Chapter 3

Three

" W hat the fuck are you doing here?" Lincoln practically roared when he spotted Ford sitting on the triage bed.

Ford gave him an eye roll. "Same thing you are, Private First Class. " He said the title as if it were something nasty lying on his tongue. "Trying to get the girl, right?"

"She's not a prize to be won." Lincoln braced his legs wide and folded his arms over his chest, using his impressive bulk to intimidate. All his hard work would pay off in this case. Ford wasn't exactly a wimp, but he wasn't up to Lincoln's standards after his surgery.

Very slowly, Ford got off the table and stood facing him. Bracing his legs and folding his arms too.

"I saw her first," Lincoln said.

"Yeah, well, she visited me several times while I was recovering here in the hospital. We got close."

"I don't believe a thing a lying piece of shit like you says."

Their raised voices brought someone into the room, but it wasn't Allison. The tall nurse called Jessy looked between them. "Allison warned me this might happen, that you two would come in and there'd be trouble. Want me to call security again?"

Lincoln turned toward her. "Where is she?"

"It's her day off. So take this problem someplace else. You're wasting your time anyhow." She came into the room and whipped back two curtains so they were exposed to the front desk where the security guard sat talking to one of the other nurses there.

Ford stepped up to Lincoln, two inches from his face, and said, "This isn't over."

"No, it's not."

"I said take it outside, men!" Jessy huffed.

The security guard got up.

Ignoring them, Lincoln said, "I know you're faking shit to come and see her, Ford. I bet your CO would like to hear that."

"Same goes for you."

"We'll see who comes out on top." Lincoln wanted to pop the man like a pimple, even if they had been friends for years.

And he wanted to go find Allison. She probably lived off base, but where could he find out that information? Jessy didn't seem too eager to share it.

"Is there a problem?" the guard asked.

Lincoln didn't look away from Ford when he said, "No." And turned and walked out.

He went straight to work and threw himself into four long hours of training, running for two of those despite the stitches that needed to come out. While he set up to pump some iron, he couldn't help but think about Allison. What did she do on her days off and where did she go?

He pictured her curling up on her sofa with a book. She seemed a quiet sort of person, but he wanted to make her moan—loudly. Stretch her beautiful body out under him and spend hours worshiping her like a queen she was.

As he added more weight to his machine and started lifting, he let his mind wander. Fantasizing about sitting on the sofa next to her and drawing her feet into his lap for a massage to work out the stress of being on them for long shifts.

His cock throbbed at the thought of stripping off her scrubs pushing aside the delicate strip of her panties and licking her until he had his fill. Then sliding his hard cock into her dripping pussy and making her forget all about anyone else. The look of hunger and interest in her eyes back at the hospital was real. She wanted him. Despite wanting to ram his fist into Ford's face, there was also a moment where his balls tingled and hands itched to draw her to him, open his arms and tuck her close to his chest. Then watch her slide to her knees and wrap those pretty red lips around his aching shaft.

This is getting beyond a one-night stand. What happened to my vow to stay away from girls I could run into?

"Hey, Lincoln. Time's up on that machine." Jace was one of Lincoln's closest friends. They'd spent a lot of time down at the bar together on their off hours, drinking away memories of bombs and blood. Now Jace had a baby and a steady woman he confided to, and they hadn't drunk together in too long.

He ended his reps and got off the machine. When Jace settled on it, Lincoln leaned against the wall to watch. "How's that pretty little lady of yours?"

Jace flashed a grin. "Great. I can't wait to get home to her again."

"Must be hard just stealing some hours when you're off duty."

"Nah, well worth it. And she's very understanding. Especially when I can make her scream until she's exhausted."

They shared a laugh.

"Do you have someone special?" Jace asked, doing his own reps. The space was nearly empty with only a few other guys working out. Not all soldiers came to the gym when not forced to, because they were too tired from everything they'd already done that day. Jace and Lincoln were different, though.

Lincoln didn't answer his question right away. He watched the gears of the equipment move as Jace lifted a could hundred pounds. He was a big motherfucker and didn't have a problem throwing that weight around when a friend was in need.

Jace gave a short laugh. "I'll take that silence as a yes."

"I don't know how it happened. We've hardly talked and when we have, it's about my injury." He raised his boot in demonstration.

"But you want her to be someone special."

Lincoln pushed out a breath. Admitting it to anyone would make it real, but he couldn't lie to Jace. "I'd like her to be someone special. Trouble is, I can't get her alone for long and when I do, she's resistant."

"Maybe she's like me and she doesn't like you."

Lincoln through is friend a smirk. "Yeah, maybe."

He thought back on the moments when they'd stared into each other's eyes and he'd noted so many of the signs of attraction on Allison. Increased pulse, dilated pupils, flushed cheeks. And fuck if her nipples didn't send out messages of their own.

"Nah, she's interested. She just feels she can't act on it."

