Disarm by June Gray Read Free Book Online

Oklahoman
about their website redesign took a long time as we hammered out the concept. To be honest, it probably took longer because my mind was not in that conference room but far off at Tinker Air Force Base, where Henry was trying to complete his predeployment checklist. We only had a week left together; it seemed such a shame to waste it apart—but what could we do? We were adults with responsibilities, even if we were acting like lovesick teenagers.
    Right before lunch, a client’s website crashed and, since it was my project, I was forced to ditch my idea of taking a long lunch to visit Henry and fix the problem instead. So I put my head down and got to work, hoping to be able to skip out of work early at least.
    Around twelve thirty, there was some commotion outside my cubicle, but I wanted nothing to do with it. Gideon, my gay hipster cubicle neighbor, popped up over the wall and gave me a rare smile. “You have a visitor,” he said and jabbed a thumb toward the reception desk.
    I looked up to find a handsome captain in his ABUs—short for airman battle uniform—walking toward me, a beret and a single red rose in his hand. My heart did a happy little jig at the sight of him, looking so dashing in the uniform I’d seen him wear a hundred times before. He slipped his beret in a leg pocket and held out the rose.
    My coworkers’ heads popped up from their cubicles one by one, like little prairie dogs, flashing knowing smiles and popping back down again. I pulled Henry inside my cubicle and forced him down onto my chair, hoping a member of management wouldn’t decide to walk by at that moment.
    â€œWell hello,” he said and pulled me onto his lap.
    I wrapped my arms around his neck and took his gorgeous face in hungrily. “Do you want to go to the conference room upstairs?” I whispered in his ear. “It should be empty at this time of day.”
    Henry looked extremely tempted, but he shook his head. “I really want to, but I have to head back to work. I just came here to deliver this,” he said, tipping me back, and planting a searing kiss on my lips.
    We surfaced a few minutes later, utterly turned on without any way to deal with it. With a sigh, I pulled him up and we emerged from our own little world.
    He gave me a courteous nod. “Ma’am,” he said formally, then leaned down and blew in my ear. “To be continued.”
    After he left, a few people walked by my cubicle to ask about the rose and the handsome airman who’d brought it. The inevitable question “So is he your boyfriend?” was asked, but for once, when it came to my relationship with Henry, I didn’t know what to say.
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    On my way home I got stuck behind every slow car or truck in Oklahoma. It was a conspiracy; that’s the only way I could explain why everyone seemed to be in on some big plan to keep me from getting home. But as soon as I opened that front door, I ran to my man—yes, in my mind I’d claimed him already—and leapt into his arms. To say I devoured his face was kind of an understatement.
    Henry backed up into the couch and sat down, taking me with him. He grumbled something about putting steaks on the grill, but a tornado could have been whizzing past our window right then and you couldn’t have peeled me from that couch. Instead, I unzipped his pants, drew aside my thong panties and pulled him deep inside me.
    Later, after we finally got around to cooking and eating dinner, we lay on his bed sated and drowsy. He was lying on his back and I was sideways across the bed, my head resting on his stomach, as we talked about the past, too afraid to talk about the future in case we didn’t have one.
    â€œHow about that guy in your senior year?” Henry asked. “Did you guys date long?”
    I smiled against his stomach. “You jealous?”
    â€œI was.”
    I ran my fingers over the soft skin covering his ribs.