Zeke (Delta Forces #2) - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,2

man’s amazing physical fitness. If all of her patients put this much energy into their fitness, she’d be out of business! As a woman…Abby gave herself a mental shake. She was here as a doctor. Only a doctor.

Cathy returned, loaded down with supplies. “Ready,” she said, slightly breathless.

Abby rolled her eyes, and collected his chart, sighing as she noticed Cathy hadn’t finished filling it out. For obvious reasons.

“I’m going to have to cut your shirt off,” Cathy announced, pulling scissors out of the box of supplies.

The man, an officer, she realized, according to his chart, didn’t seem to mind the cleaning.

“As long as that’s all it is, go ahead,” he said, his voice deep and gruff.

Abby looked at the man, then down at his chart. “It appears that you’re due for your tetanus shot. Do you want…?”

“No!”

Abby smiled professionally. “Right,” she replied, marking something off on his chart. “Don’t like needles, huh?”

He hissed when Cathy pulled his tee shirt away from the wound. “I’m not a fan, no.”

She grinned at that. “Right. So…” she didn’t mention that she suspected that the wound across his back was going to need stitches to in order to heal properly. Lots of stitches! “Okay, so, we’ll skip the tetanus shot for now. But can you tell me how this happened?”

The guy sighed, drawing her attention to his deliciously broad shoulders. All of the soldiers on base worked out several times a week. But Abby could testify that none were as…well developed as Lieutenant Colonel Zeke Jeffers.

He flinched slightly, trying to peer over his shoulder, which meant Abby needed to distract him. “So, you were in a training accident?”

“Not me,” the guy replied firmly. “Another guy. We’re training for the team to find new recruits. Some idiot decided to aim around a tree with his M16 and…”

“Around?” she interrupted. “But…!”

The guy snorted. “Exactly. Around.” He shook his head in disgust and Abby watched as Cathy pulled back the bloody tee shirt. “He swore up and down that bullets could curve if they were shot correctly. He said some BS about how every object has its own gravitational pull and that a tree could pull a bullet into its gravitational orbit if he shot it close enough.”

Abby swallowed a chuckle. “I see,” she replied. “So…?”

Behind him, Cathy paused, fascinated with the story.

“So, he decided to prove his theory. And he shot his rifle towards the target, but going around the tree in front of him. Since I was over at the obstacle course, evaluating the potential recruits, I didn’t see the idiot fire. It wasn’t even supposed to be live fire today. We wouldn’t have been on the obstacle course if there had been. Too dangerous. But this guy…!” Zeke shook his head in obvious disgust. “He had some live rounds in his pocket and wanted to prove what a hot shot he was. Hence, my back.”

Abby laughed. She just couldn’t help herself. It was such a ridiculous story, the idea of a bullet going around a tree and curving because of the tree’s gravitational pull. “Okay, so…the guy…? Is he going to make the cut?”

The man snorted. “Oh, he’s going to get cut, all right. Right to a court martial!”

Abby fully agreed. “Glad to hear it. This is one for the books.” She sighed and clasped the chart to her chest. “I hate to tell you this, big guy, but you need stitches.” Abby moved behind the man now that Cathy had finished cleaning the wound. Abby checked the edges and realized that it wasn’t as ragged as she’d anticipated. “But I think I can do a pretty good job of…”

Zeke didn’t want to hear it. Stitches meant needles. He didn’t do needles. Period.

“No stitches. It’s just a scratch!” he insisted. “I can barely feel it!” That was an absolute, bald-faced lie. It felt as if his back was on fire.

She placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. “Okay, I’m hearing you aren’t a fan of needles,” she said carefully. Zeke appreciated her not maligning his masculinity by asserting he was afraid. He was! But that didn’t mean that he wanted that fact advertised.

“I’m going to use some Novocain spray on your back first. Then you won’t feel what I’m doing. Will that work for you?”

He sighed, but even that slight movement hurt. “It’s just a scratch. All I need is a band aid and…”

She touched his shoulder again, this time it was bare and he felt her touch echo through his body, centering in