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CHAPTER ONE

‘WOULD YOU LOOK at that? Sex in hard boots will do it for me every time.’ The female sergeant at Captain Sophie Ingram’s side ogled Captain Daniels striding across the dusty compound in their direction.

He was drop-dead gorgeous, Sophie admitted to herself as she tried to ignore the spark of arousal low in her body. A sensation she needed to shove aside. Working in Afghanistan was not the right time or place for liaisons. On a disappointed sigh, she told the military nurse, ‘I’m off sex, hunk or no hunk available.’

Kelly’s jaw dropped. ‘You’re kidding, right?’

‘Not at all.’

‘I mean, look at him,’ Kelly spluttered.

She did. He was built.

The Kiwi captain, who’d arrived in camp late last night, widened his eyes as his gaze cruised over her. That delectable mouth lifted at one corner. Guess that meant he’d heard her blunt statement.

So what? It was best put out there. Saved time and misunderstanding. He could think what he liked. She wouldn’t be hanging onto his every word in the hope of scoring during the three days he was in camp, helping out in the army hospital. Her last sexual experience had been something she didn’t want to remember—or repeat—and had started her considering celibacy. Except it seemed some parts of her body hadn’t got that message if the tightening in her belly and beyond was any indication.

‘Captain Ingram?’ The overly confident man stood in front of her, his hand outstretched in a friendly, yet provocative, manner.

Sophie nodded. ‘Yes.’ She took his hand to shake it but ignored the challenge staring out at her from the deepest pewter eyes she’d ever encountered. Neither would she acknowledge the rising tempo of her arousal. Sex was off the menu for the duration of her posting, no matter what. In her first weeks here a certain officer—now back home, thank goodness—had wooed her, then shown exactly what he thought the role of female personnel really was. Degrading didn’t come close. Joining the army for an adventure was one thing, being treated disrespectfully was another. She’d since seen enough other liaisons end messily to know sex was best avoided on tour.

But she groaned. Captain Daniels with his dark, cropped hair and knowing eyes would tempt her every time. ‘Welcome to Bamiyan NZ base.’

His eyebrow lifted in an ironic fashion. ‘This is my third—’

The air exploded. The rock-hard ground heaved upward, shoving Sophie’s feet up to her throat. Then she was airborne, her arms flailing uselessly, her head whipping back and forth. Slam. She hit the ground, landing on her back, the air punched out of her lungs, her limbs spread in all directions.

Stones pelted her. Dust filled her eyes and mouth. Breathing became impossible. Whizz. Bang. The air around her was alive, splintering as objects sped past her. Bullets? Fear gripped her. Who was firing at her? A heavy weight crashed over her, pinning her down. A human weight. What was happening? What had caused that explosion? Her heart beat so fast it was going to detonate out of her chest. Her ribcage rose higher and higher as she strained to fill her lungs with something purer than sand and dust. Her airway hurt. Her head hurt. Every single thing hurt.

‘Stay down,’ a deep, dark voice snapped.

She daren’t open her eyes to see who the man protecting her with his body was. Gulp. Cough. Dust scratched the back of her throat. Strong arms were on either side of her vulnerable head. Muscular legs held down her softer ones. The one and only Captain Daniels.

Around them the gunfire was sharp and loud, and dangerous. Then suddenly it stopped. But the shouting and yelling continued. Orders were barked. Screams curdled her blood. Racing footsteps slapped the ground. Fear flew up her throat, filled her mouth. Was this it? The end? Lying on a piece of dry, barren dirt in some place she’d barely heard of growing up in lush green New Zealand? No way. She’d fight to the last, would not die lying here defenceless and useless. Flattening her hands on the ground, she tensed, ready to push upward, to remove her human shield.

‘Easy.’ That voice was right beside her ear, lifting the hairs on the back of her neck. Almost seductive—if she hadn’t been terrified for her life.

Sophie squirmed, felt the muscles covering her body tighten.

‘Easy,’ he repeated a little desperately.

