No Place for Females

Chapter Three

"Yo, Connor, you there, man?"

"Yeah. ’Sup bro?"

Sergeant Nathan Jones peeked his head into Ben's tent.

"Hey, Morelli says we all gotta meet up in the briefing tent now. There's a mission going down."

Damn. Ben wanted to be around when Lena got back from the op.

"You know what it is yet?"

"No, dude. No one’s said anything. All I know is, Morelli personally came to my tent to wake me up.

Shit. Lieutenant Morelli didn’t usually do that. Something must be up.

Ben wondered how Lena's mission had gone. He couldn't wait to see her again. He had hung around the operations center for as long as he could without appearing too obvious. Finally, with no more paperwork to do, he had decided to call it an evening, choosing instead to worry secretly in his tent. Damn if that girl hadn't turned him inside out.

If someone had told Ben that he would fall in love out in Afghanistan, he would’ve told that person to pack sand. No way. He was a Recon Marine. He didn't do love.

Not after his ex-wife, Sharlene, took him to the cleaners. Then again, she didn't get much. When they split up, he was only a private first class.

Luckily for him, Sharlene wasn't too smart. She'd married another dumb Marine, who’d fallen for a firm backside and a pretty face. Poor bastard. He didn't know what he was getting into. But at least it took her  out of his life, once and for all. Now he didn't have to pay alimony.

However, his divorce from Sharlene was what gave him the balls to try out for Recon. He would never have considered it, but going through a nasty divorce changes a person. After they’d parted, he figured what the hell. You only live once, right?

Besides, he had always wanted to do something heroic, something that few men could do.

Force Reconnaissance was certainly that.

Since his divorce, he’d devoted himself to only two things: training to be the best Recon Marine he could be, and, between tours to Iraq and Afghanistan, bedding as many women as he could. Now, seven years later, he was a battle-hardened Marine, capable of handling himself in every possible combat situation.

Which is why the speed at which he’d fallen for Lena was such a surprise. It verged on cliché, but she wasn't like most women on the camp. They were either butch and wanted to have nothing to do with dudes, or they were Recon whores who used their looks to get whatever they wanted.

Although Ben didn’t rule out sleeping with someone in a war zone, he usually tried to avoid sleeping with another Marine. He didn't need the potential baby drama, and anyway, who knew how many dudes had screwed some of those girls.

Not Lena.

When they met, she damn near ignored him. She was giving flu shots at the clinic, and he came in, expecting to make her blush and giggle, like he could with most of the other females on the base. It was easy for him. He was tall, muscular, and dark-haired. Women liked that sort of thing. At least, that's what they told him.

But Lena just kept going about her business, not giving him so much as a second glance. He decided to screw with her, just to see what she would do.

"You're new here," he said.

"Uh-huh. Just got here last week."

"Wow. So how do you like camp?"

"It's OK. Can't complain."