Tex, page 12
He smiled broadly as he approached, expecting the person on the pullup bar to be someone other than a SEAL. When he got close enough and Twister stepped to the side to let him into the small group, the smile faded from his face. It wasn’t a man who they were egging on. It was Nora freaking Wilson, who could obviously do more than eight reps since they were already on eleven.
It was clear from the exertion on her face that she was almost to failure. But what he saw impressed the hell out of him. This woman surprised him, messed with his body and head—both of them. He wanted her even more now than he had when he’d first laid eyes on her.
“Come on, ma’am. Dig deep,” Easy said, and it was clear from the looks on his men’s faces that they were also impressed and charmed by her. Again, it shouldn’t surprise him that she could wrap some of the most dangerous, egotistical men in the world around her little finger.
She was dressed in a black body-hugging two-piece workout bra and shorts, showing her flat midriff, toned and feminine body, her shoulder and arm muscles bunched. These were young, hot-blooded American males, and he suddenly got proprietary about her. They had better not be thinking what…uh…he was thinking.
Who was he kidding? Of course, they were. Tex had an edge. He was the only one who could act on his attraction. She was an officer and so was he. They would be on totally legal ground.
She made a series of soft grunts as she pulled up one more to thirteen, then dropped down. The guys went wild, slapping her on the back and fist bumping her. She looked just as triumphant.
“Great tips, Easy,” she said to the towering behemoth.
“You were amazing, ma’am. Nice job!” he said earnestly.
“It’s those swimmer muscles that helped,” Shark said, then a ripple went through them when they realized the CO was standing there while they interacted with an officer as if she was already part of the team.
“Keep up the good work,” Twister said as he threw Tex a dubious look and moved away as the guys followed.
Nora looked around, then caught his eye. “Wow, you’re quite the wet blanket.”
“And, apparently, you’re the life of the party,” he drawled, loving her sass. He leaned against the pull-up pole and gave her a once over, lingering on the soft rise and fall of her chest as her breathing returned to normal. He couldn’t get enough of the way that material hugged her breasts.
“Just one of the guys,” she said.
“Sure. You fit in like a lily amongst thistle,” he said, the husk in his voice unexpected. He gritted his teeth. If he could figure out how to interact with her and not want to take her up against the nearest wall, he might actually survive through the mission work-up and the mission itself.
Her eyes widened, her throat worked, and a blush tinged her cheeks, but when she spoke, her tone gave no indication of how she felt about his husky admission. “You are such a sweet talker.”
Still the cool JAG officer. Even with her hair in a messy topknot, no makeup enhancing her smooth-as-silk skin, she was every inch the rules-and-regs professional. But he knew better, he had her mouth and tasted only a hint of her untapped passion. He wanted to let it fully loose…with him.
“And you are a constant surprise. Thirteen pullups? That’s impressive. I’ve seen men who can’t do even a few.”
“Oh, how many can you do?” Her blue eyes went over his shoulders and upper torso.
“Twenty or so, but I have to keep ahead of my team, or they’ll lose respect for me. Officers are required to do more.”
“I doubt that.” Even her scoff was adorable.
“It’s in the PST Regs.” He chose to deliberately focus on the regs. Getting personal with her wasn’t helping his strong case of attraction.
“You’re choosing to misunderstand me.” Leave her to point it right out to him. Damn, he wanted like hell to kiss her. Too bad they were in such a public place surrounded by people he directly worked with. “I’m talking about respect. I bet those guys will follow you into hell to kick the devil’s ass.”
“Well, I haven’t gotten a mission into hell yet, but we’re ready for fire and brimstone and evil asses.” He pushed off the pole and stepped closer because he could, because she wanted him to, and he wanted to just as much. “Doesn’t diminish your accomplishment. That kind of result takes discipline.”