‘Let me up.’ She’d aimed for nonchalant, got light and squeaky. Damn. She was a soldier, supposed to be fearless. A little bit, anyway.

‘Wait.’

Sophie needed to know what was going on. Apart from flying bullets and a bomb exploding. Needed to assess the situation, see if she could move, find shelter, help someone. As a doctor she’d be required in the hospital unit. Squinting, she looked around to see if it was safe to move. And came eyeball to eyeball with Cooper Daniels.

Her heart stopped its wild pounding, stopped trying to bash its way out of her chest. Went completely still. Her lungs gave up trying to inhale as that intense grey gaze bored right into her, deep into places no one had been before. Places where she hid the vulnerability that directed her life. Shock ripped through her. Every muscle in her body seemed to twitch, tighten, loosen. Had she died? Been taken out by one of those bullets?

‘Captains, move. Now. Sir. Ma’am.’ Someone, somewhere above them, roared in a strained shout, ‘Get up off the ground. We’ve got you both covered.’

I’m definitely alive. Sophie pushed at Cooper, desperate to get away from him, to find safety, to regain her composure and see what needed to be done. There’d be casualties for sure.

The weight lifted from her body, a hand snatched at hers, hauled her upright in one swift, clumsy jerk. ‘Run towards the officers’ quarters,’ Cooper yelled in her ear as he tightened his grip on her hand. ‘The hospital’s a target.’

She ran, trusting him completely. But even as she ran she looked around, and gasped. Where the ground had been flat moments ago there was now a deep crater. An enormous dust cloud hovered above, blocking the sun’s intense heat. Otherwise everything looked weirdly normal—apart from the troops stationed on the perimeter, facing outwards with machine guns at the ready.

Forget normal. A body lay against the wall of the hospital block. Sophie shouted, ‘Kelly,’ and veered left around the destruction, aiming for the nurse.

Cooper pulled at her, tried to prevent her going in that direction. ‘Wait. It’s more exposed that way. Snipers will see you.’

Sophie got it. And wasn’t having a bar of it. She paused to lock her gaze on him, her heart rate steady, her lungs finally doing their job. ‘We need to get to Sergeant Brooks ASAP. Move her to safety.’ She had no idea where the calmness now taking over came from, but she was in control, able to do something for someone, and not be a victim being protected by this man.

His eyes widened and he shook his head as though to get rid of something. ‘You’re right. Let’s go.’

‘Kelly was standing beside me when that bomb went off,’ she muttered as they reached the nurse sprawled with blood pouring from a head wound and her legs at odd angles to her body. Dropping to her knees, Sophie reached to find a pulse, holding her breath as she tried to find any sign of life. Dread rose, and she quickly swallowed on it. Now was the time to step up and be professional; not let emotions override everything else. ‘Come on, Kelly. Don’t do this to me.’

A faint throb under her fingertip. ‘Yes.’ She slumped with relief. Her friend didn’t deserve to die. Sophie kept her finger in place for a few more beats, to be absolutely sure, and looked at Cooper, who was crouched beside her, gently probing Kelly’s head. ‘She’s alive. Get a stretcher out here. We’re going into surgery.’ Those legs looked in need of some serious work, as did the head injury. Blood also seeped into the ground from under Kelly’s right shoulder. They’d have to do a thorough assessment but she wasn’t hanging around out here for some sniper to pick them off.

‘Yes, Captain.’ Cooper was on his feet and racing towards the hospital unit, now all business, the challenging male no longer visible. Neither was the captain, aka general surgeon. He was just one of the battalion, doing the job of an orderly because she’d told him to. Impressive.

The man who’d thrown himself over her to protect her from those bullets. Very impressive. Sophie bit down on the flare of yearning and astonishment suddenly touching her again in that place she’d thought so well hidden. What was it about him that exposed her weak side far too easily?

‘Captain Ingram, we’ve got two casualties from the other side of the perimeter,’ a soldier called above the noise of troops clearing the area and checking on one another. ‘They’ve been taken into the medical unit for assessment. That unit’s now clear of danger.’

