clit and make her gasp.

“Good girl,” I say when she’s finally done. None of the other men at the club gets to see this, or touch her at all. Yet here she is, practically offering herself on a silver platter just for me.

I lazily rub her clit with my fingers, while my other hand unbuttons and unzips my own jeans. I kick them off as I rub more insistently on her clit.

She starts to tremble and shake. I bite down on her throat, triggering a violent orgasm within her. She throws her head back and arches her back off the bed, her eyes squeezed shut. She moans and grabs onto my arms like her life depended on it.

Keeping my finger on her clit to extend her climax, I line up the head of my cock and push inside her.

Her eyes snap open. She looks right into my eyes as her muscles grab onto my cock. She looks so hot when she’s coming. It feels tight and wet inside her. She bathes my shaft with her juices, allowing me to slide in smoothly.

Fuck. I wanted to stretch this out as long as possible, but I’m not going to last long like this. Her pussy is milking me for all I’m worth.

I try to maintain a slow, steady pace as I slide in and out of her, but she wouldn’t have it. Her fingernails drag down my back and dig into my flesh as she desperately pulls me closer. She rocks her hips off the bed, pumping up to meet my thrusts, urging me on.

I could pin her down and do it slow, but I don’t want that either. Ah, fuck it.

I get up onto my knees and pull her up. With her dainty feet on my shoulders and my hands on her tiny waist, I plunge into her with everything I’ve got. Harder. Deeper. Faster.

She explodes beneath me as I slam into her again and again. My balls feel heavy when they slap against her, like they’re about to boil over. She shudders and quivers, her muscles massaging my cock. I unleash and fuck her with reckless abandon, until I finally come deep inside her.

I collapse onto her, both of us still wearing our shirts, now soaked with sweat. We lay there for a minute or two, catching our breaths as we gently come down from the high.

“I know you said you’ve never done that before,” I whisper into her ear. “But how about we do it again soon, before I ship out?”

“Yeah. I’d like that,” she says.

A smile spreads across my face, blissfully unaware that she’s lying to me, even while my cock remains buried inside her.