Field Stripped: 15 Steamy Military Romances

by Marissa Dobson

  The damage had ripped through tendon and tissue, ligament and muscle. He couldn’t work with the SEAL teams in the United States Navy’s Special Forces with part of his leg gone. Yet, he’d been the most amazing lover she’d ever experienced. The sexual list was short to begin with, but Jesse’s touch had been confident and sensual. He’d made her body sing a few times last night. She flushed with the memory, totally out of her comfort zone.

  “What the hells the matter with you anyway? There were hundreds of women coming on to you last night.” She stepped to the large window of the suite, putting more distance between her and the biggest mistake she’d ever committed, next to marrying her first husband. “Okay, I’m exaggerating, but dozens is not a far stretch. Any one of them would have been a better pick.”

  Charlene covered her face, completely exposed in front of him. Stretch marks and all.

  She needed to sit in a circle with other stupid women and protest her weakness for this man, or accept her vulnerability to rock hard muscles, toned pecs and a magnificently stiff—she smacked her forehead to stop the memory from rewinding to last night, when she could no longer hide what the alcohol insisted on revealing. Jesse had come to her rescue after she’d consumed too many drinks. He’d been beside her all evening, steadying her with a warm hand. Making her laugh, leaning into her, whispering in her ear with his seductive tone while his strength vibrated next to her like a purr in a cat’s throat.

  The drunker she got, the more she inhaled his alluring aftershave and admired his cut jaw. It chipped away at her number one rule: No more sex—with an addendum of Do Not Trust Men. “God, I’ve officially joined the cougar club.”

  His bark of laughter didn’t help.

  “Charlene.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, he said, “You’re not a cougar. Come here and talk to me.”

  She hesitated. “I can talk from here just fine.”

  “We can play cat and mouse if you want. I love the chase.”

  Charlene tilted her head back and wished for a strike of lightning.

  “Are you embarrassed or sorry?” he asked with a sexy curve at the corner of his lips. “Either way, God isn’t going to smite you for spending the night in my bed.”

  “Not funny,” she scolded. “None of this is funny, especially if anyone finds out.”

  “So, it’s embarrassment that I seduced you…or is it as simple as people finding out you’re not the librarian type they think you are?”

  She crossed her arms, not willing to swing her baby-rearing boobs in plain sight. “Are you calling me a prude?”

  He chuckled. “No, I’m saying you’re having a hard time admitting I cracked your professional full metal jacket.” He paused and raised one brow. “I know where every beauty mark on your body is, including the one on the cusp of your clit. I tasted it enough times.”

  Her cheeks bloomed with heat. “Jesse, what are you trying to prove?”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders and leaned back on the palms of his hands. Every muscle on his abs a plate of rolling hardness, right down to the roping muscle leading to her demise.

  “We slept together. How did this happen?”

  Jesse grinned. “I’d say it’s because you’re attracted to me and I’m attracted to you. Doesn’t have to be more complicated than that to start with.”

  “You’re right. We did. Now I should go.” Did he say, start with?

  “No,” the naughty smile he wore, extinguished. “Would you please get your ass over here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because your breasts are driving me crazy. Your nipples are peaked and standing out, which means they want me as much as I want to tease them with my mouth.”

  Chapter Two

  Going to Jesse would mean the alcohol wasn’t to blame. His godlike form—naked, tanned and toned—could make her tongue roll out of her head like a cartoon character. His chest muscles flexed involuntarily, and her knees weakened. Could he not stare at something other than her? His grin, perfect and playful, made her even more uncomfortable.

  “The window doesn’t open, so you can’t escape. I know you’re not afraid I’m going to bite you because I did that already, and you enjoyed every second of it.”

  She side-stepped behind a white leather couch and gripped the backrest, covering her breasts with her arms. “I’m completely out of my element here, Jesse.” She blew out her pent up angst and inhaled a deep cleansing breath. “There’s no way to turn back time.” She swallowed nervously. “Or my age.”

