Tyler passed out cold the moment his head hit the sleeping bag. When Gunner woke him just before dawn to relieve him on watch duty, it took him a few moments to register where he was. He finally managed to roll over and scooted out of his shelter, stiff and sore.

“Get another dose of sleep,” he called after Gunner, but his friend had already dropped like the dead onto his sleeping bag and started snoring like a grizzly bear.

Tyler flopped onto his back, listening to the silence hover over their camp, the distant crackling of the fire, only disrupted by the sound of a collapsing tree every now and then. The sunrise in the east competed for the orange and golden glows with the fire raging in the west. It was a beautiful, yet deadly spectacle.

Another day of backbreaking work lay ahead, and Tyler took stock of his body, deciding he was still alive – just barely. Stretching muscle by muscle, he found there were few parts of him that didn’t hurt. Most prominently his earlobes. Coming to a sit, he used his hands to massage away the tension in his legs. An action that forced a miserable groan from his throat.

He turned his palms upwards to look at them and muttered a curse beneath his breath as he discovered the multitude of blisters upon blisters. Some still intact, others torn apart and oozing wound fluid. Stretching his fingers or closing his fists brought about searing pain. Just the thought of having to wrap his injured hands around the handles of the chainsaw again had him wincing.

Jules was the first one to crawl out of her shelter. “Morning Tyler. You can get another thirty minutes of sleep.”

“Nah, I’m good.” He was still slightly angry with her, but watching how she stretched and bent her long limbs was damn alluring to watch and caused his hormones to stir against better judgment.

“Here take this,” Jules stepped in front of him, holding two cups of instant coffee in her hands and an energy bar between her teeth. For a moment he considered taking the energy bar from her lips with his, but then he reached for one of the cups, wincing as his blisters came in contact with the warm cup, but doing a passable job of hiding his discomfort. “Thanks.” His voice was gravelly, from the lack of sleep or the smoke that managed to sneak beneath his mask from time to time the day before.

“Did you eat yet?” she asked him, sitting on the ground and sipping her coffee.

When Tyler shook his head, she gracefully sat down beside him, as if her body didn’t ache with every fiber and opened the energy bar before handing it to him. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For the training run yesterday. I shouldn’t have made you go with pack and everything.” She glanced down at her hands, holding the mug.

“It was nothing.” Tyler wouldn’t admit how hurt and furious he’d been at her.

“Yes, it was. It was mean and disproportionate. I…” She raised her wonderful pale blue eyes, sending electric shocks deep into his groin. “…I was angry at myself, because I’m so attracted to you.” Her voice turned into a whisper. “More than you’ll ever know.”

But just when Tyler wanted to mentally high-five himself, she continued to speak, “This attraction between us is powerful. Too powerful to give in to it. It would harm our focus on the job. We can’t let that happen. That’s why I overreacted. I wanted to protect both of us from getting hurt.”

“Can I decide for myself, what I need to be protected from, please?”

She smiled and for a short moment his world was perfect.

“And it’s definitely not you.”

Jules shook her head. “Romantic relationships end sooner or later. They always do. I’d rather have you as a friend than lose you altogether when the inevitable happens.”

“Just how do you know that’s what will happen?”

“Life experience.” She pushed out her lower lip and his heart ached for her. What had happened to make her so cynical? He’d never been one for true love and all those bells and whistles, but not out of conviction or disappointment. Rather it had been too much fun to sample what womanhood had to offer to him.

He reached out to put his hand on her arm, and couldn’t suppress a wince.

“You hurt?” She didn’t wait for his answer, but removed the cup from him, and then examined both of his hands. “Tsk. You should have tended to these last night.”

Tyler grimaced. “Yeah. One of my mayor regrets this morning. Right along with not getting a repeat of our kiss.”

Jules released his hands and gave him a stern look. “You never give up, do you?”

“Not until I have you in my arms, writhing and begging for more.” He grinned at the flush of heat covering her face. No, he would not give up on her. Ever.

“Dream on, rookie.” Jules got up and returned moments later with a first aid kit. “Let me patch you up. It’ll make the day more supportable.”

She delicately cleaned his blisters, applied a numbing salve to them and then wrapped his palms with both gauze and tape. Tyler watched her work, her head bent over his hands as she tended to him. His darn body responded to her soft and caring touch in a very predictable fashion, swelling hard as a rock with no relief in sight.

“Can you handle the chainsaw, or do I need to send you home, rookie?” Her eyes twinkled with the challenge she’d thrown him.

He gave her an indignant glance. “My hands may not look the part, but have you already forgotten that I never give up, boss? If you want to get rid of me, it has to be unconscious on a medevac.”

“Sounds like a true hotshot.” Jules chuckled and watched him for a long moment, sending shivers down his spine.

“Jules, I don’t think…” He stammered as he felt her hands settling on his shoulders from behind, expertly working the kinks from his neck and shoulders.

“Good. Don’t think. Just relax and say thank you.”

Tyler swallowed, his erection from moments ago at risk of exploding. He sent a prayer of thanks for the heavy fabric of his work pants hiding the growing bulge. He closed his eyes and all but started purring as she delved beneath the collar of his t-shirt, her fingertips pressing into his skin.

“Relax,” she murmured, squatting down behind him, the heat of her body scorching the entire length of his spine.

Relax? Are you kidding me? While his neck and shoulder muscles softened beneath her touch, the rest of his body pretzeled into one big and tight knot. Turning around and taking her lips in a passionate kiss was as tempting as it was inadequate. He sure as hell didn’t want to give a spectacle to the crew that was prone to wake up any minute now.

But he was determined to stay the course and force Jules to see how good of a match they made. He just needed a fool-proof plan to make it happen, and the patience of a saint.

Neither of which he currently possessed.