Adversary and Endeavour (Siren Publishing Allure ManLove) Read online

  Adversary and Endeavour

  The Navy frowns heavily on sexual misconduct, so when Lieutenant Commander Kahlil Farid is brought before the Naval court on these charges, he feels sure his career is over. On top of that, he comes into contact with his ex-husband, Captain Eammon O’Donnell, who is sure that revealing the secret of their divorce is the only way to save Kahlil’s career. The lieutenant commander is fervently against that idea.

  As Kahlil is reminded of the happiness and the pain that he shared with Eammon and waits for the inevitable end of his career, his tenacious lawyer investigates the mysterious cause of the divorce and formulates a plan to prove Kahlil’s innocence.

  Meanwhile, Eammon battles with his conscience and tries to decide whether to tell the truth, like he has wanted to since he lost his husband, or to respect said husband’s wishes and remain in torturous silence. All the while, all either of the Navy men wants is to have what they once had with each other.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Interracial

  Length: 23,023 words

  ADVERSARY AND ENDEAVOUR

  Holly Meadowes

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

  ADVERSARY AND ENDEAVOUR

  Copyright © 2013 by Holly Meadowes

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-817-5

  First E-book Publication: April 2013

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Adversary and Endeavour by Holly Meadowes from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Holly Meadowes’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Meadowes’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to all gay couples out there, both male and female, who I believe have as much right to celebrate their love in marriage as any heterosexual couple do. This book is in the world I envision that no one blinks at homosexual relationships and treats then with the same respect as any other. I would also like to dedicate this book to those who have had tumultuous times in their relationships and have gotten through them. This highlights my belief in forgiveness.

  ADVERSARY AND ENDEAVOUR

  HOLLY MEADOWES

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter 1

  The call came at eighteen hundred hours. It told him that his presence was needed at Base Adversary of the British Navy at zero eight hundred hours tomorrow. He was having dinner at his house with his brother when the call came in.

  “Did they say what it was about?” asked Ciaran as he chewed the last of his steak.

  “No, but they stressed that I was in no trouble,” replied Eammon as he went into the bedroom of his apartment and laid out his uniform for tomorrow.

  “Adversary is a legal naval base. I wonder what they could want with you there.”

  The next morning Ciaran came to pick Eammon up and drive him to the base. Ciaran was the younger brother, but there were times when he felt he had to be the one supporting Eammon. He felt like this was one of those times and he was right because when he used his key to unlock the door of the apartment, he found Eammon standing there tapping his foot nervously.

  “Ready to go?” asked Ciaran. Eammon jumped as if he hadn’t heard his brother enter the room, and for a military man that was bad. “You know, I tried to get an idea of what they could possibly want you for, so I looked up the database and I guess you did, too.” Eammon nodded.

  “So you know who’s stationed there right now?”

  He nodded again.

  “Are you okay?”

  Eammon turned around to face his brother. His face was suddenly a picture of surety, even though his eyes told different story. “Look, we’re Navy officers. Sometimes we have to go to places we don’t want to and see people we’re not necessarily comfortable with. It is just part of the job.”

  “Whatever you say, brother.”

  “Hey,” Eammon called as Ciaran turned around to lead the way out of the apartment. “There’re two sides to every story. You can’t keep blaming him.”

  “Yeah,” Ciaran replied sarcastically. “Don’t blame the guy who broke my brother’s heart.” Ciaran started to walk away until Eammon grabbed his arm.

  “Hey, there was a reason our marriage ended.”

  “Well how would I know, you never talk about it.” Ciaran put his fingers on his temples and then looked his brother directly in the face. “Remember after you signed the divorce papers you stayed in bed for two weeks, and Ma and I had to beg you to eat something?”

  “I was in bad shape from losing my husband. That doesn’t mean that our marriage ending was his fault.”

  Ciaran sighed. “Look, if you want to forgive him for walking out on you and breaking your heart, then that’s fine, but I sure as hell don’t have to.”

  * * * *

  “It doesn’t matter how many times you press that elevator button, brother. It’s not going to come any faster.” Eammon turned his head to glare at his brother. “Listen, this is taking a while. I’m going to go to the main office and ask the receptionist to call up and ask what is taking so long.”

