by Julie Rowe
“Yes, and also smart and determined. We haven’t seen the last of him.” Max fixed her with his best commanding officer glare. “Enough questions. Sleep.”
“Yes, sir.” Though she didn’t really think she was going to, thanks to all the not-so-nice mental images going through her head.
* * *
Four days later, she wished she were back on that gurney asleep.
As soon as Max had declared her fit, which wasn’t until her IV antibiotics were done, she was on a helicopter to Kabul, then a plane to the base in Bahrain. Max and a few handpicked doctors were doing their best to predict where Akbar might go next with his anthrax bombs. Max had also requested the assignment of several Green Berets to the Biological Response Team for nine to twelve months, depending on how things went. General Stone green-lighted his request and Grace found herself with a shadow named Smoke.
Sharp was nowhere to be seen. Or heard from.
She’d seen him last at Bostick. He’d waved at her, but hadn’t gotten any closer than that. She’d waved back and waited for him to come back, to talk to her, but he never did.
At first, she was irritated, then angry and finally pissed off that he didn’t even say goodbye before he left on whatever secret mission he was on. Goddamn SF soldiers and their war games.
Smoke hadn’t said more than six words to her since he’d arrived, just stared at her like she was supposed to be doing something other than preparing for another bioterrorism attack.
His silence was driving her crazy.
“What’s gotten you so annoyed, Smoke?” she asked on the second day he’d been following her around. “And don’t give me any more of your stoic stares. Out with it.”
“Sharp,” was all he said.
“Sharp?” All her frustration and anger boiled out of her. “You mean the guy who disappeared without a see you later or goodbye? That Sharp?”
“You know what happened,” Smoke said.
“What happened? Of course I know what happened. I tried to save that moron’s life by running away with a grenade full of the worst poison known to man and he followed me. He refused to let me—” she choked on a sob “—save him. I thought I killed him, Smoke. I really did. So, you know what I did? I told him I loved him. And after that, he just up and disappeared. He left.” She glared.
Smoke frowned back at her. “That’s not what happened.”
Fabulous. Not even Smoke believed her. “Fuck you and the tank you rode in on.” She’d had enough. She’d request a soldier she didn’t know, someone who wouldn’t make her sad just knowing he was in the room.
She strode away, determined to find Max.
Smoke grabbed her arm. “Wait.”
She tugged at her arm and after a moment he let go.
“You didn’t know Sharp was arrested?”
“Arrested? For what? When was this?” She advanced on Smoke, poked him in the chest and all but yelled, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He broke a lot of regulations.”
“So what?”
“He made your relationship with him known to...everyone.”
“Our relationship?” They hadn’t really sat down and figured that out. She loved him, but she didn’t know if it was going to go somewhere or not.
“You’re engaged.”
What? “How can we be engaged when I never gave him an answer!”
Smoke shrugged. “He wasn’t going to let some stranger have final say regarding your treatment while you were unconscious.”
“Okay.” She held up a hand. “Let me think for a minute.” She paced back and forth a couple of times. “Sharp was arrested and taken away to face charges for the regulations he broke helping me?”
Smoke nodded once.
“Why the hell wasn’t I arrested?”
“He took full responsibility. Said you were acting as a doctor, which took precedence over military regulations.”
He’d saved her. Again. “That sneaky bastard.”
“Stupid, if you ask me.”
She snorted. “Just you wait, Smoke. You’re going to meet a woman who makes you sing like a canary someday.”
He looked at her with puppy-dog eyes. “That’s mean.”
Max was arguing with General Stone when she caught up to him. Perfect, two birds she was happy to stone.
“Excuse me, sirs,” she said, marching up to them wearing her best I’m a good girl—no, really smile. “I have an urgent request for a piece of equipment.”
“Equipment?” Max asked.
“Yes, sir.” She turned to the general. “It’ll require your approval.”
“Oh?”
She turned up the wattage on her smile.
“Well, if it’s urgent and you can’t live without it...” General Stone shrugged.
“What is it?” Max asked.
“Sergeant Jacob Foster.” She dropped the smile and fixed both men in place with a glare that would have done Sharp proud. “I absolutely refuse to work without him.”
“Well, Major, he’s not—”
“Yes, he is,” she interrupted. “No insult intended, General Stone, but he’s the one man I trust without question. Smoke’s like a brother to me, but he asks too many questions.”
“Smoke asks too many questions?” General Stone sounded like he couldn’t believe his ears.
“Yes, sir. He does. Chatters on like a chickadee. Drives me crazy.”
Both men stared at her with their mouths hanging open. Finally Stone pulled himself together and said, “The thing is, Major Samuels, Jacob Foster isn’t under my—”
“General,” Max interrupted. “I think I can deal with the major’s request. Thank you, sir.”
Stone gave Max a short bark of a laugh and started walking. “I’m happy to turn it over to you.”
As soon as he was out of earshot, Grace said, “I don’t care what jail or brig you have to spring him from, I want Sharp here.”
