“Yo,” Harvard said from the trailer door. “How come you guys don’t throw me a welcome home party every time I come back to camp? We’ve got two months of work to do in two days and I see people standing around. Check the pay stubs in your wallets, please, and unless your pay grade is admiral, get your butts back inside.”
“I need a shower, Senior Chief,” Zoe said. “Give me twenty minutes to get cleaned up.” She glanced at Jake as she wrapped her towel more tightly around her. “If that’s okay, Admiral, I’ll give you a full report then.”
Admiral. It was her acknowledgment of his attempt to put a little space, a little formality between them since that night they’d kissed.
Hold me like you want to be inside me.
He wanted. Despite Daisy’s memory, despite his and Zoe’s age difference, despite the fact that she was at least partly under his command, a member of his team, he wanted her.
Keeping his distance seemed the smartest option under the circumstances. They were going to be forced into close quarters soon enough.
“A full report after you shower would be fine, Doctor.”
Jake watched her turn away, watched her head toward the small RV that held her private quarters. But then he saw it. Bright red on the white of the towel.
He caught up with her quickly. “Zoe, you’re bleeding.”
She looked at the towel, pulling it back to reveal a nasty-looking scrape on her right elbow. Jake lifted the towel to reveal a lesser abrasion on her other arm. They were the kind of scrapes a woman might get from being pushed down, hard, onto her back. “Wow,” she said. “I didn’t even realize ….”
“I think I need at least some of that report now,” he said tightly.
She lifted her chin. “It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
He still held her wrist. “And that’s why you’re shaking?”
“I’m freezing,” she lied. He knew she was lying. Whatever had happened had shaken her up.
“‘Too friendly,’” Jake remembered. He gestured to her elbow. “Is this the result of someone being too friendly?”
She gently pulled herself free. “It was Monica’s boyfriend. I think he was coked up. I handled it, Jake. His family jewels are now lodged somewhere between his tonsils and his sinuses.”
“Note to myself,” Jake said. “Don’t ever get Zoe angry.”
She laughed as he’d hoped she would, but then abruptly turned away—but not before he saw the sudden welling of tears in her eyes.
“I’ll tell you everything,” she said, “but after I shower, okay?”
“Yeah,” Jake said, fighting to hide the sudden rush of anger and protectiveness that made him want to seek out and destroy this Monica’s boyfriend. “I’ll get you something hot to drink. And meet you back in your trailer.”
“Thanks, Jake,” she whispered. “That would be very nice.”
CHAPTER FIVE
ZOE KICKED OFF HER SHOWER slippers as she came inside her RV. She’d cranked the heat before she’d left for the bath house, and it was now close to roasting in the small trailer. But that was nice. She hadn’t been truly warm in what felt like hours.
And she felt warmer still when she saw that Jake was, indeed, waiting for her in the small living area. He sat somewhat stiffly on the cheap foam seats of the built-in couch, three mugs of coffee on the table in front of him, and …
Three?
Mitch Shaw was sitting across the room, his medical kit on his lap.
Jake had brought a chaperone. He was probably going to pretend he’d only brought Mitch along as a medic, to make sure Zoe’s elbows were cleaned and bandaged properly, but she knew better. He was afraid to put himself in a position in which he might kiss her again.
She smiled at Jake to make sure he knew that she knew better.
But he was in heavy team-leader mode, frowning slightly and very intense as he handed her one of the mugs and gestured toward Mitch. “I’ve asked Lieutenant Shaw to take a look at your elbows, Doctor.”
Zoe gave the darkly handsome lieutenant a smile as she sat down next to him. “Mitch and I are on a first-name basis, Admiral.”
That one actually got her the ghost of a smile. “Any time you’re ready,” Jake said, “I’m ready to hear your report.”
She took a sip of her coffee and pushed back the sleeves of her robe.
“First things first—I accomplished my mission this afternoon,” she said as Mitch looked closely at her left elbow and then her right. His hands were warm, his touch gentle, almost soothing. “Hal Francke offered me the job.”
“Great,” Jake said. “When do you start?”
“I didn’t take it.”
As she watched, Jake struggled to understand. “Why not? Because of what happened at the party? I mean, don’t get me wrong, if you don’t think it’s safe for you to be there, or—”
“I didn’t take the job because I didn’t want to seem overeager,” she explained. “I told Hal I’d think about it. I’ll go into Mel’s in a day or so and let him ask me again. I’ll make sure a ton of people overhear, and I’ll make him beg. Ouch.” She involuntarily jerked her arm free from Mitch. Holy Mike, that had hurt!
“Sorry,” he murmured, his dark hazel eyes apologetic. “There’re still a few pieces of dirt—something that looks like very fine gravel—that I should remove. I don’t think I can do it without hurting you at least a little. But if I don’t get it out …”
“Just … try to do it quickly.” She gave him her arm, aware that she was perspiring from the anticipated pain, sweat beading on her upper lip. “Admiral, can you do me a favor and shut off the heat?”
“What, you changed your mind? You no longer want to simulate the conditions on Venus?”
“Ha, ha. You try getting dumped into a fifty-degree swimming pool and then driving fifteen miles in some trash heap of a car that doesn’t have a working heater.” She clenched her teeth against the pain.
Jake smiled as he turned down the heat. “Someday we’ll have to tell her about BUD/S Training, huh, Mitch?”
Mitch was completely focused on cleaning her arm. “If you can’t handle cold, don’t become a SEAL.”
“A major portion of Hell Week—the fifth week of SEAL training—is spent freezing your butt off,” Jake told her. “You get wet early on and stay wet for the entire week.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about that.”
