Field Stripped: 15 Steamy Military Romances

by Marissa Dobson

  “Nice place,” he offered.

  “Thanks.” Holly slipped her shoes off and set them on the tiled foyer floor beside the front door. “Wine?”

  Wine wasn’t his drink of choice but he wouldn’t turn it down. “Sure. Yeah.”

  Wrought iron hooks were lined up on the wall and she hung her coat and purse on them. “You can hang your vest up there if you want to.”

  Hunter shrugged out of his cut and hung it beside her soft leather jacket. He jammed his hands into his pockets and followed her back into the kitchen. What he thought was a dishwasher turned out to be a built-in wine refrigerator. Holly bent over and perused the selection before pulling a bottle out. She filled two glasses half full and held one out to him.

  He sniffed it. Dry white. He could tolerate that, but not the sweet stuff. A woman he dated years ago would buy that cheap screw top wine that tasted like bubbly candy. Made him want to hurl. The bottle Holly opened had a cork and a fancy label. She was classier than most women he hung around.

  She raised her glass. “Here’s to an exciting night.” After a small sip she set the glass on the counter.

  “Not quite the experience you were looking for,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

  Holly laughed and her grin dug dimples into both cheeks. “Not exactly.”

  Hunter downed the wine in his glass and set it beside hers. “Do you still want that experience?” Maybe it would be better this way. Sex on the pinball machine would have been hot, but didn’t seem quite right with her.

  “I wouldn’t have let you bring me home if I didn’t.” She leaned against the counter and stared at him.

  With her jacket off, he got a better look at the curve of her body. No question she was compact, but damn…the blue shirt hugged tight across her chest and jeans sat low on her hips. Dirt smudged the sleeve.

  In three strides, he closed the gap between them and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “I won’t read about this in the paper tomorrow, right?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not a reporter tonight.”

  He smiled and rubbed his hands on her shoulders.

  Holly flinched. “Ow.”

  “Are you hurt?” Hunter pulled at the wide collar of her shirt to look at her shoulder. The soft skin was abraded and dark red.

  “I guess I did hit the floor pretty hard, but I’m fine.” She rotated her arm. “Nothing’s broken.”

  There was a light red mark on her chin and he touched it with his thumb. “I’d never hurt you, I hope you know that.”

  She kept eye contact while she pulled the hem of her shirt out of her jeans and slipped the top over her head.

  The scrape on her arm extended down past her shoulder. Hunter slid her bra strap off her arm and pressed his lips to the wound. “I’m sorry.” It was puzzling how sharing a violent experience sometimes brought people closer together. She didn’t feel like a stranger.

  “I’m not made of glass, Hunter.”

  “I know.” Maybe it was her size or the soft blue of her eyes but she felt fragile, like he should handle her with care.

  He turned her around and moved her hair to unfasten the snap at her back. The lacy pink bra gave way and she pulled it off, letting it drop to the floor. The harsh lights in the kitchen illuminated the darkening bruise.

  Hunter put his hands on her hips and moved his fingers slowly up her sides. Holly lifted her arms and let them fall back on his shoulders. His thumbs grazed the outer edges of her breasts. He flattened his palms and rubbed down over her ribs. The calluses on his hands scratched over the soft flesh of her belly.

  Looking down over her shoulder, he watched her breasts rise and fall in time with her breathing. Her pink nipples had hardened to pebbles and goosebumps rose on her skin. His cock strained against his fly. If it had been anyone else, he would have yanked her jeans down, bent her over the stove and impaled her right there. Instead, he busied the button at the waist of her jeans and tugged the zipper down. He peeled the denim off her hips and pushed them low enough that he could fit his hand between her legs.

  Holly sighed and closed her eyes. Her head lolled to the side and she parted her lips.

  Hunter kissed the back of her neck as he slipped his hand under the elastic of her panties. He brought his other hand up to cup her breast. Her respiration accelerated and she stepped her feet apart. He rolled her nipple between his thumb and finger while his other hand covered her mound. Little tremors shot through her limbs and feeling her tremble against him made his dick even harder.