Nothing, nobody was ever completely out of danger, but she’d keep that gem to herself. Glancing up, she acknowledged the young man who was on his first stint overseas with the NZ Army and sometimes dropped into the hospital to talk or read to patients.

‘Thank you, Corporal.’ His face was chalk white. ‘Did you sustain any injuries, George?’

‘No, Captain.’

‘Right. Captain Daniels is bringing a stretcher so we can shift Sergeant Nurse Brooks. I’d like you to help with moving her.’ Shifting Kelly without doing more damage to her broken body was going to be a nightmare. Even if the unconscious woman couldn’t feel a thing, Sophie knew she’d wince at every single movement. She hated inflicting any pain whatsoever on someone. Her fellow surgeons often gave her grief about that, pointing out that any surgery was followed by some degree of pain.

‘Yes, Ma’am.’

Cooper skidded to a halt by their patient and lowered the stretcher carefully, as close as possible to her body. ‘It’s chaos inside. Injuries all over the place.’

Sophie swore quietly. Why? Who? How could anyone do this to another human being?

Get real, her inner voice snarled. You’re in a war zone. This is what you’re here for.

She knew all that, but reality sucked, brought everything into focus in full colour. On a ragged indrawn breath, she began organising the removal of Kelly from the hot, dusty outdoors and into the relative safety of the medical unit.

‘I’ll be operating with you,’ Cooper informed her as they carried the laden stretcher towards the theatre section.

Sophie glanced at him. ‘Surely you’re needed elsewhere.’

‘Orders. Kelly’s the worst off by far.’ Then he added, sotto voce, ‘If you don’t count the two deceased.’

Sophie’s stomach dropped. She’d been refusing to consider some of the soldiers might’ve been killed. ‘Do we know who they are?’

‘Not yet.’ Cooper locked his eyes on her. ‘If you want to go find out I can take over here.’

She shook her head. ‘No. Getting Kelly stable so we can evacuate her is more important.’

‘I agree.’ He gave her a smile that blew her heart rate into disarray again.

Suddenly Sophie felt light-headed, swaying on her feet as she stared at the floor. Reaching out for balance, her hand found Cooper’s shirt sleeve and gripped tight.

‘You okay?’ he asked, concern flooding his voice.

Dropping her hand as though it had been scalded, she growled, ‘Guess it’s the shock catching up.’

‘It does that.’

She was showing her inexperience in conflict situations. The past two months had been relatively quiet on the war front—near this base anyway. She’d been kept busy with small surgeries but nothing like this. Reaching Kelly, she started appraising the injuries more thoroughly.

‘Multiple fractures of both legs and the pelvis. As well as that dislocated shoulder and fractured skull.’ Sophie straightened up from the bed Kelly lay on, and looked at Cooper. ‘She needs an orthopaedic surgeon,’ which they didn’t have. ‘How much experience have you got in that field?’

‘Enough to do the basics, but the sooner we can get her back to Darwin the better.’ Cooper looked glum. ‘It’s going to be touch and go for her.’

‘Right. Let’s scrub up and do what we can.’ Sophie looked around the ordered chaos, saw the commanding medical officer on the far side of the room and made a beeline for him to explain the situation.

‘We’ve got two others needing evacuation back to Australia too,’ she was told. ‘A flight’s being arranged for two hundred hours. Do what you can in the meantime.’

At the sink Sophie scrubbed and scrubbed her fingers, her palms, the backs of her hands. Sand and dirt and blood stained her skin and had got beneath her nails. Anger at what had happened had her compressing her mouth to hold back a torrent of expletives that’d do no good for anybody. But how could people attack others like that? Used to fixing people, making them better, it was impossible to comprehend the opposite. Her muscles quivered, whether in rage or shock she wasn’t sure, but she needed to get them under control if she was going to be any use to her friend.

‘Easy.’ Cooper’s word of the day, apparently. A firm hand gripped her shoulder briefly. ‘Save the anger for later.’

Turning, she locked her eyes on those grey ones she was coming to recognise as special, or was that the man behind them? ‘There’s plenty of it, believe me.’

