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Blurb: Keeping his men alive is all that matters to Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison. But meeting Jen St. James the night before his latest deployment makes Shane wonder if there’s more to life than war. He leaves for Iraq remembering a single kiss with a woman he’ll never see again—until a near fatal attack lands him back at home and in her care.
Jen has survived her own brush with death and endured its scars. And yet there’s a fire in Shane that makes Jen forget all about her past. He may be her patient, but when this warrior looks her in the eyes, she feels—for the first time in a long time—like a woman. Shane is too proud to ask for help, but for Jen, caring for him is more than a duty—it’s a need. And as Jen guides Shane through the fires of healing, she finds something she never expected—her deepest desire.
Why you want to read this book:
I love the characters in this book – Jen and Shane are AWESOME!!
Because of You can be purchased at Amazon
Excerpt:
Prologue
Sergeant First Class Shane Garrison knew that life wasn’t fair. But after thirteenyears in the army, it still surprised him what a relentless bitch reality could be sometimes.He stood outside the tactical operations cell in the middle of the California desert andstudied the legal-sized envelope he held in his hand. Everything out here was supposed to be a training exercise to prepare his men for their upcoming combat tour in Iraq. No onewas supposed to get hurt. But they did anyway, and just like in Iraq, the wounded weresent on to the nearest hospital while their buddies were left behind to worry.
Noise raged around him—shouts, the constant crunch of boots on gravel, and therumbling of the generators that powered the servers, radios, and—most important—thecoffeepots that kept the war running at all hours of the day and night. There was noescape for him, not from the noise or from the fact that sometimes, life just sucked. Heturned the envelope over in his hands. He didn’t need silence to guess what was inside.
A shadow passed in front of him and Captain Trent Davila heaved himself up ontothe hood of one of the command-and-control Humvees next to Shane. By regulation,when Trent had been commissioned as an officer several years earlier, they shouldn’thave remained friends. Relationships were prohibited between officers and enlistedsoldiers, but they’d gone through too much together over the years to let something triviallike army regulations dictate the terms of their friendship.
“Any word on Morrell?” Shane finally asked when Trent didn’t speak. The sun slid behind Tiefort Mountain, sending the desert sinking into darkness.
“Just came out of surgery. He’s going to keep the leg.” Trent cleared his throat.“That was real quick work you did, getting him out from under that Bradley track so fast.
”Shane shrugged and spat into the dirt. “Just doing what Uncle Sam pays me for.
“Yeah, well, most people Uncle Sam pays wouldn’t have known what to do with aguy screaming under a thousand-pound vehicle.” Shadows cast by the headquarters’ floodlights cut across Trent’s cheeks as he nodded toward the envelope. “Anything goodin the mail?
“Divorce papers.
“Shit.
“Guess my wife decided not to wait for me to get back to make things official. LikeI deployed to the National Training Center just to keep her from running off with her shiny new lover.” He couldn’t hide the bitterness in his voice. But he wasn’t irritated over the fact that his wife had left him for another man. He was irritated because she’d madehim feel like shit when he should have been having a cigar because Morrell was going to be okay.
He was hot, tired, and dirty from forty-five days in this California desert paradise.Before today, he’d wanted nothing more than to pack all of his soldiers off to their wivesand girlfriends, and then go home to try to save a few mementos from his dying marriage.
Funny how five years of marriage had finally ended with a whimper, and the onlything he’d spent the day worrying about was whether one of his boys would make it outof surgery alive and intact. Trent’s good news had sent that worry scrambling into the night, leaving only his failed marriage to occupy his thoughts.
Guess that had been part of the problem all along for him and Tatiana. He’d always been more focused on his men.
“Who pissed in your cornflakes?”
Shane sighed as Carponti strolled up. In any other unit in the army, no sergeantwould talk to his platoon sergeant or company commander the way Carponti did to Shaneand Trent. For some reason, though, Shane let him get away with it. He was pretty sure itwas because he’d never trained anyone who was better at infantry squad tactics at such ayoung age. Even in the middle of a firefight, Carponti would crack jokes while hemaneuvered his fire team into position. He’d had Morrell laughing his ass off today asthey’d carried him to the medical evac flight. Granted, the medics had Morrell sodrugged, he hadn’t known his own name, but still, Carponti had a gift.
“My wife.
“What, did she finally leave you? Good, now you can stop feeling bad about doingwhat you do best.
“Dickhead, I’m getting divorced. That’s not exactly great news.
“Hell yeah, it is. Your wife has made your life miserable for the last five years.She’s got her new man, you’ve got your freedom, and now I’ve got a designated driver whenever we go out to Ropers.” Carponti hopped up onto the hood next to Trent. “Andspeaking of which, Ramirez turns twenty-one when we get home. We’re christening himthe first weekend we get back and it’ll get you back in the saddle.
”Trent snorted and choked on a laugh, and Shane hid his own wry grin. He’d love togo out with the boys, but contrary to what Carponti believed, it wasn’t as simple as sign the papers, get your life back.
“He’s right,” Trent said, still chuckling.
“About which part? Christening Ramirez?
“About getting your life back. No one should make you feel guilty for leading our boys. You’re damn good at what you do. You make a difference and you know it.
”Shane glanced over at his longtime friend. “Does Laura still understand? You’regone more than you’re home. How many birthdays and anniversaries have you missed?
“Laura gets it. She understands what we do.
”Carponti snatched the papers from Shane’s hand. “Laura sends cookies to NTC,unlike your wife, who sends this bull.
“Ex-wife,” Shane corrected, and snatched them back.“Put this crap away and let’s go smoke a cigar. Morrell’s going to be okay andthat’s worth celebrating.
“I’ll catch up in a sec.”He pulled out the papers. Tatiana Garrison, Plaintiff vs. Shane Garrison, Defendant.
He stared at the formal letter, lit by the floodlights overhead. He knew the exactmoment his marriage had stopped being anything but a farce.
It was the first time he’d missed her birthday. She hadn’t understood that he’d hadno access to a phone or the Internet. She hadn’t understood that he’d spent that day andthe next two days in the hospital with one of his boys, who’d been on life support after being hit by shrapnel. Oh, she’d pretended to be sympathetic, but she had never gottenover it, and Shane had paid for it every single day since.
Divorce.
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