“Awww, am I healed yet?” she asked, smiling.
“I wish,” Zarek said, his bulging hardness apparent under his uniform pants.
THE END
Want to read more? This is book 1 in a two-book set. Book 2, Virlek, can be found in Amazon’s Kindle store.
OFFICER BEAR
STORY DESCRIPTION
Major Chad Matthews is a soldier's soldier.
He’s made a name for himself in the Air Force by doing things better, faster, and with more confidence than the next soldier.
It hasn’t always been easy for him to hide the fact that he’s a bear shifter, but he’d managed.
When he was assigned to teach survival skills at the Air Force Academy, he had no plans to change his staunch, uncompromising approach to life and to his career.
No plans at all.
So, when the tough and sexy Doctor Brenna Thiel is placed as his medical consult, the sparks immediately begin to fly.
And not the good kind.
He thinks she's unreasonable and inexperienced, she thinks he's arrogant and impossible.
Neither one suspects they'll fall for the other.
Neither one could have been more wrong...
CHAPTER 1
Brenna
I was under no illusions about my new colleague
When I heard I’d be working with Chad Matthews, I knew exactly what to expect. I’d heard the stories. I knew dozens of men like him during my military career.
I’m not saying all military men are arrogant assholes— not by a long shot. And I’m not saying I don’t know any good ones. I do. A lot of them.
All I am saying is that Chad Matthews isn’t one of them, and I was dreading every minute of working with him. No ifs, ands, or buts.
That being said, it didn’t matter what I felt about it. My assignment was my assignment. As a relatively new medical school graduate and a Captain in the U.S. Airforce, I didn’t have a lot of sway with the higher ups.
So, I was stuck being the medical advisor for the survival training class.
I had nothing against the cadets needing to learn survival techniques. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d done my own training — it was a required component. What I wasn’t crazy about was getting stuck with a job no one wanted simply because I was the new face on the block.
The reason no one wanted the job was because the bulk of the program would take place in the foothills of the mountain during the hottest, driest, part of the season. No one in their right mind wanted to be outside roughing it then.
The reality was, though, I could be as unhappy about it as I wanted — it wasn’t going to change a damn thing.
Chad
It was good to be back in the States.
Not that I minded the long deployments. Not really. They kept me on my toes.
Kept me in touch with that part of me I always had to curb. That part that was always hungry for something just beyond my reach. And, it managed to keep me in check, too. Always there, right under the surface, ready to come to the forefront in a moment of need.
But coming home was nice, too. Especially, after the recognition I’d received for my most recent tour, and with the cushy interim assignment I’d been given at the Academy, where I would be teaching the thing I loved the most.
Survival.
Skills.
The things the cadets would need to know if their plane went down and they were on their own in the middle of nowhere.
It could happen to anyone, no matter how much experience you had or how good you were. It happened every damn day. And if I was the one to give these men and women the knowledge that could save their lives, you better believe I was going to take pride in giving it.
I would have liked it better if I could go at the job alone, without a medical advisor. That was just how I was — a lone wolf, so to speak. And I didn’t need someone else there telling me things I already knew.
I’d done my best to have her position removed, but apparently a medical doctor was required while doing ongoing survival simulations.
Something about unexpected catastrophic injuries and negative experiences in the past.
I argued that I could triage with the best of them and that it was almost the same thing as having a doctor on site, but that hadn’t changed the final verdict.
Overruled.
I was stuck working with a newbie doctor. Zero combat experience. Fresh out of med school. A woman with literally no experience surviving anything other than midterms and boards.
I couldn’t wait to hear all her “expert” advise. It was bound to be six weeks of pure torture.
So far I’d been able to avoid coming face to face with her, though she had been pointed out to me once in a near miss, dressed for PT with her dark hair up in a ponytail.
I hadn’t paid much attention to her beyond that. And I figured I would have my fill of her soon enough, so no need to rush anything.
I was in the middle of praising myself for my ability to skulk around the campus without having had to engage in any kind of conversation with my soon-to-be-coworker when I heard the sound of a clearing throat behind me.
I knew who it was immediately, even before I turned to see her standing in the doorway, and it served me right for getting all cocky about having avoided her.
Damn if she didn’t smell sweet and fresh, like a garden in bloom right after a heavy rain, and I resented that fact immediately. I didn’t want to have to be reminded of her femininity, how far removed she was from the reality of the survival course out in the field.
“Major Matthews?” she asked, and I equally resented the sound of her voice, husky, sure, and no-nonsense.
I frowned. This was absolutely not what I needed.
“Yes?” I asked, not at all hiding my impatience.
“Dr. Brenna Thiel,” she said, giving a little acknowledgement of my seniority with the dip of her head before thrusting her hand out toward me and waiting for me to take it.