  “Eight years difference is nothing.”

  “You’re right, if it was the other way around,” she blurted back.

  “That’s old school thinking.” He drew aside the sheet concealing his very ample equipment as if he were coming to get her.

  She covered her eyes, wishing she could just evaporate. “This is so wrong and so irreversible.”

  “Who says I want to reverse anything. Please, come here.”

  She caved and when she got close enough, he yanked her hands away from her face. Since their heights were so radically different, he almost met her gaze with him sitting.

  “When we first saw each other, something sparked between us. You felt it and so did I. This was going to happen, Charlene, and the fact that it’s been a year coming took about every reserve of patience I had.”

  “No,” she said, pulling back. “No. It happened, and now we’re going to forget it.”

  She palmed her forehead, remembering her mouth forming the words and actually saying them out loud last night. Something like, ‘Why the hell do you have to be so damn sexy and easy to fall in love with?’ Once the words were out, she couldn’t take them back, and he’d come onto her like a sensual freight train. She barely remembered the ride up to his room, but the young couple in the elevator with them would never forget. Jesse had pinned her to the wall with his rockhard physique and assaulted her lips. Never mind the fact they were rubbing their bodies together like two wild animals in heat.

  “Like hell I’m going to forget it.”

  Jesse’s arms twined around her waist and he lay back, pulling her right on top of him. Warm skin to warm skin.

  “This might be a shock to your system, but I plan on keeping this beautiful body of yours very close—and very satisfied.” He sought out her mouth, savoring the kiss as if it were their last.

  Fisting her hands on the sheets, she pushed herself up to straddle his hips. “This is wrong. I have two children. Twenty and twenty-two-years-old. You should be attracted to my daughters, not me.”

  “I’m attracted to a beautiful, alluring woman. Don’t want a twenty-year-old girl.”

  “My girls would be mortified.” Both in university with far more good sense than her, both had a four point zero grade point average. “Their father is very smart, but he’d always had a wandering eye. They understood we married too young and why it didn’t last.” Jesse watched her, listening patiently. “I’ve never had a relationship since then.”

  “Then why are you here in my arms?”

  “I got drunk for one. Secondly, I’m blaming those damn romance novels. Which are headed for the secondhand bookstore when I get home. From now on it’s suspense and mysteries. Better to scare the crap out of myself living in an empty house while my girls live on campus, than embarrassing myself.” She stared into his moral melting eyes. “I don’t have one night stands. I didn’t even before I was married. I went from being a high school virgin, and that included ever kissing a boy, to a university student at Cal State, to married. Most of the guys in my major had gamer written across their foreheads. You’d never guess they hid IQ’s in the one hundred and thirties. All of them were the same, except for Rory. One of the rare computer geeks with brains and brawn.”

  “Smart man for marrying you. Stupid asshole for divorcing you.”

  “Maybe. We married just after graduation because I’d become pregnant with Mandy. Our second daughter, Tina, arrived a year and a half later. Everyone thought we were
nuts. My parents thought I’d lost my mind. They’d foreshadowed what was to come, and I had to eat crow because they’d been right. Rory loved women, and he kept on loving them through our six years of marriage. He always aimed high and started screwing around with the Dean’s daughter. They have two sons together now.”

  Jesse brushed her cheek with his finger. “Therein is the real reason you’re shaking. I’m sorry your marriage didn’t work out, but I’m also grateful. Your daughters are well on their way to being independent, and they’re great girls.”

  She darted a look his way.

  “I met them, remember? Summer party last year.”

  “Right.”

  “They’re beautiful girls and they get that from their mother. Isn’t it time to consider your life has room for somebody else now?” He rolled his hips just enough to place his thickening shaft between her thighs.

  Ignore it. He’s just trying to seduce you all over again. While you’re sober. “Jesse, we’re talking. Stop the playboy act.” His grin had naughty written all over it, and her admonishment had no effect.

