Hungry For You (Falling For Him #2)

By Kelly Washington

My name is Justin Hauten. My friends call me Hotten. So do my enemies. I’m a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army and I recently returned from Afghanistan after my company commander derailed a sensitive reconnaissance mission. My best friend and I may have uncovered a human trafficking operation and we’re thrust in the middle of a FUBAR situation that may cost us our lives.

Naturally, my best friend, the troublemaking Sean “Nebraska” Walker can’t wait to get in the thick of it. I don’t think he understands that he actually makes things worse.

I’ve also made a mess of things with Lt. Aaron Parris. Sweet, perfect, gorgeous Aaron. Before I can plan my apology tour, a powerful woman named Mary Lovecross knocks on my door. Trust me when I say you do not want her knocking on your door. At some point I will make it back to Aaron, but first Nebraska and I have to deal with this pesky thing called being detained. Regular folks call it being kidnapped. Mary Lovecross is not regular folks.

Warning: this story contains hot men, secret agents, a crashed fancy Governor’s party, bruises and cuts and guns, the Texan Badlands, hot men in tuxedos, a surprise marriage proposal, a makeup artist named Hector, several more fistfights, a hysterical sidekick, minor badassery, a Buckaroo Banzai reference, and a really cool underground military bunker.

The Leading Men Are:

** Staff Sergeant Justin "Hotten" Hauten... Isn't the smartest guy in the room. He just wants to be a regular soldier but finds himself mixed up kidnappings, government secrets, and the desire to figure out his feelings for Aaron.

** First Lieutenant Aaron "Texas" Parris... Has had feelings for Justin for quite some time and he isn't going to hold them in anymore, even if that means getting involved in whatever mess Justin is in -- which is some pretty messed up crap!

** Specialist Sean "Nebraska" Walker... Is a tall, lumberjack-ish redheaded, loyal friend to the end. He happily enters into scuffles just for the hell of it. It's possible that he is the cause for some of those scuffles... Being a former semi-pro boxer does have its perks.

~*~*~*~

Hungry For You is Volume 2 in the Falling For Him Male/Male Military Love Series. It is approximately 95 pages long.

It is HIGHLY recommended that you read the series in order.

FALLING FOR YOU, Vol 1
HUNGRY FOR YOU, Vol 2
READY FOR YOU, Vol 3
FALLING FOR HIM (The Complete Series), which is priced much lower than purchasing each novella individually.

~*~*~*~

Need some fine print?

* At the heart, this is a love story between two men. On a scale of 1-5, 1 being "vanilla" and 5 being "this is so hot, I'm dying"; I would rate HUNGRY FOR YOU a 1.
* This series has been published in "Episodic Form" aka, Installments. This means Novella #2 isn't the complete story. It stops at a good spot (cliffhanger), but not at the final conclusion. I know this bothers some folks, so I feel it is best to be upfront about it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kelly Washington
• Release date: Nov 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301605767

Kelly Washington

Kelly Washington grew up in North East Texas to military parents, joined the military herself (she's now a veteran), and settled in the Washington D.C. area in 2002. She enjoys reading anything and everything, from Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen, to erotica, to today's hottest YA novels. When she isn't reading the above mentioned works, she's hard at work on her own fiction. Kelly writes erotica, romance, young-adult fiction, and women's fiction. She gets her writing inspiration from real-world events and "what-if" scenarios in her head. She likes to put her characters is odd situations just to see what happens. Kelly still lives and works in the Washington D.C. area with her family. She loves hearing from her readers and can be reached at [e-mail], via her website, http://smallfiction.com, and at http://www.goodreads.com/kellywashington.

Book preview

Hungry For You

A Male/Male Military Romance

-Volume Two-

KELLY WASHINGTON

Copyright © 2013 by KA Shire

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the email address below.

