Protecting Kinsley

Chapter 3 After several apologizes Carter left Carl’s with a heavy hard and a boner that refused to go away. He couldn’t believe Kinsley had just run out on him like she had. Sure she was embarrassed getting caught with her hand in his shorts, but he figured she would have joked it off or something with Carl. Instead it was left to him to fumble with an answer. carl wasn’t happy and it wasn’t hard to guess what they had been doing. When Carter had received the call from Aaron saying she had taken off and asked for him to follow her, he had no idea where the morning would lead to. He was attracted to her sure. What guy wouldn’t be? She was beautiful, intelligent and gave as hard as she took. She was loyal to a fault, and as dedicated to her job as he was to hers. Seeing her in Carl’s broke his heart. Every time he saw her, her eyes were hollower. Deep circles hung under her eyes. Aaron told him she wasn’t sleeping much and when she did she had nightmares. Abigail was just as worried about her and their last barbeque showed she was losing it. She refused to talk to a therapist and had this delusion if she got back into shape she could just have her job back. Fighting with her he felt her strength, but she wasn’t in it. She was just going through the motions. She had been so used to being the best that being defeated took a major dent in her ego. The most excitement he had seen in her eyes since meeting her was when they had spared. She had a focus, a mission. to beat him. When she didn’t appear to give it her all he amped up the stakes by slapping her ass every time she made a mistake. Had it been the smartest thing to do? Probably not but he had been known to make a few bad choices in his life. Kinsley just brought out something in him he couldn’t explain. He wanted her. More than he had ever wanted anything. She was fiery and passionate. He was still sporting the evidence of that. Sure she could be temperamental but so could anyone. He knew more of her gruff was a shield against her pain. He wasn’t blind to her scars. They were painful looking, and they ran deeper than skin deep. From what info he had gleamed from Abigail, Kinsley was a proud woman and wasn’t used to being bested. She was taking the explosion as a personal hit to her ego. Carter could relate. He was far from perfect. No one on the team was. They had all made mistakes. Hell, Mike got shot pretty much every mission. The man probably has a record of most hits in his career. It had nothing to do with training as much as the fucker was almost eight feet tall. He was an easy target and yet he was quieter than a mouse and could fit into the tightest spaces. He defied the laws of physiques. Carter had made his own mistakes. He was called Doc because he was the one patching everyone up on the field. Even before he became a Delta he was in combat zones patching soldiers up. he had seen horrors that would give more people nightmares for the rest of his life. He’d lost men by misdiagnosing them or hadn’t gotten to them in time. He had taken it as personal failure for years. It was hardly the same thing as what Kinsley was going through, but he could understand where the failure came from. He was making it a personal mission now to help her in any way he could to get her out of her head and get back into fighting form. Kinsley was strong but her anger was controlling her. As long as it did that she would never go back into the field. Carter left the gym and called Aaron on the way to his car. Aaron and Abigail would already be up, so he didn’t worry about waking anyone. Aaron answered on the second ring. “How was she?” was the first thing he asked. Concern was evident in his tone. Aaron didn’t know Kinsley any better than anyone else on the team, but she was important to Abigail, so she was important to him. “Angry,” “Damn, she needs to talk to someone.” Carter heard a snort he was sure came from Abigail. “I don’t see her talking to anyone. At least not yet.” “She’s spiraling out of control.” “You won’t get any argument from me.” It was easy to see Kinsley was losing her grip on her anger. Who knew what would happen to her if the rage overtook everything. He liked seeing the fire in her eyes and her determination, it was the shadows lurking underneath that scared him. “She’s sleeping less and less. I can hear her screaming on the other side of the house when her nightmares overtake her.” Aaron told him, his words hollow. Carter could only imagine. The woman could bellow like a Viking. He remembered that vividly when she was sparing with him. His mind drifted to other kinds of screaming. One in pleasure instead of anger. Damn, focus, Barnes. Think with your big head not