His to Protect

by Karen Rock

  “Always thought it’d be me first.” Frank crossed his arms over his broad chest and a muscle jumped in his jaw. “All that time I spent worrying I’d make a widow of her.” His voice trailed off and his fingers drummed on his sleeves. At last his hands dropped back into his lap and he looked up. “Guess you never know.”

  “No guarantees in life.”

  Frank exhaled in a deep sigh. “The only thing you can—and should—count on is the love of a good woman. I was lucky to have the time I had with her. Wouldn’t wish a moment of it away. When you find it, don’t waste it, son.”

  He shoved back his chair and both men stood. Mark watched the door swing shut behind the captain long after they’d shaken hands and Frank had strode away.

  Back in his seat, he stared at his food and let his mentor’s words sink in. Flying during the hurricane operation had helped him come to terms with what’d happened to Jeff. But being with Cassie, someone who understood his lowest, darkest moment—shared it, too—had pulled him apart and put him together again.

  Maybe the time had come for him to quit denying himself what he desired, punishing himself for what he couldn’t change, guarding himself against future hurt. With Cassie, he’d felt like the hero he’d tried to become. Saw that he could be that man again.

  Most of all, he now saw that he’d been a damn fool. Don’t waste a minute, Frank had advised.

  Mark looked at his watch and thought of Cassie. How much time had passed since he’d last seen her? Too much.

  Unknowingly, his old mentor had given Mark the best advice of all. Without Cassie, his days had shrunk somehow. She was a score on his heart. Had been from the moment her iridescent blue eyes met his at Mayday’s. She’d dragged him from the dark that night and hadn’t let him retreat into it since. She leveled him out. Gave him perspective. Showed him the path to forgiveness, and he was a stronger man for it.

  A better man because of her.

  Had he been wrong to break things off? Could he have her in his life after all?

  After Jeff’s death, Cassie had coped with her loss by running toward what’d killed him rather than away. That took courage and guts, which he admired about her, along with her big heart. What a fool to toss it away because of anxiety over things he couldn’t control.

  Mark grabbed his tray and loaded it onto the moving runner. When he turned, he barreled into a junior officer.

  “Hey, what’s the...? Oh. Sorry, sir.” The younger man jerked and saluted when he caught sight of Mark’s name tag.

  What’s the hurry? Mark completed the thought silently, shoving through the commissary’s doors and pacing down the hall, his fast walk becoming a jog that made his pulse jump.

  Cassie.

  * * *

  CASSIE HOPPED OFF the Jayhawk and jogged beside the stretcher bearing the severely burned sailor her crew had rescued, along with his three mates, twenty minutes ago.

  Medics rushed to meet her on the wet tarmac, radios hissing on their belts. Their neon uniforms reflected the nearby ambulance’s spinning blue light.

  She reported out quickly in the chilly, unrelenting drizzle, handed over her notes and then backed away as they loaded the critically injured man into the transport. They’d already arranged for him to be airlifted to MedStar’s burn center and she sent up a silent wish that his condition wouldn’t destabilize on the trip.

  Blood pumping in her ears, she watched the shrieking vehicle disappear as water streamed down her face, dripping off her nose. Nearly light-headed with adrenaline, she forced herself to turn away. To let go. One week on her new job and she’d already learned the toughest part...handing her rescues over and stepping back.

  Just as she had with Mark...

  Her shoes squelched in a puddle and soaked her socks as she headed back to her quarters. Wanting some time to cool down, she waved off the club car that slowed beside her, her crew members offering a lift.

  A spray of water kicked up from its wheels and drenched her further.

  Nice.

  It had rained for a solid two days, turning the skies the color of wet ashes, the grass to mud. When she reached the sidewalk’s water-darkened concrete, she stopped to smooth the soaked olive green fabric of her suit, squeezing out some of the water where she twisted it at her waist.

  Giving it up as useless, she continued on, not nearly as eager for bed as she should be. With her job still smelling like a new car, she had a hard time coming down from the high it gave her. She loved being a flight nurse. Every day she’d spent this month had only deepened her certainty that she’d chosen the right path.

  If only it hadn’t taken her away from Mark.

  She missed him.

  She wished she could see the broad-shouldered man with the lopsided smile who’d won her heart. But she wouldn’t surrender her life, too, as he’d wanted.

  Although, she reminded herself, he had recommended her for the training program. He’d supported her dreams even if he hadn’t wanted to be a part of her life. She wished she could have thanked him for that but there’d been no time. Her world had been moving at high speed ever since she’d applied for the program.

