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“Stuart Falslev.” Stuart shook his hand but held it. “What branch of the military, and please don’t say a SEAL.”
Aiden grinned. “Captain with the Marines.”
“Hmm. Still the Navy.” Stuart released him like he had the pox.
“True, but I am on your side to annihilate a couple of cocky SEALs.” He turned and shook Wes’s hand.
“Wes Hunsaker. Nice to meet you.”
“You as well. What branch did you serve with?”
“We were both Army Rangers,” Wes answered.
“And now military advisors to the illustrious General Kingston Magnum. You are the two perfect men to train us to win this competition,” Aiden said.
“Schmoozer,” Kingston grunted.
Stuart lifted an eyebrow and Wes smiled. Aiden didn’t react.
“I will be working with Chalisa,” Kingston said, his voice not allowing for any argument. “I’m assigning both of you to train Mr. Porter.”
“Sounds great,” Wes said, still smiling.
“Oh yeah.” Stuart cracked his knuckles. “You get the top specialists to train you.”
“I appreciate that,” Aiden said smoothly, “but my understanding was Chalisa and I were to spend this week together, not training separately.”
“This is a reality show focused on Chalisa winning the money for her charity, not matchmaking her with some silver-tongued military wannabe,” Kingston said shortly.
Chalisa grimaced. That was pretty harsh. Aiden only smirked at Kingston, as if he knew he’d riled the man up and wasn’t concerned about it. Aiden had no need to posture—his innate confidence glowed like a search light—but he must have no idea how tough Kingston was.
Stuart and Wes exchanged glances. Kingston obviously didn’t care if he’d been rude to Aiden. He took Chalisa’s elbow and directed her toward the stables.
She caught Aiden’s gaze as they walked past. He looked like he’d been denied spending time with the love of his life. Chalisa knew that wasn’t true and she should be thanking Kingston.
“What did that pretty boy do to you?” Kingston muttered as they reached the stables.
“He was telling the truth at the airport,” she said, barely able to hold her brother-in-law’s gaze. “When Jenn and I were in Cancun three months ago, I was walking alone on the beach at night. A man attacked me. Aiden took out the guy’s guards and rescued me from being raped and killed by a drug lord and a murderer.”
Kingston rested his arm against the stable wall and glanced back out to where Stuart, Wes, and Aiden were chatting. “I guess I shouldn’t be so annoyed with him. He seems like a pompous jerk.”
“He’s a good guy,” she admitted. Though was he really? Did good guys toy with a woman’s heart like Aiden had done to her?
“Why didn’t you tell me about the assault in Cancun?”
She shrugged. “It was so out of this world it was hard to believe it really happened. Aiden saved me, put Jenn and I on his jet, and got me home safely. He even had a guy watch out for me until he was able to get the drug lord arrested about six weeks later.”
Kingston nodded, then focused back on her. “There’s so much tension between the two of you, it makes me feel like he must have hurt you.”
She fidgeted, unsure how to answer him.
“He kissed you. He admitted to that.”
“He did.” She bravely met Kingston’s deep-blue and too-serious gaze. “I naively fell for him. It was easy to do while he rescued me. He was charming and handsome and I thought we had a connection. He hurt me because I was only a job to him. He doesn’t care about me, and he showed that by never coming for me.”
“I’m sorry.” Kingston’s jaw was rock hard. “He’s obviously not worthy of you.”
Chalisa appreciated the words, but she was overwhelmingly drawn to Aiden, it was hard to believe they weren’t meant to be.
