Blackout

Chapter 9

Location: Imaia

Code Name: Blackout.

Time:  09:00 hrs International Time

The sweat drops running down Blue’s face were boulder sized. It served him right. The clown thought he could do whatever he pleased? Inviting Max to have coffee? Bringing her to my camp? Offering her my coffee? And not telling me in advance? The boy had bigger balls than what I gave him credit for. I looked at Judge and the man nodded, adding another weight to the set of lifting weights I’ve ordered Blue to exercise with. Blue’s eyes widened when he saw Judge fix the bar’s weight but the fucktard was smart enough to not say a word.

The rest of my men were scattered around the makeshift gym we had built to work in whenever we were between missions. My eyes darted between Bell and Tower, then Reptile and Ghost, gossiping like a bunch of old ladies while they lifted weights and whispered. I knew they were talking about Max. They had been at it since the moment the women had left the main tent of our camp. I didn’t know what had transpired between my men and Max but I had enough of it.

“Attention!” I yelled and waited until they all formed a line and stood in attentiveness. I started pacing before my men, staring at them with a clenched jaw, “From now on, there’s no more inviting civilians to our camp without me knowing. There’s no more coffee breaks without me knowing and no laughing with civilians inside my camp without me knowing. Is that clear?”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“Who had the bright idea of inviting the doctor over?” Blue had been the messenger, but not the mastermind behind the charade. I knew my men like the palms of my hands. There were only two men that had power convincing the others to do s**t when I wasn’t around. Ghost wouldn’t care about Max enough to try to get to know her. My eyes zeroed on Judge and sure enough I saw him swallow, his Adam apple visibly sliding up and down. I took one step closer to the group and folded my arms, lifting an eyebrow at Judge, “Captain Connor, report!”

“Sir, yes, Sir! Report: I wanted to get intel on the civilian, sir! She doesn’t harbor bad intentions, sir! Safe to approach, sir! End of report!”

Judge’s distrust over people was like his own personal cancer. It stemmed from the fact he had lost too much in the last couple of years. The s**t the man had seen and experienced was enough to make any of us doubt all the strangers that got too close. Given the recent change in our numbers I knew for a fact he would have an issue with the new doctors coming to the medical unit. I never thought he would make it that personal, to invite Max over and get a read of her. He had only tried to keep the men and myself safe, I gave him that, the only damn issue he hadn't counted on was the f*****g unyielding possession I felt over the doctor.

I’ve seen her there, surrounded by men and smiling at them and I’ve seen red. I’ve never had that kind of reaction towards any other woman. Max was different though. She had impressed me. She kept doing it constantly. She was the only woman I’ve ever met who believed in marriage. The only woman that was saving herself to her future husband, showing the bastard a trust and respect I couldn’t help but to be jealous of. And the fact that she was the type of doctor to volunteer and travel all the way to an island like Imaia floored me. She was impressive. The type of woman that would make a man very proud one day. 

That thought, far from putting s**t in perspective, only riled me up. I f*****g knew I would never be the man for her. She was a doctor, I was a soldier. Our paths were diametrically opposites. She wanted to get married. I could only share one night’s stands. The woman was everything I couldn’t have. Seeing her surrounded by men shouldn’t make me want to kill them all. Even if said bastards were my brothers in arms. I still wanted to kill them slowly, like pigs roasting at a nice, crispy fire. I couldn’t have that s**t going on in my camp. Max made it abundantly clear last night. She didn’t even want to be associated with me and I got that. s**t, I respected her even more for that. 

I still thought about her though. I liked her. I wanted to f**k her now more than that first night I met her. I could persuade her, chase her out and make this a game of wills. Breaking and corrupting her would have been the type of chase I would have been into years ago. Not anymore. Not with her. She wasn’t the type of woman a man like me could bed once and get her outta my system. I’ve seen enough, f****d a lot of women to know how to recognize a real prize. Max was the prize. A prize I wanted badly but couldn’t have without compromising my lifestyle. 

There was a lot I could do about that itch. I could bed other women. I’ve already received six open invitations to share a night with six different nurses from the medical team. I could ask for different missions to be away from Imaia and give us both time and space to forget about our mutual attraction. I wanted to do none of that. Right then I was controlling myself, holding the impulse of searching her out and playing with that forbidden fruit she kept swinging in front of me. 

As if conjured out of my thoughts Max ran inside the tent right then. She was breathless, looking deliciously spent. I calculated there was only a couple of meters from the medical base to the military camp but the woman was out of breath, blushing and obviously tired. The f**k? How could she stay in shape and be this bad at exercising? She  tried to speak between her panting, holding her narrow waist and then facing me.

“My patient...disappeared,” she said, gulping and speaking with her mouth wide open. Hmm, the things I wanted to do to that mouth. Starting by biting that lower lip of hers. It was plump and thick, begging to be sucked and f****d. Max frowned then, calming her breathing enough to speak without panting, “Have any of you seen him? The boy with the blue eyes. The one that was shot.”

“Sir! Permission to speak, sir!” asked Tower, making me narrow my eyes at him. Well, well, well. Look at that, he had spent hours training at my side this morning and hadn’t opened his damn mouth. Max only needed to step in and suddenly he wanted to share his thoughts? f*****g amazing. I clenched my jaw and gave him permission to speak. Tower nodded and started speaking, “I saw him leaving the camp this morning, sir. The guards at the front gates let him pass through, sir. Everyone thought he had been released from the medical unit, sir.”

“That wasn’t the case…” she said, a line forming between her eyebrows, “Dr. Spencer didn’t sign his release form. He needs to get one last vaccine before being in the clear.”

“Is he in danger of contracting an infection?” I asked and Max nodded, looking nervous. I’ve never seen her nervous. Not even when held at gunpoint. It was cute that she got this moved with her patients. Cute. I frowned. I’ve never thought about a woman being cute before. Hot, f**k yes. Fuckable, sure. Cute, hell no.

“I need to go after him,” Max started leaving the tent but not before I stopped her. I took her small hand, stilling her for one moment. An entire moment. Our eyes met and I could tell the woman could feel the same damn need I was feeling right now. To move closer, to get her in my arms and kiss the hell out of her. She had small hands, with tiny, thin fingers  and very short nails that she kept sparkly clean. It shouldn’t be a sight that could get me hard, but those hands, right then, enveloped by my much bigger ones had me fighting a f*****g boner.

Shit. s**t. f**k. I couldn’t even think straight. My d**k was in control and all it wanted was to get closer to Max. Grinding my teeth I started moving. It was either that or kissing her right there, in front of my men and everyone else to see.

“You are not allowed to leave the camp without an escort,” I said cuttingly, grabbing her hand tighter and moving ahead of her, “Come on. I will take you to your patient.”

“Give me one second to grab my medical bag,” she asked me and I nodded, following her fine ass with my eyes until she was out of sight. Damn. That was a fine ass. I shook my head, focusing on reaching a humvee and trying to think objectively.

Fuck ton of help did that.

What does a man need to do nowadays to get his damn head back in the game?