Perfect Soldier: The Complete Story (5-Part BBW Military Romance Novel) (21 page)

Chapter
Eleven

Catherine

The next several days saw more of the same. Late
morning wake-ups, then morning sex or shower sex, depending on our moods.
Leisurely breakfasts, Netflix, late night dinners, etc. I called into work all
that week. Besides, we weren’t busy at the bar right around Christmas anyway.

The day after Colt arrived we went to pick out a
Christmas tree, a beautiful Douglas Fir that nearly touched the ceiling in the
apartment. We drank eggnog as we decorated it, getting silly drunk and laughing
together. We fell asleep watching a football game in the evening, Colt’s first
since coming home.

Then came Christmas. Colt and I decided we’d just
spend it together this year. I explained the situation to my parents over the
phone, telling them I’d make a trip to see them after the holiday ended. School
wouldn’t start back up for a few more weeks, so I’d have plenty of time.

“Bring Colt along! We want to meet him!” pleaded my
mother over the phone.

“He’s only here for a few more days and then he goes
back overseas,” I explained. “I promise you’ll meet him another time.”

It was a quiet Christmas for the most part, but I
was surprised to find a bundle of presents under the tree on Christmas morning.
Somehow Colt had found the time to go shopping since being back.

Later in the day, I cooked a huge Christmas meal and
we went to bed that night tired and satisfied in more ways than one. These were
perfect days we spent together, but as New Year’s Eve approached, I knew they
were about to end.

That night we headed over to hang out with Garrett
and Kelly at Kelly’s apartment. We had plenty of bourbon, beer and wine – not
to mention food. Kelly had been working all day in preparation making all
different kinds of snacks. I think that’s the best way to spend New Year’s Eve
– with good food and the people you care about, not at some noisy club around a
bunch of strangers.

The night wore on and we drank, ate, and laughed
gleefully. The boys watched a college football game and at 11:59 PM we changed
the channel to watch the ball drop. At midnight, Colt wrapped me up in his arms
and pulled me in for a long, wet kiss.

When it broke, I stood there in front of him,
looking up into his eyes and seeing something I’d never seen before, something
I couldn’t quite describe. It made me tingle inside, made me feel incomparably
happy, as if I could die in this moment and be alright.

Garrett opened a bottle of champagne and poured us
each a glass, we all toasted and drank up. A little while later, Colt and I
decided it was time to head out. We said our goodbyes and made plans to hang
out again soon.

Colt opened the door for me when we got out to his
truck, then closed it gently behind me. He slid into the driver’s seat and
paused for a second before starting up the engine. Then I leaned over the cup
holder in between us and kissed him. He smiled at me in the moonlight as he
pulled out of the parking lot of the apartment complex.

As we drove along, he asked me a surprising
question:

“Are you hungry?”

“I feel so bad saying this, especially after all the
food Kelly made, but I actually kind of am,” I said laughing. “Blame it on the
drinks, I guess.”

“Let’s go to the diner,” suggested Colt.

“Sure, alright.”

We got inside and found an empty table quite easily.
Not surprisingly, this wasn’t a New Year’s Eve hotspot. Soon a waitress came by
and gave us menus.

“I’ll have a steak, medium rare,” said Colt.

“Why do I feel like this is déjà vu?” I asked.

“And for you ma’am?” asked the waitress.

“Umm, actually I’ll have the same thing as him,” I
said.

“Medium rare, as well?”

“Yes, please. And a Diet Coke.”

Colt smiled at me across the table, a look of
mischief in his eye. I leaned in and looked in closer at him.

“What are you so smiley about?” I asked, nuzzling
his face and looking into his eyes with a little grin of my own.

He look down in front of him, giving the ever so
slightest nod. Then I followed his line of sight and realized he’d produce a
small velvet box in Tiffany blue. My hands went immediately to my face,
covering up my mouth as I gasped.

“
What is that?
” I asked, breathless, trying
hard to keep from outright screaming.

“Catherine Simmons,” said Colt slowly, enunciating
each syllable in my name. “
Will you marry me?
”

I could have fainted right then and there, but
instead I just stared at him, my hands still covering my mouth. Shocked, so
shocked. I couldn’t speak, but my eyes said it all. YES, YES, YES! Then finally
my mouth said it, too.

“Yes, Colt. Of course, yes! Oh I can’t believe
this!”

“Are you crying?” he asked, astonished.

“I know, it’s so stupid. I just can’t---I can’t help
it. This is such a surprise,” I said through the tears.

“Is it though? You knew I was crazy about you.”

“I know, it’s just I never expected it here, never
expected it to be this moment, right here, right now.”

“You know, I thought about doing it in Paris. I had
the ring and everything, but somehow this seemed better. Besides, I didn’t want
us to have to be apart for our whole engagement. Now if you can just get over
the fact you have to tell your friends I proposed to you in a diner…”

“It’s perfect, Colt.”

I held out my hand so he could slide the ring onto
my finger. It was absolutely gorgeous, a big, beautiful stone with an ever so
slight hint of blue, just barely perceptible as it sparkled.

“But wait, you didn’t propose in Paris because you
didn’t want us to be apart? You’re leaving in a few days, smart guy.”

“Well, that’s the other news.”

