CHAPTER ONE

      CAPTAIN MADISON HUNTER stepped out of the New Zealand Air Force freight plane and onto the tarmac, relieved to be on terra firma at last, flying being her least favourite of the things she had to do. Then the searing heat of the Sinai Peninsula slammed into her, ramping up the discomfort level and making her gasp.

      ‘Who needs this?’

      ‘Beats Waiouru in winter any day,’ quipped the communications major striding alongside her. His energy was embarrassing after all those hours crammed between cargo crates, doing nothing more intelligent than playing endless rounds of poker.

      ‘Guess that’s because you’ve been here before. Right now I’d be happy marching through snow and sleet,’ Madison retorted, thinking longingly of the isolated army base where she’d done her basic training, hell hole of the North Island that it was.

      ‘At least your boots will be dry.’

      ‘True.’ Sodden boots were the bane of army exercises back home. They never dried out before the next foray. Looking at the dusty ground in front of her, she finally smiled. ‘This couldn’t be more different. Exciting even.’ If she could ignore the heat.

      Heaving the thirty-kilogram pack higher on her back, Madison rolled her shoulders to ease the tightness. Didn’t work. Sweat streamed over her shoulder blades, down her face, between her breasts. Must have been out of my mind when I signed up. ‘Did I miss the clause in my contract saying beware of sun, sand, dirt, and sweat enough to drown a small creature?’

      ‘Page three,’ quipped Major Crooks.

      ‘I take it the high temperature is relentless.’ Dry heat shimmered against the white block buildings, while the air was almost cracking. Off-duty soldiers lounged in what little shade they could find.

      ‘I never got used to it on my last tour.’ He pointed across the dusty parade ground. ‘See that building to the right? It’s the medical unit.’

      Madison scoped the basic structure with a faded red cross painted above the door. Less than what she’d worked in on base at home, more than she’d been led to believe she’d find here. Had to be a positive. ‘I might drop in after a shower.’ If she didn’t fall asleep standing under the water. Her body ached with fatigue. There hadn’t been a lot of sleeping going on during the flight. She probably stank like a piece of roadkill about now.

      A man stepped through the medical unit’s entrance, and paused. Tall and broad shouldered, his body tapered down to the narrow hips his hands settled on. Looking in their direction, his gaze finally settled on her.

      Sam Lowe? As in the guy every girl from high school had fallen in love with Sam Lowe?

      Her knees sagged, and not from the load on her back.

      Seriously? Someone she knew from home when home had been Christchurch? Now, there was a surprise that lightened her mood a notch. Not that they’d been friends in any way but she’d grab at any familiar face in an alien environment; until she’d settled in, any rate. Unless she’d got it wrong, and that wasn’t Sam.

      ‘Are you all right?’ Major Crooks asked.

      ‘Fine. Where’re our barracks, do you know?’

      He pointed. ‘Over to the right, behind the mess block are the officers’ quarters.’

      ‘Thanks, I’ll catch up with you later.’ Right now Madison wanted to check out the man she thought she recognised, but was probably so far off the mark she’d sound stupid uttering his name.

      She squinted through the heat. No doubting the vision that reminded her of standing on the side of the rugby field, barracking for their high school team as he led them to yet another win. It was definitely Sam Lowe striding towards her, those long legs eating up the ground like nothing bothered him. It probably didn’t. Those shoulders and the cocky tip of his head backed up what her eyes were seeing, but there was little else she knew about him, she realised.

      ‘Captain Hunter, Madison.’ The man had the nerve to snap to attention in front of her. And grin. He still does that. Smiled and grinned his way into and out of every situation he faced. An expert, no less, she now recalled. Still arrogant? Well, she wasn’t a spoilt brat any more—if she’d ever been—so possibly he’d changed, too.

      ‘Sam,’ she replied, at a loss for words. She didn’t trust unexpected surprises. They tended to backfire on her.

      He said, ‘Welcome to the Sinai.’

      Her voice returned, spilling out more than was necessary. ‘I can’t believe this. We’re both in the army, posted to the same region, on the same base?’ What were the odds? They even had rank in common. Her teeth ground back and forth. Slim to zilch. Showed how wrong she got things these days, despite the harsh lessons she’d endured already. A medical insignia told her more. ‘You’re a doctor, too.’

      He nodded. ‘We’ve been expecting you.’

      ‘As in me personally?’ Of course her name would’ve been on the staff list that’d have come through days ago. But, ‘I doubt you realised who I was,’ she retorted, suddenly on edge in front of that dazzling smile, and needing to shield herself from its dangerous intensity. So? Relax. She knew how to cope with men, had learned the hard way to always be careful and cautious. Just ignore them. Easy-peasy.

      ‘As in a new medic, fresh from home and not worn down by the day-to-day grind of living in camp.’ He widened his grin. ‘And, yes, as in Madison Hunter, high school prefect and science genius.’

      Oh, yeah, it would be too easy to fall into that grin, and forget the pain of being betrayed after trusting a man with her heart once already. Reining in the bewilderment overtaking her faster than a speeding bullet, she stood to attention. ‘So we’ll be working together?’

      ‘I’ll be out of your hair next week.’

      He wasn’t getting anywhere near her hair. But was he admiring it? Yeah, he was. Something like shock diluted that brazen glare he’d been delivering.

      Fair cop. She did look very different these days. Her waist-length hair had fallen prey to the hairdresser’s scissors the day after she’d joined the army. Crawling under barbed wire through