Still (4 page)

She took it, careful not to let their fingers touch, and lifted her chin. “Thank you, Callahan.”

Hearing her say his name for the first time did funny things to his stomach and he tried to keep from smiling. “Most welcome, Sapphire.”

She shook her head and blew out a weary breath. “Okay, Marine, this never happened. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” She turned and walked back towards the entrance of the supply tent, her perfect ass swinging in a rhythm that matched the pounding of the blood rushing to his cock.

He absently wondered just how he'd pissed off the karma gods to deserve this kind of punishment, the pain of having almost constant blue balls, and a woman he’d love to fuck for days within reach but totally off limits. Yeah, this had to be his own personal hell. The scent of her soap still clung to his hands and he took a deep breath, knowing that he’d be jacking off and thinking about all the raw, dirty things he’d like to do to her all night.

Four Months Later

The big M-ATV that Wyatt was driving eased through another tooth-rattling pothole, one of many littering the road where IEDs had either been removed or had exploded. He was nearing the end of his tour and, while he couldn’t wait to get back to the States, he sure would miss the woman sitting next to him in the passenger seat.

Lieutenant Sapphire stared out the windshield, her gaze unfocused and unseeing. They rode in companionable silence, chatter coming from the back of their vehicle as the supply caravan they were in made its way west of Kabul. Sapphire had been tapped to replace some dumb fuck doctor who’d been sent back stateside to serve a couple months in the brig for negligent weapons discharge. That stupid fucker had somehow managed to accidentally shoot a Marine while fucking around with his gun. Wyatt would be there for a couple weeks to help refresh everyone on weapons safety, then he was finally going to be done with this rotation from hell. This would be their last ride together and he almost welcomed the mind numbingly slow pace they were keeping because that meant he got to spend a few more moments with her.

He stole a glance at her out of the corner of his eye, trying to memorize her features. Rumor had it she came from big time serious money back home and he could see that. She carried herself like a lady in the truest sense of the word. Oh, she could talk shit with the best of them, but she had class. All the guys stood a bit taller when she was around and, while she was always as polite as could be around her superiors, he’d seen more than one occasion when she’d gone toe to toe with a superior officer over a medical decision that she believed would endanger her patient’s life.

Wyatt and Sapphire gotten into it a few times as well when he thought she’d been pushing herself too hard. A human being could only go so long without sleep and Sapphire would stay up for days at a time tending to wounded if they let her. Damn stubborn woman. He’d switched her regular coffee with decaf one night in an effort to get her to sleep. She’d crashed earlier than usual, and he’d been tempted to do it again, but the other doctors informed him that if he ever switched around the coffee pots again he’d find himself on the wrong end of a scalpel.

She cleared her throat and shifted so she was looking at him instead of the road. “Callahan, I wanted to say thanks.”

“For what, ma’am?”

He switched on his headlights as the sun dipped below the horizon and checked the time. Their trip had taken longer than expected due to the number of IEDs that had to be removed from the road before they could proceed. Right now, they were driving over a winding road that curved around a set of hills.

She smiled, more a curving of the corners of her lips than a true grin. “Do you think I didn’t notice the upswing in men doing mountain climbers after you arrived?”

He stared at the road like it was suddenly infested with sharks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ma’am.”

“Must have been my imagination when I saw you yelling at them to climb higher, to keep climbing until they remembered that the nurses inside that tent were superior officers, not some cute girl from their high school.”

Heat filled his cheeks. “Must have been someone else. Us jarheads all look alike.”

“Hmmm. Well, regardless, I appreciated it. It’s nice knowing I have someone at my back I can trust.”

He wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn he heard a bit of heat in her voice. Then again, he was so obsessed with her it wasn’t even funny. While he knew she was way out of his league, and completely hands off as not only a superior officer, but a superior officer in a war zone, that didn’t stop him from thinking about what it could be like to hold her, to kiss her. The peach and vanilla scent of her shampoo haunted his sleep and he’d had more sexual dreams about Michelle than he’d had about any woman since he’d hit puberty.

She cracked her neck and sighed. “I can’t fucking wait to be able to walk around without this heavy ass body armor.”