  Maybe she should call him. Just to thank him...

  How many times had she thought that in the past four weeks? Truly, she needed to put him out of her mind. But it wasn’t easy when he permeated her thoughts. Made love to her in her dreams every night until she was breathless and woke up empty, wanting him.

  Her drowned-rat reflection followed her in the rows of dark windows that made up the west side of the station’s main living quarters. A warm shower and bed. A glass of wine.

  That was what she needed.

  Then she spied a figure in the distance and jerked to a halt.

  “Cassie?” A tall man wearing a formal blue uniform stepped from beneath the overhang, his light golden eyes making her pulse sputter as he swept off his black-brimmed white hat.

  “Mark. What are you doing here?” She shoved back her streaming hair and tried to hide the catch in her voice. She couldn’t tear her eyes away—the dark hair, the way his shoulders fit in his uniform, those chiseled features that were so achingly familiar to her—its strengths and vulnerabilities, its shape and feel. A raw wound of emotion opened and a muffled sob escaped her. She pressed her arm against her mouth.

  He stepped close and she breathed in his spicy, masculine scent. “Are you okay?”

  She hesitated, her heart beating erratically as she nodded and met his gaze. His eyes, so long strained and unhappy, looked clear and relaxed. They studied her closely, as if he were storing every molecule of her away.

  “Can we talk? Go somewhere?”

  She looked down at her sodden clothes and decided on the spot that a shower was the lowest item on her priority list right now.

  He extended his umbrella to shield her. “Do you want to change? Dry off?”

  The tender, concerned look in his eyes nearly undid her, but she forced herself to shake her head. The rules about having visitors in her dorm were fairly strict, although she still wasn’t clear if a fellow serviceman from another base would be considered as such...

  Better not take the chance.

  Her hand trembled a little when she gestured to a bench beneath a distant open-air pavilion where she’d been told bands sometimes played.

  She huddled close under Mark’s umbrella, awkward in her soaked uniform, grateful for the sideways rain that cooled her burning cheeks. He’d hur
t her heart deeply and she needed to tamp down this rush of emotion. To take care to protect herself, despite how good it felt to be near him again.

  Despite the mud rising around her boots and squishing between her laces, her sole focus was on his strong hand pressed to the center of her back as he steered her to the structure.

  They ducked underneath the overhang and he led her to a spot on the built-in benches that circled the shadowed space. Overhead, pines whispered conspiratorially, their dense branches shielding the pavilion from the worst of the storm.

  Seated, his thigh rested mere inches from hers. Her whole body tingled with awareness.

  “We just rescued four off a sailing vessel,” she blurted, feeling proud, desperately wanting him to see what she’d accomplished.

  “Congratulations.” The baritone rumble of his voice made her insides vibrate. Off in the distance, the whirring of an incoming copter sounded. One of the other crews at this busy station.

  “I appreciate your letter of recommendation.” Despite the damp, her palms began to sweat. His thigh loomed so close. His big hand rested on his knee, and she thought about what it would feel like to place her palm inside his.

  “It was the least I could do. You were great on that mission with Dylan. Cool under pressure. You were born to do this.”

  She blinked at him, beginning to see that maybe he’d come here to do more than apologize. “Say that again.”

  He shifted closer and moved the hand closest to her, stretching that arm out along the back of the seat without quite touching her. “Cassie, I ran into an old friend who helped me see our relationship differently. I understand now that I was dead wrong to make you choose between me and your career.”

  “You didn’t want to worry about me.” She understood that much. Saw now that it was concern, not control, that’d led to their painful breakup.

  “And I haven’t stopped.” Behind her, Mark’s hand came to rest on her damp hair where it snaked down her back. She could feel the gentle tug against her scalp as he slid his fingers very lightly up and down its length. “But I realize now that you never know what the future holds. If trying to protect myself from the pain of losing you means not being with you—the most important person in my life—then I’ve already lost.”

  Her heart stuck in her throat and her skin hummed with pleasurable shivers.

  “What are you saying?” Her breathless voice didn’t sound like it belonged to her at all. Hope struck a small light that flickered to life inside her as she stared back at him, waiting for him to continue.

  “Not only do I support you as a flight nurse, I’m proud of you, too.” He slid his fingers under her hair to cup her shoulder in one hand. “I don’t want to lose you.” He traced wet patterns on her arm with the tips of her hair. Had he leaned closer? Cassie couldn’t quite breathe. Either that or she was holding her breath, waiting for him to kiss her.

  “I don’t want to lose you, either,” she managed, hypnotized by the promise in his light eyes. “No matter how far apart we are.”

