Page 8 of Saved By the Marines (Soldiers Of Misfortune)

“For taking care of me last night. I appreciate you not letting my father find me like that.” Her cheeks heated and she licked her lips, causing me to shift my stance or risk having my erection show. “I don’t normally drink like that or anything. I just…”

“You don’t want to be here.”

She looked up at me in surprise. “No. I don’t.”

I nodded, but didn’t say anything else about that. “Be ready by noon tomorrow. There’s some kind of lunch thing your father is having us go to.”

Her smile was slow, but beautiful. “Thank you. I have the schedule. I’ll be ready.”

She turned and walked away and my self-control broke a bit as my eyes strayed down to her ass as she moved across the room. I was in such deep shit. We all were.

CHAPTER4

Jas

My back teeth ground together as I tried to pretend I wasn’t watching Bailey. She bothered the piss out of me. Sure, she was beautiful. Long flowing waves of dark hair and gorgeous green eyes were hard enough to miss, but she also had a pretty face and a deceivingly curvaceous body. Seeing her in that little swim suit out by the pool had me struggling to tuck my instant boner away before she spotted it.

Inwardly, I scoffed at myself. Getting hard over a twenty-two-year-old spoiled brat. What the fuck was wrong with me? If I was being honest, I’d been taking my shit mood out on her ever since we’d gotten here a couple weeks ago. Other than the pool and the night she’d gotten drunk, we just sort of stayed away from each other. She’d give Wolfe and Kip smiles and speak with them, but she avoided me like the plague. That pissed me off, too.

I’d been pissed ever since we’d gotten reassigned to babysitting duty. We were an elite unit trained to deal with terrorist threats and here we were watching a senator and his spawn. It was downright insulting. Senators were supposed to travel with Secret Service as their babysitters. Having Marines guard him, let alone Force Recon, was way beyond normal.

Wolfe and Kip didn’t seem to mind. My eyes strayed over to them. Wolfe had his usual stoic look on his face while Kip looked bored. Anger kept me spooled up, preventing boredom at least. I knew part of the reason they weren’t angry like me was the gorgeous woman we were watching. They both seemed fine to trail after her day in and day out. I had to admit she made the scenery more bearable. If we’d been stuck watching a bunch of old men we’d all be miserable.

I’d been on a team with these two men for so many years we knew how each other thought. Wolfe glanced over and arched a dark brow. It was his way of telling me to get over it and do my job. Most people mistook the three of us for brothers, but we weren’t actually related. They were the closest thing I had to family, though.

Leaving behind my alcoholic parents had been easy once I’d hit eighteen. The only one I kept in touch with was my brother. He’d raised me and had only left to find his own happiness once I was old enough to fend for myself.

I’d spent every holiday over at Wolfe’s parents’ place with my brother in arms since I was assigned to this unit nine years ago. Wolfe was thirty-three, three years older than me, while Kip was only twenty-eight. Despite our ages our team was one of the best. That’s what we’d been told when we’d been handed this assignment. The senator had asked for us specifically when he requested a detail to watch over him and his daughter during their summer in Colombia.

Kip winked at me, a grin playing across his lips and I shook my head. He was always so fucking happy. We could be hip deep in a firestorm of shit and he’d be smiling. It was annoying as fuck. Despite that, I loved the asshole. Both of them. Just like I knew they felt the same for me.

My eyes drifted back over to Bailey. She’d stepped off the plane in a full on rant, railing at her father about not wanting to be here. It had pretty much cemented my feelings about her. She was a spoiled, rich brat. Even though she’d been mostly quiet and contained after that first meeting, it’d stuck with me. The weeks that had passed had been pretty quiet and calm and I hoped they’d stay that way. We didn’t need anyone stirring up trouble.

She lifted a hand to her mouth, smothering a yawn. My eyes remained glued to her lips after she went back to scribbling on the notepad in front of her. They were red and plump and had me shifting my stance to once again hide my hardening dick because all I could think about was her wrapping them around my cock.

She was too fucking young and I didn’t even like her. Why couldn’t I seem to get her out of my head? I moved my hands down to cover the front of my BDU pants just in case any of the senator’s asshole advisors happened to glance over. Tucking my hard-on up under my belt would draw too much attention.

I needed to keep my mind off the gorgeous woman sitting only a few feet away. To distract myself, I listened to the men droning on about how Senator Michaels would win his seat in the upcoming election.

It did the trick, causing my errant dick to soften. I don’t know how long we stood there, didn’t bother to check my watch, but it felt like hours. Every one of these meetings, every event, felt like they took an eternity to conclude. They were boring as fuck.

Eventually, the men stood up, leaving Bailey sitting at the table as Senator Michaels escorted the men out of the embassy.

Wolfe passed by. “You watch her. We’ll be right back.”

Great.It was like he fucking knew the filthy thoughts running through my head and it was his way of tormenting me. Kip was on Wolfe’s heels as they followed after the men.

Silence spread between us and I was back to gritting my teeth as she flipped through her pages of notes. Her handwriting was a loopy scrawl that looked like she’d practiced for hours as a kid.

Sure had a different childhood than me.There hadn’t been mansions and pools and tutors in my past. I’d been lucky if there’d been bread and some peanut butter for me to pass off as my dinner.

Every one of my muscles tightened as she stood up. Her eyes landed on me and I had to shove the appreciation for her beauty far down so I could allow my irritation to remain on the surface. She was probably used to men fawning over her. I certainly wasn’t willingly adding myself to that list.

She blinked at me in surprise as I scowled at her. “We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot.” Her soft voice flowed over me like honey. “Maybe we could start over?” There was a hopeful look on her face.

That was goddamned dangerous. Allowing any sort of amicable feelings for her to build inside of me would only lead me further toward temptation. “Why?” Her face fell and I had to bite back the urge to apologize. Instead, I doubled down. It was very apparent—even to myself—that I was being a major dick to her, but I didn’t have any other choice. She was too fucking alluring. “I don’t need to be friends with a brat like you.”

“Jasper!” Wolfe barked.

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