Field Stripped: 15 Steamy Military Romances

by Marissa Dobson

Surprise filled her gray eyes. “Why?”

  “Anything could happen. I can’t take my gear off during the day. For any reason.”

  She nodded and took the few steps over to me. Her hands curled around the back of my neck and my hands found her waist. I pulled her against me as her mouth found mine. Ten years of want and need poured out of me as our tongues collided and tangled. I lifted her and somehow, someway she managed to wrap her legs around me and the gear and hung on for dear life. I let my hands fall through the silk of her hair and I sighed.

  Lennox.

  With her, even in Kandahar, I was home.

  * * *

  Too soon I had to leave her. Lennox had poked her head out of the door to make sure the coast was clear and I snuck out like a thief in the night. Except…it was in the middle of the day and I’d been gone from my post too long.

  It hadn’t been nearly enough time and as I walked back, I thought about how much the next few weeks were going to suck. There were days I’d have to take her out on assignments. I’d be close enough to smell her hair, to hear her laugh, and yet I wouldn’t be able to react or touch her. And worst of all, I’d have to let her endanger herself. This was my worst nightmare come to light.

  Lennox was here. She wanted me. And there were a thousand ways she could die here and I wouldn’t be able to stop any of them unless I tied her up in her room and kept her there.

  She’d castrate me if I even attempted it. The smile broke out on my face before I could stop it.

  “Something amusing, Sgt?”

  The voice stopped me in my tracks. I about faced quickly and snapped to attention. I saluted with rapid-fire quickness. “No, sir.”

  “You were smiling. In Kandahar. Something has to be really funny for that rare occurrence,” my commander said.

  My mind blanked and I tried to come up with some excuse why I’d been grinning like a lunatic. “A joke, sir,” I finally strangled out. “My brother used to tell it to me when we were younger.”

  Major Jeffrey Harms didn’t look convinced. His weary blue eyes flickered in amusement. He knew I was hiding something. “Oh yeah?” he drawled. “I’d love to hear it.”

  Mother. Fucker. I was a terrible joke teller. The only one I knew was one our mom told us when we were kids. It was hysterically funny. To seven-year-old boys. Not to hardened battle soldiers.

  “Sir,” I began lamely, “it’s a terrible joke. For kids.”

  Major Harms shrugged. “If it made you laugh, I still want to hear it. You’ve been here for months and I haven’t seen you smile once. Spit it out, Sergeant.” One gray eyebrow quirked up. “Unless you want to tell me the real reason you’re smiling?”

  I didn’t. I really, really didn’t. I steeled my shoulders and braced myself for a humiliating minute and a half.

  “Why does your butt crack go up and down instead of side to side…sir?”

  “You’re like a goddamned steel trap, son. You’d rather embarrass yourself than tell me what’s really going on?”

  I said nothing and stayed at attention.

  He sighed and shook his head. “Fine. Why?”

  “So,” I raised my index finger to my lips, “when you go down a water slide, it won’t go…” I rapidly moved my fingers up and down my lips and made a buhbuh buhbuh buhbuh sound.

  Silence descended between us like a stone and I slowly dropped my hand and assumed the position of attention.

  “Jesus,” he finally said. “She must be some lady.”

  He eyeballed me in curiosity, shook his head once more and left me standing there.

  When I could no longer hear his footsteps I hung my head in defeat for a moment then walked back to my post.

  * * *

  I stole away from tent city and knocked quickly on Lennox’s door. My ass would be on the first plane back to the U.S. if anyone suspected I was here, but there was a reason I had an enormous rack of ribbons and the rank of senior NCO. I was sneaky and I knew how to get around security.

  The door opened and she pulled me in. I’d never get tired of being manhandled by her.

  “Hi,” I said, completely unashamed of the big stupid grin on my face.

  “Hi yourself,” she said and kissed me softly.

  “Come in and play cards with me.” She tugged me by the hand and pushed me down on the bed. Lennox had pulled up a rickety chair and set up a makeshift card table between the two.

