Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (16 page)

Ghost eased his
muscled physiq
ue back in his chair, blinking. “She
told me to go to hell.
A couple
times.”

“And you’re going to
abide by that?” She stuck her tongue in her cheek. Kayla would kill her if she
knew what she was doing, but it was for her own good.

“Sit down, Nina.”

“Sir, I
’ve got to…”

“Sit.”

Captain Redding
chuckled. “You called down the thunder,” he said, shaking his head.

She flopped down in
the chair and glared at him. “Mace is waiting for me.”

“Petty Officer
Callahan can wait.” Ghost played with a pencil, sliding it met
hodically between his fingers. He sat forward. “What the
hell am I doing wrong?”

“It’s not what you’re
asking,
it’s how you’re asking.”

Ghost’s sharp jaw
clenched and he breathed out heavily. “I admit my timing may have been off a
bit the last time.”

Nina’
s brows popped. “Ya think?” She added.
“Sir.”

Ghost’s tough exterior
cracked. “I’ve never done this before.” He reached in
to
his desk drawer and plunked a velvet box on the desk.

Nina leaned forward
and opened it. “Holy shit,” she said, seeing the mound of
gemstones.

“I want this on her
finger, but she’s as slippery as an eel. If she even sniffs a proposal in the
air, she starts a fight.”

“Corner her then.”

“How the hell do I do
that?” The warrior who normally seemed to be carved from steel looked more like
soggy
J
ell-o.

“Make it big and make
it public,” she said, grinning at Ghost. “She’s got to give you an answer. I’m
sure you can figure it out.”

“Easy for you to say,
Nina, you don’t love her like I do. If I screw up this time she’s gonna throw
me to the f
ishes.”

Nina eased out of the
chair, hoping Ghost would let her go. He tracked her movement, but didn’t order
her to stay. “Captain, Kayla is like you in many ways. You probably will never
understand the depth of her love for you. She wants this. She wants
you.” She shrugged. “When you propose, she has to believe
it’s because you want her, not because she’s your baby mamma.”

Ghost’s expression
broke into surprise. “She thinks that? After everything we’ve gone through?”

Nina backed toward the
door, and she c
ould see Captain Redding chuckling to
himself with her less than stealthy departure. “You’re a noble dude.”

“Dude?” he echoed,
arching a contorted brow.

She reached the
doorway.
“Yes, sir.
You always do the right thing, even if
it’s the hard choice, or a c
hoice maybe you don’t
want, you do it anyway.” She slipped around the corner and said loudly. “So
stop being a gutless turd and ask her to marry you.
Sir.”
She ran for the elevator and changed
her mind. She hit the door to the stairs running
,
Captain Reddi
ng’s barks of
laughter following her.

She chuckled to
herself. Well, he deserved it. Nina crossed the base and reveled in the
freedom. No more SEAL security teams shadowing her. The sunshine heated her
skin while the sea breeze offered up a little distract
ion
to the warm day. She nodded at the service members who nodded at her and cut
through a building to the indoor pools.

Before she hit the
glass doors, she heard yelling and splashing. Mace had been assigned to work
with a Phase Two class, concentrating o
n diving and
underwater skills. The emotional filter was still off for this class that had
started out with eighty-three men and was down to forty. More than likely only
fifteen guys would ever get through their full training.

During this phase the
BUD/s r
ecruits showed their abilities to be future
frogmen. If they didn’t take to the water like they were born from it, their
helmets were placed next to the infamous bell and they walked away. SEAL
recruits could range in age from seventeen to twenty-nine. Mac
e told her the majority in this class were in their early
twenties.

Nina cracked the door
and slid along the wall. Her nostrils filled with the scent of chlorine. Forty
guys were on the other side of the pool and they all noticed her walk in. Wet
and some looking very tired, they glanced her way and then back at the figure
who
was all hard, handsome SEAL standing in
front of them. Mace didn’t turn.

“Focus Smithers, is
she talking to you or am I?”

“You,
PO.”

The other instructors
stood off to the side with their arms crossed and two of them crushed a grin,
one of them being
Tony.

“Smithers, you made it
through Hell Week, barely, and you’re still hanging in there, barely.
Long way to go.
You’re an officer. You’ll be expected
to lead your men. How do you expect them to listen to you if you can’t lead by
example?”

“Yes,
PO.”

Mac
e hadn’t turned to look at her.
“Beckett, you sly fox.
Ya think I can’t read your thoughts?”
Beckett straightened up, his face dropping into a deadpan stare ahead of him.
“You know who that woman is?”

“No, PO.”

“That’s the woman I
love, seaman. You know wh
y I love her?”

Nina chuckled and
shook her head. She braced her hands behind her back and leaned against the
wall.

Beckett answered in a
loud, “No, PO.”

“Because
on this obstacle course, she could kick your ass.”

A chorus of chuckles
erupted from the men s
tanding at attention.