I did. I didn’t want to. But, as our working relationship was going to be difficult enough already — I didn’t need to make it more awkward by leaving her hanging.
“I’ve been assigned as your medical consult,” she said. Her voice told me that she was about as thrilled with the idea of working with me as I was her.
“Correct,” I said, as though she’d asked me a question instead of stating a fact.
It didn’t faze her. “Classes begin next week and I was wondering if you wanted to discuss the medical histories of your cadets and the best way to structure the program —”
I cut her off. I didn’t need to hear any more of her pitch. “That won’t be necessary.”
“I would have preferred to do it earlier, but you’ve proven difficult to get ahold of.”
I suspect that was her code for unresponsive and refusing to return her emails or phone calls. “I have the program outlined just the way I want it. It’s proven and effective and I don’t feel it needs alteration in any way. Additionally, the medical backgrounds of the cadets will, in no way, play into the course.”
I could see her glowering, the corners of her mouth turned downward, and I couldn’t help but wonder how those lips might look if she weren’t glaring at me.
I had to rein myself in. It was apparent I was still adjusting to being home after the deployment. If this conversation was any indication I needed to get out and spend some time at the bars, maybe meet a pretty thing I wasn’t going to hate spending time with.
Maybe then I would stop studying the doctor like she was a woman I might want to take home. Maybe then I would stop noticing exactly how her voice rasped against my skin and the way sweet fresh way she smelled. Like wildflowers.
“Well,” she snipped. “I’m not entirely sure why you even have a consult and advisor on the team if you’re refusing to take any suggestions or input.”
I tried not to notice how her hands fit on her hips, or the way her uniform swelled over her curves.
All of that fell directly under the category of things I should, most definitely, not be paying any attention to at all.
“To be entirely honest, Captain, that makes two of us. I specifically requested several times to work the course alone and was denied repeatedly. It looks as though you and I are just going to have to make the best of the situation and accept the fact that neither of us will be enjoying our time together.”
“That certainly is what it looks like,” she said, before turning on her heel and storming away from me.
I couldn’t help watching her go.
And enjoying every second of it.
CHAPTER 2
Brenna
He was exactly how I thought he’d be.
Worse, actually.
An infuriating, frustrating ass. Yes, a total ass. A misogynistic, selfish, arrogant, ass.
I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.
Yet, I would be forced to see him daily. It would be imperative that we kept ourselves in check around the cadets. They didn’t need to see their superiors arguing. It set a bad precedent and I didn’t want to be responsible for setting free on the military an entire group of people just like Matthews.
God knows, one of him was more than enough.
I thought a run would help ease the hostility I was feeling, but in the end, when I stopped to catch my breath, hands on my hips, dripping sweat in the summer heat, it was worse than it had been when I started. After a quick shower, what I really needed was a drink.
It was good to wear something other than my issued clothes, but anything fancy was out of place for midweek at a local bar. Especially one where the food was barely passable and the liquor was watered down.
Not that I was going to enjoy it any less because of those things. That was exactly what I needed.
I pulled on my favorite pair of blue jeans and a cream colored tank top. I liked it because the color made me look more tan than I actually was. Not that it was going to matter once I was seated in the dimly lit bar, where most of the lighting came from neon lights advertising cheap beer.
A swipe of lip gloss and that was as good as it was going to get tonight. Flip flops, my bag, and my military I.D. and I was out the door.
I drove myself. Partly because I didn’t want to subject myself to any more physical activity in the heat, but mostly because it would be a good way to keep my drinking in check. I did not need to get hammered the week before classes started. I wasn’t the young thing I’d once been, and my recovery periods could now extend beyond 12 hours.
Way more.
The things you miss about youth.
Evening was just beginning to settle, the sky moving from blue to grey and into that pretty husky limbo between day and night. I found a parking spot and headed in.
I’d picked the bar I thought would be the least likely to attract anyone I knew. I didn’t want to hit the O Club and risk having to run into someone I’d need to have a civil, intelligent conversation with.
Not tonight. Tonight I just wanted the chance to be sullen and enjoy a drink.
I found a spot at the bar and ordered from the bartender, a good looking man in a tight shirt. Hmm, if I played my cards right, maybe I wouldn’t need to drive myself home after all.
He returned with my vodka and asked my name, but it turned out I wasn’t in as much of a mood to flirt as I thought.
I didn’t have the energy to keep a conversation with him going, and when he disappeared to take someone else’s order, he wasn’t eager to return to me.
So much for playing my cards right.
Chad
I pushed the door open. God, I needed a drink.
I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, and it was pissing me off.
Everything about her had been irritating. The way she’d assumed she had some sort of expertise that she could provide me with. Even if I hadn’t been her senior, I would have been damn insulted by that. Didn’t she have any knowledge at all about my background and career?
Irritating didn’t even begin to describe it.
