The Marine and Me Read online

  “I’m proposing we spend some time together,” Steve suggested

  “Neither one of us wants a romantic entanglement, this is a sure way to avoid them. You and I…both be on the same page,” Steve added.

  “Forgive me if I don’t appear suitably impressed.”

  “See, I like that about you.”

  “What?” Chloe asked.

  “That you speak your mind. That you’re not easily impressed. We have a lot in common. Now, tell you do for fun.”

  Chloe was at a momentary loss. “I enjoy reading. And I do some knitting.”

  “And?”

  “And…I don’t know. I’ve been too busy to have fun.”

  “We can fix that.” Steve’s grin was a gradual progression from a smile, making it even more potent.

  Dear Reader,

  As the days get shorter and the approaching holidays bring a buzz to the crisp air, nothing quite equals the joy of reuniting with family and catching up on the year’s events. This month’s selections all deal with family matters, be it making one’s own family, dealing with family members or doing one’s family duty.

  Desperate to save his family ranch, the hero in Elizabeth Harbison’s Taming of the Two (#1790) enters into a bargain that could turn a pretend relationship into the real deal. This is the second title in the SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE trilogy. A die-hard bachelor gets a taste of what being a family man is like when he rescues a beautiful stranger and her adorable infant from a deadly blizzard, in Susan Meier’s Snowbound Baby (#1791)—part of the author’s BRYANT BABY BONANZA continuity. Carol Grace continues her FAIRY TALE BRIDES miniseries with His Sleeping Beauty (#1792) in which a woman sheltered by her overprotective parents gains the confidence to strike out on her own after her handsome—but cynical—neighbor catches her sleepwalking in his garden! Finally, in The Marine and Me (#1793), the next installment in Cathie Linz’s MEN OF HONOR series, a soldier determined to outwit his matchmaking grandmother and avoid the marriage landmine gets bushwhacked by his supposedly dowdy neighbor.

  Be sure to come back next month when Karen Rose Smith and Shirley Jump put their own spins on Shakespeare and the Dating Game, respectively!

  Happy reading.

  Ann Leslie Tuttle

  Associate Senior Editor

  The Marine and Me

  CATHIE LINZ

  Books by Cathie Linz

  Silhouette Romance

  One of a Kind Marriage #1032

  *Daddy in Dress Blues #1470

  *Stranded with the Sergeant #1534

  *The Marine & the Princess #1561

  A Prince at Last! #1594

  *Married to a Marine #1616

  *Sleeping Beauty & the Marine #1637

  *Her Millionaire Marine #1720

  *Cinderella’s Sweet-Talking Marine #1727

  *The Marine Meets His Match #1736

  *The Marine and Me #1793

  Silhouette Books

  Montana Mavericks

  “Baby Wanted”

  Silhouette Desire

  Change of Heart #408

  A Friend in Need #443

  As Good as Gold #484

  Adam’s Way #519

  Smiles #575

  Handyman #616

  Smooth Sailing #665

  Flirting with Trouble #722

  Male Ordered Bride #761

  Escapades #804

  Midnight Ice #846

  Bridal Blues #894

  A Wife in Time #958

  †Michael’s Baby #1023

  †Seducing Hunter #1029

  †Abbie and the Cowboy #1036

  Husband Needed #1098

  CATHIE LINZ

  left her career in a university law library to become a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary romances. She is the recipient of the highly coveted Storyteller of the Year Award given by Romantic Times and has been nominated for a Love and Laughter Career Achievement Award for the delightful humor in her books.

  Although Cathie loves to travel, she is always glad to get back home to her family, her various cats, her trusty computer and her hidden cache of Oreo cookies!

  To all the wonderful librarians out there, like Joyce Saricks, John Charles, Mary K. Chelton, Lynne Welch and Shelley Mosley, among many others. You all open so many doors to readers with your work and dedication, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Librarians Rock!

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter One

  Steve Kozlowski had been in the Marine Corps for over a decade. He’d survived the most rigorous training in the world. He’d faced hostile forces in Afghanistan, survived temperatures of over one hundred and thirty degrees Fahrenheit wearing full-battle gear, seen the worst of conditions on half the continents on the planet.

  He was one of the few, the proud, the tough.

  Which meant he could handle his matchmaking Polish grandmother, no problem.

  Even if his Busha was after him to meet the bookworm librarian next door, Steve could handle it. Or so he told himself. If necessary, he’d use evasive maneuvers to sidestep any matrimonial-minded booby traps that may have been laid down for his benefit.

  That was the plan.

  The reality was that he’d waited a minute too long.

  The knock on the back door told him that much.

  Steve could ignore it. He could sneak out the front door while his grandmother was in the bathroom.

  But that smacked of cowardice, and Marines were not cowards.

  “Aren’t you going to open the door?” Wanda called out from down the hall, obviously hearing the continued knocking.

  “Affirmative.” Steve briskly yanked the kitchen door wide open.

  A female stood there, frowning at him. “Uh, um, I’m looking for Wanda?”

