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boss.”
    He frowned. “Colonel Drey?”
    “No, no. My civilian boss in Bethesda. He visits every now and then. He’s creepy.”
    “So report him.”
    “Really?” She raised a brow. “Sexual harassment is alive and well in the workplace. I report him, I don’t get the promotion I’m working toward. Say what you want, but it’s true. I just have to deal with his brief upcoming visit, then he’ll be gone. It’s no biggie, really.”
    Brad had no intention of letting some creep scam on her, but he held that tight to his chest for the time being. “Your career, your call.”
    “Exactly.” She sipped from her wine. An ocean breeze whipped past them, stirring her hair over her shoulders. “So tell me. What’s in your future?”
    “Like my dad, I plan to retire from the Marine Corps. I love it.”
    “And you’re very good at it, according to everyone I know. You were promoted early, weren’t you?”
    “I don’t know about early.” He downplayed his success, raised to be humble, and let his skills do the talking. “I do my job to the best of my ability every day. I love my Marines, my country, my family. I’m a pretty easy guy to understand.”
    “Oh? Then why aren’t you married with two kids and living the dream?” she said with no small amount of sarcasm. “That’s what my parents keep asking me, anyway. I’m happy, but to them, until I’m a Mrs., I’m missing something in my life.”
    “No kidding.” He drank from his glass, pleased at how much they had in common. “My parents have been happily married for nearly thirty years. My brother married the perfect woman for him. Olivia just settled down with Mr. Right. And now they’re all on my ass to get hitched.” He frowned. “I did that once and got burned. Bad. Not itching to do it again.”
    “You were married?” She frowned. “I don’t see it.”
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    That she hadn’t expected. Brad seemed too footloose and career-oriented to have ever settled down.
    He blinked in surprise, as if he hadn’t intended to share that juicy nugget.
    “Oh come on. You have to tell me. I’ll tell you about my last ex from hell.”
    He took another hearty drag on his beer. “You first.”
    She sighed. “Coward. Fine. My last boyfriend was a year ago. I try, but my relationships don’t seem to last. Maybe I’m picking the wrong guys. I don’t know.”
    “What’s your type?”
    “Strong and independent. Maybe.” She shrugged. “I don’t date military types because that’s too much like playing around at work. But the civilian guys seem to get jealous of my friends in uniform. Then there are the guys always trying to prove something. And the ones who can’t keep up with me.”
    “Oh?”
    She peeked at him before focusing on the waiter arriving with their food. The guy delivered her shrimp salad and gave Brad a juicy burger. They stopped talking to eat, but Brad circled around to the conversation again.
    “So, they can’t keep up…?”
    In a low voice, she admitted, wondering if she’d scare him off, “In bed.”
    His slow grin told her she’d intrigued him. “ Oh. ”
    “I have a big appetite. A lot of guys can’t handle me or my imagination.” There. She’d thrown down the gauntlet she prayed he’d pick up. She really wanted a piece of his fine body. She could only hope he’d be worth her trouble.
    “You know, I’ve had the same problem with my exes.”
    “Is that why you split from your wife?”
    He frowned. She didn’t like the flash of pain she saw in his face before he blanked his expression. “No. Dana… I loved her, at first. We did everything together, and we were young, I suppose. We met when I was twenty-three, married two years later. Divorced two more after that.”
    He ate slowly, watching her with that same frown.
    “Hey, you brought up the marriage thing. I’m curious.” She watched him, wondering if her impression of him was right. “For some reason I imagine you with hordes of women