by KB Winters
“Can I keep you?”
The question left my lips before I could even stop to think about it, but Cole’s movements didn’t falter. He was quiet even as he wiped himself down with a grimace.
“Too soon?” I asked, my voice small at the thought that maybe I’d messed whatever this was between us up. Cole tossed the rag over his shoulder before pulling up the blanket at the end of the bed and shifting me onto my side so he could slide behind me.
“Never.”
His softly uttered answer made me smile and I settled back against him sighing when his arms enveloped me in his embrace. I closed my eyes with a smile and brought my hands up to tangle with his. It was so peaceful lying there in his arms, and I enjoyed the fact that my mind was blissfully silent for once. Nothing at all could break the peace I’d found within Cole’s strong embrace.
“Move in with me.”
My eyes flew open. “What?” I turned around until I could face Cole. “What did you just say?”
He sighed before shifting and reaching over me to turn on the lamp beside my bed. “I said, move in with me.”
I stared at him as if he were crazy. Surely he wasn’t serious, right now? “You can’t be serious.”
“Why not?”
I moved to sit up and stared down at him. His expression was firm and determined as if he had already made up his mind about the whole thing. “Why not?” I repeated his question, my confusion and disbelief clear in my voice. “How about because we barely know one another.”
“We know enough about each other to know we don’t want to be apart.”
“Not wanting to be apart and wanting to exclusively date is a far cry from actually living together Cole.” I crossed my arms across my chest. “Plus you live with your mom.”
“Ah ah, correction—my mom lives with me. There’s a huge difference.”
“Plus,” I continued on ignoring him. “Your little sister lives with you.”
“So?”
“So?” I exclaimed, my voice going shrill at how unperturbed he was. Did I somehow get trapped in some strange parallel universe? “Your little sister is a student at my school.”
“I’m sure plenty of parents have their children at the same school they work at and everything is fine there. Plus you don’t even teach her so there wouldn’t be any kind of conflict of interest.”
“That’s not the point!” I pushed the covers back and jumped out of bed.
“Then what is the point, Savannah?”
I whirled around to face Cole and tried to ignore the stirring of arousal in my body as I saw how good he looked reclining in my bed. “The point is, we have had miscommunication after miscommunication even though we’ve barely been dating for a month and now you’re asking me to move in with you? It’s too abrupt! It’s too soon to—“
“I’m being relocated.”
“—even think about moving in tog—what?” My stream of words ground to an abrupt halt as what he said pierced my brain. “You’re being what?”
Cole sighed before pushing back the covers and walking around the bed to stand in front of me. “That was part of the reason why I had to leave so abruptly last week. I got the call about being relocated.”
I blinked unable to process what I was hearing. “But…why? I thought you liked it here. Did I do something?”
“No,” Cole insisted leaning forward and putting his hand on my shoulders. “You haven’t done anything but be wonderful.”
“Then why?” I asked softly trying to understand.
“My contract with the Marine Corps is almost up, so I had to decide what it was I wanted to do next.” Cole ran a hand through his already tousled hair. “I applied for a program analyst position at the Department of Veteran Affairs a few weeks before I met you. The position would allow me to occasionally work from home, and I was able to choose from a few different cities to reside in—one of them is in Baltimore and it’s close to a medical research treatment center.”
“Work from home…medical center…I don’t follow.”
Cole sighed again before pulling me back over to the bed. I followed his motions and sat down trying to ignore the feeling of dread that was welling up within me.
“My Marine Corps contract is up, but rather than become just a normal civilian, I wanted to find government work helping other veterans. Plus, since one of the locations was near the treatment research center, I put my name in the running for it. My commander put in a good word for me since he knew I was looking to get out soon.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked looking down at our hands.
“Because that particular treatment center focuses on helping people with the disease my mom has—CRPS. I’ve never really told you about it, but it’s a chronic, painful disease and she can’t exactly hold down a job with it. The analyst position means that I won’t have to worry about being shipped out anywhere. There’s a little travel involved, but it’s only national so I can be close and continue to take care of my mom while she’s at the center.” Cole’s answer made me look up at him. “There’s no cure yet—maybe not for a long while, but they have had some success in helping those with the disease to live longer and alleviate some of the painful symptoms. Plus it will relieve my little sister of some of the burden of taking care of our mother while I’m indisposed.”
“Oh,” I said quietly. “Well, that’s great news. That will be great for your mom for sure, and at least then your sister will have more time to be a teenager and focus on school.”
Cole clutched my hands. “That’s why I want you to come with me.”
