by Paige Tyler
He glanced at John. “What if my partner and I don’t successfully complete the certification course?”
“You’ll be debriefed and sent back to your unit.” John smiled. “But something tells me you won’t have to worry about that.”
Landon hoped it wasn’t the same something that told John he’d be okay with killing his partner. He’d never failed at anything and he wasn’t about to start now, even if he didn’t want to be here.
Kendra smiled. “Come on. Todd and I will introduce you to your partner.”
It was about time. Landon gestured toward the door. “Lead the way.”
Landon expected Todd and Kendra to take him to another conference room, so he was surprised when they led him into what looked like a workout room. Mats covered the floor and a heavy bag hung from a hook in one corner. Weights and workout equipment filled a good portion of the room. A woman was seated cross-legged in the center of it, her eyes closed, her hands loosely resting on her knees. At their entrance, she gracefully uncurled herself from the floor and got to her feet.
She was wearing a pair of black workout pants like his ex-girlfriend used to wear when she went to yoga class, and a form-fitting tank top. He couldn’t help but notice her curvy, athletic body, expressive dark eyes, and full lips. With little makeup and her long, dark hair pulled up in a ponytail, she looked like the girl next door. Only more exotic than any girl he’d ever lived next door to, that was for sure.
He didn’t care how tired and irritated he was, this was a woman he definitely wouldn’t mind stopping to appreciate. Hopefully, one of his new training officers would introduce them before she left to give them the room.
“Landon, meet Ivy Halliwell, your new partner,” Kendra said. “Ivy, Captain Landon Donovan, Special Forces.”
They were going to have to pick his jaw up off the floor because Landon was damn sure that’s where it was after hearing that announcement. No way this walking wet dream was his partner. She looked like she couldn’t hurt a fly, much less do any kind of covert ops. They had to be messing with him.
“Your first mission is to put her on her ass,” Todd said.
He’d had some big what-the-hell moments in his life—most of them within the past twenty-four hours—but this had to be the biggest.
Landon narrowed his eyes at the man. “Excuse me?”
“Take her down.”
Was this guy serious? This was his new partner and they wanted him to kick her ass? Ivy was about half his size and looked like she should be walking down a fashion runway somewhere, not trading blows with a trained combat killer.
Landon shook his head. “Forget it. I’m not going to take a swing at her, much less put her on her ass.” He folded his arms across his chest. “You want entertainment? Maybe I should put you on your ass.”
Kendra must have thought that was funny because she hid a smile behind her clipboard.
Ivy wasn’t so subtle. She laughed outright. And damn if it didn’t have a sexy sound to it.
“That’s chivalrous of you, Donovan,” she said. “You putting Todd on his ass is something I’d like to see, but he isn’t going to let us leave this room until you learn the lesson you’re here to learn. So, let’s get this over with.”
She didn’t wait for a reply, but instead slowly circled around Landon on her bare feet. He instinctively turned to follow her. She moved with the sure-footed grace of a cat, making him think she was probably well-trained in one or more martial arts.
“Well?” she demanded.
He assessed her stance. “You’re not ready.”
Ivy rolled her eyes. “Tell you what. I’ll make it easier on you. I’ll hit you first. How’s that sound?”
“That implies I’d let you hit me.”
She shrugged her slim shoulders. “Oh, I’ll hit you all right.”
He laughed, but the sound was cut short as she twisted in a blur and her leg came around in a spinning heel kick that would have taken off his head if he hadn’t backed away just in time.
“Shit,” he muttered. He was way too tired for this crap. “Stop screwing around, okay? That kick would have done some damage if you landed it.”
Ivy didn’t heed his warning, though. Instead, she immediately followed up with the same kind of a kick, this time in the other direction. Landon quickly backpedaled to avoid her foot, only to smack against the wall. He dropped to one knee, instinctively thrusting out with his hands to both knock her away from him and put some space between them. But instead of falling back, she moved out of the way, avoiding his hands. For a moment he didn’t realize what she’d done. Then it struck him.
She’d darted sideways while she was in mid-kick. That shouldn’t even be physically possible.
Ivy landed lightly on her feet, a smile curving her lips. “I knew I could get you to take a shot at me, even if it was lame. Then again, I didn’t expect much from another oversized grunt like you. I don’t know why they keep pairing me up with guys like you all the time. Can’t they find anyone with a brain?”
Landon rose from his crouch and moved to the center of the room. When she came at him again, he didn’t want a wall getting in his way. “Guys like me? You’re trying to insult me now? Think that’s going to get me to take a punch at you? What are you, a masochist?”
Her smile broadened. “I already got you to do that. And I’d only be a masochist if you ever got your hands on me.”
He snorted. “Lady, that wasn’t a punch. You’d know it if I wanted to hit you.”
“All talk and no action,” she scoffed. “Isn’t that the Special Forces motto or something?”
Landon knew what she was trying to do and it wasn’t going to work. She must have figured it out, too. She gave up on the verbal jabs and resorted to real ones, coupled with those damn spinning roundhouse kicks again.
