AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay, you need to stop looking at me like that.”
Solo licked along his lower lip. When my fingers automatically tightened on his, he chuckled. “Like what?”
“Like we’re alone and have the entire night to explore everything your eyes are suggesting.”
Solo looked around the empty lobby. “I don’t see anyone else out here, lieutenant.”
I shook my head. “Be serious. My father is standing just through that door.”
Solo’s eyes all but twinkled, and just when I thought he’d say screw it and drag me off somewhere more private, he turned on his heel and tugged on my hand. As I followed behind him, my eyes traveled down to the perfectly fit cut of his jacket and pants. When we finally got to the lobby doors, he stopped and glanced back over his shoulder at me.
“Jesus, Panther. Stop staring at my ass. Your father is right on the other side of the damn door.”
My lips twitched as he reached for the handle, and it was in that moment that I realized one of the main reasons I’d fallen for this heartbreaker, this bad boy, who had the ability to calm and excite me all at once.
Where I was cool and calm under pressure, Solo was ballsy and reckless. He took delight in shocking the hell out of those around him, and tonight was going to be no different.
2 Solo
I WASN’T FOOLING Panther. I knew he could see right through my devil-may-care act, but he wasn’t giving me hell about it. Wisecracks were how I dealt with things that were too heavy, moments where the pressure was so high that there was a possibility that everything could go wrong. And make no mistake, once we walked through those doors, everything could go wrong.
But Panther’s hand in mine meant he was willing to risk the safety net of his life for what he wanted—and what he wanted was me.
If I could bottle up the high that I was feeling, I’d make fucking millions. As it was, it felt like my heart had grown five sizes too big and was going to burst out of my chest at any moment, but I had to reel it in if I had any hope of making it through those doors.
“You ready?”
Panther put on his cap and blew out a breath. Then he looked at me, eyes shining with determination, squeezed my hand, and nodded. “Ready.”
Without taking my eyes off his—and before doing something crazy, like hauling him back to the barracks to have my way with him—I threw open the door to the main hall.
Blue lights flashed across the dimly lit room to the beat of the live jazz band playing “Summertime,” and as my eyes adjusted, I could see the sheer amount of people crowding the large room. Elaborately decorated round tables took up the majority of the space, though there was a sizeable dance floor in front of the band, but it was what lay directly before me that made Panther squeeze my hand in a death grip.
He didn’t have to worry, though; I wasn’t letting go of him.
Intimidating was the word I’d use to describe the high-ranking officers that stood in a seemingly never-ending receiving line down the navy and gold rolling carpet. When Panther and I stepped into the room, all eyes landed on us.
It wasn’t often that the top brass betrayed their surprise, but several pairs of eyes widened, and among those…Panther’s father. He stood a few feet away among his peers, respected and feared in equal measure, and I waited to see his response. There was no way he’d make a scene, not here, but I didn’t want him or anyone giving Panther a hard time, either. When I didn’t see any telltale signs of displeasure—no clenched jaw, no balled fists—I almost sighed in relief, though we weren’t in the clear yet.
“Lieutenant Mateo Morgan, call sign Solo, currently enrolled in the Elite,” boomed the loudspeaker, announcing my arrival. “Joined by Lieutenant Grant Frederick Hughes, call sign Panther, currently enrolled in the Elite.”
Now every pair of eyes in the entire fucking place was staring our way. It was like with that announcement, the ball had come to a halt to see the new arrivals, including our fellow trainees, some of whom needed to pick their jaws up off the floor.
Not one to back down from curiosity, even when it was directed our way by hundreds of nosy fuckers, I shot them a wink and brought Panther around so that we could make our way down the receiving line.
That meant I had to let go of him to greet the higher-ups, but our statement had already been made: we were together, here together, and if anyone had a problem with that, they could kindly fuck off.
Or my fist could not-so-kindly tell them to fuck off later.