Max’s exasperated expression would have made her laugh if she wasn’t so damn angry. “Sometimes, Grace, you need to stop and think.”
“What does that mean?”
“Or let people finish their sentences.”
“Okay. Sorry. When can Sharp be here?”
“You know what the general and I were arguing about just now?”
“No.”
“You and your Sharp.”
“Oh.”
“Jacob Foster is no longer an active member of the military.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Grace stared at Max, her lungs stalled, her heart laboring and pain radiating from her chest throughout her body. “It was my fault. Whatever regulations he might have broken, he broke them for me or because of me. I can’t believe how fast this happened. Why didn’t anyone talk to me before beginning proceedings against him?”
Max smiled at her. “Slow down. He wasn’t officially charged with anything, and no proceedings took place.”
“Then why?”
“In order to spare the army the time and expense of a trial on the laundry list of charges he was looking at, he agreed to accept an immediate honorable discharge.”
“But there were mitigating circumstances. A trial would have revealed that. Colonel Marshall was responsible for a lot of the miscommunication and—”
“That’s why it was an honorable discharge,” Max interrupted.
“So, he...he’s gone?”
“Not exactly.”
Grace opened her mouth, then closed it before asking carefully, “What does that mean?”
“The one regulation General Stone wasn’t willing to turn a blind eye to was the fraternization regulation.”
She opened her mouth again, and again, Max spoke first.
“Sharp made it clear you and he were in a relationship, and he wasn’t willing to pretend you’re not.”
“Oh.” There wasn’t much she could say to that, though it hurt far more to hear it than she expected. The wound in her chest had gotten a lot wider and bloodier.
“In fact, he told anyone who would listen, loudly, that you were his.”
Wait a second. He left, and on the way out the door, he warned everyone away from her? They’d made no promises to each other, other than the kind one lover makes to another. “His what? Doctor? Girl Friday?”
“My everything.”
Grace turned.
Sharp stood ten feet away, dressed in his dusty body armor over a clean uniform of the Biological Response Team. He had a full duffel bag slung over one shoulder and a shiny new sniper rifle in one hand. “Hey, Max. Everything squared away?”
“More or less. General Stone wasn’t all that happy about your involvement with my team until Grace tore a strip off him and demanded your participation.”
“Did he cave?” Sharp asked with a grin.
“Oh yeah,” Max said with a chuckle. “Not a peep out of him.” He nodded to Grace. “I’ll leave you two to get yourselves sorted out. We’re heading back to Bostick in about six hours to continue the investigation into Akbar and his anthrax strain. Be packed and ready to leave thirty minutes prior.” He walked away, leaving Grace staring at Sharp.
What the hell just happened?
Sharp gestured with his rifle toward her. “Where are your quarters?”
“What?”
“We need to have a conversation.”
He was right, they did need to have a talk. Though she might yell more than speak. She spun on her heel and led the way to her private quarters, which was a prefab room about eight by twelve feet. She’d had zero time to do more than to sleep there. As a result, it looked more like the inside of a deep freeze than a bedroom.
As soon as he was inside and the door closed, she started with the list of questions getting longer and longer in her head. “What happened? Where did you—”
Sharp dropped his bag and rifle on the floor, all while staring at her with eyes that damn near lit her on fire. The words coming out of her mouth halted as the intense need on his face ripped the power of speech from her.
Her diaphragm rose and fell like the bellows of a blacksmith while working steel.
He stepped back and, without taking his eyes from her, locked the door.
A sound escaped her throat, lost and mournful. “I thought you left me.”
A smile promising sin and sex, enough to feed her addiction for his touch, changed him from a stoic soldier into a man who was made to give pleasure. “You’re mine. I’m yours. Not negotiable.”
His words spoke to the primitive part of her, the part who wanted to scream to the world that he was hers as much as she was his. Never negotiable. “Good.”
They launched themselves at each other and somehow ended up on her narrow bed with him on top of her, his hands trying to pull her body armor off, while she attempted the same.
After a couple of seconds he tore himself away from her and attacked his own body armor. “Take it off,” he ordered her in voice so guttural she barely understood him.
She understood what he wanted though. What she wanted.
Skin, warm and smooth, over hard muscles.
She got her body armor off and tossed it to one side. Her shirt and bra went next. By the time she got to her pants, Sharp was back, naked, with shaking hands as he took over from her, yanking her pants down and off so hard they tore.
He kissed her everywhere, his mouth seemingly never satisfied, like hers.
She wanted to taste him everywhere, touch him everywhere, all at the same time.
He put his mouth on one breast, sucked in the nipple and lashed it with his tongue. It sent her into overdrive, a deep groan of need rising from her chest. “Sharp, I need...” She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think while his mouth worked her nipple, while his fingers sought out and circled the sensitive entrance to her body.
“What do you need, sweetheart?” he whispered, kissing his way over to her neglected breast. “Say the word and it’s yours.” His clever fingers dipped inside, then flicked her clit. Back and forth, back and forth, driving her need higher and higher until she felt like she was going to fly apart.
