The FO Officer Ch. 02

"Brooke left sunglasses and a hat on the cabinet by the door. The choice of clothes are yours, just remember that you have five hundred plus individuals between you and me at the moment, so dress wisely. I have the coffee machine running already."

Almost an hour later Ashley arrived with Elizabeth hooked onto her arm. Ashley carefully sat her down in the seat facing JoJo.

Elizabeth grasped at Ashley's arm and looked up at her. "Thank you, you're my best friend, I will make sure I name my firstborn after you, even if it's a boy."

Elizabeth clung to the coffee I handed her, drinking half of the mug before she came up for air.

"My God, please tell me you folks don't do that all that often."

We all stayed silent, we left JoJo to answer.

"Nope, only the new members of the Unit's partners and wives get that. So, now you've met everyone and we leveled the playing field for you?"

Elizabeth looked at JoJo for a moment, then took her sunglasses off, her eyes still told their own story. She clearly wasn't a drinker, socially maybe but that would have been it. She reached for where I was standing and pulled on my trouser leg. I made sure I knelt next to her, she was clearly still suffering, despite the coffee intake and shower.

"Brendan, these last few weeks have been a roller coaster. Between my investigation, their attempt to kill me, to when I refused to back off. Even finding the phantom that protected me."

Elizabeth smirked then, I could almost hear the wheels go around. "I'll even reference the time you looked after me and didn't hang around for the pat on the back from my boss. I know life will slow down soon and standing in the middle of that calm will be you and me. I like your friends, really like them. But it's time to get to know you more. Brendan, we met under unusual circumstances, we both have to agree on that. But think on this, had it not been for the attack on me, would we have ever met and even got this far?"

Her still bloodshot eyes focused intensely on me. "I'm hoping for the question Brendan; it will be a yes from me for a date if you do because I want to see if what my head is telling me matches what my heart is looking for."

Smiling, I went to kiss her cheek, she turned her head so I locked onto her lips. The whistles and slow hand claps came from everyone in the room at the time.

"Can I take that as a yes?" Left Elizabeth's lips as soon as there was space between us.

"Yes."

"Please can I put my sunglasses on again now, I'm still dying here."

I nodded, it seemed the kindest thing I could do.

Elizabeth looked at JoJo. "Can I just fall asleep somewhere and when Brendan's done for the day, can he take me home? No way am I getting behind a wheel anytime soon."

JoJo smiled and looked at Brendan, then told him he was dismissed for the day. "Get changed and take our guest home. We will see you tomorrow."

I wasn't comfortable taking her to her apartment, she was still recovering. Mentioning this to her got my arm hugged and her head on my shoulder. I did have to ask for my arm back as we drove through one of the outlying villages and then pulled onto the drive of my cottage.

She still grinned at me, her eyes sparkling. "Is this where you have your wicked way with me, while I can't defend my virtue?"

That was worth a laugh. "Nothing so energetic. I'm putting you to bed and sitting downstairs reading a book while you continue to sleep off your night of excess."

As I took Elizabeth carefully up the stairs she reminisced about the night out with the girls.

"Good Lord, Brendan those women are a social club all on their own. Although JoJo and Ashley were the responsible adults amongst us and sipped soft drink all evening, I would want any one of those women in an interrogation room with me as my backup. They wanted the ins and outs of my life and intentions towards you as well."

By now Elizabeth, naked and still in her heavily hungover predicament, suddenly realized that this wasn't her bedroom. It took her a moment and the blush to her cheeks reaffirmed what her now active mind was telling her, but she turned to look at me, her arms still by her side.

All through this I fought hard to maintain eye contact, although my peripheral vision wasn't impaired one iota. She was just ... stunning.

I was as hard as a steel bar, but I had 'she's a guest in your home, dumbass,' repeating in a cycle through my thoughts.

The rug didn't match the drapes, because she had no rug. Her lips were full and showing slightly, well, every time she moved to be honest. Elizabeth's hips were perfect and moved out from her body in a way that enhanced the thought of grabbing hold for the ride.