“
What!? You’re home for good!?
”

I was practically yelling in the diner right now.
One of the cooks stuck his head out from the kitchen and gave us an angry look.
Colt laughed and put a finger to his mouth.

“So it’s a little more complicated than that,” he
explained. “I’m coming home as in back to the U.S., not home as in back to
Tulsa. I’ve got until February 15
^th
, then I start a new job in
Washington, D.C. with the Department of Defense. So I guess the main question
is: are there any vet schools in Maryland or Virginia you can apply to?”

“I think University of Maryland has one, but I’ll
double check.”

“Well, what do you think about all this? Do you want
to give it a shot, are you willing to move to D.C. with me?”

“Yes,” I said, looking deeply into his eyes. “I want
to be with my fiancé.”

My fiancé. I
loved
it, wondered how many
times I’d say that word in the months to come. As it was, I couldn’t wait to
show off the ring and tell everyone the story, at work, at school,
everywhere
.

Colt reached across the table and took my hands. He
turned the left one upward to admire the ring.

“It’s a beautiful ring, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” I said. “The stone is enormous. I don’t know
how you could possibly afford it.”

“Well, it had to be big. I wanted to make sure you
couldn’t say no.”

I knew in my heart there was no way I could possibly
have said no to him. I looked up from the ring and saw a smile streak across
Colt’s face. He winked.
He knew it, too.

The
End.

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Excerpts From Other Stories by Haley

The
Billionaire’s Ranch

“I came down here because they kept telling me I had
to see you for myself,” said Wyatt, leaning towards me, his eyes trained
steadily on my own.

“Well, what do you think now that you’ve seen me?”

“I’m inclined to agree with them.”

“You gonna do something about it?
Or are you all
talk?
”

“Do you want me to take you upstairs?”

“I want you to take me
right here
,” I said,
getting up from my chair and walking over towards him.

I put my hands on his shoulders and straddled him as
he sat on the couch.

“Is this what you had in mind when you invited
yourself over here tonight?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Wyatt, looking up at me with crystal
clear blue eyes.

“So you heard about the girl who trains the horses.
Heard from all the ranch hands about how no one can get with her and you
thought ‘
I’ll be the one to go down there and give her a good fucking.
’
Is that what you thought?”

“Yes, in so many words.”

“Well, you’re just lucky you got some liquor in me
while we were alone,” I said as I leaned in for a kiss.

I could taste the whiskey on his breath, as he could
taste it on mine. But I didn’t mind, he was a cowboy. This was to be expected.

The
Billionaire’s Ranch, Part 2

“I’ve heard rumors,” I said.

“What rumors?”

“Rumors about people being fired at your company
just for disagreeing with you. When I heard that it was your idea that I was
railing against in the meeting, I guess it worried me a bit. Plus with the way
Don got all angry, I thought I was done for sure.”

“Well, Don isn’t the boss. And while that
was
my
idea, I’m not about to fire you. I fully admit that I’m not an expert in all
things horse racing, so I can take it when someone shoots down one of my
opinions.
How big of an ego do you think I have?
” he asked with a wink.

“Pretty damn big,” I said. “Almost as big as that
thing in your pants.”

Lane looked down. The outline of his hard cock could
be seen running down the right leg of his jeans. He grabbed my hand and pulled
it towards him, guiding it down his abs and over his crotch.

When I got to his leg, I massaged his fat cock, the
touch of him through the fabric reminding me of the intensity of the night
before. I could feel its girth, the hard vibrancy of his rod ready at a
moment’s notice to fill up my tight pussy.

“Is this what you called me up here for?” I asked
sexily. “You were just wondering when you’d get some more time alone with the
trainer girl, weren’t you?”

“Will you hold it against me if I say yes?” asked
Lane as he pulled me into his arms.

I looked up at him and batted my eyelashes. I could
feel his big cock pressed up against me.

“I guess I could let it slide just this once,” I
said.

The
Bear’s Lust

“Those male shifters you were with. What were they
doing in my territory?”

“They were chasing me.”

“Why?”

“Because I left my mate in the dead of night. The last
shifter who stood in front of me, the one who bolted before you caught me,
that’s Chamberlain. He’s my mate. My former mate, anyway.”

“
The coward wouldn’t even protect his own mate?
”

Elspeth gulped.

“Yes,” she said.

“Werewolf shifters are all the same. Brave, to a
point. But when they face real danger, their first instinct is to flee the
scene. What is your first instinct when I do
this
?”

Aiden grabbed Elspeth’s voluptuous ass, pulling her
into his big body. He stared down at her, and for the first time she looked
directly into his eyes, dark but with an undeniably wild spark of glittering
life.

“To flee,” said Elspeth, trembling, knowing
inevitably where he was about to take her.

Was it wrong that she felt a little excited by this,
by this bear shifter’s brute strength, his dominating presence before her?
Maybe it was something she saw in his eyes.

“Of course it is. You’re a werewolf shifter. You’re
scared and your first instinct is to run.
Why don’t you face up to the
danger for once?
”

Elspeth looked up at him, doing her best to stare
him down. Her curves were pressed up against him, his hands drifting aimlessly
over her body, his touch hinting at his lustful thoughts. She could feel his
big cock, already starting to get hard, pressing up against her body. He was
bigger than Chamberlain,
much bigger
. Elspeth knew she had no way out.
There was no escaping Aiden’s grip.