LILAH

It all started with filling in for a colleague's shift.....

My life has always been reserved just for the people I love and medicine. Getting into medical college meant tons of loan, and paying them wasn't easy. The monthly cheque straight away went for clearance of debt leaving me penniless.

Staying with my parents wasn't on the list of 'survival techniques'; all they could think of was getting their daughter married. And staying with my brother and sister-in-law in their apartment, I tried, but waking up to see my brother making out with his wife, half naked, isn't a good sight for my eyes.

After trying every way possible for me to survive with a roof on my head and adquate amount of food, I land on the last check-box, 'AMEDD'. Getting into marines was the only way left to live without having someone to force me into marriage, waking up to see people sucking each other's faces, and the consequences of not socializing during school life when my sole goal was to make into med schools.

To be honest, working in the marines is way too hard especially after a night shift, but seeing these soldiers running early in the morning and that too shirtless... its just 'a sight worth this hardwork'.

"Sergeant Shortland?" he called. "Ms Shortland is an invigilator for today's health test. So I am asked to fill in for her. May I know the reason for your arrival?" Getting done with this is only thing on my mind. I have to go back to my dorm as soon as possible, my bed is waiting for me since forever.

"I was here to know how long will it take for me to go back to shooting?" he placed his left palm on his right shoulder rotating the joint while tilting his neck towards left.

"I am not aware of your medical reports" I said walking towards the shelf where all the files on each and every person present in this camp are arranged accordingly. "If you let me know your name I will be able to help you out, Sir" turning around I found his eyes solely focused on me.

"Lieutenant Colonel Rhys Evans" his eyes never leaving me, following everywhere I go everything I do. But his stares are not making me uncomfortable as they should, rather I like him staring at me so intensely, burning my skin.

"Right shoulder ligament twist, the cause of injury 'sudden impact with hard material', time of injury..." this part makes me look at him with a 'are-you-kidding-me' look. "You sprained your shoulder just yesterday, it will take a week for you to go back on shooting" I placed the file back where it originally was and turned around to find him still staring at me.

"Your next appointment will be with Ms. Shortland, Lieutenant Colonel" I matched his stares, shamelessly checking him out.

He is the epitome of perfectly sculpted figurines. The mussed buzzed jet black locks, that I wish I could feel them; his equinox black eyebrows affixed to his seemly face with an imperious nose that sits perfectly between those alluring pair of eyes. His face was grafted with a masculine gritty stubble; his angular cheekbones carved down towards a flinty jaw.

Handsome will be an understated way to define him. His spartan shoulders spoke of strenght, a possession to latent and leonine power that radiated nothing but authority. Muscles oozing out of his coyote tan tshirt, all of his left arm ceps mucles flexing everytime he massages his shoulder.

His strong forearms with protruding veins arising a feeling in me that I am unable to comprehend. The beautiful mistake that I made of lingering my eyes on his robust thighs; I don't think I'll ever be able to get them out of my system.

There was so much more to that, so much more to see, more to touch, more to feel and more to just imagine the things that he could do. The loud siren just makes me internally groan. 'I was not yet done checking him out'.

Our instense check-out session finally comes to an hault. The enthralling pair of molten brown round orbs that, when met mine, stared right through my soul letting me skip a breathe. Oh heavens...

"My shift ends here", seriously I can't be more silly than this.

I strolled a bit lazily towards the desk, stuffing my things in the bag and arranging the left over on the table top.

"I am still not aware of the name of the person who looked like she could devour me whole if let loose, Private" cocky much huh..

His mocking about me 'devouring him' just boosted my ego to do that more often in the future, if we ever were to cross paths again. I chose to ignore him after glancing at his face just one more time and continue doing what I was doing.

"Letting people know your name wouldn't hurt, Private", he called again while I was about to leave the room, but this time I am struck by the title 'Private'.

I turned around and strolled towards him with a sudden surge of confidence. I held my hand out for him to shake.

"Lilah Aetos. Major Lilah Aetos"

_______________

"How did it go?" The 'Ms. Shortland' asked startling me. I chose to ignore her for a while and continued drying my hair with a lavender turkish towel after closing the bathroom door behind me. The sun was falling already.

"I am asking you something, Major", I finally gave in. I am not able to hold my excitement anymore.

"I eye-fucked a man", keeping my hands right above my cleavage hidden under the fabric of my white colored tshirt, my head slightly falling backwards with my eyes shutting close and the image of him flashes in front of me again.

"You do that all the time Lilah, tell me something new", she rolled her eyes and continued munching on the granola bar completely ignoring what I just said.

"You are not getting it Zoey", I threw my towel on the clothes horse and spinning her chair around getting all her attention to myself.

"I checked him out Zoey, and that too in front of him", I couldn't contain my excitement, it was overflowing. "He knew that I was checking him out and you know what I felt he was staring at me the whole time." I was beyond ecstatic, if possible. I jumped from my seat and twirling around. I grinned like a cheshire cat the whole time feeling the giddy pleasure all over again.

"Are you high on coke?" I payed no mind to her look of disgust and handed her pair of headphones. "I am high on some knockout hunk", slipping on the headphones I finally faced her finding her all ready with headphones resting on pinna and the wire plugged to mp3 device. "Bruno Mars.. Teasure".

And now we both are high on Bruno Mars. Throwing hands up in the air, swirling hips, feet gliding on the floor and lips bouncing to the lyrics, we did everything our bodies allowed us to.