“Like you don’t?”
I frowned at him when his eyes swiftly darted in my direction and then back to the road.
“I overheard you and that other soldier. You seemed unfazed.”
I scoffed, glancing out the window. “I’ve been getting shit my entire life. At this point, it just bounces right off the zero fucks I give. I don’t need other people’s permission or approval to be who I am.”
“I wish I could be like that. Not give a fuck what others think.”
“You’ll learn to grow a thick skin soon enough, Kid.”
His jaw clenched, and his anxiety appeared to shift into anger. “I’m not a fucking kid. I’ll be twenty next month. I bet you’re not much older.”
“Right,” I replied, trying to hide my smirk at the sudden feistiness that had come out to play. It was a pleasant surprise.
“So? How old are you?”
“Why do you want to know, Kid?”
A muscle in his jaw twitched, and I was momentarily so fixated on how hot he looked when he was furious that I had let my guard down. Quicker and more skilled than I had given him credit for, he yanked out his gun and pressed it against the side of my head. My arm shot up a second later, with my own gun aimed below his chin.
“I told you not to fucking call me that,” he gritted through clenched teeth, one hand still steering the car as we sped along the deserted road.
I chuckled. “Well, look at you. You can stick up for yourself after all.”
“Don’t fucking patronise me, Soldier.”
“Now who’s the one being patronising?”
Why was this making me hard?I had issues.
He lowered his gun first, and I followed his lead. He leaned forward to tuck it back into his trousers, and I took the distraction as an opportunity to shuffle in my seat and hide my semi. He may have been only six years younger than me, but he was still a straight man and above my rank.
We drove the rest of the way in silence, a strange, unexplainable tension building between us, until his gates came into sight. I told him to pull over so I could get out. He parked on the other side of the road, and I checked in the rear-view mirror that Angelo had pulled up behind us. I reached for the door handle but froze when his hand grasped my forearm. Our eyes met.
“What’s your name?”
My gaze narrowed. My dick hardened once more at the heat emanating from his touch. “Finch. But everyone calls me Finn.”
He licked those plump, fuckable lips. His eyes flicked down to mine.“Grazie,Finn.”
I blinked at him, trapped in an alien feeling that had an effect on my heartbeat.
“For what?”
He let go of my arm as if he’d only just realised that he’d been touching me and leaned back in the seat.
“For not killing me.”
“Thanks for not giving me a reason to.”
I slammed the door and strolled over to the 4x4, climbing in beside Angelo. I watched as the gates to the Aiani residence opened, and he drove inside.
“All good?” Angelo asked.
“Si,” I answered, my gaze still locked on the iron gates as they closed. “He won’t talk. He wants to live.”
Angelo nodded and turned us around, heading back.
