His Woman in Command. Lindsay McKenna

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       Chapter 1

      “Twenty bucks says you can’t get that good-lookin’ woman to come over to our table and have a beer with us,” Staff Sargeant Neal Robles challenged.

      Captain Gavin Jackson, leader of a ten-man Special Forces team, squinted in the semidarkness of the officers’ club—a tent on the most dangerous border in the world: between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was the last day of their two weeks of rest between month-long assignments in the field. Tomorrow, they’d be back out in the badlands border area hunting Taliban. Gavin sat with his nine men. The pitcher of frothy cold beer in front of them went quickly.

      The woman in question had just entered the spacious tent, catching the attention of every man in the room. She was about five foot eight, with short, curly black hair framing an oval face and high cheekbones. She was olive-skinned with light gold eyes. Then there was her killer mouth that Gavin wanted to capture and kiss. The frumpy green one-piece flight uniform that told him she was a pilot couldn’t hide her assets. Curvy in all the right places. Gavin felt his body harden with desire.

      He didn’t know why. His relationship with another woman army pilot had crashed and burned a year ago. Gavin had sworn off women for now and women army pilots forever. Squirming in his seat, the wooden chair creaking, he shrugged as Neal Robles grinned like a wolf over the dare.

      “Why her?” Gavin grunted, lifting the cold mug of beer to his lips.

      Robles’s dark brown eyes gleamed as he whispered, “She’s hot, Cap’n.”

      “She’s the only female in here,” Gavin drawled. Indeed, the huge dark green canvas tent was packed with men—A teams coming in for a well-deserved rest, logistics, pilots or mechanics to support their missions. Women pilots were few, but they did exist. Automatically, Gavin rubbed his chest in memory of Laurie Braverman, the U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook driver that he’d fallen in love with. They’d broken up because of their mutual inability to compromise. A war of egos had eventually destroyed their relationship.

      “She might be the only one,” Robles asserted, “but you gotta admit, Cap’n, she’s something.” Robles looked at the other enlisted men around the table, all of whom bobbed in unison to agree with his observation.

      Tugging on his recently trimmed beard, Gavin gave them an amused look. His team knew about his hard luck with Laurie, especially since he’d been a growly old bear for a month after their spectacular parting. “You know,” he said, “it’s damned hard enough to survive the border villages. Now, you want to collectively throw me at another driver?” Driver was a common slang expression for any pilot whether they flew fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters.

      Laughter rippled through his team. Gavin was fiercely protective of his men. They’d been together over here nearly a year, and they were tighter than a set of fleas on a mangy Afghan dog. He wanted to bring all of them back off this tour alive so they could go home to their families. He had visited the base barber this morning, got a wonderful hot shower, a trim, clean clothes and joined СКАЧАТЬ