still registered he wanted the woman on sight. Her natural beauty was completely seductive to him in a way no other type of woman was. She was the kind of woman he and his brothers had talked about settling down with when they grew too old for The Unit. Some men wanted beauty queens to show off on their arm, but not Logan and his brothers. They’d wanted an all-American girl with big eyes, sweet lips, and soft curves they could hold all night. The kind of girl boys dreamt about when they were twelve and jacking off for the first time. Their innocence and strength were some of the many reasons a man like Logan put on a uniform in the first damn place: so no harm would ever come to the innocent.
Seeing the pain etched across her face, he was ready to seek and destroy the enemy at all costs, so his right hand moved to his back and he palmed his weapon, averting his attention back to the males as the threat. The oldest looked angry, the younger one blank at his approach, void of any feelings compared to the other two. He noted all three were similar in coloring from their hair to their skin, so he assumed they were related. Siblings?
He scanned their vehicle as he walked the final feet to the driver’s side door and found no evidence of malfunction. Something had clearly happened in the distance they’d traveled from their home, but he didn’t have a clue to work with.
The female turned her head slowly toward him as he approached her window. She still looked dazed, but had enough presence of mind to roll her window down.
“Can I help you?” Her voice sounded rough, like she was trying to hold back tears. His hand curled into a fist in reaction. All of his training was screaming at him to protect her, but there were no enemies in sight, so he uncurled his fist and loosened the tension in his jaw so he could speak.
“Everything okay?” he asked in a soothing tone to keep from frightening her. He was a large man; knew his size could intimidate, and the last thing he wanted was to cause her more undo stress.
She swallowed, then nodded quickly. “Fine as we can be.” Even the tone of her voice screamed innocence. Christ. She was every soldier’s wet dream.
Tearing his attention away from her for the briefest of seconds, Logan rechecked the males for a threat. There were backpacks on the floorboard below their feet and indifferent expressions on their faces. They were teens. Not a threat to him. They’d clearly been headed to school when something happened, so Logan pulled his hand from his gun and relaxed a degree.
“Car trouble?” he asked, trying to gauge her age. He was positive she was out of high school, but he wasn’t sure by how much.
She chuckled at his question, then blinked away unshed tears with a breathy scoff. “If only.”
His brows furrowed at her cryptic answer. “Anything I can do?”
Her lips trembled, and the same look of despair clouded her features for a split second, then she shook her head and cleared her throat in an attempt to keep control of her emotions. “No. But thank you for asking. I need to get them to school, so if you’ll excuse us . . .”
She looked away and started the truck in anticipation of driving away, then turned her light green eyes Logan’s way before pulling out. The effect on him was instantaneous. In the brief moment when she’d turned her head away, she’d found her mettle and shored it up. When her eyes met his again, he saw the woman beneath the hoodie. She’d aged five years in that short amount of time, and his heart stuttered at the effect. She was all-American steel, covered in soft-looking skin, masquerading as a college student. It was an unbelievably sexy combination. One his baser instincts approved of on a level he never had before.
“If you come through Ennis, stop by Big Sky Saloon and I’ll buy you a drink for your troubles.”
He scanned her face and noted her eyes had cleared. She was entirely under control, and Logan oddly felt pride at how quickly she’d shifted gears. He’d planned on eating in Ennis then moving on until his head was clearer, but he couldn’t deny the effect she had on him, or the fact for the first time since his brothers had