Captive

In my sleep, I was transported back home to the ocean gently rocking my limp floating body. Just when I thought the waves of my dreams have gotten stronger, I realized that it was my fellow Nova-Scotian stirring underneath me. I propped myself gently on his chest to check the time. Six thirty, good. We’ve slept for a total of five hours.

Crosby stretched his arms then crushed my body against him.
“Where do you think you’re goin’?” he mumbled.

“Dinner in a half-hour,” I said sleepily as I let myself freefall against his stomach. I marveled at how solidly built he was every single time.

“I’m hungry.”

“I’ll say,” I laughed as his stomach growled.

“Half-hour is a long time,” he wined. “I could use an appetizer, a military appetizer.” His tone was void of any humour. A buzz of anticipation coursed through me.

In a swift move, he hovered over me and kissed my breath away. I would’ve purred if I knew how to, that’s how good it felt to kiss him.

His hands travelled up and down my sides, making their way to my ass where his fingers squeezed and dug into my skin. I felt him harden with each stroke of his tongue and grind of his hips.

“Condoms?” he breathed as he nibbled on my collarbone.

I wanted to say that we had at the clinic, but unfortunately, our intimate moment was cut short.

“Fuck!” Crosby whispered as he rolled onto his side.

“Oh, God!” Tara screamed. She seemed as startled as we were. My body and brain wanted to scream at her interruption.

Luckily, the blanket was hiding Crosby’s little, or not so little, problem.

“Close the damn door!” I yelled when my roommate remained frozen in the doorway. I could hear the distinct dinnertime commotion; it was almost like Happy Hour.

Crosby put his t-shirt on but remained in bed because, well, he had to.

“I’m so sorry, I thought, Mia, I mean Captain Shaw was alone,” Tara spoke with her back to us, making me feel even more uncomfortable.

“Tara, we’re not naked. You don’t need to turn. You don’t need to close your eyes either!”

“Sorry, Captain, Mr. Crosby. I’ll leave you two,” she said hurriedly.

“Officer, it’s my bad, it’s your room, I’m the one who should be leaving,” Crosby said apologetically.

“No, it’s okay, I just came to see if Captain was awake because we’re having a special dinner for the both of you tonight.”

A knock at the door startled the three of us.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Crosby cursed under his breath.

“Would you get out of the bed already,” I whispered and shoved him jokingly.

“Get the door, Lieutenant,” I said as I straightened my PT uniform.

“Mia,” Jake said. “Oh, hi, Officer Miller, is Captain Shaw awake - ” he whispered as he looked over Tara’s shoulders. He raised his perfect eyebrows when he saw Crosby and I standing at the opposite sides of an unmade bed.

“Apologies Captain, Mr. Crosby,” he said as he removed his hat. My heart rate picked up speed when my eyes met his. It felt as if my boyfriend had just caught me cheating. But I had to remind myself that it was not the case. Our fling was over; the final nail was put in that coffin two weeks before my kidnapping.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Jake said dryly. “If you’re hungry, everyone’s waiting for you two to join in the Grande Salle.”

The ‘Grande Salle’ was French for ‘big room.’ Our head chef was French Canadian, the term just caught on.

“Sir, thank you for delivering the message. I will change and be on my way.”

“Um, me too,” Crosby said awkwardly.

On his way out of the room, he passed too close to Jake, their shoulders almost bumping. Jake did not budge. He was still facing me, but his eyes followed Crosby until he disappeared out of view.

“I’ll see you both later then,” Jake said, his handsome features were quite serious.

Tara closed the door behind him and stared at me with her mouth hung open.

I ignored her and started changing into my service uniform.

“So, you’re not gonna explain what I just walked in on?”

“You saw nothing, Miller,” I said sternly.

“Oh, the Captain card will not get you out of this, Shaw!”

“We were kissing, okay?”

“I bet it was not your first time kissing,” she smirked at me.

“I don’t kiss and tell,” I smirked at her.

“Damn it, it’s 18:55. Saved by the bell, Shaw. But you’re telling me everything after dinner. Unless you two are planning another rendezvous?”

****

The special dinner was as special as a military one can be. Our volunteer cooks prepared us one of my favourite meals, poutine with pepperoni. A talented soldier with his acoustic guitar provided the entertainment.

I sat with the medical team while Crosby had the honours of joining the General and his command crew two tables away.

A few freedom and pride speeches later, the General reminded the Forces that, for my safety and Crosby’s, the news of our escape was to remain within the walls of the base. Communications and PR strategies were to be finalized before the Canadian Armed Forces announced to the public, a.k.a the media, that we are safe.

