IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AN easy workout. Chance, my roommate and ex-Marine brother, said that I needed to get my shit in gear and get off the couch since I would be shipping off in two weeks.
The plus side of being in a unit that was as dark as it gets is that we aren’t reporting to a base every day and dealing with shit day in and day out. We report, but it isn’t to a base in the middle of the public eye. No, our shit is buried deep. We have once-a-month training missions that can last up to two weeks. Those keep our skills sharp and our bodies ready.
We were lucky this time. Normally when we’re needed overseas, things have gotten worse than they can control. Then we come in and clean house.
This time, we’re being sent in with notice, which always means we’re going to be gone for a long period of time with no set end date. We could be over there for a few months or over a year. Mom is her normal freaking-out-but-staying-strong-and-supportive self. Dad, I know, is worried, but he won’t speak a word of it. He’s been there. The Special Forces unit I’m in is almost a carbon copy of the one he served on almost thirty years ago. He is more aware of the reality that I might not come home than anyone else is. But he also knows that this is very much a part of me and wouldn’t dream of being anything less than supportive.
Chance served with me during our last deployment, but when we were ambushed and, in turn, he was injured, he was discharged honorably and has been heading up the personal security end of Corps Security ever since. We’ve been roommates on the home front ever since boot camp, and I wouldn’t have it differently. He’s just as much of a brother to me as Cam and Colt. He’s been so busy in the two years since moving to town, often out of town for long periods, that he has rarely gone out with all of the crew.
“Yo, Cohen. Isn’t that Maddox’s daughter?” Pause. “Uh . . . and your sisters? And Axel’s kid?”
My head was already turning when he mentioned one of Maddox’s girls, then a little quicker when he mentioned the twins, but the second he mentioned Dani, my head snapped so rapidly that it’s a shock I didn’t break my own neck.
“What in the hell?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
“Damn, you didn’t tell me the girls were looking like that these days,” he grumbles and lets out a deep, “Umphh,” when I elbow him in the gut.
“Shut the fuck up,” I snap. “Is that the fucking pole dance room they just went in?”
“One in the same, brother,” he laughs on a sharp exhale. “Did you have to give me all your strength, fucker?”
“Don’t be such a baby. I hardly touched you.”
“Hardly touched me. Well, Superman, you don’t know your own strength.”
I spend the next hour and then some fuming, imagining what is going on behind those doors. The more I think about it, the more I fume. I take it out on every piece of equipment I hit. I push my body to the edge just to get some of the anger out before the girls get out.
To make matters worse, what I thought would be a good idea to get my curiosity out of the way backfired in a big way. Ten minutes ago, I thought it was brilliant to just peek. Just a little peek to make sure there wasn’t anything crazy going on. But that peek will forever be branded in my memory as one of the hottest things I’ve ever witnessed.
Dani coming unhinged and all but fucking the air between her and one black, metal chair.
I’ve been fighting a raging boner ever since one of the facility’s staff members came and shut the door, giving me a warning about dis-enrollment if I am caught again.
Ever since then, her body and the way it looked, moved . . . Fuck me. I’ve been picturing every way I would take her when I finally hear Chance’s voice break through my fantasy.
“Don’t look now, Iron Man, but the girls have emerged, and now, they’re all hot, flushed, and sweaty,” he whispers down at me from where he’s spotting my lifting.
I slam the bar home and leap off the bench, pausing to punch him in the gut again before I stomp through the gym.
“Oh my God,” my sister, Lila, laughs.
“Uh oh,” I hear Maddi giggle.
I don’t even look at them.
“This is going to be so freaking good,” Lyn chuckles right as my hand snags Dani around her tiny elbow and forces her to turn until her startled eyes are looking up into my own.
“Shit,” she mumbles.
“What. The fuck. Was that?” I seethe.
“What was what?” she hedges.
“Do not fucking play games with me. You went into there to do what? Knit a sweater?”
She narrows her eyes but doesn’t speak. I can hear my sisters laughing and look over to give them a hard stab of my eyes. I would never talk down to my girls, but right now, they’re pushing the limits of my patience.
“I know what goes on in there, Dani-girl,” I say and point behind her in the direction of the pole dancing room. Every man in this building knows what goes on in that room. We’ve been watching fine-as-hell chicks go in and out of there for years. The instructors alone are enough to keep some of these douchebags going for years in jack-off fantasies. “What I want to know is what in the fuck you think you’re going to do with what you learned in there, Dani? Hm? Who in the hell is he?”
I can’t stop the shit coming out of my mouth now. Ever since that night in her bed when I watched her sick with a fever dream all night with my name escaping her lips, all I’ve been able to think about is Dani. The only thing I’ve wanted is to throw her over my shoulder and take what my body keeps screaming is mine.
But it isn’t mine.
Not yet. If I weren’t about to ship off for a future unknown, I would throw her down and take her right fucking now. The only problem is, as much as I want her, I won’t take something when I can’t give her anything in return. And unfortunately, right now, I can’t give her anything but the next two weeks. For a woman like Dani, that would never be enough. However, that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit on my thumbs and let her show that sweet body off, work herself in preparation for someone else.
I do not think so.
“That isn’t any of your business,” she huffs and pulls her arm out of my hold.
“You don’t think?” I ask, narrowing my eyes to slits.
“I don’t think. I know.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, baby.” I step into her space and wait for her to make the next move.
“I’m not wrong, Cohen. Realistic. I’m not the one who’s afraid. I haven’t been afraid to admit how I feel for a long time. You, on the other hand, well . . . I’m sick of waiting for you to come to terms with it. Time to move on.” She crosses her arms, and I want to groan when it brings attention to her tits. I’ve always been a breast man, but even though she isn’t huge, there is more than enough to fit perfectly in my palms and I’ve been thinking about it for way too long.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I scoff.
“You’re terrified,” she challenges.
“You’re delusional.”
“Ha! As if. Have a good workout, Cohen.” She reaches up and pats my cheek, still trying to play off this indifference. If her palm didn’t linger a little too long on my stubble, then I would possibly believe her.
What happened to my sweet Dani-girl?
I watch with a slack jaw as she turns, her long ponytail slapping me in the face, and struts out of the gym. My sisters, Maddi, and Stella all trail behind her, laughing.