  His blood rushed and his heart pounded while his erection pressed against her lower back and he resisted the urge to move his hips. A dick in the lower spine probably wouldn’t feel good. He slipped a finger between her folds and slid it slowly back and forth. She was already wet and she moaned when he circled her clit. That was the sweet spot and he rubbed it with feather soft strokes.

  “Oh my god.” Holly panted and grabbed a hold of his T-shirt.

  He tipped her head up to kiss her while he alternated playing with her clit and finger fucking her. Jesus, her pussy was hot and tight.

  She moaned in his mouth and her pussy contracted in rhythmic little squeezes.

  That alone almost made him come and his dick wasn’t even out of his pants yet. “Take me to your room,” he growled in her ear.

  She pushed her pants down and stepped out of them. A light shade of pink colored her cheeks as she took his hand and covered her breasts with her other arm.

  Hunter followed her down a dark hallway to a room at the rear of the house. Holly flipped a switch outside the door and a dim light filled the corridor and spilled into the bedroom. A cream colored comforter covered a four poster bed. At the doorway, he stopped and pulled her back.

  Her eyes widened. “What is it?”

  Instead of entertaining her question, he lifted her off her feet and wrapped her legs around his waist. He probably outweighed her by a hundred pounds so he didn’t want to plop down on top of her. A broken rib or a bruised lung would definitely kill the ambiance. He smiled and laid her back on the bed.

  There wasn’t much to the little white panties she wore and he pulled them down her legs, planting kisses on her inner thigh.

  She stared up at him. “Wait.”

  Hunter was poised to pounce but she wasn’t on the pill and the last thing she needed was an unexpected biker baby.

  Holly pointed to the nightstand. “Bottom drawer.”

  He looked puzzled. “What’s in the bottom drawer?”

  “Protection.”

  “Oh. Oh. Yeah. Okay.” He bent down and came back up with a small red package.

  She’d bought them about a year ago…just in case.

  He eyed the box. “These aren’t going to work, babe.”

  “Why not?”

  With a tug of the chain on his hip, his wallet was in his hand. He unsnapped it and pulled out a square gold foil package. “Not the right size.”

  Holly laughed. “Oh. Well. Damn.” The laugh was a little nervous. The gold foil package was probably a bigger size. She’d felt the hardness pressed against her back in the kitchen. He was a lot bigger than her overall and she assumed he’d be sized to scale.

  He pulled his shirt over his head then tossed the condom on the bed. His chest and arms were covered in tattoos. A large black skull was front and center. A jagged scar the size of a bullet hole was just above his nipple. The tattoos down his arms bled from one into the other and the images blurred and contorted with the contraction of his biceps. His muscular physique had been hidden by the big T-shirt and vest.

  Hunter let his pants fall to the floor. The mattress creaked beneath his weight as he crawled up between her legs. He kissed her stomach and moved to her breast. He closed his lips on one of her nipples and sucked softly. For all his outward ferocity, he was surprisingly tender.

  A primal instinct stirred inside her and she lifted her hips. “I want you.”

  He moved to the other breast. “Not yet.” His bear
d tickled her ribs while he ministered to the other nipple.

  She grabbed his head and arched her back. He gripped her waist and moved her farther back on the bed before slipping a finger inside her. The rings on his other fingers rubbed against her as he moved in and out of her.

  “You’re so fucking wet.” He straightened up onto his knees and reached for the gold package.

  She tried not to stare but his cock was huge. He used his teeth to rip open the wrapper. He rolled the condom over his dick. The light from the hallway caused his body to shadow her in darkness.

  The ceiling fan slowly turned above them. Thunder cracked outside and the rain slammed against the windows. Hunter gripped her leg behind the knee and opened her more. With one thrust, he slid inside, slow and deep.

  Holly gasped and dug her nails into his shoulders.

  He hissed and pulled out only to slide in deeper. “Fuck.” He gritted his teeth as if he were teetering on the edge of losing control.

