Excerpt of Kiss Me Goodbye by Heide Katros

Holding both hands palms up in submission, he shook his head
in denial. "Steffi, I am sorry. I know that sounds lame
after all we’ve been through together. I love you. I knew it
the minute I met you. I really thought I’d have more time to
prepare you for this. The suddenness of the orders took me
off guard. Please, don’t hate me. Give me some hope to take
with me into combat."

"You are going into combat?" Alarm turned her voice into a
squeak.

"Yes, that’s what I’ve trained for these past two months. It
would be suicide to venture into enemy territory without
being able to defend yourself." It was a suicide mission,
but he couldn’t tell her that.

Enemy territory? It sounded so ominous. "When ... when did
you prepare for all this?" Pressing a hand to her lips, her
eyes widened with dread. "God, where are you going?"

His gaze slid away from hers. "Most times I trained while
you were at work, but sometimes I snuck out after you were
asleep. It seemed fitting since we’ll be moving mostly
during the nights. I learned to get along on little sleep.
And I’m sorry I can’t tell you where I’ll be headed. I don’t
really know myself yet."

He dragged her back into his arms, tried to kiss her, but
she twisted away and his mouth grazed her jaw line instead.
Her rejection hit him with the force of a sledgehammer, but
he didn’t let on. Instead, he held her close and rubbed his
lips along the side of her face, loving the softness of her
skin. "Please, believe me, Steffi. I didn’t mean to deceive
you. I meant to tell you sooner, I just couldn’t." It was
the truth. The patriot in him told him he was doing the
right thing. The lover wanted to hold on to her forever.