Red, Hot & Blue 09 - A Prince Among Men by Cat Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

her until another realization hit. Did his giving in mean he expected her to put out?
    Uh, oh. What if she couldn’t get out of her bogus offer of sex? What then?
    All right, she could do this if she had to. She could probably force herself to go through with it considering she was horny and he was physically attractive, in an annoying, macho-asshole sort of way. She could always close her eyes and pretend he was Groundpounder. That might work, even though Hawk and his caveman personality and grunted, one-word dialogue was the polar opposite of Groundpounder’s eloquence.
    This was all a bit more complicated than she had originally anticipated, but she was finally going to get her story. That outweighed everything else. The details would work themselves out somehow.
    Gathering her papers from the table, she grabbed her coffee cup and scurried off after him to ask where she should meet him the next day. Then she’d have to track down the commander here at KAF and straighten out all the necessary paperwork.
    She’d get her story and worry about the consequences, sexual or other, later.

Chapter Five
    Time seems to be flying now that my leader is away and I am in charge in his absence.
    Monday was patrol day again. Patrol day is always a fun time when we get to leave the small measure of safety provided by the firebase’s wire-lined fences. Members of my squad travel to the far reaches of our sector. Black, Bender, Moraches, Walker, Wallace and I, a handful of soldiers, out in the open, exposed, pitted against a numerically superior, unseen enemy.
    The tactical importance of this geographic bowl cannot be underestimated. My firebase sits right in the center of what used to be a favored passage of the Taliban. Our primary mission is to make sure it never becomes that again.
    Tuesday was a training day. We often go to the range we constructed to practice team and squad tactics. I ran my soldiers through rigorous events designed to hone their skills to the point the motions are second nature.
    Ryan’s fingers halted on the keyboard as a familiar, faint sound cut through the air. Lou’s helicopter. Mail call.
    He saved what he’d written so far and flipped the lid of the laptop shut to keep out Wally’s prying eyes before he left the hut and went to stand near the landing zone.
    No other chopper sounded the same as Lou’s. Like the pilot himself, it was definitely one of a kind. Both were older than dirt but kept trudging along, getting the job done and always there for you if you needed them.
    Although mail call felt less exciting than it used to now that Gretchen had given him the big heave-ho, there was always hope for care packages from family or supporters back home. Waiting anxiously to help offload the mail once Lou landed, Ryan was soon joined by Wally, who probably wanted to see if any more beef jerky would be arriving. Whatever the reason, the more hands helping, the quicker the job would be done.
    An even bigger surprise was waiting for them than jerky. That became obvious when Hawk jumped out and turned to reach into the chopper. Was Ryan hallucinating, or was that really a female his leader was helping out of the chopper?
    Oh my God.
    Next to him, Wally let out a long whistle. “Looks like Hawk picked up more than Afghanis. Unless that’s what he bought with the money. And I tell you what, if that is what he spent it on, he better damn well be fixin’ to share.”
    Doubtful, on all counts. Ryan’s first thought was that the woman must be Emily, Hawk’s girlfriend. She’d been with them at Bagram, so it wasn’t inconceivable she could be here at base working on another ad with Hawk. But Emily was blonde and very slender, and even from this distance, Ryan could see this woman was a brunette and filled out a bit more voluptuously than Emily, in all the right places, he might add. That was obvious even beneath the body armor.
    Jogging to join his squad leader as the chopper blades slowed to a stop, Ryan’s