Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 90315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“Go!”
I make it through each obstacle—swinging through hanging rings, climbing over walls, crawling under rope webs, the whole thing—with Lena running beside me, watching raptly.
When I ring the bell at the end, she stops the watch and lifts an eyebrow.
“Seven minutes, fifty-six seconds.”
“Your turn.” I’m out of breath, but damn, it feels good. Sometimes, I come out here and run the course over and over again for exercise.
“I don’t want to.”
“Don’t care.” I cross my arms over my chest, unmoving. “Let’s go. We don’t have all day, Lena.”
Her brows pull together for just a heartbeat, and then she firms her chin and moves to stand in front of the tires.
I hate how nervous she looks.
“Every time you give up, you start back at the beginning.”
“Okay, hard-ass.”
“Just spelling it out for you.”
“How long are we doing this?”
“Until you’re able to get through it all and finish.”
“So for several months, then. You’re going to get tired, Sergeant.”
“That’s lieutenant. Stop stalling. Go!”
She runs through the tires without a problem.
“Take your time through those tires.”
She flips me off, and it makes me grin.
She’s so fucking adorable.
But when she gets to the rings, where she has to hang and move hand over hand to the other side, she falls.
“Back to the start.”
“Fuck.”
Three more times, she gets to the rings and falls in the middle, so I step over to her to give her some tips.
“Use your legs when you’re swinging,” I tell her, demonstrating. “You want to use the momentum to move, so you’re suspended in the air and taking some weight off your hands.”
She’s listening, watching me, her face hard with concentration.
Finally, she nods and goes back to the beginning to try again.
This time, when she gets to the rings, she gets to the end, and she looks shocked as shit.
“Don’t stop. Keep going.”
She runs over to the wall, where she has to use a thick rope to climb. First, she rubs her palms down her leggings, then she grabs the rope, and to my surprise, she climbs it easily and is over in seconds.
“Good job.”
She doesn’t answer as she runs to crawl under the rope web, immediately dropping down and shimmying under, her front pressed to the dirt below as she maneuvers through.
“This wasn’t built for women with boobs,” she mutters before she manages to wiggle out the other side and runs to the balance beam.
“Easy.”
Her adrenaline is too high, and she falls off the middle of the beam.
“Goddamn it.”
“Back to the start.”
“I hate you.”
I’m crazy about her.
Chapter Sixteen
Lena
This. Fucking. Sucks.
My legs feel like they’re going to give out on me, but I’ll be damned if I’ll say something to the asshole barking orders.
No way will I admit that he’s pushed me too far.
Or that I want to punch him.
This is not the man who said sweet things in my ear while he fucked me and kissed me awake this morning.
No, the drill sergeant is back, and I don’t like him.
“Back to the beginning,” he barks when I fall from the rings again.
My lungs burn, my hips ache. My hands feel like the skin is going to split open from all the hanging and climbing ropes.
Rather than flipping him the bird or telling him off, I’ve gone silent. I won’t even look at him now. I’ll do what I’m told, and when we get back to the house, I’ll take a hot shower and then sketch.
Or die.
“Lena.”
I shake my head and stand by the tires.
“Lena.”
“Just tell me to go.”
Suddenly, his fingers grip my chin, and he makes me look up at him. His eyes are hard, his jaw firm.
“What’s wrong?” he asks in that growly voice.
“Nothing. Let’s do this.”
“Lena.” I hear the warning, but I don’t really care.
“We don’t have all day, remember?”
He sighs. “Talk to me, Rebel. I know you too well, and something’s wrong.”
My chest softens with his voice, and now I want to cry.
I will absolutely not cry.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.”
“Stop it.” I tug out of his grasp, making him scowl, but I don’t really care. I pace away from him and unzip my hoodie, toss it aside. It’s cold out here, but I’ve been running my ass off, literally, and I’m a sweaty mess. “You’re confusing the shit out of me, Gideon.”
“Why?”
“You’re sweet and sexy in the house, and as soon as we get out here, you’re back to being a bossy jerk, barking orders, with that scowl on your face.”
“We’re working out here.”
“Right.”
“This is how I treat all trainees.”
I don’t want him to treat me like everyone else.
And I don’t want his hard attitude, or his stern face.
I want the sweet affection back, because I haven’t had it in so long and it feels like heaven.
“I can’t go easy on you out here,” he continues, “because you learning this stuff could be the difference between life and death.”
“Yes, I can see how being unable to walk a balance beam could mean my demise.”