An Alpha's Storm (Water Bear Shifters 1) (3 page)

Brett laughed. “No, actually. To tell you the honest truth, I just caught my girlfriend cheating on me, and came here to get drunk and find a pretty little tourist to have a fling with. But once I got inside the front door I chickened out and decided to have a few beers to boost my confidence first.”

Aubrey raised an eyebrow at him while looking him up and down. “You chickened out? Why? You could easily get pretty much any girl in this room. From the size of your biceps, I’d be willing to guess that you work out on occasion.”

Brett chuckled at Aubrey’s joke. “Yeah, I have a pretty physical job. Working out comes with the gig. But I’ve never been the type to sleep with a woman once and then forget about it. Even as angry as I am about what just happened with my girlfriend, I’m not sure I have it in me.”

Aubrey furrowed her brow. “I don’t know if I could do it either. I could probably do the whole friends with benefits things, but not a total stranger.”

Brett laughed. “But then you run the chance of ruining your friendship. You know those things never end well. One person always ends up falling for the other one, and feelings get hurt.”

Aubrey shrugged as the bartender set down two beers in front of them. “I’ve never tried it, but it seems like it would fit my situation better than an actual relationship. My work schedule is crazy, and it’s hard to find a guy that’s okay with that. My last three boyfriends have ended things because they were jealous of my job.”

Brett snorted. “That sounds familiar. The girl I just broke up with was always complaining to me that I was never around because of my job. Funny enough, she decided that the best way to deal with it was find a replacement guy without telling me. I went to her apartment tonight to surprise her with flowers only to find her in bed with another man.”

Aubrey winced. “Ouch. Sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, I was too. We’d been together for a while and I was even starting to contemplate rings. I guess I’m glad I found out her true colors before doing something stupid like marrying her, though.”

“I guess that’s a silver lining in the situation. Still, it sucks,” Aubrey said.

“Yeah. You’re telling me,” Brett said, staring moodily into his beer. He could feel the anger bubbling up below the surface again, and he decided to change the subject. He’d come here to get away from thoughts of Michelle, not to dwell on them. “So what do you do, that your schedule is so crazy?” Brett asked, turning his attention back to Aubrey.

“I’m a marine biologist. I do research for a university, which requires some travel and a lot of multi-day trips out onto the ocean. Sometimes the ocean excursions are with all male crews, and that seemed to really bother my exes. I couldn’t handle all their jealousy. I was out there to work, not get cozy with my colleagues. I got tired of being in relationships with guys who couldn’t respect me and trust that I was being loyal to them. It’s been a while since I’ve even tried to date.”

Brett wanted to joke with Aubrey that he didn’t blame the guys for being worried about her. She was sexy as hell, and if she was his girl, he might be a little nervous about her being alone on a boat with other guys for days. But he couldn’t argue with Aubrey’s point that a guy needed to respect and trust his girl. Michelle’s constant suspicion of him had worn on him, so he understood what Aubrey was talking about.

“What about you?” Aubrey asked. “What do you do?”

“I work for the Coast Guard,” Brett said. He never liked to give too many details about his job to people he didn’t know well. At first, it had been fun to shock people with the revelation that he worked as a rescue swimmer, facing the ocean at its angriest in order to save people’s lives. But, after a while, he grew weary of the shock and awe reactions. Sometimes he just wanted to be treated like a normal guy with a normal office job. He just wanted to kick back and have a beer at a bar without having to answer fifty questions about things like whether he had ever thought he was going to die, or if he’d ever seen a dead person in the water. (The answers to those questions were “yes” and “yes,” but those stories were definitely not Brett’s favorite topic of conversation).

Despite Brett’s attempt to remain vague about the details of his job, he realized that Aubrey was staring at him with a shocked look on her face. “You’re in the coast guard? Like the guys who jump out of helicopters into the ocean to save people?”

Brett frowned. How had she managed to zero in on his exact job description? Unless you told people around here otherwise, they usually assumed any “Coastie” they met was working on a team to intercept drug smugglers from Mexico. “Yeah, actually, I am one of the guys who jumps out of helicopters,” he said. “My official title is rescue swimmer.”

Aubrey’s eyes were wide, and she reached over to grab his arm. “Oh my god. Are you Brett Smith?”

Brett nodded, furrowing his brow. He wasn’t sure where this was going, but Aubrey seemed to know a lot about him.