Once we are on a flight home, the world would learn the news; though, I was still unsure about my whereabouts the next day. Crosby and I looked at each other at the same time and I could read the question in his eyes.

Once we were dismissed and people started filing out of the room, Crosby came my way. However, that elephant in the room had to wait for a little longer to be acknowledged as one person after another came to welcome us back and to meet the superstar.

Crosby handled the overwhelming attention with grace; he’s used to being the centre of attention after all. Me, on the other hand, I felt like I was being suffocated by all the questions and the “you should take a break,” and the “you must be excited to go home.”

“Alright, Captain Shaw and Mr. Crosby are tired and need to catch on some sleep,” Greg announced.

A chorus of ‘yes, sir’ and ‘goodnight, ma’am’ later, I found myself walking to my room with Crosby, Tara, and Greg.

Greg was telling us about the mailman’s interrogation when someone called from behind us.

“Captain Shaw.” It was Jake. I squeezed my eyes and counted to three before turning.

“McConnell, I’ve got it from here, thank you,” Jake spoke to Greg courteously.

After giving me some instructions for the next morning, Greg bid us goodnight at my door and walked Crosby to his room.

Tara excused herself sensing the hostile vibes emanating from Jake. In her defense, he could be quite intimidating with his tall frame, piercing eyes, and an air of authority that Tara refers to as his ‘brooding aura.’

“Let’s go to my office, I don’t want to talk in the hall,” he said as he looked over his shoulder to where Crosby was opening his door in a rather slow fashion.

“I’m so tired Jake.” It was the truth.

“I know, but I need to talk to you,” he said softly, his face inching closer.

“I told you that I’m fine, just lacking some sleep, so,” I was hoping he would get the message – it was loud and clear, almost as loud as the slam of Crosby’s door.

“Mia.” His voice was low and his dark eyes bore into me. “I missed you, I was scared that I would never see you or... touch you again.”

I gulped and looked at my feet at his admission.

“We can’t, you know that,” I whispered.

“Because we serve together, blah blah, I know,” he said with frustration. “But I think there’s more to it now.”

He spoke as if I owed him an explanation, which I most definitely didn’t.

“My personal life is my business, Jake.”

“Sidney Crosby, how can I ever compete with that?” He sneered.

Shaking his head disappointingly, he bit his lips and sighed deeply. “Get some sleep, officer.”

Relief washed over me when he finally walked away. I got into my room as fast as I could, but to my luck, another militant was waiting for me.

“You and Jake? Really? I thought that boat has sailed,” Tara said as she prepared for bed.

“It has. Nothing has changed and I just repeated that to him,” I said as I started changing.

“I bet Sidney Crosby would like you to stay in that,” she pointed to my discarded uniform. “He was eyeing you throughout dinner,” she said with a wink.

“As usual, you overblow reality,” I said with an eye-roll.

Tara huffed, “well, you could ask Jake,” she said with a quirk of her eyebrow.

I dismissed her comment and she knew better than to push it.

“Goodnight, Tara,” I said as we settled in our beds.

“Are you going home tomorrow? Because you know that you can. The investigation would go on with or without you.”

“We’ll talk tomorrow.”

*****

Twelve minutes. Sneaking out to see Jake in the past has taught me how long it took Tara to fall asleep. Though this time, I was sneaking out to someone else’s room.

I trotted to his door and without knocking I disappeared into the room before someone saw me.

Crosby was in bed with his legs stretched. He looked up from the laptop surprised.

“Hey, what’s up?” I said and I could sense a tension between us when he didn’t answer and went back to look at the screen.

I stayed by the door. “What are you doing?” I tried again.

“What everyone recommended me not to do,” he said shortly, eyes still glued to the computer.

“You’re on the internet?”

He murmured a ‘yes.’

I sat beside him and glanced at some of the headlines he was reading. I quickly realized that I was not ready for that yet.

“Let it go, you’re going home tomorrow. Trust me, you’ll be surrounded by this crap sooner or later.”

“Crap? What my family and friends were going through in my absence is not ‘crap’,” he said harshly.

“I didn’t mean… I wasn’t talking about your family.” His tone made me feel uneasy.

He closed his laptop forcefully and glared at me.

“What?” I asked confused.

“You could’ve told me that your forty-year-old boyfriend is the reason why you don’t want to go home,” he said with his nostrils flaring. He was mad.

“Jake? He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh yeah? Explain to me then why does he act like he owns you?”