  “Are you going to pretend you don’t want me?”

  Jesse’s beautiful eyes always creased a little at the edges, just enough to make him look “Sam Hueghan” hot, and she probably smelled like a hillbilly still. Maybe he’d get disgusted and run for the hills.

  “It has nothing to do with wanting sex, Jesse. When you have a family of your own, you’ll understand. I don’t have enough time in the day as it is. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be going on any cougar cruise or a Sandals’ retreat for a sexual oil change.”

  “We don’t all get to write our life story, Charlene. Look at my life. Fifteen years as a SEAL, but I had to reinvent myself. You did too when your husband left you.”

  She rolled off his thighs and lay beside him. “Rory helped with the girls after he left.” She paused. “Well, after he got over the first six months of wild, blinding monkey sex with Tricia. I still hate that fucking woman to this day.”

  “Maybe, but when she’s around, I’m sure you’re polite and accepting.”

  She nodded. “Yup, that’s me. Better to keep the peace than show how much I’d like to kick my ex in the whos-its.” She rolled to face him, and he gave her one of those saucy smiles across his molded shoulder. Even now, with the Nevada sun beaming in their hotel window and the effects of alcohol mostly worn off, she wanted to paw the taut pecs on his chest. “Regardless of our pasts, I lived through mine eight years before you.”

  His brow squeezed in a momentary ‘so what’ twist. “You’d barely learned how to ride a bicycle when I was born. Are you sure that’s what it is, or is it something else?”

  She twined her fingers together to stop from touching him. “If you’re talking about your body, then I’ll be honest and say you’re the hottest man I’ve ever seen. You threw me around this bed last night like I was as light as a feather.”

  The edge of his mouth lifted. “You are, and seeing you on all fours with that beautiful ass in the air and your back arched, I lost my mind.”

  They’d worked together for months. She’d cursed herself every time she came home and had to change her panties because they were wet with desire.

  She wasn’t the only one. Other women in the corporation talked about Jesse at lunch time, especially if he made an appearance like a warm, heady wind blowing into the kitchen. “Ladies,” he’d greet, and do something mundane like reach in the fridge. To the women, it was as if Zeus himself had descended from Mount Olympus and granted them a private viewing of his glorious ass when he leaned in to get his food. The room would go dead silent. Sandwiches hovered in midair between plate and mouth. Some girls forgot to swallow their lattes and a little would dribble down their chins.

  Yup, he was that handsome. The proverbial hot, steamy, needle in a haystack that wanders through life and gets noticed everywhere he goes.

  “Have you ever thought of me as anything other than a younger man?”

  Charlene grinned. “Do you mean was I any less affected by your pheromones filling a room with movie star appeal and encouraging lusty episodes with my vibrator when I turn off my lamp at night?”

  Jesse laughed again. “Something like that, yeah.”

  Their conversations at work flowed easily. Sometimes he’d tease her. She just thought he wanted her to take a break and not burn out, which happened a lot in their industry. During the day, they were in and out of each other’s offices constantly. How many times had he given her a smile that melted her nylons to her ass? The worst was when he’d wink at her. For some reason, that made her feel ten times older. A sweet gesture from a cocky young buck who thought he’d give a little thrill to a woman past her prime, but she couldn’t stop from smiling back.

  Never in her wildest episodes with her B.O.B. did she ever expect to have Jesse’s hand make her cum over and over again like he had last night. She didn’t even own a toy before Jesse joined the company.

  It was a far-fetched idea this could be anything other than a moment of opportunity for him. She didn’t really want to hear the truth because while all the other women had lusted over him, she’d come to know who he was as a person. Slowly over the months, she’d fallen in love with an honest, intelligent and incredibly sexy man.