He sucked the nipple in and nipped it lightly with his teeth.
“You!” Good God, she was going to lose her mind. “I need you to fuck me.”
His fingers plunged deep, robbing her of words. She was on the precipice, on the very edge, and if he didn’t shove her over soon, she was going die.
“Holy fuck,” he whispered, pulling his hand away, pushing her onto her back and making room for himself between her thighs. “I can’t wait, you’re so wet. Tell me it’s okay, Grace.” He put his forehead against her chest and moaned, “Jesus, tell me to stop.”
“No!” If he stopped, she’d fly apart and never find her way home again. “I want you. Please, I need you. I’m yours and you’re mine.” She wrapped her hand around his cock. Christ, it really was as big as she remembered.
He growled something she didn’t understand and let her guide him to her.
He pushed in and her eyes damn near rolled back in her head. He pulled out and pushed in a little further.
Too slow. Too careful.
“Harder,” she begged. “Please!”
He lunged into her as far as he could go, pulled out and did it again and again. Every stroke fed the fire inside her. Fed her need.
Her orgasm blasted her from the inside out with a heated pleasure she’d never experienced before. He powered through it, drawing it out until tears of pleasure rolled down her face.
She came back to reality to discover Sharp pistoning into her while he chanted in her ear, “Love you.” Over and over again. He groaned, stiffened and shivered over her.
Finally, his body relaxed against hers, though his breathing was still deep and fast. His hands stole around her as he rolled onto his side and he pulled her until she was pressed against him.
“Engaged?” she asked.
He grunted.
“Do I get a ring?”
He pushed himself up on one elbow and leaned over her. He brought her left hand to his lips and kissed her ring finger. “It’s in my pants.”
She watched him nibble her fingers with all the patience he’d lacked only minutes before. “I’m still...damaged,” she told him.
“So am I,” he replied. “I’m not scared of your scars, nightmares or your need for touch.”
He loved her. She could see it on his face, in his deep eyes and in the way he held her like she was precious.
He loved her.
Their next game of chess was going to be very interesting indeed.
She kissed his ring finger. “I’m not scared of your scars, nightmares or your need to protect.” She kissed him again. “I love you.”
His smile was happy. “Do you know when I knew I loved you?”
She shook her head.
“It was in the cave with Max and all those Berets. You were making decisions and planning your strategy to deal with Marshall and the anthrax design like a two-star. Your determination to see the job done and willingness to take the lead. So much compassion and smarts. All I could think was...hot damn, she’s the perfect woman.”
She remembered. She’d been so scared he was going to try to make her stay behind. “I knew I loved you when I had that grenade in my hand and if I told you I had it, you’d have sacrificed yourself for me. I couldn’t let you do it. I couldn’t imagine you dead and didn’t want to. It was my turn to save you.”
“You were pissed when Smoke and I turned up to ruin your pla
ns.” His smile made her think wicked, wicked thoughts. “You’re sexy when you’re all growly and doing the don’t fuck with me thing.”
Her hands skated over his chest and up around his neck. “Love me again?”
“Always, Grace,” he whispered against her lips.
Epilogue
Colonel Maximillian compared the genetic codes for the various anthrax samples taken from the village, the dead man who’d handed Grace the grenade and the grenades two other men were about to fire into the base before Sharp killed them.
An exact match.
The original strain was a common one found in nature, but it had been taken and its deadly properties magnified until it barely resembled its parent.
Thank God, massive doses of Cipro combined with other antibiotics were able to combat it. If that hadn’t worked, Grace and Sharp would be dead. As it was, more doses of the antibiotic cocktail were being stockpiled in military bases all over the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The threat of an anthrax attack still existed, but the American military and its allies were prepared now.
Akbar wanted more than preparedness. He wanted fear, panic and despair. Something told Max the other man wasn’t going to stop until he got it.
* * * * *
Coming soon from Carina Press and Julie Rowe
Captain Sophia Perry wants to make a difference—but saving the masses isn’t easy when the man tasked to protect her is so irresistible.
Read on for a sneak preview of LETHAL GAME,
the next book in Julie Rowe’s
BIOLOGICAL RESPONSE TEAM SERIES
About the Author
Julie Rowe’s first career as a medical lab technologist in Canada took her to the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta, where she still resides. She loves to include medical details in her romance novels, but admits she’ll never be able to write about all her medical experiences because “No one would believe them!” In addition to writing contemporary and historical medical romance, and fun romantic suspense for Entangled Publishing and Carina Press, Julie has short stories in Fool’s Gold, the Mammoth Book of ER Romance, Timeless Keepsakes and Timeless Escapes anthologies. Her book Saving the Rifleman (book #1 of War Girls) won the novella category of the 2013 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. Aiding the Enemy (book #3 of War Girls) won the novella category of the 2014 Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence. Her writing has also appeared in several magazines such as RT Book Reviews, Today’s Parent and Canadian Living. You can reach her at julieroweauthor.com, on Twitter, @julieroweauthor, or at her Facebook page, facebook.com/julieroweauthor.