I guess I know what that saying "soaked to the bone" means, she thought, wryly.

"All right," said Kris, once the woman was completely disrobed. "Now, into bed." Ryanne eagerly complied, and jumped under the covers, pulling them up to her chin as she shivered, still. Kris was concerned, and realized that the woman would probably need her help to warm up.

"Ryanne, please understand that I am not pushing either of us into anything when I do this, but skin-on-skin contact creates better body heat," Kris said, and Ryanne nodded, her back to the soldier.

"D-don't take this th-the wrong way, but right now I'd s-sleep with Daniel to get warm," said Ryanne, and the tall soldier chuckled. Kris climbed in behind her once she had stripped down to nothing, and wrapped her right arm around the woman's middle, which did not seem to be quite as cold as the rest of her, and spooned herself around the blonde's small, trembling form.

A gasp escaped her throat when the blonde's cold skin made contact with her stomach, but the soldier didn't move. Ryanne reacted to the heat, and snuggled in closer, falling asleep a few hours later, when she was warm enough.

Kris sighed, heavily, and pulled the woman closer to her, enjoying the feeling of the young woman's soft skin against her own. The soldier resisted the urge to move her hand, either up or down, she didn't have a preference, but knew she couldn't.

I'm actually in the same bed with her, we're both bare ass naked, and I have to lay here, feeling her breathe against me, and not be able to do a damn thing, she thought. God's probably laughing His ass off right now.

It's gonna be a long night, she thought.

With another sigh, Kris knew there would be little sleep for her that night.

Ryanne awoke the next morning, feeling much warmer, and very rested. Yawning, she noticed a strong arm wrapped around her stomach, and instantly realized she was naked. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw that the slumbering soldier was also nude, and their bodies were pressed as close together as was humanly possible.

Kris woke up when she felt Ryanne move around, and met her eyes with a small grin. "Morning," she said, kissing her cheek. "How do you feel?"

"Much better," replied the blonde, and looked a little nervous. "I'm, uh, I'm going to take a warm shower. I can do that, now, right?"

Kris nodded, and Ryanne shyly got up from the bed, walking the short distance to the bathroom with quick steps, quite embarrassed. When the bathroom door was closed, Kris took a deep breath, and stared up at the ceiling.

God, she's beautiful, she thought. She heard the water run, and wondered if she could get away with something very bad. Would she believe me if I told her I wanted to keep an eye on her while she took a shower, just to make sure she was okay, because she seemed a little weak?

Nah, she decided, disheartened. That'd just get me in trouble. Hm…

With some rather naughty thoughts going through her head, Kris vaguely wondered where her sudden interest in seeing Ryanne in the shower had come from, and was startled when she heard the bathroom door open. The tall soldier had meant to at least cover herself by the time the woman was done, if for no other reason than the fact that Ryanne was embarrassed, but it had slipped her mind, and now she was found lying on the bed, completely nude, with nothing to shield her nakedness.

Kris raised an eyebrow when she noticed that Ryanne stood at the foot of the bed, wrapped in only a towel, and was running her green eyes along the lengths of her body.

"You're beautiful," she murmured, and Kris smirked.

"Yeah, well, you've got me beat by a long shot," she said, causing the small woman to blush. "Feeling warmer?"

Oh, yeah… thought the blonde. Wait, that's not what she means…

Ryanne nodded. "I was, until I got out of the shower," she said, smiling.

"Well? Wanna come back in here and warm up?" Kris offered, raising the corner of the blanket, as she climbed under herself. Ryanne gave the woman a small grin, and let the towel fall to the floor as she walked around to the side of the bed. Climbing under the covers, the blonde kissed the tall soldier softly, not caring that they were both nude.

"Thank you for picking me up last night," she said, and Kris just kissed her again. The strong soldier rolled over, so she was on top of the young blonde, holding herself up with her arms. Ryanne's green eyes brightened, and she pulled Kris down for a breathtakingly passionate kiss, full of need and desire.

"Ryanne," she said, her voice low, as she placed small kisses all over the woman's face, "I have to know for sure that you want this. I don't want to do anything that would make you uncomfortable, but once I start loving you, I know I won't be able to stop myself," she admitted.

"Good," said the blonde, "because I don't want you to stop."

* * * * *

"That was wonderful," said Kris, a few minutes later, when she had regained her breath. Her head was still resting on the blonde's shoulder, and she was almost lulled asleep by the rhythmic stroking of her long black tresses that Ryanne had taken up, absentmindedly.

Ryanne grinned. "I was thinking more along the lines of breathtaking, exquisite, and incredible, myself," she said, and Kris laughed.

"I was going to say that," she said, lightly. "You just beat me to it."

