In Service: All Together: In Service

By Lexi Ostrow

Being a military spouse isn't all housing allowances and free medical. It's not always seeing beautiful new places and an abundance of cultural experiences. It's not just sexy men and women in uniform saving lives and protecting our freedom.

 

It's watching as your significant other closes the front door one last time. It's dreading when the doorbell rings someone with a folded flag might be on the other side. It's giving up careers, leaving friends and family, and having to start over every few years. Sometimes it's saying goodbye, forever.

 

For the first time together, travel with the men and women of America's military as they weather storms so few would understand without living it themselves.

Live with them. Struggle with them. Love with them in the In Service full series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lexi Ostrow
• Release date: Jan 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201747121

Lexi Ostrow

USA Today Bestselling Author Lexi Ostrow has been in love with the written word since second grade when her librarian started a writing club. Born in sunny southern California she's spent time in various places across the country thanks to her husband's USCG career. Now, she's also mom to a far too adorable toddler, and a menagerie of pets, spinning fantastical worlds whenever she gets the opportunity. Lexi has been a writer ever since the second grade in some form or another. Getting her degree in creative writing and her master's in journalism she couldn't wait to get a chance to put her fantasies down on paper.  From paranormal romance to thriller there isn't a genre she doesn't love to spend her time reading or writing. With her BA in creative writing from UCR and her MA in multi-media Journalism from Emerson College, she's ready to take on the literary world one novel at a time. Reading and writing are her first loves, but her passion for shopping, love for yummy food and her love for all her many pets are not far behind. Lexi is an enthusiast Whovian and DC Comic Show lover who isn't afraid to talk someone's ear off about them. She hopes to one day help other readers fall in love with writing as she did.

Book preview

One

She couldn’t pull her focus from the email Travis had printed and brought home so many weeks ago. Three weeks had passed since she’d unhappily set it down on the dresser, face down. Three weeks since he’d informed her that his boat would be deploying with Naval forces in an attempt to promote training of sea militant forces across the world. Three weeks since she’d been reminded just what her husband did for a living. Three weeks since one of her worst fears came back to haunt her.

Travis had been in the Coast Guard since he was twenty-two. She’d been with him almost as long. Deployments were a way of life. In the beginning, she’d had the peace of mind of knowing he was never in terribly dangerous situations when he left.

However, the waterways were dangerous once again—from more than just drug lords.

The Somalian pirate attack from a few years back had changed that. He’d been land locked ever since, and she had been secretly thankful. Landlocked meant no deployments. No deployments meant no long periods of not seeing him, no nights of not feeling his arms around her, not coming home to him every day after her own job. That was over now. The deployment was about to begin.

Even their two boys had taken the news of the upcoming deployment hard. While she’d been trying to get Travis’s things ready, she’d had the added tasks of keeping the boys happy and not showing her own insecurities and fear over the year long deployment. Something that she would’ve liked to believe she’d succeeded in

It would be eighteen hours until they saw the cutter off. She could still read every line of the email in her mind, as if it had just been shown to her. She couldn’t stop thinking about the ramifications of him deploying, and it upset her. This wasn’t their first rodeo. He’d deployed over twenty times in the eleven years he’d been in. After four years of not, well, she felt like a newbie all over again. His over enthusiasm about going wasn’t helping the situation either.

His hand brushed over her nipple, and her breath caught in her throat and brought her out of her thoughts. Pleasure danced across her senses, and she turned her head to smile at him. He nuzzled her neck, his kisses were warm against her skin.

It’s time to stop thinking, Ash, his voice was deep and laced with a heavy southern accent. It was one of the things about him that she’d first fell in love with.

When he said her name, she could almost feel herself wrapped up in the deep timbre of his voice. His fingertips danced across her nipples through her sleep shirt and lightning sparked in their wake. She arched her back and wrapped her arms around his neck.

It’s impossible not to. She ran a hand down his face and looked into his eyes. She didn’t see her own fears and hurt reflecting back at her. She saw the confident man she loved, laced with a lustful glow that sent a shiver through her, tightening her nipples under his hand and the shirt. Make me forget, Travis.

His mouth crashed over hers an instant later. His tongue twirled against hers, and the image of the email slowly began to slip from her mind. Their mouths melded together as they had for so many years, with passion igniting like a fire the minute they touched. She could hear their breathing hitch and grow heavy as their hands explored each other. The hard planes of his chest didn’t give way under her hands as she ran her fingers gently over them. She loved the way he moaned when her hand slipped under the covers. He’d always slept nude, and her hand brushed against his thickening cock and played across his inner thighs.

Her body heated under his touch as his hands pulled her shirt off over her head, barely breaking their kiss. Her body hummed from the sensations he brought out in her and she pressed herself into his side, a needy mewl passing from her lips as he nipped her bottom lip. Ashley dragged her hands slowly back up over his body, tracing every firm muscle as they went. Her hands ran over his head, the prickle from his recent buzz cut soft under her fingers, but she missed being able to sink her hands into his hair.