  “And you are?” As if he didn’t know.

  “I’m Chloe Johnson from next door.”

  “Right. Chloe the librarian. I should have guessed.” He nodded at her dumpy clothes—the charcoal-gray sweater that looked two sizes too big, the white parochial-school shirt and black skirt that sagged around her ankles. The combat-style boots were a bit of a surprise, however.

  Her dark hair was in a tight bun on top of her head. She wore black-rimmed glasses that stood out against her pale skin like ink on a newspaper. She had to be the mousiest woman he’d ever seen.

  “My grandmother is unavailable at the moment.” Steve deliberately kept his voice low, so as not to scare the poor female.

  “Oh, uh…” She glanced around the room as if searching for something. “She told me to stop by and pick up some kolachkis for the library event tonight.”

  “Right.” He’d already stolen three from the plate. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m Wanda’s grandson, Steve, by the way.”

  She nodded. “Nice to meet you. Bye.”

  An instant later she was gone.

  A minute after that, his grandmother reappeared in the kitchen and beamed at him. “So what did you think of Chloe? Isn’t she a sweet girl? Better than those wild women you seem to favor.”

  Steve had to admit that in the past his taste in women had tended to lean toward good-time girls.

  Then he’d met Gina. She’d been classy and smart.

  He’d thought Gina was different. He’d been wrong. Thanks to an unexpected inheritance from his deceased Texas-oil-baron grandfather, Steve was a Marine with money. Lots of it.

  T
hat’s what had interested Gina. The money. Not him.

  The recent betrayal still cut deep.

  Gina had conned him, saying she loved him when she really loved his bank account.

  Humiliated by his own gullibility, Steve had come home on leave to the people he could trust—his family. He definitely wasn’t looking to get into another romantic relationship. No way, no how. He’d visit his family for a while, then he planned on hitting the open road on his Harley, enjoying his freedom before returning to Camp Pendleton in California where he was stationed.

  “Steve?” Wanda tugged on his arm to get his attention. “You haven’t said, what did you think of Chloe?”

  “She looked like a librarian.”

  Wanda frowned.

  “She’s not really my type,” Steve added.

  Wanda wagged her index finger at him. “You can’t know that from one brief meeting.”

  Sure he could.

  But he could tell by the stubborn tilt of her head that there was no convincing his Busha of that.

  Wanda peered out through two of the aluminum blinds covering her kitchen window. “Oh, my. It looks like Chloe is having some kind of car trouble. You should go help her.”

  Sighing, Steve went outside to find Chloe leaning over the side of a compact car. The pose drew his attention to her bottom. Considering the fact that she was dressed like a nun, he felt guilty for even observing the fact that she had curves beneath those ugly clothes.

  “What’s the problem?” he gruffly asked.

  “I don’t know.” Chloe straightened. “It won’t start. And I’ve got to be at the library in fifteen minutes.”

  “Give her a lift,” Wanda called out through the now-open back door.

  Looking at Chloe’s flushed face, Steve felt sorry for her.

  “Take my car,” Wanda added. “Not that motorbike of yours.”

  His Harley was not a mere motorbike, but he saw no point in arguing that fact at the moment.

  So much for his battle plan. Busha had clearly won this first skirmish. But the war wasn’t over with yet.

  This wasn’t the first time Wanda had tried to fix Chloe up, but it was definitely the worst. For the past few days, Chloe had heard all about Wanda’s grandson Steve. She’d seen all the pictures of his good-looking face and lean body standing tall and proud in a U.S. Marines dress-blues uniform. She’d smiled politely as Wanda had confessed that Steve was something of a ladies’ man, but that he was really only looking for the right woman, and then he’d settle down like his older married brothers.

  Chloe wasn’t buying that. She’d recently broken up with a ladies’ man. She’d been blindly in love with Brad Teague, a handsome commodities broker. Her vision had been restored when she’d seen him kissing another woman and leading her up to his apartment.

  Brad hadn’t shown a bit of remorse as he’d informed her that it wasn’t natural for a man to settle for just one woman.

  She’d informed Brad that he could go jump into Lake Michigan.

  Like Brad, Steve Kozlowski was good-looking, confident, sexy.

  Like Brad, Steve judged a woman by her appearance. She’d seen the way Steve had looked at her when she’d walked into Wanda’s kitchen. He’d dismissed her as someone not worthy of his attention.

  Which was just the way she wanted it.

  She hadn’t anticipated the pity, however. That still stung. His expression as he’d helped her into his grandmother’s car had been downright humiliating.

  “Are you cold? Would you like me to turn on the heater?” Steve asked her.

  “I’m fine, thank you.” The evening was one of those perfect September examples of an autumn Chloe waited for all year. This was her favorite season—the crisp freshness to the air, the changing leaves, the toffee apples in the local market. Oh, yes, she was Fall’s Number-One Fan.

  “So, Chloe, what made you decide to become a librarian?”

  His question was voiced with a politeness that she felt covered an underlying lack of interest in the answer. So she was brief. “I like books. What made you decide to become a Marine?”

