Page 15 of Hold On Through The Pain

He set her down, still laughing. Then her eyebrows pinched tight, and worry filled her gaze.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I forgot about my arm,” he said.

“Does it hurt?”

He shrugged, downplaying the pain. “It’s not bad.”

She cradled his arm in her hands and stared at the cut. It was a little red but not too bad. He’dexperienced worse in battle. Heck, he’d suffered worse in training.

Her head came up, and she met his gaze. “It hurts more than you’re letting on.”

Maybe it did. “No.”

“I hate that you got hurt for me.”

He cupped her face, trying to relay the intensity inside. “I’d do it again. No one should hit you. Ever.”

Her cheeks turned pink and she glanced away. “I’m not used to anyone actually caring for me.”

“Well, get used to it because I’m not going to stop caring.”

“I bet you say that to all the women you hop into bed with.”

He wrapped his arms around her shoulder and pulled her close, stroking her hair as he planted kisses on the top of her head. His emotions couldn’t be easily explained. Maybe he didn’t know exactly why his heart sped up or his breath caught when he looked at her, but the tugging tenderness towards her still filled his heart and his mind.

“There’ve been others, I won’t lie. I’ve messed around some, and I love having a hot woman like yourself to share my bed. But that has nothing to do with why I care about you.”

She said nothing as the seconds ticked by, emotions flitting over her face. How could he get her to see she was special?

“Then why do you care?” Shannon asked.

The question was hard to answer. “I don’t know. Should be simple, but it’s not.” He was drawn to her and wasn’t sure if he could ever stop wanting her. But putting a reason on it didn’t feel right. His emotions were there, and he knew they were real, but it was like trying to explain why the sea was green sometimes and blue other times. He didn’t know, it just was. Voicing a reason would make it where the things he felt could be taken away, and he didn’t want that. “I just do,” he said. “And nothing’s going to change that.”

Not even me leaving.

He would leave soon, and months would pass before they met up again. But now, when she was insecure about his feelings, about him in general, didn’t seem like the time to bring it up.

His heart squeezed. If he got too involved, it would be disastrous for him. But it was too late to pull back now. His heart was already set.

7

Monday morning came,and Striker didn’t want Shannon to leave his side, but she had school. He dropped her off after he made sure she ate breakfast. Her bruises were covered with makeup, but he knew they were still there. It pained him that she’d been injured. With him, that wouldn’t happen. He’d never lay a hand on her in anger. She wasn’t someone who should ever be hit.

They’d spent Sunday in bed watching movies and making love, and he hadn’t even done one pushup, at least not a real one. He needed to workout, so he headed to a park near the Citadel where there were exercise stations and pull-up bars.

After his first round through the path, he took a break, grabbing bottled water at a nearby store. The humidity here was thicker than in Georgia. If he didn’t watch it, he’d be on the ground after another run through. On his second time on the course, he met a few of the cadets from the Citadel. Not long after joining them, they started giving him shit, saying he was an old man and couldn’t keep up. He’d been pacing himself, thinking about Shannon, but he couldn’t allow those cocky little jerks to believe they could best him.

Striker picked up his pace and left them in the dust. At the end of the course, he found their teacher who happened to have been a Ranger back in the day until a bad jump sidelined him.

“So they were giving you hell?” the instructor asked for the third time.

“Yes, sir.”

“You don't have to sir me. You’re a sergeant; I only made it to corporal in my four years in. You outrank me.”

Striker’s lips tilted up. “You rank in life experience, sir.”

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