Tease Me (5 page)

“
I’ll take a break in the
on call room. There’s a bed and showers there.” She studied him for
a second then laughed. “Don’t worry, Marine. I’ve dealt with worse.
Remember, I am a Marine brat.”

Then she smiled, waved and was out the
door. After finishing up in the kitchen, he decided to call Jack.
Since an assignment a little over a year ago, his brother had been
distant. He hadn’t talked to any of them about what had happened in
Africa, but Bran knew it was bad.

It was one reason Jack had accepted
the assignment out in California. He picked up on the first ring.
“Hey, there, Bran Man.”

He was the only one who still called
him by his childhood nickname. “Hey, yourself. Sounds like you’ve
been asleep.”

“
It’s raining out
here.”

And that meant Jack was sleepy. Unless
he was on duty, Jack could never stay awake when it
rained.

“
And that damned dog
finally shut the hell up.”

“
What dog?”

“
Next door neighbor’s dog.
I swear, I am going to shave that dog’s butt if he gets into my
garden one more time.”

For a second, Bran didn’t say
anything. These were the most words Jack had said strung together
in the last year. Their conversations had dissolved into one or two
word responses from Jack.

“
Okay.”

“
That dog is always
barking and always in my yard. You would think a vet would be
better at controlling a dog.”

“
A vet?”

“
Yeah, I guess she’s a vet
but can’t control her dog. So, she must suck at her
job.”

Bran snorted. Jack was a black and
white kind of guy. He rarely could see gray areas.
“Sure.”

“
So, I hear you’re
mooching off Tess. Jesse said she’s hot.”

His family never could keep their
mouths shut. They might not always get to spend a lot of time
together, but they always got into each other’s business. It was
comforting and annoying at the same time.

“
First, I am not mooching.
I cleaned up dinner dishes tonight after helping her cook dinner.
So suck it, Jack.”

“
Oh? Is she out on another
date? MJ said she was dating a lot and you didn’t like
it.”

Good lord. Did they have a freaking
family meeting online without tell him? “And when did she tell you
that?”

“
This morning. You know,
she gets on the phone and won’t shut up these days. Just goes on
and on about being married and the baby.”

Bran was comforted by the amusement he
heard in his brother’s voice. It had been a long few months after
he returned. The fact that he was engaging in conversation again
with any of them was a step in the right direction.

“
And then she apparently
decided to gossip about me.”

Jack snorted. “Yeah, well, you know
our family.”

“
Anyway, she didn’t have a
date tonight for your information. She got called into the
hospital.”

“
Ah, sure.”

He chuckled. “So, why don’t you tell
me about this vet you have living next door.”

And, happy that Jack seemed to be a
little more talkative than he’d been, Bran settled on the couch to
listen to his brother complain about a dog eating his
flowers.

* * * *

Tess stretched her back as she walked
down the hall. Sleeping in the on call room wasn’t fun or
comfortable. She’d been stuck at the hospital for over twelve
hours. It wasn’t common, not when with a stateside assignment. But,
the hospital had been hit hard. So many people had called in with
the stomach flu, and there didn’t seem to be an end in
sight.

She yawned as she turned the corner
and ran into a big, hard object. She looked up and found Bran
laughing down at her.

“
Hey, watch where you’re
going, Keller.”

For a second, her brain shut down. It
was like all the circuits were fried. She drew in a deep breath and
that was a mistake. “What are you doing here?”

“
Hey, that’s kind of
rude,” he said.

“
Uh, are you going to let
go of me?”

“
Sorry.”

It took him a second or two, but he
finally let go of her arms. She took a step back and hoped that her
stomach would stop flip-flopping.

“
So, what are you doing
here?”

He grabbed a bag he apparently
dropped. “When you didn’t come home, I realized you might start to
get hungry. I assumed you had the legendary Tess Keller
metabolism.”

As if to prove his point, her stomach
growled. He laughed.

“
I guess you do. Got time
to eat? I brought you some coffee too.”

He had a thermos and if it was filled
with coffee like he said, he was a god in her world at the
moment.

“
Thank you.”

“
No problem.”

“
No, I really appreciate
it. Come on.”

And it was one of the things she loved
best about him. He had always been thoughtful, especially for a
guy. It was because he came from a huge family.

Once they were settled in their seats,
Bran studied her. “You need sleep.”

She rolled her eyes. “I would love a
good night’s sleep, and I’m sure I’ll get it tonight.”

“
You have no
symptoms?”

She shook her head. “I rarely get
anything. Always been like that.”

“
Don’t you usually work
maternity?”

“
Labor and delivery, and
yes. But, when something like this happens, they put the call out.
It’s easier for me. One, the whole not getting sick that often
thing. And two, I don’t have a family. Lots of the nurses have
children so it’s harder for them.”

He smiled and she tried to ignore the
way her breath caught in her throat. All the Johnsons were
gorgeous, but only Bran had those dimples. The first time he smiled
at her she’d been struck dumb—and it was the same each time.
Dammit.

“
And you hope someone does
it for you someday?” he asked, his voice threaded with something
she couldn’t seem to pin down. It was if he were asking her
something important, but she couldn’t figure it out.

She shrugged, trying to come to terms
with dealing with Bran again. She could do it again, and once he
got back to work, he’d forget about her. “Not sure if I’ll get
married.”

