“What’s that over there?” she asked, pointing.
I glanced up. Shit.
“The Chinese, I think.”
“The Chinese? I didn’t know they had troops here.”
“They don’t,” I said. “Here you go.” I handed her a glass of wine.
“Thanks,” she said and then took a drink. “I wonder what they’re doing over there.”
“Probably mining.”
“Mining? What, like gold?”
“You sure do ask a lot of questions.”
“It’s my job. I’m sorry. I get curious. Maybe I’ll try my luck and ask Melvin about it later.”
“No, don’t,” I said.
She tilted her head. “Why not?”
“They’re just miners,” I said. “It’s no big deal.”
“But I wonder what they’re mining.”
“Rare earth minerals.”
“What are those?”
“The shit they use to make cell phones and electronics.”
“Oh, like platinum and what-not?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
We both stared out at the majestic landscape.
“It’s so beautiful. I’m at a loss for words,” she said.
“That’s certainly something for you,” I teased.
“Hey.” She leaned over and lightly punched me on the arm.
I laughed and took another drink, wishing we had more wine. “Refill?” I asked, picking up the bottle.
“I shouldn’t…” she said hesitantly.
“Come on. One more glass won’t hurt.”
“I’m not a big drinker. This one already has me a bit dizzy.”
“Well, more for me then,” I said.
“Okay, okay,” she relented, holding out her half-empty glass. “One more. A small one.”
I filled the glass to the brim and she pulled it away, giggling.
“So, how’s this for romantic?” I asked.
She stared straight ahead, nodding ever so slightly. “Yeah. It’s nice.”
I smiled, putting my hand on her back and rubbing it.
“That feels good,” she said.
“Yeah? Hold on. I’m actually pretty good at this.”
Unable to set my glass down on the hill without it spilling, I emptied the contents in one massive gulp. She smiled as I crawled behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders, kneading her flesh.
“Oh, wow…” she said.
“You’re so tense.”
“You don’t even know the half of it.”
“What’s a beautiful woman like you have to be worried about?”
She leaned forward. “Come on, you don’t want to be like Melvin, do you?”
“I’m nothing like him,” I said, working her muscles with my thumbs.
“Good.”
Now that I had gotten her mind off the mining operation across the way, I prepared to make my move. The fact that the Chinese operation would be in view had slipped my mind, but I would make up for it.
As I massaged her, I leaned in to kiss her neck.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” she said, pulling away.
“Come on, you can’t say you don’t feel something between us.”
“You are just like him,” she said, annoyed. She stood up. “What? You two got some sick bet on who can bed me first or something?”
“It’s not like that. Don’t get all crazy on me.”
“I am not crazy!”
I glanced over at the Humvee. “Stop yelling,” I hissed. “This area isn’t completely safe.”
“Are you kidding me right now? You brought me out here and it’s not even safe?” Her eyes widened. “You didn’t drug the wine, did you? Oh my God, I’m feeling faint. You fucking drugged me, didn’t you?”
“No!” I said, standing up. “I would never drug a woman. You think someone like me needs to be a Cosby?”
“Then why am I so lightheaded?”
“It’s the mountain air. You probably haven’t adjusted all the way.” I stepped forward and put a hand on her waist to steady her.
“Get away from me!” She stepped back and flung the rest of the wine in her glass to the ground. The parched earth soaked it up greedily.
I sighed. Why don’t things ever go the way I planned?
“We should get back,” I said, bending to pick up the blanket.
“Yes, we should,” she said as if it had been her idea.
I shook my head and proceeded to gather up the food, putting it back into the basket. She had already made it to the Humvee by the time I finished.
After throwing the stuff into the back, I climbed in.
“I freaked out,” she said as I shut the door. “I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing on this story I’m supposed to be doing, and now I’m being sent back even sooner than my short stay was originally going to be.”
“Why don’t you have anything? Wasn’t that the whole point of me taking you to the village?”
“That’s not the story I’m really working on…”
We stared at each other from across the front cab of the Humvee. I shook my head and turned the key in the ignition. The engine fired to life. “You are really something else.”
“Don’t you want to know what story I’m working on?” she asked after a moment.
“I can only imagine. Something about the military being corrupt, or…”
“The smuggling. I know about it.”
I turned the vehicle off and looked over at her.
“Are you involved?” she pressed.
“Is this off the record?”
“Sure.”
“You don’t want to be digging in this, okay?” I said, not sure I could trust her. “It goes high up the food chain. There are billions of dollars at stake. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”
“Billions of dollars? That’s a lot of drugs.”
I shook my head. “Don’t you get it? It’s not drugs. They’re smuggling rare earth minerals back to America and China. Both countries are making a bundle. Why do you think the Afghanistan war has dragged on for so long? Do you see an army anywhere near capable of defeating us if we put our mind to it?”