Kelly Washington Books

P.O. Box 650092

Sterling, Virginia 20165-0092

http://smallfiction.com

[e-mail]

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

Cover Design ©2014 KA Shire

Cover Photograph © Georgijevic

Edited by Susan Helene Gottfried www.westofmars.com

Synopsis

MY NAME IS Justin Hauten. My friends call me Hotten. So do my enemies. I’m a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army and I recently returned from Afghanistan after my company commander derailed a sensitive reconnaissance mission. My best friend and I may have uncovered a human trafficking operation and we’re thrust in the middle of a FUBAR situation that may cost us our lives. Naturally, my best friend, the troublemaking Sean Nebraska Walker can’t wait to get in the thick of it. I don’t think he understands that he actually makes things worse.

I’ve also made a mess of things with Lt. Aaron Parris. Sweet, perfect, gorgeous Aaron. Before I can plan my apology tour, a powerful woman named Mary Lovecross knocks on my door. Trust me when I say you do not want her knocking on your door. At some point I will make it back to Aaron, but first Nebraska and I have to deal with this pesky thing called being detained. Regular folks call it being kidnapped. Mary Lovecross is not regular folks.

Warning: this story contains hot men, secret agents, a crashed fancy Governor’s party, bruises and cuts and guns, the Texan Badlands, hot men in tuxedos, a surprise marriage proposal, a makeup artist named Hector, several more fistfights, a hysterical sidekick, minor badassery, a Buckaroo Banzai reference, and a really cool underground military bunker.

A man in love is something to behold. Two men in love blows my mind. In a good way. I love all of you. Thank you.

Chapter One

JUSTIN HAUTEN WAS a son of a bitch. He fled Aaron’s apartment like the wrath of God was nipping at his feet and spent the next three days remembering the look on Aaron’s face. The hurt, the humiliation, the defeat after Justin mumbled some lame excuse about needing to be somewhere.

Jesus, I’m an asshole. Confused, yes, but a confused asshole.

Hurting Aaron was the part that bothered him the most. Perfect, wonderful Aaron. It was the first time something good happened in his life and Justin fucked it up. I don’t deserve him.

On Monday morning, Nebraska came over in order to rehearse for the Good Morning Dallas interview, handing him version two of the fifty-page script.

But it’s a ten-minute segment, Justin remarked as he flipped through the dense, scripted dialog that Nebraska came up with.

And your point is? Nebraska asked. Justin had never seen his friend act so determined. It was pretty obvious that he really wanted to impress Ms. Williams. I wonder if they’ll let me bench-press her.

Wait, what? Justin dropped Nebraska’s script on the coffee table.

You know, lift her in the air. I’m pretty sure they’ll let me do that, Nebraska said with a stupid grin, lifting his arms for effect. She’s a tiny thing, so it won’t be a big deal. I can totally lift three or four times her weight, easily.

Justin laughed, which he desperately needed at the moment. You will do nothing of the sort. Besides, I doubt you’ll even have the opportunity. Once the brigade commander finds out about this, he’s going to pull the plug.

Oh, how he doubts me, Nebraska muttered to himself. He then pointed to the script on the coffee table. Study that before tomorrow morning. My sister’s giving us a ride, so be ready by eight. I don’t think I need to remind you that she’ll help herself if she has to come in and get you.

Justin shuddered. Don’t worry, I’ll be outside waiting.

Once Nebraska left, Justin realized that he never got the chance to talk about Aaron. Either Nebraska could sense that there was a problem and decided to stay mum on the topic, or he was too wrapped up in his desire to impress Ashley Williams to notice, or care.

And Justin wanted to talk about it as much as he didn’t want to talk about it. He was embarrassed, confused, and he needed to talk about it with someone. Naturally that someone should have been Aaron, but Justin couldn’t bring himself to call or go over that night. So Justin busied himself by cleaning his lousy apartment and, as much as he was loath to admit it, he read Nebraska’s script. Actually, it wasn’t bad, but that didn’t make any of it true. It read more like fiction than what really happened.

