I Own the Dawn by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.

25

Kee’d set off at a good clip, but Archie wasn’t there. She slowed to a jog-trot as they worked their way back over the hills and fields toward the ocean.

The Professor wasn’t hurting. Without a pack, this was an easy run for a SOAR pilot, especially for a Black Adder. Major Henderson’s company, Kee was pleased to be discovering, always worked harder, flew longer, and posted seriously high successful completion ratios in a regiment that valued that above all else.

So, if he wasn’t tapped… He had his thinking face on. His body ran along, but he wasn’t paying it much attention. “Okay, before you joined the Army is an out-of-bounds topic. Understood. So, how did you end up in SOAR?”

“How did you?”

“I asked first.”

“I’m a girl, I can change the subject anytime I want.”

“I’m your superior officer and that’s purest drivel.” Kee reached for the waistband of his shorts. If there’d been a ditch, he’d have veered into it trying to get away from her.

“Cheater.”

“Cheapskate.”

“Cheapskate?”

“Sure,” Kee kept the pace and let Archie catch back up to her. “I give you gooood sex, Masser Stevenson, and you won’t let me change the subject in exchange.”

“I don’t keep a score sheet.”

“I do.”

Archie ran in silence.

Kee could feel that silence. Feel it clamp down between them.

“Sorry. Things like that keep coming out shitty around you. I don’t mean it that way.”

Archie kept his pace, though it felt as if the pressure had eased off—a bit.

“It sounds that way. It honestly does, Kee. It stings like hell when you do that.”

“Sorry.”

The silence continued. They plodded along in one of the slowest half kilometers she’d probably ever turned. Up to her to break it. She was about to open her mouth when he forgave her enough to do it himself.

“So what do you want to know?” Archie gave her the lead. Damn him for being decent.

“Why SOAR?” Kee considered phrasing it nicely, but it wasn’t in her. She couldn’t resist the dig at the Professor’s perfect manners. Digging at all that wealth. All those options he’d been raised to take for granted. “Why didn’t you marry Muffy or Pinkie and pop out a couple of perfect Harvard girls? Why fly a DAP Hawk alongside Major Emily Beale?”

“I ended up at West Point. I wanted my mom to notice me, but I didn’t want to follow right in her footsteps either. I was a total loss at the Point. Sure, I had brains enough to nail the classroom. Additionally, building wooden boats is hard work, so I was strong. Getting into Army shape only took time and focus.”

His words came slower as they trotted up a long slope. This time, the sheep that had spun aside barely broke from their grazing to inspect the passersby. Certified inside those furry heads as “not wolf,” they were soon ignored.

“But I never fit in. I tried to be smarter, which was easy, but that only increased the heat from my classmates. I tried being stronger, but my physique doesn’t go that way.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.