  Ciaran then walked away, and Eammon pressed the elevator button again. It was only about ten seconds before it opened and an officer with a dark, Middle-Eastern appearance came into view. “Kahlil!” Eammon exclaimed as he saw his ex-husband step out. He had for a time being been hoping the database had been lying, but right now he could not think anything of the sort. It was just so good to see him.

  The smaller man stopped short and turned to look at him. “Eammon!” he exclaimed in shock. They looked at each other for a second, not sure what to do, and then Kahlil awkwardly opened his arms and they embraced hesitantly. “So how are you?”

  “I’ve been good…Wow, you look amazing.” And he did. His lean, muscular body was not done justice by the uniform he was wearing and his hair was styled differently from the last time Eammon saw him. Yet it was still jet black, and Eammon was willing to bet that were he to dare to run his fingers through it, it would just be as silky as he remembered. His skin was a few tones darker than olive and, despite his profession, was unmarred. Eammon all of a sudden remembered their honeymoon. He remembered stripping his lover as he had done many times before and marvelled at how perfect and soft the skin was. The only place of Kahlil’s body that was not soft was his hands. They were rough and calloused, and Eammon loved to feel them on his skin. He loved to lean over Kahlil and rub skin against skin to create friction and feel his husband’s hands roam down over his ass and up his thighs to rest between them.

  The memories only lasted a few seconds before Eammon realised that they were just that, memories. The days of him holding Kahlil and feeling his skin and his heart beat against him were in the past, and despite what he prayed for every night before he took to his bed, he knew that they were probably never going to return.

  Still, Kahlil was so beautiful that Eammon could b
arely take his eyes off him. Kahlil smiled awkwardly at the comment and looked away, and in the turn of his head Eammon spotted something around his neck. “You’re wearing it,” he said lowly.

  Kahlil’s hand came up to his neck and grabbed the gold chain with the thick gold band attached to it. “You told me I should keep it, so I did.”

  Eammon didn’t know how long he stood there and stared at Kahlil, but it had been so long since he had last seen him. “So how long has it been?” he asked. “Two, thr…”

  “Three years in October,” Kahlil answered for him. “So what are you doing here?”

  “Well, I was asked to report here for an undisclosed reason. Ciaran is just talking to the receptionist asking what is going on.”

  Kahlil’s face lit up. “Wow, Ciaran’s here? I’d love to see him.”

  Eammon looked over his should and said, sounding unconvinced, “Yeah, I’m sure he’d love to see you, too.”

  Kahlil also looked unconvinced and the smile fell from his face, but it looked like he understood. “Look, Eammon, we’ve talked about this. We agreed that you wouldn’t say anything. It won’t to do anyone good.”

  “Well you can’t say things are good the way they are,” Eammon said through gritted teeth.

  “Eammon, I’m doing this to protect you,” Kahlil said with his hands on his temples.

  “I didn’t want your protection, Kahlil, I…” Eammon trailed off when he realised he was raising his voice and looked around to make sure no one had heard them. “Losing you hurt the most, but what also hurt was when it ended between us…everyone blamed you. I can’t imagine how that hurt you, but it hurt me. It still does.”

  “Eammon,” Kahlil said, exhaling. “You’re a military man from a military family. If you told people the truth it would not just affect you and I. It would affect…everything.” The smaller man then took a breath and said, “Look, Eammon, no matter what you did, I was the one that decided that I couldn’t deal with it. I was the one that left. I’ll have no one suffer for my actions.”

  Eammon opened his mouth to say something else, but then he heard a “Hey, Kahlil,” in the unmistakable voice of his brother speaking in a drab tone, come from behind him.

  Kahlil’s beautiful face lit up again, and his dark-brown eyes twinkled. “Ciaran,” he said, sounding so happy to see the dark-haired man. “How are you?” he asked as he opened his arms and moved forward slightly as if to hug Ciaran but then turned the movement into a gesture when he realised Ciaran wasn’t going to hug him back.

  “Good,” he answered. “I’ve been well.”

  Eammon sighed. Before he and Kahlil got divorced, Ciaran had loved Kahlil. According to the young dark-haired lieutenant, no one was good enough for his older brother, but then Kahlil came along and Ciaran took a shine to him immediately. They had been like family themselves until the divorce, and Eammon knew that Ciaran had felt a little bit betrayed by it because he had, in a subconscious way, felt like Kahlil had abandoned him as well. That was one of the things that cut Eammon deep about not telling anyone the truth about their breakup. He was not only lying to the people he loved, but he was depriving Kahlil and his family of the great relationship they once shared.