  She wanted him to. Holly pulled his face down to hers to kiss him. “You won’t break me, Hunter.”

  “I might.” His eyes rolled up and his lids dropped. With a quick motion, he pinned her arms beside her head and rammed into her hard, fast, deep.

  Her panting segued into moans and squeaks and screams. Pleasure and pain mingled until she didn’t know where one sensation ended and the other began. All she knew was that her body tingled and hummed in ways it never had before. She had no doubt that he could hurt her but he tempered his strength just right.

  He kissed her fast and nipped her lip with his teeth. She tried to lock her ankles behind his back but he moved too quick. The tightness started in her toes and flowed up her legs to her core. Her breath caught in her throat and the orgasm struck like the lightning outside.

  Hunter slowed his movements while her body convulsed and her pussy gripped his cock deep insider her. “Jesus. That feels so good.”

  “Yes.” Her fingers curled into fists and he released her wrists, moving his hands down to hold her hips.

  He slammed into her over and over, then stabbed deep. He tensed and growled as he came.

  She panted and held onto his shoulders. “My god.”

  He laughed. “You okay?”

  “Mhmm,” she muttered. Her feet were numb and her body throbbed deliciously.

  The hair from his beard tickled her neck and she liked it.

  Hunter kissed her cheek and rolled off her. They both breathed hard. “I’ll be right back,” he said and he disappeared into the bathroom.

  Holly sat on the edge of the bed while the feeling came back to her legs. His phone had fallen out of his pocket and buzzed against the wood floor. She picked it up and a message from PRES showed on the screen.

  Did you convince the reporter to keep her mouth shut?

  “Oh hell no.” She stood up and peered into the bathroom. The club rockers and emblem was tattooed larger than life on Hunter’s back.

  He splashed water on his face and dried it on the blue hand towel.

  Holly held his phone up. “Is this what tonight was?”

  Hunter looked over his shoulder. “What?”

  “You can go now.” She threw the phone at him and it bounced off his back and landed on the bathroom tile.

  Chapter Six

  It had been exactly three minutes since he pulled his dick out of her and she was going ballistic on him. That was why he avoided spending the night anywhere. He bent down and picked up his phone from the floor. The message from Paul was on the screen and he now understood why she was pissed. Fuck.

  “Look, Holly. This was a phenomenally bad timed message.”

  “Your club thought you could shut me up by fucking me?” She laughed but it was more of a cackle.

  The post coital bliss dissipated and he scrubbed his hand over his face. Women were crazy, but he knew this looked bad. “We were off the record tonight. I wasn’t here for my club.”

  “Right.” She opened a drawer in the dresser and pulled out a pair of panties. “I can’t believe I fell for this.”

  Hunter stepped out of the bathroom and grabbed his jeans. There wasn’t anything he could say that would convince her he hadn’t just bedded her in exchange for her silence so he quit while he was ahead. He buckled his belt and opened up his messages. He texted Hem Holly’s address and said he needed a ride ASAP.

  Holly pulled a tank top over her head and gathered her hair back into a ponytail. She wasn’t talking to him anymore but walked around the room muttering self-admonitions and swearing.

  And Holly apparently swore like a sailor when she was mad.

  “Hem is on his way to pick me up.”

  “Good.” She stood there in her underwear with her hand on her hip. “You can wait for him outside.”

  The door shut and the deadbolt engaged. He laughed to himself while he stood on her porch watching the rain waiting on Hem. He couldn’t remember a time when a woman had ever literally kicked him out of her bedroom.

  He patted his jacket pocket looking for his cigarettes. They must have fallen out of his pants with his phone.

  An hour later, a white Dodge Ram pulled up in front of Holly’s house. Hunter slid into the passenger side.

  Hem smiled as he made a U-turn. “I take it the damage control didn’t go so well.”

  “You know when the stars line up perfectly and everything goes perfectly wrong? Yeah, that.”

