ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (144 page)

“So, is this what it’s going to be like for the rest of our lives, people coming up to you and thanking you for your service? You can barely handle compliments from me, let alone complete strangers. It’s been years and you’re still just as bad.”

Andrew shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee and sighing, his eyes closing in bliss at just how good it tasted. It had been quite a while since he had managed to get his hands on a decent cup of coffee and it was amazing just how delicious one little drink could be.

“What can I say, compliments just make me uncomfortable, it’s weird. But, it’s only when I’m in uniform that they come, so I figure I can grin and bear it every once in a while; I’ve definitely had to deal with worse.”

“Yeah, well don’t you ever scare me like that again. Understand?”

“Babe, I can hardly promise that I won’t get shot in a combat zone, but I’m here aren’t I? Plus, unless they’ve got silver bullets, it’ll take a lot more to kill this werewolf.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. One of the first things she had asked Andrew after she had come to grips with the fact that she was dating a werewolf was whether or not he was really adversely affected by silver, to which he had laughed hysterically at before calming down and informing her that no, werewolves were not affected by silver any more than an ordinary human was.

“Still, I’d prefer not to get another heart-stopping call in the middle of the night. It was horrifying; they told me that you’d been shot and didn’t tell me if you were alright or not until two days later. Do you know how terrifying that was?”

Andrew winced as Hannah’s eyes teared up, the very real pain of that terrifying night coming back to her as she relived the memory.

“Werewolves have accelerated healing capabilities, remember? I’m basically a superhero babe. I’m Superman.”

Hannah scoffed, but the corners of her mouth tugged up just a tad in a smile. “Yeah, but even Superman has his kryptonite.”

“Yeah, well, good thing it’s on another planet at the moment. I’ll do my best to keep safe, you know that. Remember what we talked about? Thinking the worst only makes it worse. We’re together now. Try to be happy? We’re getting pancakes, the morning’s beautiful, and you have coffee.”

Hannah took a deep breath, nodding, and taking Andrew’s hand in her own before squeezing tightly. “You’re right, today is a great day. Let’s enjoy it.”

Andrew smiled, both of their smiles widening as the waitress came back and placed their orders down in front of them.

“Oh my God,” Andrew said, the sound coming from his throat highly reminiscent of a moan from a cheap porno movie as he grabbed his fork and dug into the dish before him with gusto.

“Slow down, you do realize that eating typically requires chewing don’t you? It isn’t merely inhaling, although you seem to be pretty good at it.”

“God I’ve missed this,” Andrew said, his speech just a bit garbled around a mouth full of food, before issuing another moan. “So good. How have I gone so long without these in my life?”

“Gee babe, should I leave the two of you alone? I didn’t even get a welcome back like that.”

Andrew swallowed the food in his mouth and then finally came up for air, chuckling a bit as Hannah reached over and wiped a stray drop of chocolate from the corner of his mouth before capturing the digit between his lips and sucking the chocolate off, making Hannah flush.

“Stop it,” she murmured, looking around to check that no one was watching despite the fact that they were still the only patrons in the facility.

“Why?” Andrew smirked, “You get to tease me so much; shouldn’t I at least get the chance to return the favor?”

“Not in public,” Hannah hissed as he began to gently nudge her thighs apart under the table.

“Why not, it’s not like anyone’s watching,” he said mischievously.

“Yeah, well, we’ve got to save something for when we get back home. And, if we’re really not going to be getting out of bed unless the house is burning, we should stock up on carbs, don’t you think?”

Andrew sighed, shaking his head with a small smile. “Why do you always have to be the reasonable one?”

“Because between the two of us one of us needs to be.”

“But that’s no fun,” Andrew pouted, “Come on, live a little.”

Hannah grinned, laughing. “The last time we ‘lived a little’ we got caught and almost fined. I think I’ll pass for a while.”

He pouted just a bit more before Hannah reached over and scooted his plate just a bit closer to him, to which he grinned and began eating with vigor once again.

They spent the rest of their meal in a similar fashion, eating, enjoying the food and each other’s company with quiet conversations, flirtatious teasing and comfortable, familiar silences.

“You look stunning, have I ever told you that before?” Andrew commented once he had finished his pancakes and couldn’t get any more chocolate off of his plate.

