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“I swear to Christ anyone who touches her is getting strung up by his nuts,” he growled at us both, but he stared me down.
Oh yeah. This is going to be fun.Keller was holding on by a thread and she’d only been here about twenty-four hours. If I was being honest with myself I would admit I wasn’t far behind him. Good thing I didn’t have to be honest.
Giving him a shrug, I turned my back to him so I could finish up. I planned on doing everything in my power to make him crack. Why? Because I was bored and it was fun.
CHAPTER8
Zinnia
Idropped down onto my bunk bed and groaned. Every muscle in my body ached. The week had flown by and every waking moment was filled with workouts, eating, or meetings. Whenever we weren’t going over mission planning Keller was running me into the ground physically.
If only he would actually force me to the ground, it might make it all worth it.
My bruises had bruises. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to get me to quit before we started or what his plan was. If he thought that was going to work then he was in for a surprise. I was as stubborn as they came and I was bound and determined to do everything they did, up until the point where my body gave out. I hated that I’d quit in that first workout, but it’d been that or pass out. I’d chosen the less humiliating route even though it’d been a blow to my ego.
You have twenty minutes then we’re heading to the range.Keller’s voice echoed through my head. He was a permanent fixture there lately. Him and his team. It was impossible for me to get them out of my thoughts. And I couldn’t even use the excuse that we were spending sixteen hours a day together. Soon it would be twenty-four and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do then. At least now I could take the edge off myself when alone in the barracks.
I’d just have to suck it up and keep my wicked thoughts to myself. Having a crush on one of them would have been one thing. They were young—relatively, even though both Keller and Alden were a few years older than me—good looking, and wore danger like it was an expensive cologne. There was something to be said about a man you knew could and would kill for the woman he loved. These men were trained killers. I had no doubt that they’d protect their families with their lives. More accurately, they’d protect their family by taking lives. Lots of them.
Shoving off the bed, I tightened the laces of my boots, then walked out to rejoin the guys. Rush had outfitted me with their uniform. I chose to wear the pants and the undershirt for now. I didn’t like how restrictive the blouse felt on my arms. I wasn’t used to wearing uniforms. Since I wasn’t a soldier I wasn’t obligated to wear it according to their regulations. None of them said a word about it to me.
As soon as I stepped out of the barracks I saw the guys waiting next to a Humvee. Keller was glancing at the watch on his wrist. He seemed to be getting crankier as the days went by. Today was our last day on the base. Tomorrow we’d be hopping a flight to Seoul.
Excitement shimmered in my belly. I couldn't wait to start. I could only hope Keller’s grueling workouts didn’t continue once we were over there. Doing them here in North Carolina was one thing. Iraq was going to be a completely different thing. The heat was going to be brutal. Not to mention I wouldn’t be much use to anyone, being this sore all the time.
I was looking forward to this training exercise, though. I loved going to the range. It was the ultimate equalizer. There was still a physical element to firearms proficiency, but traits like steadiness, balance, and grace would take you further than anything else. All the brute strength in the world would not get you a steady trigger finger. “Hey,” I said with a smile for them all as I walked up.
Keller glowered at me, then got into the driver’s seat without saying anything. Alden followed suit, though he did it with a neutral expression on his face. That was progress at least. It seemed the week of pounding me into the ground—please, just once let it be literal—with exercise had made Alden less skeptical of me. I wasn’t sure why, when I usually had to stop long before they did, but I was getting better—stronger—with each session. I sighed and shook my head.
“What’s wrong, Z?” Rush held the door open for me.
I gave him a grateful smile and climbed in, only to be sandwiched between him and Torque. Despite the hard seat and discomfort of three people on a two-man seat, I couldn’t help but be warmed by their massive bodies crushing mine.
“Nothing,” I said in a low voice.
Rush’s perceptive gaze flicked from me to Keller. “Don’t mind him,” he replied, voice equally low. Between being in the back and the loud rumble of the engine, the men up front couldn’t hear us.
“Hard not to when I know he doesn’t want me here.”
Torque looked over at me, surprise on his face, and piped in. “It’s not that he doesn’t want you with us.”
“Then what is it?” I’d slowly been getting to know these men over the last week and I’d gotten comfortable with these two. Torque was a merciless flirt, but he used his playboy ways to hide a gem of a heart. He’d brought me Icy Hot the first night after our workouts began. I’d ignored his offer to help slather it on, but the gesture had been sweet, and tempting.
Speaking of sweet, I looked over at Rush. The man was younger than me by a few years, but there was no doubt he was just as strong and capable as his teammates. I enjoyed his easy nature. We were already becoming friends. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t in my sweaty dreams where the four of them were holding me down and doing whatever they wanted to my pliant, and desperately willing body.
I seriously hoped I wasn’t talking in my sleep or the women who were my roommates for the week were going to have a lot to gossip about. I’d never had dreams like these before. They seemed so real. It made it very difficult to separate the men from my dreams from who the guys were when we were awake.
The dreams, and desires they provoked, were something I wasn’t sure how to handle. Being attracted to four men at once seemed greedy and it was off putting.
“He just has a lot on his mind,” Rush explained.
Torque snorted out a laugh. I turned to him with my brows raised. “What?”
“What?” he echoed.
“Why did you laugh?”
He looked like he wasn’t sure if he should say anything. At my insistent look he just shook his head. “Rush is right. Keller is just stressed. Look…taking civilians along is never his first go to option. They can be a liability. He just doesn’t want anything to happen to you, or us. Once we get going he’ll even out a bit.” He looked like he’d been very deliberate with his words. There was more to it, but Torque wasn’t going to elaborate so I let it go.
