CHAPTER ONE
WHAT was he doing here?
Dr Amelia Stockton’s head spun at the sight of the uniformed naval officer crossing the sick bay of the USS Benjamin Franklin.
No way was Dr Cole Stanley really walking towards her.
And if that was Cole with the senior medical officer, well, she couldn’t consider what his presence on board her ship implied, what that would mean to her hard-won peace of mind.
“Wow, Dr Stockton,” Tracy whispered under her breath, nudging Amelia’s arm. “Is that the new ship’s surgeon? If so, sign me up for an elective procedure stat. Yum.”
Amelia didn’t turn to look at the petite blonde nurse, neither did she answer. She couldn’t even if she wanted to. Along with her spinning head, now her throat had swelled shut.
Cole really was on board her ship.
She’d known the aircraft carrier’s new surgeon would be arriving today. But Dr Evans’s replacement was supposed to be Dr Gerald Lewis, not Cole Stanley, military surgeon and heartbreaker extraordinaire. Just because she hadn’t seen him for two years, it didn’t mean she hadn’t instantly recognized that confident swagger, those piercing blue eyes, the crazy tune of her heart that had only ever played for him.
What was he doing here and why were her lungs crying for air?
From the overwhelming need to hit him for how he’d walked out on her and her family. That’s why her head spun, her throat swelled, and she couldn’t breathe. Her body functions hadn’t gone haywire because of Cole himself, just what he’d done. Really.
Certainly, her fluttery heart had nothing to do with the last time she’d seen him, the things they’d said, done. Dear sweet heavens above, the last time she’d set eyes on Cole he’d kissed her until her lungs had felt just like they did this very moment.
“Dr Stanley, welcome aboard, sir.” A corpsman saluted Cole, as did the physician’s assistant, acknowledging Cole’s higher military rank. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too, Richard. It’s been a while.”
He spoke with that voice. The one that haunted her sleep, her dreams. Nightmares, not dreams.
He shook both men’s hands, said something about the naval hospital he and Richard had worked at together, but Amelia’s ears roared, blocking out the details.
Cole. Was. On. Her. Ship.
No!
Oblivious to the turmoil he was creating in Amelia’s safe, tight-knit world, in her mind and entire body—just as he’d always done—he acknowledged Tracy.
The nurse practically fell over herself batting her lashes and blushing up a storm. Puh-leeze. Tracy could do so much better. Any woman could. Sure, Cole came in an eye-catching package—and how!—but so did most poisonous snakes.
Cole Stanley was a low-down, belly-crawling snake of the worst kind. Yes, Amelia had once thought he’d hung the moon and walked on water, but her eyes had been opened.
Lastly, he turned to her, acknowledging her salute. He hesitated only the slightest of seconds, making her wonder if perhaps she’d been wrong, if perhaps he did know how his being there affected her, that perhaps he was equally as affected by seeing her after all this time.
“Dr Stockton.” His gaze sought hers, searching, but for what she wasn’t sure. Did he expect her to welcome him? Not after what he’d done to her, to her sister, surely?
Still, her heart sped up and stalled all at once when their gazes tangled for the first time in two years. Memories from the past assailed her. Memories of her and Cole, laughing, working, devouring pizza while he quizzed her, caring for patients together during residency. Memories of Clara, Cole and herself spending hour after hour together back during Cole and her sister’s last year at medical school. They’d been two years ahead of her.