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.