Chapter 1
Happy trail: That sexy little strip of hair that runs from a man’s belly button to his waistband—towel…
I stared at the fluffy white barrier that blocked my eyes from traveling any further south. I’d enjoyed the scenic route, inhaled the hard ridges of his six pack abs and the way the drops of water trickled over his flesh while they took the path of least resistance. I just couldn’t stop myself. I knew I shouldn’t stare. I knew it was completely inappropriate to ogle the higher-ranking beef-cake, but I couldn’t stop. What woman in her right mind would be able to?
He cleared his throat and I suddenly remembered where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. I’d been ordered to the head to retrieve the EOD officer, who much to my surprise had just stepped out of the shower.
“I’m up here.”
Wasn’t that usually a female line? Heat rushed to my face and my gaze snapped up to the subject every naughty dream I’d had on the ship since I’d boarded. I opened my mouth and all that came out was silence. What was the appropriate thing to say in this situation?
Nice towel?
“Do you have a reason to be in here or do you always make a habit of hanging out in the male showers, lieutenant?”
Mortification: The sudden urge to run and dive under one’s bunk until the end of the tour of duty. “I have a reason.” If I could only remember what.
He brushed past and headed for his locker. I swallowed and turned around just in time to see him drop the towel. His bare ass stood before me, hard, tight and like the rest of his body—unbelievable. I grabbed the nearest object available to steady myself. The towel bar snapped off I slipped it behind my back.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Captain send you down here?”
I nodded. He returned his attention to the contents of his locker. I tossed the bar into the trash receptacle. If he heard the clunk or saw it, he gave no indication. Instead, he snatched his uniform out of his locker and began what I could only describe as a reverse strip tease. First his skivvies, then his pants. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I felt my face heat further.
“Well, spit it out. What does he want?”
“I don’t know. He…”
He turned around now dressed in his blue and grey camo pants, no shirt and that hot happy trail staring back at me again.
I swallowed and averted my gaze. “He said to hurry.”
“You don’t have any idea?” His voice slid over me like a tremor, shaking me where I stood in my heels. My pulse increased. Dear lord. I needed another towel bar. I glanced around in desperation. He slipped a boot on and threw his foot up on a bench, yanking the laces tight and tying it quickly.
“No, sir. He didn’t elaborate. He said to go to the male showers and drag you out by force if necessary,” I said and watched the way the muscles in his arms flexed. I seriously doubted there was any force that could move the man if he didn’t want to be moved. In retrospect I realized I sounded like an idiot, an idiot ready to combust. I clamped my teeth together; afraid my jaw would involuntarily drop open and let my tongue roll out.
He switched feet. “Tell me he’s finally got the help I asked for.”
I shook my head again. “I don’t think that’s it, sir. He specifically said to light a fire under you.” I’d lit a fire, but it wasn’t under him. I shifted on my feet.
Captain Rivers looked up and raised a brow. “A fire?”
“Yes, sir.”
He stood and grabbed his top, draping it over his shoulder. “Okay, let’s see what’s got the Captain’s shorts in a knot.”
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“How the fuck did we get a Betty attached to our hull?” The EOD officer spun around and paced back to a screen with a remote image. The disc-shaped, black object stuck to the hull certainly looked like a Betty. But then again, it wasn’t like we hadn’t had false alarms before and there was a possibility it could be something else.
“I only said it looks like a Betty.”
That comment earned the captain a nasty look from the EOD officer. I stood by the door, my arms behind my back waiting for the captain to relieve me. I’d been on duty for thirty-six hours and I was more than ready to hit my bunk, however neither man seemed to notice and it appeared they wouldn’t anytime soon. With nothing better to do, I couldn’t help but listen. I was cleared for access to classified information, so it wasn’t like it mattered if I eavesdropped.
Indeed, Captain Rivers had asked a good question. Since the Betty was a magnetic mine and the skin of our scoop was made up of a composite that was similar to ceramic tiles and those tiles overlaid another skin made of aluminum, a mine shouldn’t be stuck to the hull.
“You know what I found last time. If I go out there, it better damn well be a mine. You have maintenance to pull the other duty.”
Doody being the key word there. I shifted on my feet, feeling a little out of place with the whole conversation. I was an aide. I had nothing to do with the anything technical onboard the scoop and really just wanted to get out of the way. The conversation was heating up and it wasn’t looking good. I didn’t want to get caught between the two of them if they went at it again. Not a good place to be.
