by Amelia Jade
“ROKK?!”
Linny did not sound impressed.
“Uh-oh.” He got up, wiping at his pants only to realize he was just smearing sweat into the dirt, making it worse. “I can explain.”
“Explain? What can you explain?”
Getting to his feet, Rokk winced as he put weight on his left ankle.
“Are you okay?” Linny’s tone changed immediately as he hopped slightly, regaining his balance on his right foot.
“I’ll be all right,” he assured her. “Just twisted it in the fall I guess. Someone decided that they needed to have steel cubes that look like much softer wood. Not a good idea. Somebody might think that’s an okay place to land before realizing it most definitely is not.”
The concern she’d been showing him evaporated as it became evident he would be all right. “Well, serves you right. What the hell were you doing up there?” She pointed to the broken halves of the former spinal board, still dangling from the wires far above.
“Inspecting the lights?”
She didn’t laugh. “You were spying. On me.”
He kept his mouth closed. They both knew she was right. No need to talk about it more.
“And you broke some of my boxes. I’m going to have to pay to get these fixed.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’ll fix them for you, I promise. No charge. In fact, I’ll even take you out to dinner as compensation.”
Linny closed her mouth, the retort she’d been about to fire off dying. “So you spy on me, then break my stuff, and you think you’re going to get a date out of it?”
“It’s not a date, it’s me taking you to dinner to apologize.”
Red-brown hair swished back and forth, while in the depths of her turquoise eyes humor worked its way through the irritation. “That’s a date, Rokk. Don’t try to treat me like I’m stupid. You already screwed up once in spying on me. Don’t do it again.”
Dipping his head, he let his face do the talking, ensuring she noticed the tight smile he was giving her.
“Unbelievable,” she ground out. “You’re going to tell me why you were doing this though. That’s non-negotiable. I’m not going on a date with you otherwise.”
“It’s to dinner.”
“Yes, a dinner date. That is still a date.”
He gave up on that aspect. “I was told you were the competitor to beat. I wanted to see what I was up against.”
“Ah, so you’re scared.”
Rokk gaped. “What? No, that is not what I said. I am not scared of you. I just wanted to know what you were doing.”
Linny didn’t relent. “Because you were scared whatever you came up with wasn’t going to be good enough. You probably landed on the boxes on purpose to try and hurt my chances.”
He looked away. It was getting ridiculous. “Linny, you’re being silly.”
“I’m not the one who can’t admit the truth just because they have a macho reputation to protect.”
“Dragons are not ‘macho,’” he snapped.
“That was a quick response.”
Rokk decided to steer the conversation back on track. “I told you why I was up there. Are you going to let me take you to dinner to apologize or not?”
She was as trapped as he was, and they both knew it. Linny wanted to accept, to go to dinner—date or no date—with him. Except she was also supposed to be mad at him for spying on her.
“Fine. I’ll go.” She was trying to sound reluctant.
Rokk figured now was a good time not to point out that she was doing a very bad job at it. He’d already screwed up enough.
“Now get out.” She shooed him off with her hands. “I need to practice. Without you hovering over my shoulder.” She looked him up and down. “You could use a shower, by the way. You’re rather sweaty.”
“Tell me about it,” he said under his breath, clothes sticking to every part of him as he headed toward the exit. “I’ll let you know when and where for dinner.”
Linny couldn’t quite hide her smile fast enough. “Out!’ she repeated.
Rokk waited until he was outside before letting his grin blossom fully. Now it was time to shower, like she’d suggested, and then he too should get to work.
A nearby hose attached to the side of the building caught his eye.
Good enough.
Chapter Nine
Linny
She stared at the closed door Rokk had departed through for a long time.
“Get your head together, Sergeant. He’s just a boy. A very, very attractive boy who is going to take you to dinner. But a boy nonetheless. Don’t let that get to your head.”
Moving over to her equipment she paused, still deep in thought.
“Don’t let it get to anywhere else either,” she added, speaking out loud so that the rest of her body, particularly the bits that liked to go hyperactive around Rokk, got the point.
They didn’t, judging by their reaction to her acknowledgment of their desires. Arguing with hormones was basically fruitless. She’d learned that a long time ago. Adding to it was the fact that Rokk looked at her differently than most men.
Soldiers on the base saw her as an outlet for their excessive testosterone. The few times she’d taken them up on it, that’s exactly how she’d looked at them too. Little more than a stick to ride. With Rokk though, he smiled at her. His eyes were warm and open. Caring. He stared at her as a person, not just her body. That was tough to ignore. Doubly so considering he was gorgeous and easy to stare back at.
Blinking away daydreams, she got focused on everything in front of her. The boxes were ruined, meaning that part wasn’t going to work today. The table it was.
She went over to it, did a few stretches, and pulled off her uniform. Underneath she wore a skintight black leotard over the top of pantyhose colored to make her look like she could actually hold a tan, instead of just turning bright red for a few days. Her arms and face gave away the truth, but that didn’t matter.
