Nine Marines' Shared Property - Nicole Casey Page 0,29

I was going to protect myself, but at least I knew I wasn’t going to do that.

The following day, Taylor and Manny agreed to meet me down at The Bean Counter at lunch time. I finished earlier than they did, and since I had to start earlier in the afternoon I went on ahead of them.

Gwen greeted me on the sidewalk before I’d even made it to the cafe. “Hi, Tristan. What a pleasant surprise.”

I wanted to kiss her, but being so close to her place of work, I hesitated. She must have read my mind or she was very perceptive as to my body language, because she said. “You don’t need to worry. It’s my place; I own it; I do what I want.” And she kissed me.

I laughed. “Funny, I had the same thoughts about you, but still I hesitated.”

“The same thoughts?”

I held her hands, leaned back and looked her up and down. I motioned to her body and said, “Yeah. I own it; I do what I want.”

She twisted her lips into a wry smile.

“Still, I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”

“I think you’re more likely to get yourself into trouble with talk like that,” she said.

I pulled her to me and held her tight. God, she felt great in my arms. “What? You mean saying that I own you.”

She nodded.

I kissed her again. “I know I don’t own you. Just your body.” I squeezed her ass.

“You better be careful,” she said, “I have friends in the Marines.”

I spun her around then brought her body tight against mine. “Yes, you do,” I said. I kissed her on the cheek then I let her go. Having her so close to me was starting to drive me crazy. I risked losing control and taking her right there on the sidewalk or bending her over one of the terrace tables and taking her right in front of her customers and passers-by.

“I don’t know what my friends in the Marines would say to you claiming to own me,” she said, playfully.

“They would correct my choice of pronoun: ‘we’ own you.”

Her eyes got wide. “Is that what you think?”

I nodded. “What? You don’t agree?”

She looked off toward the beach as if she were giving my question serious thought. “You mean own, like I’m your property?”

“Yeah, you’re our girl.”

She put her hands on her hips then looked back at me. “Property, huh? Not girlfriend?”

I winced and put a hand to my heart. “Owe.”

She laughed. “What? Is that word painful to hear?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it is painful. I’ve never lost sleep or fallen into despair over property. You see the distance?”

She nodded. She stuck out her hand for me to take.

I did.

“Shall we go for a walk along the beach?” she said.

I looked behind me toward the base then back at her. “Actually, Taylor and Manny are coming.”

She pulled me toward her. “They can catch up. Come on, take your property for a walk.”

We agreed that it was maybe just a question of semantics. I preferred the word property because I felt my heart could deal with that more easily. I didn’t tell her that my high school sweetheart, Aisha, was killed in a car accident the night we had agreed to spend our lives together. One day, I’d tell Gwen about her, but that afternoon on the beach wasn’t the right time.

She said she could appreciate me wanting to protect my heart. She said she had the same concerns. I didn’t press her for specifics.

I told her about the ground rules we’d come up with. “To make sure you’re treated with dignity and respect,” I said. “And to make sure there was no competition or jealousy among us; so that we could share you in a way that was sustainable, that didn’t create problems.”

“The dignity and respect part I can get on board with,” she said. “I don’t know how I feel about the ‘so you can share me’ part. I don’t know how I feel about being considered as property.”

It had seemed so clear and logical during the meeting. But talking with Gwen then it wasn’t so cut and dry.

“I’m not trying to put pressure on you,” I said. “You don’t need to decide right now. And, of course, you can always change your mind. I’m just telling you what we were talking about last night.”

“Thanks. I appreciate the honesty.”

“Honesty, that’s one of the pillars of the ground rules.”

She put her hand against my cheek. I thought she was about to