Axle: A Military Bad Boy Mercenary Romance (The Bang Shift Book 5)

by Mandy Harbin

  Axle stiffened, and she realized when she’d thought she’d relaxed, she’d actually melted into him. Her back was one with his front, and when she’d dropped her hands, they weren’t dangled beside her. She’d gripped the sides of his muscled legs. Why had she done that? Maybe she needed to help support herself, use him as an anchor to ground her. It didn’t matter why she’d done it just that she had, and now she found it difficult to stop. He was hard, lean, hot. His heat completely engulfed her.

  She shot a mental order to her hands to immediately let go of him, but she’d apparently lost all control over her body’s actions. What was more shocking was why she didn’t follow her internal command. It wasn’t that she couldn’t release him. She didn’t want to. She liked the way he felt.

  The hand he had on her belly eased, but he didn’t take it away. His fingers spread ever so slowly, splaying across her tummy, his hot breath coming quicker, teasing her hair. The air suddenly became thinner when she realized his hand wasn’t the only part of him she could feel moving. There was no space between them, so she knew the instant he got hard. She might have moaned at the feel of what this was doing to him. She didn’t know. She had no idea what was happening, really. But she did make a sound, that she knew, because the moment it came from her lips, he cussed and released her.

  Caitlin stumbled, no longer having him supporting her weight. But she stabilized herself quickly and faced him as her hormones rioted at the loss of contact.

  He ran a hand though his hair. His muscles corded, lethal, deadly, she knew, but now another descriptor flew to the front of her head as his muscles rippled—so incredibly sexy.

  “Sorry. That was out of line.”

  She continued her perusal of his body, admiring how strong and male he was. Her gaze lingered on the evidence of his arousal, missing the feel of it against her, and wondering how it would feel inside her.

  He made a strangled sound. “Stop.” Her gaze shot to him, and her cheeks warmed at being caught staring at his package.

  Good grief, she needed to wrestle her hormones into submission. This wasn’t her first day to ever be around an attractive man. Hot. She meant hot. She’d been around plenty of handsome men in her life. Hell, she’d been around plenty of sexy military men. This wasn’t anything new. Yet, it was completely new. As often as she’d been around members of the opposite sex that oozed justifiable confidence, she’d never had to fight her body’s reaction to a man before.

  He swallowed. “That won’t happen again,” he said, obviously still trying to apologize.

  Because she was both turned on by this man and shocked by her own body’s reaction to him, she wanted to deny his words, yet agree and seek the privacy of her room to hide from him and whatever just happened…whatever continued to happen between them. She was so confused. By him. By herself.

  Rather than go down a road that could totally embarrass her, she chose a route that would hopefully lighten the mood. With strength she did not feel, she smiled. “There are plenty of ways to distract an attacker.” She shrugged.

  He quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms, though a smile played at his lips. “An effective technique.”

  “What can I say? My assets are limited. I can’t be afraid to use any weapon in my arsenal.”

  He chuckled, but the heat was still in his eyes. “God help any man who tries to take you down.”

  “Maybe I was just looking for your gun.”

  “You know exactly where my gun is.”

  “What kind of lady would I be if I just reached for it?” She knew she was playing with fire with those words, but reason had checked out the moment she landed in this country.

  “One who goes after what she wants,” he said, seeing the fire she played with and stoking it more.

  “True. But maybe I’ll just wait for you to give it to me.” She licked her dry lips. Neither one was talking about a firearm, and they both knew it. This man was dangerous. More so than she could ever imagine, which was exactly why she needed to get this conversation back on track, no matter how much the thought of him giving her what she wanted lit her up. “Like your pen.”

  A slow smile spread across his face. “It is a tactical pen. You can take an eye out with it.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It amazes me you think it’s more likely a man will sneak up behind me when I think the reality is one will shoot at me from across a field.” Regardless of whatever was happening between the two of them, her situation in this war hadn’t changed. There could be a chance she’d get stranded without protection. She’d slowly started to reason with herself that the chance was small, but it was there nonetheless.

  He took a deep breath and dropped his arms as he regarded her. He glanced to the side, his gaze lingering out in the distance, and she got the feeling he was deciding something. The next words held no hint of the playfulness he’d just displayed. “I carry my assault rifle across my chest.” He waved his hand in the area where she’d seen it on him before.

  “I know.”

  Then he reached for the gun on his leg she’d spied earlier and pulled it out. “This is my sidearm.” He holstered it. “I also have a knife here and here,” he said, pointing to the one at his belt and one hidden on his ankle. “If something happens to me and my men, and you are in a life or death situation, Caitlin, life or death,” he said again, slowly, pointing at her. “You can retrieve what you need off me to buy yourself time until you get rescued. If you need more ammo, here’s where I’ll have extra magazines.”

  She gaped at him, processing his words. It wasn’t her own weapon like she’d wanted, but if she was completely honest, he gave her more of a concession than she should get. Her not having something like that on her person was a decision that came from up above. He really had no control over the matter.

