Authors: Paige Tyler
Jayson frowned. “In the middle of a rotation?”
“I know. It surprised the hell out of me, too.”
Jayson was silent, as if he was trying to come up with something else to say.
“You’re at the Pentagon, then?”
Landon hesitated. His training officers said he couldn’t tell anyone he was working for the DCO. They
hadn’t said he couldn’t say he was working for the Department of Homeland Security.
Jayson’s eyes went wide at that. “The Department of Homeland Security, huh? Wow. You’re moving up
in the world, I guess.”
Landon cringed. Jayson was sitting here wondering if he was ever going to be able to get around
without using a walker, and he was boasting about a new job. Would it make it better if he said it was a crap
assignment and that he’d rather be back in the unit? Probably not.
“How’re the guys?” Jayson asked, filling the god-awful silence again.
Landon grinned. “Diaz met a girl on Facebook and thinks he’s in love. Mickens still thinks the meatloaf
in the MREs is made of dog food. And Angelo…well…is still Angelo.”
A ghost of a smile appeared on Jayson’s face, only to fade just as fast.
Silence filled the room again. Landon cleared his throat. “How’s the rehab going?”
Jayson shrugged. “Okay, I guess. I had to do the wheelchair thing for a while, but they’ve got me up
and walking around using this thing now.” He jerked his head at the walker, then looked out the window,
his gaze suddenly distant.
Landon felt his throat clog up. Why did Jayson have to be so nice about it? He’d gotten the guy blown
up for Pete’s sake. He swallowed hard. Dammit, it should be him sitting in that chair, not Jayson.
He wanted to say something reassuring, but “I’m sorry,” wasn’t going to cut it. What do you tell a guy
whose life has just derailed? If not for the accident, Jayson could have risen through the ranks all the way
to general, like his father.
Luckily, a knock on the door saved Langdon from having to come up with some kind of meaningless
platitude.
“Sorry to interrupt,” said a redheaded nurse from the doorway. “I didn’t know you had a visitor, Jayson.
I’ll come back later.”
Landon got to his feet a little faster than he intended. “No. Stay.” He practically shouted the words. “I
should be going anyway.” He looked at Jayson. “I’ve got training tomorrow, but I’ll come back to see you
when I can.”
Out in the hallway, Landon leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Inside the room, Jayson and the nurse were talking, but their voices were too soft for him to make out what
they were saying. Something about a sleeping pill, he thought.
Whatever it was, it didn’t keep the nurse in there long, and Landon intercepted her when she walked
out.
“Got a minute?”
She smiled up at him. “Sure. What can I do for you?”
“How is Jayson?” he asked her. “Really.”
“Are you family?”
“No, but I’m the closest thing he’s got to one. His parents are both dead,” Landon said. “I was his
commanding officer.”
“Oh.” She sighed, her smile disappearing. “Physically, he’s doing exceptionally well considering the
amount of nerve damage he has. Mentally and emotionally? Not so much. A good portion of physical
therapy is mental and emotional, so he’s not doing as well as he should be. As you’re probably aware, there
isn’t a lot motivating him right now. Hopefully, with you coming by to see him, that will change. Something
has to get him up and moving or he may never walk on his own again.”
Damn. Now Landon felt even guiltier.
***
of falling asleep, he stared up at the ceiling.
He’d been deployed for so long, he’d forgotten what it was like to sleep in a real bed. It felt strange,
especially not being around his teammates. Had they gone back to Qari’s compound after he’d left? If so,
had they all made it out okay? Bennett had taken over command to finish up the mission they’d been on,
but who was going to lead the team for the rest of the deployment? With Jayson sitting in a hospital, that left
only Master Sergeant Johnson and Angelo. Both of them were born leaders, but the battalion would
probably assign another officer to take charge. He ground his jaw. He’d spent the past four years training
the team to be the best damn Special Forces unit in the Army. He didn’t want some staff weenie going in
there and fucking around with his well-oiled machine.
Landon gave himself a mental shake. He had to stop thinking about them as
his
A-team. He was part of
a new team now.
His mouth edged up as he thought of Ivy. He’d never seen a woman so sexy in his life. It wasn’t only
her exotic good looks, sultry dark eyes, and athletic body that got his pulse racing. She exuded sensuality in
everything she did—from circling around him before they’d sparred to walking away from him after they
were done. When they’d been fighting and he dragged her down on top of him, it had felt amazing. Her
body was curved in all the right places, and those curves molded to his body as if she’d been made for it.
Just thinking about it made his cock stiffen.
He swore under his breath.
Get
a
grip, jackass. You’re not some horny teenager!
Tell that to his dick.
Landon groaned. If he wasn’t so tired, he’d jerk off and be done with it. He could control his physical
attraction to Ivy, especially since he had good reason not to act on it. What he couldn’t control was his
curiosity about these special talents of hers. His gut told him it was more than her martial arts skills.
He ran his fingers over the scratches on his chest. The raised welts were still there, but they didn’t sting
anymore. He couldn’t believe her fingernails had done that. He’d snuck a glance at her delicate hands
during the briefing to see if her nails were sharpened to points or something. But no. She had nice, normal,
feminine fingernails, not overly long, but not short, either. And they certainly weren’t sharp enough to rip
open his shirt and claw his chest.
The proof was there, though, in the form of four diagonal marks. And when he saw Ivy tomorrow, he
was going to ask how she’d done it.
Chapter 3
Landon felt like a soldier of fortune as he drove to work in the DCO-issued black uniform the next
morning. It had no name, no rank, no nothing. He was more uncomfortable than if he was driving his truck
naked.
