Free Anything For You: A Coming Home Short Story by Jessica Scott Page B

again.” Carponti turned toward the door as it opened. “Speaking of nuts, here’s my wife. I need to get mine out of her purse.”
    Shane turned to see Nicole Carponti walking onto the physical therapy floor, looking polished and perfect. No one ever looked at her and thought she was a cop. It made her a perfect investigator.
    It also made everyone wonder what the hell she was doing with a scruffy, red-headed sergeant like Vic Carponti, but hey, she’d stuck with him after he’d gotten blown up. And worse, through his incessant bad tricks with his prosthetic. Shane watched as Carponti kissed his wife on the cheek, then slung his good arm around her shoulders as they walked out. Shane was reasonably certain Carponti tried to pinch Nicole’s ass with his prosthetic.
    Life was never dull around Carponti, that was for damn sure.
    Shane finished his therapy in blessed silence and headed to the locker room to change back into his duty uniform. He took a deep breath, running his hand over his jaw. Last week, Jen had slipped her body over his, her slick heat caressing his bare erection, and Shane had almost died from the pleasure of skin on skin. No barriers. He didn’t know which one of them wanted it more—the desire painting her features had been beautiful. And she’d gotten bolder since then, driving him toward a little death each time he touched her. No matter how much he was tempted to make love to her without a goddamned condom, he would not risk her life for a few moments of pleasure.
    He loved Jen. More than life itself. The vasectomy was a very real discussion he was going to have with her very soon.
     
    *   *   *
     
    Jen smiled as Shane walked onto her hospital floor. There was something right about seeing him in uniform, especially after all those months he’d spent recovering. The grey camouflage looked good on him. Like he was more comfortable in uniform than civilian clothes. The Army was important to him.
    He tucked his cap into the back of his waistband, stretching his grey uniform tight across his massive chest. Her blood warmed. Yeah. Her smile softened as she remembered waking up with him that morning. The man was better than coffee.
    “Hey,” she said, leaning back in her chair, twisting her civilian ID card holder in its lanyard. Soldiers didn’t have to wear ID in the hospital but civilian nurses like Jen? Their ID had to be visible at all times.
    “Hungry?” Shane asked, leaning against the counter around her nurse’s station.
    “Starving. What did you have in mind?”
    His gaze darkened as it dropped to her mouth. No matter how long she’d been with him, the raw hunger in his eyes made her ache.
    She shook her head to dissuade him from the direction his thoughts had taken. “It has to be a short lunch. I’ve got to update records before my staff meeting at one.”
    He grinned.
    She loved the way his eyes crinkled at the corners.
    “Cafeteria downstairs, then?”
    “Sure.”
    He waited for her to grab her purse, then they walked down the hallway together. She had gotten used to his walking a little too close, close enough that their hands bumped. It had taken a long time for her to realize it was just something he did with her. When she’d been his nurse all those months ago, she’d never have guessed he was a man who craved touch. Even when she’d first met him, when he’d been so weak she’d had to shave him, the man had attracted her. There had been something beyond physical strength that had drawn her to him. Now that he was back on his feet and on his way to being fully fit, he overwhelmed her. But she did not feel crowded or smothered.
    She felt cherished. Loved.
    But as much as she loved him and no matter how much she knew that leading soldiers defined him, part of her was terrified. He hungered to get back to the life he’d had before he’d gotten sent home. The stronger Shane got, the closer he came to returning to the war that had pushed him into her arms in the