Perfect Soldier: The Complete Story (5-Part BBW Military Romance Novel) (14 page)

Chapter
Four

Colton

I told Cat that I wouldn’t be writing so frequently,
but I didn’t want to tell her the real reason why. The reality was that I
couldn’t tell her the truth even if I’d wanted to – that was privileged
information that couldn’t be available to civilians, or anyone outside my squad
really.

I wasn’t lying about the part about heading to a
remote province – that much was true. And certainly, I’d get my chance to meet
some local Afghanis while I was out providing security. But this wasn’t some
hum drum policing operation: we were tasked with providing protection in area
that was currently a Taliban stronghold.

This meant that before the area could be stabilized,
we’d need to root out the bad element. In fact, the town had almost
systematically been abandoned by its original inhabitants after the Taliban
took control, which mean that we’d need to drive the insurgents out of the town
and make it safe for the common people to come back. This meant the operation
that was currently being planned was a critical one, depending on
highly-skilled soldiers, superior strategy and flawless execution.

These were all obviously details that couldn’t be
passed on to civilians. But more than this, it was the danger of it all that I
could never in good conscience express to Cat. It was better to mention it, if
ever, long after it was over.

Believe it or not, time seemed to be going by
quickly out in the desert. I was completely absorbed in training for the
upcoming mission. There was a certain excitement about being on active duty
that I occasionally missed when I was back home in the States. There was a
thrill to life here, a sense of mission that really got my heart pumping. I
love the action, what else could I say? I couldn’t wait to finally put the
operation into action.

All that being said, I missed Cat desperately. Just
to talk to her, to feel her touch… I closed my eyes and thought about her
sometimes and I’d feel my cock get hard. What I wouldn’t give to be back with
her! So you can imagine my excitement when I received another letter from her
right before our convoy was about to leave.

***

Dear Colt,

I’m glad to hear things are going well
for you. Life here is about as dull as ever. Classes have been going better
lately – I got a nearly perfect grade on my most recent Intermediate Bio quiz,
so I’d feeling a bit more confident in that area now. It’s been a huge relief.

Work has also been a bit less frantic
(which means I’ve been able to concentrate on school more). We hired a new girl
name Kelly to replace Stacy, so that’s allowed me to go back to a more relaxed
schedule (only weekends!). The best part is the Kelly is actually really cool!
She’s fun to work with and we’ve even had a few movie nights and gone out to
lunch a couple of times.

It’s great to make a new friend here
because I really am so damn lonely with you gone. Even though I’m pretty busy,
there’s still downtime where I realize how much I miss you. I just wish I had
some idea when you were coming home; it’s hard with things being so open-ended.

I know you miss Tyson and Garrett, but
you’ll be happy to know they’re doing well. They still come into the bar pretty
frequently, usually when I’m working. I think it’s because I tend to pour them
more liquor and give them some drinks on the house, haha.

Also, I think Garrett has taken a bit of
a liking to Kelly. He hasn’t said anything, but I can kind of just see it when
he talks to her. Is it a terrible idea for me to try to set them up? Part of me
could see it working out, but it could also be a complete disaster. Anyway,
I’ll stop rambling because I know you don’t care about gossip like this.

You know what I’m going to tell you in
closing: please stay safe out there! I want you coming home in one piece!

Love,

Cat

***

Dear Cat,

I’m sorry that this letter has to be so
short, but we’re about to head out to our new outpost on the mission referred
to in my last letter. It is going to be very remote. At this point, I do not
know how frequently I’ll have access to mail, so do not be surprised if I don’t
respond for weeks, maybe even over a month. It doesn’t mean anything has
happened to me, it’s just a reflection of how far away I am from civilization.

I’m feeling very confident about things,
however, and excited to start work on this assignment. I’ve been developing a
deeper bond with the guys around me and I’m happy to hear that you’ve made a
new friend, too. Friends certainly make life easier to deal with, especially
during trying times like these.

As to setting Garrett and Kelly up, I’ll
defer to your judgment on that. Do you think she can handle Garrett? Haha. He’s
one of my best friends, but even I can admit that he definitely rubs some
people the wrong way. But I like to see the guy happy, so if you think Kelly
can do that for him, then by all means go for it.

