AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A paper plane sailed across the room, landing on the edge of my desk, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out who’d sent it my way. I didn’t bother looking in Solo’s direction as I flicked the plane off my desk and then crushed it under the heel of my boot.
“Ouch,” someone said—Gucci was my guess, but I didn’t fucking care. I wasn’t dealing with our issues here, and Solo bringing attention to the fact that we weren’t speaking wasn’t helping.
I heard Solo sigh, and a minute later, another paper plane landed on my desk. This time, he’d written on the outside of the plane, since he probably figured I wouldn’t open this one either.
I’m sorry. Can we talk?
I slid the plane underneath my notebook before Houdini or anyone else could see what was written there, then glanced at Solo. It would be too easy to give in when he was looking at me with such a repentant expression, but the words he’d used as weapons had made their mark, and the wounds they’d inflicted still smarted.
Solo lifted an eyebrow in question, but I only stared back at him, refusing to give him what he was asking for.
“Ladies and gentlemen.” Commander Levy’s voice boomed as he entered the classroom, but Solo didn’t take his eyes off me, so I held his stare. “Your time here is almost up, which means things are only going to get more difficult from here on out.”
I barely heard a word he said, but as Commander Levy passed me in the aisle, it forced me to break eye contact with Solo. I didn’t look back at him, but I could feel the weight of his stare.
“Lieutenant Morgan, is there something more interesting to you than winning this competition?”
Solo turned toward the front reluctantly, still flipping his pen through his fingers. “There might be one thing.”
Gasps rang out around the room as my whole body froze.
Commander Levy’s eyes narrowed. “And what might that be?”
Oh sweet God of all that was holy. Solo couldn’t mean me…could he?
Solo glanced back at me, a sly grin on his lips, and then he faced Commander Levy and said, with absolute confidence, “It’s classified, sir.”
In a move completely out of character, the commander rolled his eyes. No doubt he was used to Solo’s mouth at this point, but it had to be exhausting getting defied at every turn. “Lieutenant Morgan, may I suggest you consider making this class and this program your top priority for the remainder of our time together. That is, if you’d like a recommendation to get you somewhere other than back in the hangar washing jets for the next round of hotshots.”
As everyone in the room laughed and Commander Levy moved on, I shook my head. Solo going out of his way to screw his career wasn’t funny. Using me—if that was what he’d meant by his “classified” remark—wasn’t funny.
I frowned at the back of Solo’s head. What the hell are you doing?
23 Solo
OKAY, SO I was back to being a mouthy shit, but after my attempts at getting Panther to talk to me had failed, could anyone blame me?
As soon as we were dismissed from morning session, I was up and out of my seat. Panther was faster. But he couldn’t get away from me. Not this time.
I pushed past Utah—who really should be glad I wasn’t slamming him face-first into the door—and as I hauled ass in Panther’s direction, I heard him snicker.
“Give it up, lover boy. You’re not getting the trophy or the guy.”
My jaw clenched and so did my fists, but I didn’t turn around to give him exactly what he wanted from me: a physical reaction. Instead, I kept my focus on the tall, fuming man ahead of me. I closed the distance between us and called out, “Hey, Panther. Hold up.”
He kept moving, ignoring me, because of course he did, but after my little revelation on the beach last night, I wasn’t letting him get away so easily. Or at all.
I called out his name again, and when he kept walking, I cursed under my breath and picked up the pace. “Are you seriously gonna make me chase you?”
No surprise he didn’t bother responding to that, so what did I do? I ran after him. Me. I chased someone.
No, not someone. Not just anyone. Panther.
I could feel the stares from the other trainees as I raced after the man I’d fallen in love with—the one who didn’t know it yet and was too stubborn to listen for one second so I could tell him. But I didn’t care what anyone else was thinking. All I cared about was having the opportunity to make things right.
“Panther, we need to talk.”
He shook his head. “Nah, I think I’ve heard enough.”
Well, shit, at least that was a response, which was more than I’d gotten so far. Jesus, this was what desperation felt like. Fuck that.
