Rescue Me: A Bad Boy Military Romance

by Vesper Vaughn

  RESCUE ME: A BAD BOY MILITARY ROMANCE

  BY VESPER VAUGHN

  COPYRIGHT 2016 VESPER VAUGHN

  Contents

  STAY IN TOUCH

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  STAY IN TOUCH

  MORE STORIES BY VESPER VAUGHN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  SOUNDTRACK FOR DESIRE

  STAY IN TOUCH

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  CHAPTER ONE

  ELLA

  “She’ll have the lobster,” Jason says to the waitress.

  “No, I won’t,” I say stubbornly. “I’ll have the shrimp platter.” I sigh and hand her the menu, glaring at Jason.

  He tries to take my hand on the top of the table. “What’s up, babe?”

  I can’t fight the gnawing, nervous nausea filling me up in this place. We’re sitting at a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Jason in his Sunday best and me in a dress I had to squeeze myself into. My time as a resident has not been the most optimal for keeping off weight.

  I sip my lemon water, feeling ungrateful. Tonight was supposed to be special, the night before both of our residency graduations. But I can’t sit still. I feel like I’m choking in this dress, even though it’s strapless. I pick at a thread coming loose from the starched, white tablecloth, the drone of strangers’ conversations filling the air around me.

  “Nothing,” I lie. I can’t fight this feeling, though. “I am sick of you ordering for me, though.” I add this with more than a hint of spite.

  Jason pulls away from my hand and sighs. “You never order fast enough.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” I spit back, feeling petulant. I want to get out of this place. Something about this scenario is making me scream: run, run, run.

  It’s what I do best, after all.

  Jason leans back in the chair. “Is it your placement letter from the foundation?”

  “No,” I reply. Then I realize I’ve missed my opportunity to have that be my cover. “Well, yeah. That’s it. Not knowing where I’ll be the next four years while I volunteer to have my massive student loans paid off isn’t exactly helping me sleep at night, I’ll admit.”

  Jason smiles. “You know, there’s a simple solution to that.”

  There’s my nausea again. I feel sick sitting here with him. “I don’t want to talk about this here,” I insist. “Not again. I don’t want to yell at you in public.”

  There are a million and one girls who would willingly murder me to be sitting here with a guy like him tonight. He’s a doctor, he’s gorgeous, and he has a family inheritance. He’s the total package. Except for the part where I can’t beat this feeling of sickness in his presence. It showed up a few weeks ago, just tapping on the outer edges of my brain. But that tapping? It’s risen to a staccato drumbeat that won’t leave me alone.

  Run, run, run.

  Jason guffaws, rubbing his handsome jawline. “Yeah, much more preferable for you to yell at me in private like you normally do.”

  “Don’t be a jerk,” I say back to him. Our server’s arrived with the food, and not a moment too soon. I dig into the shrimp platter, taking heaping dips of liquid garlic butter. At least the food is amazing.

  “You should breathe between swallows,” Jason says, watching me pig out.

  I roll my eyes and continue doing what I’m doing.

  We say nothing to each other, instead listening to the pounding of the ocean against the beach, seagulls flying overhead. The sun will be setting soon, and I hear the band setting up for when the sun goes down. I hope we can get out of here before then. I pass on dessert, wanting this to go as smoothly and quickly as humanly possible.

  Jason sticks his American Express Black card in the check folio and leans against the tabletop. “That letter is coming any day now, Ella,” he says to me, a serious look on his face. “And I want you to know that my offer still stands. We can be together. You can move in with me up in Santa Barbara, start your own practice. I have the money.”

  My heart is beating so rapidly I feel like it’s going to fly out of my chest. I swallow more water and end up choking on it. I cough, tears filling my eyes from the lack of oxygen. “I…said…I…don’t…want…that,” I splutter, patting my chest with my hand and breathing in deeply.

  Jason bites the inside of his cheek. “You know what, Ella? Fine.” He throws his napkin down on the table. “Tonight was supposed to be special. I made you this.” He throws down a house key. It lands with an ominous thud on the cloth-covered tabletop.

  “What is that?” I ask, not wanting to touch it.

  “It’s a key to my place in Santa Barbara. I signed a lease. It’s a nice place, really nice. I move in the day after tomorrow, and I want you to come with me. Forget this volunteering bullshit, and move in with me.”

  Jason’s tanned face is too perfect. I have the thought that I’d like to punch him, mess up his nose. Maybe one of his plastic surgery coworkers could fix it for him. “No,” I say, clearly and firmly.

  “No?” Jason asks, incredulous.

  I wipe my mouth and set my own napkin on the table, grabbing my purse. “I said no. I know that word isn’t familiar to someone like you, someone who has women falling all over them, someone who has more money than God, someone who’s managed to get everything he’s ever dreamed of. But no. My answer is no. That’s it, Jason.”