Anyway, heading out now. I’ll write
again as soon as I can.

Love,

Colt

Chapter
Five

Catherine

After that letter it was a long time before I heard
from Colt again. Despite what he’d said about not worrying about him, it was
nearly impossible not to construe his silence as ominous. Part of the problem
was that I didn’t hear from him for over a month, then two months, then…

I kept writing him frequently, telling him all the
boring details of life at home. Perhaps against my better judgment, I had set
Kelly and Garrett up after all. But lucky enough, they really started hitting
it off!

When I didn’t have classes or work, I’d spend a lot
of time hanging out with them, but truth be told I was beginning to feel like a
bit of a third wheel. Tyson would join us sometimes, too, but he was preparing
for another tour of duty overseas himself and was usually too busy to hang out.

It’s not that I minded being a third wheel all that
much. They were both really fun to hang out with and always made an effort to
not make it awkward when we were all hanging out together. What made it so hard
was seeing their love, their obvious affection for each other. It’s not that I
was jealous, but they reminded me so much of Colt and myself that it was hard
not to go home after being with them and not feel the loneliness more intensely
than before.

On one occasion I mentioned to Garrett my concern
about not hearing back from Colt for so long, but he didn’t seem in the slightest
bit concerned.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s like
that in some areas. If he told you he might not get a chance to respond
quickly, I’d assume he’s alright.”

“But he said it could be weeks, maybe over a month.
But it’s been over two,” I said, the concern in my voice obvious even to
myself.

Garrett seemed to realize how anxious I was because
he brought me in for a hug, something totally out of character that he’d never
done before.

“Colt is fine. He’s the toughest guy I know. And if anything
had happened we would have heard about it. There’s a chain of communication for
these things.”

I lay there on his shoulder for a second, trying to
believe that what he said was true.

Taking Garrett’s advice I just tried to concentrate
on other things. I kept writing Colt, even without receiving a response. I
started to wonder if he was even getting my letters, but kept writing anyways,
thinking to myself that as long as I wrote them it meant he was out there, that
eventually he’d get a chance to read them.

But as it was life moved on. The weather had changed
for the better and soon finals were just around the corner. I was almost
thankful to be overwhelmed with studying because of the distraction it
provided. I was up late nearly every night poring over textbooks, jotting down
extensive notes, making outlines and flashcards.

I joined a study group from my Intermediate Bio
class and it really seemed to be helping out. I’d meet up with them at a nearby
coffee shop and we’d review together once a week, and then three times a week
before finals. Working with the other students gave me a huge source of support
and going into exam week I felt more confident than ever before.

During exam week, I had two finals on Thursday and
another on Friday. It would have been way too much material to cram in just a
few days, so when I finally sat down at my desk for the first test on Thursday,
I was very glad that I’d made the decision to start studying way ahead of time.

As the professor passed out the exam for Anatomy, I
took a deep breath.
Here we go
, I said to myself. But surprisingly
enough I felt much less nervous than I typically was in these types of
situations. The professor placed a test on my desk face down, and after the
last few students had received their exams he headed to the front of the room.

Noting the time on his watch, he told us to turn our
exams over and begin. We had three hours to complete them. We’d started at
10:05 AM, which mean we’d have to put down our pencils by exactly 1:05 PM.

I turned over my exam and was thrilled to find out
that I knew the answers immediately to the first three multiple choice
questions. But as I moved through remainder of the test, however, things got
more difficult. I struggled with a few other multiple choice questions,
narrowing each down to two of the original four options. Oh well, I thought, at
least I had a 50-50 shot at getting points.

The next section, true or false, was a bit easier on
the whole. But then came the dreaded essay section. I knew this would be the
hardest part of the exam, the part I had struggled with previously when taking
my midterm. But fortunately, I still remained calm and clearheaded. I trusted
in myself. I knew that’s that Colt would have told me to do.

You know this stuff, Cat. Just go in there
and crush it
.

I could almost hear him saying these words in my
mind. I smiled to myself.
Yes, I would crush it, for myself and for him.