She clearly still exercised, I suppose in her job that was a necessity, the flat stomach and slight showing of a six-pack looked just like an arrow on her body that captured the image of, 'look down here'. Her breasts sloped slightly and forced my eyes to the ends of her breasts and at the slowly tightening nipples. If she complained that it was cold in here, I wouldn't have believed her for a second.

Her gaze followed mine and she gasped and yet still keeping her arms by her side.

Elizabeth's voice was only just above a whisper when she said. "Talking to you made me forget."

She looked down at her body once again, her eyes closed so tightly that creases appeared either side of her temple.

She took a deep breath and then opened her eyes to look back at me as she exhaled. "I sleep naked Brendan, except for about four days a month, then I'm in panties for those nights."

Her legs wobbled then and she sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes still refused to move from mine. Her lip seemed to quiver for a moment and then she gulped.

"Brendan, I'm not ready to be that intimate with you just yet, even though my body is screaming for me to jump your bones. After last night I still need rest, plus I don't think you would be happy with the repercussions of me being so active bouncing all over your body, resulting in me being sick all over you."

Elizabeth pulled air deep into her lungs and as a male of the species, I watched as her chest expanded.

"Could you be a gentleman and let me borrow your body please? I need you naked Brendan since you've seen all of me, it only seems fair that I see all of you. Please come to bed and hold me until I fall asleep. It would mean a great deal to me."

The puppy dog eyes look won me over, I had rescued this woman from death, she arrested me, interrogated me for almost an hour before being told not to and had a girls' night-out with the wives of the Unit. Not a conventional way to meet a person I have to agree. Yet as I took my clothes off to join her, something clung to my thoughts and just kept reminding me.

Elizabeth Haskins had dropped herself into my life and looked like she wanted to stick around.

As we lay in bed, she spooned into me, which of course left her facing the window and the clear blue sky outside. Within moments she growled her frustration, turned and lowered her head into my chest. Her hand came out and found my own and placed it onto her hip before placing her hand onto my chest. Her breathing changed almost seconds after she had found that comfortable position.

I gave her thirty minutes and then got up, pulled the curtains shut and then pulled the bedroom door almost closed and I went downstairs for a coffee. I sat on the couch in the day room looking out the big doors into the garden and the scenery beyond. It felt so strange rewinding my life in my thoughts repeatedly to that afternoon, and all because of a car that I couldn't see; to a woman I first saw as she shouted at her cell phone and threw it back into her car.

When my instinct went into danger (action)mode, only just stopping the guy with the spade from taking the head off of the detective lying unconscious on the ground.

Even asking myself if I could do a rewind on my life, would I change anything? The answer would have to be no. There was a woman behind that badge, someone I was curious enough about getting to know. We didn't have the standard meeting

And I was even ready to stay away from her when the dust had settled and she was well enough to return to duty.

Admittedly I wasn't expecting her to turn up at the pond and arrest me. The police had the two who were in the process of killing her and both turned on the three individuals that her own case was stalling over, so she now had them looking at some serious jail time. But two out of three wasn't enough for her.

On one of those few moments when my mom had a sit-down talk with me, she asked about the women in my life. She was my mother, and she could tell a lie off my lips a country mile away, so I answered her with honesty and told her my history with women, keeping the more pornographic details to myself.

Once she finished staring at me, she said. "Brendan, you're lowering your standards. You're in the army, you need a woman who can take that sort of life. That's not a fit for most women; so perhaps you need to stop looking, she'll find you."

My mother then stood up, meaning the conversation was over. Up until this point I never understood what she meant. I would have to send her flowers tomorrow and thank her.

I woke from my nap with hands on my chest and Elizabeth straddling me, her own nakedness so natural to her. But I'm a guy, I still looked, a lot. She then smiled when she saw me staring, she looked down and saw her own breasts hanging in the most erotic way possible, her stomach taut and outlined, from work in the gym. Her legs defined her in my opinion, muscled all the way down to her feet. They flexed as she moved to lay alongside me.

Elizabeth smiled and winked at me. She looked again at the erection laying on my abdomen as she lay along my body. "I woke and you had gone, love the view by the way. You owe me snuggles so I'm taking my due."