Ivy was waiting for him in the lobby when he walked in, looking as cool and standoffish as she had
yesterday. But damn if she wasn’t Lara Croft sexy in that black uniform with her hair in a ponytail.
“Ready to head to the training complex and get settled in? Kendra thought it would be easier if you just
followed me there.” She glanced over her shoulder as she started for the door and looked him up and
down. “See if you can keep up.”
Landon refused to let her get to him. She wanted to play the bitch, fine. “Not much you can do without
me, I’d imagine,” he drawled.
At that, she turned and strode down the hall, while he took great pleasure in watching her ass every step
of the way.
The training complex was south of DC, near Quantico. Once they got through the guarded checkpoint,
he followed her to a two-story building and pulled into the empty space beside her.
“These are the dorms,” she explained. “We’ll be staying here during the main phase of our training. It’s
easier to park here and jog over to the training areas. We don’t have to meet Kendra and Todd for another
thirty minutes yet, so I’m going to bring my bags up. You might want to do the same.”
Landon grabbed his duffel bag from the seat and followed her inside the building and up to the second
floor. The stairwell opened onto a landing with two doors. Ivy headed for the one on the right. He wasn’t
sure what he expected to find when he walked inside, but the small living room/kitchen combo complete
with a microwave oven, full-size fridge, comfy looking couches, and sweet LED television were a nice
surprise.
When she’d said dorms, he envisioned the open barracks room he’d called home for the nine weeks
he’d been in Basic Training. It had been a huge room with ten to twelve beds separated only by wall
lockers. Perhaps this training wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Ivy gestured to a door on the other side of the living room. “Bathroom’s in there. I’ll take the room on
the left. The other’s yours.” And with that, she hustled away to unpack her gear.
Landon put his bag down on his designated bed, then went back into the common area. Ivy was in the
kitchen checking out the contents of what was a surprisingly well-stocked fridge. He’d sure never been in a
dorm that came with food.
“Don’t even have to go to the grocery store. Looks like the DCO thinks of everything,” he remarked.
She shut the fridge door. “They usually do.”
Which was either a good thing or a bad thing. He leaned back against the counter.
“I get the feeling you’ve been through yesterday’s briefings before,” he said. “How many partners have
you had?”
From the look on her face, he might as well have asked how many guys she’d had sex with.
“Two.”
“Things didn’t work out?”
“No.”
He waited for her to give him a few more details, but she didn’t. He thought that was her way of saying
she didn’t want to talk about it. He wouldn’t push, but he was curious.
“John mentioned you have some special skills,” Landon said. “I’m guessing martial arts is one of them.
What are the others?”
She didn’t answer, her dark eyes unreadable. He was about to prompt her again when her cell phone
rang. She glanced at the call display, then held it to her ear.
“Hey, Kendra,” she said, then listened for a moment. “We’ll be right there.”
Ivy looked at him as she slipped the phone back in her pocket. “Kendra and Todd are waiting for us.”
Landon caught her arm when she started for the door. “You didn’t answer my question. About the
special skills you have.”
Her lips curved into a smile. “You look like a smart guy. You’ll figure it out soon enough.”
He frowned. “What’s your problem, Ivy? Is it me, or are you this nice to everyone you work with?”
She looked ashamed he’d called her out, and for a moment he thought she might actually apologize, but
then she turned and walked out the door.
Landon snorted as he watched her go. Hell of a nice partnership they had brewing.
***
friendly. But it wasn’t like she could come out and tell him she was a shifter. She’d tried that approach with
Dave and it had backfired. It hadn’t helped that her enemies had fed him a load of crap about her, all of
which had been lies. Unfortunately, those same jerks were still at the DCO, so there was nothing to stop
them from turning Landon against her, too.
Ivy glanced at Landon as he fell into step beside her. Some damage control might not be a bad idea. She
might have to depend on him for her life someday, and she didn’t need to get on his bad side—more than
she already was.
“What kind of training are we doing?” He gave her a sidelong glance. “Unless that’s a big secret, too.”
She deserved that. “Something the DCO likes to call team building. Hope you’re not afraid of heights.”
“Can’t be afraid of heights and be in Special Forces. What are we doing? Rappelling? Air assault ops?”
“Nothing nearly that fun. You remember the last time you played on a confidence course?”
Ivy smiled at the tortured expression on his face. Landon was clearly one of those people who thought
the term
confidence
course
was an oxymoron. Maybe this was going to be fun after all.
Kendra and Todd were waiting for them along with a medic named Tim. Kendra smiled at Ivy while
Todd immediately started briefing them on what they’d be doing.
“You’re going to have to work as a team to make it through the confidence course, and how well you
work together is as important as getting through it,” Todd told them.
“Time is a factor, too, so no dilly-dallying,” Kendra added.
Easy for Kendra to say. She wasn’t climbing up to the top of a forty-foot tower with a partner she just
met and wasn’t sure she could trust to not slip up and drop her ass.
Landon looked at Ivy. “After you.”
Ivy turned to survey the confidence course. A series of balance beams, ladders, and towers, it was
higher than anything Landon would have seen in the military, but he didn’t so much as blink at the prospect
of climbing it. Self-assurance like that was attractive in a man, but it could also be dangerous. If he got too
cocky, he could end up getting both of them hurt.
Her heart was beating faster than normal as she led the way over the balance beam and up the ladder to
the first real obstacle—an inverted tower. She hesitated at the bottom of it. Fifty feet high, it was a series of