He nodded and dropped his hand to his side. ‘I know. It gets me going every time.’

‘Yet you keep coming back.’ She’d heard that Captain Daniels was on his third tour of duty over here. Then she saw the gleam in his gaze and knew he’d picked up on the fact she’d taken note of details about him. Telling him she hadn’t gone out of her way to ask anyone would only stroke his ego further so she spun away to dry her hands before holding them out to the assistant to put gloves on for her.

This whole sexual distraction was ludicrous when they were in the middle of an emergency. ‘Do we even know if the attack is completely finished?’ she asked no one in particular.

‘Apparently so,’ Cooper replied as he began scrubbing up, a smug look on his face.

He could get over whatever was causing that. They had surgery to perform, which left no room for anything else. Sexual tension included.

* * *

Uncountable hours later Sophie smothered a yawn as she leaned back against the outside wall of their little hospital and watched Kelly being transferred to the medic truck that would take her to the airfield. ‘Thank goodness she’s survived her first round of surgery,’ she murmured to herself, suddenly wanting to hear her voice in the rare stillness of the night.

‘She’s got a long way to go yet.’ Cooper loomed up beside her.

So much for talking to herself. ‘I’m worried about her left leg. I suspect she’s in for an amputation despite everything we did.’

‘That patella wasn’t broken, it was pulverised,’ Cooper agreed.

‘Kelly’s a fitness freak, runs marathons for fun.’ Not any more. Or not for a long time and after a lot of hard rehab. Tears threatened. ‘It’s so darned unfair.’

‘That’s war.’ His tone brooked no argument and suggested she needed to get used to the idea.

‘I know. But I’m hurting for a friend. Okay?’ Sophie straightened her back, hauled her shoulder off the wall, took a step away. She’d had enough of Mr Confidence, didn’t need reminding why she was here.

‘Don’t go. Not yet.’ Cooper’s voice was low and, strangely, almost pleading.

She hesitated. Going inside where everyone was still talking and crying and laughing as they finally came down off the high caused by shock over the attack and continual hours of urgent surgery turned her cold. But staying here, talking to Cooper Daniels, held more danger, and she’d had her fill of that already. ‘Think I’ll go to my bunk.’

‘I’ll walk you across the compound.’ When she opened her mouth to say no he talked over her. ‘We don’t have to talk. I’d like your company for a few minutes, that’s all.’

There were no arguments to that. None that she could find without sounding like she was making a run for it to put space between them. Anyway, she suddenly felt in need of company too. Talk about being all over the place. ‘Sure.’ She stepped away to put space between them and rammed her hands into the pockets of her fatigues. Then tripped on a small rock.

Cooper caught her, held her until she righted herself. Left his hand on her elbow as they slowly made their way through the throng of personnel wandering almost aimlessly back and forth on the parade ground they were crossing.

Out of the blue came the need to keep Cooper with her. His hand was reassuring against her unease. Leaning into him, absorbing the warmth of being with someone as tension held her in its grip, was a tonic.

Thump. She jerked around, staring into the night, seeing nothing more than she’d been gazing at a moment earlier.

‘It’s okay. Some clown tossed a metal bucket at the fence.’ Cooper slipped his arm over her shoulders, drew her in closer.

‘I thought...’

‘Yeah. Me too.’

‘Have you ever experienced anything like what went down here?’ She’d known signing up to the army, even as a medic, had its dangers, but this was the first time she’d been confronted with the truth of living and working as an army officer in Afghanistan. She needed to toughen up and put it behind her, not let every little sound or bang have her leaping out of her skin.

Tension tightened the muscles in the arm draped across her shoulders. ‘Once. Near Kabul.’

‘Why do you keep coming back?’ She’d signed up for one year and now she wondered how she’d make it through without turning into a freaked-out wreck.

‘Army orders.’

So he wasn’t up for personal conversation. ‘Of course.’ She pulled away, put distance between them again. Wrapping her arms around her body, she stared ahead at the officers’ quarters. Lights blazed out over the compound and the idea of going inside to be surrounded by her colleagues became repugnant.