  A little bit of guilt ate at her. This man was willing to skirt the rules to make her feel better, so she should be completely honest with him…even if it meant he’d take the offer back. “I’ve never shot a gun.”

  “I’ll show you how.”

  Her eyes popped, having not expected him to offer that, and a huge smile spread across her face. “Really?”

  “This isn’t playtime, Caitlin. These weapons are highly lethal.”

  Her hand snapped to her forehead. “Sir, yes, Sir.” She echoed the line she’d heard from many of the people in uniform, knowing she didn’t do it correctly, but too excited to care. Not only was he giving her access to his gear, he was going to show her how to use it all.

  “Jesus. Stop doing that until I’ve had a chance to show you proper form.”

  She giggled, feeling lighter than she’d had all day. “Later. Right now, I get to handle your guns,” she said quickly, a different kind of excitement now coursing through her veins. He was seriously going to let her practice with his guns!

  “Don’t think I’m going to just let you take my weapons either. I won’t stop shooting until I’m dead. You got that? I’m serious. Life or fucking death, woman.”

  “Okay, okay.” She couldn’t control her stupid grin. “Life or death, yada, yada.”

  He groaned, but the miserable noise still sounded sexy coming from him. “C’mon, let’s go do some shooting.”

  “Yay!” She jumped up and down, clapping, letting her excitement bubble over.

  His eyes dropped to her chest, and she stilled, the heat from earlier only barely banked. He gritted his teeth and then jerked his head to the side, urging her to follow.

  “Could definitely blow off some steam with some target practice,” he muttered, though she didn’t think he’d intended her to hear.

  Whatever. Mr. Hot Badass Military Man was going to show her how to shoot. She briefly wondered if he was giving her permission to use his gun because he’d been caught up in the moment and knew he couldn’t let her handle anything else that belonged to him. That thought did naughty things to her libido, but she tamped it down again.

  He was a sexy man who was protecting her. O
f course, she’d find him attractive—handsome. He was handsome only. To be attractive, there had to be more to him than anything purely physical. She’d remind herself of that as often as was necessary. He was yummy, all right, and any spark he ignited was understandable. But she couldn’t afford to be attracted to him.

  Not right now with how dangerous their surroundings were, and possibly not ever. Especially if Hunter told her things about him she loathed to hear.

  Chapter Six

  Axle had lost count how many times he’d run around the barracks in the dark. He couldn’t afford to workout away from Caitlin, but no way did he want to lose any sort of edge he had by not staying in optimal shape. Getting up extra early to exercise was his only option, and what he could do was limited to old-school methods. He ran laps, never venturing so far away that he lost sight of the building where she slept. He also did pushups, jumping jacks, burpees, and any other maneuvers that didn’t require special equipment, only his body as the necessary resistance. He needed to keep his strength up, but that hadn’t been his only motivating factor. He also had to do whatever he could to burn off the growing tension he’d been fighting.

  When he couldn’t lift weights, usually time at the shooting range was the next best thing to relieve any sort of pressure. Last night changed that. After their impromptu target practice, that source of stress relief had become tainted with heated memories.

  Christ on a cracker, that woman was the wrong kind of deadly.

  Oh, she hadn’t been a natural. Her aim had been completely off initially. She’d been a quick study, though, after some personal critiques that were simple for her grasp, yet damn hard for him to get through. He’d had to stand from behind with his arms around her as he helped her sight in the target. It was something simple he’d done a hundred times before. It should’ve been clinical, not something erotic. Fuck, but it had been. It had been nothing short of torture. Several rounds of skin-on-skin contact torture. Her body was rounded and soft in all the right places. Luscious. Goddamn, she was beautiful. He’d been grateful he had to squat behind her to keep his head level with hers. Otherwise, she would’ve felt his raging hard-on pushed up against her. Not that it would’ve been the first time. He’d been sporting wood since their hot little exchange before they even got to the shooting practice part. It was why he knew going back to the range wouldn’t do anything to help relieve tension.

  So he ran, and ran, as if the hounds of hell nipped at his heels, stopping only to bang out enough pushups until his arms began to shake, and ran some more. By the time he was too exhausted to even think about her sexy body anymore, he decided to go a little more just to make sure. When he made it back to the barracks, his whole body was weak with spent energy and drenched with sweat. He had plenty of time to shower before she got up and rejuvenate himself with some coffee.

  “Good morning, sir,” Acker said when Axle walked through the main door. He’d been posted outside Caitlin’s room when Axle left for his workout. He didn’t see a need to keep someone there twenty-four-seven, but with Axle out of earshot, he wanted eyes on her door. “I see you enjoyed your scenic jog.”

  “What can I say? The tents are lovely this time of year.” Axle quipped as he walked past. He didn’t know Acker or the other men very well—not as well as his SEAL team—but there was a Naval bond already there. “Taking a shower.”

  “Good idea,” he muttered.

  Axle stopped and turned to look at him with the deadly glare time had perfected. Yes, there was a bond that might allow for some camaraderie, but he was still their team lead.

