Resisting Her Army Doc Rival

It was kind of cosy in here, even if they were trapped. While he should be worrying about getting them out safely, it was the scent that he’d been noticing since Madison’s arrival on the Peninsula getting him worked up. Again summer enveloped him. Not any old summer but Christchurch in February when the temperature could be thirty or fifteen in the same hour, where the sky ranged from blue to grey, and the wind had its own agenda. But it was always summer. The trees were green, the farms brown from lack of water, and the locals were at the beach or the parks. Homesickness floored him. ‘I’ve missed home.’

Maddy sat up. ‘Lucky for you Burnham’s your next posting then. You’ll be able to catch up with lots of people in Christchurch, as well as Mr and Mrs Creighton.’

‘I suspect I’ll be busy. The army has a way of filling our time.’ There weren’t any others to call on as he hadn’t bothered staying in touch much after he’d finished school. Got Dad’s genes there? Shock blasted him, dried his mouth, curdled his gut. No damned way. But he had walked away from his mates without looking back. What about the guys he’d befriended while training to become a doctor? He knew where most of them were, occasionally emailed to see what they were up to. Not often, and not involved enough to call being friendly.

Maddy’s gaze met his. ‘Sounds like an excuse to me.’

‘That’s because it is,’ he admitted as he assimilated the truth. He had always walked away from people, had been the one to set the bar. Except for William, who’d become closer than any other friend he’d had, and had been impossible to ignore. Then William had done the leaving.

‘How long are you going to stay in the military?’ Maddy asked, unaware of his shock.

‘I’ve not decided. It’s my career so as long as they’ll have me, I guess.’ He’d joined to get away from his life, to do something for his country. Now he saw he’d been avoiding the intimacy of a practice in a town with a steady stream of locals and had gone for the broader picture of helping his country and strangers in out-of-the-way places. There’d been no excitement, only a hard slog that had done nothing to make him happy, only sadder that soldiers were even needed in this world. For a while after William died he’d almost had a death wish, had certainly pushed the boundaries when there had been danger in the zone. That was slowly ebbing away. Since Maddy had turned up? Or as a result of too much time away from home, doing as ordered without thought or concern?

She was talking again. Needing to override the sounds of creaking timbers as the soldiers uncovered them. ‘You’re not interested in getting into surgical practice full-time? It seems a shame when you’ve done all that training and obviously like the work.’

Glad to be drawn away from where his own thoughts had been headed, he said, ‘None of it’s wasted, Maddy.’ He realised now that the idea of getting into surgery on a full-time basis had been simmering in a corner of his mind. As if he had stopped looking back and was instead now looking ahead for a future to immerse himself in. He instantly put up the usual barriers. ‘I’m getting the best of two worlds.’

There had been a time in med school when he’d imagined his own rooms back in Christchurch, a partnership with other specialists to cover a range of medical fields. But the nervous energy that kept him from settling or getting close to people, from creating his own comfort zone, had thrown up the fear he might become bored with being tied to one place and career that would stretch out until he retired many years down the track. Now hauling heavy packs and weapons around a desert no longer held any appeal either.

‘I’m hoping to figure out my next moves while I’m here.’ Maddy smiled ruefully. ‘Can’t see me making the army my life. I’ll do all I can as a soldier while here and then I’ll make some decisions.’

Did she realise her hands were on his thighs? Heat sizzled from her palms into his upper legs. How was he supposed to ignore her? Turn her away? He was no saint. And right this minute he had to fight with everything he had not to place his hands on her body and feel her, know her, have her. So much so that he daren’t even push her hands away as that meant touching her.

Shouts and voices were coming closer, audible over the crashing and banging of timber and who knew what else being moved aside. ‘Sam? Madison? Can you hear us?’

‘They’ll be hearing you back at base,’ he called out, relieved at the interruption. Disappointed he wouldn’t have the chance to follow through on those heart-stopping sensations Maddy caused him.

‘Okay, you two, time you stopped lazing around and got back to camp.’ Jock pushed through a gap behind them.

‘What took you so long?’ Sam growled, despite being grateful for the time he’d had with Maddy. A time of discovery—about Madison and himself. Though he wasn’t so grateful for what he’d learned about himself.

‘Anyone would think we had nothing better to do than come hauling you out of here.’ Jock grinned. ‘Next time you’re going to town, take a hard hat and an axe.’

Maddy pushed up onto her knees. ‘There isn’t going to be a next time.’

Somehow that felt like a stab to Sam’s heart. As though she was talking to him and not to Jock about where he’d found them.

‘Want one of the boys to drive you back to base?’ Jock asked.

No, he didn’t. ‘You heading back?’

