Detachment Delta by Don Bendell Read Free Book Online Page A

all over it and small red, white, and blue ribbons streaming down. His long black hair was pulled straight back into a ponytail which actually went down below his shoulder blades.
    Earlier, he had cleaned up and moved everything out of the apartments he had rented, leaving the keys in them. Most of his stuff was packed in his hotel suite, and a detail was coming in shortly to pick it up and transport all of it back to Fort Bragg. The detail was composed of two eager young sergeants who’d had to drop out of the Special Forces Q-Course, or Qualification Course, also called Selection, because of leg injuries, and had not earned their Green Berets yet, so now both wore burgundy berets, signifying their active airborne status. They both were trained Military Intelligence NCOs and had top secret security clearances already. They had to seal all of Charlie’s boxes with tape and sign for each box with him. At Bragg, they would turn them in to the JFK Special Warfare Center Command sergeant major, who would in turn take them to the top secret C.A.G. compound at Fort Bragg, which previously had been called “the Stockade.”
    Charlie said, “I hope you like roses. I know roses are corny to some, but there is an old quote that ‘roses are the most beautiful thing that God ever created that does not have a soul.’ ”
    She pulled a deep red rose from the vase Madeleine had put them in and smelled it, smiling coyly.
    She said, “I love roses, and I love that quote. Who said that originally?”
    Charlie smiled and said, “Me.”
    Her breath caught; then she said, “They are beautiful,” and she smelled them again, adding, “Thank you very much, Charlie. All is forgiven.”
    He smiled, saying, “How about dinner? It is the least I can do for such a mean trick.”
    â€œI have to shower and change. It has been a long day,” she said. “Where would you like to eat and when?”
    Charlie said, “Do you like seafood?”
    â€œI love it,” she said, “but it takes me an hour to get home, an hour to get back, plus I have to change and tidy up. Will that be too late? Seafood, hmmm. Where do you want to eat?”
    Charlie said, “I was thinking about room service.”
    Virginia’s heart skipped a beat, and she found it hard to breathe.
    Collecting herself, she said, “I guess I deserved that. I came on so strong in the restaurant.”
    â€œDeserved? Why, did I insult you with that suggestion?”
    â€œNo, oh, no,” she said, “I just embarrassed myself with my boldness when I approached you.”
    He laughed and said, “I was cursing my luck. You are truly beautiful and entrancing.”
    Now she could feel her pulse pounding in her temples, and the air in the room seemed harder to breathe.
    Charlie said, “Virginia, I have to go back to Fort Bragg tomorrow morning. We can be painfully honest with each other, or play coy flirting games before I have to leave, and always wonder. Sometimes you just have to let down the protective veneer and open yourself up for possible hurt.”
    â€œThen you would just be picking me up,” she said. “I would be a one-night stand.”
    â€œI am not picking you up,” he said. “I picked you out.”
    She got up and walked around the desk, and approached him hesitantly at first, then stepped forward boldly into his massive arms, but as strong as he was, she was amazed at how soft and careful his first kiss was. It was passionate enough to curl her toes, but unlike so many men, he was not immediately trying to play tonsil hockey. The kiss was simply passionate and firm but on the other hand soft. She worried she would faint.
    When they stepped back, she smiled and said, “You are very right.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou, sir,” she said, “are definitely not gay.”
    He kissed her again, and this kiss removed any and all doubt