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“The fact that she kept up with us as long as she did was fucking impressive,” Alden added in a low voice. He seemed reluctant to give her any praise, but we all realized that Keller was being ridiculous with his expectations of her. “Admit it, she’s in better shape than any of us thought.”
“She did well,” I chimed in. “Come on, let’s go finish our workout before we’re stuck in meetings for the rest of the day.”
When you went on these kinds of missions there were always so many damn meetings. Briefings before you left, when you got back, and sometimes while you were over there. It was never ending.
I was looking forward to getting over there. We were going to be in remote areas most of the time and I was looking forward to it. I lived for the thrill of the chase. The danger. We all did or we never would have pushed our bodies to the limits in order to become Green Berets.
We kept an eye on Zinnia as she recovered over on the bleachers. Not that anyone would dare to fuck with her while she was here. Everyone who was anyone already knew who she was and who she belonged to. I frowned at the notion that she belonged to us.
She’s a part of our team,I reminded myself.
“We have enough time for showers before our first meeting,” Keller said, wiping the sweat off his brow with the bottom half of his shirt. “Go get her,” he told me.
I was happy to oblige, especially if I got to take her to the female locker room myself. “Hey,” I called out as I jogged over. “We’re all showering then we need to go to a meeting.”
“Okay,” she answered, looking uncertain.
“That includes you,” I said with a smile.
She stood, winced then made her way off the bleachers.
“I’ll show you where the locker rooms are, unless someone already did?”
She shook her head, but otherwise remained silent. She wasn’t a scared little mouse, she just watched and analyzed everything. You could see the thoughts all but flashing over her expressive face. We walked over to where the female locker rooms were.
“Afterward, meet back in our conference room. You remember where it is?”
“I found it by myself this morning,” she replied, her tone dry but the edge was softened by a smile. She was gorgeous when she smiled. This was the first she’d offered me.
Of course, I couldn’t help myself. “Want me to come scrub your back?” She let out a tsking sound full of disgust and walked away from me toward the female barracks. “Don’t take too long!” I called out. “I will come in there and get you if you’re late!”
She spun and looked at me like I was crazy. I grinned. “Meeting with the Colonel and a General. Being late would look bad. Real bad,” I cautioned her. As if that were the reason I’d storm into the shower and drag her out.
Her huff of frustration drifted back toward me. I watched her turn and run to get new clothes, then went the opposite direction so I could do the same.
I stepped into the locker room and chose an empty shower head. My teammates were quietly washing off. As the official shit stirrer of the group, I felt it was necessary to poke the proverbial bears.
“Dibs.”
Three sets of eyes settled on me. Their faces all held disbelief.
“You can’t call dibs on her,” Rush insisted, balling his fists like he was ready to fight for her here, naked, in the shower.
“Can and did.” I lathered shampoo into my hair as I spoke, but my eyes were on Keller. To my surprise Alden wore a pissed off expression as well.
It’d been easy to see Rush was interested and Keller had given himself away by being a mean son of a bitch, but the other King being interested was fascinating. He rarely took women home. He was extremely choosy. He generally treated women as if it were their privilege to get fucked by him. Or so it seemed to me, since I was usually willing to take anyone home. My good looks just meant I had my pick of women most nights.
“No one is calling dibs,” Keller said, fury wrapping itself around each word.
“Why? You claiming her for yourself?” It was fun tormenting him.
“No one,” he repeated, glaring at me. “She’s our teammate.”
I washed the shampoo from my hair then shook my head like a dog, flinging water everywhere. “Pretty sure I can keep things civil, even after I make her scream as she comes. I have no problem with her being on our team.”
“Why do you automatically think you should get her?” Rush asked in anger.
I winked at him and tossed my head toward Keller. He clued into the fact that I was yanking our leader’s chain and turned to watch Keller scrub both hands over his face in aggravation.
