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When I glance at Ty, he’s no longer staring at the ground, he’s gazing at me, his eyes rounded in surprise.
“What we’re doing here, hidden from the world for the next two years, is all in service to helping these males live out the rest of their lives in peace anddignity. Your act-first-and-ask-questions-later strategy has already landed this fine male in the dirt. I think you’ve done enough damage to his ego. Look at him.”
I wait for the Corporal to take in Ty’s filthy pelt and the tear on the knee of his khakis.
“The Colonel gets paid the big bucks to be in charge. He needs to approve the extreme measure of removing Ty from his placement and demoting him to the southern barracks. This could cause the male to regress after all the education and nurturing the military has given him over the past three years.”
I almost snort at my use of the word “nurturing,” I doubt there’s been any of that, but I said it to make a point.
Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I spear Lennox with my most menacing gaze, purse my lips, and tap my foot.
“We’ll wait for you to make a call and get orders from your CO.”
I know next to nothing about the military other than watching TV and what I’ve observed since I’ve been here. I know one thing, though: these guys are used to taking orders.
To underscore that Ty wasn’t forcing his advances on me, I muscle my way between the soldiers and stand next to him in solidarity.
Lennox wipes his mouth with the palm of his hand as he considers my words. I imagine he’s simply weighing how much trouble he’ll be in if he sends Ty to the southern barracks versus the punishment for waking his CO.
The longer Lennox stalls, the more worried I become. Is he really going to drag Ty away? Might I never see him again?
Perhaps kissing him earlier was impulsive and not well thought out, but as the seconds tick by, I become more aware of just how much I like Ty. I don’t want to contemplate the next two years without seeing his handsome face again. Nor do I think I’ll be able to live with the guilt of causing this disaster.
A minute later, when Corporal Lennox is still contemplating his next move, I say, “It’s all my fault. I knew he’d never been with a woman before. I seduced him.”
Ty shakes his head and huffs. I keep my gaze from him, not wanting to see the disapproval I’m certain is on his face. It must be killing him right now that I’m taking the blame for something he eagerly participated in.
Lennox shakes his head and thrusts his palms toward us, clearly disgusted.
“I don’t want to hear another word.”
When I open my mouth to protest, he holds up one finger with such vehemence I snap my jaws closed.
“Not one more word. We will escort you both to your dorms, where you will be confined to quarters. I will apprise the Colonel of this the moment he arrives at his office in the morning. You will wait until we summon you, then the Colonel will decide what to do with you.”
Two soldiers flank me, gripping me by my upper arms. Ty’s animalistic warning hiss stops them cold. He ends his threat display the moment they unhand me.
We’re escorted to the coed lounge where they take him to the males’ dorm and I’m released to go to my room in the female dorm.
It takes me a long time to get to sleep as I second-guess myself for hours. Perhaps I saved Ty a trip to the southern barracks at the expense of my opportunity to stay here.
They told us if we break the rules we won’t be sent home until the project concludes. My stomach clenches when I realize I could spend the next two years in the brig.
Chapter Nineteen
Ty
They locked me in my room last night. It didn’t bother me; I spent the first several decades of my life in a cage. At least my room has a comfortable bed and chair as well as a bathroom. All the amenities.
What kept me from getting a moment of sleep was worrying about Olivia. Did they lockherin, too? She’s too delicate, too sensitive, to tolerate such a thing.
The soldiers sometimes forget most of us have enhanced senses. Several of them were talking one day, and I overheard them say if the women broke the rules, they would be removed from the program. Because of the nondisclosure contracts they signed, they wouldn’t be sent home to return to their regular lives. Instead, they’d be thrown in the brig.
Olivia in a cell for almost two years? I’ll do anything to keep that from happening.
A soldier is knocking on my door. Banging is more like it. I’m intimately familiar with the sound of a police baton rapping on metal. It was part of the soundtrack of the first several decades of my life.
“You’ve got ten minutes to get dressed, Ty. Colonel Slater wants to see you. Immediately.”
