Page 13 of Protected By The Green Berets

They ignored the looks the women were giving them, instead, chatting amongst themselves. I listened in, but didn’t contribute, because it was taking all my willpower to keep my body moving and to keep from wheezing. I’d suffocate before I admitted to them that they were kicking my ass.

Sweat dripped down their bodies, plastering black shirts to their torsos and giving me even more defined muscles to stare at.

At least the view isn’t bad.It was only a small consultation to my torment.

Green eyes met mine as Keller turned around—running backward like a show off. “How you doing, Princess?” His tone was smug. He knew he was killing me back here.

“Fine,” I gritted out between clenched teeth. We’d just passed mile three. The other women had given up and left after a mile. Something I desperately wished I could do as well.

His smile got bigger. “Looking a little red in the face,” he observed.

My cheeks heated even more as I tried to hold back my anger. Where was the sweet man from last night? I knew I hadn’t dreamed him up, but the guy running before me was nothing like him.

“Looking a little small in the dick,” I retorted, eyeing the front of his pants with a grimace on my face.

That wiped the smirk off his face real quick. His eyes narrowed and without another word he turned back around. I wasn’t sure whether I should cheer my victory, or groan because he’d made me lose my temper again.

Antagonizing him wasn’t going to help me out in the long run, but I just couldn’t seem to help myself. He pissed me off so I let him have it, then I went back to trying to keep myself under control. Worse, I looked forward to the next time he would antagonize me. In a way it was almost fun, like a game of wits to see who could insult the other better. I liked to think this point went to me.

I’d never been very good about sitting back and letting bullies talk. I’d punched a boy in the second grade because of that. If Keller wasn’t careful I’d end up doing the same to him.

The grim thought gave me a measure of comfort as we finished up the four miles. After crossing the line, I walked over to the grass and flopped down on my back.

“Don’t do that.”

My arms were covering my face, shading my eyes from the sun that’d started heating everything up around us while we ran. I moved them and looked up at Alden in surprise. He was voluntarily speaking to me.

He must have read the question on my face. “Don’t lay down. It’ll take you longer to recover and will be harder to get back up. Stand up and walk around.”

He was crazy. I didn’t care if it took longer to recover, it felt good to lay down. His huge hand appeared in front of my eyes, offering to help me up.

Pouting to myself a little, I took it and stood back up. My lungs were on fire. The guys were sweating, but they weren’t chugging air like a train the way I was.

“Walk,” Alden ordered, shoving a water bottle into my hands.

I did, just to get him off my back. I was sweaty, red-faced—as Keller had so kindly pointed out—and wanted to go sit down on the bleachers nearby.

Instead, I walked over when Keller called out. “One hundred reps of sit-ups, then push-ups, then switch,” he told Alden.

The other three laid down and started doing sit-ups with no one holding their feet. They were racing to see who could finish first. I was horrified and disgusted that they seemed to be taking pleasure in this.

“You first,” Alden told me and knelt on the ground.

I stared down at him, my mind conjuring up all kinds of wicked thoughts of what I could do first. He looked up at me and raised a brow.

Scrambling down, I laid on my back while he rested his hands on my feet, holding them down. I made it to seventy sit-ups before I flopped back in the grass, huffing. If you had asked me yesterday if I thought I was in good shape, I’d have said yes. Today, I wasn’t so sure.

“Good,” he told me. His tone held a note of approval and I couldn’t help the way it spiraled through me, warming me. I liked his praise. “You’re in good shape, Z.”

I was? Oh thank God. Because I was dying trying to keep up with them. I gave him a tentative smile.

“You still have thirty more,” he reminded me, wiping the smile from my face.

Torque stood and came to stand next to Alden. The others had long since finished their set. I remembered Keller mentioning something about one hundred of each exercise and one of pull-ups. There was no way in hell I’d make it through all those.

“I’ll take over so you can do your set Alden,” Torque told him. For once there wasn’t a smile on the man’s face. They stared at each other, almost like they were communicating silently, then Alden nodded and moved off to do his own sit-ups.

Torque’s hands planted my feet to the ground. “Okay. Thirty to go. Prove you belong here.”

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