His finger slipped under her panties and she gasped. Her vision clouded with pleasure, and her moan passed through the room between them. She heard him chuckle through her haze of lust as he slid a finger into her slick folds. She trembled as the first sign of an orgasm pulsed within her. It was always that way with him. One touch and she could come undone. Ashley’s hips gyrated, rising and falling on the finger that was driving her to madness inside her core.

Travis, her voice was a breathless plea for release.

He kissed the tip of her nose and pulled his finger out. She wrapped her fingers around his cock again and stroked him. He was hot and thick under her hand, and when he growled low, she grew wetter.

His hand massaged her breast as his mouth captured the taught nipple of the other in his teeth. Sparks of pleasure shot through her, and she squeezed his shaft in her hands a little tighter. He grunted, and she groaned, as he gave such equal attention to her breasts. Her body was crying out for more, for him to fill her completely.

His hand left her breast as he tugged her waist closer to him. She pushed her hand onto his chest and rolled on top of him. His cock brushed against her core, and she bit her lower lip to stop from moaning.

Jesus, Ash, Travis’s voice strained as she rubbed her body over his cock.

The tip of his shaft slid across her wet folds and slipped in for a split second, before she rolled further forward or back, denying him entrance. Her nails raked down his chest, slightly scouring the skin beneath them.

Travis reached out and ran a finger over her clit, and she moaned in pleasure at the gentle touch. His thumb circled over the sensitive nub repetitively, and she did cry out as her body shook again. She was so close to the edge, and she could feel herself slipping over. She continued to move back and forth over his cock as he rubbed her clit in tantalizing circles. Stars danced across her vision as she screamed when her orgasm washed over her. Just from the barest of contacts, her husband had made her come undone, and he hadn’t even sunk deep inside her.

Travis tugged her down, and her body slid over his shaft in a quick motion. He swallowed the majority of her cry of pleasure with his kiss, so as not to wake the children.

The kiss was hot and filled with all the promises of more, and she lost her ability to tease him any longer. She took him in her hands and rubbed her finger over the head of his shaft, feeling the mixture of their arousal. In a swift motion, she speared herself on his erection, taking him to the hilt, and she felt her body milk his cock the minute he entered. She rode him, her hips bucking fast, his shaft sliding over her clit with each stroke.

Her hands trailed up her body, until she found her nipples and pinched them between her fingers. She could hear their bodies slapping together, their shallow breaths and small moans and grunts. Her back arched as she rode him, taking him deeper than she thought possible, and her breath caught in her throat. Whimpers pulled from her as his hands wrapped around her hips and slammed her down onto his cock. She splayed her hands over her breasts and massaged them as the pressure built inside of her.

Yes. Travis. More, deep breaths punctuated her words. Her body rode his—fast and hard, seeking another release. She could feel it building and tying her body in knots.

He growled, and his hands moved to her back as his body lunged up. He rolled her underneath him, his dick still thrusting inside. The motion sent a wave of pleasure through her, and his next thrust broke the dam that had been building.

Her body tremored and pulsed as he kept thrusting into her, dragging out her orgasm as he reached his own. His thrusts slowed, and he gently circled his hips. Drawing tiny bits of pleasure from her sated body. Slowly, he stopped moving and pulled out from her tight body. She gasped as the action sent one last spike of bliss through her body.

When he tugged her to him, spooning behind her, she felt the weight of the day and the intensity of her release crash down on her. His arm draped over her stomach, and she closed her eyes, the email once more not far from her thoughts.

The deployment was coming, and not even wonderful sex could erase that.

Two

Ashley leaned against the front door as she closed it behind her with a groan. Her purse slipped off her arm and slammed to the floor with a thunk. She winced, hoping the tile in the rental house wasn’t damaged, and bent to pick it up and set it on the table near the door.

She rubbed a hand over her eyes. Tears burned beneath her closed lids. She pressed her fingertips into her eyes to push the tears the away. Crying on a deployment did nothing, except lead to more and more crying. Missing him was not an excuse to allow a weakness that she couldn’t control into the deployments.

Her day had been insane, more so than normal, and she was simply tired. She loved working at the civilian hospital; it gave her a sense of completion and kept her away from the tragedies that often came into the military hospital. Sure, they had horrible instances as well, but she never worried about her husband sustaining the injury on a deployment. She’d worked at the VA hospital at their last unit, and each and every person that rolled through the trauma doors had been Travis in her mind. Leaving had been the smartest thing. That didn’t mean her days couldn’t be trying at a different hospital.

Patients had driven her up a wall, and she’d almost asked to leave twice. She needed a break. Changing bedpans and checking MRI results hadn’t seemed important enough. She’d woken up that morning and saw the tiny red circle on the wall calendar next to the bed that marked a month in the deployment.

One month into deployment. Only one month. A month without touching Travis, and she was so wound up she would probably scream at their kids if they had so much as left a toy out on the floor. One month had been long enough to scramble her thoughts and make her want a break from everything, just for the day.

