“Yes,” I responded almost immediately. I lowered my head to his and nibbled on his earlobe. “I need more.”

“That’s my girl,” he crooned in a sly voice. “I’ll lift you onto the desk and tell you to spread your legs, and you’ll obey like the good girl you are.”

My legs were on autopilot, obeying his demand as if we were acting out the words he spoke.

“Good.” He ran his hand through my hair before traveling the length of my body, down my torso, over my hip, stopping at my thigh. My stomach clenched, anticipation rushing through me. I felt light-headed, my skin tingling with each passing moment.

“I’ll run my tongue up and down your inner thighs, keeping my eyes glued to that perfect pussy of yours, and I’ll get so fucking hard when I see how wet you are. I won’t be able to take it anymore. I’ll need to taste you, to feel you, to watch you come.” Instantly, his fingers found their way beneath my skirt, pushing my panties to the side, and he began to circle me. I bit on his neck, trying to muffle my screams.

“We wouldn’t care that we were in front of the window where anyone could see us. We would only get louder and louder as we put on a show for all the miserable couples outside. And we would vow to never become one of those people. We would promise to never let life and commitments come between us. I couldn’t imagine going more than a day where I couldn’t listen to your moans, where I couldn’t watch you move against me, where I couldn’t feel this beautiful pussy as it comes around me.”

His motions grew more frenzied and before I could stop it, I was reenacting his words, releasing around his fingers, the orgasm ravaging through me as I fought to contain my screams. It was euphoric, the fierceness of the pleasure never seeming to end.

Finally, my tremors began to subside, but I remained in place, keeping my head snuggled against his chest. The room was still, except for our breathing.

“I hope that all sounds good to you,” he said, breaking the silence.

All I could do was nod, desperately trying to get my heart rate under control as I heard a familiar thump echoing, thinking it was simply Tyler’s heart. Then it grew louder, slowing to a stop in front of the door. I shot up and quickly readjusted myself, my mind racing.

“What is it, Mackenzie?” Tyler asked in a low voice.

Before I could respond, the door opened and I snapped my head in that direction, unsure of what to say.

Tyler

“DAD…?” MACKENZIE SHOT UP from her chair and rushed toward the older man limping into the hospital room, his eyes studying me in an unnerving manner. This wasn’t the first time I was meeting the parents but, considering I had only started dating his daughter to get close to him and he knew about it, I couldn’t help but be on edge. Not to mention, I had a million questions I needed answered, the most important being whether it was merely a coincidence he was now the only remaining team member alive.

“What are you doing here? It’s not safe for you!” She ushered him toward the chair she was just sitting in, glancing over her shoulder for any perceptive hospital staff members. “And how did you find out where I was?”

“Serafina, dear, don’t be rude,” he said. His voice was raspy, weathered, but even-tempered with a hint of amusement. “We’ll get to all of that in due time, mi bichito. First, don’t you think you should introduce me to this young man, whom it appears you’re going to marry?”

She followed his line of sight to see him staring at her ring, a warm smile crossing his face.

“Of course.” She appeared to be a bit on edge at the surprising turn of events. “Dad, this is Tyler Burnham,” she said hesitantly, looking between the two of us, almost unsure of how this was going to play out. “Tyler, this is my father.” She took a deep breath. “Francis Galloway.”

“Tyler,” he began, taking my hand with enthusiasm. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Likewise, Colonel,” I responded, wanting to show him the respect he deserved at one point in his life. The respect he may still deserve.

He sat back in the chair, his stature relaxing. “Please, call me Francis.”

I smiled slightly. “Very well, Francis.”

A heavy silence fell and I looked at Mackenzie. I had no idea what was going on, but that seemed to be par for the course lately.

“Well… I guess I’ll go to the ladies room and allow you two to get to know each other better,” Mackenzie said, practically running toward the door.

“Mi bichito?” Francis called as she was about to leave.

“Yes?”

“I think it best you stay. I have a feeling Tyler has many questions for me, and I’d like you to hear all the answers, as well. We promised each other full disclosure. I kept you in the dark for years, and I can’t do that anymore. It’s time I stop hiding and finally confront the past. Too many people have gotten hurt, your mother and Tyler included, trying to find out the truth of what really happened. There’s too much blood on my hands and it needs to stop, even if I can’t save myself.”

Her brow furrowed as she listened to his words. She slowly returned to the bed and pulled up another chair, sitting down. They both looked at me with eager eyes and I could see the resemblance. Even through the burns that had scarred the entire left side of Galloway’s body, there was no mistaking the similarity between the two.

“I’m not exactly prepared,” I said, breaking the tension.

“It’s okay. I suppose it’s best we start at the beginning.”

“The embassy fire…”

He shook his head and grinned mischievously. “No. That’s the end…more or less. The beginning was Bosnia.”

I settled in for what I knew had to be a story unlike any I could have anticipated.

“The U.S. didn’t want to get involved in the civil war, but that didn’t mean troops weren’t sent over there. There were thousands of troops deployed who were stationed in a safe zone, ready to intervene if need be. And there were some of us there on intelligence gathering missions. What you need to understand is that things were so fucked up over there. The carnage was unlike anything anyone should ever have to see and it gets to you. Our unit’s sole purpose was to try to get intel on Serbian and Croatian movements, plans, et cetera, and that meant turning someone on the inside. We went through thousands of dossiers, looking for someone who would have some motive to help us. We stumbled on a man name Viktor Popovic. Granted, there was nothing too suspicious about him on paper, but when I looked at family history, something struck me as odd.”

“What was that?” I asked, intrigued.

“He was only twenty-three at the time of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s declaration of independence. At which time, he also filed for and was granted a very quick divorce. Upon further inspection, I realized his father was very influential in the Bosnian Serbs. It all could have turned out to be nothing, but something didn’t sit right with me about this. I looked into his former wife and learned she was Muslim. It made me very suspicious. Maybe this guy’s father forced him to divorce her. Maybe he had privileged information regarding the forthcoming ethnic cleansing of the Muslims and wanted to save his son from that. So we took our chances and made our approach to learn more.”

“And what did you learn?” I asked, taking a sip of water.

“That my instincts were right. It took some time to get this guy to open up and talk about everything, but he eventually admitted he tried to fight his father on the matter, but his father promised him his wife would not meet any harm if he agreed to divorce her. So he did. Of course, this wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was hoping to use his ex-wife as leverage to get him to be my man on the inside. So I did what I could to look into his ex-wife’s whereabouts. We found that she was being held at a sort of concentration camp just over the border from the safe zone. At first, Viktor didn’t want to believe us. He insisted he had been secretly seeing her up until about a month prior when his father put her on a flight to Greece, but I had planted that seed of doubt. Days later, he came to me, furious. He had confronted his father and found out that his wife, Irena, had been taken to a camp. He agreed to help us with any information we wanted, as long as we agreed to bring Irena to safety.”