Still (2 page)

“Yes ma’am, but only with a big Damascus knife he uses for whittling.” He looked uncomfortable and his mustache twitched. “See, Callahan's a local boy. His dad used to be a detective next county over before he retired and opened his carpentry business. We know Wyatt, and we know his family.”

Empathy filled her but she kept her expression carefully neutral. “Why did he call me instead of his family?”

Now his cheeks turned a deep red that made his blonde mustache stand out in an almost comical manner. “Well…I’m married to his sister and if I called their parents about him being drunk I’d be spending the next two months sleeping on the couch. Besides, nothing we’ve done seems to help and we’ve tried everything we can think of to get through to him.” He pursed his lips, his mustache pushing forward like a walrus looking for a kiss. “See, he’s talked about you before, usually when he’s drunk.”

She arched her brow.

“Nothin’ bad, just how much he admires you and I figured you bein’ a doctor and all, well maybe you can reach him.”

She blew out a harsh breath. “Are you going to release him to my custody?”

“If you feel comfortable taking him. He really isn’t that drunk.” The officer leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Between you and me he’s lucky if he gets four hours of sleep a night. The man is exhausted, but he can’t outrun his nightmares.”

A headache began to form behind her eyes as her heart ached for Callahan. “Okay, I’ll take him, but, Officer,” she looked down at his badge. “Phelps, since you're family, you should know, I’ve got a couple of conditions of my own.”

He gave her a solemn nod. “Call me Gary.”

“Gary,” she said with the sweet smile that had always made her troops flinch, “I'm going to want Callahan to sign a contract to stay with me for a month. Think of it as a personal rehab.”

“Uh, Doc, I don’t think I can do that. It’s not legal.”

“I’m not asking you to force him and I won’t approach him with it until he’s sobered up. If he doesn’t sign I take him home for one night to sleep it off, then he goes on his merry way. If he does sign…” she smiled in a way that made Officer Phelps swallow hard, “I guarantee in one month’s time you will have a changed man. But I’ll need you to keep the rest of his family away. He needs to decide for himself that he wants to live, not for his mother, not for his sister, but for himself.”

Tilting his head to the side, Officer Phelps studied her. “You were a Marine, too, weren’t you?”

“No, I was a Navy doc. We were the ones who got to patch the Marines up.”

They were interrupted by the female officer escorting Callahan. As Michelle looked closer at him she saw the telltale physical signs of exhaustion. He looked much older than his thirty-six years, and there was a darkness in his gaze, something worn and guarded that hadn’t been there before. She remembered him as being brash, larger than life, her rock, someone she could always rely on. Now, he just seemed so…lost.

“Ready, Callahan?”

“Sure thing, Doc.”

After his cuffs were removed she motioned to him, “Let’s go.”

He looked at his brother-in-law and rubbed his face. “Man, I’m
really
sorry.”

Phelps shook his head. “Wyatt, just get some help.”

Callahan glanced over at Michelle. “I’m trying to.”

She turned away and started walking, swinging her keys, leaving Callahan the choice to follow. Or not. Letting him see her empathy and compassion for him would not be helpful at this point. During the majority of their time together, she’d outranked him and that feeling carried over now as he walked escort behind her down the hallway. A flashback of him shadowing her in Afghanistan, always watching her back, made her dizzy for a moment.

They left the brightly lit hallway of the small police station and she continued on to her car, not saying a word to him. It scared her to the bone to think about him sitting at Winters’ grave, drunk, carrying a knife while mourning the best friend who'd lost his battle with PTSD and killed himself six months ago.

Clicking the alarm on her keychain, the Corvette chirped to life. One of the many nice things about living in a snowless part of the state was that she could drive around with the top down on her car pretty much any time of the year. Right now she needed the wind in her face to help clear her head.

Callahan made a low whistle and circled around the back of the car. “Nice ride, Doc.”

She traced her finger along the curve of the driver's side front quarter-panel, the deep sapphire blue custom paint glimmering faintly in the parking lot lights. “You puke on her, you even sweat on her and I will hang you from my rafters and beat you like a piñata.”