‘Orders are to look around, see if we can learn what caused the explosion.’ Jock eyeballed him. ‘Take Madison and fix that bang on her head. Leave this to us.’

Sounded much like an order to him. Sam nodded. ‘Sure.’ Though he would probably be safer staying here with the troops than spending more time alone with Maddy, he did want to snatch whatever hours he could with her.

‘Glad you see things my way.’ Jock backed out. ‘Follow me, Madison. Keep low or you’ll be banging your noggin again.’

* * *

The medical unit was empty of all personnel when Madison and Sam pushed through the door. ‘Where’s everyone?’ she asked, looking around. She’d never seen it so empty, so quiet.

‘Back in town, cleaning up after us.’ Sam dropped his bag of shopping on a desk. ‘Let me look at that cut.’

‘It’ll be fine.’ It didn’t hurt, though when she had a shower the water would sting a little.

A firm grip on her elbow had her heading towards the treatment room, regardless of any protests she uttered.

‘I’ve gone deaf,’ Sam said as he pushed her onto a chair by the bed. ‘Now, this might be a little uncomfortable.’ His fingers probed her skull, gentle with their touch. ‘Not bad. I’ll clean it up and put some tape on to keep the dust out.’

Succumbing, Madison sat still and let the fear and fright of the last few hours wash out of her. Unbelievable that she’d been in another disastrous situation. Unbelievable she’d come out virtually unscathed. ‘I wonder what happened to Bix.’

‘The guys are searching for him,’ Sam muttered. ‘Try not to think about him.’

‘Easily said.’ She drew air into her lungs, breathed in Sam, aftershave and man and sweat. There was comfort in that scent, in the quiet of this room with its walls and roof in their right place, in being safe.

‘There.’ He snapped off the gloves he’d tugged on moments earlier. His finger lifted her chin so she looked into his eyes. ‘You’re all good to go.’

‘Thank you for being there for me,’ she managed around a thick tongue.

‘You wouldn’t have been there if not because I took you to town.’

‘Don’t come the guilty party. You didn’t blow that café up. It was bad timing, that’s all.’

His head was closer to hers now, that mouth so near she only had to lean a bit further upwards and her lips were skimming Sam’s.

His hands fell to her shoulders, his fingers splayed and pressing into her.

And all the brakes came off. Not slowly, not one by one, but instantly,

freeing her from the restraints she kept wound tight.

She pushed up for a kiss, a deep, bone-melting one that sent shockwaves through her body and aimed for her centre. Heat pooled at her apex as days of withheld desire overwhelmed her. Her hands shoved under his shirt, found his skin, spread across his chest, touched his nipples. It wasn’t enough. Tearing at his buttons, she ripped the shirt open and took a nipple between her lips, teased, licked, and ran her teeth lightly across the peak.

Above her Sam groaned. Then he was lifting her, placing her on the bed. Two fast strides and the door was locked. Two strides back and he was lying down beside her, reaching for her.

His erection pressed against her thigh, bringing a moan to her lips. She flipped over, straddled him, felt his sex against her core. Knew she had to have him. Then his hands were under her shirt, gliding over her breasts, satisfying her need to be touched yet rocking her to the core with the intensity of sensations his urgent caresses released.

She was going to make love with Sam. Even as that heat-hazed thought spilled through her mind he was moving his hands downwards, away from her smooth breasts towards her stomach.

‘Stop,’ she cried, jerking upright.

No. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. He’ll touch me and that look of horror will fill his eyes. I’d rather have been flattened in the explosion.

She climbed off his body to sit on the chair with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped tight around them. ‘Sorry,’ she muttered. ‘I should never have started that.’

Sam was breathing hard as he sat upright and looked at her with nothing but puzzlement in his expression. No censure at all. But he didn’t know, hadn’t seen. ‘Talk to me, Maddy.’

She shook her head. ‘No.’ What was the point? Been there, and couldn’t face a rerun. Especially not with Sam. From the moment she’d seen him across the parade ground the day she’d arrived there’d been some connection between them, and for him to see the scars that distorted her body would destroy that. Even if it was never going anywhere, she couldn’t cope with their relationship being reduced to sympathy on his part and agony on hers.

He reached down, took her hands in his, gently lifted her arms away from her knees, opened her to him again. A tremor ran through his body, reaching her through his fingers. She had cut him off in mid-stride when he’d been hard, tight and in need of release.

‘That touching your midriff you do? You were injured when that beam came down on you and your grandfather, right?’

Sam’s voice was so compelling it coaxed her to look at him, even when she was afraid of what she’d find in his eyes. She gasped. Nothing but care blinked out at her. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘You received burns?’ He tightened his grip on her hands as she made to pull free.