Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

If she’d just met Cole she’d be half in love with him.

Only she hadn’t just met him. She’d met him years ago as her sister’s fiancé. Clara had been deceived by Cole’s false wonderfulness, too. What would her sister say if she knew Amelia was being suckered in by her ex-fiancé? That she’d been suckered in years ago and wondered if she’d truly ever gotten over her infatuation with him?

“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were softening where he’s concerned.”

Amelia shot another glare at her bunkmate. “You’d be wrong if you thought that.”

Okay, so she’d just been thinking she was being suckered in, but no way would she admit that out loud.

“Would I?” Suzie asked, her thin black brow arched high.

“Just because I have to work with him, it doesn’t mean I like him.” Or that she couldn’t appreciate his positives.

Suzie and Amelia both turned back to stare ahead. At Cole.

His calves were taut as his legs worked up and down. Sweat dampened his T-shirt, causing the cotton material to cling to his back, his well-defined back that tapered from wide shoulders to a narrow waist to tight buttocks and strong thighs. Oh, heaven.

Amelia’s tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.

Okay, Cole was hotter than the Sahara Desert.

Way hotter.

She even found the sweat glistening on his skin and dampening his T-shirt oddly appealing. What was wrong with her? She did not find sweaty, overheated men appealing.

Amelia’s machine beeped, indicating she’d hit peak speed.

“I heard you and he talked today,” Suzie pressed, glancing toward the control panel on Amelia’s elliptical and whistling.

“You heard that?” She tried to drag her gaze away from Cole. And failed. Which was okay, since she was only looking straight ahead, right? To not look at him she’d have to twist her head and that would be poor body mechanics.

Never let it be said a Stockton had poor body mechanics.

“Oh, yeah.” Suzie laughed. “I heard that and more.”

“More?” Amelia gulped, knowing she was the butt of ship gossip. Great. “What more?”

“You think everyone in Medical hasn’t seen the way he looks at you? That they haven’t noticed the way you watch him when you think they aren’t paying attention?” Tsking, Suzie shook her head. “You should know better than to think you could get away with something like that.”

“How does he look at me?”

Suzie’s lips curled upwards. “Of everything I said, that’s what caught your attention? That he looks at you?”

She shouldn’t care, shouldn’t be holding her breath, waiting. Should be more concerned that others had noticed. Yet…

“How does he look at me?” she stage-whispered, her gaze finally managing to shift from Cole to her bunkmate.

Suzie’s black eyes bored into Amelia, her voice purred with envy. “Like he wants to dip you in chocolate and nibble his way to the center.”

Amelia let that digest, fought to control the tiny spurts of anxiety. They were spurts of anxiety, not hope.

“Amelia?” Suzie questioned when she didn’t respond.

“He doesn’t want to do that to me,” she denied, because she couldn’t verbalize that Cole wanted her, that deep down she wanted him to want her. How could she want Cole to dip her in chocolate and nibble his way to her center? That would be wrong on so many counts. “That’s crazy. Cole can’t want me.”

Because if he did, how would she deal with her own treacherous unresolved feelings?

“I wouldn’t say that.”