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Three hours later in the gym, muscles aching and sweat pouring down her back, she set the hand weights carefully in their rack and stepped away. “Are we done for the day?” she asked Jase.
He studied her for a moment, and she thought his lips twitched. As if he were laughing at her. “Yeah, we’re done,” he finally said. “Unless you want to work on something else?”
“No, I’m good,” she said. She stood straight and hoped she looked cool and calm instead of like a limp, wet dishrag. “Same time tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll meet you at the gun range at seven a.m. To avoid the heat,” Jase said.
“Got it,” she said.
As she trudged toward the locker room, she thought she heard him mutter, “I know you do.”
Without looking back at him, she stepped into the locker room, let the door close behind her and collapsed onto one of the benches. Every single part of her body ached. Even her hair hurt.
She staggered to her feet, tottered toward the drinking fountain and gulped down water. Then she stripped, leaving her clothes in a sodden, dirty pile on the floor and stepped into a shower stall.
She’d thought she was in decent shape. Before joining the CIA, she’d run every day. Worked out at a gym. But the routine Jase had put her through made her previous workouts feel like child’s play.
And they were just getting started.
* * *
Jase stepped into the small mess hall at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, filled his tray with food then stopped and studied the room. Laila wasn’t here, thank God.
Today had been excruciating. And it was only the first day of her training.
He wasn’t sure he’d survive the next month.
He’d shaken her hand after Mel introduced them, and a fist of need had punched him in the chest. Desire had roared through him like a tank, crushing everything in its path. Common sense. Control. Every rule about trainer-trainee relationships that had been pounded into him.
Nothing mattered except touching the stunning, red-haired woman standing in front of him.
He’d managed to shake her hand normally, but every cell in his body screamed at him to touch her again. Wrap her in his arms and hold her tight.
For a guy who was never interested in anything more than a one-night stand, his reaction to the woman he had to train was disturbing. Unsettling.
God-damned terrifying.
Today, their first day training together, had been hell. He’d had to touch her constantly. Press his chest into her back as he steadied the heavy M4A1. Curl her fingers around the heavy weapon to show her how to hold it. Wrap his arms around her to brace her for the recoil when she fired.
And then they’d hit the gym.
The scent of her body warming with the heat of exertion had driven him mad. Watching her muscles flex and release had made him tense with the need to kiss every inch of her fit body. And the way she drew her lower lip into her mouth when she concentrated? He’d wanted to taste that lip, tease it with his tongue, more than he’d ever wanted to fuck another woman.
Thank God she wasn’t in the mess hall. He needed to stay as far away as possible from Laila Burke when he wasn’t training her. But he was afraid his body would lead him straight to her.
He spotted Cody Parker sitting alone and zeroed in on him as he crossed the room. Cody was one of his best friends on the CIA SpecOps team. He could tell Parker about his off-the-charts reaction to Laila Burke, and Cody wouldn’t judge him. He’d sympathize. Tell him to pull his head out of his ass and focus on his job.
Setting his tray on the table across from Cody, Jase slid into his seat. “Parker,” he said. “Thank God you’re here.”
Cody looked up at him, a piece of pork chop speared on his fork. “What’s up, Burke?”
Jase shook his head. “I got a new agent to train today,” he said.
Cody grimaced in sympathy. “An idiot? Or one of those guys who thinks he knows everything already?”
“Worse,” Jase said, stabbing a fork into his own pork chop. “A woman. She’s a teacher. Going to one of the villages somewhere up north.”
Cody swallowed. “I sure as hell wouldn’t mind training a woman.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Nice change from the stupid, stinking men I’ve had lately.”