"Or she's been burned." Jace grunted as he did a chest fly with enough weight to harm most other men.

Lincoln stopped at the words. "I hadn't thought of that." The idea of someone hurting Allison made him want to blow shit up.

"Oh no. I know that look on your face."

"What look?"

"I was in Afghanistan with you, remember? Look, I could be totally off and your lady isn't burned at all. Maybe she's just a stickler for the rules and really won't date soldiers."

Lincoln pushed a breath out through his nose. Now that the idea was planted in his brain, he knew it was the case with Allison. As much as she had the signs of attraction to Lincoln, she also had those of a gun-shy woman. Nervousness when he was close to her, pulling away from his touch as if he'd scalded her.

Hell, now he really wanted to blow shit up.

"I'm not sure how to find her to even learn if this is the case or not."

"Where's she work?"

"Triage."

"Ah, your foot. Got it. Man, you need to remember. Nurses are paid to care, not to actually care." Jace ended his reps and stood to stretch out the kinks. Lincoln grabbed a towel and swiped at his face and rubbed it through his hair. Then he tossed a fresh towel at his friend. Jace caught it and did the same.

"Yeah, she's different. My foot. The stitches come out in two days and I won't have a reason to go back and see her again."

Jace arched a brow. "I'm sure you can think of something, Lincoln. I've been in battle with you enough to know how resourceful you can be."

F ord's stare could melt her— was melting her. She peeked at him from the corner of her eye. He looked amazing today, his T-shirt fitting perfectly along his carved torso and his pants hanging oh, so low. Tattoos stood out against his tanned skin.

No, she firmly told herself. While he was a gorgeous man, she wasn't going there. She'd never date another soldier.

Knife in hand, she held it over the box of supplies. Shipments came in weekly, and she was usually on duty when they did. She didn't mind the busy work between patients. But today she wasn't getting much done because the soldier wheeling in the boxes was gorgeously built, swoon-worthy Jason Ford.

He seemed to be in good form, not grimacing as he worked, which was a relief to her. She hated seeing anybody in pain, but something about him had hit her in a soft spot.

He and Lincoln both.

What the hell was wrong with her? She'd been trying to separate them in her mind, but since they'd popped into her life at the same time and neither seemed to have plans of leaving, she thought of them the same way.

"Here, let me do that." Ford reached over her and plucked the knife from her hand. In one sleek glide, he slit the box top to reveal foam peanuts.

God, his scent was amazing. Did he shower in the same place the other guys did? Because he smelled as though he'd come out of a freshwater lake with the summer air drying all that muscle.

The image blazed through her mind, and she glanced at him from beneath her lashes.

"You smell good," he said quietly near her ear, echoing what she'd been thinking about him.

"Thank you." She wanted to step away—needed to. But he was a magnet and she was metal. She wanted to move closer.

"What do you do with your free time? Maybe you'd want to get a drink with me?"

"No, she wouldn't." The deep, gritty tone speared through Allison like the knife Ford had taken from her. Every hair on her body stood up and took notice of the man who'd entered the room even though she hadn't looked at him yet. Her heart rate doubled. Her breath hitched and her thighs pressed together and warm liquid pooled between her thighs to wet her underwear. All at once.

Slowly, she turned. Ford didn't move away and tried to barricade Lincoln from seeing her.

"What the fuck're you doing here, Ford?"

"Light duty, remember? I'm hauling in supplies for Allison."

Lincoln looked around the brick wall of man and met Allison's stare. Something hot and bright flared inside her, like a firework in the night sky. She scooted out from behind Ford in order to get a closer look at the man who could make her feel such things. Ford was handsome and his attention felt good when his gaze caressed over every inch of her body.

But Lincoln...

Her body came alive whenever he was near. She came three times last night dreaming about him. Those hard, callused hands working every inch of her body. The hard, raspy voice he would use on her telling her to cum for him. She imagined him moving over her, his hard cock spilling inside her, over her, in her mouth.

Fuck. She wanted all of him all over her.

All three orgasms left her exhausted and she could feel their lingering effect fire up now that Lincoln was so close.

"Why the fuck are you here?" Ford shot back Lincoln's own words.

"Having my stitches removed today. So get lost so I can have a moment with Allison."

The way he said that didn't sound as though he were concerned about having her undivided attention while she removed his stitches. A shiver passed through her and reached for her nipples as if alive.

"Guys, you know I can't have this kind of chest-thumping here. So Ford, why don't you keep doing your job while I see to Lincoln's foot?"

They glared at each other, ignoring her.

Tension rolled off them in waves, and she stepped between them. Heat washed over her front and back made her dizzy, but she managed to say, "Break it up. Take this argument elsewhere if you must, but this isn't the place."

"I'll see ya around," Lincoln shot out as Allison grabbed his arm and forced him to follow her into a space far on the opposite side of the triage unit.

