Page 3 of Falling for the Delta
Chapter 2
Dash couldn’t keepthe smile off his face as he followed Holly’s directions to her apartment. The first time he’d seen her at the PX on Fort Hood, he’d been interested, though he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was her quiet confidence. Maybe her feminine shape, which he couldn’t take his eyes off of. Whatever it was, she just seemed to exude something that drew him in.
He knew that was crazy. Love at first sight didn’t exist. But he couldn’t deny there was something about Holly that had definitely gotten to him.
On the day he’d first seen her, she’d seemed oblivious to her surroundings as she’d stood in front of the sub shop and contemplated the menu. Her long black hair had been up in a messy bun and her clothes were professional, yet comfortable. No high heels, no tight skirt. She was petite, probably about half a foot shorter than he was, and round in all the right places.
Dash had worked with many sizes and shapes of women in his lifetime, but there was just something about a woman who had soft curves that drew him like a moth to a flame. Her belly was slightly rounded and her breasts were more than a handful. Her thighs were thick, and he had a brief thought about how they’d feel around his hips.
He’d immediately felt ashamed; it wasn’t fair to her to think that way when he didn’t even know her.
As he’d stood there daydreaming about her, she’d gotten her sub and walked out the opposite door. Dash had thought he’d missed his chance, but the next day, he saw her again when he was walking from one building to the next.
She obviously worked on the Army post and, from that day on, he seemed to see her all the time. He was still working his way up to actually talking to her when he’d taken his friend, Magic, home that afternoon.
Neither could believe their eyes when they’d walked toward the complex and saw the scene in front of them. Magic had told him all about this gorgeous woman who lived next door to him, and Dash couldn’t deny the tall blonde was a knockout. But he only had eyes for the mysterious woman he’d seen on post.
Holly.
He hadn’t needed to consult with Magic about their plan. They’d worked together long enough on their Delta Force team to know what the other was thinking. Magic would take care of Stella and Dash would finally get his chance to get to know Holly better.
“So…is Dash your name or a nickname?” Holly asked.
“Both,” Dash admitted.
“That’s…unusual, isn’t it?” she asked. “I mean, Army guys love nicknames, and especially soldiers on the teams.”
“On the teams?” Dash asked, needing to know what information she had about Delta before he said anything.
“Oh, um…yeah. So, here’s the thing, I have a top-secret clearance. Stella and I are linguists. We’re civilian contractors, but because I’m fluent in Pashto and Arabic, I’m privy to a lot of what’s going on overseas. I translate secret communications between the Taliban and their supporters. Emails and phone calls, that sort of thing. I’ve met a few Delta teams when they had questions about my translations. And now that I know your name…I know you’re Delta. I saw your name on a list of personnel. But I won’t say anything. I mean, I could lose my job and get in deep shit, but…yeah.”
Dash didn’t mind that Holly knew he was special forces. It made things easier for him. “Impressive,” he said. And it was. “Thank you for all that you do.”
She shrugged. “I don’t do much. I sit in my cubicle and stare at a computer all day,” she said. “You and your team do the hard stuff.”
“Which we couldn’t do without intel…so thank you for helping make our jobs safer.”
Dash saw Holly blush, and it only made her more attractive. Since it was obvious talking about her job made her uncomfortable, he moved on. “So, my name really is Dash. I don’t know what my parents were thinking, but it was easier to yell at me using my first name than my last in basic training.”
Holly smiled.
“I take it by that smile that you agree,” Dash said.
“I don’t remember exactly what your last name is, but I do remember it was long,” she admitted.
“Anagnostopoulos,” Dash told her.
Holly chuckled and the sound went all the way through him, making his toes curl.
“Yeah, I can’t see a drill sergeant yelling that. Dash was obviously much easier for them.”
“Yup,” he agreed. He wished he could think of something else to say that would make her laugh. He had a feeling it was going to be his mission in life to get her to giggle just so he could hear it.
As he wracked his brain for something else to talk about, he neared her apartment complex. He pulled into the lot, hating that their time together was already over. He hadn’t gotten to know her nearly well enough. He longed for more information.
He pulled into a space, turned off the engine, and turned to her. He opened his mouth to ask her something, but Holly spoke first.
“So, what’s your story, Dash? Why’d you want to join the Army?”