She sighed again and rubbed her forehead with her free hand. The other held mail, probably filled with bills and useless credit card offers. The house was quiet as she waked through it, and she worried what trouble the boys could be getting into.

Cassidy! Mark! She called their names and walked through the house.

A babysitter was supposed to come, but hadn’t been able to make it. The idea that her boys had been alone even for an hour, while she drove home, hadn’t sat well with her. However, the house seemed to be the same condition as she remembered it being in when she’d left that morning to drop the boys at school. That meant they all had earned a treat. Pizza and ice cream were the game plan for the day. True, it was more for her, but her boys never knew that, and it made them happy to have junk food every once and awhile.

She heard the boys shout down to her from their rooms, and she shook her head. She and Travis really needed to set a rule about video game time, or they were never going to see their children again. Not to mention the danger of unfinished schoolwork and the tantrums they occasionally threw when she tried to get them to do the work. She made a mental note of things to talk to Travis about in six months. A list that seemed to grow daily every time she realized her boys were growing up.

Ashley dropped the mail she’d been holding in her left hand down on the kitchen counter and grabbed the house phone from its cradle to order out. She pushed the numbers and slipped it under her chin to sort through the mail while she waited.

The phone slipped from her grasp when she saw the writing on one of the envelopes. Travis had sent her an honest to goodness letter, not an email. She didn’t even bother to pick the phone up off the counter or turn it off. Her hands tore at the seal on the envelope, and she yanked the letter out.

A distinct smell wafted towards her nose as she unfolded the paper. Yves Saint Laurent cologne—Travis’s cologne. A smile tugged at her lips, and she chuckled. Only her husband would spray cologne on a letter. Her hands shook a little as she unfolded the slip of notebook paper.

---

Ash,

I love you. I thought, with the tour being a month in, a nice handwritten letter might be the thing to put a smile on your face. I have no idea when it will get to you, but I promise to give it to the nice help pilot as soon as I lick the envelope sealed….and if it didn’t taste so bad, I’d tell you what I wished it really were…but that adhesive taste, yuck.

I miss you, Ash. Things are the same here as the email you will probably read from me. Counting the days till we moor up, so I can sneak in a video chat with you. I was thinking, perhaps my lovely wife would grace me with a sexy photo or two as a memento of what I’m coming home too?

Tell Cassidy and Mark to start practicing their catching skills. It’ll be baseball tryouts when I’m home, and I intend on helping them. I’ve got to head back to watch now. Love you.

xoxo,

Travis.

---

Tears blurred her eyes; softball was how they had met. Ten years ago she had been trying to help her sorority win the infamous Greek Week and the wind had taken her ball and slammed it right into the side of his head.

The wind blew her light brown hair across her face as she swiveled the bat in the air. Her eyes stung from the breeze for some reason, and she wondered if their light green color would be darker from irritation. She shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times, before stepping up to the plate/

Come on, Ash! One more run, and we kick these Beta girl’s asses!

She grinned and nodded back at the KKG’s president before turning back to the game. The ball was thrown, her bat hit into it with a thwack, and she watched it go sailing in the wrong direction. She threw the bat, began to run after the ball, and slammed right into a man. She stumbled backwards, and he reached out, his hand stopping her fall and warming the small of her back. The sun behind him partially obscured her vision, and she scarcely made out a set of perfect teeth and intense brown eyes staring down at her. His body was a solid wall of muscle, causing her to briefly wonder what it would be like to drag her hands across the wide planes of his chest, and she blushed at her thoughts.

Seems you hit this in the wrong direction. He removed his hand from her back and offered her the ball. Then it would seem you ran headlong into me. He chuckled as she flushed even more. His voice was a deep southern burr, and it sent shivers through her. He was the kind of boy she’d always wanted. A big, strong man with an accent that could make her knees shake.

She wasn’t responding to him, and she mentally kicked herself. Sorry. About both. Not the worlds greatest softball player.

He flashed a grin at her. No problem. How about you make it up to me by taking me out for drinks tonight?

She could hear the girls calling out to her, and she knew if she didn’t answer him soon, he’d walk away or her sisters would drag her back to the game. The word blurted out of her mouth before she thought a second longer. Yes.

He shouted after her as she raced back to the game. Names Travis by the way. I’ll meet you here at eight!

She stared after him and noticed how cute of an ass he had as he jogged away. A mile spread across her lips. When she heard her sorority sisters call her name, she jumped, startled, and ran back to the game. Her mind completely on thoughts of the first date that was coming.

Ashley sighed. Her heart was fluttering with recollections of their youth. The memory had pulled a few tears from her, and she hastily wiped them off her cheeks with her hand. Deployments were always hard, and she found the more she thought of their time together outside of deployments, the harder they could be.

Memories stirred up emotions she couldn’t act upon and left her feeling weak. Yet, the vivid recalling was out of her control, and the smallest thing could trigger them.

For the third time in as many minutes she was lost in memories . Shaking them off, she picked up the phone. The annoying beep of a busy line met