Anything, Anywhere, Anytime by Catherine Mann Page A

rank. The colonel in charge dropped into the folding chair. Colonel Cullen, who'd probably once worn earphones around his neck but now wore lines of life, worries, work.
    Lines like the ones recently added to Jack's face.
    Had she put them there? How many more would she add before their divorce was final?
    Divorce. The thought of cutting him out of her life stung like a needle in her chest. Not that Jack showed signs of leaving her side anytime soon.
    Monica turned her back on him so she could concentrate on prepping the next injection. "Roll up your sleeve, Colonel. This one's going to burn a bit."
    If only life gave warnings before owies.
    "Just get to it, Major." Cullen grinned, a few years falling away until he looked a little less foreboding. He crooked his arm until his bicep bulged.
    "Relax, Colonel—" she snapped her glove then tapped his flexed muscle "—and it will hurt less."
    Jack growled, low and soft and totally predatory. Good God. Thank heaven either the Colonel didn't notice or pretended well. Sheesh, she hadn't even noticed that Colonel Cullen actually was rather hunky until Jack started with the Cro-Magnon growl.
    She swabbed, jabbed.
    "Well, what do ya know?" The Colonel smiled as she pulled the needle free and swabbed again.
    "The third shot in the series doesn't hurt as much as the— Son of a bitch!"
    Colonel Cullen winced when the burn apparently kicked in, popped a LifeSaver in his mouth.
    She stretched a Band-Aid across his skin. "Sorry about that, Colonel."
    Jack dipped into her sight line. "You didn't call him a baby."
    Monica peeled off her gloves. "He outranks me."
    "Wise move, Major." Hand extending, the Colonel offered his roll of LifeSavers. "Here, Korba. Candy for your boo-boo."
    Jack snorted—but took the candy. "Thanks, sir."
    Boys.
    Cullen unrolled his DCU sleeve. "Korba, meet me in the chow hall after you unload your gear and we can talk more about the satellite images of the drop zone."
    Thank God for senior officers and their orders. Now Jack would have to leave.
    "Yes, sir." Jack called over his shoulder to Monica, "See you in the mess hall?"
    "If you're still there when I'm finished."
    "I'll be there." His words echoed clear, the rafters throwing them back at her a couple more times for good measure.
    Watching Jack's long legs swallow distance with lazy strides, she didn't doubt him for a minute. She knew the guy well enough to expect his persistence, but she didn't understand why. He couldn't envision how they would mend their differences any more than she could. He just expected great sex— okay, awesome sex
    —to smooth the way during his wait-and-see mode of solving their problems. Not enough of a reassurance for her, especially when Jack had blinders about her narrowing his field of vision more effectively than NVGs.
    She restacked the foil squares of alcohol swabs, prepping for the next patient.
    Did she love him? Well, if she ascribed to the Jack Korba theory that love was a good cheeseburger and an Elvis tune, then sure. She loved him. But the part of her that was so damned scared of being like her mama thought there should be more to love than that.
    Except who the hell was she to judge when she didn't even know what love was? Certainly not her mother's dreams that hurt innocent children. Or her father's obsession with a lost woman that drained his spirit and broke other women along the way. She'd even spent four years dating, then engaged to a man she'd thought she loved, only to lose him in the end when they broke up.
    She didn't want to be hurt again, and God, she didn't want to hurt Jack any more than she already had. She was right to walk away.
    So why could she swear she heard Santuci's headphones pulsing with "Heartbreak Hotel"?
    Damn.

Chapter 4
    Damnation!" Colonel Drew Cullen gulped down half a bottle of lukewarm water to wash away the crappy beef stew. Twenty years of Army mess halls and seventeen years of bachelorhood since his divorce should have made any