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It was like a switch being pushed in her, Kane noted as she acknowledged the corporal before turning back to him.
‘I really do have to go and attend this.’ A statement, not a question. ‘I’m sure Mr Wheeler has a couple of notes he wants to finish up here for now, but if you wait outside, Corporal, perhaps you can escort him to the mess hall for something to eat or drink whilst he waits?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘Mr Wheeler?’
‘Yes, that would be fine, thank you, Major,’ Kane answered. Polite without the deference of the young lad at the door. Nothing anyone would be unhappy about.
Except him.
Because now, more than ever, it was apparent to Kane that there was no future for him and Mattie. As long as they were both in green, they couldn’t be together.
It would have been different if they were both commissioned officers, the way she’d pestered him to do back when they’d been little more than kids. Back then he would only have pulled her down. Now, despite fourteen years of working his way to one of the highest non-commissioned officer ranks in the British Army, the problem still remained.
He was proud of who he was, and how far he’d come. But it still wasn’t good enough for Mattie, an acting colonel.
The irony wasn’t lost on him.
CHAPTER SIX
MATTIE HAD NO IDEA how long she’d been avoiding returning to Kane. Or, more precisely, she knew exactly how long.
Not because she didn’t want to go back into that room, but more because she wanted nothing more than to return. Her whole body felt tight, and coiled, and needy.
But giving in to temptation with Kane the other night, before they’d known about...this, was one thing. Now, here, it was different. She took her career seriously, and more than that she loved it, which was why she’d always taken its rules seriously. Including fraternisation.
She had never, in her entire career, had a workplace relationship—not even with a fellow commissioned officer, however brilliant any of them might have been. She’d never even been tempted. But, then, none of them had been Kane, had they?
And hadn’t earlier on proved beyond all doubt that, where he was concerned, she lacked any kind of resistance whatsoever?
Which was why she’d been hiding out back here. She’d dealt with her gunshot patient’s complications a good hour ago. Thankfully it hadn’t been as troublesome as everyone had feared, and the young patient was now back in ICU, recovering.
And now all she could think about was how a few minutes longer in her office and she could have been naked on that desk with Kane driving into her, without a second thought for her career. A career she’d spent nearly fourteen years—ever since an officer cadet at medical school—painstakingly building up.
It was unprofessional, reckless, and she ought to be ashamed. Instead—and this was the worst thing about it—all she wanted to do right now was rush straight back to her office and pick up where they’d left off.
Not only had she never had a relationship with a fellow officer before, but she had also never avoided a colleague or a mission before now.
Right now, she found herself in a consultation room with a young squaddie who had come in a few days earlier complaining of a rash on his body. What had concerned her the most had been that the rash had precisely matched the shape of his body armour.
In consultation with the specialist dermatologist on her team, the two of them had agreed on a prescribed cream, but the follow-up had been set up to ensure that the rash wasn’t getting worse or changing properties.
To be fair, any one of her team could have dealt with the young lad but she’d chosen to do it herself—her mind only too aware that Kane was still on the other side of the hospital, waiting for her. Which was all the proof she needed that she was putting off the inevitable.
‘Okay, Fusilier, can you strip off your top half, please?’
The lad stood, peeling off his jacket and T-shirt without a trace of bashfulness. Particularly when he moved his fingers to the button of his trousers.
‘You want me to take these off, too, ma’am?’ he enquired casually. ‘Only the rash went down there...if you remember?’
Mattie felt her lips quirk.
Oh, the confidence of youth.
‘Okay, then. I’d better see.’
Peering closer, Mattie inspected the site. Interestingly, the skin was beginning to peel and the skin beneath was clear and healthy.
