Caro Carson - The Lieutenants' Online Love

The apartment rent was just a little more than his monthly military housing allowance, an amount that increased as a soldier’s rank increased. Everyone here could afford about the same apartment, which meant everyone here was about the same rank, first or second lieutenants, a few bachelor captains, and a handful of mid-career sergeants whose allowances were equal to a new lieutenant’s. Not a hotbed of thieves, in Thane’s professional police opinion, but still, she shouldn’t leave a wallet out in plain sight like that.

She kept her back to him as she pulled off her sundress over her head. She wore a bikini underneath, but it was the sport kind like the female competitors wore on TV in beach volleyball or Ironman competitions. The suit suited her, so to speak. She wasn’t just slender, she was toned, the muscles in her arms and legs tight—nicely firm backside, too. He fully appreciated the sight of a physically fit woman baring an acre of smooth skin to the sun. Whoever had come up with the idea for a pool party was a genius.

She rolled her wallet up in the dress and tucked it in with her shoes underneath the chair, out of sight. Beauty, athleticism, common sense—he’d definitely never seen her around here before. Which meant the odds were that she was someone’s guest, which sucked, because the apartment residents were mostly male, so the odds were that she was here as some other man’s guest.

Or maybe not. She peeked to see if he was still there, a millisecond of a glance, before she pretended she wasn’t aware of him and studiously looked toward the barbecue crowd instead. The smile still lingered on her lips.

I’m still here, beautiful. It’s okay to be interested in me. I’m interested in you.

Thane tore his eyes away from that smile to look where she was looking. None of the men around the grill seemed to be searching for his girlfriend. Be single, be single. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Casablanca —in a flash, Thane thought of Ballerina and felt...guilty. Like he was cheating on her, which was ridiculous. They’d agreed they needed real-life friends and were both going out today to try to meet some. Instead, in had walked this beautiful woman, and his mind had chucked the friend quest far away and pulled the idea of a girlfriend close. That was fine, though. There was no reason in the world why he couldn’t find a real-life girlfriend. After all, a girlfriend could jump-start a car or give him a lift to the airport and do all those things a pen pal couldn’t do.

The woman—the very real woman—slid her hand under her hair and lifted it from the back of her neck for a moment. Then she let it go again, all that feminine hair falling over all that bare skin.

Thane looked away and took a deeper breath, a little extra oxygen to keep his thoughts from going haywire. But there was no doubt his thoughts were heading toward a whole new category of things that a pen pal couldn’t do.

“How about those Cowboys?”

One of the mailbox guys called the question to him while working the tap of a keg, filling a red Solo cup with beer. He held up one that was already full and nodded toward Thane with that look that said, Do you want one?

Thane took it from him with a nod of thanks. “I think the Cowboys will take the Packers tomorrow. You back from a deployment?”

“Yeah.” His neighbor shrugged.

“Thought so,” Thane answered. “Hadn’t seen you around in a while.”

His neighbor lifted his now-full beer in a bit of a toast, then sauntered away from the keg as Thane took a step in the other direction.

That was it, the complete guy conversation. Same as always.

It reminded Thane why he was here. He headed around the edge of the pool, walking with a purpose to get to the other side. He wanted someone to call him by his first name, and he knew exactly which person he wanted that to be.

“Chloe!”

And...damn it. There was the man she must have been looking for. Thane slowed his steps and took in the scene. The beautiful woman, Chloe, hugged the shirtless man who’d just run up to her with all the eagerness of a golden retriever.

Okay, so Thane wasn’t feeling too kind. The man slobbering for her attention was probably just a couple of years younger than Thane, and probably an officer, too. But that man had something Thane didn’t. He apparently had the affection of one woman named Chloe, whose smile for him was open, unrestrained. Dazzling.

Thane walked around the edge of the pool to her side. He was at the farthest corner from her, but even from this distance, that smile was everything. Some guys were breast men and some were into legs, and while Thane was all in favor of all of that, it was Chloe’s smile that really knocked his socks off. It was happiness. Who could resist happiness?

Apparently not the men around this pool. Two more men left the grill and hugged Chloe. She was surrounded. The guys all looked the same. Everyone had a military haircut, everyone was physically fit, no one was younger than twenty-one and no one had reached thirty yet. Only Chloe was special. Thane couldn’t take his eyes off her.

He didn’t think she was in the military. She had the fitness thing going on, but there was something about her bearing...

She was too relaxed. In the eight years since he’d first enlisted, he’d come to realize that military life tended to make soldiers feel like they were stealing moments of fun or relaxation between deployments or missions or shifts, which was how he felt because it was indeed what he was doing. This woman looked like she had time, like she was where she wanted to be and enjoying it.

Maybe she was a local. She could be a yoga instructor, all smooth muscle and Zen contentment, the polar opposite of him and his career.

The guys around her talked over one another, laughing and gesturing. Chloe was laughing with them, but this didn’t look like a boyfriend introducing his girlfriend to his pals. This looked like a reunion of people who were surprised to find each other here. Long-lost college buddies, maybe. That kind of thing happened in an army town all the time. Paths crossed unexpectedly with so many people coming and going as assignments began and ended.

She glanced his way and did a subtle double take when she saw that he was walking directly toward her. She didn’t look away. Neither did he.

Another man came running up behind her, full speed. She started to turn with an elbow raised in a defensive move but the man plowed into her, wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug and let his momentum carry them off the edge of the pool to plunge into the water.

Idiot.

Thane didn’t know a woman alive who appreciated getting thrown into a pool without warning. That fabulous smile of hers was going to be gone.

They popped up a couple of feet apart.

“Idiot,” Chloe said.

Exactly.

But then Chloe broke into laughter. “You are so, so lucky you still have all your teeth, Keith. I was about to clock you with my elbow when I realized it was you. You better be grateful I’ve got ninja-like mastery of my ninja-like reflexes.” They exchanged trash-talking banter until Chloe hoisted herself out of the pool.

Okay, she didn’t sound like a Zen yogini. She’d gotten in some good zingers, though. Now she sat on the edge, her hair a waterfall down her back, her feet still in the pool. “I don’t suppose any of you guys brought a towel? I don’t have one. I wasn’t planning on going in.”

“Me, neither,” said one of the dry guys. “Sorry.”

“The sun’s out,” said another dry guy. “You’ll be fine.”

“Hey, the keg’s been tapped.” The tackling guy hauled himself out of the pool and headed over to the keg, dripping wet.