By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс
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a lot closer to starting my own business by now, but Tenley’s career has kept me too busy for much else.”
“I’m impressed.” He was. And happy to know that she had something she could focus on besides Tenley. “Maybe this is your chance to get your web-design business up and running.”
She made a face. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Chase looked down at their linked hands and gathered his courage. He’d never felt so uncertain, even when he’d been on a dangerous mission with no idea if it would end well, or badly.
“Here’s the thing,” he finally said. “I have to be here for another six months, but I want us to stay in touch. More than stay in touch, actually.” He looked up at her. “I want you to wait for me, Kate.”
Her lips parted on a soft “oh” of surprise. “Wait for you? As in wait for you? What are you saying?”
He gave a self-conscious laugh and peered up at her. “You really don’t know? I’m saying that I want an exclusive relationship. We can video-chat with each other whenever I’m on a base. And when I get back, I’ll return to Fort Bragg. That’s about ten hours from Nashville, but we could make it work.”
Kate stared at him in bemusement, until finally she pulled her hands away and stood up. “This is all moving too fast,” she murmured.
Chase dipped his head to look into her eyes. “We can go as slow as you want, darlin’. I just need to know if you’ll wait for me.”
He’d surprised her. He could see it in her eyes. “You hardly know me,” she said softly.
Chase struggled to keep his voice low and patient. “Then let’s take the next six months and get to know each other the old-fashioned way. We’ll talk and send letters, and when I get back, we’ll go away somewhere, just the two of us. Did I tell you that I have a little place on the beach in Beaufort?”
Kate smiled. “Chase, you make it all sound so lovely, but I can’t make any decisions right now. I’ve just lost the only job I’ve ever had—”
“Which is a good thing,” Chase enthused. “You can do web design anywhere. Come to North Carolina. You’ll love it, I promise.”
He understood that her life had just been turned upside down, but there was no way he was going to let her run away to lick her wounds. He wanted to give her something to hope for, to look forward to. He wanted to give her a new start, with him at her side.
“What if you change your mind?” she asked, searching his eyes. “Six months is a long time. What if I come down to North Carolina and you realize you made a mistake? What if you no longer find me attractive?”
Chase laughed softly and cupped her face in his hands. “That is not going to happen. Don’t you get it? I’m crazy about you.” He lowered his head and covered her mouth in a slow, sweet kiss designed to show her just what she meant to him. When he finally pulled away, he was gratified to see her eyes had gone hazy with pleasure. “Have I convinced you yet?”
She leaned into him with a soft sigh, her hands curling around his shoulders. “Not quite. I may need a little more persuasion.”
“With pleasure,” he rumbled softly, taking her fully into his arms. “If it’s okay with you, I’m going to spend the next few hours persuading you.”
He heard her breath catch, and his own quickened at the sensual promise in her eyes. “Then I won’t tell you how gullible I am, or that I have no willpower to resist you,” she said breathlessly.
Chase chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
CHASE PICKED HER UP the following morning before dawn, having secured a seat for her on a flight to Kuwait. From there, she would fly to Atlanta, and make her way home to Nashville. He had walked her back to her housing unit before dawn, but she hadn’t gone to bed, too consumed with thoughts of Chase to sleep. For the first time that she could recall, she was filled with a sense of hope and excitement.
She couldn’t even feel remorse over the fact that Tenley had fired her, because in doing so she’d opened up endless opportunities for Kate. And while she hadn’t verbally agreed to relocate to North Carolina, she’d let Chase do his best to persuade her.
Now she watched as he stowed her duffel bag in the back of the Humvee. Charity sat in the backseat and her tail thumped happily as Kate reached over to rub her head. “I am going to miss you,” she said, stroking the dog’s ears.
Chase grunted as he climbed into the front seat beside Kate. “I can’t believe I’m jealous of that mutt.”
“I’m going to miss you, too,” she said, letting her gaze travel over his face, memorizing his features.
He turned toward her in his seat. “I’ll call you as often as I can, but I don’t want you to worry if several weeks go by without hearing from me.”
She took a deep breath and laced her fingers with his. “I know you’ll be careful.”
“You bet.”
Too soon, they arrived at the terminal. Kate’s flight wasn’t due to depart for another three hours, but passengers were required to arrive early. Even at this hour, the lobby was filled with soldiers waiting to catch a flight, and military duffel bags and gear littered the floor. As they made their way through the lobby to the check-in line, Kate grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to a stop.
“Look,” she breathed, staring at one of the flat-screen televisions mounted on the wall.
Chase followed her gaze and felt his stomach drop. There, on national television, was a video of Tenley Miles locked in a passionate embrace with a uniformed soldier backstage at the Kandahar concert. The crawl line across the bottom of the screen read, Beyond the Call of Duty?
Kate turned to him. “Chase, I need to see Tenley. She’s not going to know how to handle this. She needs me to do damage control!”
“Kate,” he said warningly.
“I have to do this,” she insisted. “Just last week she was ripping the military apart, and now she’s caught kissing some soldier? You and I know the truth, but the media is going to have a field day, never mind the embarrassment this will cause for the Army!”
She knew the instant he realized she was right. “Fine,” he bit out. “Let’s go. But just for the record, I’m all for letting her handle this one on her own.”
They drove over to the tent where the performers were sleeping, but Tenley was already awake and sitting outside at a picnic table, sharing a cup of coffee with Doug. Kate had to admit that the two made an attractive couple.
“I’ll tell her,” Kate said to Chase as she grabbed the door handle.
Chase put his hands in the air. “Absolutely. You’ll get no argument from me on that.”
Kate didn’t miss the way Tenley stiffened when she saw her.
“Tenley, I need to talk to you,” Kate said without preamble, sitting down next to her sister. “I just saw a video clip of you and—and Doug on television. You were caught on camera kissing backstage. The media is going to have a field day with this, but I think I have a way that we could explain it and make the public sympathize with you.”
Tenley’s face had gone pale, but now she reached over and covered Doug’s hand with her own, smiling in a way that Kate had never seen before.
“Kate,” she said gently, “you’re not my publicist anymore. This isn’t your problem to handle.”
“But you’re still my sister.” Kate frowned. “And whatever you might think of me, I know how to work the media. I can fix this, Tenley.”
“Nothing needs to be fixed,” Tenley insisted. “I don’t care if the whole world knows I was kissing Doug backstage. I love him. I’m going to be honest