Chapter
Six

Colton

I hadn’t heard from Cat in a long time. It was the
last day of April. I knew finals would be coming up soon and I wondered how she
was doing back home.

Our operation in Helmand had been successful, but it
had come with its share of burdens as well. One member of our squadron was
killed, and three more had been flown out on evacuation helicopters after our
medics did what they could. I prayed that those boys would be alright.

That aside, it had gone well. The fighting with
insurgents had lasted over three days, but by the end of it they’d been
completely eradicated from the area. That was over a month ago. Gradually now,
the former villagers were starting to come back, knowing that they would be
safe under the protection of U.S. soldiers.

The rudiments of a bazaar started cropping up, and
weeks later it had turned into a full-fledged and bustling marketplace. I
walked through it on patrol with one of my fellow soldiers, a man about my age
named Percy Ericson. Percy was from North Carolina, but he’d been in
Afghanistan for a while now, working a similar operation to the one we were
currently a part of.

“It’s amazing what we’ve been able to do here,” said
Percy as we strolled through the bazaar.

It was deathly hot out, but somehow I’d grown used
to that.

“It truly is,” I said, looking around me as we
walked through the throngs of people. “Look how happy these people are to be
out at the market, just talking, interacting, exchanging… It’s crazy to think
we take all of this for granted back home.”

“I know,” said Percy. “Being born an American makes
me about the luckiest son of a bitch on earth.”

“I’m inclined to agree.”

“Hey, you hungry?” asked Percy, switching gears.

“I could go for something.”

Percy stopped over by one vendor selling some type
of bread and some other food I couldn’t quite discern the origins of. He spoke
briefly to the man in Pashto – not that I could recognize any of the words, but
the distinctive sound told me it wasn’t Arabic. Soon he came back over with two
plates, one for me and one for himself.

“What hell is this?” I asked, staring down at the
food on my plate.

“The best meal you’ve had in weeks,” said Percy.

“No really, what
is
this?”

“The bread is called Nan-e Afghani, and then there
you’ve got some stewed goat, and that’s yogurt sauce.”

“And I’m not gonna get food poisoning?”

“I make no promises,” said Percy with a laugh as he
rolled up some goat meat with the bread and dipped it in the sauce. “Go on man,
eat up. I’m telling you, this is good stuff.”

Reluctantly, I gave it a shot and to my surprise
found that he wasn’t kidding around. It really
was
delicious, marinated
in some kind of spices I’d never had before. It certainly beat the pants off of
the MREs we were eating back at the base on the outskirts of town.

After taking that short break and grabbing some
bottles of water, we headed back on patrol, hunger satisfied and ice water
keeping us going in the sweltering heat. For a minute I pondered whether Cat
would even recognize me when I got back, as tan as I was becoming under the
brilliant desert sun.

***

After our patrol that day, I came back to the base
to find a bundle of letters from Cat. I stood there thumbing through the
envelopes, counting eight in total. Immediately, I was pissed. I was just
receiving these letters now? The earliest one I found was dated over two months
ago.

Then I started wondering whether my own letters had
been lost in the mail. It made me angry because this was the only contact I had
with Cat, and to be cut off for months like this was more punishing than being
assigned to a barren environment in the middle of nowhere.

But as I read through the letters, my emotions
changed. They were filled with so many details, some of them exciting, some of
them mundane, that I felt like I was back there with her, living through these
lost months together. They reminded me of the conversations we’d have every
night at dinner or in bed after making love.

I lay back on my cot and read through them one by
one, then read them over again. Life seemed to be going well for her and that
gave me some comfort. She was a bit worried about her upcoming finals, but she seemed
well-prepared based on all the studying she’d mentioned in her letters, plus I
knew she was a smart, hard-working girl. I had to believe that things would
work out for someone like that in the end.

I was feeling sleepy now as I lay in the cot; it was
late and all the reading had made me tired. But I decided to drag myself out of
bed and pen her a quick letter of encouragement on her final exams. I was
craving contact with her after so much time apart; writing letters was
unfortunately the only contact that was possible.