  Kahlil didn’t have any family of his own, being an Afghan war orphan, so his husband’s had adopted him. Eammon’s mother, a stocky Irish woman with the heartiest laugh in history, which Ciaran had inherited, made a fuss over Kahlil whenever he got near her. Despite Kahlil’s ferocity, he was quite small in stature, especially compared to the O’Donnells, who were all built like brick walls, so Eammon’s mother was always cooking for him to try and fatten him up. The Afghan was only too happy to humour her and ate anything she put in front of him. The older woman was devastated by the divorce, and Eammon was pretty sure that she had tried desperately to get in touch with Kahlil, but the Afghan had been granted leave shortly after the papers were signed and spent six months in Thailand thereafter.

  Eammon’s father was silent on the matter, so the younger Irishman didn’t know exactly what position he took on the matter, but the man was wise and Eammon was pretty sure that he knew that there was something beneath the surface of their divorce. He also loved Kahlil, even though he never openly showed it.

  “The receptionist said that Captain Jamieson just finished a meeting. He is on his way down to meet us. I told her to call him and tell him not to bother. We will just make our own way up and meet him in his office,” Ciaran told Eammon.

  “Hang on,” said Kahlil “Captain Jamieson? That is who you are going to see?”

  “Yeah,” Ciaran answered. “You wouldn’t happen to know why Eammon’s been called to see him would you?”

  “Perhaps,” Kahlil answered, his face an unreadable stone. Showcasing the true mark of a great military man, he was in control of his emotions. “Captain Jamieson is the legal officer presiding over my case.”

  “What?” Eammon asked, not quite believing what he heard.

  “He is prosecuting me,” Kahlil clarified with a tiny shrug. “I’m up on charges of misconduct.”

  Chapter 2

  The office was the picture of military professionalism. Eammon didn’t know much about Captain Jamieson, seeing as he never had occasion to be brought in front of him, but he deduced that this man was a perfectionist and one of those righteous guys that was so far up his own ass that he couldn’t see justice because the law was blocking his view.

  Eammon and Ciaran sat in chairs in front of the desk. Ciaran had been about to wait outside, but then the captain waved him in and said, “Perhaps you can also offer some helpful insight for me, Lieutenant.”

  Then he had both the officers wait in silence while he rifled through his desk looking for God knew what, or perhaps he was playing some psychological game. If this was not an official military situation, Eammon would have banged his fists on the desk and told the captain to get on with it. Eventually the other man did speak, his tone unconvincingly pleasant. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Captain O’Donnell. I’ve seen your record, and it is one of the most impressive I have ever read. A great number of honours, it took me a while to count them.”

  “Thank you,” Eammon said, though his teeth were gritted and what he really wanted say was, “What is this fucking nonsense about my husband?”

  There were two reasons he couldn’t do that. One, he couldn’t yell at a fellow officer, a legal officer at that. Two, Kahlil wasn’t his husband anymore. He had no right to get angry.

  “Now, I suspect you are wondering why you have been called here. Well, there has been an incident regarding Lieutenant-Commander Farid, and I need to ask you some questions.”

  “What kind of incident?” asked Eammon, being very careful about the tone he used.

  “Sexual misconduct,” Jamieson said, and even Ciaran’s eyes widened at that one. “I am afraid that I am not at liberty to say more. I have called you here because I need to assess his character for my case, and there is a chance that you, as his ex-husband, will be called as a character witness when the trial begins.”

  “Trial!” Eammon nearly shouted.

  Ciaran interrupted because he knew that Eammon was losing it. “What my brother means, Captain, is this doesn’t make any sense.”

  “What doesn’t make any sense, Lieutenant?”

  “Well, whatever else I think about Lieutenant-Commander Farid’s character, this just doesn’t sound like him.”

  Jamieson grabbed a pen from a fancy gold-plated holder on his desk and began writing as he questioned Ciaran. “Why do you say that, Lieutenant?”

  “Well, Kahlil Farid has far too much dignity to do something that could be construed as sexual misconduct. In fact,” Ciaran added with a grimace, “I think Kahlil Farid has far too much dignity to show any kind of emotion.”