Major Daddy by Cara Colter

Author:Cara Colter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

“I need to change,” Brooke stammered. She looked down at herself and blushed crimson. And not, he guessed, because of the soot and baby puke. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “I’m wet.”

Yes, he could see that. What had he done to deserve the fact he was always going to see her wet when it would be most ungentlemanly to take advantage of it?

Because she was not just wet, but vulnerable, something no gentleman would take advantage of.

Not that he had ever considered himself much of a gentleman. His military career had been without glamour. The dress greens and social functions had been minimal. He had never had any of the kinds of political or career aspirations that might make a person brush up on his manners.

Cole had prided himself on being a hands-on kind of leader. It meant he had never asked a man to do something he was not willing to do himself. It meant getting dirty and bruised and ending some days so tired he swayed on his feet. What he’d liked best about his job was that it challenged him, daily, to be stronger, smarter and faster.

But suddenly, facing the temptation of Brooke Callan, he expected more of himself. He wanted to be better than he had ever been before. More, somehow. And he wanted to bring out the best in her, instead of the worst, as he had done so far.

Cole had led men in terrible and tough situations where the unexpected could unfold at an alarming rate, and the consequences could be brutal. The gift from that was that he knew when somebody had made a bad mistake they were at their most vulnerable. It was not victory that brought people to turning points in their lives. It was defeat. In the painful and delicate time spent in the no-man’s-land of remorse, regret and self-questioning a person could be crushed—or they could be helped to grow and profit from error.

He had heard a story, early in his career, about Thomas Edison. That story had become his guidepost when dealing with people struggling with the consequences of bad decisions, human errors or slips in judgment.

Edison, on his way to a press conference to reveal his new invention, the lightbulb, had handed his prototype to a young assistant. Nervous about being singled out for such a great honor, the young man dropped the light-bulb and it shattered. Edison went quietly back to work, re-created the lightbulb, and when it was time to unveil it the second time, he singled out the very same young man to carry it for him.

Brooke had dropped the lightbulb. She had something to prove with her great bid for independence this morning, and she had failed to prove it.

“How about if I bring you up some warm water?” he suggested, easing his way toward a truce, a partnership that he hoped would bring out the best in both of them instead of the worst. “You can get cleaned up, and then we’ll come up with a game plan for the next little while.

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