“Look, Tyson, I’m not sure it’s not a mine. I said it looks like one. I can’t take the chance it isn’t and send a mech out there. We can’t tell with the visual remote,” the captain said. “You’re looking at the same damn thing I am.”
“Jayson, if I get out there and find another party-patty from one of those cruise ships stuck to the side like a barnacle I’m not going to be happy. I’m an EOD officer, not a pooper scooper.”
Uh oh, first names. Not good. The last time the captain and the EOD officer got into one of their first name discussions, the captain pulled rank and put Tyson, the EOD officer, on kitchen duty. Tyson had been so pissed he’d intentionally burnt everything cooked in the galley that week.
It also didn’t help that they were brothers.
“I’m not asking you to scrape shit off the side of the ship. I’m asking you to make sure it’s not a mine.”
“If you’d gotten me the help I’d asked for two months ago we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Someone else would be out there scraping the shit off the side right now.”
“I told you it wasn’t in the budget.”
“And a skirt with a digital clipboard, following you all over this ship, is?” Tyson thrust a finger in my direction. I flinched and for the second time that day, fought the urge to run. It certainly killed my whole feeling of invisibility. I so didn’t want to be the new subject of discussion.
“I have to have an aide. I can’t keep up with all the paperwork and you know it.”
“And I suppose you want me to take a little space walk and pry the damned thing off the hull?”
“I’d like you to take a scooter and see what it is.”
“Well, I’m not doing this alone.” Tyson ran a hand through his hair and turned back to me. “I asked two months ago for another tech to help me on this rusty scoop. Now you’re going to have to give me one of yours. I need someone to fly the scooter.”
“I don’t have anyone I can spare.”
“Bullshit. You don’t need her. She’ll do.”
I swallowed and shot the commander a pleading look. I glanced down at my dress skirt and high heeled shoes, trying to draw his attention to the fact I wasn’t really the type his brother needed for this pooper-scooper mission.
“She’s an aide, not a pilot.”
“You want me to take a scooter,” Tyson growled. “It’s a one man vessel. If I’m going to have my arms free to deal with a potential bomb, I want someone at the controls keeping the damned craft steady. She’s small, she’ll fit and she’s from the academy so she knows how to fly.”
“Fine. Take her.”
My mouth dropped open. Did the captain just throw me under the bus? This wasn’t happening. I was his aide, not a scooter jockey. This really wasn’t funny. I cleared my throat. “Sir…”
Both men turned on me and glared. I snapped my mouth shut.
“Change into your utilities and I’ll see you on the dock in five,” Tyson said.
“Yes, sir.” I ran from the helm. Not pausing to catch my breath until I was three decks up and in my quarters. What the hell had I gotten myself into? Fly a scooter. Was he insane? Okay, scratch that, he was EOD. They were all crazy.
How was I supposed to focus on flying something I hadn’t touched since graduating the academy two years ago and with that man so close to me? I bit my nail and stared at the door to my quarters. I could probably handle it if I wasn’t going to be in such tight quarters with him packed behind me. Having seen him naked minutes before didn’t help my nerves any.
I shouldn’t get so shook up over the fact he’d been in the buff in front of me. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen a naked man before. In the academy everything was una-sex from the head, to our quarters and even our training. Granted the showers had segregated stalls for modesty’s sake and my prudish self had always waited for the crowd to shower and leave the head before I ventured into the facilities. Because of my caution, I’d actually only walked up on one male cadet dressing and he sure as hell hadn’t looked like Captain Please-Slather-Whip-Cream-On-Me-And-Do-Naughty-Things.
No, no, I couldn’t squeeze into the scooter with CPSWCOMADNT. I just couldn’t. How was I going to get out of this situation?
I was so screwed.
Then again, I’d been ordered and the alternative would be worse. I wasn’t about to piss the captain off by refusing.
Okay, I could do this—had to do this. I shook off the nervousness. I really didn’t have a choice. He’d pulled rank, saw my butter bar and raised me two silver bricks. The one thing you didn’t do out here in the icebox was to disobey an order, so I changed, grabbed my pack and headed for the docking bay.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Target word count: Undecided--20,000 novella or 60,000 - 70,000 novel
Flavor: Military science fiction romance
Status: First draft WIP
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Fabulous premise and everytime I read that "Nice towel" line I have to laugh. Great beginning. Hope to read more in the future.
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