Page 8 of Protected By The Green Berets

One dark brow arched and he grinned at me. “Is that so?”

I muttered a curse under my breath when I realized I’d inadvertently included myself in that statement. “Get the fuck out of here.”

His deep laughter echoed down the hall as he left me to brood over the fact that I was being forced to be around this woman and couldn’t even touch her.

CHAPTER4

Zinnia

It was so damn hard to bite my tongue. I’d ended up failing and snapping back at Keller. Both he and Alden were making it perfectly clear that they didn’t want me here. He was doing so verbally. The other…I peeked over at Alden as he caught up to me in the hall.

Huffing softly, I looked forward again and kept walking. I wasn’t sure why he was bothering to walk with me. If I hadn’t heard him speak earlier, I’d think he was mute. Torque and Rush had hurried off as soon as Keller ended the briefing. I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do with myself.

I was still determined to remain professional, though Keller was testing my ability to do so. Not to mention the rest of the team thought professionalism was a mere suggestion. “Is there something I should be doing right now?” I asked Alden.

He glanced over at me, looking like he’d rather lick the ass end of a rattlesnake than speak to me. “It’s lunch time. We’re going to the chow hall. Team eats together.”

The meeting had taken a few hours to get through and now it was late morning. If it was lunch time I could only guess that breakfast was served around six or seven. Of course, my day had started at three A.M., so any meal would be welcomed right now.

The look on Alden’s face was pure irritation and I wasn’t sure if it was because he was taking me to lunch, or because I was here in the first place. Maybe a bit of both. Deciding to have a little fun with him, I fluttered my lashes at him. “Our first date.”

That made his steps falter and he looked over at me in surprise. I couldn’t help but laugh at the shock on his face. Again, I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d rather toss me over a cliff than date me, or because the idea wasn’t as unpleasant to him as he was trying to make it seem. It was going to be fun to find out. At least he didn’t insult me every time he opened his mouth.

We walked into the chow hall and I let Alden take the lead. Following him over to a line, I stood behind him and admired the strong lines of his back. His uniform shirt—they called it a blouse—was tight fitting and didn’t hide much. Most of the uniforms were big on the men and women swarming around us as they got their meals and found seats in the busy cafeteria. I had a feeling they had a hard time finding shirts to fit this guy.

I smiled at the worker behind the buffet who was placing the food we chose onto our trays. “Thank you.”

She was an older woman who was beaming at everyone who passed by. “Yer welcome dear,” she sang out.

I grabbed my tray and turned, only to find Alden studying me with an unreadable expression on his face. “What?”

“Nothing. Come on.” He stalked across the room—all grace and anger—until he found an empty table.

Sitting down across from him, I picked up my silverware and looked around. Men and women—the men outnumbered the women by far—were chatting and laughing. It created a low buzz inside the large building.

I focused back on my companion. “Tell me about yourself, Alden.”

He paused from where he’d started shoveling food into his mouth. He may have a certain grace to his movements, but he ate like a heathen. “Like what?” he mumbled once he’d swallowed. At least he had some manners.

“What’s your last name?”

His eyes narrowed on my face, but he begrudgingly replied, “King.”

My brows shot up and I sat up a little straighter. “As in Keller King? Brothers?”

“Cousins,” he grunted and started stuffing potatoes into his mouth again.

“Cousins,” I mused. It made sense. They actually looked quite a bit alike. Both dark Gods. Keller was like Ares, the God of War while Alden resembled Hades, the God of the Underworld. Their personalities seemed to fit as well.

“How long have you been-”

“Hey, Sweetheart.” Torque plopped down beside me, shaking the bench so hard I feared I’d fall off.

“Hi,” I responded. He had burst into our meeting and taken my breath away. He had light brown hair and honey brown eyes. If I’d thought Keller was handsome he had nothing on Torque. They were opposites in every way, one dark, one light, and yet both were appealing. Who was I kidding? All four of these men could drop a pair of panties at twenty paces.

My body tingled as Torque reached over and brushed his fingers over the back of my neck, underneath my hair. It tingled. I’d never had reactions to a man the way I had to these four guys. That was going to make working with them a problem. How was it possible to be so attracted to them all?

Spend a decade surrounded by pencil pushers, that's how.

---