“There are a lot of caves in the mountains,” she said.
“Fuck those caves. The only reason we’re still here is to protect the Chinese and American civilians who are pillaging the mountains like there’s no tomorrow.”
“You need to tell me more,” she said, her hungry eyes staring into mine.
“I’ve said too much already.”
“Are you involved?”
I fired up the engine and put the Humvee in gear. “Not anymore.”
We rode back to the base in silence.
CHAPTER 9
Rose
When we arrived back to the Savage Soldiers base, everything looked a bit different somehow. The knowledge of a huge conspiracy just out of my reach drove me crazy.
“You’re going to cut it out with the investigating, right?” Warren asked after parking.
“Yeah, yeah,” I lied. “It’s too dangerous for me.”
“Good. I’d hate to see someone like you get wrapped up in this. It’s been hell for me trying to get out.”
“Why is that?”
He smirked and shook his head. “There you go again. Nice try. You almost got me.”
Out the window, Negan Rusell rushed toward us.
“Fuck,” I said.
Warren twisted around in his seat and opened the door. “What’s up, Negan?” he asked.
“Captain wants to see her right away.”
“What about?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, climbing down from the massive vehicle.
Warren stared at me. “Be careful,” he said in a quiet voice.
“I’m always careful,” I said as I walked past him.
Negan dashed back to the CO’s office building, reaching it before me.
Warren walked back to h
is CHU. I smiled at how familiar I’d become with the terminology in such a short time period.
Inside the long, metal building, my smile faded as soon as I saw Captain Jacoby behind his desk.
“What in the hell were you doing off base with Warren?” he asked, skipping any form of greeting.
“Hello to you, too, Captain,” I said as I walked over and sat down in front of his desk.
“You better answer my question.”
I quickly flipped through a few options in my mind. “Warren and I have been getting along, and…”
“Don’t say anymore,” he interrupted, raising his hand into the air. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“It was my idea, not his.”
“I don’t care whose idea it was, Ms. Bennett. He should know better than to go out in that area unaccompanied with a civilian.”
“We were fine. I didn’t see anyone around for miles.”
“You didn’t see anyone?”
I shook my head and lied again. “No.”
“Nothing out of the ordinary?”
I laughed nervously. “Now you’ve got me thinking I missed something. Do you have something to tell me?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re leaving on the next chopper out of here.”
I blinked. “I thought you had to wait because of the Taliban or something?”
“The situation in Afghanistan is still fluid, Ms. Bennett. I want you to be packed and ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Do you understand?”
“But I’m not done with my story!”
“That ain’t my problem,” he said, damn near smiling.
I stood, furious at him and the rest of the male-dominated world. After leaving his office, I headed to my quarters to pack my belongings.
I thought about going to talk with Warren, or maybe even Melvin, wondering if one of them would give me the information I needed before I was forced off the base.
It didn’t take long to get it all packed up; all I had brought with me was a week’s worth of clothes, my laptop, my phone, and various cords and chargers for the electronic equipment.
Would the CO really kick me out? I wondered.
Returning without a story would not go over well with the website that had hired me.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, I thought, images of Warren and Melvin running through my brain.
The two men were similar in some ways—both alpha males teetering on the edge of being alpha-holes or straight up psychos. But they had their differences too.
Warren was definitely the smarter of the two. Beyond his semi-romantic picnic on top of a hill in the Afghanistan boonies, something about him made me want to smile.
On the other hand, Melvin always got straight to the point. He was dumb, but I’d never had much luck with smart men anyhow.
What type of woman am I? I asked myself, particularly at the unnerving realization that I was even considering someone like Melvin—a man who had essentially tried to assault me. It was a question I worried I would never be able to answer completely, and it made me feel like something was wrong with me.
It didn’t matter though. I would be leaving without a story and wouldn’t get the opportunity to talk to either of them ever again. And I only had myself to blame. It was my fault for failing to get the story at their feet. But then again, if they hadn’t been such assholes, I might have been able to dig around enough to come up with something to save my ass.
Did the criminal conspiracy really go all the way to the top? Was I sitting on another scandal like the Iran-Contra Affair? The thought excited me. Had I been able to follow up on it, people would have finally seen me as a real journalist.
I closed my eyes, drifting through the land between waking and dreaming. As I approached sleep, someone knocked at the door.
CHAPTER 10
Rose
“What are you doing here?” I asked, finding Warren standing in front of me. I glanced around. “I’m supposed to be leaving soon.”
“It won’t be until the morning,” he said. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” I stepped back and he brushed against me on his way in. A tingle ran through tingle ran through my body.
Why did he have such an effect on me?
“You’re all packed?” he said, looking at the suitcases piled near the door.
“Yep.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You ready to talk more about the smuggling?”
