Page 21 of Boomer
If he’d had a choice, if he hadn’t been deployed, he would’ve been here. What might’ve happened between them? It would’ve been explosive as a breath.
The kind of ignition you don’t walk away from. The kind that rewrites everything.
He clenched his jaw, the muscles flexing tight across his cheeks, and turned, only to meet Bash’s eyes. The younger man blinked. Then glanced at the empty doorway Taylor had just disappeared through. He looked away, and that threw Boomer. Not the glance. Not even the looking away. It was thelook itself, quiet, unreadable, but unmistakably…shared…pain?
A flash of something lived-in. Known. Familiar.Fuck. What exactly had they been before today? What kind of history did they have? Boomer’s gut twisted. He didn’t want that bastard’spity.Didn’t want his insight, his silence, or whatever unspoken claim might be buried in that brief flick of a gaze. He wanted Taylor to look athimandonlyhim.
Breakneck stepped up beside him, rubbing at his face with one hand.
“She was GSG 9, you know.” Boomer gave a slow nod. “That’s Germany’s Tier 1. Border ops. HVT extractions. Sniper-qualified.” Breakneck whistled low under his breath. “That takes one tough man and kicks his ass. I’m a little afraid of her now.”
Boomer exhaled through his nose. “You’re not the only one.”
She came back out a few minutes later in full PT gear, fitted leggings, a black tank that left her arms bare, and that sleek, capable body moving with lethal ease. Her hair was up now, eyes focused. She didn’t say anything. Just fell into pace beside Iceman like she’d always belonged there. They started the run.
Boomer had planned to stay loose. Easy cadence. Let the muscles warm up. But followingher? Pure torture. He’d been in firefights less punishing. He wished he was dodging bullets now.
Her ponytail swung in time with each stride, that smooth, controlled gait doing something catastrophic to his focus. The curve of her back, the flex of her legs, the way she never even looked winded. He couldn’t stop watching, and that was a problem.
Every step made the ache worse. His dick wasdefinitelyawake now, rubbing up against his shorts with every goddamn bounce. It was a good thing he was wearing compression shorts underneath or everyone within a mile radius would know he was sporting a boner.
Skull jogged past and leaned in just enough to mutter, “You all right back there, Boom Boom? You look…tense.”
Boomer growled, low and lethal. “Run faster before I deck you.” The grin on Skull’s face didn’t fade. If anything, it widened.
Up ahead, Taylor glanced back, just once, and he cursed inwardly.
He was in so much fucking trouble.
A spurt of emotion cracked through him too fast to parse. Anger. Hunger. Frustration. A deep, aching loneliness he hated. The sharp bite of being behindher. Watching the sway of her stride, the bounce of her ponytail, the fact that she hadn’tlookedat him again.
It was too much. He surged forward. Justran. Hard. Fast. Controlled in the way only a Tier 1 breacher could be, bodymoving like a loaded charge, form ballistic, power coiled in every muscle.
He passed Hazard, then Breakneck, even Skull, who barked a winded, “Shit, Boom, pace it!”
Didn’t matter. He caught up to Bash and blew past him without a word. Taylor didn’t turn around again. But hefelther clock it. Then he passed Iceman.
Just a flick of eye contact as he went by, acknowledged, but not questioned. Boomer had the lead, and Iceman wasn’t about to slow him down.
He crossed the finish a full minute ahead of the next man. Chest heaving. Sweat streaking down his back. Breath burning like fire in his lungs. He didn’t double over. Didn’t flex. Didn’t even glance at the team trailing behind.
He just walked. Straight across the compound, not looking at anyone, not speaking, not even thinking. If one more person said one more thing, he wasn’t sure what the hell he’d do.
He shoved his way into his room and slammed the door hard enough to rattle the hinges. Then just stood there, hands braced on his hips, jaw locked, heart thudding with everything he couldn’t say and everything heshould have.
His body was lit like a fuse. Still hot. Still hard. Still hurting.
He stripped down in sharp, angry movements, his skin flushed, his dick jutting, pulsing with adrenaline and the kind ofneedthat made his teeth grind. It wouldn’t take much. One stroke. Two. He could come so fast it would feel like punishment.
No. Not like that.
With a vicious curse, he grabbed his towel, slung it low around his hips, and stormed out toward the showers, hoping cold water could kill what was devouring him from the inside out.
But the universe laughed in his face.
He rounded the hall corner at full speed and ran straight into her.
Taylor.
