ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (148 page)

“Babe-”

“No, don’t babe me.” She grunted, turning away from him once more. “The first fight, okay yeah, wasn’t your fault, it was just bad timing during an emotional moment, but this is your fault. I was there, this was a day for us; just the two of us, your attention should have been on that. And instead of sending the drink back and refocusing your attention on me and your marriage, you accepted it, giving her hope and a reasonable expectation of flirting back. Don’t pretend that you’re not aware of how these things work. You send a girl a drink, she accepts it, you get a free pass to try and strike up a conversation. You might get shot down the moment you open your mouth, but accepting the drink is still an invitation to try.”

Andrew nodded, taking in her words, staying silent for a long moment.

He was silent for so long that Amanda actually looked up at him, expectation of some kind of response clearly written all over her face.

“You’re right, of course you’re right babe,” he chuckled, “you almost always are. I guess . . .” he licked his lips, “I guess I somewhat knew what taking the drink would mean, I just . . . I was flattered. It’s stupid, and embarrassing for sure, but that’s what it was. In the SEALs, you’re one piece of a unit, you don’t get to interact with too many people. I guess I just missed being out in public, around people and interacting with them, no matter what that interaction is.”

“I get that, honestly, I do,” Hannah said, not meeting his eyes. “Which is why I felt bad this morning for getting angry with you wanting to go out with the guys. But it’s not unreasonable for me to get jealous. Not just about a pretty girl insulting me and flirting with you, but you wanting anyone else’s attention at all. I guess, I just want to be enough for you.”

“You are enough for me Hannah, oh my God you’re enough for me,” he said, his heart breaking at just how heartbroken she sounded. “It’s not that you’re not enough for me, I was just being ridiculous. I just got back, it was sensory overload. You are so amazing. I don’t have eyes for any other woman, I don’t need anyone else’s company. I just, I thought it was harmless, even though it was a stupid thought, and so I tried not to let it be such a big deal. But you know it was a big deal babe, and I’m sorry for not treating it like one.”

Hannah nodded, eyes fixed on the water lapping at their ankles as she remained silent.

“If it’s any consolation,” Andrew began, desperate for Hannah not to be mad at him anymore, “I told her that you are the love of my life and that no one could even begin to compare to you and that she could take whatever she was selling elsewhere.”

Hannah snorted, the little smile that Andrew was used to coming to her mouth. “You definitely didn’t say that last part. If you had implied that she was a prostitute you would have for sure gotten a drink thrown in your face.”

“Eh, it’s the oldest profession in the book, it wouldn’t have been an insult.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that love,” Hannah grinned, “it’s no wonder you didn’t have too many girlfriends before me.”

“Well, I like to think that it was just me and my inner wolf holding out for the right person.”

“Aww, always a sweet talker.” Hannah chuckled, brushing their arms against each other.

They waited a moment in silence, staring at the water and listening to the sounds of daytime at the beach. After staying like that for a few minutes, Andrew finally spoke.

“So, would you like to go back inside or . . .?”

“Or what?”

Andrew shrugged, bumping her shoulder with his own. “Or, we could go back to the car and have some make-up sex. Or on the beach. Or right here. I’m really not choosey.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Hannah laughed, “no, no sex; let’s just go walking on the beach.”

“And then have sex when we get somewhere?”

“Or sit and talk, maybe nap. . .”

“And then sex.”

“And then, we’ll see,” Hannah said, standing and extending a hand for Andrew, which he took, tugging just hard enough that Hannah came toppling down to fall in his lap as he quickly wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Walking,” Andrew mused, “that’s so much vertical action. I’d much rather be doing something that requires at least one of us to be in a horizontal position of some sort.”

Hannah giggled. “I bet you would. At this rate, you’ll just spark a bunch of small fights to have make-up sex every hour.”

“It could be twice every hour,” Andrew said, as if that sounded more reasonable. “I’m pretty sure I could go more if you’d prefer.”

“Ridiculous, completely and utterly ridiculous.” Hannah laughed, finagling her way out of her husband’s grasp and jumping up. “Come on, let’s take a walk and then we’ll see where we end up.”

Andrew sighed, chuckling just a bit at the humorous eyebrow waggle Hannah gave him as he stood, placing an arm around her small shoulders and kissing the side of her head. “Alright, alright. Let’s take this beach walk and enjoy the scenery, or whatever else boring couples do at the beach.”

Hannah nudged him in the side a little, laughing at his nonsense as they began walking, wet feet living footprints in their wake as they padded down the wooden pier and over to their shoes, slipping their sandals on and grabbing their belongings as they went.

The walk along the beach was a pleasant one, the air not too humid and mediated by the cold gusts coming off of the waves of the ocean.

“So, we haven’t really talked about what we’ve missed in the other’s lives when you were deployed,” Hannah began after they had walked along the beach for about fifteen minutes, headed to some of the less-populated parts of the beach.

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve particularly missed anything with me. It was very boring.”

“Boring, really? I never would have taken the life of a Navy SEAL to be called anything like boring.”

“Alright, well, maybe boring wasn’t exactly the right word to use. Perhaps I should say, uninteresting, at least to you.”

“Why don’t you let me decide what I find interesting or not. Come on, tell me, what I missed.”

Andrew sighed, a deep, heavy sigh that let Hannah know he felt a lot more haggard than he had initially let on. “You don’t like war and things that go along with it. You hate war movies and the like; you said you always have. Since when do you want to listen to the real life account of it?”

