Page 1 of Attraction

Chapter 1

Moon Phase: Full

Folding her arms across her chest, Kat leans against the door to the office, watching as the thick-set muscular stranger in uniform searches the drawers of her desk. “Master Chief, you are aware this is a restricted area, so you probably shouldn’t be in here?” She frowns, as he ignores her and continues his search. “Sorry, but are you looking for something in particular or just re-styling the office?”

Removing some of the leather-bound books from the shelf—books she unpacked only an hour ago. He looks up and grunts. “The keys to the medical store. They should be in that file cabinet, but they’re not there.” He throws another book on the floor where it lands, face down, splayed open. “I don’t suppose you’d know anything about that?”

Kat puts her hand on her hip as she dangles the keys on the end of her index finger. “These…?”

“Give them here!” he demands, making a grab for them.

Shaking her head, she refuses and quickly snatches them away. “Alexandria’s-Genesis.” She smiles. “Your eyes—I couldn’t help but notice. They’re violet. It’s a medical condition called Alexandria’s Genesis. Well, some people say they’re gray and that it’s just a trick of the light. Me… I prefer to go with rare genetics.”

She smiles; He doesn’t. Instead, he holds his hand out and again demands the keys.

Holding them behind her back, Kat again refuses. “Tell me why you want them first.”

“I need some things from the medical store.”

“Some things?” She frowns. “Such as?”

“That’s none of your fuckin’ business. Now, just give me the damn keys or I’ll have you removed from this base.”

Irritated by his arrogant and frankly rude tone, she sighs. “I doubt you can actually do that. Nonetheless, the answer is still no. Look, if you need some supplies, then just write me a list and I’ll get whatever you want.”

“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” He laughs, lip curled in arrogant disbelief that she would refuse him. “I am not writing any damn list. Just give me the keys, now!”

She shakes her head and defiantly drops them into the side pocket of her khaki pants.

Provoked, he looks her in the eye for the first time since the beginning of their exchange. “Who the fuckareyou?” He frowns, his eyes tracing a line from her face to her feet, taking her in. She’s slim, five-foot-nine, with large breasts and long blond hair which is tied in a neat bun on top of her head.

His aggressive tone bothers her. But careful not to show it, she takes a deep breath and answers: “Morgan… Lieutenant Katrina Morgan.”

“Morgan?” He scowls, remembering the name. “Christ… they really did send a woman. Well, no way, no fucking way is this happening.” He grunts and shoves past her in the doorway.

“Nice to meet you, too.” She sighs as an inexplicable coldness sends a shudder down her spine, and the hairs on her arms bristle. The encounter wasn’t exactly the greeting she’d hoped for when she arrived. Unsure what to do next, she closes the door.

Now alone in the office, she takes the keys from her pocket and places them on the desk beside her laptop. Then, looking down, she notices a leather-bound book lying by her chair—Dr. Cunard’s Herbal Medicine and The Occult.It’s one of the books he’d discarded during his search and with no consideration to its value, he’d tossed to the floor. Picking the book up, she carefully returns it to the empty slot on the shelf, and then dragging her chair from under the desk, sits down.

* * *

“Ten minutes,” she sighs, her reading distracted by the raised voices in the room adjoining hers. A door slams and she looks up, listening as heavy boots clump on the polished floor outside her office.

“Fuck!” she curses, closing the lid of her laptop. Then, pushing the chair back, she stands up as the door to her office is thrown wide open. The doorway filled by the solitary figure of a man—Master Chief Jackson, the same man who fifteen minutes ago was searching her office

“Do you know what I want?” He commands, “I want you to pack all this shit up and then get the fuck out!”

“You want me to get out?” She frowns, finding his forceful aggression slightly alarming. “Can I ask why?”

“Why? … Because I said so that’s why. Now… take all this crap andget the hell out!” he orders, gesturing his hand towards the books and collectibles on the shelf—including a unique and unusual silver dagger. “What in God’s name is all this stuff?” He sighs. “Actually, you know what… I don’t care, just pack it up and get gone. Oh, but before you do, give me the goddamn keys to the store.”

“Sorry, but I can’t do that. I’d need to speak with Commander Edwards first. He said if I had any problems that I was to report to him and now… well, it would seem I have a problem.”

“Don’t worry yourself about Edwards, he’ll speak to you in due course. Now…” He picks up the empty cardboard box and starts packing it with books from the shelf. “I said, get the fuck out!”

“Uh, please… can you leave the books alone?” she asks politely. “Some are first-editions and very rare.” Again, he ignores her and continues aggressively throwing books into the box. “Master Chief Jackson… Please stop!”

Her recognition of him by name forces Jackson into a wry smile. Turning around, he faces her. “Oh, so you do know who I am then?”

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