  I hadn’t been sure exactly what we’d do when she invited me up, but cards wouldn’t have been on my list. She shuffled like a pro and dealt out five cards.

  Poker. I could do this.

  She lifted her wicked grey gaze to me. “For every hand I win, I get to ask a question.”

  “And what do I get?” I asked and waggled my eyebrows.

  “Perv.” Lennox snorted. “What do you want?”

  I knew exactly what I wanted. I was a man for chrissakes. But I also respected Lennox and technically we didn’t know each other very well. I spent six excruciating weeks with her so I knew her a whole lot better than she knew me, and I wanted to give her the same opportunity I had. I knew how she bit her lip when a hard task had been set before her, how she slowed her pace and whispered motivation to girls who ran slower than her and she thought I couldn’t hear her, how she almost kicked someone’s ass in her dorm room because they dared pick on the underdog. And I knew the things I shouldn’t. The loss of her parents. The determination to win. I studied her hopeful face and I grinned.

  “You can ask me two questions for every hand you win. If I win, I get to paint your toenails.”

  It was lame. I was lame. Jesus.

  “So...” she drawled even as her eyebrows rose in surprise. “You’re a foot man?”

  I wasn’t really, but this game was for her and not for me. I shrugged. “I hope your feet are in better shape than they were in boot camp.”

  She let out a startled laugh. “Jerk.”

  “Just saying.”

  “Fine. But you don’t get to pick the color.” She picked up her cards and immediately her face went blank.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “Deal the hand.”

  The game was on.

  Lennox was good at poker. Really good. After she’d soundly kicked my ass twice I absent mindedly wondered how she’d gotten that good and then stopped myself. No good thing can come from wondering about a woman’s past. She’d tell me when she was ready.

  The first two questions had been pretty vague. She wanted to know about my family – brothers, sisters, mom and dad. Easy things to answer. I was an only child and I sometimes acted like it. Mom and Dad were still happily married living the dream on twenty acres back home.

  The second round of questions made me squirm a little bit.

  Lennox narrowed her eyes and bit her lip as she watched me. “Are you not going to answer? I deserve to pick an appropriate punishment if you don’t.”

  I stretched out on her tiny bed and linked my hands behind my head. “As much as I would love to hear what punishment you come up with, I’m thinking. Give me a minute.” The ceiling above me was brown and water stained. God only knew the kind of filth running around this place. I was used to some pretty terrible accommodations in my line of work, but I’m not sure even I would have stayed in here. Our tents were clean and we were served chow up in a clean facility. This place looked like a den for stray dogs.

  I dragged my thoughts back to her question. Lennox wanted to know why I never pursued anything with her ten years ago. The answer was easy and yet so very complicated. I was her instructor and a relationship could have ended with us both kicked out of the military. But afterward…that was a lot harder to explain. If I told her the truth she was going to be pissed. If I didn’t tell her the truth, I was going to be pissed at myself.

  So I started with the easy part.

  Lennox

  Brooks pried into my life ten years ago. He knew some of my deepest, darkest secrets…and my credit score. I tried to wrap my hea
d around it and ignore the red haze of anger that was beginning in my blood.

  “But…why?” I asked for the second time.

  By now Brooks had sat up. He was too tall for my bed. Too big for my room, really. He sucked the air out of the space, but I couldn’t get enough of him.

  Usually.

  But tonight, one week after I’d arrived in Kandahar, I kind of wanted him to leave.

  He rubbed a hand over his handsome face and struggled to come up with the words needed to explain his actions. He finally held his hands out in frustration. “Because I couldn’t figure you out, okay?”

  I pressed my lips together to keep myself from yelling. He wasn’t supposed to be in here and, even though I was pissed, I didn’t want to get him into trouble.