  “I like blowing up things.”

  She shot him a startled look.

  He grinned at her. “Just checking to see if you were listening.”

  Oh, she’d been listening, all right. And looking. Despite the fact that she shouldn’t. She shouldn’t have noticed the way tiny laugh lines webbed out from the corners of his green eyes, or the way his light blue T-shirt clung to his wide shoulders, or the way his lower lip was full and surprisingly pleasing to look at. Actually, all of him was extremely pleasing to look at—from the top of his dark, short-cropped hair to the soles of his size-eleven feet.

  She knew his shoe size because Wanda had told her, while showing her a photo album filled with pictures of Steve, from a baby crawling around to a young man riding a bicycle.

  While Chloe thought that Wanda was a real sweetie, she had no desire to jump into another relationship any time soon. She liked her life the way it was—quiet and secure.

  There was nothing quiet about Steve. Even his voice held a powerful resonance, his tone that of someone accustomed to delivering orders and having them instantly obeyed.

  “You need to turn right at the next light,” Chloe told him.

  “I remember. I used to visit the branch library when I was a kid and would visit Busha.”

  “You lived in this neighborhood?”

  “We lived all over. We moved around a lot because my father was in the Marines.”

  “That didn’t bother you?”

  “Moving? No. The military is like a big family. Even though we might be going to a new state for a new billet, people went out of their way to make us feel welcome.”

  Chloe wondered what that would be like, to be made to feel welcome. It wasn’t anything she’d ever experienced when she’d been growing up. Not after her parents had died when she was eight.

  “How about you?” he asked. “Did you grow up around here?”

  “Not in this neighborhood, but in Chicago, yes.”

  “What about family?”

  “I’m an only child. My parents died when I was young. I’ve got an aunt, but we’re not close.”

  The only thing her aunt was close to was her chemistry lab and her experiments. Sometimes Chloe had a hard time believing that the emotionally stunted scientist could be related to Chloe’s warm and loving mother Marie Johnson. Marie had been outgoing and full of life. Her older sister, Janis, had been remote and cold.

  Janis. The name had a sharp edge that had suited the woman, whose angular face looked as if all the human kindness had been sucked out of it.

  “That’s got to be a rough deal, not having family,” Steve said. “I know mine drive me nuts sometimes, but I can’t imagine my life without them.”

  Sometimes Chloe did try and imagine what her life would have been like had her parents lived. But doing so only reopened old wounds. There was little point in doing that. She had to deal with the cards life had handed her.

  “We turn left up here. The library is on the corner.”

  Steve nodded. “And looks just like it did the last time I was here.”

  “There’s parking around the back. If you could just let me off at the staff entrance there, that would be great.” She reached down for two heavy tote bags and then tried to balance the plate of kolachkis.

  “Hold on a minute.” Steve reached out to touch her arm, covered by the baggy sweater. “Where’s the fire?”

  “What?”

  “Let me park and I’ll help you carry that stuff in.”

  “There’s no need for that…”

  “Sure there is. I’m protecting my Busha’s kolachkis from going splat in the parking lot before anyone can enjoy them.”

  He efficiently parked the huge boat of a car, and then came around to open the door for her. Chloe would have opened it herself but she was momentarily distracted by the way he walked—shoulders back, head held high.
He radiated a powerful presence merely by putting one foot in front of the other.

  “Here, let me take that.” Steve reached out and his fingers brushed against hers as he took the plate of kolachkis.

  His touch created lightning, flashing up her arm as heat permeated her entire body. She could feel the magic of it, and it was so powerful that the breath was momentarily snatched from her lungs.

  No, no, this wasn’t part of the plan. This wasn’t supposed to be happening!

  Unfortunately, telling herself that had absolutely no effect. Sexual awareness still hummed through her. A total zing-zing thing.

  As if sensing her thoughts, Steve’s eyes met hers in a searching look. While unable to read his exact thoughts, she saw no mirroring awareness there in his smoky green eyes. And why should she? Unless the man had a nun fetish, there was no way he’d notice her dressed the way she was.

  That was the plan. And it was working all too well.

  The librarian had great legs. Steve had seen a flash of them as she’d jumped out of his grandmother’s car.

  Her creamy calves had risen up from her combat boots, the curve of her knee a real attention grabber.

  Or maybe he’d just been imagining things, because as he helped her with the door at the library’s staff entrance, she sure didn’t look like anything other than a…well, a librarian.

  “Thanks again.” She set the tote bags on the floor and reached for the kolachkis. “You don’t have to stay. I can probably get someone to give me a ride home.”

  Her obvious eagerness to get rid of him perversely made him want to stick around for a while. So instead of leaving, he merely went back outside and walked around to the front of the building and entered it that way.

  It had been a long time since he’d stepped foot in a public library, but he remembered how he and his twin brother Tom would check out the latest Star Wars paperback and then go home and devour it.

  There had been a few changes in the place since then. More computers, more READ posters, more audiobooks.

  But his main attention was captured by the sign advertising tonight’s program—a special whodunit mystery night.