She smiled. “I started doing them to improve my swim stroke and for water skiing, which I love. I saw this video on Youtube, a Marine woman who wanted to improve her upper body strength.” She shrugged her lovely shoulders. “It’s mind over matter. You should know all about that. You guys live it every day…from what I’ve seen, it’s ingrained in your DNA.”
“Are you talking about those knuckleheads over there?” He gestured with his chin at the six of them working out, loud and rowdy, still arguing about cartoon villains. They were the best and he wasn’t saying that because they were his team. He’d fought with them, taught them, led them, and been impressed as hell with them. They had automatically rallied around Bondo, consummate professionals in their late twenties. But even as impressive as it was, he had no intention to ever go easy on them. The only easy day was yesterday.
“You love them like brothers, don’t you?”
Startled, he looked back at her. She was watching him. “We are brothers. We don’t pay homage to the Brotherhood. We live it.” He chuckled. “And love is a strong word.”
Her eyes sparkled at his joke. Sighing, she said, “It’s wonderful to have that kind of community.” She sounded wistful and he figured she must be thinking about the special bond pilots had. It was as small and elite a group as the SEALs.
“You miss it. Flying.”
“Every single day,” she said, blushing again because he was so in tune with her and the knowledge was in her eyes, turning the blue depths even darker, her pupils widening, a result of a deep attraction according to body language guidelines.
“Well, I should—”
“Have dinner with me,” he blurted out. He hadn’t meant to ask, he thought as her eyes widened again, that telltale blush making him crazy. Especially after the pep talk about missions and distance and being smart. He only knew he didn’t want to spend the evening not getting to know her better. He could justify it by claiming that the better he knew her, the better he could anticipate and manage the upcoming mission.
Bondo’s deep voice sounded behind him. “Dinner is a good idea. We can get started on our questions about you, Lieutenant. I’ll gather the guys and we’ll get going. Crab Shack by 1700.”
Tex turned to see his number two head over to the guys, their nodding and several remarked how hungry they were.
So, once again he was stymied by the dictates of his job and holding back because he had to. He had a hard time deciding if that was a good thing or just something to endure before he acted like his body was demanding.
“I can pick you up after we get changed. Parking at the Shack can be difficult.”
“Oh, is that the reason?” Her voice was uneven, her eyes caressing his face, his mouth.
He smiled. “Maybe I think you’re not as big a pain in my ass as I originally thought.”
“I’m afraid you are as big a pain in the ass, Lieutenant.” He narrowed his eyes as she laughed softly. “Give me twenty minutes.”
He watched her leave and as she disappeared into the locker room, he caught Bondo watching him. The big man raised a brow, and Tex shrugged to indicate he couldn’t help himself. Bondo smiled and shook his head.
Twenty minutes later he’d showered and changed and was at the barracks where Nora had been assigned lodging.
She was already waiting for him, so there was no need to park. He pulled up and she got into his car with a rush of jasmine-smelling softness. He was surprised to find her dressed in a simple navy-blue tank dress with a square bodice, showing off all her beautiful silky skin and toned body, white sandals on her delicate feet. Her champagne blonde hair ruffled in the breeze. It was longer than he expected, flowing past her shoulders to the middle of her back. His hands itched to touch her, but he kept them firmly on the wheel.
“Keeping it casual?” he asked as she clicked her seatbelt. She gave him a once over in his flowered Hawaiian shirt, black shorts, and deck shoes.
“Sometimes it feels good to ditch the Navy for a short period of time. We’re off duty, sort of.” Her eyes lingered on him as he pulled away from the curb. “You look good,” she murmured. Then bit her lip as if she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
He grinned and her features evened out. “So do you, Nora.” His tone was huskier than he expected.
This was going to be a study in mental grit and discipline if he was going to keep his hands off her for the foreseeable future.
Nora had never seen so many crab legs dumped on their big round table and so much of it devoured. Young men could eat, and young, fit, and dangerous men could eat a lot.
