CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
We didn’t talk as Seth drove us out of Tejen and back onto the main road.
“Where’s your stuff?” he asked after a few minutes.
“I don’t really have anything. It got, uh, left behind.”
“How did you get here?”
“I booked a jet for the day.”
He smiled at me. “Organizing a rescue mission in style, huh?”
“You know it.”
More and more tension left me as we drew closer to Kabul. Entering the city limits, we wound through blocks of one and two story houses. Seth seemed to know his way around the place easily, as if we were in Chicago. We passed an area with taller, office type buildings. There were a few signs in English advertising restaurants and, once, a “dance hall.”
Turning into a neighborhood, Seth veered onto a dirt side street and through a gate then parked behind a house. I searched the neighboring houses for any clue as to where we were but could recognize nothing. I could be one street or five miles away from the home I stayed in last night.
We climbed out, and Seth took my hand and led me to the back of the house. A door on the main level was flush with the yard, but he took me past it and up a set of exterior stairs to the second floor. Unlocking the door, Seth guided me inside then locked the door behind us. He flicked a wall switch, revealing a small tan colored room with a bed, a side table, and a small bookshelf. Seth’s suitcase sat in the corner of the room, his laptop resting on top of it.
“This is where I’ve been staying,” he explained, moving around me to stand in the middle of the small room.
I didn’t know what to say. A choking sound left my throat.
Seth’s eyes went wide. “Quinn...”
“I was so worried,” I gasped. “So worried. I thought you were dead.” The words came out with some grit, the accusatory tone dancing in the air. I couldn’t help it. I was relieved beyond belief to find him, yes, and back in Tejen, I’d been ready to let all transgressions go.
But seeing his computer sitting there, seeing the device that he could have so easily used to contact me, made me lose it. I got why he came to Afghanistan, why he was full of rage and a desire for revenge, but I didn’t get why he hadn’t bothered to shoot me an email to let me know he was still alive.
“I was going crazy,” I seethed. “I thought I might have lost you forever. I thought that maybe you were trapped somewhere, that someone was holding you hostage, that you were starving to death… I thought every possible awful thing, Seth!”
“Quinn,” he breathed, stepping forward to touch my wrist.
I jerked away from his hand and stepped back. “Don’t. Don’t touch me right now. I just… I just need a minute.”
Seth’s shoulders drooped. “I’m sorry. I know maybe that doesn’t mean a lot...”
I pressed my hands against my eyes to block out my vision. “I know you are,” I whispered. “And I understand what you’ve gone through. But I can’t help… I can’t help...” My voice failed me. I stood there with my hands pressed against my face and hoped I wouldn’t faint.
“I put you through hell,” Seth said quietly.
I dropped my hands to look at him again. “Yes... it’s not like you haven’t been through it yourself, but I don’t know...” I shook my head. “I thought I understood it, but now I don’t know if I do.”
Seth sighed and sat on the end of the bed. It squeaked under his weight. “I dragged you through hell with me. I wasn’t trying to.” He looked at me with imploring eyes. “Honestly, Quinn. I tried to leave you out of all of this. That’s why I didn’t tell you anything in Chicago.”
I nodded and sniffed, tears pressing at the backs of my eyeballs. “And then you stopped writing.”
He nodded at the floor. “That was a mistake. I hoped you would assume there was no internet at camp or that I was just busy. The closer the day came to making my move…” He looked up at me. “The more I realized how little I deserved you. How could I follow through with my plan and still think I was worthy of going back home to you? Writing those lies to you, telling you I was on a deployment when I wasn’t, seemed so unfair. I’d sit down to write you and my fingers just wouldn’t move. I couldn’t make them move.”
I stepped forward and took a seat next to him. “Of course you’re worthy of me, Seth. Don’t say that.”
His hand came up and cupped the side of my face. “Maybe you’re too forgiving. Maybe you would be better off without me.”
“No.” I pressed my hand against his to keep it there, tight against my cheek. “That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to...”
“I know you weren’t, but I’m speaking honestly now. I have issues, Quinn. Maybe you would have an easier time if I wasn’t around. You could find a guy who’s not so fucked up. Normal people wouldn’t lead you to do what you just did, fly around the world on a wild goose chase.”
I pressed my fingertips to his. “It wasn’t a wild goose chase. I found you, didn’t I?”
One corner of his mouth ticked upwards. “By chance.” He exhaled harshly and looked away. “I found you, in the end. At least that’s one way you could look at it.”
“You’re right. It was by chance. A chance we were given. So, let’s take it as a sign.”
He looked back at me, the uncertainty waning somewhat in his eyes.
I swallowed and went on. “A sign that you and I need to be together.”
A long, long moment passed. Seth slowly nodded. “I’m going to try to be more open. I’m going to share more with you.”
I laughed. “There are more secrets?”
His lips pursed playfully. “The worst is over. I swear.”
“Even if it’s not...” I took his hand away from my cheek and kissed it. “I’ll still be by your side. I’ll be right there next to you through it all. Just don’t shut me out. Don’t push me away.”