  Jason works his jaw. “So you’re breaking up with me?”

  I nod and give a “duh!” look toward him. “Yeah, that’s generally what no means.”

  The server returns with Jason’s credit card. “Excuse me,” I say to her. “Could you call me a cab?”

  Jason shakes his head. “She doesn’t need a cab.” He turns to me. “I’m taking you home.”

  I ignore him. “I need a cab. Please.”

  The server looks panicked but there must be something in my eyes, because she nods at me and looks apologetically at Jason.

  “I’m not leaving here without you,” he says indignantly. There’s something in his eyes that scares me. I can’t believe I ever thought he was handsome.

  “I’ll scream at the top of my lungs if you try anyt
hing,” I say, trying to stay calm.

  Jason stares me down for another full minute, then grabs his credit card and walks out of the restaurant.

  My nausea is instantly abated, and I feel like I can breathe for the first time in months. Maybe years.

  “Good riddance,” I say to myself. And I mean it.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ELLA

  “Three, two, one, CHEESE!”

  The cameras snap and I untangle myself from the swirl of arms wrapped in their Sunday best. The sun is beating down on the happy proceedings around me, and I’m filled with a mixture of relief, dread, anxiety, sadness, and pure joy.

  It’s a heady cocktail. I look at the smiling families around me: aunts, uncles, dads, and moms, and fall back against the wall of the medical school administration building. People are collecting their cameras and purses and heading toward their cars. I hear the jangle of keys and realize that tonight, I’m going to be alone. I don’t have anybody to congratulate me other than my fellow medical residency students.

  I don’t have a family.

  I take a deep breath and reach into my purse for my keys.

  “Ella!” I look up and see Samantha, my roommate, waving me over. “Come on!”

  I look at her, confused.

  She rolls her eyes. “Did you really think that we were going to have dinner without you? Let’s go!”

  I laugh and walk toward her. “I didn’t want to invite myself.”

  Samantha shakes her curly, kinky hair and flashes me her trademark, brilliant white smile. “Don’t be ridiculous. I thought I told you we were all going out after the ceremony.”

  Samantha’s dad, Roger, wraps his arm around me. “We sure are proud of both of you,” he says.

  “I think what he means is we’re really, really hungry and I’ve now been to more ‘graduations’ for Sam than I can possibly count,” Sam’s mom, Martina, quips.

  I laugh appreciatively as we walk back to the car. I’m relieved. Besides that, this will keep my mind off of the envelope that is waiting for me somewhere out in the world.

  ***

  “Cheers!”

  We all clink our glasses together, huddled in this brick-walled Italian restaurant in a corner booth. Sam’s family isn’t huge, but they make up for their numbers in sheer volume of voices and zest for conversation.

  “So, Ella, where are you headed after this?” Roger asks me.

  I shake my head. “Not entirely sure yet, actually.”

  “Are you taking some time off before you apply for a fellowship?” Martina asks, hushing Sam’s younger twin brothers, who are arguing about some science fiction television show I’ve never heard of.

  “No, actually, I’m doing one of the loan forgiveness programs? You know, the ones that send you to high need areas where there aren’t doctors.”

  Roger smiles at me appreciatively. “That sounds amazing. Have they not told you where you’re going yet?”

  I nod. “Yeah, that’s right. We had to put our top ten choices, but this year they had more applicants than ever and there was a paperwork mix up. They keep telling me they sent me my letter, but it must be stuck somewhere.” I shrug like this is no big deal instead of what it really is: the most annoying thing that’s ever happened to me. I haven’t slept in weeks from a combination of being a resident and from sheer anxiety and anticipation.

  “If Congress would just stop defunding the postal service, this wouldn’t be a problem,” Roger says amiably. “You know they had a package of mine for eight weeks?”

  “Can’t they just send you a letter?” Martina asks, reaching for another breadstick.

  “Bureaucracy. They say they’re understaffed and can’t get to doing that. And they won’t tell me on the phone, either. Something about privacy and breach of confidentiality or something like that.”

  “I’d be climbing the walls if I were you,” Roger says. “Not knowing where you’re headed next? Whew. Forget about it. It would drive me absolutely crazy.”

  “Oh, trust me, she is,” Sam chimes in. “She’s been using her days off to scrub our apartment top to bottom over and over again. I have to hide all my stuff so she doesn’t throw it away in one of her cleaning frenzies.”

  The whole table laughs.

  “I’m not that bad, am I?” I ask her.

  She nods. “You really are.”

  “So what’d you put down on your list?” Martina asks.

  “Well, I applied late so a lot of the spots were taken. But I mostly chose places like Hawaii, parts of California near the border, Texas, Washington state, and West Virginia.” I hold onto the last bit of information, the one place I had to write down as my last resort. Because it was the only one left.

