Army of You & Me Read Free Page B

always been an impossible reach for her, which was why she was on her own. It was better that way. Safer. And more than anything, that was paramount — being safe.
    He’s big , she thought with a grin. And his smile. It changed his whole face, even in the midst of a scruffy, ginger-blond beard.
    “What are you smiling about?” Caz, her assistant, asked suspiciously.
    “How many hours it’s going to take me to get these done,” she lied.
    Caz made a face. “Liar. That smile is about a bloke. I know that smile. That sort of smile will always be the start of nothing but trouble. Who is he?”
    Madeline shrugged. “A soldier.”
    Caz’s eyebrows rose. “A squaddie? You’ve got damp knickers over a squaddie? I thought you were a pacifist. Why would you get involved with someone who kills people?”
    Caz had been protesting against the war, and her politicisation, while admirable in an apathetic Britain, wasn’t needed right now.
    “You know those mysterious packages I was sending?”
    “Oh, the goodie packs. Wait...were those for him?”
    Madeline rolled the truffle centres into balls before dipping them into white and dark chocolate. “Yeah. It was.”
    “You were sending a human killing machine chocolates and sweets?” Caz’s lips curled in disgust. “Maddie, how do you sleep at night?”
    “Two Anadin and a glass of rum,” Madeline snapped. “Sometimes a soldier — a proper, regimented, trained soldier — is all that stands between a child and certain death. There are soldiers who go out into the wide world to protect people. Not to kill. If you saw beyond that, if you understood that they have families and friends who worry about them every minute of the day, you wouldn’t be so quick to judge. It’s a job, Caz. You wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t. But be glad people like him do. Be glad he and all those women and men before him did that job, because that allows you to stand where you are and have an opinion about it. A large proportion of the world’s population don’t have that luxury. Not by a mile.”
    Caz held up her hands. “Jesus, I only asked.”
    Madeline’s irritation left her quickly. “You’re still really young. Honestly, when you’ve finished university, go and see the world. Really see it. I don’t mean go to all the nice places, but see real poverty. Real restrictions on speech, on liberty, even on gender. When you’ve seen things — really seen things — then you can stand here and argue with me about the military of this country.”
    Caz tapped her hands together. “Are you ever going to tell me about this dude, or what? I’m getting old here.”
    “He’s...” Madeline circled her hands, flinging chocolate over the table and her apron.
    “Tall or short? White, black or ginger?”
    Madeline sent Caz a dirty look. “Ginger is not a race.”
    “May as well be! Oh my God, is he ginger?”
    “He’s blond.”
    “Ginger.”
    “Caz, get out.”
    Her assistant blew out a breath. “You’re no fun. My last boss let me tease her.”
    “Didn’t she sack you for insubordination?”
    “Maybe she took it too far. I don’t think what I said was a sackable offence.”
    The front bell rang. “Customers, Caz. They keep you paid.” Madeline carried on dipping the truffles into chocolate. As soon as they dried, they were to be dusted with crushed, freeze-dried raspberries and champagne dust.
    “Erm...Maddie?”
    She barely glanced up from the bowls of chocolate. “Hands full.”
    “So I can see,” Cain said.
    Madeline froze, hands warming the cooling chocolate. Why was he here? Was she imagining him? No, she couldn’t be. He wasn’t wearing his uniform. Instead he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that strained with the bulk of his muscles and exposed the tattoos on his arms. He’d trimmed his beard to a shadow. It only emphasised the razor sharpness of his cheekbones and just how lush his mouth was. That was a mouth that was for kissing. Everywhere. Long, sweet,