Officer, Surgeon...Gentleman!

The way he looked at her made her wonder at just what else he wasn’t denying. Surely much more than the reasons behind his arrival on her ship?

“How did you manage to pull off being assigned here? Getting this exact assignment couldn’t have been easy. Getting Dr Evans transferred at the last minute, unless that was just a convenient coincidence, which I don’t believe. Who owed you a favor? Or maybe it’s you who now owes the favor?” She glared at him, battling with the knowledge that he’d gone to a lot of trouble to get assigned to her ship. Why? Even through her blaze of anger that one word shouted front and foremost. “Why? Because you wanted to sleep with me and I turned you down?”

“No.”

“Odd,” she continued. “For all your faults, I never pictured you as a suck-up, Cole, but you must have been to pull this off.”

At least part of her accusations must have hit their target as he didn’t say anything. Why had he gone to so much trouble? What had he hoped to gain?

Cole’s lips clamped shut. He wouldn’t tell her. No matter how many times she asked or how she insisted, he wouldn’t tell her how he’d managed to achieve his presence aboard the USS Benjamin Franklin. But why not? Surely getting what he wanted was a prize worth bragging about?

Only he hadn’t quite gotten what he wanted, had he?

But he’d been on the path. Seducing her into believing in his goodness, making her question what she thought she knew about him, seducing her into forgetting she thought he was a devil in disguise.

Disgusted that she’d let her guard down, that she’d let him in over the past few weeks, Amelia spun, heading toward the medical office, needing to be away from him in the hope of being able to think clearly, of being able to figure out what the truth of him actively pursuing an assignment on her ship implicated.

Why was he here? Doing this? Making her crazy? She wanted to scream over and over, wanted to grab his collar and shake him, make him tell her why he was doing this after he’d so easily walked away from her. Why was he torturing her so doggedly?

She’d just gotten inside the doorway, when Cole grasped her wrist and turned her toward him. Not roughly, but not gently.

“No, Amelia.” He denied her escape, his eyes blue fire. “This time you’re not running away. We’re going to have this out.”

What was he talking about? She hadn’t run away from him. He’d been the one to ask her to wait for him and then he’d left. Always, Cole had been the one to run.

“There is nothing to have out. Nothing.” She thrust her chin upward. “We’re colleagues, working on an aircraft carrier together. As soon as this deployment is finished, our association ends.”

“Our association will never end.”

Amelia laughed. “Oh, please. Quit being melodramatic. You’re acting as if we’re star-crossed lovers.”

His hold on her arm eased, his fingers feeling more a

caress than a restraint when he asked, “Aren’t we?”

Nervous tremors crept up her spine. “No. We’ve barely even kissed.”

Kisses she’d relived a hundred times, a thousand times, but still only the kiss the night of the rehearsal dinner and the kiss in her dorm room.

When she’d told him to leave, that she’d waited for him that night and he’d left her, that his window of opportunity had closed, he’d grabbed her much as he just had, pulled her to him, cupped her face and kissed her until she couldn’t breathe, until she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began, until she’d wanted nothing more than to fall back into her bed with him.

They had fallen back into her bed.

Cole’s long body had pressed her into the mattress, moving rhythmically over hers through their clothing, his hands caressing her everywhere at once, as if he’d waited a lifetime to touch her and couldn’t quite believe he actually was. Even now she could remember the silky softness of his shiny brown hair, could remember the tangy taste of his mouth, the fervor of his lips on her throat, the hard pressure of his body covering hers.

Amelia gulped, willing the memory to permanently vanish.

“Barely kissed?” He stared into her eyes for long moments, watching, waiting, then his gaze dropped to her mouth. “That’s a problem easily remedied.”

His head bent, but just as the heat of his breath touched her lips, burned her with more unforgettable memories, she turned her head.

“No.” She couldn’t do this. Wouldn’t do this.

She pulled free, moved away, turning her back to him, gulping air into her starved lungs. “Please leave.”

“You don’t want me to go.”

She turned, forcing herself to laugh in a mocking way. His eyes were so blue they pierced her. His chest rose and fell in unsteady drags of air. She took all that in, but didn’t allow herself to soften. To do so around Cole would be a grave mistake, one he’d pounce upon and devour all that she was.