  “Those all sound like great ones,” Roger says. “We were stationed in Maui for a few years when Sam was a kid. It was like heaven down there.”

  Martina laughs. “For us it was. Because we had your military paycheck and base housing. A lot more people are living hand to mouth than not, and on top of that, they have to make it seem like they aren’t for the tourists’ sake.”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I won’t get that, honestly. I’m hoping for California at this point.”

  “So you can come and visit me in my grand plastic surgery residency in Santa Barbara,” Sam says flamboyantly.

  “You’ll be raking in money and I’ll be scraping by on a family practice salary,” I say with a laugh. But we all know it isn’t a joke, not really.

  Sam and I stumble into our apartment later that night, tipsy from good red wine and the glow of familial conversation. I go to brush my teeth and Sam screams from the living room. “Ella!”

  I nearly choke on my toothpaste and run into the living room, my brush still hanging out of my mouth. “What?”

  Sam’s eyes are wide and sparkling. “It came.”

  I run back to the bathroom to rinse out my mouth. I don’t even bother drying it, running back into the living room with dripping hands. I grab the envelope. It has about fifty inked stamps on it saying “undeliverable,” “misplaced,” and “damaged at facility.” It’s been taped about as many times as it’s been stamped. It’s covered in an unidentifiable black grit.

  “That letter looks like it had quite the adventure,” Sam says.

  I nod, unable to speak.

  “Well? Are you going to open it? What are you waiting for? Come on!”

  “What if it’s a terrible place?” I ask. “What if I made a terrible mistake?”

  Sam shrugs. “It all works out. It always does.”

  “Spoken like someone whose parents’ paid their way through med school,” I grumble.

  She sighs and rolls her eyes. “Don’t give me that, Ella. It is what it is. Now open it before I tear it out of your hands and do it for you.”

  I retrieve a knife from the kitchen; this thing has been mummified with packing tape repairs. I carefully slice it open and slide the paper out. It’s tattered, but readable.

  Ms. Hanover,

  We are pleased to inform you that your arrival in Buxwell, Texas at the family clinic is greatly anticipated. We expect your arrival promptly on the fifth of June, two thousand and sixteen.

  I stop reading and fold the paper, feeling like the world has slowed down to a caterpillar’s crawl all around me. Sam is looking at me with expectant eyes. “Well? So?”

  “I’m going home,” I say. The words don’t want to leave my mouth. “To Buxwell.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  ELLA

  ELEVEN YEARS AGO

  I walk through the hallways with my books in my hand, my head ducked down. My curly, frizzy hair forms a protective shield around me. Someone bumps into me and I drop my books. “Sorry,” I hear myself saying. I’m not sure why I’m apologizing; I’m not the one who ran into someone else.

  I glance behind me as I hear a gaggle of girls laughing at me. It’s Amy Waters and her gang of awful, terrible, horrible mean girls. They’re everything you think of when y
ou think of regular high school bitches, only with sweet, Texas accents. Amy flips her straight, shiny blonde hair and keeps walking. I pick up my books one by one when I see a strong arm reach down.

  “Need some help up?” a guy’s voice asks me.

  I look up to decline the offer but hesitate when I see the face of Luke Davis: all green eyes and blonde curly hair that falls softly around his face. His jawline is perfection, and if he weren’t just your typical country bumpkin? He’d probably be the face of some teenage clothing line. “No, thank you,” I reply. I gaze over at his posse of football star friends and assume that him helping me up is probably a trick.

  I pick up the rest of my books and stand on my own two feet. I realize the two of us facing each other are like islands parting the stream of people who pass around us. I push past him and he grabs my arm. “Hey,” he says. “I think we haven’t met yet.”

  I push my glasses up the bridge of my nose and roll my eyes. “We’ve been in the same physics class for the last six months together.”

  He furrows his perfect brow. “Are you sure? I think I’d remember that.”

  “Right, okay,” I reply, wiggling out of his grip. My cheeks burn as I feel his friends staring at me and talking. The bell rings and everyone scatters. Great. I’m late for class. I take off at a run through the now-empty hallways. I have to make it all the way to the other side of the building.

  I hear footsteps squeaking behind me. “Wait!”

  It’s Luke again. “What?” I ask him, more harshly than I intended to when I turned around. “You’re making me late.”

  He grins at me, crossing his arms across his white fitted t-shirt. I can see his biceps straining against the fabric of his shirt. He’s junior quarterback. He’s a god around here. “I didn’t get your name.”

  “Ella,” I reply simply, feeling my stomach do a backflip.

  “Ella,” he repeats. He seems to be chewing over the simple syllables in his mouth. “Ella what?”

  “Hanover,” I say to him. “Ella Hanover.”

  “I’m Luke Davis,” he says with a blinding white smile, reaching out his hand.

  I laugh. “Yeah, I know.”

  “You gonna shake my hand or no?”