Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

“You’re so barking up the wrong tree,” the dentist advised, following his gaze to where Amelia tightened the lid and dropped the water bottle back into her bag. “Not meaning to be blunt, but she can’t stand you.”

“I know.” He sighed. “She has reason.”

“She told me.”

Cole cut his gaze to her. “She told you?”

“About her sister and you? Yep.”

That surprised him.

Apparently reading his mind, the woman went on. “I doubt she’s told anyone else you were a runaway groom, though. Shame on you for that, by the way!” Her smile softened her reprimand. “Amelia and I are bunk mates.”

Runaway groom? He cringed at the description. Yes, he supposed that’s how Amelia saw him. He glanced toward the woman two machines down. “You’re Amelia’s bunk mate? That’s good to know.”

Her expression was positively wicked. “In case you ever want to visit?”

“In case I ever want to visit,” he repeated, his gaze going back to where Amelia lifted a dumbbell from its rack. Her toned flesh flexed as she extended the weight, muscles shifting temptingly with her movements, making Cole think of other ways her muscles would shift with movement.

Snorting, Suzie’s gaze followed his. “Yeah, right. She would have you court-martialed if you so much as made a pass at her. Even if she didn’t think you were the scum stuck to the bottom of the boat, she wouldn’t be interested in an on board romance. Her career means too much to her for that.”

Not that on board sexual activities didn’t occur, but one could lose everything if caught. Much better to take their time aboard ship to reestablish their friendship and earn her trust, as planned. Not destroy his career as well.

Besides, the only reason his request to serve aboard Amelia’s ship had been granted was that they both valued their careers enough not to put them as risk. Of that, he had no doubt. When they were at port call, off ship, well, all was fair in lust and war, but Cole hadn’t pointed that out.

Suzie eyed him expectantly, waiting for his comeback, waiting for him to tell her what she wanted to know. What she already knew because she could see his interest in Amelia as plain as the nose on his face.

If he played his cards right, she might just be on his side. An ally behind enemy lines. Something he hadn’t counted on. Not beyond the person who’d helped him get on board.

A slow smile spread across his face. “What I want to know is whether or not you think I’m the scum on the bottom of the boat, too?”

Obviously pleased by his response, the woman laughed. “I think you’re far worse than the scum on the bottom of the boat, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to like you, anyway.”

His gaze went back again to where Amelia curled a free weight, her muscles flexing beneath her sleek skin.

“At least that’ll be one person in your room who likes me.”

But if the way Amelia kept casting surreptitious glances toward him was anything to go on, she felt the chemistry between them that hadn’t let up with time and distance.

He understood she was confused. Understood her dislike of him. Understood she was going to combat the underlying attraction between them.

Cole was ready for the fight of his lifetime and when all was said and done, he’d win Amelia’s forgiveness.

The stakes were too high not to win.

CHAPTER FOUR

COLE had been on board the USS Benjamin Franklin for two weeks and had fallen into a routine. He scheduled procedures early morning, finished in the surgery suite on most days by ten, and then hung out in the sick ward “helping” until all patients had been examined.

Amelia could do without his kind of help.

His kind of help distracted her.

Made her feel as if she were in need of a doctor herself.

Tachycardia, shortness of breath, dizziness, flushing, mental cloudiness, thick tongue, tingling breasts.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic that he was having such an effect on her body. Her breasts did not tingle. It was more like an itch. And not the kind she needed scratched. At least, not that kind of scratching. No, it was more the allergic-to-jerks, stay-away-from-me type of itch. A reaction one had when something was harmful to their health. Yeah, right.