“You have what, another six months?”

“Yep.”

She leaned forward and looked out the windshield as the break lights on the M-ATV in front of them flared red. The caravan slowed to a crawl and Wyatt hoped that whatever the fuck was holding them up would pass quickly so they could reach the other base. He really didn’t like being out on the road at night.

“Any plans for after you get out, ma’am?”

“Not sure. I want to help those who can’t get regular medical care - maybe volunteer at a free clinic or sign up with one of those doctors’ organizations that treat the poor for free.” She laughed. “I sure as shit don’t want to return back to Chicago. Too fucking cold. What about you?”

“As soon as my time with Uncle Sam is up I’ll be heading back to Austin.”

She smiled. “I’m not surprised with the way you and Winters talked about Texas. You gonna go herd some cows, or whatever the hell it is cowboys do?”

Used to her good natured ribbing he shook his head. “No, ma’am. My dad is a master carpenter and I...”

Something hit the M-ATV in front of them from the left and his words vanished beneath a massive roar. Time slowed and he stared in disbelief as the vehicle in front of them blew up. He had a millisecond to register what had happened before shrapnel and larger metal fragments from the blast tore through their vehicle shattering the safety glass of the windshield.

Immense pain roared through his body and he blacked out.

When he came to Sapphire was leaning over him and yelling. “Wake the fuck up Callahan!”

“Doc?” His voice came out in a whisper and a shudder wracked his body from head to toe. He tried to remember what had happened. His senses started to come back and, as they did, he became aware of a terrible pain radiating from his lower abdomen. He reached down to his belly below his body armor. Before he could touch anything she smacked his hand away. “Don’t fucking move, Callahan. Stay with me, okay?”

“What’s wrong with me?” The pain began to register in his mind and he groaned, unable to form words.

“A mortar took out the vehicle in front of us. A piece of shrapnel sliced your gut open.” She swallowed hard. “I’m holding your intestines in right now so don’t fucking fight me and do not move.”

Gunfire split the air somewhere ahead of them in a harsh chatter.

“Never...fight...you,” he whispered. The world started to go soft and fuzzy and he gratefully began to slip back into unconsciousness. At least he would have if the woman holding his guts together hadn’t started yelling at him again.

“Callahan, you wake the fuck up and stay with me. Look at me.” Her voice had a demanding note mixed in with the command that scared him. He’d only heard her use that voice when she was ordering a patient on the OR table to stay alive, as if she could will them back from the edge.

He opened his eyes again and grimaced, or at least he thought he did. It felt as if he’d become strangely disconnected from his body. “Am I going to die?”

“Not on my watch, Marine. Trust me, Wyatt, I'm going to keep you alive even if I have to drag you back from the gates of Hell myself.”

Screams filled the air around them and Wyatt wanted to tell her to go help the guys that needed her. A corpsman crouched down next to her with a first aid kit. They began to treat him as best they could, and he gave up trying to understand what they were saying, instead choking back his moans as they carefully touched places inside of him that should have never seen daylight. It really bugged the shit out of him that he couldn’t remember what happened. The last thing he could recall was loading up the trucks this morning. He vaguely remembered that Sapphire was going to ride along with him, so that meant she must have been in the blast.

“L.T.…you okay?” His lungs burned with the effort to speak, but he had to know.

“Some cuts and busies, no big deal.”

Relieved, he stared at the sky overhead, bright pinpoints of light piercing the heavens where the first stars sparkled against the twilight. Wispy clouds took on a pink haze around the edges and he marveled at how something could be so beautiful while he lay dying on some god forsaken dirt road in the middle of hell.

“Callahan!”

“Wha...?”

“You stay with me you stubborn asshole. Look at me. Eyes on me Marine!” She grasped his chin in her hand and turned his face. When he looked into her eyes an electrical charge went through him at the emotion he saw there. An emotion so big it could only have one name but his rational mind refused to believe it.

“Never....leave...you.”

“You’re damn right you’re never gonna leave. You are going to be okay. I’m not going to let you die. Just hold on, the choppers are on the way.”

He tried to reply, but only a faint moan came out.