  His hand stilled. “Are you sure?”

  “Completely sure.”

  “Because there’s a chance we may not have to worry about that.”

  Closing the gap between them, she edged over that last inch of seat; her thigh brushed his and her hip bumped him.

  “Why is that?” She stroked his cheek with shaky fingers, hardly daring to believe she might have shared her heart with a man who would do anything to care for it.

  From the deep pocket of his uniform’s overcoat, he produced a plastic bag containing papers. “I’m up for a change in duty stations and I can request to come here, with your consent.”

  She opened her mouth, but he pressed a finger to her lips. “There’s one more thing you need to know before you decide.”

  “Okay,” she mumbled against the finger now tracing her lips.

  “I love you,” he said simply and his eyes searched hers, his expression heartbreakingly vulnerable.

  Mark loved her. He really loved her. Everything else was a detail. Her heart swelled between her ribs, and her lungs burned.

  Closing her eyes, she thought of how he had felt, his breath mingling with hers, his arms around her, his body pressed tight against her. She thought of how hard he’d fought, every step of her journey, to keep her safe, how he would always protect her. She realized now that it wasn’t a bad thing at all, but a loving thing. And she knew she would do anything to shield him, too.

  “I love you, too, Mark.”

  His eyes blazed at her through the tangle of brown hair that fell across his forehead. He pulled her close, kissing a line from her cheek to her ear and down her neck, inciting shivers.

  “Please come.” She tipped her head back, enjoying the way the sensations chased down her spine.

  When he stopped kissing her, she stared at her onetime enemy turned lifelong love, and felt more complete than she’d ever been.

  “Right now?” His brow arched and a wicked gleam entered his eyes.

  “Do you know the policy about visitors?” she whispered, heady with the need to feel him inside her.

  “I know the policy at my hotel. How long before your next flight?” He grinned lazily, his eyes smoldering.

  “Sixteen hours.”

  His mouth lowered, hovering tantalizingly close. “Should be enough time...just.”

  He pulled her close and kissed her tenderly. Cassie’s eyes drifted closed and she melted against this wonderful man, who’d not only built her back up but helped her transform into something more, someone whole greater than the sum of her parts. She couldn’t wait to begin a future where they were both their own hero and each other’s.

  * * * * *

  Dylan Holt thought he’d left Kodiak, Alaska, and the girl who broke his heart, behind forever. But the Coast Guard has other ideas...and reuniting with Nolee Arnauyq may just be hot enough to warm the Bering Sea!

  Look for Karen Rock’s next sizzling UNIFORMLY HOT! story HIS LAST DEFENSE coming soon.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from HER HALLOWEEN TREAT by Tiffany Tiffany Reisz.

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  Her Halloween Treat

  by Tiffany Reisz

  1

  SHE WANTED TO blame her parents for naming her Jolene. Who did that? Who named their daughter after the most notorious other woman in country music? Once she’d learned who she was named after, Jolene became Joey and there was no going back. And yet just two days ago she’d learned the ugliest truth of her life—she’d been sleeping with a married man.

  For two years.

  Joey sighed and reached under her sunglasses to wipe a tear from her eyes.

  “Jo?”

  “Sorry,” Joey said.

  “You don’t have to be sorry, babe.” Kira reached over and squeezed her knee. “We’re almost to LAX. You need to stop somewhere?”

  Joey shook her head. “Keep driving. The sooner I’m out of here, the better. Thanks for getting me.”

  “I can kill Ben for you, too. I’m willing to kill Ben. In fact, I might do it even if you don’t want me to.”

  When Joey laughed it felt odd, and she realized it was the first time she’d laughed in over thirty-six hours.

  “Isn’t murder maybe overdoing it?” Joey asked.

  “Overdoing it? That piece of shit slept with you in Honolulu and with his wife in LA, and at no point in two years did he tell her about you or you about her? That is what happened, right? I didn’t make that up?”

  “No, that’s right.”

  “Then it’s not murder. It’s justifiable homicide. And don’t argue with me when I’m right. You know I am.”

  Joey didn’t argue. She couldn’t because it was all true. For two years Ben had been her boyfriend. They worked together. They played together. They slept together. She believed him when he told her how much he hated living in LA. That he treasured his time with her in Hawaii. He’d move there permanently if he could, but work wouldn’t let him. Blah blah blah. Lies, all of it. Lies she’d believed, which is why she routed her flight through LA so she could surprise him. And surprise him she did. She knocked on his door and his wife answered. Quite a surprise for them all.