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She got a scope and looked more deeply into his eyes. “Your eyes are very unique. I’ve never seen such a beautiful, mossy green.”
“Are you hitting on me, Doc?”
She didn’t even crack a smile, just raised her brows. She was a tough one. Setting her index finger under his chin to lift it, she flashed the light in and out.
When she finished, he got dressed with her help. “Keep that dressing on in the shower.” She handed him some more waterproof bandages.
He nodded. “Thanks, ma’a—Doc.”
This time she almost cracked a smile. “Later, Blitz. Follow the doctor’s orders and get yourself some fuel and some rest.” She waved the air. “And, most definitely, a shower.”
She left the room, he dressed and grabbed his M4. When he got back out into the hall, Dr. Quinn was standing there writing in his file. He glanced at Zorro, who was looking at her with a peculiar stare…like he couldn’t quite figure her out but wanted to.
Interesting. Did he have a thing for the prickly doc?
“How was Dr. Sunshine’s bedside manner, Blitz?”
She didn’t even raise her head to give him the satisfaction of a response, just kept right on writing.
Amusement lifted one corner of Blitz’s mouth.
Then she pinned Zorro with a strong, direct stare. She walked up to him, the tension growing in both of them. “You need stitches in that gash on your temple. Exam room, march.”
He gave her a belligerent look, then huffed out a breath. “I assessed it.”
She gave a soft, disbelieving laugh and shook her head. “Then you assessed wrong or most likely, you didn’t even know it was there.” She didn’t flinch or look away from Zorro’s dark, dangerous eyes. “Yeah, that’s right. The medic who takes care of everyone but himself. Move stubborn, alpha male.”
He gave Blitz a look that dared him to comment, then he complied, disappearing into the room with her.
He chuckled, but it was soon cut off when he saw Bree leaning against the wall. He walked over and said, “Hey there.”
She turned, looking as bone weary as he felt. “So, this is what it’s like to be a SEAL.”
He chuckled. “Just a taste. I’ll tell you about it sometime,” he said. It was an off-the-cuff remark. He didn’t really expect her to want to hear about his progression to BUD/S and onto becoming a SEAL. Some of the journey was fraught with pain and feelings of betrayal, other parts of it were filled with triumphant moments, hairy moments, and deep, emotional loss moments. The biggest and most unmanageable wound was the rift between him and his dad. He regretted it, but he couldn’t figure out how to mend it. Hell, he couldn’t even figure out how to talk to his father without things getting heated, argumentative, and out of control. He felt detached from his whole family because of it. It hurt his mom and sisters, but his father just wouldn’t be reasonable.
She turned fully toward him, her voice dropping into that husky range women used to signify deep interest. The fine hairs on his arms and neck stirred at the sound. “I would love to hear all about…everything and not just about BUD/S.” She touched his forearm.
Through every relationship after Amy, the woman who had ravaged his heart with her Dear John letter while he was still recovering from his bullet wounds in Germany, he’d kept his heart surrounded by thick, impenetrable armor. It was there for a reason, and he tempered it, replaced it when it got worn or dented, polished it with straightforward terms to any woman who thought they would be the one to change his mind, but no one had ever found a chink in it, breached its formidable strength. Not wide-eyed, innocent women who saw him on the street, or mercenary strap-hangers who ambushed him in SEAL bars, or sweet women he’d been hooked up with by friends. No one got even close. Not even Geneve, whom he’d really liked, and the sex had been great.
But this woman, this warrior had found some kind of flaw, and she was sliding into his no-woman’s land. She had found his hunger, his loneliness, his hardened, jaded heart enough to pierce it with a pinprick, just a little sting. Why did the thought of ousting her feel like lifting the world on his shoulders? Like he needed an army, backup, a fortress to keep her out? Why did the thought of giving in to those feelings of hunger and need feel so urgent, so important? He barely knew her. Definitely not a sure bet, sure thing, sure anything at this point. All she was asking for was to get to know him better. He’d rather face another IED, run into a hail of bullets, or jump out of an airplane at thirty thousand without a parachute.
His silence was sliding into the awkward-moment kind. He tipped his head, letting her know that he heard her, and he held her gaze for a moment more, needing the extra second to get his balance back so his words wouldn’t come out desperate or pathetic sounding. “Anytime, if, uh, we ever get a break,” he said, trying to keep it casual, but his voice was gruff and unnatural. He gripped the side of his vest, not sure why his legs suddenly felt so shaky.
“Damn if I don’t get a shower soon, the only females who’ll be interested in getting with me will be the warthogs out on the plains,” Buck said in his cowboy twang. “The nurses are running from me like I got the plague.”
Bree’s hand dropped back to her side as another awkward silence settled between them. He clenched his jaw, exhaling a ragged breath. He needed sleep. He wasn’t firing on all cylinders here. Usually, he was smoother than this, but Bree tended to fog his brain even when he was coherent. They might be giving off toxic odors, but there was something enticing about Bree’s musk that stirred something primal in him.
“Aren’t you used to animals, there, Buck, coming from a farm and all?” Gator said with a sly wink and grin, his Cajun accent thick.
“I don’t come from a farm, you coonass, greenhorn. I come from a ranch.” Buck leaned against the wall, closing his eyes, the fatigue catching up to him, too.
“Yeah, and those female cows are used to a well-hung bull,” Professor said, his eyes sparkling with pure devilry as he grinned, then delivered the punch line. “Imagine their disappointment.”
Raucous laughter echoed off the walls until Joker said, “Shut the hell up. This is a hospital, not a bar. Get your nasty asses together. We’re moving out.”
“He’s just pissed that after we are squeaky clean, Professor and I are going to get us some.”
There were so manyfuck yous from the guys, Blitz couldn’t sort them all out.