Their waitress dumped pots of crab legs, then they were gone, more dumped and the cycle continued. She made sure to get her share, using her elbows and body to gather what she wanted. Apparently, in the Navy it was every man for himself.
She had a totally different perspective now than she had when she’d first met these guys. She didn’t know what she expected to find, but it wasn’t these strong, devoted, loyal, kind, and funny men. After they’d taught her how to combat swim, and she’d almost beaten Shark, she had moved on to the next part of her plan. She’d changed into her workout clothes and as part of her swimming routine, she lifted weights, of course, but she’d made her upper body stronger by doing pullups.
As soon as they had seen her performing the hard-as-hell reps, they had come over, watching her with an awe she hadn’t experienced since her pilot days when women were still a novelty.
Their pointers and support helped her to squeeze out a few more.
She was jamming until Tex had shown up and thrown her equilibrium out of whack again. She could almost feel the man whenever he was near. Surely, that was her imagination. The only way she could describe it was magnetic. She was somehow caught up in his magical field of influence.
“So, the lieutenant almost beat Shark in the pool.”
Nora popped a piece of crab into her mouth and smirked. “He cheated,” she said and the guys all started to talk at once.
Shark, with his expressive pale gray eyes, studied her, noting the amusement she projected with her own eyes. “How’s that, ma’am?”
“You have testosterone.”
Everyone was silent for a moment, then they all started to laugh. “Are you saying in a wit war, you’d win?”
She grinned and nodded. “Hands down.” She leaned back, wiping her hands on a napkin.
“Take your best shot,” he said, challenge in his tone.
“Okay. You are all arguing about the worst animated villain. I have one of my own to propose.”
Shark laughed softly. “Let’s have it.”
“Scar. He achieves his evil plan but can’t follow through with ruling well. He destroys Pride Rock. He betrays his family, recruiting the hyenas to do his bidding, then he betrays them in the end as well. He lets his baby nephew think he’s responsible for killing his own father, then sends three full-grown and vicious hyenas after him to finish him off. He murders his brother in cold blood.”
“But Aku murders people.”
“Yes, he does, en masse, but he does so without any emotion involved. He’s no doubt a mass murderer, but a pride, Scar’s whole world, is all about family. Scar’s murder of his brother is premeditated and cold-blooded. It makes him diabolical.”
“Cruella…”
“No contest. First off, her mission fails. She’s planning on killing puppies to skin them for furs and it is premeditated, but again, the emotion is lacking, and the depth of betrayal isn’t there. Sure, she betrays her friend, but it’s not as grievous as betraying a family member, a young one at that as Simba is just a baby. Cruella is a good study in greed, vanity, and evil, but she doesn’t surpass Scar.” As Easy and Flash opened their mouths, Nora held up her hand. “Plankton and Frollo also are diminished by their lack of family ties. Their worlds are much too narrow to compete with Scar.”
There was silence at the table. “It’s clear why you became a lawyer,” Twister said.
She laughed. “I always loved debate, but I haven’t touched on Vicky, who is definitely evil, and a teenage girl is very scary, having been one myself, but along with Plankton and Frollo, her world is too small to contend with Scar.” She turned to look at Tex. “And, as for Shan Yu, he’s also lumped in with Aku. He had nothing but disdain for the people he killed for a very shallow reason, and an ego as big as China. I have to also eliminate him as competition for Scar.”
Tex leaned toward her. “So, how would you defend Scar in court? You know, if the hyenas hadn’t torn him apart.”
“Well, that’s easy because it comes down to a reasonable doubt. The evidence against Scar would most likely be verbal. Simba didn’t see him actually commit the murder. In fact, no one saw him throw his brother off the cliff to be trampled by the wildebeests. As I recall, none of the animals even looked up.” That got a chuckle. “Scar did confess to Simba, but it’s his word against his nephew’s. I would counsel Scar to deny he made the confession and argue before a jury of his peers—you know, cheetahs, lions, and jaguars—that Simba’s attempt to discredit his uncle is because he wants to rule Pride Rock. Something he considers his birthright.”
