Glancing around, I picked up my rifle and moved to the table under the shelter behind the firing line.
Parker followed me. Picking up a rifle lying on the table and disassembling it while talking in a low, hushed tone. “You canact like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Pinocchio, but that doesn’t change the truth.”
Whispering as softly as I could, I said, “Do you always pimp out your boyfriends?”
Parker laughed so hard that it tossed his head back, the sound echoing around us. I nervously glanced at the guys on the firing line, but no one even looked our way.
“Are you trying to get all three of us caught?” I asked.
After a few more whoops of laughter and head shakes to go with them, he replied, “No, I’m trying to convince you to get your head out of your ass.”
“Are you saying that you two aren’t…”
A deep exhale preceded his next words. “I’m not confirming nor denying. What I’m saying is the issue you have is a non-issue.”
He walked away. My eyes followed him. What the fuck was he talking about? My issue was a non-issue? Did that mean Daniel told the truth when he claimed he was single?
And why the fuck did I give a shit? I’d walked away from a luxurious lifestyle to be who I wanted to be and rid myself of the abuse and neglect my father’s grief over losing the person he needed most in the world heaped on my doorstep. I promised myself. I swore I’d never let myself be so dependent on someone that their presence, or lack thereof, altered who I was at the core.
“You done for the day?”
Sammy’s voice pulled me back to reality. Turning, I nodded silently. The monotony of the last couple of weeks wore on me. We’d hit the gym in the morning, grab showers and chow, sit through briefings, then we’d spend some time at the range before doing some training.
“Yep. I’m good.”
“Great. Marcus was right; wewilldeploy soon. Lucky for us, you’re an expert marksman, so we have very little work to do in that regard.”
I nodded, agreeing with him.
“However, since you’re heading to medic school as soon as we get back from this deployment, walking you through some of the more advanced techniques wouldn’t hurt. You down?”
I nodded again, both excited to learn something new and put out because Parker suggested it.
“You know you can talk, right? It’s allowed.”
Heat danced across my cheekbones, and I knew he noticed it because he smirked. “I know I can talk, but I spent a lot of years being seen and not heard and operating in the shadows. It’s a little tough to make the switch.”
He smacked my shoulder, giving me a slight push. “Let’s get back to the team room. We’ll get the logistics crew to outfit you with a medic kit.”
Hours later, freshly showered and changed into civilian clothes, I walked into the lobby of my apartment building. After being contracted with Parker and what one can only assume was well-intentioned meddling, I half expected to see Daniel waiting for me. He was nowhere to be seen.
A bittersweet sigh emptied my lungs, leaving behind a weird conglomeration of relief and disappointment. Chastising myself, I pressed the call button, climbed onto the elevator when it arrived, only to stand in front of the columns and rows of buttons, warring with myself as to which I should press—the one for his floor or the one for mine.
The door slid closed before I could decide. To others, I must look like an idiot standing in an elevator, as if I couldn’t remember what fucking floor I lived on.
Get it to-fucking-gether, Alex.
After another deep sigh, I reached forward, my hand hovering over the button for Daniel’s floor. Shaking my head, I lifted my hand to try again, determined to choose a button. Any fucking button at this point.
Only the door slid open with a quick swoosh, and the sexy motherfucker I couldn’t get out of my head, not months ago when we first hooked up, and not since a few weeks ago when we hooked up a second time, stood there. I stared at him, and then his gaze met mine. Electricity danced between his blue eyes and my brown ones: his were so fucking gorgeous. Everything about him was fucking beautiful. He fit everything about me almost to a tee.
Lust and want surged through me until they merged into this need to bend over for him, until he’d fucked me silly.
He gulped when the door dinged, stepping closer so it could finally close. Neither of us moved.
“Xander.”
I should correct him so he called me Alex like the rest of the team. Xander was someone I left behind when I walked into the recruiting office. But I liked how it sounded on his lips. And I’d missed being Xander. I preferred being Xander. I chose to use Alex in the Navy because Alexander Madison was the straight guy mask I wore for my father and the world. Xander was a greedy bottom who got cranky when he’d gone too long without getting fucked.
