Page 52 of Protected By The Green Berets

“There’s a village nearby, the Agency has a stash house prepared.” I told Keller. “If you wanted somewhere we could hole up for a day or two.”

“Fuck yes,” Torque said, walking over.

Keller frowned. “We should go after Roj now.”

“A day or two isn’t going to hurt,” Alden replied, tone thoughtful. “It’d give us a chance to scout out his compound.”

“Not to mention having somewhere safe to sleep while we did,” Rush added. “Roj is on high alert right now. We just hit his men, word will have gotten back to him. Let's give him a day or two to relax and get complacent. Then we can do as Alden said, scout his compound and develop a real plan.

They all looked at me. I pulled out a map of the country from my bag. It was the same map Rafe had drawn on. I pointed at the southern circle. “His compound is here,” I reminded them. My finger trailed over the paper in a northeastern direction and stopped when I found the landmark I was looking for. “The cabin is here.”

“Cabin?” Torque asked.

“The cabin, it’s what we call the stash houses. They weren’t literal cabins, just buildings that the Agency would have fortified and left some provisions in. Brandon showed me where all the stash houses were.”

“Lying low for a day or two might make them drop their guard,” Alden added, glancing over at Keller.

“Or it’ll make Roj paranoid,” Keller said with a sigh. “I suppose he’s already paranoid though. Fine. We’ll stay at Z’scabin. So that we can scout out Roj’s stronghold,” he added when Torque whooped with happiness. Keller clearly wasn’t thrilled about stopping, but with the rest of us voting in favor of it, he relented.

“You act like this isn’t what you do every mission,” I said to Torque with a laugh.

He shrugged. “You have to take whatever comforts you can when they come up. There won’t be many during this trip.”

We packed up and set out once more, heading toward the cabin Brandon had told me about.

CHAPTER23

Keller

Iwas a fucking idiot. I’d lost my cool last night and kissed her. It felt like I was off balance now and it was a feeling I hated. I felt Zinnia’s eyes on me as Rush and I searched the cabin to make sure there was no one in there. It was clear.

She had the upper hand. We both knew there was no way I’d kiss her if I wasn’t interested. My body was fully on board with more of the kissing and the petting. It was my mind that was balking. I doubted I was much of a mystery to her anymore.And why should that be a bad thing? You want her. Why does this have to be a battle?

We unloaded all our supplies, stacking the extras along the wall inside. We were all grateful to have a place to rest.

Night was fully upon us again and we’d traveled for hours to reach this spot near Najaf. Roj’s southern stronghold was west of the city, out in the desert, if Rafe’s intel had been correct. I had a feeling it was. We were closing in and soon The Lion would be in captivity. Or better, in the ground.

We were all tired and hungry. Stopping and catching our breath had been a good plan. This way we would be in top shape when we attacked. We ate a quick dinner, then went inside to get more sleep. Theoretically, we were safe here at Zinnia’s safehouse. No one knew where we were and these things were used all the time. They were inconspicuous to the locals for just that reason. Yesterday in the tent I’d only dozed. I hated not having a guard posted, but we’d all needed the sleep.

The cabin was a place on the outskirts of Najaf. It had one large room that consisted of the kitchen, a bathroom—that had a door—and zero furniture. No one would call it extravagant, or even cozy, but it would do for now.

We laid out all our bedrolls and blankets, creating a nest in the middle of the floor that we could all share. I listened to my teammates argue over who’s turn it was to sleep next to Zinnia. Rolling onto my side, I tuned them out and fell asleep.

* * *

My eyes opened slowly.I wasn’t sure what had woken me, so I listened, ears straining in the dark. A quick gasp made me nearly groan. These assholes were at it again. They were worse than rabbits.

The sound of someone kissing Zinnia filled the air and I debated on trying to go back to sleep. Knowing it wasn’t going to be possible, because every time I closed my eyes it just amplified the sounds. I resigned myself to another night of aching balls. They were going to be blue by the time this mission was finished.

I shifted until I could get a view of the show. If they were going to fuck with me in the same room, I was going to watch. They’d given up all expectations of privacy. Alden had his hand around her neck, pinning her to the floor as he made out with her.

She was vocal. I liked that. Hearing that you were pleasing the woman you were with was a big turn on for me. If you couldn’t satisfy the woman you were fucking, you had no business fucking her at all.

Alden wasted no time, slipping down her body, letting his lips and tongue pause at her breasts before continuing on. He’d shoved the tiny little shirt she’d been wearing up and it pooled above her tits. He didn’t bother stripping the little shorts off her. The clothes she wore to bed were going to be the death of me. They bared more of her sexy body than they hid.

His mouth covered her cotton clad pussy and she gasped, arching up to add more pressure where she needed it most. She hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her shorts, irritation stamped all over her features. She wanted to feel his lips and tongue on her skin, not through the layers of cotton she wore. I liked her desperation, but I knew my cousin wasn’t about to let her get away with that.

Sure enough, Alden clamped his hands over her wrists, preventing her from pulling them down. “You feeling a little frustrated, Mouse?” he asked in a low voice.

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