He laughed and slid into the passenger side with a sigh. “Just take me back to my place and I’ll be out of your hair.”

She entered the car and adjusted her mirror as she turned the key. The deep, throaty purr of the big engine always made her happy. “No can do. They released you to my custody for the night. You are staying at my place in Austin.”

He tensed and turned to look at her. “Doc, take me home.”

Ignoring him, she turned out onto the main road leading to the highway. The scent of the desert whipped through the car and she took a deep breath, purging her lungs. Next to her Callahan leaned his head back with his eyes closed, but every muscle on his body stood out in sharp relief. He was so wound up he looked in danger of snapping.

She turned on her stereo and pressed the button to play her Enigma CD. The smooth, almost luscious beats soon blended with the wind. The combination of the music and the soft desert air began to relax them both. Callahan took a deep breath and let it out, his body almost deflating. She wondered what had set him off tonight. Flashback? Panic attack? Whatever it was, she would find out later, but right now Callahan needed to sleep.

They pulled out onto I-35 N and began the drive that would take them north of Austin, then west to her ranch. After retiring from the Navy she wanted to go someplace warm, someplace where she didn’t have to deal with six months of winters so cold it felt like hell had really frozen over, and snow deep enough to bury a one-story house. She’d had enough of that growing up near Chicago.

Callahan kept looking at her, stealing glances out of the corner of his eye. He would look like he was about to say something, then reconsider. For now, she had to try to distract herself, to keep her desire to own him under control. God, how he’d haunted her thoughts over the last year. She was honest enough with herself to admit that Callahan living near Austin had led to her taking a job at the charity sponsored hospital. The work gave her a sense of purpose and she loved Austin.

Keeping her eyes on the road and off of Wyatt was much more difficult than she’d anticipated. Even in his sorry, worn down, and altogether sad state he still made her pulse race. She had to get her hormones under control and get her mind off what his ass would look like after she’d given him a couple dozen good spankings. Despite her resolve, her mind lingered on how she imagined his butt would flex beneath her blows, all rock solid and masculine. Biting into his ass would be like biting into a crisp apple with the slight crunch of his skin breaking beneath her teeth. Callahan shifted next to her and her gaze was drawn away from the road and down to his long, strong legs encased in velvety soft, worn jeans.

Good lord, this man was going to drive her insane.

She wanted to laugh, but she needed to be in the right headspace for the big ass headache in front of her. With Callahan that meant not letting him get away with anything. He was the kind of guy that if a woman gave an inch, he'd have her under him, give her a series of life-altering orgasms, and all while whispering the things women wanted to hear from their men. Then he’d leave her smiling and barely able to walk the next morning, with a vague promise to call her sometime, leaving her craving his touch for the rest of her life.

Callahan turned down the radio. “What are you thinking about?”

Could he somehow sense that she’d been having wicked thoughts about him? “I was thinking that if you keep pushing your luck I’ll chain you to the foot of my bed and make you sleep on the floor with only a pillow and a blanket for company as punishment.”

“That doesn’t really sound like too terrible of a punishment.”

She knew that his response to her answer would tell her everything she needed to know. “Oh, yes, it is. You will be allowed to look at my body but not touch. You will be allowed to attend to me, see to my comforts, and make me feel good…but that’s it. And only I will decide when, or even
if
you’ve earned the right to kiss me, to bend to my will, to make me come.”

His stunned expression sent a bolt of satisfaction through her and confirmed she was on the right track. Half of her hoped he would push it, while the other half was telling her she was treading dangerous waters.

What she knew about Callahan personally was gleaned from observation. She didn’t know shit about Callahan sexually. On very rare occasions, their interactions had tread dangerously close to flirtation. But neither of them was willing to break the strict military code outlining permissible and non-permissible conduct between male and female military personnel, especially between commissioned and noncommissioned officers. And even the idea of sexual relations between superior officers and their subordinates? Um, no. They had risked one kiss since they both got out, but that had been…different.

“Doc, can I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Why are you taking me to your house?”