The bar was just what I needed. The heavy smell of smoke lingering in the air, the haze that came with people looking to get away, to forget who they were and where they were coming from.
Desperation, I suppose some people might call it.
But, I call it relaxation.
There was a brunette at the bar, her long hair tumbled down her back, the smooth skin of her back and shoulders mostly exposed. The scrap of a tank top she wore barely hid a tattoo that peeked out by her shoulder blade and then again just above the waist of her pants.
That was what I needed. I tried not to notice the incredible shape of her ass in those jeans on that stool.
I was moving toward her, intent on buying myself a drink and on buying her a drink too, I hoped. I needed to ease some of the frustration I’d been feeling since that encounter with Doc Thiel that morning.
Shit. I immediately resented the fact that I was thinking about her right now, right when I was in the midst of escaping her.
At first, I attributed that faint smell of wildflowers and sunshine to the unwanted memory of her. Until I sat down next to the woman at the bar, deliberately brushing up against her just enough so she might turn my way.
Fuck. It’s her.
The woman I’d spent an entire day stewing over.
The woman I had come here to forget about.
The woman whose ass I’d been eyeing the whole way across the bar.
Dr. Brenna Thiel, herself.
I stared blankly at her for a moment, unable to process the fact that moments before I’d been contemplating how I might take her home, peel the clothes off of her, and inspect that tattoo up close and personal.
Apparently, I didn’t recover quickly enough, because I watched her eyes narrow, her full mouth twisting down into a frown.
“Major,” she said in what I suppose was meant to pass as a strangled greeting.
“Doctor,” I said in return, knowing that the omission of her military rank was going to eek a rise out of her.
And liking the flash of heat and fire I saw snap in her eyes.
Damn. The woman was infuriating.
But, even knowing it was Brenna Thiel did nothing to mitigate the throb of desire I was feeling for her, the urge to run my hands through that hair and pull that killer body of hers close to mine.
I was going to need a double shot.
Silence stretched between us, and I was wondering if I should relocate, or even leave the bar altogether and just consider this night a failure when she sighed and began to talk.
“Listen,” she said, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear so I got an uninhibited view of the delicate shell of her ear, a series of little silver hoops through the lobe.
I tried to ignore pangs of desire that shot through me.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’d like to start over with you. Whether we agree on things or not, we are going to have to work together, and I think it will be in our best interest and in the best interest of our cadets to display civility and respect towards one another despite our different views.”
My eyebrow arched upward.
That was certainly not what I had been expecting.
I watched her press down on her lower lip with her teeth and I had the sudden thought that I wished it was my lip instead.
Dammit. I wanted her. Fiercely.
It had been a long time since I’d had a woman, and of course it would be the one woman I shouldn’t have at all. The one woman I shouldn’t even consider wanting.
That seemed pretty par for the course these days.
“Alright, Captain. I think we can do that.” I knew I should stop there. I knew it, but instead I said, “Can I buy you a drink to celebrate our fresh start?”
She graced me with a genuine smile, and I thought my heart might stop beating.
“That sounds perfect.”
It did. I raised my hand to catch the bartender
’s eye and waited for him to come and take my order.
I don’t think either one of had anticipated being out that late, but it was closing time when we finally headed out.
I hadn’t wanted to file away the sound of Brenna’s laughter, or the little face she would make when she was thinking.
But I knew it was happening, becoming a memory I was going to pull forward again and again. It didn’t matter if I wanted it to be a savored memory or not.
“Do you need a ride home?” I asked, as we walked into the parking lot.
“No, I’m good,” she said, flipping her hair back over her shoulder in an unmistakably feminine gesture that reminded me she was a woman first, doctor and soldier second.
I knew she probably was good to drive, but I still felt a little tinge of disappointment. Not that I was really sure what I thought might come from giving her a ride home. A torrid little tryst? A kiss goodnight on a front step like an actual date?
Neither one of those was going to happen, no matter how damn appealing I found them, and I cursed myself for even considering them.
She stopped walking next to a car I could only assume was hers and gave me another one of those heart-stopping smiles.
“Thanks for tonight, Major. I think we’re off to a good start.”
“I think you should call me Chad,” I said, not ready yet to have her disappear into the car.
She gave a little noncommittal sound and pulled open the door to the driver’s side. “Maybe,” she said, positioning herself so the door was separating us.
I stepped in toward her anyway, the door providing me with an excuse to stand closer than I should to her.
“Definitely.” I wanted to hear her say my name, see its shape on her lips.
God, I wanted that. Which was exactly why I needed to get away from Doctor Brenna Thiel.
“Goodnight,” she said, folding herself into the car and fastening her seat belt. She gave the smallest wave of her hand before starting the car and pulling away, leaving me in the parking lot watching her taillights disappear into the dark.
Bears of Burden: THORN Page 86
