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    A Soldier’s Woman
     
    by Ava Delany
     
    Breathless Press
    Calgary, Alberta
    www.breathlesspress.com
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
    persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    A Soldier’s Woman
    Copyright© 2011 Ava Delany
    ISBN: 978-1-926930-77-0
    Cover Artist: Victoria Miller
    Editor: Spencer Freeman
    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in reviews.
    Breathless Press
    www.breathlesspress.com
     
    Acknowledgements
     
    Acknowledgements
     
    To my fans, old and new. Thanks for reading. You’re the best.
    To my editor, Spencer Freeman. Thanks for helping me polish my story
     
     
    Chapter One
     

     
    Janelle stood in the corner of the dark room, watching Ron talk and laugh with his friends. He pushed a thick chunk of black hair from his eyes, and punched his friend in the arm. His eyes twinkled, and her heart fluttered.
    Though this was her first time in the house he shared with his older brother, she’d watched him this way—from a darkened corner—for most of their high school years. Why would the most popular boy in school have any interest in a chubby girl who spent her days with her head down or her nose in a book, too scared to talk to any of the boys?
    “Janelle, are you gonna spend the whole time in the corner?” Debbie took her hand and tugged her toward the dance floor. “This is the last party before everyone goes their separate ways.”
    Hesitant, Janelle shuffled along behind her friend.
    “Look, we’ve been in college for two years now, and college is about experimenting. Plus, this is the last time all our old high school gang will be able to get together. When the boys go off to the navy, they won’t be back for a while.”
    The army . Janelle’s gaze moved back to where Ron stood.
    A small group sat in one corner, a bottle in the center of their circle. Janelle dug her heels into the carpet as Debbie tugged, then pulled, then yanked her toward the others.
    “Come on. You’re never going to live unless you let yourself.” Debbie faced her, her bright eyes open wide. “You’ve got to let go or you’ll dry up inside.”
    Janelle’s gaze flitted toward the group. Some of the popular kids from her old school sat there. She still couldn’t believe she’d let Debbie talk her into coming to this party.
    “They say your cooch dries up if you don’t use it by the time you’re twenty-one.” Debbie lifted her eyebrow and smirked. “We’re all going to be hitting that mark this year, and you don’t want to be the only one with a dry and unusable cooch, do you?”
    Debbie’s brown hair bobbed left and right as she leaned forward to put her weight into tugging Janelle with her. Janelle let herself be pulled again toward the circle. Her heart beat faster as her mind inexorably filled with images of what would happen if the bottle landed on her.
    The spinning bottle slowed to a stop and pointed at Heather, a tan-skinned girl she’d always admired. A blond boy whose name she didn’t know leaned across the top of the bottle, and the girl met him in the middle. When his lips touched hers, she moaned, letting him grasp her bottom lip between his teeth.
    Daniel, a member of the group she hadn’t seen since he’d gone off to an out-of-state college, leaned against the wall just outside the circle. “I think these two might need a room.”
    Then group laughed as the blond released Heather and sat back again, shaking his head and letting out a long breath.
    “I think you got him, Heather.” Daniel smirked, crossing his arms.
    Heather smirked and wiggled an eyebrow, then grasped the bottle. She placed it on the tile floor, and turned to face