“Brett, I know you! You saved me from the ocean two days ago.”

Brett’s eyes widened. “That capsized boat on Wednesday? That was you?”

Aubrey nodded, and now her eyes were filling with tears. “Oh my god, I wanted to thank you, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to contact you. And now, of all the random coincidences, here you are sitting right in front of me at a bar I didn’t even want to be at. Thank you. So much. Seriously, the words sound silly and they aren’t enough to even come close to expressing my gratitude. But thank you from the bottom of my heart. You saved my life.”

Brett smiled at Aubrey. “You’re welcome. I was just doing my job. That was a tough rescue, with all the debris and the dark, windy conditions. I’m so glad we were able to get to everyone in time. Have you talked to your friends? Are they all okay?”

Aubrey nodded. “We were all okay. Everyone was dehydrated and had a touch of hypothermia, but we all bounced back quickly once we got to the hospital. The youngest guy was pretty shaken up. He’s a freshman at the university, and was allowed on the ship as part of a work-study grant. Supposedly he had a lot of experience on the open water, but he panicked from the moment it became clear the ship was in trouble. It sounds like he’s going to talk to a counselor, and I’m not sure he’ll be mentally able to handle going back out on the water. But at least physically he’s fine.”

Brett nodded. “I know which guy you’re talking about. He gave me a run for my money when I was trying to get him to the rescue basket. I’m glad to hear he’s okay. And I’m glad you’re okay. I don’t often get to see survivors after the rescue, so it’s nice to meet one and see the life I had the privilege of saving.”

Aubrey slapped the bar top. “You are so ridiculously humble, acting like it’s not a big deal that I would be dead if it weren’t for you. Look at me, sitting here drinking a beer you bought me. I should be buying
you
a drink.”

Aubrey started flagging down the bartender, and Brett just shrugged again. “Like I said, it’s just my job. I’m lucky that I get paid to do something so rewarding.”

Brett meant what he said. His job as a rescue swimmer gave him the opportunity to bring some good into a world that was too full of pain and heartache. Since he knew how terrible it felt to lose family and friends unexpectedly, he took great satisfaction in the work he did to prevent others from having to go through that same terrible feeling.

Aubrey got them both another beer, and spent the next half hour peppering him with questions about his job. The entire breadth of the Coast Guard’s search and rescue operations seemed to interest her, and she asked him about everything from what training was like, to what had been the worst rescue he had ever been called to perform. Ordinarily, her questions would have annoyed Brett, but Aubrey’s curiosity seemed more genuine than that of anyone else he had ever talked to about rescue swimming. Probably because she had personal experience with the Coast Guard’s rescue operations.

After they had made it through most of Aubrey’s questions, and another round of drinks, a petite blonde came bouncing up to the counter and sidled up next to Aubrey. From the tipsy sound of her laugh, the blonde seemed to have had a generous number of beers.

“Aubrey, don’t be mad, but I’m gonna take off with Jake,” the blonde said.

Aubrey sighed. “I’m not mad. But who is Jake? The guy you just met a few hours ago? Are you sure it’s safe to go home with him?”

The blonde giggled. “Don’t be such a worrywart, Aubs. He’s fine. I’ll text you when I get to his place to let you know I’m safe.”

“All right,” Aubrey said. “Have fun. Don’t forget to text or I’ll come looking for you.”

The blonde giggled again and ran off, leaving Aubrey shaking her head.

“You’re just going to let her go like that with a strange guy?”

Aubrey shrugged. “She does this every time we hang out. I used to try harder to stop her, but it’s useless. And the guys she goes home with always seem to end up being the normal non-murderer types. So I just tell her to text me and let it go. It’s not like I can really do much about it, anyway. She’s a grown-ass woman. I can’t exactly give her a curfew or force her not to talk to strangers, you know?”

Brett chuckled. “True. Besides, you’re talking to a stranger right now yourself,” he said, winking at Aubrey. He was acting borderline flirtatious and he knew it, but he couldn’t stop himself. Aubrey was too damn beautiful, and the several beers he’d had were lowering his inhibitions.

Aubrey shook her head no and wagged her finger at him. “Not true. We’ve met before. In the ocean, remember?”

