AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well,” she snorted, “for that, I can honestly and sincerely thank him.”
“Give Alex a chance? Remember? He’s from Ukraine. His family has run a wheat farm for a hundred years, many generations. All of a sudden, he’s been dropped into the U.S., an alien world to him.” Sky smiled a little, hoping that Lauren would ease up on her assessment of Alex. She didn’t look happy. And Lauren wasn’t one to hold her bile inside herself. Sky knew she’d come out of a rough childhood like herself. But Lauren wore those defensive shields like medals. Most people thought she had a massive chip on her shoulder. Lauren let few people into her personal world, beyond those formidable walls she would allow no one to scale. Sky was grateful to be one of the few who had earned entry to soft-hearted Lauren.
“I just hate being stared at,” Lauren muttered, wiping her fingers on a napkin.
“Especially by a man.”
Lauren stared at her for a moment. “You know a lot about my private life?”
“We’re more alike than you realize.” Sky shrugged. “It’s just a sense around you, Lauren. I’ve known you long enough, seen you in enough situations to know you’re not comfortable around most men.” She lowered her voice and added gently, “It was probably a man who stole or broke your trust a long time ago, and that’s why males, in general, are a threat to you, even now. Because of that event or time in your life, you don’t trust them. And with good reason.”
Her nostrils flared and she considered Sky’s gentle assessment. “If it was anyone but you saying those things, I’d deny it,” Lauren grumped. “This is not where I wanted our conversation to go today. We’re celebrating you getting married to Cal.”
“We’re friends, Lauren. Friends trust one another with their deepest, darkest secrets. And God knows, you and I carry enough of them.”
“Yeah, well mine are so far beyond dark and deep I don’t ever want to think about them again. Much less discuss them.”
Sky felt Lauren’s fragile vulnerability even though she was growling at her like the alpha female wolf she certainly was in her military world. Lauren was one of the best at what she did as a sniper. But her defensiveness was screaming at Sky. She knew that look in Lauren’s green eyes, saw it in the way her full mouth thinned, as if trying to protect herself from whatever else she might say. People got prickly when others got near a truth within them that they wanted to hide.
“I know the gentle, medical side of Alex,” Sky offered her quietly. “When he came in last night and we got to talking, Cal and I realized he’d stared at you, and that it made you uncomfortable. I explained to him how it makes a woman feel threatened; as if the male is stalking her.”
“Yeah, and then the guy had the balls to come over and offer me his hand after I refused to go over and welcome him to the team. What was he thinking? Oh, wait. Men think between their legs first, right? It’s the little brain that runs them since they don’t have one in their head. Well, that’s where Kazak was at with me all day yesterday. It was painful for me. I felt like a target.”
“This morning? When you came over to pick me up? And you met him in the kitchen? Did you notice he treated you very differently this time?” Sky lowered her head, catching Lauren’s dark look.
“He was much better,” Lauren muttered defiantly. “But I can FEEL him, Sky. I’m a sniper. I feel everything times ten,” and she shrugged. “He’s too interested in me, and I have absolutely no interest in him. Ever.”
“Maybe because he’s drawn to you? You can’t hang a man on a yardarm for liking you. Can you?”
“Yes,” Lauren said, lifting her head and scowling, “I sure as hell can. A man that looks at me like that wants to screw me, that’s it. Nothing else but sex on his little, tiny brain. I’m so SICK of those looks, I could vomit, Sky.” Lauren pushed her fingers through her long, slightly wavy hair, giving her a look of utter frustration. “This Patriarchal bullshit has to go. Women are not here to service men. We’re human beings. I demand to be treated as a human, not a sex toy to be screwed and then thrown away afterwards.”
“I totally agree with you. You’re cursed with being beautiful. Men are going to look at you. You’ve got to know that.”
“I wish I was dog ugly, to tell you the truth. As a sniper, the rifle doesn’t care what the hell I look like. All it cares about is I know how to treat it so I can blow the bastard in my scope away.”
Sky felt her heart cringe for Lauren. She exuded a toughness she’d seen in other women who had been very badly damaged by a man. She recognized it because of her own childhood. “Have you ever been in love, Lauren?”
“No. I don’t believe it will ever exist for me, Sky. I’m not trusting enough of men to let it develop that far.”
“But you and Cal are friends. He’s a man.”
“He doesn’t lust after me, either,” she noted, raising one eyebrow. “He’s so madly in love with you, he doesn’t see anyone else but YOU.”
Sky’s heart opened powerfully. “I never thought I’d ever fall in love either, Lauren. Not until Cal stepped unexpectedly into my life.”
“You got lucky,” Lauren said, her voice low with feeling. She reached out and patted Sky’s hand on the table. “And you know what? I can’t think of two people who deserve happiness more than you two.”
“Might rub off on you,” Sky teased, giving her a warm look of understanding.
“I’m twenty-nine,” Lauren said. “My two relationships with boys when I was in high school cured me of ever thinking that way. I don’t mind working with men who respect me, but I’ll be damned if I will be regarded as a sex object or be objectified by the rest of the men in the world. I won’t tolerate it.”
“I was twenty-seven when I met Cal the first time.” Sky saw Lauren look sad for a moment, which wasn’t like her. Normally, she kept her game face in place, rarely allowing anyone to know how she really felt beneath the armor she wore so well. “I’m probably overstepping my bounds here,” Sky began hesitantly, “and I know you’ll tell me to back off if I have, but Lauren, you’re a GOOD person. When you’re not out on a mission, you give your time to the Humane Society. You help train security dogs for Jack’s company. And you work hard with the Marines in the Toys for Tots program during Christmas time. You give a lot of yourself to charity and helping others whether they’re two-legged or four-legged.”
“I like serving,” Lauren conceded, all the bluster gone out of her voice. Resting her elbow on the table, she said, “Look, my foster father sexually abused me from the time I could remember. I fought back when I was old enough.” Her mouth became a slash. “When I was ten, he came after me in the kitchen one time, to screw me. I took a skillet and hit him in the head, and it killed him.”
Sky’s mouth dropped open. She stared disbelievingly at Lauren. “Oh, my God… oh, Lauren… I-I’m so sorry for you…,” and she was. Sky knew that aching loneliness of no one to protect her against her druggie father who beat her, but he had never sexually molested her. Still, Sky understood the pain Lauren carried within her.
“Don’t be sorry,” Lauren muttered, frowning. “Keep this to yourself?”