“Cole I—“
“I know it’s soon—much sooner than I planned on asking, but baby,” he cupped his hand against my cheek bringing my gaze back up to his. “I want to continue this.”
“I do too Cole, I really do but…” My voice trailed off. A huge part of me wanted to just give in and say of course I’d go with him, but that small scared part of me worried that this was too much too soon. “But what happens if we don’t stay together? What happens when you decide that you no longer want to be with me?”
“That won’t happen.”
I jerked my hands away and stood up. “I can’t, Cole. As much as I…I just can’t.” My voice trembled as I wrung my hands together. Every part of me was fighting against my words, and I wanted to throw myself into his arms and take back my rejection.
Cole stood as well and looked at me. “I’m sorry.”
Swallowing thickly, I could only nod as I felt all the good feelings I’d had from our time together fall to the pit of my stomach. With a barely contained sob, I turned and fled to the bathroom unable to keep my tears at bay. I’d just gotten Cole back, and now I was really and truly losing him for good.
The sounds of him moving around in the bedroom were loud to my ears, and I held my hand over my mouth to smother my sobs. I could hear him searching for and putting on his clothes and that was something I didn’t need to see. I knew if I saw him putting on his clothes for the last time, I would be unable to stop myself from breaking down and begging him to stay.
I didn’t know how long I stayed in the bathroom, but when I finally got the courage to crack open the door and look out, Cole was gone and this time I doubted I would be hearing from him again. I crawled into bed, letting my sobs ring out loudly until I could collapse into my pillow. Everywhere, the scent of him surrounded me and where before it had been comforting and pleasant, now it only brought me pain. I stared at the wall in front of me, not bothering to brush the tears from my cheeks as I fell into a fitful slumber.
Continued in...Temporary Assignment Book 5!
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Acknowledgements
Thank you! I love you all and thank you for making my books a success!! I appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks to all of my beta readers, street teamers, ARC readers and Facebook fans. Y’all are THE BEST!
And a huge very special thanks to my wonderful PA, Silla. Without you, I’d be a *hot mess! With you, I’m a hot mess, but without your keen sense of organization and skills, I’d be a burny fiery inferno of hot mess!! Thank you!
And a very special thanks to my editor, Tina Rucci (who sometimes has to work all through the night! *See HOT MESS above!) Thank you for making my words make sense.
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
About The Authors
KB Winters has an addiction to caffeine, tattoos and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are…well…bossier!
Living in sunny Southern California, the embarrassingly hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!
Evie Monroe also lives in Southern California and when KB asked her to co-author her next books, Evie was ecstatic! Together, they’ve penned their first collaboration, Temporary Assignment, and have other exciting titles on the way!
They hope their stories take you away to a hot Alpha-land where you can relax and enjoy!
You can connect with KB on Facebook and Twitter! Come say Hi to Evie on Facebook! And stop by at KBWinters.com!
Temporary Assignment
Book 5
By
KB Winters and Evie Monroe
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Copyright and Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Chapter One
Everyone always said it was better to find love and lose it, but I always thought it was a ridiculous thing to tell someone who was suffering from a broken heart. Two months had gone by since the last time I’d seen Cole, and my heart and mind were still as much a wreck now as they had been when I walked out of that bathroom to see him gone. My bed smelled like his musky cologne for days after, and I often found myself imagining his scent even long after I had washed the sheets. Heather had noted the withdrawal of his sister from our school, but thankfully she took the route of not talking about it. I wouldn’t have been able to get back in the swing of things if she’d wanted to talk about how I felt. No, that talk had come after a night of one too many tequila shots and a horror movie marathon. When I thought back to her righteous indignation of Cole leaving, it made me smile a little.
“So let me get this straight,” Heather began. She threw her head back as she finished her shot of tequila and then slammed the glass down on my coffee table. The noise made me wince, or maybe it was just the pounding in my skull. She continued as if she hadn’t noticed my reaction. “He put in for a new job a few weeks before he met you?”
I nodded as I cradled my own shot glass in my hands. “Yep.”
“But he still courted you knowing he’d be leaving?”
I gripped the glass with one hand and brought it up to my lips. “Yep.” The acrid liquid burned my throat as it slid down, and I had to fight against coughing. I had never been a big fan of tequila, but right then I needed something to make the ache in my chest go away. I figured getting spectacularly drunk would do the trick. “He probably wasn’t sure whether he’d get it or not.”
Heather held her hand up. “Regardless—it’s still rude. Don’t you think that little tidbit was something he should have told you before, oh I don’t know, fucking you and trying to sweep you off your feet?” She reached out and grabbed the bottle of tequila and poured us both another shot. “How are you not totally livid with the jerk?”
