"Sappy damn movies," Amanda muttered as she mopped the tears from her eyes with the back of one hand and pressed stop on the DVD remote with the other.

The old Sandra Dee movie, Imitation of Life, always made her squall like a baby. It was just the most recent tear jerker in a long line of tear jerkers she had subjected herself to over the last couple of months. She couldn't find the will or the want to do anything other than shed the comfortless tears of abandonment.

Turning the TV off, the once small home seemed empty and enormous, filled with nothingness. She couldn't stand the weight of the silence. With a heavy sigh of resignation, she turned the TV back on.

Local on the 8s was tinkling with happy music on The Weather Channel. Deciding it didn't matter as long as there was noise, Amanda tossed the remote on the couch and trudged down the hallway into the bathroom.

The monotony of her bedtime routine took all of ten minutes. Jim Cantore's voice followed her into the bedroom. Another hurricane was headed for the Florida panhandle. She shook her head and climbed under the warm covers on her queen sized bed. It was still strange, even after two months, to have it all to herself. She pulled her husbands pillow into her arms and inhaled the scent of him that still lingered. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she wished and prayed that he would simply come home to her.

Amanda woke sometime later from a fitful dream to a tear soaked pillow and the saddest brown eyes she had ever seen.

"Please don't cry, my beautiful Mandy," Tony's rich voice was filled with pain and love as he wiped away her tears.

Confusion furrowed her brow. It couldn't be him. He couldn't really be there in the bed with her. Could he? It didn't seem possible, but he seemed so real.

"Tony?" Amanda sobbed quietly. "I've missed you so much. Please tell me you're home to stay." She stroked his smooth cheek with her fingers, making sure he was real.

He wanted nothing more than to say yes. To whisk away her pain and never see her cry again. Since he couldn't find his voice to break her heart again, he leaned close and chastely kissed her pouting lips. He'd come back for only one reason, but the sweet taste of her strawberry lip balm ignited the passion he carried for her. It was a passion he would carry with him even beyond death, of that he was certain.

Amanda slid her hand along his familiar jaw until her fingers sank into the soft curls on the nape of his neck. Parting her lips, she pulled him closer and offered him her tongue. Caressing the flat of her tongue with his own, Tony drank in the crisp mint flavor left behind by her mouthwash. His eyes closed against his will as his head began to swim. She had always been the one drug he couldn't quit. Nothing had changed. Her taste, her scent, the touch of her skin, still got him high. He craved her. He needed her and was going to have her one last time. Consequences be damned.

Rolling his weight, Tony forced Amanda onto her back and covered her lithe body with the bulk of his. It was immediately apparent the damage his absence had caused. His beautiful bride's once full curves had vanished. Replaced by protruding bones. He had done this. Caused her to suffer. His heart recoiled.

He stifled his pain, it would wait. Kissing the tears on Amanda's cheeks, he whispered softly.

"I'm here, Mandy. You're safe."

Tony's soft words were lyrical in her ears. For as long as she had known him, he had been a great source of strength for her. When he left, he took all the strength and courage with him. With trembling hands, scared he would simply disappear again, Amanda traced the lines of his shoulders. Committed to memory how the sinew along his spine rippled as he moved. She wanted to beg him to stay, but kept quiet for fear he would vanish the way he had before.

His lips blazed a trail along her slender throat. The milky skin of her shoulder was like heaven against his tongue as he slowly tasted her body. Her fingers held fast to his short curly hair, her head thrust back, as he took her painfully puckered nipples into his mouth.

"Oh, Tony." She breathed heavily. The sound of her voice saying his name always sent a shock wave of ecstasy through his groin. He growled gently against her nipple, flicking the delicious bud with the tip of his tongue before sucking it between his teeth. Her fingers tightened in his hair.

Amanda's hips squirmed beneath him, telling him she was ready. But he wasn't. Not yet. He was going to make sure she never forgot him, no matter how long he was separated from her.

Taking her other erect nipple between his lips, Tony slid his hand down the length of her body. Her skin smooth as cream under his warm palm.

