Quinn could practically feel the crosshairs brush over his skin as he crept through the bush. He was confident in his ability to stay camouflaged, but he was equally confident in Henderson’s ability to find him through the sight of a Mk.13. His competitive nature drove his pulse higher and tightened all his senses as he sank lower into the underbrush. He was the enemy force this morning, and had been outsmarting the sniper for two hours already. Another two and—

“Please be advised we have an unauthorized intrusion in the training area. Halt all activity.”

Son of a bitch. The calm drawl that crackled through his radio headset was the last thing Quinn wanted to hear. It effectively meant that the last two hours had been wasted—if someone wanted to be competitive, which he always did.

From a purely training point of view, it didn’t matter if they hit the pause button. It would give someone else the chance to take over and be the pursued subject once they dealt with whatever army jackass had ignored the fact this part of the base was off-limits right now.

He rose from his position, shoving his face covering aside as he squinted up at the early morning sun. Well, at least he could have some coffee.

“Damn, I nearly had you,” Henderson growled in his ear through the radio.

Quinn tapped his comms button. “Nearly doesn’t count for much, though. But good try.”

Even though Henderson was a mile away, Quinn could swear he could hear him laughing. Grinning, he headed for the high ground. But the smile fell off his face when he reached the ridge, because a truck was barreling toward him. So he did the only thing that made sense and stood in its way.

The driver screeched to a halt, then his door flew open and the jackass jumped out.

Shit.

Even with her honey blonde hair twisted up in a bun, there was no disguising that Leah from the night before was no he. Nor did he want to think she was a jackass, but coming into an active training area was pretty damn stupid.

Instead of yelling at her, which was his first instinct, he gritted his teeth and waited for her to come to him and say her peace. She’d come this far, might as well let her get whatever was bothering her off her chest.

Don’t look at her chest. Meh, too late. Even in her uniform, Leah was curvy and sweet on the eyes. And the pissed-off fire in her eyes didn’t douse his interest, either.

“You!” she spit at him.

He just raised his eyebrows.

“You’re the reason why my troops don’t have food?”

“Probably not, since I’ve been in the bush since before dawn.”

“I was directed down this road to the commander, and you stood in front of my truck. I thought…”

“You don’t belong here right now.”

“As a matter of fact, I do. I’m the duty NCO today, and your training was scheduled for the range on the far side of this ridge. Not this road, and not the forest in between.”

“The training we’re doing today requires more than a range.”

“Then you should have considered the resource conflict you would create by encroaching—” She cut herself off as an engine grew louder behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder. Henderson. Great. He’d made such a stellar impression on her last night.

Quinn rubbed his forehead, his fingers probably smearing dirt across his skin as he tried to rub away the tension gathering there. This was interfering with his plans for kicking ass and taking names today. Starting with Henderson, and then the Canadian sniper, too.

“What the fuck is going on?” Henderson bellowed.

Leah’s eyes widened, and Quinn winced. That was unnecessary static they didn’t need.

She stepped to the side so she could address them both. “What is going on is I have troops beyond here that didn’t get their breakfast delivered!”

Henderson laughed. “Well, I haven’t had breakfast yet, either. How about you, Quinn?”

No fucking way was he answering that.

Leah stiffened. “If you choose to ignore the rules and regulations that apply to all of us, that is not my problem. But we can’t allow our troops to train unless we feed them, so I need to speak to whomever it was that turned the kitchen driver away.”

Quinn held up his hand. “I’m not sure who turned anyone away, but we’re doing time-sensitive training here, and you’ve just forced that to a halt.”

“Like you did with our training? And time-sensitive? What exactly do you think ours is?”

Not his problem, but he didn’t say that. “Master Sergeant…” His eyes flicked first to her rank, then her name badge. “Master Sergeant Saunders, I think there’s been a miscommunication. And I’m sure we can get food through before we resume our training.”

She nodded. Good. They were going to handle this like professionals. “Good. Thank you. And you’ll file a more detailed training plan, I trust.”

He winced. No, they weren’t going to do that. “The details are a matter of operational security.”

“I’m the duty NCO. Would you rather I call the duty officer?”

“No. We’d rather you’d forget all about this.”

* * *

Leah blinked. That wasn’t going to happen. Whoa, cowboy, she thought to herself. But she didn’t say that out loud. Not that what she ended up saying was much better. “Are you asking me to willfully and blindly ignore a training safety violation?”

“Nobody’s been hurt. Some of your guys had to chill in the shade. I fail to see the problem here.”

“You seriously should know better.”

His eyes flashed at her, but he held his tongue.

His buddy did not. “We know you gotta cross your t’s and dot your i’s, lady, but—”

Henderson, the name badge said. She made a note of that. SWO Henderson was going in a report. “Lady?” She slammed her heel into the floor and stretched to the full extent of her five and a half feet, which were pitiful in the shadow of the six-foot, four-inch gentle giant that was Quinn Parry. And the similarly-sized but not nearly as gentle Jerk-Face Henderson.

“You heard me.” He was still talking, even though Parry had gotten in between them.

“You don’t outrank me.”

Quinn held her gaze. “No. We don’t.”

The cool, steady assessment in his eyes lit her up more than an asshole attitude would have, because it wasn’t what she’d expected. Damn him.

“Why don’t we take this back to your vehicle?” he said, reaching for her arm.

She shook her head. “No need. But you need to tell your friend here that name-calling—”

“Name-calling!” Henderson growled from around Quinn in between them. “I’m just calling it as I see it.”

Quinn shoved him away, then lowered his voice as he turned back to Leah. “Just to cool our heads a bit.”

“I’m cool. I’m even sorry. This has gotten a bit out of hand.”

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Wyatt just took it a little personally, that’s all.”

“Wasn’t meant that way.”

“I understand that. You’ve got your troops to look after.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“I’m sure he is.” God, his bland, even-keel approach drove her insane in a way that didn’t make any sense. She was a cross-the-t’s-and-dot-the-i’s kind of admin NCO. Bland and even-keel were rare outside of career officers, and Leah spent far too much of her time finding a diplomatic way of solving problems.

But for someone reason, she really hated the fact that Quinn had taken that tact. She wanted to hash this out for real with him. Push and pull until they were both content with the resolution, for real. Not some bullshit platitude exchange that meant nothing.

She jerked her arm away from his outstretched hand and stalked back to her truck. She’d call for the food to be re-delivered before she let them off the hook.

Quinn followed her and watched as she radioed in her request. She ignored the constant pressure of his gaze. She wouldn’t be intimidated.

Ten long, awkward minutes stretched before the kitchen truck pulled passed. She waved at the driver, then radioed her staff to let them know food would be arriving imminently.

Finally, she turned to Quinn, who’d stripped off much of his gear and leaned against her truck. He had a smear of dirt on his forehead. She almost reached to brush it off before she remembered that he was a thorn in her side, not a man to take care of.

“I gotta get back to HQ. But I’ll be back at lunch to ensure the food gets through again,” she said frostily.

He laughed under his breath. “We’ll probably be cleared out of here by then. But if not, then I’ll see you right back here.” He pushed himself upright and looped his rifle over his shoulder as he held out his hand to her. For the second time in twenty-four hours, she found her smaller hand enveloped in his larger one.

She gave him a smile to soften her response. “With all due respect, Parry, I hope I never see you again.”

He just grinned, a bright white smile that was far too sexy for the field. “Aww, come on, Saunders. You don’t mean that.”

No, she didn’t. And as he disappeared over the ridge, she sat in her truck and thought about that super annoying fact for far longer than she liked. Quinn Parry. There was something about him that got under her skin.