Ben left to flag down the second road crew whilst she stabilised the rider for transportation to hospital, since they had been unable to reduce the wound on site.
As they flew back to the base Thea couldn’t help admiring Ben. It was odd, but the ease and harmony the two of them lacked in their personal relationship had appeared automatically within the first hour of their professional one.
CHAPTER EIGHT
FOR THE FOURTH time in as many minutes Ben tried to read an interesting article in his newspaper, but he found his eyes wandering back to the glass wall which separated himself and Thea. Just as they had been doing more and more frequently since he’d started working with the Air Ambulance less than a week ago.
If he’d thought their working and living together would drive a much-needed wedge between them, dampen his emotions and desires, then he’d been completely wrong. All it had shown him was that Thea really was incredible. Dedicated, focussed and skilled, with a knowledge base a doctor twice her age would be proud of. She quietly commanded loyalty and respect from her team—and the other teams, too—and gave it back in spades. And Ben knew he wasn’t the only one to think so.
In spite of all that had happened to her—losing her parents as a kid, losing Dan, and then his own actions—Thea had held tight to her resolve and grown into a kind woman and an extraordinary trauma doctor. And he felt proud of her even though she’d done it all on her own. It was getting harder and harder to keep his distance, but he knew he had nothing to offer her and she deserved so much.
He watched as Thea reappeared from the kitchen, making her way to the rec room area, where various other team members sat relaxing. She flopped down sideways onto an easy chair and threw her legs—long, sexy legs, even clad in her flight suit—over the chunky chair-arm, before tucking into a yoghurt with a sense of relief.
‘Voracious appetite!’ Nic teased her, and despite himself Ben set down his paper and sauntered casually over, just as Thea replied.
‘Yeah, well, having had nothing but paperwork to do all morning, the very second I decided to grab lunch there was, of course, a call-out. Now I’m starving.’
‘And that’s the extent of your lunch?’ Ben frowned as he sank down with careful nonchalance in the chair next to Thea.
‘Are you kidding?’ She snorted, jerking her head back over her shoulder. ‘I inhaled a pulled pork sandwich before I even left that kitchen.’
‘Hey, that was mine!’ Harry stopped tapping on his phone long enough to look up.
‘Sorry, mate—first come, first served.’ Thea grinned. ‘You were on a call-out.’
‘Oh, yeah...’ He pulled a face. ‘A fourteen-year-old swimmer at a meet—bad dive, landed on her head. Probably permanent spinal injury, unfortunately, poor kid. I’m kidding about the sandwich, by the way. I brought enough in for everybody.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Thea smiled. ‘I heard you tell everyone this morning.’
The banter continued and Ben smiled at the easy camaraderie. It was what had made it so easy for him to slip into his new role—feeling instantly accepted and welcome. It would be a shame to leave. He’d thoroughly enjoyed his first couple of days with Thea, and now working with Team Two was proving almost as enjoyable.
When he’d first realised Nic was the trauma doctor in charge of Team Two he’d had his reservations, but it turned out Nic was a good leader and a skilled doctor, with the same strong ethos as the soldiers Ben had worked alongside in combat. Working with the new team was proving enjoyable as well as informative; it was clear that whatever had happened between Thea and Nic was firmly in the past—for both par
ties.
He knew it shouldn’t please him that Thea had no love interest. It wasn’t his business and it shouldn’t have any bearing on him whatsoever. Yet whenever he watched her Ben couldn’t help feeling...what? Contentment? Pride? Maybe even a hint of healthy possessiveness?
He shook his head. He had no business feeling either of them. His Army Medical Board assessment was a matter of weeks away and then he would be shipped out to another combat zone. Back to actual trauma surgery in the field, to that rush of adrenalin, the pressure, the buzz.
Funny, but the thought of it seemed to have lost its ability to give him that same high it once had.
He glanced across at Thea. No more having to feign being a happily married couple in front of everyone. That should be a good thing. Only over the last few days it had felt less and less like such a charade. The air had been significantly cleared between them, and ever since he’d admitted to his old feelings for Thea it seemed to have paved the way for them to cultivate the beginnings of a real friendship, much to his surprise. If only he could keep control of the lust, which seemed harder to resist with each passing day.
Thea was intelligent and fun and witty, as well as being stunningly beautiful. He enjoyed being around her to listen to her, talk to her, work with her. The feelings had crept up on him, slowly at first, and now he found himself actively seeking her out, feeling pleased when she seemed to come looking for him, too.
He tuned back in to the conversation just as Ron was urging Thea to join them at the pub.
‘Sorry, Doc, no crying off—this one is mandatory.’
‘Since when is going to the pub mandatory?’
Thea tried to laugh it off, but Ben could see those tiny stress lines of hers—imperceptible to anyone else—tightening around her eyes.
‘Since we’ve been working together for a couple of years, and not one of us here knew you were married.’ Ron feigned hurt. ‘Let alone to sod-that-for-a-game-of-soldiers Major Abrams, here.’
Ben would have laughed if Thea hadn’t suddenly gone so tense. Unexpectedly he experienced an instinctive urge to protect her.
‘You know what it’s like with us soldiers...’ He reached casually across Thea to the fruit bowl and snagged an apple, temporarily creating a human buffer for her. ‘You never know where we are, what mission we’re on, when we’ll be coming home—and you know what people are like for asking questions. Even well-intentioned. Sometimes you can feel a bit daft when the only answer you can give is, I don’t know.’