Texas Stand-Off: The Omega Team Novella (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free Page B

perpendicular to the river bed. When he was building up his strength, he’d run this course over and over again. He liked to think of it as productive torture. “Let’s see how you run this for fifteen minutes. Anything less and you leave today.”
    He expected an argument–but to his surprise, she merely nodded and set off. The first couple of times she made the run, she did it fairly slowly. He smirked. This would be over before he knew it, there was no way she’d last. He stood at the top and let his eyes follow the movements of her graceful body. But instead of slowing down, she hit her stride–and then she sped up. It was as if she’d adapted and was now letting muscle memory take over. Folding his arms over his chest, he watched her. She hadn’t worn shorts as he expected. Even in this weather, running could heat you up until you were ready to tear the clothes from your body. Natasha had chosen to don yoga pants and a long sleeve T-shirt which was now sticking to her body and molding a beautiful pair of high, round tits. He swallowed hard. Unlike him, her clothing was obviously not chosen to hide a defect in her body. To his discontent, Deacon noted his dick had perked up and taken notice.
    When she showed no signs of slowing down, the little demon which had sat on his shoulder since Afghanistan whispered for him to see how long it would take her to falter. He’d lost count of how many times she’d run the course, but her allotted time had been over for at least five minutes. Not once did she ever raise her head to meet his eyes, nor did she voice one word of complaint. After thirty minutes she stumbled, not falling but catching herself, only to continue on. Hell. Raising the whistle to his lips, he gave a short blast. “Enough.”
    Taz heard his clipped word calling for her to stop. She finished the few steps leading to the summit, then bent over, resting her hands on her knees. She was trembling from exertion, but only gave herself a few seconds to recover, allowing her heartbeat to slow down. Straightening, she rejoined her taskmaster who didn’t have a word of praise or anything else for her. Not even water. Of course she knew that in an operation, water wouldn’t necessarily be available either. “Did I pass?”
    “Who said we were through?” Pocketing the whistle, he set off running. To give her credit, he only went a few yards before she came alongside, matching his stride. Deacon steeled his expression. Each time his ‘feet’ hit the earth, there was a stinging jar to his stump. Even after years of callousing, there was discomfort. He pushed the pain to the same compartment that housed emotion. Such things were best ignored. After running three miles, he slowed, stopping at a small stand with a locked cabinet. He withdrew a key from his pocket and opened it, handing her a bottled water.
    “Thank you.” Natasha was breathing heavily. Sinking to a squat, she opened the bottle and drank thirstily.
    “Not too shabby, Levin.”
    “Thank you.” She held up the bottle, squinting in the sunshine, gazing into the clear liquid. Giving it a slight squeeze, she muttered dryly. “Aren’t you afraid someone will break the lock, replace it to fool you, then use a hypodermic to put poison into the bottle?”
    Well, no. Not till now. “I have cameras and sensors everywhere. No one comes on my property unless I know about it.”
    “Unless they are as smart or smarter than you. I could do it,” she said dryly.
    He gave her an evil smirk. “We should add that mission to your tasks.”
    Taking another swig, she stood. “Good. I can handle it. I want you to test my limits. Push me beyond what you think possible.”
    “It will be my pleasure.” Oh, she was going to be sorry. He’d already been planning on pushing her. Now, he intended to see if she could break. “Let’s run back.” He tossed the plastic bottle into a receptacle and she followed suit.
    “How many of the team have you