your little head. Well, not so little. Carter cleared his throat. Thinking about his d**k size was not productive at the moment. “I have an idea.” “I’m willing to try anything at this point. I know she’s only been here a few weeks but she’s getting worse not better. I’m almost ready to send her back to DC and demand she sees someone.” Now it was Carter’s turn to snort. “Good luck making that woman do anything she doesn’t.” “You’re right, she’d serve up my balls to me extra crispy.” “That’s an image I don’t need in my mind.” Aaron barked with laughter. “Don’t act all prude on me, Doc. You know you like it.” “And on that note I’m hanging up.” “No, wait.” “What?” Carter asked, he had no intention of hanging up. He just wanted to give Aaron grief. Serious, the dude had no boundaries sometimes. “What’s your plan.” “Kinsley has pent up anger. Fighting with her she seemed more focused. It allowed her to release that energy.” It also had turned them both on to the point they were horny teenagers. If Carl hadn’t walked in when he did, he didn’t even need to finish that thought. He would have had that woman stripped bare and f*****g her into the ground in the next few minutes if Carl hadn’t shown up. There was a time and place for that kind of intimacy and on a gym floor in a public place wasn’t one of them. He had every intention of picking back up where they left off. “So, your plan is to spar with her as some kind of therapy?” Aaron asked questionably. “That’s perfect.” Abigail’s voice said faintly in the background. “It is?” Aaron and Carter asked at the same time. “Jinx,” Abigail giggled. Carter rolled his eyes. He was sure Aaron was doing the same thing. The woman was a brilliant agent and rivaled Aaron when it came to computers and yet she was sure a child at times. It was almost cute in a sometimes annoying way. “Oh come on, it was funny.” She whined proving his eye rolling theory. “Sure, sure.” Aaron said placating her. Abigail huffed. “I know Kinsley, conventional doesn’t work for her. You have to think outside of the box, but Carter if you want this to work you have to make her think it was her idea.” “Why me?” Why not him? Because they would never get anything accomplished. As soon as he saw her in a tank top and spandex he would be a goner and they would be getting a whole different work out done. His d**k twitched in agreement. Ugh, this thing was never going to go down. He needed to go home and take care of it. “You’re the only one she talks to and can’t intimidate.” “Mike can’t be intimidated.” Why was he suggesting other people to work with Kinsley? It was his idea. He liked spending time with her. that was the problem. With Kinsley the line was blurred. He’d never stay focused long enough to work with her. The gym just proved that. She needed someone she wasn’t attracted to so she could stay focused. He went over a mental list of all those that could. There was Mike but he was never around outside of training. Something fishy was going on with him but that was a mystery for another day. There was Heath, but Kinsley already showed she didn’t care much for him so that would be a waste of time. Everyone else was busy with their girlfriends or fiancé. Oh how the times had changed. It seemed like only yesterday they were all bachelors only living to train and go on the next mission. Now they were planning a wedding and a baby. “It was your idea.” Aaron’s tone didn’t broach argument. “Fine,” he put on a show of sounding annoyed. They didn’t need to know how much he liked her. He wasn’t convinced this was a good idea but the thought of anyone else getting to see Kinsley hot and flush in spandex made him see red. “Good, Kinsley just got home. I can tell by the slamming of the door.” Uh oh. Would she tell them what happened between them? It wasn’t like they had anything to hide, they were both consenting adults, but Kinsley had looked rather embarrassed when she left. “I have to go. I need to shower and run a few errands. I’ll stop by later to talk to Kinsley about this working out together thing.” He had a full gym in his basement. It would allow them privacy. Angry voices were heard in the background. “Good idea, sooner the better. Have to go and defuse a bomb.” Aaron hung up as the shouts were getting louder. Carter was glad he wasn’t there for that. Kinsley had a short fuse these days and it was getting shorter by the day. Aaron had it right calling her a bomb. The sooner they started her training the better. Carter drove home showering and eating quickly so he could get his errands done and get to the house quickly. He had no idea what kind of mood Kinsley would be in when he showed up, but he was ready either way. At least he hoped he was.