“Owns me?” I exclaimed, unhappy with his choice of words.

Count to three, Mia.

“He’s more like an ex, not even. I guess you could say that we used to see each other, but then I ended it because he’s my superior officer. That’s what I was trying to explain to him when you threw a tantrum at your door,” I said and tilted my head at him.

“And he’s 34, not that it’s any of your concerns.”

I wanted to add, ‘if we didn’t serve in the same unit, we would still be together,’ but I did not want to add fuel to the fire.

Crosby huffed and I looked at my hands, unsure what else to say. Maybe I should go back to my room. As I stood up to leave, my stomach made a sad realization and churned. This night may be our last one together.

“I don’t know if we’ll see each other tomorrow before you leave, so, um,” I bit my lip with my back to him.

What would I say to my ex-cellmate and cuddle buddy? ‘It was nice knowing you, have a good life,’ or ‘see you around?’ Maybe ‘peace out, bro’ was a more neutral option.

A shiver ran down my spine as I felt his presence close behind me. “When will you be going home?” He asked me with a hoarse voice.

“I don’t know, I want to but I...” I rubbed my arm and kept my face away from his gaze.

“But what? Greg told me that, technically, you could go home anytime. You’ve told them everything you knew. Plus, you are entitled to take a leave of absence under the circumstances.”

“Why do you want me to go home?” I asked and held my breath.

“Because you need to recover from what we’ve been through, and staying here, in this country, isn’t going to help. You also need to be with your family, at least for some time.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I mumbled as I fiddled with my fingers. My eyes aimlessly scanned the room as my brain tried to take a decision.

Crosby wrapped his arms around my waist and secured me against his chest. As soon as I felt his touch, I closed my eyes and allowed my mind to make the obvious choice. I needed to see my family, true, but I also needed his nearness and craved his touch. While returning home may not guarantee me any of that, staying in Baghdad will certainly deprive me of any chance we may have.

With his nose and lips, he nudged my hair to the side and placed a soft kiss on my neck. He inhaled profoundly as if I was some bouquet of flowers. I placed my hands over his and rested my head against his shoulder, “okay,” I whispered.

“Okay?” He asked above a whisper.

“I’ll go home,” I managed to say as his lips closed on my skin once again, only this time it was more intense that a moan escaped my lips.

“I want you,” he said, his sultry voice soothing and familiar. “So badly.”

“Me too.”

He turned me around and kissed my lips with a consuming passion that made me dizzy. He didn’t hold anything back and neither did I.

He held me flush against him and steered us towards the bed. He fell on his back with me straddling him, never breaking our connection. Our clothes flew across the room soon after. I eyed him hungrily and he groaned.

With slow and long motions, I rubbed myself against his erection as he toyed with my breasts.

“Fuck, we need a condom, I can’t take this torture anymore,” he said breathlessly, the frustration quite evident in his husky voice.

“We’ll manage for now,” I said with a wink.

I started peppering his chest and stomach with wet kisses all the while rubbing myself against his hardness. My body mirrored his wish for a condom. Every time we touched, I longed to feel him deep inside of me.

“Mia,” he almost whined as my lips were getting closer to where he was anticipating.

My pussy clenched at the taste of him.

“Fuck, let me, please,” he begged. “I’ll pull out when I’m close.”

I detached my mouth from his tip with a pop, “You’re already close,” I said, biting my lip. “We can’t risk it,” I managed to resist once again, but I wasn’t sure for how long I would be able to.

I went back to pleasuring him as his hand played with my hair. His breathing and the way his dick reacted to my ministrations told me that he was dangerously close. He gave me the usual warning, and I responded the usual way. Let’s just say he’s never made any mess on the sheets.

I could almost hear his racing heart from where I rested my head on his stomach.

A few seconds passed before he pulled me towards his mouth and kissed me hard. His thick fingers finally made their way to the mess that was between my legs and I moaned.

“Please,” I whispered. He needed not to be told more.

“Sit on me,” he whispered tiredly.

His fingers were magical, but his tongue was unbelievably better. I have learned that he took so much pleasure in teasing me, which was what he was doing as I straddled his face.

“Sid...ney!” My head fell back at the intense feeling.

Hearing my plea, he closed his perfect lips on my bundle of nerves and I was gone. It was that easy for him to get me off.

Once I came down to earth, I fell to his side and he pulled me against him in a spooning position. I could have forgotten my name from the exhausting pleasure I had experienced.

“Sorry I snapped earlier,” he whispered as he nuzzled my hair. I hummed and closed my eyes, without a single care in the world.

Notes