Because of You: A Loveswept Contemporary Military Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

before ten. I’ll take accountability until First Sergeant gets there.”
    “Thanks, man. See you in the morning.” Trent walked off, his wife’s arm wrapped around his waist. Laura leaned back, shooting Jen a half-drunken, enthusiastic thumbs-up.
    Jen felt a pang of sadness overshadowed by something else. A feeling both awkward and intense that sparked to life when she looked up at Shane. All at once, it struck her that she was alone with him in a dimly lit parking lot.
    And she wasn’t embarrassed or self-conscious or afraid.
    For the first time in she couldn’t remember how long, she felt a pang of desire that wasn’t overruled by the constant heat of the scar on her chest. She let the awareness of her femininity coast through her veins, and she savored the feeling along with the man.
    He was leaving for Iraq in the morning. She could hold on to this one moment.
    What’s the worst that could happen?
    * * *
    When the fight had broken out, Shane had seen her standing in the path of the two fighters. He’d mentally urged her to move aside, but everything she’d done had only brought her closer to harm’s way. Finally, he’d surrendered to instinct, and stepped in to move her to safety. Looking down at her now, at her hesitant smile mixed with a hint of expectation, he felt it again. The same emotion he’d felt earlier that night. The urge to protect. To shelter. It flickered to life inside of him, something long dormant unfurling inside warmth. The feeling staggered him with its simplicity and power. Had he not been leaving for Iraq in the morning, he might have taken that single step forward and closed the gap between them. She was temptation bundled with a nervous tension—a combination he found absolutely sweet.
    “I don’t bite,” he said, stuffing his hands into his back pockets.
    “I’m not worried. You’re supposed to be one of the good guys, right?”
    Shane chuckled quietly. “My men might disagree.”
    She narrowed her eyes and peered up at him thoughtfully. “That’s the second time you’ve said that tonight. Why do you have such a low opinion of yourself?”
    “I’m not nice. I’m effective. They’re mutually exclusive in my world.” Shane tried to keep the bitterness from his smile but gave up, surrendering to the truth with a sigh. She was easy to talk to. Something else he was out of practice with.
    “Really? Is your world really all that different?”
    “I’m a rifle platoon sergeant in a combined arms battalion. I was issued weapons, not baskets of flowers.”
    “Can you translate that to non-army?” she asked.
    “Infantry. I train my men to shoot things.” Shane felt like an awkward teen, unsureof what to say or do.
    “Ah. Much easier to understand.” She tipped her chin. “But it doesn’t explain why Laura has such a high opinion of you if you’re such a bad guy.”
    God but he needed to be somewhere else. Anywhere other than talking to this particular beautiful woman. Laura would unman him over this if he so much as blinked wrong at Jen, let alone give in to the desire to move beyond small talk.
    “Can I, ah, make sure you get to your car okay?”
    Her mouth was curled in the sweetest half smile, like she couldn’t quite figure him out. “Not going to answer?”
    “Walking you to your car does not involve psychotherapy. At least, I didn’t think it did.”
    She laughed quietly, the noise of the bar fading a little as they rounded the corner of the parking lot.
    She paused and looked over her shoulder at him. A single beam of light slanted across her cheek and almost, he gave in to the urge to trace his thumb over her skin. When she froze, her lips parted just slightly, he stepped into her space. Not close enough to scare her, he hoped. He might regret this. But he wasn’t going to spend the next year wondering what it would have been like. “Shit, I’m not good at this.”
    “Good at what?” Her face was bathed in shadows now, and she rubbed her hands over