“No,” he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“Then why are you here?”
“Earlier.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What do you mean?”
“This...” He stepped forward and put his hands on my waist. At the same time, his head came toward mine, tilting slightly.
I froze, closing my eyes, anticipating the moment our lips would touch. When they did, I felt as if Heaven had opened shop deep within my body. My heart sped.
Is this really happening? I thought.
I pulled back. “Pinch me.”
Warren raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“I need to know if I’m dreaming.”
He smiled then kissed me again, sliding his tongue into my mouth. I swirled mine against his. As we kissed, his hands moved along my body, squeezing my breast through my shirt. I moaned, wanting more.
“Do you have a condom?” I asked between kisses.
“Yeah,” he grunted and lifted my shirt.
I raised my hands into the air, allowing him to take it all the way off. Standing in front of him with bare breasts, I wondered if I was making a bad decision. But then lust took over and I didn’t care anymore.
While I didn’t get my story in Afghanistan, at least I’d have something to remember…
He bent his head to lick one nipple before moving to the other. As he explored my naked flesh with his tongue, I undid his pants.
What a marvelous sight awaited me there…
I fondled him while we kissed, amazed at his size. He stepped back and lifted his shirt, exposing his rock-hard chest and abs. I leaned forward and kissed his skin.
He took his pants off the rest of the way, and I did the same with mine. We were soon standing in front of each other, naked. My eyes lowered, scanning his body and enjoying what I saw before we resumed our passionate kiss.
I loved the way he made my body feel as his tongue moved against mine.
Time became irrelevant. All that existed in that moment was him and me, our bodies preparing to blissfully lock together.
He moved forward as we kissed, guiding me toward the bed. I sat on the edge of the mattress, looking up at him, enamored by his magical blue eyes. He grinned and lowered himself to his knees in front of me.
As he went down on me, I closed my eyes and threw my head back, not believing how good it felt to have him kissing, licking, sucking, and fingering my sensitive flesh. Blood rushed between my legs as a familiar tingle spread through my body.
I hadn’t been with a man in so long that I forgot for a moment or two that I was in Afghanistan with a war going on outside.
“Do it,” I begged. “Hard.”
He looked up from between my legs and stood, his huge length swinging back and forth in front of him. I watched, enthralled, as he put on a condom.
I wasn’t sure if it was the fact we weren’t supposed to be doing this or the fact I was in a strange country that turned me on so much. Either way, I felt like nothing I had ever experienced before compared to this, and we hadn’t even officially started yet.
Warren stepped forward and lifted my legs. Our eyes met as he rubbed his tip over my wetness before sliding in. I squeezed my eyes shut and moaned.
When I reopened my eyes, I saw that his hungry expression had turned to one of surprise at the sound of an explosion outside.
“What the hell?” I gasped.
He dropped my legs and spun around. “Fuck.”
I jumped up. “Are we under attack?”
“I don’t know,” Warre
n said, slipping his underwear back on.
As we dressed, a second explosion sounded from the same direction.
“That sounds like it’s inside the camp,” Warren said. “Stay here.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I said, my heart racing and adrenaline pumping.
He flung the door open and bolted outside.
I ran to the window and peeked out. Flames had risen into the air about five hundred feet away, near the wall surrounding the Savage base.
Hurriedly, I shut the door and locked it. Eyeing my suitcase and bags beside the door, I wondered if I would ever get back to New York.
Leaving early no longer sounded like a bad idea. Story be damned.
But then the thought of not making it hit me hard. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself.
As a journalist, I wanted to find out what the hell had happened.
Cautiously, I opened the door and I stepped outside. No other explosions had occurred since the second one.
I pondered whether it had been a car bomb, an RPG, or something else?
Suddenly, I saw men running toward the blaze. Before I made the conscious decision to follow them, Negan Rusell ran over to me.
“We need to go,” he said. “Are you packed? Captain Jacoby wants you out of here right now.”
“This is bullshit,” I said, nodding to the flames. “What the hell just happened?”
“That’s on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know. Can I help with your bags?”
“I’m not leaving,” I said, defiantly crossing my arms over my chest.
“If you don’t, Warren will be in even more trouble.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s on a need-to-know basis too, and—”
“Let me guess—you don’t think I need to know.”
“It’s not my call. Are you coming, or do I need to call the MPs?”
“I’m coming,” I said then stepped back inside to grab my suitcase and messenger bag.
“Hurry. The chopper is waiting,” Negan said as I followed him to the large, open space in middle of the camp.
“Will you please just tell me what happened?” I begged over the loud chopper blades and engine. “Was it the Taliban?”
“No,” he shouted. “It wasn’t an attack. You need to get on the chopper. Now.”
Lawless Hero_A Bad Boy Military Romance Page 4