Brett laughed. “I guess that’s true. And it’s been nice to have a chance to talk to you under calmer circumstances. But you probably want to get out of here now that your friend is leaving, don’t you?” Brett crossed his fingers that Aubrey would tell him that she’d decided to stay for one more round, after all. He didn’t want to give up talking to her just yet. Especially since his plan to find a one night stand obviously wasn’t going to work out. He didn’t want to go home alone just yet. He wanted to sit and have the chance to at least talk to a beautiful woman for a little bit longer.

But Aubrey wasn’t interested in hanging around any longer. “Oh, god, yes. I’ve been dying to get out of this bar since the moment I set foot in it.”

Brett’s heart sank. Looks like it was time for him to go home and really face the fact that he was now alone. “Well, it was nice to meet you, Aubrey. Best of luck with your marine biology.”

Aubrey tilted her head sideways and gave Brett a funny look. “What? You’re not coming with me? You want to stay here with all the crazy tourists?”

Brett perked up. “I didn’t realize you were going somewhere else after this. Or that I was invited.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. I know a great taco shack down the road. When I’ve had too much to drink, I love to get tacos to-go and then sit on the beach and eat them. That’s where I’m heading right now. And yes, you’re invited.”

Brett felt his heart leap in his chest. He shouldn’t be this excited about spending time with Aubrey. But she was beautiful, and sweet, and he needed the distraction right now. He would have plenty of time tomorrow to mourn his relationship with Michelle. Right now, he wanted to enjoy cheap tacos with Aubrey.

“I’m in,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Tacos on the beach turned into hours of lying in the sand and talking. Brett heard all the warning bells going off in his mind as he felt himself becoming more and more attracted to Aubrey, but he couldn’t tear himself away. It’s just one night of fun, he told himself. We’re not even doing anything physical. We’re just having a good time, hanging out as friends.

But when the sun started rising behind them, Brett had to admit that he was smitten. He hadn’t spent an entire night hanging out and talking with a girl since his high school days. And when Aubrey jokingly made a comment about how romantic a sunrise on the beach would be, if only either of them wanted a romance, Brett couldn’t hold back any longer. He leaned over across the cool sand, and put his lips on Aubrey’s. She looked surprised, but she didn’t pull away. When he pulled back slowly, searching her eyes with his own in the gray-pink light of dawn, she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Or, maybe, one of us does want a romance,” she said.

Brett felt his heart tighten in his chest. She was choosing her words carefully, not saying anything that might give away how she herself felt about him, or about the kiss they had just shared. He found himself backtracking, trying to downplay the moment. “Don’t feel like you need to read anything into it,” he said. “The dawn was just too perfect to let it slip by without a kiss. After all, just look at that beautiful view.”

Brett gestured toward the ocean, and Aubrey smiled as she followed his pointed finger.

“It is a beautiful view,” she agreed. “Although, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to look at the ocean in quite the same way, after almost drowning in it.”

Brett glanced at her. “Don’t let one bad experience ruin the water for you. The ocean is powerful, but if you respect it, odds are you’ll be fine. What are the chances of you being in that situation again, anyway? You had some bad luck. It’s unlikely to happen again.”

“That’s true,” Aubrey said, although she didn’t sound completely convinced. She stood up and wiped the sand off of her jeans. “I should get going. My friend is probably going to be sneaking home soon, looking for breakfast and wanting to give me a complete rundown of how her night went.”

Brett stood as well. He wanted to beg Aubrey to stay, or to at least tell him that she had enjoyed their kiss. But she seemed determined to gloss over the moment, and he sensed it was better not to push it. They had shared a fun night, and a sweet kiss—and he was facing the morning light without having to deal with any regrets about sleeping with a girl without caring about her. What more could he asked for, really? After discovering his girlfriend cheating on him, the night could have gone much worse. He should be thankful for the time he’d spent with Aubrey and not try to make something of it when she was giving him clear signals that she was ready to leave.

He reached his hand out to shake hers. “Well, I’ll let you go, then. Thanks for a lovely time, and hopefully I’ll see you around again.”

Aubrey pushed aside his hand and leaned in to give him a hug instead. “Thank
you
,” she said. “For a great time, and for saving my life so I have the opportunity to enjoy nights like these.”

Then she kissed him on the cheek and walked away. Brett stood, watching her leave and wondering how the heck he was supposed to interpret her actions. Several minutes after she had disappeared from view, he finally shrugged and turned to make the long walk back to his car. She must have felt the chemistry between them, too. But she was obviously unwilling to explore their connection any further. Brett pushed aside the rumblings of his bear within him, and focused on getting back to his vehicle. Exhaustion was catching up with him, and he wanted to get home and collapse into bed. There would be time to wonder about Aubrey later. Right now, he needed to get some sleep.

