Body Shot (Last Shot)(52)

“For most of us, it was a defining moment,” Cade added. “That’s when you realize either how much you want to do this or you don’t want to do this. And when you’re finished, you realize you can do way more than you ever thought possible. It’s like the greatest achievement of your life.”

Hayden’s chest bloomed with heat, thinking about how difficult that must have been, and these three men had succeeded.

“Yeah,” Beck agreed. “When you’re in combat you look back on that and remind yourself that you’re capable of so much more. Anyway, it was Hell Week and we’d been floating in the fucking ocean for hours. We were all in the early stage of hypothermia when we got out and they made us lie naked on the steel pier and sprayed us with cold water. I was shivering so hard I thought I was going to break a bone.”

“Oh my God.” Hayden’s eyes widened.

“Marco had to pee. I told him go ahead and pee right there. So he pissed on my hands. It was warm and it felt so goddamn good.”

Hayden bit her lip on a smile.

“Anyone who thinks that’s gross has never been that cold,” Beck added fervently.

“Wow. They really torture you guys.”

“Yep.”

“Good times,” Cade said. “Remember when you tried to assault a tray table with a butter knife?”

“Ha.” Beck’s smile was wry. “Yeah.”

“That’s how he got his nickname,” Marco said to Hayden. “Bear Hunter.”

She smiled uncertainly.

Beck shook his head. “And I never heard the end of that, the time we accidentally ended up in a gay bar.”

Hayden blinked blankly.

“A bear is a—” Marco started.

“Never mind,” Beck said. “So, we’d had about three hours of sleep all week. I swear Hershall told me to kill the bear in the corner with the butter knife. Sure enough, I looked over and there was a goddamn bear in the corner of the chow hall. So I started to do it. I was hallucinating.”

“He was stalking it,” Marco said, laughing. “Sneaking up on it, lifting the knife and ready to leap onto it. Cade and I grabbed him and told him to sit his ass down and eat. The instructors all got a good laugh out of that one.”

Hayden laughed too, even though inside she felt a weird mix of emotions. Imagining Beck being physically challenged like that, to the point of pain and exhaustion and hallucination, actually made her ache for him. The strength of body and mind it must take to get through something like was unimaginable. But she was also warmed by the obvious affection and respect among the three men. Sure, they were giving Beck a hard time, but it was clearly done with fondness, and he accepted it that way too.

She’d never had a sibling, although she and Carrie were close. But seeing the three men together reliving those experiences, seeing the bond they had, made her a little envious.

“Body shots!”

The call came from down the bar and all three guys looked that way. A young man was helping a girl up onto the bar.

“Oh Christ,” Cade muttered. “Here we go.”





Chapter 14


Hayden watched wide-eyed as the girl stretched out on the bar. Cade and Beck rushed down the bar to clear some glasses out of the way. The girl pulled her tank top up to bare her belly above her low-rise jeans, smiling broadly.

Cade handed her a wedge of lime, which she held between her lips, and Beck poured a shot of tequila. “Ready?” he looked at the man.

“Yeah!”

Beck poured tequila over the girl’s navel and the guy bent down and lapped it off her. A cheer rose from the people around them, watching. Hayden’s belly did a little flip. Then the guy used his mouth to take the lime from the girl’s, sucked on it, and spit it into his hand. He pumped a fist into the air on another cheer.

“Whoa,” Hayden breathed. “I’ve never seen that.”

“No?” Marco shot her an amused look. “Want to try it?”

“No! I mean, I don’t think so.”

“I’m sure Beck could be convinced to drink a shot off you.”

She bit her lip. It was a ridiculous thing to do. Why did she feel this crazy urge to be wild like that?

Another girl was taking a turn. Beck handed over a shot, grinning, and another cheer erupted. He looked up at her and met her eyes.

“Your girl here wants to do a body shot!” Marco called to him.

Beck’s eyebrows rose and his smile went wicked. “Come on down here, Hayden.”

She shouldn’t. She couldn’t. Her feet wouldn’t move.

“Come on, gorgeous,” Beck called.

Somehow she was walking toward him. Someone helped the girl off the bar and then Cade was there, helping her up. She was vaguely aware of smiling faces, music, and encouraging words as she stretched out on the bar. She eased her top up, not too high, exposing her stomach.