Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

CHAPTER SIX

AMELIA’S breath gushed out at the bombshell Cole dropped between them. “What do you mean, you want me?”

He stared down into Amelia’s big brown eyes and thought her the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Yes, her hair was swept up in its usual ponytail and sweat glistened across her brow and ran down her neck, but she was beautiful.

Maybe because of the way those big brown eyes stared up at him. Maybe because of the way there was a growing acknowledgment that neither of them could stop what was happening between them, just as they hadn’t been able to stop what had grown unbidden between them years ago.

A friendship that had developed into something much deeper.

“You know w

hat I mean.”

“Do I?” Her chin lifted, letting him know she wouldn’t go down without a fight.

When would she figure out fighting with her was the last thing he wanted?

“I told you how I felt about you.”

“The night you came to my dorm room and declared you’d fallen into lust with me despite the fact you’d been scheduled to walk down the aisle with my sister?”

He winced. Was that how she’d taken his confession that night? Lust? He wanted to deny the crude description, but she was right. He had felt an undeniable physical attraction to her, but lust didn’t begin to cover the depth of his feelings.

“That isn’t what I said.”

“No?” Her brow arched and her chin raised another defensive notch. “That’s distinctly how I remember your pitiful attempt to get into my bed that night.”

“Pitiful?” A blast of wounded pride hit him. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Her eyes narrowed with renewed anger and Cole instantly wished he could take back his biting words.

“You may have gotten into my bed.” She spoke low, succinctly, coldly. “But I came to my senses before any real damage occurred.”

Yes, she’d stopped him, told him she never wanted to see him again. Ever. She’d told him she hated him. She had hated him. Of that, Cole couldn’t be mistaken. The look in her eyes when she’d ordered him out of her life had been murderous.

That look was what had kept him away from her for the past two years. What man wanted to put himself in the line of fire for sure rejection?

Yet wasn’t that what he’d done by coming aboard her ship? By putting his career on the line to do so?

He couldn’t explain that one even to himself.

He glanced around at the other crew working out. No one seemed to be paying them the slightest attention, except for Suzie, and even she was out of earshot as long as they kept their voices low. Still, their conversation wasn’t meant for possible public consumption.

“This isn’t the time or place for this discussion.”

Seeming to recall where they were, Amelia took a measured breath, her chest rising and falling with remembered anger. They’d made progress today, in the sick ward, but now she looked ready to rip her peace treaty to shreds and declare all-out war.

“I’m not sure we should ever have this particular conversation,” she said between straight, gritted teeth.

“Make no mistake. This is one conversation that’s long overdue and unavoidable.” One they should have had years ago. “Eventually, we’ll have to face what’s between us. Past and present.” But she wasn’t ready to admit as much yet and he’d been a fool to try to push her into doing so. “It would be nice if we could forget everything we knew about each other and start over. Without the past clouding the way you view me.”

“Short of a case of amnesia, I don’t see that as a possibility, do you?”

“You want me to hit you over the head and see if that works?” he offered, half-serious as if he thought that would erase the past, clear the slate. He wanted the opportunity to get to know Amelia, to explore the attraction between them.

“Just being near you is like constantly being hit over the head,” she muttered, not looking at him.

“With good thoughts?”