* * *

Several miles away, Aubrey was also interested in getting some much-needed sleep. But it didn’t seem like she was going to have the chance to rest anytime soon. As Aubrey had predicted, her friend Sara had come home from her one-night tryst raring to tell Aubrey all the juicy details from her night. Aubrey knew Sara from her undergraduate days, and had long since lost interest in the sordid details of other people’s lovemaking. But Sara seemed oblivious to the fact that they were no longer college freshmen, and went on and on about the details of her new boy toy.

Aubrey half-listened, paying just enough attention to nod and exclaim in all the appropriate spots. But her mind was elsewhere. More specifically, her mind was still back on the beach, where Brett had kissed her in the cool morning air. Aubrey was kicking herself for acting so disinterested. Even though he did his best to hide it, she had seen Brett’s disappointment when she brushed off his kiss. The truth was that she had been anything but disinterested. She had been fantasizing all night about having sex on the beach with him. His body beckoned her, with its chiseled muscles and perfectly tanned skin. He spent a lot of time in the sun and water, and it showed. And what girl wouldn’t want to sleep with a man who had literally saved her life? But when Brett kissed her, she panicked.

Getting involved with a guy who had just caught his girlfriend cheating on him didn’t seem like a smart idea. No matter how much Brett had swept Aubrey off her feet over the course of the night, she still worried about being his rebound. Aubrey wasn’t interested in just being a distraction to make Brett feel better about the shitty night he’d had. She felt sorry for him, but she wasn’t going to be his band-aid. So instead of doing something reasonable, like telling him she wanted to take things slowly, she had just completely brushed him off. They hadn’t even exchanged phone numbers, so she would probably never see him again.

Real smooth, Aubs, she said to herself.

“Aubrey, are you even listening to me?” Sara asked, poking Aubrey in the arm.

“What? Yes, of course. Sorry. The guy was hot and the sex was amazing and so on and so forth,” Aubrey said, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice any longer.

Sara sighed. “No, I was asking
you
how your night was. You looked like you were cozied up pretty closely to that guy at the bar when I left. And I don’t blame you. I’ve never seen anyone with muscles like his.”

Aubrey frowned. “It was nothing. We just knew each other from somewhere before so we talked for a bit. Now, come on, let’s go get some breakfast. I know a great brunch place that has amazing views of the ocean.” Aubrey knew Sara loved brunch restaurants, and was hoping that the offer of brunch would be enough to distract Sara and end the questions about Brett. Sara took the bait.

“Oh, yes! I love brunch. Do they have good mimosas? I’m dying for a good drink after the long night I had!” Sara giggled, and Aubrey dutifully chuckled. Aubrey didn’t have much in common with Sara anymore, but she hadn’t wanted to turn away an old friend asking for a couch to sleep on while in town. Now, Aubrey was wishing she had come up with some excuse about being too busy at work to take on a houseguest. The constant chatter was grating on her nerves. Aubrey sighed and grabbed her purse and car keys, praying that the coffee at the restaurant would be extra strong this morning. She only had one more day before Sara headed back home, and she was counting down the hours.

Thankfully, for Aubrey, the coffee was strong, and the day flew by quickly. Sara left the next morning, and Aubrey headed back to work. She had been scheduled to do another overnight research trip in the Pacific, but had asked her boss if she could skip this trip and work in the university lab for the week instead. Her boss readily agreed, so Aubrey spent the next several days peering at samples of different animal tissue under a microscope. She just wasn’t ready to head back to the open ocean yet. In fact, she wasn’t sure when she would be ready. When she closed her eyes, she could still see the dark, frothy waves rising around her. She could still feel the chill of the cold ocean pelting against her face. She shuddered as she remembered the moment the thought had crossed her mind that she was probably going to die out there.

As Aubrey left the lab, she shook her head, trying to shake off the dark thoughts and bad memories. She had to get past her fear, if she wanted to keep this job. She couldn’t hide out on dry land forever. The odds of her being on a sinking boat again were pretty low. Besides, even though the boat had sunk, the crew had done everything right in the face of the emergency. They had radioed for help, put on their life vests, and grabbed their light sticks to help the coast guard locate them in the water. It had been a scary ordeal, but they had been prepared, and everything had turned out fine. Even though Aubrey had felt helpless in the water, she had taken steps to help herself, and they had worked.