That had his grin fading. “What do you
mean?”

“
I think it was easy to
understand, even with your tiny little pilot brain.”

He frowned at her, but she knew he
wasn’t truly mad. If she could keep him joking around, she might
just be able to control her emotions.

“
Hey, you know I was just
one place behind you on the top ten in high school.”

She sniffed. “I think the jet fuel
messes with your brain cells and like they say, it messes with
your, well, offspring.”

“
Please, you have no
idea…Wait, what?”

“
They say fighter pilots
especially have many more daughters than sons.”

For a second he didn’t say anything,
then he laughed.

“
I had not heard that, but
it doesn’t really matter. Scariest person in our family is MJ, and
she’s the only girl and the youngest.”

“
She’s scary because she
is
the girl
and
the youngest. You guys were not easy
on her.”

He snorted. “She came out like
that.”

They talked of their families…mainly
his. Hers was, well, it was just the three of them, and her parents
had been really disappointed in her when she went into the Navy. It
was a sore subject that Bran knew well and, thankfully, he avoided
it. She didn’t want to deal with that right now.

“
And so, apparently Jack
is ready to mistreat a dog over flowers.”

“
Not really.”

“
I hope not. I would hate
for him to ruin his career over shaving a dog’s butt.”

She laughed. “Jack was always
different. All of you were.”

“
Every family is like
that.”

“
No. Sometimes people get
lost in big families, but your grandmother and father made sure you
were all your own person.”

“
I can see
that.”

Then another long silence. He kept
looking at her weirdly. She couldn’t figure out what was going
through his head, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Bran’s brain
was well…odd.

With any other man she would try to
ignore it, but this was Bran. And when he looked at her like that,
she couldn’t think straight.

“
What?” she
asked.

“
What do you mean,
what?”

“
Why do you keep looking
at me like that?”

For a second, he said nothing. His
cheeks reddened and he cleared his throat. “You just look kind of
cute in your scrubs.”

She didn’t know what to say to that.
Not many people would use the term
cute
with her. Another
long silence and she noticed the time. Thank God she had something
to go do. If he kept looking at her like that with no end in sight,
she might dissolve in a puddle of lust.

“
I have to get back to
work.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to report
in today. I don’t have to start work for another two weeks, but I
want to look around the place.”

“
Thanks, Bran. I really
appreciate you bringing me something to eat. It was really sweet of
you.”

He stood as she did and before she
knew what he was about, he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. The
simple brush of his mouth over her flesh sent a rush of heat
through her blood. It took all of her control not to lean in, to
move her head so that she could have his lips against
hers.

“
Don’t work too hard,” he
said, looking as confused as she felt.

Tess didn’t trust herself to speak, so
she nodded. Then she headed off to work, hoping that if she
concentrated on work, she’d forget about Bran.

Bran walked down the hall to the
commander’s office, thinking about his time with Tess. She’d looked
genuinely surprised and pleased when he’d taken her the food. He
forgot that little things like that were not the norm in her
family. Now that he thought about it, it was kind of amazing she
turned out to be so warm and open. He could just imagine all that
generous spirit spilling over into bed.

He stopped in the middle of the hall
and shook his head. What the hell was he doing? Since he’d arrived,
his mind seemed to drift in that direction every time it had a
chance. It had been the first time since their graduation from
Annapolis that they had spent time together. Since that
kiss.

It hadn’t been a particularly sexy
kiss. It had lasted all of a second, but in that one little moment,
he’d forgotten Tess was his best friend. Now, he couldn’t remember
why that was so important.

He pushed those thoughts away and
started down the hall again. He turned a corner and ran into Tony
from the day before.

“
Hey, there, Demon,” he
said, with a smile. So, his reputation had gotten there before him.
Every pilot had a call sign and his was because of his need to take
chances. His first instructor called him Speed Demon, then
shortened it and the name stuck.

“
Walker.”

“
Looking for the
commander?”

He nodded.

“
Not in right now, but I
can show you around.”

He really didn’t feel like it. There
was just something that rubbed him the wrong way about Walker, and
he didn’t know what it was. He was huge, and it made Bran wonder
just how he fit into the cockpit. Dark hair, dark eyes, and
definitely Italian, and from what he saw of Tess’ date the other
night, right up her alley.

And that irritated him even
more.

“
So, you see me as a rival
for Tess?” he asked, as he grinned at Bran.

“
I don’t have any interest
in Tess like that. We’ve known each other for years. She’s like a
little sister to me.”

“
Oh, yeah, right. I saw
that look on your face the other day. Suck it up, Marine. I’ll show
you around and then you can be pissy with me later.”

With that, Walker turned and started
walking down the hall. He definitely was an ass, but for some
reason, it made Bran like him even more. He glanced around, then
gave up and followed him. He might as well get a tour while he was
there.

* * * *

Later that night, Bran frowned when
his phone played Beethoven’s Fifth, alerting him that MJ was
calling. He felt oddly deflated that Tess hadn’t called, but he
knew she was busy.

“
Hello, MJ.”

“
Hello, yourself. How’s
the house hunt?” she asked in typical MJ fashion. His father liked
to say that MJ was born talking, and that wasn’t far from the
truth. She was always half way through a conversation before Bran
knew they were having one.