This promising debut by Golden Heart winner Cindy Dees should appeal to fans of action and military romances.

Air Force Captain Annie O’Donnell is high over the jungles of the fictional South American country of Gavarone, evacuating a special forces group. She’s got one man left to pull in the helicopter when she’s warned of potential enemy fire. She’s forced to choose between the lives of the nine people already on the helicopter and the one man trapped on a cable thirty feet below. Annie chooses to save the people on board and causes the man below torture as she slams him into the jungle treetops during her escape. Annie is grateful to learn he’s alive when they reach the American embassy in St. George, the capital of Gavarone. Unfortunately he’s been badly injured and is near death. She helps think up a cover before rushing him to the local hospital.

Major Tom Folly is surprised to find he’s still alive and even more surprised to find a beautiful woman hovering over him and taking care of his every need. Annie feels guilty for what has happened to Tom and will do anything to make it up to him, including being his private nurse. Unfortunately they don’t have much time for Tom to heal because a revolution is brewing in Gavarone. As soon as he can walk unaided, he and Annie sneak out of the hospital and go into hiding in a nearby apartment, where he can heal enough and build up strength to escape from Gavarone. The weeks they spend together in forced intimacy allow them to get to know each other and they start to fall in love. Soon they will have to make a dangerous journey across St. George to freedom. They may not make it, but even worse is the secret between them. Tom doesn’t know Annie is the pilot who nearly killed him in the first place. Can their budding feelings survive that breach of trust and more importantly – can they survive Gavarone?

Both Annie and Tom have issues and ghosts that haunt them. They have to overcome feelings of guilt for past decisions before they can find happiness with one another. I liked both of them, though at times I felt Tom was a little high handed and Annie a little too submissive when it came to their relationship. Also, I wasn’t sure how believable it was for them to put their physical relationship ahead of their preparations for escape and their journey across St. George.

The cast is rounded out by the men in Tom’s group, and hopefully they’ll have stories of their own in future books. While the writing isn’t polished and the characterization could’ve used a few tweaks to make people more rounded, Dees has a knack for writing fast paced adventure. Behind Enemy Lines is an enjoyable read and a good way to start off a backlist.