SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

12

LLOYD

6:00 am

Lloyd rolled over and groaned at his watch. Despite waking up in a camp full of soldiers, he still had trouble acclimating to military time. His clock, both the one on his wrist and the one in his head, would always have twelve hours on it. He couldn't even begin to adjust to "oh-six-hundred" without a tidal wave of caffeine flooding through his system.

Sometimes, he couldn't get over the stroke of luck that kept the non-com angel next to him from bolting from their bed. Sergeant Denise Lowe grew up an army brat. She was likely proficient in unarmed combat before her folks enrolled her in kindergarten. The two of them couldn't be more different if they were from separate planets.

Lloyd wondered sometimes what she saw in an undisciplined shlep like him. Pity, maybe? Whatever it was, he'd take it; anything to wake up next to her every morning.

Too bad he'd have to be the one to leave her sleeping alone today. Now that he was living in her regimented world of rosters and responsibility, the army expected him on lookout duty in half an hour. Oh-six-thirty.

Otherwise known in the civilian world as, "Oh-my-God-I-miss-sleeping-in-until-eight-thirty."

Perhaps sensing his gaze on her, Denise's soft snoring abruptly ended and her eyes flickered open. She yawned, took in her surroundings, spotted him staring at her, and broke into a dozy grin.

"What's with the look?" she asked groggily. "Am I that monstrous first thing in the morning?"

Lloyd leaned over and kissed her. Their relationship came with its share of ups and downs, both before and after the world ended. After a bit of a rough patch following the colonel's decision to bench her from single-handedly trying to save the world, they were back on top again. He wanted to ride the wave for as long as it lasted.

Lloyd propped himself up on both sides of her. Denise rolled onto her back, her warm lips glued to his. She slung her arms around him. Hearing her satisfied moans never failed to get his motor running.

When they finally parted, she affectionately stared into his eyes. One of her hands slipped from his back to stroke the course stubble covering his chin. Oh-five-hundred shadow, he supposed the army boys called it.

"Good morning," she purred.

"It is so far," he agreed. "Care to stay in bed today? We could order room service. Breakfast with strawberries on the side. Champagne in a big bucket of ice. We'll make love all day and fall asleep in each other's arms."

Denise smiled with a dreamy expression on her face. "Sounds perfect."

They kissed again. Once they stopped, reality reinserted itself into their beautiful fantasy. A hint of regret tainted their cheer.

"What time do you have to report in?" she asked.

Lloyd climbed off her and rolled over to the side of the bed. He dropped his bare feet onto the cold floor. Despite the boiler pumping out heat throughout the school, the former office that now served as their private accommodations always seemed to lag behind Boston's frosty autumn mornings.

"Now-ish," he groaned. "You?"

"Not until oh-eight-hundred."

He smirked and gazed at her adoringly.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. Love you, babe."

Though he said this casually, there was no disguising the way he held his breath in anticipation of her answer. She had only recently granted him bedroom privileges for not taking her side over her commanding officer's when it came to Fort Weaver. He needed to know how much more groveling was necessary before he could hope to win his way back into her good graces.