He pulled out the camera and studied each and every digital photo. After a while his vision turned blurry.

What was he looking for? Good question. Justin recalled how Aaron had casually mentioned that some of the photos glittered in the mountain areas, suggesting that a treasure was just waiting to be plucked. It was cute when he said it, and Justin’s mind had been more on Aaron than the photos at the time, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered if Captain Phillips had been looking for some sort of treasure.

Oh, not gold and silver bars. But something else. Like unusual technology, weapons, or compounds. His former company commander had become increasingly agitated in the days before the ambush.

Captain Phillips would stab a finger at various plot points on a map and angrily shout, Get this, but at dusk. I want this image from high-up, pointing down. Be the fucking paparazzi. Something had set him off and whatever it was, apparently it was enough for Captain Phillips to enlist the help of two unknown agents from an unknown agency.

Or was it the other way around?

+++

At a quarter till eight the next morning, Justin, decked out in his Army Service Uniform, stood outside his apartment complex as a stretch limousine pulled up beside him. The back window rolled down and Nebraska thrust his head out, grinning ear to ear.

Justin took a long blink, hoping it was a mirage, and when he opened his eyes again and found the ridiculous vehicle still in front of him, he asked, Seriously? I thought you said your sister was picking us up.

The driver’s side window rolled down as he asked this, and the driver whistled at him. Hey sexy, a growling-female voice said. It was one of Nebraska’s sisters, but he wasn’t sure which one. When Justin didn’t move right away, the sister just laughed and said, I like my men a little on the slow slide, darling.

Pipe down, Tessa, Nebraska ordered with a hearty laugh as Justin climbed in beside him. Sisters, he said by way of explanation. Tessa’s my baby sister.

Tessa turned around and adjusted her driver’s cap. She looked very official, Justin thought. She was the spitting image of Nebraska, but in female form.

"You don’t get to call me Baby, Sean, not after I beat your ass in our last arm-wrestling contest, Tessa said to her brother before turning her eyes directly on Justin. You, my tall’n’scruffy man o’beef, can call me Baby and any other four-letter-word from the dictionary. Why don’t you come up here with me? She purred, patting the seat beside her. I have apricot-scented massage oil."

It took every ounce of self-control for Justin to not laugh out loud. Thanks, but no thanks, Tessa. It would stain my uniform.

Oh, you wouldn’t be wearing it, but… suit yourself, sexy. She winked, righted herself in the seat, and drove the limo out of the parking lot.

Justin turned to Nebraska, who also wore his formal Army attire, and asked, Why are we in a limo?

My sisters’ own their own limo business, Nebraska answered proudly. For the record, the only reason she beat me was because I was sick with the flu.

Was not, Tessa interjected.

Did Tessa drive this all the way from your home state? Granted, the state of Nebraska was only two states north of Texas, but it still had to be at least 850 miles away. Justin was fairly positive that the limousine’s gas mileage sucked.

Tessa chucked. I convinced mom that there was a limousine convention near Fort Hood this week. As it so happens, I’ve already booked four jobs in the last twenty-four hours. As soon as I drop you two off, I’m staying in Dallas to chauffeur a girl’s sweet sixteen birthday party. Easy cash, plus there will be cake. You’ll have to find your own way home.

Don’t worry, buddy, Nebraska chimed in after rolling his eyes at the back of his sister’s head. I spoke to the Good Morning Dallas production manager and she said not to worry it. They’ll provide transportation.

Justin spent the next two hours listening to Nebraska and Tessa bicker about everything, from the meaning of vanity license plates, to who was stronger, the ill-fated arm-wrestling contest, and on which brand of breakfast cereal had the most protein in it. Justin allowed his mind to wonder and most of his thoughts centered on Aaron.

It was a welcome relief when they pulled into Good Morning Dallas’ lot. For the first time in his life, Justin was rather glad to have been an only child.

Chapter Two

APPARENTLY THEY WEREN’T good-looking enough because once the escort