“Because you need to get away from the bullshit excuses you’ve surrounded yourself with and pull your head out of your ass.” He started to talk and she held up her hand. “I just picked you up from jail at three in the morning drunk off your ass, Wyatt. Think about it.” She didn’t mention the fact that he’d been playing with a knife in a graveyard. He wasn’t ready for that type of confrontation, yet.

He didn’t answer, just turned to look out the window and eventually his head rested against the seat, his eyes half closed. Slowly, he stretched his legs out and laced his hands over his stomach as he looked out the window with barely open eyes. Michelle felt a sense of relief as his eyes closed and his even breathing indicated he finally slept.

Chapter 1

Nineteen Months Earlier

Gunnery Sergeant Wyatt Callahan surveyed the organized chaos of his company unpacking and setting up at their new assignment, in this case, a shit hole on the outside of Marjah at Forward Operating Base Garmsir in Afghanistan. While it was certainly better than the last shit hole he’d been in down by Kandahar, it was still one of the last places in the world he wanted to be.

Ever.

Unfortunately, Uncle Sam decided his ass needed to be in Afghanistan so, here he was, on his sixth combat mission and getting near the end of his rope. For at least the next six months he’d be the Weapons Company Mobile Section Leader at the hospital base instead of doing guard work for the EOD guys. Months of crawling down shitty streets through towns infested with Taliban, looking for explosive devices on the roads had sucked ass. He was pretty sure his asshole was permanently clenched from all the close calls he’d experienced.

“Callahan!”

He looked in the direction of the familiar voice and happiness filled him. His childhood friend, Aaron Winters, was waving as he crossed between stacks of equipment. His normally Irish-fair face was as red as his hair thanks to the strong desert sun. On the edge of his collar gleamed his new Master Gunnery Sergeant pin. When Aaron got close enough Wyatt clapped him on the arm and pulled the other guy into a quick hug.

“Winters, those crazy turban-wearing bastards haven’t managed to kill you yet?”

Aaron laughed and clapped him on the back. “Not yet. Come on, man, let’s get some chow and catch up.”

“Give me a second to get this shit squared away.”

Wyatt checked in with his men and made sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing before he rejoined Aaron and they walked through the bustling base together. Instead of the tent cities that Wyatt had lived in at his previous forward operating bases over the past nine months, this US mobile hospital base had actual buildings.

Not only that, there were females.

He had never and would never hit on a military female, but fuck, it was nice to see a woman not hidden behind yards of blue fabric and terrified of Americans. Though the men still far outnumbered the women, he tried hard not to stare at the few women he did see like a hungry dog looking at a juicy, and very off limits steak. A cute brunette passed them and he desperately tried not think about how her breasts bounced with her walk. The first thing he was going to do when he got back to Texas was find some pretty young thing to ride him until he was raw and smiling.

“Put your eyeballs back where they belong, knucklehead.”

Wyatt grinned at his friend. “How’s Jody doing?”

Aaron’s smiled slipped. “She’s good. Just misses me. You know, fuck, since we’ve been married, I’ve been deployed longer than I was ever around her.”

That was one of the reasons Wyatt had never settled down with anyone. He couldn’t imagine leaving a wife behind or, worse, a wife and kids. He knew it ate at Aaron to be away from his family and he felt sorry for his buddy. “Just think about how happy she’s gonna be when you go home next month.”

Aaron let out a deep sigh and nodded. “I’ll make it up to her.”

“I’m sure you will.” He sniffed the air, the scent of something resembling good food making his stomach rumble. “How’s the chow?”

“Great. Nothin’ like mom’s home cooking, but better than that shit they feed you out in the field.” He stopped at a pair of double doors and led Wyatt inside the canteen. “We even have a couple of fast food joints set up. There’s a Burger King, Taco Bell, and even a Pizza Hut.”

His stomach growled at the thought of a huge slice of greasy pizza. “Shit, if I’d known this place was a resort I would’a got myself shot to get here earlier. I could eat a whole large pizza by myself. Lead the way.”