"Ah!" She gasped when his fingers stroked the wet spot on her panties. She was definitely ready. Her hips raised from the bed, pressing her whetted sex against his thick fingers.

Tony pinched her sensitive pink nipple with his teeth and pressed harder against the fabric of her panties until the material was the only thing between his finger and her throbbing clit.

Amanda's mouth opened, her breathing ragged, she tried to call out his name.

"Oh, T... Ta." His hand felt utterly magical against her wanton body, making it hard for her to speak. He rubbed harder. "Toe... Tone." She gasped. "Oh, yes, Tony!"

His engorged cock twitched at every sound Amanda made. He desperately wanted to slide inside her body but he knew it would all be over too soon if he did. Wanting only to please her, Tony sat up, straddling her hips as he pulled the satin scarf from the lampshade on the nightstand, and bound Amanda's wrists to the headboard. It was something he had always wanted to do to her but had never had the balls to try. Now, he had nothing to lose. He smiled when he met no resistance.

"Make love to me, Tony. Please," she begged.

"Patience, my beautiful Mandy. I'm not going anywhere."

'Yet,' He thought, closing his eyes against the lust burning brightly in her jade eyes.

Ignoring his own needs, Tony took great care to touch and kiss every inch of skin on Amanda's heated body. She whimpered and squirmed with each caress, her desire mounting to exponential heights. Her panties were soaked by the time he finally slid them down her long legs.

Still as flexible as she ever was, Amanda's thighs opened wide with the gentlest persuasion. Tony breathed in deep, getting lost in the heady aroma of her lust. It was a bouquet like no other. He opened his eyes to find a hunger glowing brightly in Amanda's hooded eyes like he'd never seen before. All at once, her desire was carnal, feral to the nth degree, and filled with so much love it caused him physical pain to see it.

"Take me, Tony," she demanded with pleading breaths. "Please, I need to feel you inside of me."

Control was suddenly out of his hands. He quickly yanked his desert BDU's down, exposing his rigid cock. Sitting up on his knees, Tony slid his hands under her ass, lifted her hips and immersed his throbbing cock into the warm, slick sheath of Amanda's sodden womanhood.

"Oh, god!" Amanda cried out at the intense sensation of being stretched around his girth. She tightened her pelvic muscles, angled her hips and drew him in deeper.

Burying his fingers to the first knuckle in the flesh of her bottom, Tony held her in place and moaned. Amanda's tight, wet pussy held his cock like a silk grip designed specifically to pleasure him. He held his breath and tried to will the building orgasm away. This is not how he wanted his time with her to end. He wanted to spend hours burying himself in her beautiful pussy.

"Tony!" Amanda implored, tilting her hips again. That was all it took. Tony growled, slamming his entire length into her quivering, clenching pit of pleasure until she wailed.

"Tony! Fuck!" She screamed, thrashing about as her orgasm exploded around his pounding cock. "Fuck, Tony! Oh, god! Yes! Yes!"

Tony grasped her hips with iron fists and hammered until his own orgasm seized his body. He dropped his head back and shivered as stream after warm stream of his own release filled Amanda up. When the final wake of pleasure rippled through him, Tony withdrew and collapsed on the bed beside Amanda's spent body.

Gently taking her face in his large hand, he turned her to look at him. The smile in her eyes made his heart soar. Then crash and burn. This was going to be harder than he'd thought.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you? How much I've always loved you?" he whispered, pushing a stray lock of hair from Amanda's angelic face.

Her smile vanished, replaced by the intense pain she had carried since he went away.

"Then why did you leave?" Amanda's feathery voice broke into a quiet sob.

"It was simply time for me to go." He laid his hand upon her naked belly, pressed his lips to hers for a long, slow, sweet kiss. "You'll never be alone again, my beautiful Mandy."

Six weeks later...

"I had to come by and say thank you, Tony." Amanda knelt in the lush green grass, a bouquet of red, white and blue roses in her hands. "You didn't lie, did you?" She smiled a brilliantly joyful smile, a single tear slipping down her cheek. "I just found out I'm six weeks pregnant. I never will be alone again." She placed the roses on the marble slab, kissed the photo of her fallen soldier and finally said goodbye.