Chapter 3

Once inside the bedroom, he lowered her onto the red mattress and instantly snatched his arm back as if he had touched a live wire. He stepped away, turning his back to pull a military-green tank top over his head.

Just as he turned around, Clara felt a sudden, sharp sting on her forearm. She looked down. Earlier that morning, she had been chased by a local thug in town and scraped a large chunk of skin off her arm. Her clumsy fall against Cade just now had torn the scab open. Fresh blood was seeping down her pale skin.

Cade turned back. His deep, dark eyes instantly locked onto the blood.

He walked straight toward the bed. His massive frame cast a heavy, intimidating shadow over her small figure. The air in the room instantly thickened.

Before Clara could utter a single word, Cade suddenly reached out. His massive, rough hand wrapped firmly around her delicate wrist, pulling her arm toward him.

"Does it hurt?" he asked suddenly.

It wasn't a cold command anymore. It was a low, gravelly whisper that vibrated deep in his chest, sending a dangerous, electric shiver straight down her spine.

Clara bit her lip, forcing herself to look into his intense eyes. "No," she lied, though the scrape throbbed violently.

He clearly didn't believe her. His jaw ticked. Without another word, he turned and grabbed a small first-aid kit from the cabinet. He took her arm, his massive, calloused fingers surprisingly gentle as he dabbed antiseptic onto her wound.

The medicine stung like hell. Clara squeezed her eyes shut, scrunching up her face to keep from crying out.

"You brought this on yourself," Cade muttered, his tone flat.

He released her hand, packed up the kit, and walked straight to the wooden closet. He dragged out a thin wool blanket and a lumpy pillow, tossing them onto the hard floorboards.

Panic flared in Clara's chest. No. In her past life, this was exactly how their miserable end began. He slept on the floor, then the couch, and eventually, the chasm between them grew so wide it swallowed them both.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, her voice trembling. "If you sleep on the floor and refuse to share a bed with your wife, every nosy neighbor on this base will know by tomorrow morning. Your mother will be the laughingstock of the community!"

"My mother doesn't care about gossip," he replied coldly, not even looking at her as he lay down on the floor, fully clothed in his tactical pants and tank top.

The room plunged into a suffocating, dead silence. Clara could hear the steady, controlled rhythm of his breathing.

She clutched her chest, her heart hammering wildly. She couldn't let this happen again.

Clara let out a sharp, terrified shriek. She vaulted off the mattress and threw her body directly onto his makeshift bed on the floor, scrambling under his blanket and pressing herself tightly against his side.

Cade exploded upward. His military reflexes bypassed his brain. He sat up instantly, scanning the dark room for a threat. "What is it?" he barked, his voice laced with interrogation.

Clara trembled—half from actual nerves, half from her own acting—and pointed a shaky finger toward the empty bed. "A spider... a massive, disgusting spider. It was crawling on the pillows."

He stood up, flipped on the overhead light, and tore her bedding apart. He turned back to her, his face set like granite. "There is no spider, Clara."

His towering frame and the sheer, dominating aura rolling off him made her shrink back. "It... it must have run away," she mumbled.

She closed her eyes tightly, refusing to move an inch. I'm not leaving this spot.

"Get back to your bed," he ordered.

"No," she whispered, scooting even closer to him. "What if it comes back?"

Clara felt Cade's entire body go rigid. He let out a harsh breath, clearly out of patience, and lay back down stiffly. "Suit yourself."

Clara smiled secretly in the dark, pressing her cheek against his arm. His body ran incredibly hot, radiating heat like a furnace. His scent of clean soap and male sweat wrapped around her, making her feel safer than she had in two lifetimes.

But just as she thought she had won, his cold voice sliced through the darkness.

"I have a few days off from the base," Cade said, his words hitting her like physical blows. "We'll go to the courthouse tomorrow. We are getting a divorce."