  “I-I mean you want to stay ahead of trench foot. I hear that—”

  “Enough, Acker,” he said before continuing to the shower. “She get up early?”

  “No, Sir. Not a peep.”

  “Good. At least I know she can follow directions when it comes to sleep.” He knew jetlag was a bitch, so he tried to be mindful of that and let her have extra shuteye these first few mornings. “You can go get chow.”

  “Yes, Sir,” he said with conviction, but without the volume to risk waking up Caitlin. It pleased him that this guy took that into consideration.

  Axle had placed his towel and fatigues in the room before heading out on his run. Preparation was important, especially in a war zone. The last thing he wanted was a sudden new development that required immediate attention that he’d have to deal with wearing wet workout gear. Not that he expected shit to hit the fan before breakfast, but in a hot zone, one never knew.

  He stripped and got under the cold water, hoping it’d cool the heat coursing through his body. It felt good, but after a couple of minutes, it hadn’t started working. He grabbed the soap and started cleaning his body. It crossed his mind to take himself in hand and try relieving his stress another way, but he knew it wouldn’t work. Oh, that would feel good, too, but any relief would only be temporary. If he started jacking off every time Caitlin filled his mind, he’d be damn raw. He couldn’t afford to let thinking about her become an automatic erotic mental fantasy, which was exactly what would happen. That would be a dangerous path for many reasons, not the least bit being it clouding his judgment where she was concerned. He had a job to do, so the best thing for him was to ignore his physical reaction.

  Cussing under this breath, he finished up his shower, dried off, and got dressed. He took his time, partly because she wouldn’t be up for another fifteen minutes, but mainly due to his aching muscles slowing him down. Tiring himself before starting his day probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but today they’d be doing flyovers. He wouldn’t have to do a lot of walking around. Still, he probably should keep his workouts shorter and find another way to relieve steam.

  Not that, he scolded himself when his dick twitched, reminding him of a perfectly good option. He strapped on his gun and sheathed his knife more forceful than necessary.

  Axle started down the short hall toward his room, but a sound coming from the other side of Caitlin’s door drew his attention. He checked his watch. She still had another eight minutes before her alarm went off. Had she awoken early after all? Was she dreaming? He hesitated, watching, listening for any indication she was up already.

  After about thirty seconds of silence, he turned toward his room. He was fucking hearing things now. He’d gone months before living in conditions that would test even the strongest of wills, but two damn days near this woman and he was losing his—

  “No,” she yelled, and Axle whipped around, bolting into her room. They were on base. She should be protected even when she was out of his sight, but in the seconds it took to bust through to her, a thousand different scenarios flashed in his mind.

  All of them equally terrifying.

  Yet none of them prepared him for what he saw.

  Caitlin’s alarm went off right on schedule.

  Her schedule.

  She’d seen where Axle had listed on her itinerary when she was to arise, shower, and eat. She wasn’t happy he’d planned everything out without discussing it with her first. It was the principle of the matter, regardless of how sexy he was. If she found it sweet of him to let her sleep in as long as possible, she quickly ignored that reaction. Yes, she was tired. And yep, she’d love nothing more than staying in bed and sleeping until dinnertime. She understood the need of him to book her time away from base. He wasn’t only her guard, but her guide. She needed his help and had no problem cooperating with his timetable as it related to gathering information for her story. But it wasn’t as if she didn’t have any common sense. She was a grown woman and had worked in war zones before without every minute of her day being decided for her. Besides, there were two things he hadn’t considered when taking it upon himself to make these decisions.

  The first, and more important issue, was there was no time allotted for her to write. Her work wasn’t just investigating the story and recording clips, but also writing reports for her producers and doing other necessary work behind the scenes. The boring paperwork stuff, the
emails, and all the other minutia when creating a bombshell news piece were just as important as the video itself.

  The second, and more pressing matter, pertained to needing time for her to make calls without him around. Granted, he wouldn’t know the exact reason why she needed this time, but she was pretty sure military personnel reached out to people back home when they had the chance. He should’ve at least allowed her some privacy time to contact her family.

  Hopefully, they’d get back earlier than noted on the printout she’d found in her room when she returned last night. That would give her some time to time to write up her notes and start crafting her story elements while the day’s events were fresh on her mind. It would also give her an opportunity to jot down objectives for the next day. But that was later and not the reason she’d set her alarm thirty minutes earlier than scheduled.

  And the clock was now ticking away at those few precious minutes she’d carved out for herself.

  Without hesitation, she grabbed her laptop and opened the social profile she’d found and used to message Hunter. Nothing. Her shoulders slumped as she checked over it a second time. It looked more and more like this was a dummy account Maya had set up to tag her boyfriend, but upon closer inspection, the icon next to the message she’d typed to him had changed, signaling it had been read. Someone had seen her message. That didn’t mean the person was Hunter.

  Still slightly deflated, but not entirely surprised, she navigated to Heather’s profile. Caitlin’s heart raced when she saw Heather had responded, and she quickly clicked on the message.