He stripped off his camo overshirt and threw it across the room, so he could get down to serious business.
He blocked most of her strikes with his hands and the others with his shoulders, biceps, and thighs. He sure as hell felt them, but he got the feeling she wasn’t hitting him nearly as hard as she could.
His plan was to lure her in close enough to get his hands on her. That way, he could put her down without being forced to throw a serious punch. She might be agile as hell, but if he connected with anything real, he’d break something. His best bet was to get his hands on her and pin her to the floor so he could end this stupid game.
That was easier than it sounded. Ivy was faster than lightning and could twist her body into a pretzel to get out of his grasp. He had her in a perfect jujitsu take-down position several times only to have her spoil it by not going down like she should have. He even planted his knee in her stomach and yanked her backward with him in a throw that should have landed her hard on her back, groaning in pain. Instead, she turned the move into some kind of gymnastic flip and came down as softly on her feet as if she stepped off a street curb.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two training officers taking notes as they watched. Kendra was actually smiling. Landon clenched his jaw. What a couple of asses.
On the other side of the room, Ivy spun around to face him. Eyes narrowing, she ran directly toward him. He automatically braced himself for another blow, but at the last second she darted to her right, jumping at the wall and rebounding off it like she was an extra in some Jackie Chan movie, then ricocheting back at him, her right leg coming around in a roundhouse kick.
Instead of getting out of the way like any sane person would have, he moved closer, getting underneath her swinging leg and grabbing her shoulders. He avoided her foot, but ended up taking a knee to the left side of his rib cage. It hurt, but it got him inside her defenses. He was going to get a grip on her, and this time she wasn’t going to get away.
That’s when he realized her kick had only been a distraction. He’
d been so busy watching her feet he hadn’t even noticed her open hand coming toward him. He did a double take. She was going to slap him? His mind registered surprise for half a millisecond before her hand angled down to sweep across the front of his T-shirt.
Landon felt the fabric tug and swore he heard a ripping sound. He even felt a sting. But he ignored it. Tightening his grip on her shoulders, he spun them both around, letting the momentum from her rebound take them down to the floor.
He twisted at the last second, taking the impact of the floor on his right shoulder before yanking her to his chest in a bear hug. If he’d been trying to kill her, he would have crushed a hell of a lot harder. Instead he squeezed just enough to let her know he could hurt her if he wanted to.
They came to a stop with him on his back, Ivy pinned to his chest. She didn’t fight him, simply laid there with her face close to his neck, breathing deeply. Landon couldn’t help but notice how soft her body was against his, and how nice it felt to have her on top of him.
His cock noticed, too.
Shit. This was going to be embarrassing.
“Okay, you two,” Todd said. “I think we’ve gotten everything out of this demonstration I intended.”
It took a moment for the words to register—probably because all the blood had left his head to rush to another part of his anatomy. Landon reluctantly loosened his hold on Ivy. He waited for her to get up, but she stayed firmly planted on top of him, which alarmed him. He thought she would have jumped up the moment he released her. God, he hoped he hadn’t hurt her with that take down.
He gently tilted her chin up with his fingers. “Hey. You okay?”
Ivy blinked at him, her beautiful eyes filled with something that looked almost like wonder. Then she gave herself a little shake. “I-I’m good. You?”
“Yeah. Fine.”
“Good.”
She gazed at him for a moment longer, then quickly pushed to her feet. She crossed the room to slip on a pair of flip-flops she had left there. When she turned back to him, her face was the perfect mask of composure he’d seen when he first walked in.
“No hard feelings, I hope?” she said as he stood. “That’s just the way the DCO likes to introduce me to my new partners. I don’t know why.”
He knew why. The DCO realized the fastest way to get a man to appreciate the talents of his female partner was to have her kick his ass. At least she hadn’t done it to him.
“Not at all,” he said. “I suppose we can call this match a tie.”
Her lips curved. “You think so?”
Reaching out, she flicked his shirt with her fingers, then turned and walked away.
Remembering the bizarre open-handed swipe she’d given him across the chest, he looked down to see four diagonal tears in his T-shirt. He pushed the material aside, frowning when he found four identical scratches on his chest. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he got scratched by a cat—a big cat. They weren’t deep or bleeding, but there was no mistaking what had made them—fingernails. Ivy’s fingernails.
Not exactly standard-issue hand-to-hand combat technique. He got the feeling nothing about this place was standard issue. Especially his new partner.
Landon scooped up his camo overshirt and walked over to where Ivy was talking to the two training officers. Her face was still flushed from their wrestling match, but if it wasn’t for that, he’d never know they’d been rolling around on the floor a few minutes ago. She was back to being the girl next door again. And when she looked like that, there wasn’t a man alive who wouldn’t underestimate her. Given that, it was okay to cut himself some slack for doing the same thing.
“There’s some administrative paperwork we need to take care of before you leave, Landon, but then you can take off early,” Todd said.
Landon would have preferred to have a long conversation with his new partner about her fighting technique than do mounds of paperwork, but he silently followed the two training officers back to the conference room. One thing was for sure. He’d be smart not to take anything, including Ivy, for granted until he learned more about the DCO and what his part in it was going to be.