  A work truck with rows of glass stacked on the back sat in front of the clubhouse while two men chipped away what was left of the windows from the night before. The wooden shutters inside had been custom built and would take more time to replace.

  Hunter stood in the sun and chugged his coffee. Everyone was present for the meeting except Paul. Nothing happened without the president in attendance.

  His cup was empty and he walked inside. The broken glass and splintered wood had been swept up by the prospect last night. Hem, Kol and Sin were already in the chapel. Hunter refilled his coffee and sat in his usual seat.

  “Any new info on the Russians, Hem?”

  “According to my contact in the ATF they’ve been progressively moving north and east. They’ve got new hubs in New Mexico and Oklahoma. They tried in Arkansas but got stonewalled by the Vipers there. The buzz is they’re trying to take over the south and will move across the states until they control the heroin from coast to coast. Crack isn’t selling as well anymore.”

  Hem cracked his knuckles and leaned back in his chair. “Dallas is a big distribution area. They have El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and Amarillo. Dallas would be a complete takeover here.”

  Hunter leaned forward. “Why wouldn’t they just come to us? Why stir up shit?”

  “That I don’t know. I can only speculate. My guess would be that they don’t want to share the trade and they’ve strong-armed their way into the other areas. Over the last two years they’ve left a trail of bodies. Important bodies.”

  “So this was a message?”

  “More of a riddle,” Sin interjected. “How were we supposed to know what they were up to or even who they were? If Hunt hadn’t seen that tatt we wouldn’t have a clue.”

  Paul walked in and closed the doors to the chapel. “I got a phone call last night.” He sat down and exhaled. “There’s a problem brewing between the Mescalito cartel and the Russians. We weren’t the only club hit last night. They shot up charters in Denver and Biloxi, too.”

  “Are we looking at a fucking turf war? I thought we bled that shit out in the nineties,” Hunter said.

  “Until there’s more intel, I don’t know. Our club is going to be light with the members in Austin this weekend. The rest of us should hunker down here.” Paul stood. “That’s the safest option. Now let’s get to work.”

  Hunter stayed seated while the others began to file out. “You landed me in hot water with your text message last night, Pres.”

  Paul grinned. “She’s already checking your messages? That leash went on fast.”


  “Nah. My phone was on the floor in her bedroom when your message came through.”

  “Oh fuck.” Paul slapped his hand on the table and laughed. “I’m sorry, brother.”

  “She kicked me out so I’m back to square one.” Hunter smiled and stood. “She was pissed, but I don’t think she’ll write that story or any story.”

  “I hope not. With all this shit stirring, we don’t need any bad press.”

  Hunter started to walk out.

  “Hey,” Paul called out.

  “Yeah?”

  “It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have her here this weekend. She might be a target, too.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  The pencil slid through Holly’s fingers and the pink rubber eraser bounced on the desk. She took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. The thesis was finished and without betraying any confidences or making anyone look bad. The deadline was six o’clock and after re-reading it several times, she hit send and it was off to her professor’s inbox.

  On Fridays, she wore yoga pants and baggy sweatshirts and watched horror movies. A stack of DVDs sat beside the television on the credenza in her living room. A patchwork quilt covered the leather couch. A pillow from her bed was propped in one corner. She put a paper bag of kettle corn into the microwave and poured a glass of wine. The light in the kitchen spilled into the living room to give just enough illumination so she didn’t scare herself to death with the movies.

  The first Scream movie was her favorite. Even though she knew how it ended it still kept her on the edge of her seat. Drew Barrymore popped her popcorn while Holly ate hers. She pulled the blanket up over her lap and curled her legs under her butt.

  Just as she got comfortable, her phone buzzed on the coffee table. She reached over to grab it.

  “Hello.”

  “Holly. It’s Grant.”

  Most of her work came via a phone call from the assistant editor at the Dallas Daily and she counted herself lucky to do all of her work from home. She followed the social scenes via the internet and occasionally went to concerts and events to write articles about the local happenings. It would have been easier to live in Dallas but she enjoyed the small suburb of Sugar Branch.