This woman then lay the rest of her body along mine with her head once again on my chest, I held onto her until she got comfortable and then listened to her as sleep once again found her and took her from me. That must have been one hell of an evening out with the wives.

My thoughts still played themselves out in my head as I held this precious woman in my arms. If I added our time together in the same room, I would say we had known each other mere days and yet she was the driving force in all this. Elizabeth Haskins slept in my arms, she had placed her naked form in my trust as she lay along my own body and slept off last night's alcohol and excitement. She seemed delighted that she was one of the club now, the wives looked on her as a welcome inclusion to their ranks.

"Are you having second thoughts?"

Her voice startled me.

"I was just reminiscing, a lot of things have happened so fast in my, our lives."

Elizabeth's head came away from my chest; her eyes looked intently at me. She then moved on the couch to sit crossed legged in front of me. I thought it only fare I did the same, she knew I was watching her chest the whole time she moved, Elizabeth took great pleasure in watching my cock when I moved and sat crossed legged in front of her.

"You're in the army, I'm a police officer. To both our professions, 'actions speak louder than words'. You saved my life, acting on nothing but training and instinct. If I was to sit you down with my mother, she would tell you that all this was meant to be. Remember, my father served as well, he married mom six weeks after meeting her and they are still together."

Elizabeth placed her finger under my chin and gently moved it, I followed along wanted to see where this was leading me. The pressure stopped when our eyes met.

"Neither of us can predict the future Brendan. We may hate each other after six months, we may even outlast my own folks. Your wrapped up in secrets and yet I'm willing to give us a try. All I know right now is that I love you more today than I did yesterday. Please read my lips Brendan, I love you. It's not infatuation, or hero worship, but the start of love."

Her finger left the underside of my jaw, her hand now rested on my cheek. "If you carry on overthinking all this, then it will only result in a headache for you and I will still be sitting next to you when you're done thinking."

Elizabeth placed her hands on my shoulders and leaned in, we kissed, slow gentle and for such a long time. As our lips parted, she looked down at the couch we were both sat on once again.

"Let me know what you've decided when I wake up, I'll still be here. Just like I intend to be, for the rest of our lives. Mom also believed in love at first sight, does that make her an old romantic, a liar to her daughter when she told her that it actually does exist or someone who knows what she's talking about?"

I followed Elizabeth back upstairs and she once again made herself more comfortable, barely a minute later her breathing changed and sleep took her once again.

I've heard of love at first sight, I've also heard of hero worship.

Neither of those seemed an appropriate explanation. Elizabeth was a woman on a mission, that was a fact. My thoughts ranged over so many questions, I thought it easier just to use the old fashion method, hanging on for the ride, letting time tell the rest. My eyes felt like lead about then and we both slept the sleep of the exhausted

*******

Two months later...

Elizabeth was still in the process of putting a woman's touch to the house. Under my breath I called it marking her territory. By the end of our first month together, we had done dinner with the parents. We both seemed to have the seal of approval from both families as well. So much so that the wall calendar has the next summer months' dinner and bar-b-que dates and with whom in her hand writing all over it.

Hell she even had every cell number of the wives, not to mention Brooke's number as well. That was more than I had, but I worked with the guys and see them every day, even when the smug look graces Elizabeth's lips, I retaliated by calling her my social secretary.

*******

When General Brownlow comes to visit everyone takes notice, when the door to the boss's office closes moments after Brownlow arrives, we all start eyeing up the cage room. The General left after an hour. The Unit was told to assemble in the briefing room twenty minutes later.

No sooner were we in the room when JoJo came in, looked at both Ashley and me and said. "A helicopter will arrive in ten minutes to take you both to the rifle range at Norfolk. You will zero in your sniper rifles since they haven't been used in a while. The rest of us will join you later today and spend tomorrow putting rounds down the range. Pack for a week, you're both dismissed."

