Page 104 of Daddy, Sir

She finished the alphabet, and when he didn’t tell her to stop, she went through it all over again. When she hit Zulu for thesecond time, he told her to get up. There was a brief moment of relief, but he wasn’t finished with her.

For ten minutes he had her running sprints to the end of the range and back. Burpees followed, and she absolutely hated those, but every time she complained, he’d threaten to add more. Eventually she shut up and did what she was told, with sweat streaming down her face and every muscle aching from the punishing workout.

They used the full hour, and Oliver didn’t call a halt until the Colonel came in to remind them. His cold gray eyes swept over her without expression and then settled on Oliver. “I’m locking up in five minutes, so you need to wrap things up.” If he felt any pity for Jamie, it didn’t show in his voice.

“Yes, Sir. We’re just finishing up now. Corporal, you can stop.”

Jamie collapsed in a heap, panting. She was probably supposed to go to attention, or salute, or something, but she didn’t think she could move. No one called her on it.

Oliver let her lie there for exactly two minutes, and she knew that because he said so. “Okay, you’ve had two minutes to rest. Get up and grab your stuff, so I can drive you home.”

Jamie groaned and pushed up onto her knees. Standing was agony; everything hurt, but as much as she wanted to mutter things under her breath about it, she was not willing to risk any more trouble.

Oliver seemed to sense that, and his lips were curved into a slight smirk as he followed her outside and down to the senior parking lot. His battered green hatchback was parked all the way at the end, and the walk seemed to take an eternity on her shaky legs.

She’d never been so grateful to sit down, even though the muscles in her ass and thighs hurt from the burpees. “Uh, wejust going to sit here all night?” she asked, when he showed no sign of pulling out.

“Seatbelt.” He flicked a glance at her and waited.

Oh, right.She’d forgotten what a stickler he was about safety. She sighed and clicked the shoulder strap into place.

Neither of them had much to say as he pulled out and pointed them toward home. But the silence could only stretch out for so long. “I can’t believe you were so mean.”

“I can’t believe you were such a brat that it was necessary.” His tone was mild, maybe even amused.

“I’mnota brat.”

“Really? Couldn’t prove it by me. Here I am with a whole battalion of people listening to me and doing what they’re told. And then there’s you… showing me zero respect and making a show with your eyerolling and huffing every time I give you an order. How do you think that looks to the other cadets? How do you think that makes me feel?”

Jamie hadn’t really thought about any of that. She shifted in her seat as the guilt washed over her.

“And I’ve noticed you don’t do it to the other officers,” he added, as he pulled the car onto their street. “Why is that?”

“The other officers wouldn’t let…” She trailed off, wincing as she suddenly got the point.

“They wouldn’t put up with it. Exactly. Well, you’ve used up all your free passes. From now on there won’t be any easy road for you. Every time you act up, you’ll be dealing with me.”

A whooshing sensation rolled through her. Something about the way he’d made the threat, no, the promise, made her feel weird. “I guess that’s fair.”

He pulled the car over in front of her house and put it in park. “Does that mean you’re going to behave?”

She snuck a look at him. “Maybe. I don’t know.” She unbuckled her seatbelt and started to get out, but then stoppedand slumped back in the seat. “I know I’ve been pushing you. I can’t really explain why.”

He thought about it for a minute. “Showing off because you think you’ll get away with it?”

“No, I don’t think so.” If anything it was the opposite.

“Well, judging by how you’ve been with me… I’d say maybe you’re just not cut out for ROTC, but when I watch you with your unit and the other officers, you actually do pretty well. You even seem to enjoy it.”

“I do. I only joined because of you.” Might as well admit that, since it wasn’t much of a secret. “And getting out of gym was nice too, but there are parts of it I really enjoy. I like the structure and the rules. It’s way better than I thought it was going to be.”

He drew in a deep breath, tapping his fingers on the wheel. “So, it’s just me then? Is it too hard taking orders from a friend?”

She shook her head firmly. “No.”

“Well, help me out here, Jamie. If we’re going to fix this, I need to know what the issue is.”

She really just wanted to drop it and go inside, but two things stopped her. First, it was the longest they’d spent together, just the two of them, in ages, and she wasn’t willing to end it. Second, shedidwant to fix things.

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