Push-ups.
“All right, recruits. You will be timed. One hundred push-ups is all we ask. This should be easy for you since you don’t have all your gear on,” Myles taunted them.
“Let’s see you drop and give us fifty, Burton,” a familiar voice called out.
Myles turned to find Ash grinning at him.
“I mean, we are making them do it without gear on. Let’s show them what we’re looking for.”
“Fifty?” Myles scoffed. He felt Roxxy’s eyes on him. His typical cocky attitude was breaking through. He always loved attention. He hadn’t worked hard on his body for nothing. “Fuck. I can do a hundred,” he bragged.
The men all chuckled around him.
“Let’s show these recruits what a real SWAT member can do.” Ash came to stand next to him.
Everyone formed a circle around Myles who loved the attention.
“Get on the ground, Soldier.”
Myles jumped around on the balls of his feet. He whipped his arms back and forth, knowing that doing push-ups with about eighty pounds of equipment was much different than with only his weight. The pressure was on, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.
Hell, this was nothing compared to when he was in the Army.
Getting down in position, Myles waited for Ashton.
“And go!” Ash glanced at his watch.
Myles instantly dropped down and pushed himself up. He started rapidly completing the push-ups until he found a good steady rhythm. Sweat formed and ran down his face, but he kept going.
Myles Burton wasn’t a punk.
He would do one hundred push-ups in front of his team.
Challenging each other wasn’t new. That was a common thing with the guys. It was the camaraderie amongst them that kept them close. The current members of SWAT cheered him on.
“Eighty, eighty-one, eighty-two,” they counted aloud for him.
He released a curse, feeling himself slow down.
His muscles burned and shook, but he refused to give up. His movements fell in sync with their counting.
“Ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two,” they continued.
“Finish strong, Burton,” Mac growled near him. His sergeant knelt on the ground next to him. “Push through the pain,” he ordered.
Myles growled and pulled strength from deep within him and kept going.
“Ninety-eight, ninety-nine…one hundred!”
Myles shoved off the ground and flexed his arms. “Woo!” he shouted, whipping his cap off. Before it had helped keep the chill from him, and while he’d been doing push-ups, it kept the sweat from sliding into his eyes, but now, he was hot.
The applause went around. Myles’s team members slapped him on the back. Myles laughed as the guys taunted him. His eyes connected with Roxxy’s, and he threw her a wink before turning back to the recruits.
“All right, people. Let’s get to it.”
Chapter 4
Roxxy had to force herself to concentrate. She couldn’t stop thinking of Myles and those damn push-ups. Something so simple as watching him working out had her body going haywire. His cockiness shined through.
That grin of his.
The wink.
Calm down, girl.
She followed the group over to the shooting range. The recruits were instructed to put on gear for the shooting exercise. They had completed their push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. With each test, one of the SWAT guys was challenged and had to do the task with their full gear on. Roxxy had to give it to the members of Columbia SWAT, they were a close group. She could see it in the way they taunted yet supported each other. They cracked jokes on one another while ribbing each other.
The recruits walked over to a barn that was next to the outdoor range.
“Officer Burton.” She stepped over to him and had to beg her body to behave. Standing close to him meant her nipples instantly hardened. She collapsed her clipboard to her chest and stopped next to him. “I have a question.”
“Yes, Mrs. Sutton?”
His dark gaze bored into her, taking her breath away. A small smile broke out on her lips.
“It’s not Mrs. That would be my mother,” she corrected him with a shake of her head. “It’s Miss.”
“Hmm…”
