Chapter 456
[ 495 words ]
Chapter 456:
The heat between them built quickly, the quiet intimacy of the morning fanning the embers of their connection into a flame.
Just as his left forearm shifted along the blanket near her waist, clumsy rather than controlled, a sharp, urgent voice cut through the air from just outside the tent.
“Colonel! Lieutenant Bell has an urgent field report for you, sir!”
It was K.C.
Jarrod froze, his body tensing. The lazy lover vanished, and a flicker of pure annoyance crossed his face.
Caroline’s own body went rigid with a different kind of tension. “You have to go,” she whispered, pushing lightly against his chest. “It’s important.”
With a low growl of frustration, he eased himself away from her in stages, careful not to jar the brace or put weight through his splinted fingers. He sat on the edge of the cot and called out, his voice once again the clipped, authoritative tone of a commander. “Acknowledged.”
In seconds, the transformation began, but it was not effortless. He shoved his feet into his dusty combat boots and left the laces hanging loose, using the edge of the cot and the heel of one boot to force them on because his hands were useless for the task. He ran the heel of his left palm through his disheveled hair and straightened the collar of his wrinkled uniform with a rough tug from his knuckles, his right arm still immobilized across his torso. The man who stood up was not the one who had been kissing her moments before. It was Colonel Romero, a man made of ice and authority, held together by discipline, pain, and a medical brace he refused to acknowledge.
Before he pushed through the tent flap, he turned back to her. His eyes were hard, his expression unyielding.
“Stay here,” he commanded. It wasn’t a request. “Do not leave this tent. Wait for me to come back.”
J𝗈𝗶ո 𝗼𝘶𝗋 с𝘰𝗆𝗺𝘂𝘯i𝘵у 𝗼n gаl𝗇𝘰𝘷elѕ.со𝗆
She nodded, her throat suddenly dry. She watched him disappear, the canvas flap falling shut, leaving her alone in the sudden silence.
She let out a long breath, the tension leaving her body. But as she lay there, the sounds of the camp filtered in—the distant shouts of orders, the rumble of a generator, the faint, desperate cry of someone in pain from the direction of the medical center.
She closed her eyes, but the sounds only grew louder in her mind. She was a nurse. A doctor in training. There were people suffering just a few hundred feet away, and she was lying here, ordered to do nothing. Her sense of duty, the very core of who she was, began to wage a war against his command. And beneath that, a quieter thought stirred—Sterling Hendon had been in far worse shape than she was. Was he even here, in this same field hospital? She made a mental note to find out as soon as she could.
The war didn’t last long.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t hide in safety while others were in agony.
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