AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She’s definitely not smelly.” The memory of her scent almost had him hard. “She’s gorgeous. Smart. Works hard. Only thing she whined about was having to master the M4A1.” He sighed. “Pretty much the ideal trainee.”
Cody frowned. “Then what the hell’s your problem?”
Jase shoveled his fork into a pile of green beans. “The fact that she’s gorgeous, smart and works hard. I shook her hand and practically short-circuited. All I could think about was fucking her.”
Cody shrugged. “So do something about it.”
“I’m her training agent, dumb shit. It’s against every rule to get involved with someone who’s under your command. You know that as well as I do.”
Cody watched him for a moment, his mouth curling on one side. “Then wait until you’re done training her. Ask her out for a beer. See what develops.”
“Once she’s done training, she’ll be gone.”
“Then take her out to celebrate on her last day.” He raised one eyebrow. “Sounds like she’s right up your alley, Mr. One Night Stand.”
That was the problem. He wasn’t sure one night with Laila would be even close to enough. And he never violated his one-time-only rule.
Jase shoved his plate away from him. “The day I finish training her isn’t the problem. It’s getting through the next month without making a major mistake.”
“You want me to take her off your hands?” Cody grinned. “I’d be happy to help you out. You can work with my smart-ass know-it-all. He needs to be taken down a few pegs, and you’re just the man to do it.”
Jase snorted. “Mel would never go for that. She told me she’d picked me specifically to be Laila’s trainer. Said she thought we’d work well together.”
They sure as hell would work well together in bed. He’d never understood what people meant when they talked about ‘chemistry’ with their partners. Now he did. It was like a sledgehammer to the chest. Overwhelming need. And he was pretty sure Laila had noticed it, too.
He’d felt her tense when his chest touched her back. Saw her hand tremble when he’d positioned it on the heavy weapon. Heard her tiny gasp when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Her eyes had been dilated, as well. Even in the bright desert light.
Yeah, Laila Burke had been interested in him, too. And from her reaction, she’d been just as horrified by it.
It was going to be a hot, hellish month.
* * *
Three weeks later, standing under the blazing sun at the gun range, Laila gritted her teeth. Set the heavy M4A1 gun carefully on the ground and turned to face Jase behind her. “This is ridiculous,” she said. “I can handle this gun. I’m strong enough, thanks to you,” she said, knowing she sounded bitchy instead of grateful. “I’ll be able to fire it and hit whatever or whoever I’m aiming at. But we both know that I’ll never see another one of these guns.”
She nodded at the Glock she’d been outfitted with, sitting on a bale of straw behind her. “I should practice more with that one. I’ll have that gun with me every day. I’m not likely to need it, but the odds of me using it are twenty times the odds of me using that thing.” She nodded at the gun on the ground. “So why are we focusing on the M4A1 instead of the Glock?”
Jase drew in a deep breath, and Laila understood why. They’d had this argument every day for the past week.
“You need a certain number of hours practicing with the carbine,” he said, his voice a little louder than usual. Maybe because she brought this up every day.
“Regulations are very specific about that.,” he continued. “I’m keeping track of your training times, and we haven’t reached the stopping point with the big gun.”
“When will I ever even see one, once I leave Kabul?” she asked.
“I have no idea. But training rules exist for a reason. You have no way of knowing what’s going to happen once you’re in the field. You need to be proficient with both weapons. Just in case.”
She frowned as she studied them. “Yeah, I get that. I know that’s the rule. But doesn’t it make sense to spend extra time on the weapon I’m more likely to use?”
“If you have to use either weapon, you’re already in trouble,” he said. “I know you like to improvise. Think outside the box. Those are valuable skills for an agent in the field. But you need to have the basics down pat first.”
“Then how do you manage in the field?” she shot back at him. “You’re completely by-the-book. All about following the rules to the letter. What happens when things don’t go perfectly?”
“I can improvise when I need to,” he said, his voice hard. “And these training exercises aren’t about me. They’re about getting you ready for insertion in that village.”
“Where I won’t have an M1A4 weapon,” she shot back.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “We have less than a week to go,” he said. “Let’s just try to get through these last days without arguing about procedures that aren’t going to change.”