Seth quickly shook his head. “I won’t. I won’t.” He kissed me. “I promise I won’t.” Another kiss. “You’re everything to me now, Quinn,” he whispered against my lips. “You’re the whole reason I couldn’t go through with all of this. Do you believe me?”
“Yes,” I sighed against his mouth, a familiar heat rising in me. “I believe you.”
I sensed the fire in his body, as if our singular rising temperatures were reaching out and melding us together. I fit perfectly against his chest, between his arms, and when he nuzzled his face into my neck, there was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be.
His lips were on mine again, and his hands moved to the sides of my hips, running back and forth. I spread my hands on his chest, enjoying the bulge of his muscles through the fabric. He turned sideways on the bed and grabbed my waist, pulling me onto his lap facing him. I circled my legs around his back and looped my arms around his neck, not caring how sweaty and dirty I was.
His tongue danced with mine, the passion in the kiss reaching a new ecstasy. Not so long ago I had thought it would be six months before I touched him again. Not so long ago I feared it might be never…
Moving quickly, Seth gripped my hips and flipped me over onto the mattress. Lying down against me, he mashed his mouth against mine. I ran my hands down the sides of his face, over his shoulders, across his chest. Each curve and line was just as I remembered, all of them agonizing perfection. One of his hands rested against my face, the other one drifted down the slant of my body and slipped between my legs. His palm pressed at my groin through my jeans, setting off a crazed fever. I writhed underneath him, pushing my body up against his and running my tongue along his tongue and lips.
Seth pushed his hand a little harder, finding my swollen clit beneath the thick fabric. He rubbed me over and over, sending quick and sweet bursts of pleasure through me. The jolts hit me closer and closer together, blending into one long wave of ecstasy. I came hard beneath Seth, soaking my underwear and pants.
With his lips still locked on mine, Seth worked on my jeans button then zipper, undoing them and rolling them down my thighs and off. He pushed my panties to the side and shimmied down the length of the bed, settling between my legs. I tried to push him away, not ready for what he was about to do, but he grabbed my wrists and locked them down on either side of me.
His tongue ran a volcanic trail down the length of my opening, then up again to swirl around my sensitive nub. He lapped and teased, flicking his tongue against me then blowing on my sensitive inner thigh.
His hands left my wrists and this time I didn’t fight, pleasure taking me over, making any discomfort easily forgotten. His tongue rubbed faster against me as he reached up and palmed my breasts through the material of my shirt, groping and twisting at my nipples through two layers of clothes. With his other hand, he slipped a finger into my opening.
I shuddered with pleasure, rocking my head from side to side. New feelings overtook me, drawing me closer to Seth than ever before. I was on the edge of ecstasy, riding the crest of its wave, waiting for it to break, but praying it never would.
A second finger dipped into me, then a third. I flinched in pain as a fourth finger pushed its way in, but Seth’s tongue calmed me. With his hand exciting me inside and his tongue outside, I came, convulsing and gasping for breath.
Seth made a satisfied noise against me and placed a languid kiss on my inner thigh. Slowly, he kissed his way up my thigh, pushed my shirt up and went over my stomach with his mouth.
Seth pulled himself up and laid down next to me. Hooking one arm underneath my head so I could better look up at him, I gazed into his eyes as he pulled my panties off the rest of the way. My shirt followed, then my bra. Seth touched each part of my body slowly, his eyes sweeping each spot before his hands did.
“I don’t have any condoms with me,” he said, looking grim.
“It’s okay. I’m on the pill, and my last blood work was good.”
He grinned. “So was mine. So…?” He lifted an eyebrow in question.
I clawed at the hem of his shirt, pushing it up his chest. He got the hint, pulled it off and tossed it on the floor. He slid his belt off, followed by his jeans. Beneath his boxers, his dick made a tent. I grabbed at his hips, bringing him down and onto me.
His tongue caressed mine as he ground against me, nothing separating us but the thin boxers. Unable to take it anymore, I yanked his underwear down as far as I could get them. He finished the job and took his cock in his hand, but instead of pushing into me he just ran its tip down my length.
I moaned as Seth slid against me, each inch of our skin on skin contact a delicious teasing.
He placed his hands over mine, lacing our fingers together, and pushed into me. We both groaned. Finally, finally, we were back together. Back in the way we had always been meant to be.
I hooked my legs around Seth’s waist, drawing him deeper into me. He kissed along the lines of my lips, down my jaw and throat. I pushed against his back, grabbed his ass, dug my nails into his side. I latched onto him, eager to taste each part of his body.
An orgasm built in me, making me arch my back and flail against the bed. Seth’s breathing increased. His hand pushed at the back of my neck, pressing my mouth harder against his. He shook against me, and I exploded with him, clutching him as close to me as I could as we came together.
For a long, long time after we kissed, Seth settled between my legs and our hands wound up together. The light in the room grew dimmer and still we didn’t move. Eventually, he laid his head down on my chest. I stared at the curtains and listened to his breathing.
“So when do we leave?” he asked.