“I want you to create a special training plan for Nash that will allow him to advance quickly through the training. I want to see him far enough along in a year to be considered a Drastan warrior.”
A year?! She swallowed. By the stars! She had never heard of anyone speeding through the warrior training before. Who was this male and why did the commander take such an interest in him? She realized she had been staring at both of them with an incredulous expression on her face, her mouth hanging open in shock. Closing her mouth, she thought about what she wanted to say, firmly rejecting her initial response of “hell no,” because it was the commander asking this of her. He could have asked anyone, after all, but he chose her.
Sighing, she nodded. “Give me a few days to create a new training plan.”
“Very good, I knew I could count on you to handle Nash,” Commander Estro said, smiling at her proudly.
Still, she risked his ire by looking directly into Corey’s eyes and adding, “I expect your full attention. You will do everything I say to do without question. This is going to be hard enough on both of us and I’ll be overseeing every aspect of your training. I demand your dedication and your respect at all times.”
Corey’s eyes narrowed at her for a moment. It looked like he was about to tell her off, which she totally expected, hell, maybe even hoped for, so they could walk away from this insane idea. Then he smiled at her. That smile transformed his pale, thin face into something beautiful. Her heart thundered in her chest.
“Lieutenant Saber, I am all yours.”
*****
Corey watched Nix walk away, a mixture of conflicting emotions swirling inside him. He was angry, of course, that she would so readily give him...his trainingover to someone else. But he was also anxious about the danger they might face on this mission. And, annoyingly, desire. He couldn’t deny his attraction to Nix any longer. He had been attracted to her from the first time he saw her and that attraction had built every day since, much as he had tried to ignore it.
Her take-charge attitude only turned him on. The fact that she could hold her own in a fight was sexy as hell. But then there were moments where he caught glimpses of her kind and gentle soul, like when she visited the wounded warriors, or looked at little Thomas. He was starting to realize that her tough exterior might be more a form of armor to protect her from being her. It made him wonder who had caused her to be that way, cautious of letting anyone see her vulnerable side. Her smile lit the room and more than once he had caught himself trying to find ways to make her laugh.
Nix was beautiful inside and out, and it seemed like everything he learned only made him desire her more, which was kind of a problem, since he didn’t think she liked him at all. She had been the star of some of his more sexual dreams. Some of those dreams had seemed real; he would wake with her scent on him and the taste of her on his tongue. It left him hard and aching for a woman that couldn’t care less about him. A frustrating situation.
Corey had never prided himself on his looks, but he did know that the changes in his body from the Drastan treatments had done him a great deal of good. The treatments over the past year, along with Nix’s extensive training, had transformed his thin, weak body into a well-muscled machine. He was definitely more confident in his ability to handle himself and the weapons he had trained on. That mattered to him.
It had been hard for him, coming from living in the subway where every day was a struggle to survive. He hadn’t always been able to protect those he had cared about, although certainly not for lack of trying. His fists still clenched whenever he remembered his feelings of rage and helplessness after Maggie had been attacked. Now, watching Nix walk away, confident, strong, and sure, he tried to reconcile the knowledge that she could undoubtedly handle herself with the overwhelming feeling that he’d do anything to protect her. He wouldn’t fail a second time.