“All right, here we go.” Let’s see how much I remember, and how slow I am.
Bending her legs, she hopped up onto the wheeled table, balancing herself in expectation that it might roll slightly. It didn’t.
Instead the specially made table dropped out from under her as the two back legs gave way. Linny shrieked as she toppled backward, landing hard on her tailbone before rolling backward to dispel the momentum of her fall.
Pain exploded up her spine, leaving her in a sprawled, writhing heap as she fought the agony back down until it was something manageable. That done she gasped for air, recovering her breath slowly, content to lie in a heap for the time being, until things hurt a little less.
What the hell had happened? The table was made out of metal, something she’d had specially made for her years ago and kept in storage along with much of the rest of her life. She hauled it around from deployment to deployment, unsure of when or where she might need something again.
Eventually with enough of her senses recovered, she got to her feet to inspect the damage and find out how she’d almost given herself a concussion. It couldn’t be that she’d screwed up—all she’d done was jump up onto the table. She made bigger jumps over obstacles in her training.
A quick look at one of the legs told her what was up. The metal had quite clearly been cut almost the entire way through. Only a jagged bit on the end showed where it had been held together, until she’d jumped up onto it. Snatching up the other leg she gave it a quick look over. That one had been completely cut through, until the table only rested on it.
“ROKK!” she bellowed, anger filling her core. One leg in each hand, she marched over to the dividers and kicked open the flimsy little personnel door that allowed people to move back and forth. “Rokk, what the fuck is your problem?” she snarled, launching one of the legs at him the instant she saw where he was.
The dragon shifter snatched it out of midair with a casual ease that served only to infuriate Linny further. “What’s this?”
“Don’t play innocent with me!” she shouted, stalking toward him like a lioness who’d found her prey. “You know full well what it is. Spying on me wasn’t good enough, so you had to break my gear too, to set me back? That’s fucking low. I can’t believe you had the nerve to do something like that. I’m not going to dinner with you. Coward.”
She swung the other leg at him, but he caught it, stopping her arm solid.
“That’s enough,” he growled, pulling the length of metal from her hand. Then he bent it in half, using his leg as a base. He tossed it far away, then followed that up with the one he’d initially caught. “Now, I’m willing to ignore the fact that you tried to assault me, because it’s obvious you’re mad.”
His eyes flared with a blue light as he towered over her. Electricity crackled up and down his skin, a sudden, abrupt, and powerful reminder of just who it was she’d tried to hit.
“But you had better explain yourself, and soon, because I do not appreciate being called a coward.”
Linny shrunk back before the imposing godlike being in front of her, fear providing a quenching counterpart to the anger that had occupied her body such a short time ago. He was speaking in that voice again, the one that had to be a dragon.
“Speak,” he commanded.
And so she did.
“Those were the legs to my table,” she explained. “A very special table. They were cut through. I found out when I jumped up on the table, expecting it to be solid. Instead it collapsed under me and I nearly gave myself a concussion on the concrete. Or worse.”
She expected Rokk to calm as she spoke. Instead more energy surged across his skin. He stuck his hand toward where he’d tossed the lengths of metal. Energy surged out like a whip, wrapping around one of the legs and pulling it back to him.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” she gasped, surprised.
Rokk ignored her. Instead, his eyes—still glowing a bright cobalt blue—were focused on the leg as he looked at the end.
“This was cut,” he said, speaking in his human voice.
“I told you that.”
“Why would you assume it was me?”
She squeaked. “Um. Well. You were already spying on me. So I just figured that…” Her voice died as he focused his gaze on her.
“You figured what? That I would resort to trying to hurt you?”
“Well, no. I didn’t think you meant harm, I just…”
Rokk sagged, the energy leaving him. “Linny, I would never do anything to hurt you. Never. You need to know that. I spied, yes, but that was it. This. This was someone else.”
The blue glow returned, but it was dimmer this time. Like he had it more under control.
She knew that Rokk hadn’t done it. He was telling the truth. Linny couldn’t explain it, but she just knew deep down inside of her. The man in front of her would never do anything to hurt her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his attention once again turning to her. “Are you hurt at all?”
He stepped forward, inspecting her head, but she waved him off.
“Yes, I’m okay. I’ll probably have a bruised tailbone, but that’s all. I was able to keep my head from hitting, thankfully.”
The giant in front of her nodded in agreement. “Yes.”
“Um, listen.” Her face throbbed in embarrassment, prompting Linny to look away so he wouldn’t see how red she must have been. “About what I said. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
There was a brief pause. “Even the part about not going to dinner?”
“Even that,” she said, sighing in relief at the light tone of his voice. He was going to forgive her.
“I’m surprised how quickly you can change moods with me,” he added playfully. “I’m going to need some proof that you’re sincere, I think.”
Linny squared up to him now, embarrassment fading as she gave him a stare that had the word “Seriously?” plastered all over it. “Proof? How am I supposed to do that besides showing up to dinner?”
“Kiss me.”
