Page 58 of Under Fire

“Fine. I need to meet her.”

“Not happening,” Warren concluded, shaking his head.

“You aren’t bringing her to the wedding today?”

Warren knew there was only one right answer, so he remained silent.

The master chief continued, “You’re not going to tell me that you aren’t planning on going. These men, your crew—they are good guys. They need to see you show up. This isyourplatoon. You have to set the tone for morale.”

“I don’t do weddings.”

“You are today. Bring her. It’ll be fun. Do you remember whatfunis?”

“No.”

Warren let out a frustrated noise, growling at his boss. A fucking wedding was the last thing he needed. Command staff could be so fucking meddling sometimes. That was not how the fucking weekend was supposed to go. Warren had important shit to do, problems to solve.

“Christ, I hate to issue this as an order.” Master Chief Rose laughed.

“Don’t.”

“You need a swift kick in the ass. I’ve never had a better man working for me. No chance in hell I’m losing you now, after everything.”

Warren recognized that the box was shrinking. “Look… I’ll see what I can do,” he finally said.

“Good— Let’s have a drink tonight and figure this all out.”

Warren ripped out his headphones, irritated. He had better things to do than go to a fucking wedding. What a goddamn waste of time. Marching inside in search of a cold glass of water, or Scotch, his peripheral vision caught an attractive woman gliding down his stairs.

He glanced over, sweat beading down the side of his face. Alisa smiled at him, tugging on his black T-shirt to cover her pussy, guilty and bashful.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning.”

God, she looked so fucking hot. Hot—and as vulnerable as hell. And that was exactly the moment when he realized he had no choice.

“We need to get you a dress.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you are coming with me to a wedding today,” he said and checked his watch. “We leave in three hours.”

“What?”

She leaned over the railing, trying to get a better look to see if he was joking. He wasn’t. He held his ground, needing that distance. His entire body throbbed to get closer to her, but he knew better. He didn’t need to make matters more complicated than they already were.

“I don’t think I’m up for that,” she said.

“Doesn’t matter, unfortunately.”

“I don’t get a choice?”

“I have to go, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He made a seesaw motion with his hands.

Alisa looked like she wanted to rebuff him, wanted to counter—but she didn’t. She crossed her arms.

“I don’t like this.”

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