It hurt to breathe, and a sizzling pain tore a groan from him when she did something to him. “Sorry, Callahan. I’m being as gentle as I can but we have to get you stabilized. I think some of your intestines may have shrapnel wounds.” Her voice trembled the slightest bit on her last word, probably not enough for anyone else but him to notice.

“S'kay if I die.” He tried to take a deep breath and that ended in a moan. “Not…your fault.”

The distant drone of choppers cutting through the air reached his ears and Sapphire let out a low breath. “They’re almost here, Callahan. You keep fighting. That’s an order, Marine. Don’t you fucking pussy out on me now. You hear me, Wyatt? You must live.”

He wanted to reply to her but doing anything other than dealing with the increasing agony was beyond him. From there everything blended into a haze of pain and movement. The last thing he remembered was her bluer than the bluest autumn sky eyes staring into his, filled with heartbreak and, he was sure now, love.

Chapter 2

Eight Months Later

Michelle Sapphire swallowed hard as Aaron Winters’ oldest son, probably no more than thirteen, accepted the folded flag that had been draped over his father’s coffin from the Marine honor guard. Next to him sat his mother, a small woman with mousy brown hair who looked shell shocked and fragile enough to shatter. Two weeks prior she’d filed for divorce from Aaron. Mrs. Winters stared at the coffin, her face totally devoid of emotion as she clutched a framed photograph of Aaron so hard her knuckles were white. Michelle’s heart ached for her, and she wondered if someone was making sure she didn’t follow her husband’s lead and commit suicide. More family and friends filled the graveside and Michelle saw a few familiar faces from the Navy and Marines.

Michelle had been looking for one man in particular but so far she hadn’t seen him. When she’d received the call from a friend about Winter’s suicide she’d been absolutely floored. He’d been such a strong and vibrant man. He was the kind of guy that people would willingly follow not because he outranked them, but because he was a genuinely good leader. Never in a thousand years did she think that he’d eat his gun because of PTSD.

Before the image of his last moments could fully form in her mind she forced herself to think about something else. Scanning the crowd on the other side of the coffin she caught a glimpse of weary hazel eyes staring in her direction her whole world froze.

Wyatt.

He looked away when he saw she’d noticed him and moved back into the crowd. That one glimpse of his face set off all the alarm bells in her head, and she had to keep herself from pushing through the mourners to find him. The priest droned on but she no longer heard the words, her thoughts too focused on Wyatt. Dark circles stood out beneath his eyes and his hair was a tad longer than she remembered. There was a gaunt look to his face that she’d never seen before. He must have returned from Walter Reed recently because she’d been keeping an eye out for him in Austin.

She wondered if he was shocked to see her but, then again, while he was recovering at Walter Reed she’d casually mentioned in a letter she’d written to him that she’d accepted a position at a free clinic in Austin. While she hadn’t expected him to write back confessing his love for her, the fact that he hadn’t written her back at all hurt. She’d thought they had a connection, something special, but it had apparently all been her imagination.

The service ended and people began to disperse to their cars. She spotted Wyatt by his dark hair and pinstriped grey suit as he walked between the gravestones to a big, dark green truck parked away from the rest of the mourners. After saying a few quick goodbyes she followed Wyatt, her attention focused on him with the precision of a laser. She tried to tell herself it was because she was worried about him, but she knew in her heart of hearts it was more.

A lot more.

He reached his truck and opened the passenger door before leaning inside. A second later, he straightened up and rested against the side of the truck. Something silver flashed in the sunlight and her stomach dropped when she realized he was chugging from a hip flask that probably wasn’t filled with Kool-Aid. Anger mixed with her concern and she quickened her pace.

He glanced up right before she reached him and tried to hide the flask behind his back with a guilty look. His black suit hung off of him and she was pretty sure he’d dropped at least twenty pounds. Sure, he could have lost muscle mass while recovering from his wounds, but she didn’t think so. The lines around his mouth were deeper, and he hadn’t even bothered to shave. She almost didn’t recognize him as the strong, dependable man she’d known in Afghanistan. He studied her for a moment before his posture changed from a guilty slouch to an arrogant lean. Then he turned on the charm, giving her the smile that never failed to make her heart skip a beat