  “And when you figured me out?” I asked, my voice empty of inflection. I felt betrayed. Violated. Yet, there was also that sense of warmth that he had done it. He wanted to understand me better. It didn’t make it right. He was definitely misguided. I just couldn’t understand why he’d gone to those lengths and yet never pursued anything.

  I’d looked for him several times and was always met with a brick wall.

  Classified.

  Every. Single. Time.

  It had been sheer providence I’d landed here.

  Brooks stood and pulled me up by the elbows. I resisted, but he gently tugged until I was on my feet.

  “I never figured you out,” he said softly. “But after that I knew you were too good for me.”

  “Brooks,” I said softly, the anger flowing away from me as fast as it had come.

  “Corey,” he corrected softly.

  I snorted. “Ten years later we’re finally on a first-name basis. This relationship is progressing at a nice clip.”

  He pulled me against his chest and his laughter rumbled against my ear. ”You were so beautiful. And always angry at me. I wanted you every single day. Yet I couldn’t do anything.”

  “I looked for you,” I told him.

  “I looked for you once. You were out of the military. Untraceable. I got one apartment address vacated months ago.” He held me tighter. “I imagined you’d conquered some foreign country and were being fed grapes by handsome young men falling all over you.”

  “That was just a few years ago, but I never really liked grapes that much. Apparently grapes are the only thing those young men are trained to hand-feed women like myself. Can you believe it?”

  Corey sighed. “I missed your wit.”

  “I missed your great ass.”

  He snorted against my hair. “I caught you looking a few times.”

  My skin flushed crimson. “I wasn’t the only one who was looking.”

  “Only the most important.”

  I tilted my face up. “What are we going to do?”

  I didn’t have to clarify. He knew exactly what I was talking about. “I have five more months here. Once I’m out of this hole, I have about seven more months to retirement.” He pushed me gently away. “It always ends badly when a military guy asks a regular girl to wait for him.”

  My heart broke a little at those words. “Well it appears you haven’t met me then, sir.” I took the few steps over to my door, knowing he needed to leave.

  As he was about to step out, I put a halting hand on his arm. “Are you asking me? To wait, I mean?”

  “I’d like to take you out on a proper date. I want you to wear a pretty dress and curl your hair.” A flush spread up his neck. “If you want to, that is.” He rubbed his shoulder and offered a sheepish smile. “I’m really bad at this.”

  I touched his face. “I think you’re perfect at it.”

  I leaned against the door for several minutes after Brooks left, a giddy smile on my face.

  This was perfect. He was perfect.

  Brooks

  With the stealth of a thousand missions under my belt I situated myself back into my unit with only one person aware I had left.

  Rog clapped me on the shoulder as I grabbed a tray and walked through the chow line.

  “I swear to God you’re the luckiest son of a bitch to walk on the planet. We’re in the middle of a barren war-torn world and you manage to snag the prettiest girl here.” He leaned close enough so no one else could here. “And it just so happens to be the girl you’ve been pining over a decade for.” He stepped away and grinned. “How in the hell does that even happen?”

  I shrugged. I was incredibly lucky. But one thing we all knew about the military was that it was a small, small world here and even though Lennox no longer belonged to it, she knew it just as well as I did.

  “So…” Rog began.

  “Go away. I’m a gentleman.”

  Rog chuckled. “Had to try, dude. Had to try.”

  I took my tray and rushed over to a table so I could finish before the line closed. I’d cut it close this time with Lennox, but I cherished every moment I spent with her.

  I was zoned in on my mashed potatoes with the focus of a man eating his last meal when someone sat down at my table. I lifted my gaze up and immediately threw my fork down to stand up.

  Major Harms held a hand up. “Relax and sit.”

  There was no fucking way I’d be relaxing, but I could at least sit. Our commander didn’t make a point to grace us with his presence very often and when he did, we all knew to shut up and listen. Considering he was sitting here…at my table and focused on me, a sinking sense of dread settled in the bottom of my stomach. There was only one reason he’d be here.

  When our eyes met, he knew I knew.

