Marc walked slowly, shirt open, bag over his uninjured shoulder, and their eyes locked over the distance, speaking louder than the water still rushing by.

"I almost got you killed."

Marc shook his head, full of fierce gratitude he would never be able to express. "You saved my life."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Marc stated firmly, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead that allowed her to smell his clean, sexy scent.

"No way to know the smart-ass upstairs was gonna pick those 90 seconds to shake the ground again. Your quick actions saved me. You deserve a promotion."

Angela grinned, waving a hand at the tailgate, "Have a seat. I'll patch you up while you tell me about this raise."

He took the Irish coffee she pushed into his clammy hands and the red-flecked wolf sat on the ground at his feet.

"All right. In the Corps, you'd start out a private, but you would have been a Private First Class after Versailles." He watched for signs that it still bothered her but saw nothing as she raised a brow.

She'd felt him fishing, but that bait had long since been stripped to the bone by her own guilt. "And now?" she asked, opening the packages from her bag as the sun sank, leaving a pale orange and purple sky that looked almost normal.

"Now, I'd say... a Lance Corporal."

She laughed, hiding her wince well. Kenny was a Lance Corporal. "Better get a good raise with that. What about you?"

Stifling a sneeze, Marc shrugged, concentrating on the blue of her eyes and the red of her lips instead of the stinging from the alcohol pad. "Happy where I am."

Angela heard it all in his voice: the need, the respect, the fierce joy to be alive. She kept her eyes from his as her fingers tenderly moved his dog tag (1) aside to smear gel over his cuts and scrapes. It was Heaven and Hell, being so close, touching him, and she barely kept the old Angela from doing something they might regret…like letting her hands wander freely over his hot skin.

"Soup when you're ready for a bite to eat, then pills."

Angela tried to hurry, to ignore how he felt, and her pulse was pounding when she stepped back.

"Ready for…." she fell silent as the ground under them lit up again, rattling the Blazer and everything inside it. She met Marc's eyes in the fading light of dusk.




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