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Chapter 1

Mukluks planted on the flight deck, Lieutenant Colonel Joshua "Bud" Rosen, USAF, prepped to hurtle fro helicopter onto the arctic tundra

Over the years he'd been shot at by MiG-29s, pulled le, launched er than a blip on his radar But never had he faced anythingthan this imminent mission And he faced a jump of only five feet

Of course, the knot in his gut had nothing to do with the snowcaps below and everything to do with his assigned partner

Josh braced in the open door of the Ar Chopper blades stirred a cloudy void waiting to s him, and his partner as well Just the two of them Alone Not at all how he'd planned to spend the holiday season with her

His hands fisted inside his gloves Only twenty-four more hours left of the Air Force's five-day Arctic

Survival Training—"The Cool School"

Before assu his newly appointed position as second in command of the Alaska based F-15E squadron, he needed to complete the extreme weather survival course Just his luck, his teaation exercise was none other than his soon-to-be ex-wife, Captain Alicia Renshaw-Rosen

Freezing his ass off was the least of his worries

His spouse of less than sixportal, ready to leap into this mock-up of a crash-survival scenario Her feathery short blond hair stayed hidden beneath the fur-trimmed parka, only a sh to assure hi its habitual sles down, shielding even ht

A five-foot-six dynamo, his pilot wife packed curves and confidence even layers of drab, green cold-weather gear couldn't disguise Not that he would ever see her strip away her uniforrieved hih in his life

How ironic that once they'd finally received a joint assign even half their boxes

"Go!" called the helicopter crew chief "Go! Go!"

The repeated words snapped Josh back to the present Finally, action Screw

He plunged into the alabaster void Frigid winds locked around hi, froze a path to his lungs