  I nodded once. “Am I packing tonight?”

  Major Harms frowned. “You aren’t going home. I think you’re reckless and possibly a bit dull-witted, but I understand there’s a lady involved.” He chuckled. “Men in higher positions than me have done some really stupid shit for a lady.”

  I relaxed a fraction but we both knew I wasn’t getting off scot-free. “Sir?”

  He leaned back in the rickety chair. I pushed my food away. I wasn’t hungry anymore.

  “You are being transferred to another facility and will work in a security detail for a VIP. The details will be presented to you back at your tent. Your orders are done. Plan on boarding the plane tonight.”

  I was dying to ask about Lennox but I didn’t dare.

  Major Harms sighed. “Ms. King will be briefed about your absence by me personally. The fewer who know about this the better.”

  This was a great concession. “I appreciate it very much, sir.”

  He nodded. “I thought you might.”

  “May I ask how you were made aware?”

  His mouth thinned with displeasure. “Someone here has taken a liking to Ms. King. For all intents and purposes, I knew there was a lady involved and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who it was. Not many pretty ladies show up in a shit-hole like this one.” He raised his hands. “I was willing to look the other way as long as it didn’t get in the way of you performing your duty, especially since it didn’t involve an enlisted female. She’s single…you’re single. Who am I to get in the way of true love?” He rolled his eyes at this. “However, this particular person cornered me after a meeting and insisted I see him.” His face was sympathetic. “I had no other choice, you understand.”

  I did understand. “Was this person a civilian?” I knew he wouldn’t give up a name.

  My commander stood abruptly and tapped the table. “Her job is a lonely thing, Sgt Brooks. You take solace when and where you can and if it means dipping your toes in the co-workers’ water…” he shrugged, “not a damn one of us can blame her, can we? Most of us have been there.”

  I clenched my jaw and wanted to scream at the pictures flipping through my head. It had been ten years…of course she wasn’t a virgin. I certainly hadn’t been a monk.

  Major Harms turned and left me with my thoughts. I picked up my tray, tossed it in the trash and headed back to pack my gear. On the way back to tent city, a man in civilian cl
othes stepped out in front of me. I never caught his name and hadn’t given a shit as soon as I realized Lennox had been with him, but from the smirk on his face I knew this was the jackass who’d given us up.

  “Why?” I said between clenched teeth.

  He had the pretty boy look of a surfer. Short in stature, straight white teeth, crooked nose, foppish blond hair and heavy five o’clock shadow. As we stood there, I took his measure. He wasn’t much of a fighter and I’d wager the broken nose came from a surfboard hitting him in the face or a fall. He listened to classic rock, said dude a lot and thought he had a special way with the ladies. Lennox King was way too good for this waste of skin.

  “Because I could.”

  For fuck’s sake. He was British, too. I bared my teeth at him in a grin. “You do know there isn’t just one battle fought during a war, right?” I paused and relished as I watched his eyes widen. “Oh, I’m sorry. You thought this was over?” I took one step closer into his personal space even as I scoped the area around me for witnesses. All military personnel. All my guys.

  Good.

  I grabbed him by his shirt front and pulled him off his feet and closer to me. “Lennox might have been lonely and given you a pity fuck, but that’s all it was. Stay away from her or you’ll answer to me.”

  Several guys stepped forward and formed a semi-circle behind me. “To all of us,” one of them said.

  British dude was shaking like a leaf. That pleased me.

  “Roger that?” I spoke with deadly precision and stared him down.

  He nodded frantically. I dropped him and watched him scramble through the dirt and away from me.

  “Who the hell was that clown?” Lee, a guy I’d trained with spoke up.

  I stared at the retreating figure, concerned about the depth of emotion and anger running through me. “No one,” I said after a moment.

  I made it back to the tent with no other problems, packed my bag and headed out to the transport.

  Lennox

  I stared at the man lingering in my doorway and tried to wrap my head around his words.