Free What I Fight For: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 1) by Gemma Hart

didn’t…umm…follow me here, to Qunar, did you?” I asked, voicing out what I knew was a ridiculous notion but couldn’t help but ask.
    He seemed genuinely startled by my question before giving me an amused stare.
    “You mean, did I fly out here weeks in advance, bringing all my men, fake a contract with a NGO, set up a whole base, mission outline, and protocols, hire a man to contract doctors from your very hospital, fly all of you out so I could lure you out to this tree that you were already heading towards by yourself?” he said dryly. “Uh, no.”
    “You could’ve just said no,” I said throwing him a dirty look to cover up my blushing cheeks. I knew it had been a stupid question but the coincidence of us meeting again was just too crazy not to ask.
    Cooper chuckled at my embarrassed annoyance.
                  Another beat of silence fell between us as we took in the moonlit desert. This time, Cooper broke the silence.
                  “You’re a good doctor,” he said.
                  He said it simply, without any emphasis, as if stating a common fact. His unembellished tone made the remark seem somehow even more complimentary.
                  “What makes you say that?” I asked, surprised.
                  He shrugged casually, leaning still on his arms. “You’re good at talking to people. Anyone can ask someone where it hurts. But you seem to have a knack for connecting with people.” He paused, then grinned at me in something akin to admiration. “Even when it’s not even in your own language.”
                  I could feel a warm pool of something fine and good spread through me, making me feel like I was soaking in a tub of melted chocolate. Four words and he made me feel like a Nobel Prize winner.
                  So he had been watching me work throughout the day. Just as I had been watching him.
                  I bit my lip as I stole a sideways glance at him. This man was dangerous. In more ways than one.
                  “Plus, it’s always impressive to meet a doctor who claims to be able to treat her own concussion,” he said, his eyes glinting with teasing humor.
                  “Huh?” I looked up at him in confusion. “Who said that?”
                  A smile definitely tugged at his lips. “You did, doc,” he said. “I think you would be the only doctor in the world who could treat herself even after knocking herself unconscious. Or at least, so you claimed you could.”
                  “I did not!” I said. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I pretty much thought as well,” he said, his lips twitching.
    “I would never say something so ridiculous,” I persisted. But judging by the look he was giving me, I had a sinking feeling that I had said something that ridiculous that night at Reggie’s.
    Well, no one ever said genius would come from the bottom of a tequila bottle, I thought, trying to remind myself that I couldn’t be the only idiot in the world who said such stupid and outlandish things when flat out drunk.
    His easy humor and teasing made me feel more comfortable in his presence. He began to lose a little of that odd familiar-yet-strange vibe which had put me off when meeting him again in Qunar. He instead seemed more familiar than strange. But not just familiar….
    He felt good. He felt good to be around.
    Swallowing, I said, “You wrote on my arm that night.”
    Cooper nodded slowly before swinging his deep gaze towards me. There was no embarrassment from my mentioning that night. Those were the eyes of a man who was completely confident in himself. He knew he could babysit a drunk woman just as easily as diffuse a bomb or rescue a hostage.
    “I did,” he agreed but said no more.
    Screwing up what courage I could muster, I pressed, “I called the number you