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law?” Flash said.
“Precisely. The defense rests.”
When they finished dinner, Bondo cleared his throat and said, “I looked at your record and quite frankly it’s impressive. We will put you through your paces to see how you do physically. There’s no question that, being a Navy fighter pilot who participated in many sorties engaging with the enemy, you have the confidence and courage to attempt this mission. None of that is in question.”
“Then what is?” she asked, watching Bondo and trying to figure out what the kicker was, her hands clenching into fists in her lap. The memory of that upheaval in her life was still fresh.
“Why did you stop flying and quit the Navy?”
At Bondo’s question, a tingling sensation slid from her head to her spine, then spread through her whole body, holding her in a kind of mental paralysis. The pain and disappointment still dogged her and probably always would. Who could ever fully give up their dream?
“Lieutenant?”
The paralysis fragmented, and Nora’s pulse started to thunder in her chest as the impact of her answer hinged on the SEALs sanctioning this mission. She wanted to do this for Mary. It was important. She had to put away her own personal shortcomings and answer as truthfully as she could. “I had to stop flying for a medical condition.” She sighed, spreading her hands wide on the table, as though she were physically letting go. When she saw the way all of them reacted, the immediate concern, the skepticism, she continued, “It’s not going to affect me in any way. I have a disease where my blood clots too easily, and I have a kind of stint that chops up the blood before it gets to my heart and lungs. Besides, the risk was associated with frequent changes in altitude, sometimes multiple times a day, for days on end.” She let that sink in for a moment. These were all physical men, strong, fast, capable, but they also understood and celebrated mental toughness. “The Navy grounded me to keep their planes and equipment safe.”
“Why did you retrain, then rejoin?” Bondo asked, his voice losing some of its hard edge.
She looked around and saw how focused they were on her as she laced her hands together. She had no doubt they were all thinking about what they would do if they couldn’t be SEALs. If they lost what they held so dear. Then she dared to look at Tex. His gaze was intent and assessing but softened at her next words. “I lost my dream job. That was devastating, especially leaving on a medical discharge.” Her voice impassive, she continued. “It took me a while to work through what I saw as my own personal failure—and shame. But once I got my head together, I realized I had merit. I had something I could offer.” Her voice strengthened and turned fierce. “I’m not one to be a quitter. I have always found justice to be something worth fighting for.” Pain lodged in her throat as she held his gaze, her pulse catching on a sudden rush of power. “I went to law school and got my JD.”
“You could have cleaned up on the outside, but instead you rejoined the Navy. Why?” Brawler asked.
She lifted her chin, “To serve. It’s in my blood. Both of my parents gave a lot to this country, my mom with the Nightstalkers and my dad with his life.”
She could see every man react to her words. They in turn looked at Bondo, then Tex. She had their support, and she knew it. Now all she had to do was not let them down, because now that was as important to her as finishing out this mission was for Mary.
10
She looked around the table and was sure she had done what was necessary to convince them to add her to the team. Time would tell. She rose and all of them rose with her. She wasn’t sure if it was because she was an officer or because she was a woman. Either way, it warmed her heart at the strong character of this team. She was duly impressed.
“I’ll get the bill and wait for you outside, Tex,” she said. This would give them a moment to talk if they needed that time.
They immediately tried to protest, but she held up her hand. “I got loads of entertainment today and some very good tips. The least I can do is pick up the tab. Don’t make me issue an order.”
Several of them chuckled, including Bondo. But Tex was watching her intently, his gaze dark and serious. She wanted to retreat from the memory of that time in her life. It had left her emotionally dismembered and physically drained, but it mattered to her what Tex thought.
She didn’t want to think about all the excuses they could make for her not to go. She knew it was imperative and finding another pilot was going to take some time.