We both glanced at each other and left the room. Freddy closed the door behind us. We were sure we would get briefed later, it looked like the rifles were the priority in all this. We both had grab bags in the cage room so rushing home for of us wasn't necessary. The helicopter was on the pad for all of two minutes while we loaded and buckled in. I did spot my cousin standing away from the helipad, he had his cell phone to his ear.

I knew what he was doing, from the time we entered the briefing room our own phones had been switched off, both mine and Ashley's phones were now resting on Freddy's desk and would remain in the office somewhere, until we returned. He was phoning Elizabeth, I stuck my thumb up as a thank you, he did the same while still speaking into his phone.

Whatever this operation was, it was being done on the hurry up.

Ashley and I landed on the pad at camp, one of the permanent staff showed us to our billet, but only long enough to drop our grab bags onto our beds and our webbing and rifles were off again in the back of a Land Rover to the ranges. He was telling us that they got a priority call and had to cancel two of the ranges so they could open the sniper range.

As the wheels to the vehicle stopped, an old guy came out of the hut he used as an office at the range and shook our hands, the vehicle left us there.

"My name's Doug. I'm told not to ask you your names, but since you don't carry any rank I'm still at a loss what to call you."

I let Ashley lead on this, she handed me her rifle and walked up to Doug, then hugged him. "Doug, you've been doing this job for a while, don't lie I can tell you have."

Her head tilted towards me and she smiled. "My name is Hoops and his is Trapper-John."

Doug finally let go of Ashley and laughed his ass off. "You SAS types are all the same."

He walked us over to the side of the hut and gave us a choice of two targets we could use. Ashley opted for the figure target and he placed six in his vehicle and pointed to a small room next to his own office.

"Your ammo arrived half an hour before you did, it's in that storage container. Four tins of the stuff, you planning on using it all in one day or what?"

Ashley shrugged her shoulder and said. "Nah, we know you have a home to go to, so we will be as quick as we can. Mind you if your targets keep falling over since you didn't bed them properly, we may have to lengthen our stay a day or two."

He was still laughing his ass off when he got into the vehicle and drove down the range.

I spotted for Ashley while she zeroed in on the targets to her own satisfaction, then she did the same for me. Within two hours we were doing nothing more than shooting for the fun of it. The rifles were as accurate as we could get them, Doug let us clean them in his office while he made us all coffee. Our drinks were just about finished when our ride back to camp turned up and we kept our promise to Doug, he got home at his usual time.

The rest of the Unit arrived earlier than expected and were there by the time we got back. We dropped the rifles at the armory as per camp orders and headed for the briefing we missed.

JoJo handed us a couple of large photo's. A guy, mid-forties, had eyes that held no emotion that we could see in the one picture without sunglasses.

"That's our target, Jonathan Philippe Sheringham, born of an African mother and Irish father.

He's trouble with a capital T. Started off small, as in blackmail and prostitution but used his smarts to the best of his ability, initially by owning a region via bribery through to blackmail, killing and raping, then tried to take the country. Fortunately, those countries around him knew he was trouble and went on the offensive. He skipped with his family and bodyguards, leaving everything else, except what he had stolen and parked in banks that don't ask too many questions.

He escaped using a human shield. The authorities found the body of the shield a few hundred yards away, a single bullet in her head."

JoJo went on to explain that most of the intelligence agencies in the region believed he will do it again if cornered. Now of course, he feels like he has a free hand since said agencies have distanced themselves from him. She also did her own checking and found that he was moving people around and readying himself for another coup; it seems Sheringham didn't learn the first time.

JoJo felt that he had learned from his past mistakes and was going to put those lessons to use and seize control of the region, then escalate the uncertainty in the region around him and finally take the capital.

*******

The next picture showed a chalet above a small cliff, the beach was immaculate, with a jetty and a power boat tied to it and pointing out to sea.

"The boat is one of his getaways if needed, damn fast and maneuverable. If Sheringham gets on it, we will lose him. There is a helipad the other side of the chalet, it has a helicopter on standby as well. Folks this one's a doozy, he's not averse to using anyone as a human shield if it gets him away from harm, he has several exit strategies on standby at all times, he's as slippery as shit and no agency wants to come up against him and fail."