“Since it started concerning you,” Hannah said honestly. “Knowing what happens, what you’re going through, it helps me feel a little less scared. I know it’s silly, probably counterintuitive, but the facts of what you deal with make it sound a lot less terrifying. And I feel closer to you, knowing what you go through. You know pretty much everything about me, and I know just about everything about you, except what happens when you deploy. I know some of it you can’t tell me, or at least would prefer not to, but it would mean a lot to me if you could share just a little. It’s important to me.”

“I just don’t want to upset you babe,” Andrew also said honestly, “you already worry so much.”

“Yeah, well, I’m working on it. So come on, tell me something.”

“Well, I won’t tell you everything, but honestly, it’s kind of what you told me you expected. We do missions, usually intelligence stuff and retrieval. Yes, we do occasionally, or I guess you could say often, take risks by going into hostile territory and we frequently get shot at. One man in my unit was shot, but they’ll make a full recovery; it was just a flesh wound for the most part. No one died thank God. There were some brief periods of time when we lost contact with base, but we all somehow managed to make it back in one piece.”

Hannah nodded, breath leaving her with a relieved sigh. “Honestly, that’s not as horrible as I expected it to be. I guess it’s easier to think about when you’re right here with me, next to me and I can reach out and touch you. I’m just glad you’re back love.” She smiled, squeezing his hand softly.

Andrew smiled, the small grin widening into a beaming expression that lit up his entire face as they continued on. “So,” he said after a moment, “what about you? What have I missed in your life since I’ve seen you last?”

Hannah chuckled. “Not much honestly. Well, I told you about the pregnancy scare right after you left.”

Andrew snorted. “You didn’t exactly tell me, you threw it at me today. But yeah, I got the gist of it. Why didn’t you let me know when it happened?”

“I didn’t want you getting distracted. And we didn’t plan on starting a family until we were both a bit more stable. It wasn’t worth telling you when I didn’t know for sure. And it proved to be unnecessary; it was a false alarm.”

“Yes, well, still, I just want you to know that you can tell me about these things when they happen Hannah, even if it is a false alarm.”

“Well, I hope not to have many more false alarms, but, if I really think I am, I’ll tell you at the first chance. Okay?”

“Okay,” Andrew agreed. “So, what else has happened since I’ve been gone? How’s work been?”

“Well, I’ve gotten a few more articles published in some new journals, not much but decent pay all things considered. A bigger audience than I had expected apparently wants to read about the migration patterns of South American birds. It’s surprising, but at least it pays.”

“That’s great; you’ll have to let me read it sometime.”

“Yeah, right,” Hannah said sarcastically, “I remember that when I was doing my thesis I asked you to read it over for me and you actually fell asleep in the middle of it. I would have been just a bit insulted if you weren’t just so darn cute with your quiet little snoring and whatnot. It was adorable.”

“It was not adorable, it was manly exhaustion being expressed through masculine sighs in my sleep.”

Hannah laughed. “Right, exactly what I said.”

Andrew pouted. “Well, aside from that, what else happened? How was your sister’s wedding by the way? I’m sorry I missed it.”

“It was fine; it was what you’d expect. A lot of pomp, a lot of flashiness. The dress I had to wear was awful; I could barely move in it.”

“Oh right, you sent me a picture of it. You looked lovely, if not a bit dour.”

“It was terrible, it was an outdoor wedding and it was hot; I thought for a while there I might pass out. The dress just kept all the heat in. It’s only fitting that I burned it afterwards.”

“Wait, did you really?” Andrew asked, stunned.

“Well, we always said that we would use the fireplace more. We might have had s’mores in mind at the time but I found my use of it to be much more suitable.”

“I’m sure you did.”

“Just be happy you didn’t have to wear those ugly white tuxedos. And with the blue sequined bow ties, it was terrible.”

“Well, it would have been worth it if I was with you.”

“Shut up,” Hannah mumbled, embarrassed, though she leaned her head on his shoulder to let him know that she found it endearing.

The further they waked, the less and less populated the beach became. What once had been generous groups of people lounging here and there on beach towels, playing volleyball and frolicking in the water, was now long stretches of white sand giving off heat in the bright sunlight.

The turquoise water lapped against the sand, kissing it with white foam, on one side and gray rocks stood at their other side, small alcoves within them here and there. Seagulls circled overhead while they looked at the seashells scattered all around them.

“How far do you think we’ve walked?” Hannah asked, looking back behind them and seeing the nearest person to them that they had long since passed getting smaller and smaller.

“Almost far enough, but not quite.”

“Far enough for what?” her eyes widened as he smirked at her. “Oh God, I was wondering why you chose to walk this way when you like to scale up towards the rocks. You’re leading us somewhere to have sex.”

“Nope, no, that’s not it actually. I’m leading you somewhere to talk, maybe nap. And, if we happen to have sexual relations when we get there, well, it was through no planning of my own.”

“Andy-”

“Annnndddd, I packed some chips, some drinks, and those weird shortbread jam-filled cookies you like. We can have a picnic.”

“Just a picnic?”

“Has a picnic ever been used as a euphemism for something sexier?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Well then I won’t say just a picnic for sure, but for now, yes, just a picnic.”

Hannah smiled, patting his cheek fondly and smiling wider at his dour look. “Did you really bring those cookies?” she asked excitedly after a minute, trying not to sound as childish as she felt.

“Yes, I packed them just for you. Not much has changed then it appears; you still have a giant stash of these in the back of the pantry.”

Hannah flushed. “They were on sale, I picked them up at one of those wholesale warehouse stores; the only way to get them was to buy a giant box of them. At least this way I don’t have to go to the store again for a while.”

“And by a while do you mean five years?”

“Hey-”

Andrew smirked. “No, you’re right, you’ll have finished them off in half the time.”

“You are the worst, you know that?” Hannah joked.