Nina’s smile dropped
instantly. What was so funny? She didn’t have a single doubt she could kick
that skinny kid’s butt. He might have earned himself a few muscles in the first
three weeks, but she had years of PT behind her. While Ma
ce had worked to return to his original fitness level, she
had run with the squad, swam with them and started building up muscle by weight
training, something she hadn’t done before.

Mace turned with his
arms tightly crossed on his chest. A perfect ‘V’ of
muscled
man stared at her. Broad shoulders swept down to a tight
waist
. His T-shirt molded to his six-pack,
and she felt
a skitter
of excitement between her thighs,
especially when he was in SEAL mode. She read his look, and yeah
,
she was ready.

The guys
had taken her through this course two weeks ago. Above the
pool, ropes, nets, and rings hung from the ceiling. It took strength and mental
fortitude to get through this course. She failed the first three times she
tried, but the fourth time she’d completed
it.

“You think that’s
funny, Smithers?”

“Yes,
PO.”

At least the guy
answered honestly. Nina pulled out her hoop earrings and placed them on the
chair next to her.

Mace got in Smithers’
face. “I think the only thing that’s gonna be funny is when she finish
es this course before you. You want to take that chance?
Deal with the repercussions? Life’s a choice, Smithers. You chose to be a SEAL.
You want to choose to watch your balls wither in humiliation after shootin’
your mouth off?”

Smithers’ gaze darted
acro
ss the pool to Nina. She stepped to the edge and
curled her toes around it.

Smithers’ jaw jagged
sideways.
“Yes, PO.”

Mace turned, but she
answered the challenge by straightening her arms and body, and diving into the
water. When she reached the other side
,
she broke the surface and Mace was kneeling waiting for her.
A small smile quirked on his lips.
“You just love a challenge, don’t you?”

“Are you the prize?”
she asked, and winked at him.

Mace’s eyes narrowed
with a smile. “Only one I’d accept.” Mace push
ed
himself up. Nina stroked to the other end. She slipped from the pool and
scrambled up the ladder to the platform hovering fifteen feet above the water.
She’d have to swing on a rope to a net. The guys had shown her how to turn
upside down while she was
swinging and reach back for
the netting to start the course. Mace climbed the ladder with Smithers behind
him. Mace grabbed the rail and spoke to the men who gathered beneath them.
“Nina has a team name. Anyone want to hazard a guess?”

The guys looked conf
used.

“What? You thought she
sashayed here off the street for a lunch date. Ms. Samson is a Tae Kwon Do
champion. She trains with Team One, Alpha Squad.” Mace turned slowly and looked
at Smithers. “Details, Smithers,” he said when the guy began to look a l
ittle worried. “No frogman goes into a mission without
knowing details. How many times have I tried to thump that into your skull?”
Mace poked at the side of Smithers’ noggin.

Nina scratched her
chin and battened the hatches on a grin.

“The team named her,
Ninja Grasshopper.”

The guys below laughed
and nudged each other. Mace leveled a glare on Smithers. “No matter what you
do, you need details before jumping in and taking the risk of having your balls
shot off. Or worse yet, Officer Smithers,” he drawled,
“killing your men. You see the mission, before you act on the mission.
Every angle, every possible detail is covered. Envision anything that can go
wrong and what you will do to avoid it.” Mace nodded at the guys staring up at
him. “What is the outcome of
this challenge?”

The men stopped to
actually think and Nina imagined their brains whirling like chopper blades.

“Ninja Grasshopper
will win,” a recruit shouted out.

“Macgregor, explain,”
Mace ordered.

“She’s fit. She’s
probably done this course before. The
only reason she
might fail is strength. She’s not a man.”

Nina’s lip curled and
the fire in her blood began to perk.
Screw you, Macgregor.

“Of course she’s not a
man. I don’t like men in my bed. Are you purposely trying to piss her off?”
Mace yelled at hi
m. “Ever hear the phrase, woman
scorned?” Mace pushed a button on his watch. “Go, Smithers.”

Smithers clutched the
rope and swung out. He didn’t have enough momentum, and when he jumped for the
net, gravity took care of the rest. His fingers hooked the las
t row, leaving him dangling over the water. It took upper
body strength to pull
himself
up, exerting too much at the start of
the course. From the net he maneuvered to a rope and climbed up, gripping the
knots for leverage. Reaching a line of short ropes h
anging
from the iron girders above, he swung from each one, grabbing it, and reaching
for the next with the motion of his body propelling him forward.

At the end of the
line, he let go and dropped into the water, swam hard and crawled up a rope
ladder. Smi
thers gripped a black line dangling from
the ceiling, and stepped into the rings attached to the bottom. His body
gyrated like a loose coil and he fought against it, losing precious time. When
he reached the other side, he grabbed a thicker line the size u
sed in berthing big ships and crossed the pool. Hands sore,
muscles screaming, he clenched the rope with his feet and hands, shimming
across until he reached the end, then dropping into the water. He stroked like
a drunken dude to the pool edge and dragged
himself
out.