Stranded with the Sergeant by Cathie Linz

Author:Cathie Linz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Prudence willed her hands not to shake as she hastily reached for her discarded T-shirt and yanked it back over her head. “I don’t believe this.” The words weren’t meant to be spoken aloud but they were.

“Believe it,” Joe stated gruffly. “And believe that what just happened between us can’t happen again.”

“Because of my father.” Prudence laughed but there was no humor in it as she hugged her knees with a fierce determination not to cry. “Which is really ironic, considering that the last guy I was involved with was only interested in me because of my father. And now you won’t get involved with me because of my father.”

“What do you mean, the last guy was only interested in you because of your father?”

“He was a disgruntled Navy officer who wanted to pay back my father because my father had given him a less than glowing review during advance career developmental training. He figured seducing me and then dumping me would be a way to get to my father.”

Joe swore, the quiet curses rough with emotion. “Did you love him?”

“I don’t know. I thought I did.”

“I see. When we first met back at the base you seemed to have a grudge against Marines. But this guy was Navy.”

Her smile was bitter. “Interservice rivalry raises its head again, huh? Trust me, I’ve had my share of Marine dates gone wrong as well. I didn’t want to get involved with another military man.” Unspoken but clearly communicated were the words until now.

“What we just shared, uh…” Joe paused, cleared his throat and started again. “You know when people share an intense experience like we’ve shared over the past few days, being snowbound up here and all. Well, it affects the emotions in an artificial way.”

“There is absolutely nothing artificial about my aggravation with you,” Prudence shot back, anger momentarily superseding the embarrassed misery.

Where did he get off talking to her as if she were one of her own students? Telling her that her emotions weren’t real. They were real all right. False emotions wouldn’t be this painful. The bruised roots of her self-esteem felt as if they’d been yanked out of the ground and stomped on.

“Being aggravated with me is good.” He sounded relieved and that made her feel like crawling under a rock.

“Being aggravated with you is good, but wanting to kiss you is bad. Got it,” she said curtly, refusing to look directly at him and addressing her words to a spot somewhere beyond his head. What an idiot she’d been. “Don’t worry, I can take the hint.”

“No, that’s not it…”

But she wasn’t listening any longer. The pain was becoming too intense, and the need to hide it from him was taking all her self-discipline.

Despite the fact that Prudence confessed her own feelings of guilt about her mother’s injuries, despite the fact that she discovered he’d been the boy who’d been kind to her all those years ago in Okinawa, Joe still didn’t see her. Not for who she was.

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