Still, the flashbacks to that night weren’t pleasant, and Aubrey wasn’t sure how she was going to manage to get past the bad memories and get back out into the ocean. She loved the water, but now she feared it as well. As she stood outside the lab building and watched the waves lapping against the shore at a nearby beach, she suddenly realized what she had to do. She had to force herself to get back into the water. Years ago, one of her close friends had been a very talented horseback rider. The friend had been thrown from a horse and suffered several broken bones, but as soon as the breaks were healed, the friend had immediately gotten back into the saddle. Aubrey had been surprised, thinking that if she’d had a horse throw her like that, she wouldn’t want to ever ride that horse again. Her friend had explained that she did feel fear when she started riding again, but that the only way to overcome that fear was to get back to riding as soon as she could. The friend believed that the longer you wait around without facing the thing you’re afraid of, the bigger that fear becomes in your mind, and the harder it is to get past it.

Aubrey realized that the longer she waited to get back in the ocean, the harder it was going to be to return. She couldn’t get out on a boat right this minute, but she could go for a swim. Aubrey turned around and walked back into the lab building, heading for the room where wetsuit gear for the team was stored. She quickly found her wetsuit and changed into it, then left her clothes and messenger bag in her locker. She walked to the beach that butted against the university property, and made her way to where the waves were lapping against the shoreline. She closed her eyes for several moments as she let the water run over her feet and ankles. Occasionally, a larger wave would make it all the way up to the middle of her calves. The water felt much warmer here than it had when she was stranded out in the ocean. That was the difference between the ocean in the middle of the night and the shoreline in late afternoon. The sun felt warm on her face, and she tentatively took a few steps forward. She kept going until the water reached her waist, then looked around at the beach and water.

This was a small beach, with one, lone lifeguard watching over it. The weekday afternoon crowds of beachgoers were small, and the lifeguard looked bored. A few people were swimming close to the shore, but the majority of the crowd here was sunbathing on the beach. Hopefully, that meant that the lifeguard would be able to easily rescue her if she needed help. The idea of needing to be rescued from the water seemed almost funny to Aubrey. She had never worried about things like that before. She was a strong swimmer, and well aware of how to handle difficult situations, such as being caught in a rip tide. A few days ago, she wouldn’t have even noticed whether a lifeguard was on duty here or not. But now, she had faced the ocean’s anger, and she was feeling a little less confident.

Aubrey reminded herself to stop dwelling on the possibilities of what could go wrong. Just get back in the saddle, she told herself. She took a deep breath and launched her body fully into the ocean. The salty water splashed against her face and dampened her hair as she started slicing through the waves with powerful, rhythmic strokes of her arms. She had expected to feel nervous and panicky as her feet left the safety of the ocean floor, but the water was having a surprisingly calming effect on her. She smiled as she continued to swim, pleased with herself for having the courage to face the ocean. She loved the water, and she wasn’t going to let one bad experience ruin that for her. She would tell her team that they could send her back into the open ocean on the next overnight expedition. She was ready to get back to doing the work that she loved.

After about twenty minutes of swimming, Aubrey swam back toward the spot on the shoreline where she had initially entered the water. She stopped swimming and stood up when the water was about waist deep, so that she could walk the final short distance to the beach. She pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair, and let her wet hair fall around her shoulders in that breezy, undone “beach waves” look that she loved—and that those who didn’t live near the ocean spent hours trying to replicate with various hair styling products. She was staring off at a surfer in the distance as she made it to the dry sand, and she didn’t even notice Brett until he was right next to her.

“Hey, Aubrey. Are you gonna say hi, or am I old news already?” he asked.

Aubrey startled, and then smiled when she saw it was Brett. Her heart did a flip flop at the sight of him, standing there in a pair of gym shorts and a tight t-shirt that showed off his chest muscles. “Sorry,” she said. “I was lost in my thoughts. It’s good to see you. What are you doing over here by the university, though? This is pretty far from the Coast Guard Station.”

“I had the day off,” he said. “I tried to keep myself busy with running errands all day, but I finally realized it was useless to try to push you out of my mind. I had to see you again, so I came to the marine biology department here at the university and asked about you. Someone said they’d seen you heading to the beach in a wetsuit, so I came down here hoping I’d find you.”