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure," smiled Ryanne, her grin widening when Kris flipped them over, so she was now on top of the tall soldier. "Do you ever take these things off?" she asked, referring to the woman's dog tags.

"Nope," she replied, raising an eyebrow as Ryanne gave her devilish grin, and ran the chain through her mouth, following it upwards until she broke free to give the woman a long kiss.

The phone rang, startling both women, and Kris growled. "I have to get it," she said, regretfully.

"No, just ignore it," pleaded Ryanne, making her way down the soldier's neck with soft kisses.

"Hold that thought," she said, sliding out from under the blonde, who sighed, heavily, and melodramatically flopped down on the bed. Picking up the receiver, not even bothering to cover herself, she said, "Somebody had better be dead."

"Uh, no, ma'am," came the reply.

"Well, I can fix that," she snarled. "This had better be a goddamn emergency, soldier, or somebody will be dead." From the bedroom, Kris heard Ryanne trying to cover her laughter.

"Okay… Ma'am, this is Private White, and I'm supposed to inform you that your men are outside on the field, waiting for you. You were supposed to be there at 0600 hours," he added.

Kris sighed. I don't believe this, she thought. It's raining cats and dogs outside, I was planning on spending the day in bed with Ryanne, and this little shit interrupts me to tell me he wants me to go play in the mud with a bunch of men? Yeah, right!

"It's raining, Private," she observed, glancing out the window at the hard rain that still fell from the sky. It hadn't let up in over two days.

"Weather conditions don't stop practice, ma'am," he said, and the soldier sighed; she knew that. Only an officer's orders could postpone drilling.

Hm…

"Well, tell them their commanding officer says take the day off. I'll see them tomorrow at 0800 hours," she said, and hung up the phone. Quickly returning to bed, she climbed in beside the blonde, and said, "I love outranking half the base. Now, where were we?"

Chapter Ten

"I think I should get hypothermia more often," joked Ryanne, as she sat in bed, feeding Kris spoonfuls of the Jell-O salad she had made for lunch.

"Mm, I disagree," said Kris, using her own spoon to offer small bites to the blonde. "I don't want you getting sick, I just think we should learn to act on our feelings."

"I stand corrected," laughed the blonde. "Acting on our feelings sure is fun."

Kris chuckled, and leaned in for a kiss. "Definitely," she agreed, wholeheartedly. "Hey, I've got an idea!" she exclaimed, suddenly, and Ryanne urged her to continue with a look. "Let's go on a date. A real date, before Cassidy comes back tomorrow, just the two of us," she suggested.

The blonde smiled. "And just where would we go?" she asked, interested.

"There's a bar not far from here, and it has a really nice private room in the back, where we can go to just be alone," she said. "I was thinking we could go tonight, just to get out for a while."

Ryanne nodded. "Sounds good to me," she said. "When do we leave?"

"How does later tonight sound? Say, around eight?"

Ryanne nodded, and took the bowl from Kris' hands, placing it on the floor. Kris looked confused. The blonde grinned, and raised a suggestive eyebrow at the woman. "We've got a couple hours to kill," she said, leaning toward the woman for a kiss.

* * * * *

Ryanne sighed as she looked around, still seeing no sign of the tall soldier she was looking for. When the woman had received a call from Sergeant Neil Winston just before they left, wishing to discuss his brother, who was still having behavioral problems, she agreed, and told Ryanne to go on to the bar without her, she would meet her there. Ryanne had agreed, thinking it would only take the woman a few minutes, but she'd already been at the bar for over twenty minutes.

She wished Kris would hurry up, because Jeffery Winston was really beginning to creep her out. The man kept staring at her, and when she'd glance over at him to see if he'd left, he'd grin and blow her a kiss, to which she'd roll her eyes and look away.

Playing hard to get, are we? thought Winston, leering at the blonde, again. His brother was off talking to the Captain about one thing or another, so he figured he'd go take care of her problem of being all alone.

"Hey," he said, coming to sit beside her. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"I'm not by myself," protested Ryanne. "I'm waiting for someone."

"That so? I'll bet you were waiting for me," he said, and leaned close to her, which caused Ryanne to move a little further down the seat of the booth.

"I don't think so," said Ryanne, uncomfortably.

"You're the one who's staying with Sergeant Jones, aren't you?" he asked her, and she nodded. "Rain, isn't it?"

"Ryanne," she corrected, and he nodded. "But everyone calls me RC." As far as Ryanne was concerned, Kris was the only one who called her by her full name, and it was going to stay that way.

"RC, right," he said. "Don't you get tired of being cooped up with her? I mean, she can be such a pain in the ass."

The blonde paused. "No, I don't think so," she said. "She's really not that bad."