Ranger's Baby Surprise (Special Forces Elite 2)

I finished my glass and put the rest of the bottle back in the fridge. I gave myself a smug grin that I had successfully not dunk the whole bottle.

I still had so much on my mind and wondered if talking things over with Savannah had only increased my agitation instead of calm it.

Either way, I would have a full day of taking care of a sick baby in the morning. I needed to get some sleep. I crawled into my bed and turned out the side light.

I laid there a few minutes just letting my mind wander. Hoping that it might lead me to drift off to sleep. Instead, it took me down memory lane. It was not wanted, but I let my mind go there anyway.

“I win again,” I said as I came up for air and touched the side of the pool.

"Not fair,” Hawk called from behind me.

He slowed his rapid strokes to a leisurely pull as he came up next to me. He wrapped me in his arms, and I relished the feel of his warm body in the cold pool.

“All you do is practice laps all day long. I'm not used to it.”

“I know,” I said with a wicked grin as I let my body easily fold into his. “If we did it your polo way I would just stand in the water and wait. That’s no fun.”

“You just jealous because I go for strength. It takes a lot of muscle to knock another guy down in the water,” he said with his cocky charm.

Hawk tightened his grip on me, and I felt him fiddle with the back of my swimsuit. He kissed me then, and I let him.

It was such a common assurance for me. To feel the water encompass my body and Hawk's lips on mine was like second nature. Even still, it would send fantastical sensations up and down my body.

I felt his hard erection pushing against the thin fabric between us.

“You know this is a public pool,” I said between kisses.

He stopped then and looked around the indoor pool on the college campus like he just realized for the first time where we were.

“We’re all alone,” he said as he took his kisses down my neck.

I heard myself giggling as if it was some far off echo. Like traveling down a tunnel, the memory started to fade from view.

Soon the giggles were replaced with soft crying. I came to my senses. I was back in my darkened room. Huddled in my bed hugging my pillow. I was the one crying.

7

It was pitch black. I couldn’t even see my nose in front of me. It made my heavy breathing all the louder. In the distance, I could hear the gunfire. It was much closer then it should have been.

I was still covered in blood. It wasn’t my blood, though. I was in the middle of surgery. It was just a clamping of an artery to stabilize the patient for airlift. One minute I was under the bright lights of our makeshift surgical tent and then next everything was black.

I had enough sense to realize it was some kind of bomb. It was close enough to knock me back and cover me in debris.

Now that my senses were slowly coming back, I realized that I was covered in various trays of clamps, lights, as well as the whole operating table. I felt around looking for the private.

I finally reached far enough that I touched flesh that wasn’t mine. The stretching sent a horrible burn up one leg. I had no care for the pain. The patient would bleed out if I didn’t see to his wounds. That didn’t even take into account any new wounds he might have received in the blast.

Scrambling around, I found one lamp still working face down in the dirt. Flipping it over, I illuminated the entire room, or what was left of it.

My vision was going in and out and now being more able to see around me I realized the shooting was much closer then I realized. Half the tent had collapsed on top of us the other half was open and ripped to shreds. I could see men all around shooting.

It made me pause for a minute. They were close enough that if I took just a few steps, I would touch one. Yet, the sounds of their guns were like a distant echo.

I felt up to my own ears and found more blood on my fingers. A part of my mind said ruptured eardrums, nothing to worry about now.

I saw the streak in the night sky. I heart the men shouting next to me but in the distance. Focusing on a face, I realized it was LT Franklin yelling at me. The streak was another incoming missile.

It all happened in an instant but seemed like slow motion. I lunged forward not caring for the ripping pain in my leg and covered as much as I could of the Army private.