Guardian Read Online Free Page A

her even more than her own distraction.
    If he felt the same attraction…
    “Uh, David?” she whispered his name, then damn, damn, damn, realized she should have called him Berg, or Major, to establish distance. And was that funny as hell considering how close they were now? His leg pressed intimately between hers, a sweet pressure against a deep ache. “Do you think you can get off me now?”
    His blue eyes went stormy for a second before he blinked all expression away.
    “Yeah, right.” He rolled to the side and sat up. “Are you okay?”
    “Fine, thanks.” She breathed deeply to chase off a light-headedness that had little to do with hitting the ground and everything to do with the man beside her. She sucked in another gasp and realized…Oh God. It was too easy to breathe deeply. Her hand shot to her waist and…
    Damn it.
    Her too-tight skirt had popped a button. The absurdity of it all hit her. She laughed. And laughed more, letting the laughter just flow as she sprawled on her back staring up at the Nevada sky. Yeah, she was on the verge of hysteria, strung too tight from a year of sheer hell.
    “Sophie?” He gripped her shoulders and eased her up to sit. “What’s wrong?”
    Other than just about everything in her life?
    Her laughter faded. She swallowed back the urge to cry and focused on how to get to her feet without losing her skirt or having to fess up to popping out of her clothes. She pressed a hand to her waist, winged a prayer, and stood.
    Thank God, the zipper held.
    Her knees, however, didn’t. David caught Sophie by the upper arms. His fingers wrapped around as he kept her from melting to the pavement. She let him help since everything around her still blurred together, certainly not because his touch felt impossibly good. She must have hit her head harder than she’d thought.
    “Easy now.” Frowning, he glanced over his shoulder at a bench. “Maybe you should sit. Are you all right?”
    “I’m fine,” she lied, her head throbbing. “And you?”
    “Not a scratch.”
    “Good. Thanks for the quick thinking, even if it was a false alarm.” Her deployments, as well as years as a military brat, provided her with ample real-life scenarios to draw upon.
    “You hit your head pretty hard.” David led her to a bench shadowed by a palm tree.
    Arguing with his stubborn jaw would drain more energy than she could scavenge. “Thanks.”
    “No problem.” He tugged his jacket and straightened his tie, wincing as if it was too tight.
    Humvees filed down the road along with a caravan of security police cars, lights flashing, all converging on the building under “attack” for the exercise.
    “David, I’ll be fine after I sit for a minute and catchmy breath. Thank you for your help, but I don’t need an oversize babysitter.”
    His thumb stopped twitching. “I’m not leaving until I’m sure you don’t have a concussion. Period. So stop arguing. We’re not in the courtroom. You would do the same for me—or for anyone.”
    “Of course.” She nodded, which sent the world spinning again. Sophie hung her head to stop the welling nausea. She rubbed a hand over her hair and discovered a warm dampness oozing from the base of her head. Grimacing, she stared at her fingers, sticky with blood.
    “Damn it!” David crouched in front of her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” He prodded the back of her head with a firm touch.
    “Ouch!” She dodged his hand. “If I wasn’t before, I am now.”
    “Sorry, Counselor.” David stood, his height towering like the palm trees clustered in groups of three on either side of the lawn.
    He radiated such vitality and strength, her mouth went dry. “I’m really…”
    David touched her again, gentler this time, silencing her. His hands smoothed over her hair, soothing until her head lolled forward again.
    “Stay with me, Sophie.” His voice rumbled from somewhere deep inside his chest, the husky timbre hinting of intimacy.
    She forced