“Right.” He stayed silent while the man did his job and left again.
Quiet descended for a few minutes. He tuned out and shifted his thoughts to what had happenedup in the hillside. He went over every detail, analyzing what they could have done differently. All the teams had been running into more and more violent resistance, keeping all of them on their toes.
He thought he had his thoughts mastered. A simple redirection with appropriate breathing practice could center him. When he heard her footsteps, he was in a calm place with a semblance of control.
The curtain pulled back. Dr. Apple Blossom’s scent obliterated his tranquility and hit him in the solar plexus. She slid onto her rolling chair, pushed toward him with a tablet, and pointed at his X-rays. He bent to look. The light spot in a sea of dark outlined the metal.
She started talking immediately. “Doesn’t look too bad. It is only a tip. Let me get set up, and I’ll get this out. I’m more worried about where that knife has been and how much we’re going to have to do to fight infection. We’re going to give you maximum doses of antibiotics and hope it’s enough. Are you allergic to anything?”
“No.”
Not making eye contact with him, she rose, set the device on the counter, and turned to the sink. She flicked on the water in a move that said she’d done it hundreds of times and proceeded to take several long minutes rewashing her hands.
To his disgust, his gaze wouldn’t shift off her ass. Rounded, firm, and graspable. His fingers itched to lift her, to test the fit of her legs around his waist. Some men would have made a move, but not him. He had strong boundaries against harassment and a code for respecting women. They were sweeter, tougher, and plainly smarter in most situations, and he lived by a vow that he wouldn’t be one ofthosemen.
Pressing his lips together, he forced his mind to math problems. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why his body was running amok.
Her strawberry blonde hair was in a high ponytail with fine tendrils loose around her neck. The deep green scrubs should have made her appear to be a shapeless sack, but they caressed curves that were not disguisable. Her breasts were enough to make him sweat, and he hadn’t even seen or touched them yet!
His legendary concentration and control, the product of years of dedicated practice, wavered. He closed his eyes.
The rubber snapped to her hands. The tray squeaked as it rolled toward him. The metal clinked on the stand. He tensed, anticipating her touch, then opened his eyes. He forced his body to relax – a trick he’d learned during Hell Week and used frequently to keep flexible in the field.
“Still feeling numb, LT?” Her quiet voice soothed and rioted simultaneously.
“Yeah, Doc. It’s dead still.”
“Good. You let me know if you start to feel anything, and we’ll shoot you up with some more local anesthetic. Let’s get started, shall we?”
He knew she meant the work on his leg, but his brain flashed to naked skin and deep thrusting…kisses.
§§§§
Hands shaky, breasts achy, Cait quietly searched for her composure. God, she’d touched his hip without thinking. It’s what she did with most patients to give them comfort, but that electric zing ricocheted through her system and wouldn’t dissipate. Christ. She had a Berkley Medical Degree and an Army residency, plus years of Army service with two tours here in Afghanistan. It wasn’t her first time in theater. She’d treated hundreds of men, and she’d never been zapped by one before. God, she wanted to touch him …in a ton of places that weren’t even professional for her to be thinking about.
Pulling the elusive piece of metal from the lieutenant’s rock-hard tendons proved a more difficult task than she anticipated. Patience, shehad a ton of it, and if what she was attempting saved weeks of recovery, she stayed all in. One of her quirks remained to accept challenges – testing herself by performing difficult or impossible tasks. Plain speaking, putting people’s bodies back together sparked the continued growth of her skills. She was always up to the challenge of performing simple repairs and complicated processes.
She cleared her throat, noting his tense position and the likely reason for the discomfort. “Going slow here, LT. I know you’re uncomfortable, but I don’t want to accidentally nick anything.” She snapped her mouth shut; he didn’t need a play-by-play.
The LT groaned. “Doc, that didn’t help me.”
She looked away from the wound and noted the slight flush on the man’s face. “Sorry, didn’t want you feeling the need to squirm. Happens to me all the time with men patients.” Gads, Cait.Shut up.
“Since this is a new experience for me, I can safely tell you this is not something that happens all the time. Frankly, the only time I get naked with a woman…” The man bit off his words. “Sorry. Sexual harassment rules prevent me from saying what I’m thinking.”
Now she was mortified. “No apology necessary. I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I need you to relax.The tendon is already tight from the injury. Added tension will make it harder to MacGyver the tip out.”
The LT snorted. “Always nice to know when a doctor is experimenting on me using a 1980s television show.”
She chuckled. “Okay, that was the wrong word, LT.”
“Would you call me Hunt, please? Seems we should be on a first name basis.”
“You can call me Cait or Mike.”
“Mike?”
“Cait Michaels or Doctor Mike.”