  Jesse had struck her dumb on the first day she saw him. He had no idea how she’d restrained herself to be professional and not act like some idiot schoolgirl. From the first day forward, she’d caught herself spending more time in front of the mirror. Taking more care with her makeup and hair. Her heart skipped a beat when he walked in the door every morning and made sure to swing into her office to say good morning.

  “Did you do this on purpose?” she asked.

  His response came without pause. “If you’re asking did I consciously set out to get you drunk, hoping I could seduce you into my bed, the answer is yes.”

  Chapter Three

  Charlene’s brows popped to the top of her forehead. Was there any kind of intelligent response to his answer? She closed her eyes for a moment against the strain caused by the sun streaming into his room. “Maybe you’re still drunk.”

  Jesse shrugged a very strong, sigh-worthy shoulder. “I knew you’d shoot me down if we were in San Diego. You leave work as if you always have something important to do. When I found out you’d been invited to the conference, I reached the end of my patience.” He laughed softly and shook his head. “Some parts of my training don’t ever go away.”

  She cocked her head in question.

  “Like a well-executed plan. This computer conference was my one shot. You’re away from your responsibilities, whatever they are, and you let your hair down a little last night. I wanted it all the way down.” His voice became a sensual timbre. “I wanted to see loose curls across your bare shoulders.” He skimmed his finger along her upper chest and traced her shoulder blade. His gaze rose to hers. “I’ve wanted to have you in my arms since the second I saw you. Wanted it bad enough that I dreamed about you.” He scraped his full bottom lip with his teeth. “To be totally honest, I jacked-off more times with you on my mind than the entire list of women I’ve ever been with.”

  “Bet that’s a long list,” she whispered. His words teased her the same as if his thumb rubbed circles around her nipple, and they peaked with a response. He noticed, and his chest filled with air as his palm slowly skated down her skin, and he gently toyed with the tip of her breast.

  Her eyes slammed closed and her channel clenched.

  “We can’t stop now,” he whispered next to her ear and sucked the pulse on her neck. “Why stop what feels so good?”

  The moisture between her legs increased. “Because doing this is going to ruin our working relationship.”

  He kissed her shoulder, then nibbled on her jaw. “Or it could make lunchtime far more gratifying than a BLT. The times we’ve worked late, just you and me, I could hardly keep my mind on programming. I wanted to clear a desk, tear off your thong…”


  “Hey, how’d you know I wear a thong?”

  “In my wet dreams you do. And I’ll admit a pair of fuck-me shoes as well, but that’s it.” He nosed her jaw. “I wanted to spread your beautiful thighs and sink my cock so deep in you, you’d forget everything but the feel of my body in yours.”

  “Well, you achieved that.” She sighed and allowed him to continue kissing her into oblivion.

  “There’s more, since you’re willing to listen.” His fingertips slid up her belly and palmed the weight of her breast in his hand, thumbing her areola. “I have much more than just a desire to remove those dark-rimmed glasses you hide behind, to let down your hair and thread my fingers through it while I peeled the clothes covering your skin.”

  Jesse gently coaxed her to lay back as his lips tugged and teased her nipple, his tongue dancing back and forth, creating a dizzying burn on tender nerves.

  When he stopped, her eyes flashed open and his handsome features hovered just above her. “But my most cherished fantasy was to eat you out. Watch you unravel with my tongue and mouth licking you until I heard my name fall from your lips. I wanted your gorgeous legs draped over my shoulders and to suck on your perfect little clit until you lost your mind.”

  Charlene felt his heart beating wildly in his chest, or maybe it was both their hearts.

  Breathless and close to losing herself with his dirty talk, she shook her head. “I’ve heard more than a few women at work say they’ve been with you.”

  He stopped his ministrations and gazed down at her. “It’s not true.”

  “It’s not?” She doubted that, and with that thought, slid from beneath him and pushed herself to her feet. She could no longer tolerate a lie. A battle scar from her one and only relationship.

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her back onto his lap. “I’m not lying. I never lie.”