Desperate (Harris Trilogy Book One) by Teresa Greene

get dressed and we’ll talk when we get back to camp.”
    He turned his ba ck while she slipped into the clean pants that she had brought with her to the creek. He could hear the cloth rustling against her skin. In his mind, he could still see her exquisite body before she donned her shirt.
    How in the hell did she hide all those curves? He was going to have to get her out of camp quickly. She could stir up a lot of problems if someone found out she was a woman; problems for her and him.
    They walked back to camp in silence. The poor girl was pale as a sheet. What was her story? How did a woman as pretty as her end up in a camp full of men? 
    Captain David Harris escorted Miss Monroe to his quarters and fixed her a hot cup of coffee. Sitting on the small sofa, she sipped slowly letting the warm liquid heat up her cold body. He still couldn’t believe she had been among a throng of men and no one noticed she was a female. He waited patiently as she made the coffee last as long as possible prolonging the inevitable.
    When she finished, David took the cup from her hands, and set the cup on the small table by the tiny sofa. “Let’s start with why are you here?”
    She wrung her hands in her lap. A long silence followed before she met his gaze. “My parents died in a barn fire about a year ago. Then my brother, Jake Monroe, was injured in the war and died two months after returning home.” She wiped at a tear with the back of her hand. “My grandmother died only a week ago. I have no family left. I’m all alone.”
    “ Lots of people are alone, Kate. That doesn’t mean they should do something crazy like dress up like a man and go to war. Look what almost happened because of your reckless behavior. Lieutenant Emerson was going to rape you.”
    “I know what he was going to do.” Her cheeks turned pink.   
    “I’m sorry, but I could n ot stay on my farm any longer.” He started to interrupt, but she raised her hand and pleaded, “Please hear me out and let me explain my plight. My neighbor, Bob Lewis tried to force me to marry him. I don’t want to marry him. I detest him. He’s not a nice man.”
    I rritated, David argued, “Miss Monroe, it seems you have no other option but to marry. You are too young to be on your own, and without funds you can’t survive. Someone needs to take care of you. It sounds like this Bob Lewis is your only choice.”
    Eyes full of sorrow, she pleaded, “You don’t understand sir, he is a cruel man and I will not marry him.”
    Tired and frustrated , David needed rest. Besides he couldn’t do anything tonight. “I’ll decide what to do with you in the morning. I’m too tired to try to make a decision tonight, but you can’t stay here. I’ll have to make arrangements to get you out of camp tomorrow.”
    He stood, took her small hands into his, and pulled her to her feet . “You take my bed and I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
    “I can sleep on the sofa . I don’t mind. Besides you are too tall.”
    David ran his fingers through his thick, black hair. “I’m too tired to argue tonight. Go to bed and we’ll work all this out in the morning. When she opened her mouth to protest he snapped, “Good night, Miss Monroe.” He was getting annoyed not knowing how he was going to get out of this predicament without anyone else in camp finding out about her. The woman sure put him in a quandary.   
    ****
    Sleep did not come easy for David. He lay trying to figure out what he was going to do with the beautiful, Kate Monroe. He almost admired her courage of dressing as a man and joining the war. There was no way she could be the innocent she pretended. She had to have known men or she would not have taken the chance showing up in the middle of so many.
    All he could see when he closed his eyes was her magnificent body through the thin shirt . Her breasts were exquisite. Her legs were shapely, long, and perfect for wrapping around a man’s body. He was going to have to get her out