Taming Her Navy Doc by Amy Ruttan

moment she said them.
    Good job. You are finally starting to make friends and you insult that one and only friend.
    Instead of giving her the silent treatment he snorted. “I didn’t really lie per se.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “I just withheld the truth.”
    Erica raised an eyebrow. “Right. And the definition of lying is…?”
    Thorne just winked at her. “Here we are. I hope you wore socks. No shoes in the temple.” He parked the car on the street and they climbed out. It was good to stretch her legs. The little temple was built into the side of a hill surrounded by an older part of town, which wasbustling. The temple was overgrown with foliage and the stairs up to it were crumbling.
    “It’s beautiful.” And it was. Erica had traveled around the world, and had seen many places of worship, but there was something about this temple which struck her as different and captivating. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
    “Shall we go in?”
    “Are we allowed to?” she asked.
    “Sure.” And then without asking her permission Thorne reached out and took her hand, sending a shock of electricity up her spine at his touch. He didn’t seem to notice the way her breath caught in her throat when she gasped.
    Instead he squeezed her hand gently and led her through the packed streets toward the temple. What was even weirder was that she didn’t pull away.
    She let him.
    She liked the feeling of her hand in his. It was comforting, and in the few past relationships she’d had, she could never recall sharing such a moment of intimacy. There had been lust, sex, but hand-holding? Never. Such a simple act gave her a thrill.
    Don’t think like that. It means nothing. You’re just friends.
    Right. She had to keep reminding herself of that.
    They were just friends.
    That was all there was between them and that was all there could ever be.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    T HORNE DIDN’T KNOW why he reached out and took her hand to lead her across the busy Ginowan street. It was instinctive and a gentlemanly thing to do. They were halfway across the street when he realized that he was holding Erica’s hand, that he was guiding her through the maze of people, whizzing motorbikes and cars ­toward the temple.
    She didn’t pull away either like she had before.
    Erica let him lead her to safety. It was an act of trust and Thorne had a feeling that trust didn’t come too easily to her.
    Not that he blamed her. People couldn’t always be trusted. He’d learned that well enough both in his service as a SEAL and a surgeon.
    “Yes, Dr. Wilder. I quit smoking.”
    “No. I know nothing about threats to your country.”
    Thorne could usually read people like abook. It had been one of his strong suits when he was in the Special Ops. Erica was hard to read though and maybe that was another reason why he was
so
drawn to her.
    He did like a challenge.
    You shouldn’t be thinking this way. She’s your second in command. She made her feelings quite clear to you the other day.
    She was a puzzle. One he wanted to figure out. He was a sucker for puzzles. Thorne cursed himself. He couldn’t be involved with her or any other woman.
    He couldn’t emotionally commit to someone.
    Not in his line of work.
    Not after seeing what it had done to his brother’s widow, to his mother.
    When he’d lost his leg and woken up in that hospital in San Diego, unaware of where he was and how he’d got there, his first memory besides Erica’s face haunting him had been seeing his mom curled up on an uncomfortable cot, a few more gray strands in her black hair, dark circles under her eyes.
    It had almost killed his mother when Liam had died.
    No. He couldn’t do that to someone else and he couldn’t ever have kids either. He didn’t want to leave his children without a father should something happen to him.
    You’re not in Special Ops anymore. What harm could happen here?
    A shudder ran down his spine. What harm indeed? Corporal Ryder probably