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

him. “I would need an escort to take literally just one step out of this camp?”
                  Cooper gave me a look of mock offense. “Doctor, we are military men. Protocol is everything to us. And protocol states, for your protection, that you are not allowed to leave camp without an escort.”
                  I sighed but was cut off before the air could even fully leave my lungs.
                  Cooper suddenly squeezed me closer. “Luckily though, you happened to have run right into one!” he said, grinning down at me, even though I tried to pull away from this even more intimate hold. I was getting all too hot and bothered at his touch. But he held fast.
                  “And not just any member of Easy Team. The best member of Easy Team,” he said. “You hit the jackpot tonight.”
                  The word ‘tonight’ snapped me awake. It was night. And I was tired. And I was still feeling so incredibly confused about Cooper Hawking. Of course I was attracted to him. There was no way to deny that.
                  But physical attraction couldn’t be enough for me now. It might’ve been in L.A., to help distract me from Edward. But now in Qunar, physical attraction alone seemed too empty. I needed something…more.
                  But holy hell, I wasn’t going to try and figure that out right now.
    Alone.
    With him.
    In the dark.
    “Err…” I started. “I think I changed my mind. I should get some rest for tomorrow.”
    I tried to pull his arm off of me but although the arm rested casually on me with the hand easy and open, the arm stayed like a steel weight that would not budge.
    “Are you sure, doc?” Cooper said, already walking us towards the tree. I gulped as we crossed the stakes.
    I knew we were in too remote a location to be in any danger but regardless, after seeing those stakes, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous crossing the divide. It felt as if I was leaving some kind of force field of safety.
    Guiding me to a good spot on the trunk, he sat us down.
    “It seemed like you needed some quiet time to yourself before you went and hit the hay,” he said.
    It was a full moon and I could still see make out his face. I looked up at him sardonically. “Well, yes,” I admitted. “That had been the idea. Some time to myself would’ve been nice.”
    Cooper shrugged, letting his arm fall from my shoulders. But it rested right behind me as he leaned back a little on his hands. I suddenly felt cold without his touch.
    “You still can have that. Just think of me as part of the tree,” he said, looking out into the barren desert. The moonlight struck his profile perfectly, highlighting his straight nose, his chiseled and square chin. “I’m just here to make sure you’re not snatched up by some mountain lion.” His firm lips twitched in amusement.
    I rolled my eyes but pulled my legs a little closer to myself. “ Are there mountain lions here?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
    Cooper chuckled. “No,” he admitted. “Just trying to make you feel like it’s worth keeping me around for reasons other than protocol.”
    I could think of a handful of reasons of keeping this man around but none of them were appropriate to say out loud. But I appreciated how he tried to put me in a position of power—as if my needing him made him important and more necessary than he already was. I knew he did it to make me feel less resentful towards the fact that I had no choice in the matter. I needed an escort and he was going to be that escort, no matter what.
    “So…you’re a soldier,” I said after a beat. He was clearly not going anywhere and it did feel nice to sit somewhere cool and quiet for a moment.
    “I was a soldier,” Cooper corrected. “Now I’m…well, what you would maybe call a freelance soldier.”
    “A mercenary.”
    “That too,” he said with a curled smile.
    “You