The words she’d been forming into a sentence fell away as his suggestion hit home. “What? Kiss you? I can’t do that, Rokk.” It was only then that she realized his shirt was missing. How had she failed to notice that this entire time? “Where is your shirt?”
“I took a shower in the hose outside. But nice try at changing the subject.”
She had to kiss him. While he was shirtless. Pecs still slightly glistening when they caught the light just right, and his abs…She didn’t want to dwell on them anymore.
“This isn’t appropriate, Rokk. We’re in public. What if someone walked in on us? Again?”
“Are you on duty?”
“No,” she ground out reluctantly, refusing to meet his gaze while she did. “But that doesn’t matter.”
“I think it matters a whole lot, actually. If you aren’t on duty, then you’re allowed to do what you want.”
He was correct.
“You’re assuming that this is what I want. I’m quite positive that this is what you want,” she said, pushing back. “Maybe I don’t want it at all.”
A finger as solid as granite and as soft as cashmere lifted her chin when she tried to look down.
“I know you want to kiss me, Linny. I can feel it. You’re just nervous. Scared.” His eyes glittered with laughter. “Coward.”
“You sonofabitch,” she snarled as he used her own words against her. “If I kiss you, you’ll forgive me?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.” She grabbed the hand on her chin and used it as leverage to pull him in close so that she could kiss him.
He let her take the hand, pushing his fingers between hers and holding on. She tilted her head back, letting him take control from there.
Take control he did. Rokk lifted her from the ground with his other hand, scooping it under her flat little ass and pulling her in tight to his shirtless body, where she ran her hands over the damp muscles, feeling each and every one. Freeing her hand from his she used both palms, sliding them down his back while he parted her mouth with his tongue.
She moaned into the kiss as he started to caress her, thick fingers moving over the leotard and up her back, pushing through her hair and giving it a gentle pull. She shivered, not caring that it gave away just how much she’d enjoyed it. Rokk didn’t miss the signs however, and after giving her ass a firm squeeze he pulled on her hair again, a little more sharply this time.
It wasn’t enough to really hurt, but she went with the tug. With her neck exposed Rokk took full advantage, his lips and even a bit of his teeth finding her neck. The shivers that had been running down her spine doubled in their intensity. Another moan slipped out of her mouth.
A hand came up her side and across her chest. She had next to nothing in the way of breasts, but her nipples were easy to find through the thin material, and in seconds Rokk was driving her wild with slow, casual strokes. Her breath was coming in shorter gasps. Foreplay had never made her feel like this. She almost felt that he could make her climax if he kept going.
“That feels good.” She whispered the words into his ear. Unable to reach between his legs from where he still held her in the air, it was all she could do to return the favor.
“Good.” He bit on her neck again before kissing the same area gently and then dragging his tongue down and across her collarbone.
She slipped from his arms as he set her down, expecting him to start stripping her out of her clothes. Instead he stood up, a satisfied grin on his face and a large bulge in his shorts that made her imagination go crazy.
“I think you proved your point,” Rokk said, his voice having dropped an octave and fraught through with arousal. It made her want to jump him again. “We can do dinner tonight.”
“I can’t tonight,” she said with a wince. “I have watch. Tomorrow?”
Was that it? He was just going to walk away and leave her in this condition?
“Tomorrow it is.” He leaned in and kissed
her intimately on the cheek. “I can’t wait.” Tingles erupted down her neck once more as he spoke right into her ear, his voice making love to it in a way that felt more pleasurable than it sounded.
And then he was gone, walking out of the hangar for the second time that day. She was left standing there aroused and in disbelief at the willpower he’d shown. It was obvious that Rokk wanted more, but he wasn’t willing to do it then and there.
In hindsight neither was she, but even if the location was wrong, the person most certainly was not. Nobody in her life had ever played her body like that, leaving her little more than a panting mess in need of his body and the attention it could pay to her.
“What a fucking tease,” she ground out, finally getting ahold of herself.
Linny was dying to find out if the sex was worth the wait.
“It had better be.”
Whether it was or not, she intended to find out before whatever “this” was, was over.
Chapter Ten
Linny
Sitting at her desk, she looked over at the bent metal pushed out of the way in the top left.
After Rokk had left the hangar the day before she’d realized two things. One, neither of them had discussed anything further about the sabotage. In hindsight that had been stupid. Someone was out to hurt her, and they needed to find out who. Hormones had distracted them from this, but once he was gone her brain started to function normally again, thankfully.
So now she had the bent leg with her. How it would help, she didn’t know, but it had seemed like a smart idea. The other thing she’d noticed after Rokk left was that the unbent leg, the one she’d thrown at him, was also missing. Despite everything, Rokk hadn’t forgotten. Maybe he could do something with his dragon magic to find who’d messed with her table.
“Sergeant, everything okay?”
Major Von Kemp had appeared out of his office, looking at her with concern on his face.
“Yes, Major. What can I do for you?”
“I paged you several times, but you didn’t answer.”