Above All Else: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 2) by Gemma Hart

dumbfounded.
                  She rolled her eyes, sighing. “Through magic,” she said dryly. “By cooking it, of course!”
                  I had stared at her in silence. “You,” I said. “You? You.”
                  She lifted a brow at me. “Are you having a stroke?”
                  “ You want to cook?” I said slowly, as if speaking to someone who didn’t speak English.
                  “Yes,” she said, taking on the same tone.
                  “Why?” I asked, unable to keep the suspicion out of my voice.
                  Sofia’s dry look of amusement vanished and in its place a look of shy coyness appeared. She looked down at her feet and mumbled, “Well…I just…I wanted to do something to say…thanks.” She looked up, her blue eyes sparkling softly. “I wanted to thank you for having me here. For taking care of me.”
                  I stared at her, stunned. But before I could think of a reply, she dashed away saying, “Dinner’ll be ready in an hour!”
                  I watched the slim lines of her back as she stirred several different pots. Every day, I never failed to be surprised and intrigued and drawn to this woman. She seemed so adept at keeping me on my toes without even really trying.
                  She had the ability to be cattier than a mountain cat with icy words and putdowns but I quickly saw through that. I realized that that was her defense mechanism to keep herself in control and aloof. And after hearing about her bitch governess, I could see why she craved that kind of power.
                  My jaw tightened as I remembered learning more about the sadistic Lady Angstrom and Minister Pryto a few nights back.
                  I had been working on repairing one of the fences towards the northwestern end of the property. Some of the fencing was starting to rot and I had spent the better part of the day replacing several feet of it.
                  After the first hour, I had sweated through my shirt and had taken it off, letting it hang from one of the fence posts as I continued to work. I was so immersed, I didn’t even hear Sofia approach until she gave a discreet cough.
                  I turned around and saw her standing behind me, holding a bottle of water. “Thought you might be thirsty.”
                  I took the bottle in surprise, a little out of breath from pulling out the rotted fencing. “Thanks,” I said, taking the bottle gratefully and nearly finishing it.
                  Sofia looked around the field, studying the new fencing and the pile of the old rotted fencing. In the late afternoon light, the warm rich glow made her skin almost golden.
                  Then I noticed her eyes had traveled towards me. I caught her staring at my torso. Remembering I was shirtless, I looked down and saw what had caught her gaze.
                  There was some heavy bruising around my torso that wrapped around to my back, dangerously close to my kidneys. They were fading but they still had the dark blue and green tinge to them.
                  Our last mission had ended with a face to face attack by some breakaway militiamen. We had only gotten away by literally punching our way through. Although we had won and managed to get back to our LZ, we had taken quite a beating in the process.
                  “Those look like they’re about ten days old,” she said, carefully studying the bruising. “That one looks the worst. Hit hard, huh?” She said, pointing to the one above my ribs.
                  I had been. One of the men had shoved his gun butt hard into my side, nearly breaking a rib.
                  I looked up at her in complete dumbstruck surprise. “How did you know that? How did you guess ten