‘Want to keep walking for a bit?’ So he could mind-read. Probably as well as he could twist a dislocated clavicle back into place, as he’d done for Kelly. Or as easily as he had most upright females drooling over him without a word.

Including her, she realised. He had to be the most sexy, gorgeous, mouth-watering man she’d met in a long time. Had she drooled when Kelly had pointed him out? Couldn’t have or he wouldn’t have come over to see her, dribble on the chin being highly unattractive.

‘I’ll take that as a yes, then.’

Huh? Oh, right. Unused to women not gushing out answers to his questions? ‘I won’t be able to sleep. My head’s spinning and my body aches from being tossed through the air.’

‘That was some landing you made.’

‘Didn’t you get thrown down?’ she asked, suddenly remembering how quickly he’d seemed to be with her, covering her as bullets had flown past. ‘Thank you for protecting me. That was incredibly brave.’

‘Honestly? It’s something I did without considering the consequences. You looked vulnerable and I just fell over you.’

Sophie sighed. ‘That’s how brave people act. They don’t weigh up the consequences. Wasn’t it random how the three of us standing together ended up in different places? Kelly copped the worst of the explosion and was thrown in the opposite direction from us. We’re relatively unscathed.’

‘Be grateful. We were needed in Theatre afterwards.’

‘True.’ They were heading behind the officers’ quarters into comparative quiet and some darkness. Sophie looked around, saw no one in the shadows, and stopped. ‘Maybe I should go back.’

‘Afraid to be with me?’ That earlier challenge was back, deepening the huskiness in his voice.

‘Not at all,’ she snapped, even as awareness of him teased her. He was large; tall and broad. It would be so easy to lay her head on that chest and wrap her arms around his waist. She knew she’d feel safe for as long as she held onto him. Shock made her gasp.

But she didn’t pull away from that tiny touch of his hand brushing against her thigh as he waited to see what she’d do. She couldn’t move. Hell, she didn’t even want to. Right this moment she needed him. Needed reassurance that she’d survived her first bombing alive and well. Needed to get close to another human, to share the horror and the recovery from the shock. Wanted more than to be held. Wanted to feel alive in his arms.

‘Sophie?’ Cooper growled.

She stepped closer, so near her breasts brushed his chest. Her nipples pebbled, throbbing with longing, echoing the sensations moistening her at the apex of her legs. She had never wanted a man so badly. Never. The afternoon’s attack definitely had a lot to answer for. ‘Cooper,’ she whispered in reply. ‘Please take me.’

‘Are you sure?’ he asked, the softness of his voice surprising her.

‘Absolutely,’ she told him fiercely. ‘Absolutely.’ Now. Not in five minutes. Now. She leaned closer, spreading the length of her body up the length of his. She immediately felt his hardness, knew his reciprocating need in an instant. Winding her arms around his neck, she raised her mouth to capture his.

Cooper took over. His hands spanned her waist, pulling her firmly against his body, so close they’d become one. His tongue pushed through to taste her, delving deep, taking charge.

Sophie lost herself in his kiss, his scent, his strength. Her hands grappled with tugging his shirt free. The need to touch his skin, to feel his heat against her palms was urgent. So urgent she slid her hands beneath the waistband of his fatigues, her fingers seeking that throbbing heat pressing into her belly. Wrapping her hands around him, she heard his groan by her ear.

‘Sophie, you are driving me over the edge too fast.’

‘I want fast.’ Huh? Who was this wanton woman in her skin?

Cooper obliged, shoving at her trousers until they slid to her thighs, and then he cupped her.

All the air in her lungs whooshed across her lips as his finger found her hot, moist pulse. One slide of that finger and she was clinging to him, losing all sense of reality. Or was this reality? Another slide and her legs were trembling, losing the ability to hold her upright.

So she wrapped them around Cooper, holding herself over that wondrous finger, ready for his next muscle-tightening touch. But instead Cooper slid two fingers inside her and a scream flew up her throat, caught by his mouth. Since when had she become a screamer?