I pushed my glass over to her with a sigh. “I’m too busy feeling sorry for myself to be angry. Plus,” I watched as the corn colored liquid filled up to the brim. “Plus, he did ask me to go with him, and I was the one who said no, so technically this pity party is my own fault.”
Heather paused. “Wait, what?”
“And who says ‘court’ anymore to describe dating? You sound like my grandmother.” I brought my glass up again and tried to school my face to not betray how much I truly hated the taste of tequila. Heather’s hand reached out to block me from drinking, it was not what I was expecting and I looked up. “What are you doing?”
“Rewind what you just said. Cole asked you to go with him?”
“That’s what I just said,” I replied my voice laced with annoyance at being denied my drink.
“Yeah, now, you just said that now, but you didn’t mention that when I asked you about things before getting here. What the hell, Savannah?” Heather sat back and gave me an incredulous look.
I didn’t understand where she was going with things. “What the hell, what?”
Heather blinked. “Why the hell didn’t you go with the man?”
Now I looked at her as if she were the crazy one. “What do you mean, why didn’t I go with him? I barely know the man for Christ’s sake. I couldn’t just give up my life and career here and follow him to Baltimore at a moment’s notice. The sex was…great, eye-opening even, but that’s not the only thing to consider for a relationship.”
“Of course not, but it’s a start, especially if you both like one another and want to actually try a real relationship like you two were doing. Jesus Savannah…” Heather’s voice trailed off as she stood up.
“Jesus, Savannah, what?” I asked watching Heather begin to pace back and forth. She stopped and looked at me.
“Did you ever stop to think that maybe getting out of here would be a good thing?”
“Of course not. Again let me reiterate, I barely know the man.”
Heather sighed. “There are other options, Savannah—long-distance relationships, living in two cities temporarily, transferring to a new school there. Did you even talk about any of those options with him?” My silence to her question stretched out. “Or did you just run and hide in the bathroom like a coward?”
I felt like a fool, which usually translated into me lashing out. “I am not a coward.” My voice was low and angry. “I am not the one hiding behind rumors in order to not have to deal with other people’s gossip because of my sexuality. I mean really, everyone at work knows you’re gay, Heather. It’s not like it’s a big secret.”
As soon as the words left my lips, I wanted to take them back and apologize for them. I knew I was only lashing out because of the honesty of her words. I hadn’t stopped to consider any other options for Cole and me. I did run away like a coward, hiding in my bathroom until he had no choice other than to leave.
“That’s real nice, Savannah.” Heather’s soft words brought my attention back to her, and I my heart skipped a beat at the disappointment I read in her gaze. She stepped over to the table and gently set her shot glass down.
“Heather, I—“
“I’m going to go,” she said cutting me off. She kept her head down not meeting my eyes. “When you figure your shit out, send me an email for whether or not I need to prepare any transfer papers.”
I stood up as well as she walked over to the front door. “Heather, wait! I’m sor—“
“I’m not hiding my sexuality, you know.” I stopped walking when she paused at the front door. “All the important people in my life know. Everyone else isn’t worth an explanation.” She gl
anced back at me. “I’ll see you at work.”
I stood staring at the door as it closed behind her, feeling even more dead and empty than I had before.
Heather had been cordial, but closed at work since then and I didn’t have the nerve to call her outside of work and apologize. My job dragged on and I went through the motions while her words continued to play repeatedly in my head. I couldn’t deny her words and after two months of thinking about everything, I didn’t want to. It seemed that as take charge as I was in my professional life, I was apparently unable to do the same in my personal life. A knock at my office door drew my attention, and I looked up to see Heather standing in the doorway.
“You wanted to see me?”
I stood up from my chair. “Yes. Please, come sit down.” I gestured at one of the chairs in front of my desk. I was relieved when Heather took a step in and shut the door behind her. I waited for her to sit before slowly falling back into my own chair.
“Is there a problem?”
“No, I mean yes,” I said stumbling over my words. I had to take a deep breath to calm myself. “There is a problem, but it’s not you. I said something to you that was mean and entirely uncalled for.” When she remained silent I continued on. “It was petty and inappropriate and hitting entirely below the belt especially because I knew it wasn’t true.”
“Go on.”
I nodded at her prompting. “I was upset with Cole and with myself and I took it out on you when you didn’t deserve it. I am really and truly sorry, Heather.”
Her silence stretched out. My leg began to jiggle up and down in the tension, and I worried that I had completely ruined our friendship.