“I’ve done a little climbing in my time,” CJ admitted, eyeing the wall. “Outdoor stuff, but not sports.”
David nodded. “Let me guess. You’re ex-military. Afghanistan? The Middle East?”
“Something like that.”
“You’ve got that kind of air to you.” David pointed over his shoulder with his thumb at the wall. “You want a go at the wall? I’ll have to get one of the bigger harnesses out of the back. By the way, we have a veteran’s discount.”
CJ didn’t know if he qualified as a veteran or not. He was a trained and bred supersoldier, but his employers hadn’t been the kind of people the average American would approve of. Alpha Squad had only been lucky that the Luna Lodge hybrids had rescued them before they’d been used to hurt innocent people.
“I’ll be honest with you, David,” CJ said. He needed to change the flow of the conversation and make sure he didn’t cut off his access to the gym without committing to anything. “I’m checking this place more for a friend of mine. She’s into climbing, and I told her I’d go around and make sure the place had good equipment and wasn’t full of creepers. She’ll be happy to know about Kendra, though. She’s a big fan.”
“Of course. No problem.” David smiled. “We’ve got tons of women climbers here, probably about a third of our total clientele and staff. We pride ourselves on being a place where anyone, novices to experts, women and men, can all have a good time practicing the sport.”
“You!” came Kendra’s shout from behind.
David stared past CJ, looking confused. He pointed to himself.
“Sorry, David,” Kendra shook her head, walking forward, her gaze sliding to CJ. “I didn’t mean to shout. Uh…” She stood there, staring at CJ, confusion in her eyes.
He could barely look at her eyes instead focusing on her tight bright green spandex pants and matching sports bra that looked all but painted on her perfect body. His cock stirred, and he was glad he was wearing jeans instead of shorts.
“CJ.” Kendra curled a strand of hair around her finger. “You’re a climber? That’s like really cool. I didn’t peg you for the type.”
“Not exactly. I was checking out the place for a friend.” CJ finally tore his attention off her body to focus on her face. “But, training, huh?” He motioned to the wall. “For the OCR Assault?”
“I’m going to hit up some walls, sure.” Kendra nibbled on her lip. “I’m sorry about being a bitch before. I think I overreacted after misinterpreting something. I’m not normally like that.”
“Huh?” CJ shook his head. “Oh, sure. Don’t worry. I wasn’t offended.”
David glanced between the two of them, a knowing look in his eye. He gave an approving nod to CJ when Kendra wasn’t looking. “I see someone who needs my help. Kendra, you know you’re way around. Hey, CJ, if you want to climb, just let me know. Just because you’re here for a friend doesn’t mean you can’t get in on it, too.”
“Yeah, sure,” CJ mumbled, still focused on Kendra.
David wandered off, and Kendra walked over to CJ.
“Fate,” Kendra declared, her voice husky and low.
“What?” CJ asked, his body warm from both her voice and her outfit.
“I almost ran you over before and now you’re in my gym.” Kendra poked the tip of her tongue out of her mouth, obvious desire in her eyes. “It’s like fate’s trying to bring us together.”
CJ took a ragged, shuddering breath. Damn it. He needed her.
Fate might be calling. He’d thought there wasn’t any chance that she might be his Vestal, but he couldn’t help but question that now. He’d never been so attracted to a woman before.
CJ inhaled deeply. Her herbal scent was refreshing, but nothing stood out. Not that he’d expected it to. None of them could smell anything unusual about Vestals thanks to Dr. Quinen, and Maximus made it clear that as wonderful as he found Selena, she didn’t smell differently from a normal human woman.
No. It was stupid. He was trying to will things into existence that weren’t there.
Kendra tilted her head and offered a confused expression. “I’m going to go get ready.”
“You do that,” CJ managed to get out, his voice strained.
His nostrils flared as she turned around showing off that glorious ass that he wanted to squeeze so badly. Desire warred with restraint.
He tried to convince himself that he was right, that fate had delivered his Vestal to him before telling himself that was ridiculous. If it were that simple, every member of Alpha Squad would have found their mates long ago.
Kendra being a Vestal might explain why Ouroboros was interested in a random obstacle course race. For all their thinking about the subject, the hybrids hadn’t come up with a convincing explanation for that. If the enemy could track Vestals somehow, coming and grabbing one when the opportunity presented itself made perfect sense. He’d even made that argument for why fighting them might help.
CJ shook his head. It was all guesswork, nothing concrete. He was overthinking it. Wanting to have sex with a beautiful woman wasn’t unusual for men, and the Alpha Squad’s hybrids’ weakened ability to scent their Vestals made them more like normal human men in that regard. This might have been nothing more than the first time he happened to run into someone who checked off all his boxes.
He tried to force that idea out of his head and concentrate on ways to get her to talk about the race. Collecting intel was the point of his visit, after all. He was starting to wish Julius had been the one to come.
Kendra started up the wall,