Chapter 2
Ivy hated that they’d paired her up with another combat killer. She thought they would have learned from that mistake after the debacles with her two previous partners—both of whom had been military. But the DCO seemed so enamored with the training military guys brought to the table that they simply didn’t understand why these guys couldn’t work with a woman like her.
It was true Landon hadn’t tried to humiliate her like some of the others had, but she wasn’t holding her breath that the chivalrous treatment would last long.
Ivy adjusted her crossbody shoulder bag as she stepped off the Metro at Pentagon City and fell in with the rest of the people making a mad dash for the escalators. Outside the station, she turned right and headed toward the grocery store where she regularly stopped on her way home.
She grabbed a cart and wandered through the aisles, letting her mind do some wandering of its own—right to Jeff Peters, Navy officer and her first partner at the DCO. For about the first year, she and Jeff had gotten along great. Or at least she’d thought so. They’d worked well together, hung out after work, become good friends. Then Jeff wanted to take the partnership somewhere she wasn’t comfortable going—the bedroom. Everything had gone downhill from there. The final straw came when he decided to take what he wanted. She’d fought back, practically ripping off his face in the process, something that earned her a reputation as a tease, a slut, and a ball breaker. Along with a brand new nickname—Poison Ivy.
After that, it was almost guaranteed her second partnership would start off on bad footing. And it had. Dave might not have wanted to get into her panties, but his open dislike for her had made working with him just as hard.
Ivy had begged John to give her someone from the FBI or CIA, someone who wasn’t another type A asshole. She’d even tried to talk him into pairing her up with another EVA. But the DCO didn’t pair up EVAs with other EVAs. That was department policy.
So, she was saddled with Landon, for better or worse. Hopefully for the better, given the way he’d handled himself during their sparring match.
That twisting takedown he’d used to end the match? She’d never seen anything like that. Clawing his chest hadn’t even distracted him from overpowering her. She smiled as she remembered the confusion on his face when she pointed out his shredded T-shirt.
She picked up her grocery bags and walked out of the store. The biggest surprise hadn’t been Landon’s reluctance to fight her because she was a woman, but her reaction to him as a man.
He looked better in uniform than any man had a right to. A military uniform, particularly the camouflage Army Combat Uniform, was cut to make all men look good, but on Landon it was downright criminal. The man was six-foot-four and built. When he’d pinned her against him, it had taken every bit of her self-control to stop from leaning over to lick him. She was completely comfortable with her animal side, but sometimes she felt as if someone else was in charge of her baser desires. Like back in that room when she’d been locked in Landon’s arms.
Regardless of her physical attraction to him, though, she was sure going to keep Landon at arm’s length. Even if department policy didn’t prohibit partners from getting romantically involved, there was no way she’d ever get friendly with a military grunt. He might seem nice now, but it wouldn’t last. Sooner or later, something would set him off and he’d go right back to being the asshole he probably was.
That unpleasant thought accompanied her home. A corner unit in a high-rise building with a view of downtown DC, the apartment was her sanctuary from the rest of the world. It was big and comfortable, and with the addition of various things she’d collected on her travels, she’d slowly made it feel more like home.
Her cell phone rang as she walked in
. Rather than try to extricate herself from the grocery bags to answer it, she let it go to voice mail, then checked her messages after she set the bags on the granite counter in the kitchen. There were four other messages in addition to the one she’d missed. She scrolled through them and groaned when she saw that three of them were from Clayne Buchanan, one of the other shifters at the DCO. He’d always been a good friend, but lately he’d made it obvious he wanted to be more than that. He was a great guy, and she wished she felt the same way about him, but she didn’t and was sure she never would. That didn’t stop him from trying to change her mind. She should call him back, but knew if she did, he’d read too much into it. She’d see him at the DCO tomorrow before she and Landon went to the training complex.
The fourth call was from Kendra.
“Hey, girl! You took off so fast after the admin briefing with Landon that I didn’t get a chance to talk to you, and I’m dying to know what you think about your new partner. God, what a hottie. Gotta love a man in uniform, huh? Anyway, call me.”
Ivy shook her head. As if she hadn’t noticed how gorgeous Landon was. Friend or not, she wasn’t going to call Kendra back, at least not right away. She was still mad at Kendra for not telling her ahead of time that her new partner was Special Forces.
The message she’d missed while juggling grocery bags was from her mom. She dialed her parents’ number, then turned on the speaker so she could talk while she put the groceries away. Her mother answered on the second ring.
“Ivy, dear! I’m so glad you called back.”
“Don’t I always?”
“Except when you’re on one of those trips you keep going on. I never know where you are.”
Ivy didn’t say anything. Her father had always shielded her mother from the dangers of his job as a police officer, and Ivy had found herself doing the same thing when she joined the DCO. Her mom didn’t know she risked her life for her country every day, or that Jeff had gotten the boot because he’d tried to rape her, or that Dave had been killed on a mission. And while her mother might suspect, Ivy knew her mom preferred to be blissfully ignorant.