The minute Lincoln hitched himself on the table, he caught her hand and looked deep into her eyes. He pulled her into him. She felt as if she was falling and if he weren't holding onto her, she might have tipped right into his arms.

"I don't like that asshole near you, sweetheart."

Her face reddened.

"He's just doing his job." Her mind caught up to her body's reactions and she pulled free. Putting space between them, she started to round up the supplies she'd need to tend to his foot.

"I don't like him. He's got designs on you."

She swung around, her brows raised. "Designs? Really? And you don't?" She couldn't help the smile on her lips.

He cracked a crooked smile of his own, and her heart did a wild flutter in response. "Is that a bad thing, baby?"

"It's a forbidden thing, baby . I could get in trouble. Besides, like I've said a hundred times before, I don't date soldiers."

He hopped off the bed and closed the distance between them. In two steps his big body hemmed her in against the row of cabinets where supplies were kept. She had to crane her neck all the way back to look at him, but that was a mistake. He was so close, his lips so tormenting, and he was leaning closer by the second.

"Lincoln." She placed her hands on his chest to stop him—or maybe to reel him in?

"That's right—you don't date soldiers. But you'll date one soldier: Me. And once you find I'll treat you like the queen that you are, you'll never let me go."

Fuck I'm in so much trouble.

She witnessed the truth of his words reflect in his eyes. "I-I can't." With a supreme force of will, she slipped out of his hold and moved away from him.

"Tell me why."

"I don't mesh with soldiers. The whole lifestyle, the attitude. It's not for me."

"And you know this because you dated some?" His eyes were so soft that she relented to his questioning.

"Yes," she said softly.

"Oh, baby. They were the wrong guys, Allison. You deserve someone who will treat you right. Who will use his strength to protect you not overpower you. And who is enough man to keep your roving spirit tamed. Know how to pleasure your body and leave you weak in the knees days after loving hard on your sweet body."

They stood so close to one another she could feel the heat of his breath brush across her cheek.

She gasped. "How did you know?"

He looked at her—into her—so deeply that she had no choice but to let a shudder pass through her. "Because I know you, Allison. Fuck if I know how, but I just look at you and it's as if we've known each other forever. Don't you feel the same?"

His lips brush against hers. Masculine yet soft. And warm. His tongue trailed across her lower lip as his arms came around her. One tug and she was fully in his arms and everything from her nipples to his hard cock pressed together.

She moaned into his mouth and lost her senses over to the delicious taste of him on her tongue. The need to have more of him touching her. The possessive way his hands gripped her tight. Burning need filled her and has a moan falling from her lips when he brushed a tender touch over her plump ass.

"Fuck, Allison, I need you. You're a warm beacon of sunlight and I can't pull away if my life depended on it. I want to take your sweet little mouth and have it all over my body and fuck, Allison." His forehead rested against hers and they both panted hard. "You may want to run from me now, because I promise once you give me a taste of your sweet girl cum, once my tongue and cock feel your juices, I'll never get enough. I already know I'll be addicted. I half believe I already am.

His hand slid over her ass, up her back beneath the hem of her scrubs to brush over the heated skin of her back.

She shuddered under the first touch of his strong hand against her starving body.

Suddenly she couldn't remember why staying away from powerful, muscle bound soldiers with hot mouths was a bad idea.

A crash in the other room. She started, and they looked at each other. Slowly her senses came flooding in and reality.

She rushed out of the space with Lincoln on her heels. When she reached the place where Ford had been leaving the boxes, one of the stacks had toppled over. Foam peanuts were everywhere and something—glass by the sounds of it—had shattered inside one box. A liquid was spreading on the cardboard, and she quickly grabbed a pair of gloves to take care of it.

"Let me," Lincoln said, pushing past her.

"No, I'm trained to deal with this stuff. You should leave. It might be a hazardous substance."

"And you can stay?" Ford asked, kneeling to pick up some of the boxes. "No way."

"Guys, please let me do my job. This alpha act is getting old with me, and you're both hindering me from my work."

A dark look crossed Lincoln's features, and she knew he was feeling some strong emotion. Of course he wouldn't admit as much.

He straightened and nodded. "Listen to the nurse, private. Get out of here and let her do her job."

Ford puffed out his chest. "You first."

She rolled her eyes. At her feet, the puddle of liquid was growing and about to touch her shoes. She wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it had a sickly sweet scent like codeine. Not toxic but she needed to clean it up and make note that the box had fallen and the contents shattered.

"Just go, both of you. Lincoln, grab Jessy on your way out. She'll see to your stitches."

He hesitated, and she could see he wanted to say more.

"Please," she said, holding his gaze.

Ford, hearing the desperation in her voice, gave her a wave and left. Lincoln took another couple of seconds to listen, but eventually he went out of the area, leaving her on her own with a mess and her thoughts.