Hannah laughed. “Just about every day since we’ve met. Honestly, I think you’re thinking of someone else, but I’ll take the compliments when I can get them.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Andrew joked, “and perhaps just a bit delusional if you honestly mean to tell me that you can’t see just how truly gorgeous you are. But you know, I certainly don’t mind giving you a daily reminder of the fact.”

“Well, if anything I’d have to say that you are just as ridiculous, but thank you.”

They sat there in silence for a moment, smiling at one another as their eyes raked over their spouse’s face, taking in every little detail and trying to memorize it all, checking to see if anything had changed, and, if it had, making note of it.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt but I have your check.”

Both of them looked up as the waitress came to a stop at their table.

“Oh, no it’s fine, thank you,” Andrew said, taking the check from the waitress before Hannah promptly snatched it from his hand, giving him a bit of a devious smirk.

“Remember, I’m paying; lunch is on you.”

Andrew blinked. “I thought we were joking.”

“Well, I’m not, and I’ve got this; why don’t you just take the keys and go wait for me in the car little lady and I’ll be out as soon as I take care of this.”

Andrew rolled his eyes, taking the keys good-naturedly and leaning over to kiss her briefly. “Alright my macho man, I’ll go, but try not to keep me waiting too long, I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it without someone big and strong to take care of me,” he said, batting his eyes in a ridiculous parody of flirting.

Hannah snorted. “Go away you goof, I’ll be out in a minute,” she said, waving him off as she fished around in her purse until she found her wallet.”

“Alright, alright, I’m going.” Andrew grinned, winking at her with a mocking salute before heading over to the door, a slight jauntiness to his step as he went.

“That’s quite a man you’ve got there,” the waitress said as she stopped back by their table, taking the checkbook with Hannah’s card inside.

“Yes, yes he is,” she grinned, before her grin turned just a bit feral, “and yes, he is mine,” she said, practically growling the word ‘mine’ in a way that would have had Andrew himself doubting whether or not she was fully human and didn’t have just a bit of werewolf blood in her.

The waitress nodded, a jerky, nervous sort of movement before she held the checkbook tighter to her chest and scurried off to go run the card.

Hannah smirked, feeling a great deal of satisfaction with herself. A moment later the waitress came back, timidly setting her card and receipt in front of her before hurrying away once more.

After collecting her things, Hannah quickly left the restaurant only to literally run into a waiting Andrew, smile firmly on his lips as her nose met with his broad chest.

Hannah frowned, stepping back and rubbing her nose just a bit before playfully glaring at him. “What are you smiling at?” she demanded.

“You,” he smirked, “werewolf super hearing and all, I heard you. And I must say, I’m flattered; I had no idea how possessive you could be.”

“Shut up,” she muttered, face flushing just a bit as she grabbed the keys from his hands and started walking to their parking space, “And I thought I told you to wait in the car.”

Andrew hummed. “Yes, well, I figured it would be much more entertaining to listen in on you, I certainly had no idea just how entertaining it would be and I’m glad I stayed, I’m touched.”

“Yeah well keep that up and it’s the only way that you’ll be getting touched tonight,” Hannah muttered as she opened the door to the driver’s seat.

“But baaaabe,” Andrew whined, sliding into the passenger seat, “we’ve got some making up for lost time to do.”

“Well then,” Hannah smirked as she started the car, “I guess you better be on your best behavior.”

“Aye, aye captain.” Andrew smirked.

“Really babe, really?” Hannah sighed, pulling out of the parking lot and making her way back to their home, the streets a bit more populated now.

“What can I say, I’m a Navy SEAL; I don’t just wear the uniform for play you know.”

“Mhmm,” Hannah mused, turning on the second exit they came across as she began tapping her perfectly painted, yet repetitively chewed-down nails on the steering wheel.

Both blinked as a loud whistle filled the car, the sound of a text message being received. Hannah frowned, noticing that her phone wasn’t lit up with the notification that she had received a message as she glanced down at it resting on the center console between the passenger and driver seat.

“Oh, I guess it’s mine,” Andrew said, rooting around in his backpack that rested at his feet before pulling out a small, rarely-used cell phone.

Hannah’s frown deepened. “Wait, do you mean to tell me that you had your phone on this entire time and never once messaged me on the ride here?”

Andrew shook his head, laughing softly. “Don’t be like that babe, for half the ride we didn’t have service, and after trying restlessly for two hours to get a signal and using up half my battery sending failed texts, I spent the other half of the trip trying to get a few hours of sleep in so that I could be relatively awake when I saw you. Go on, check your phone, you’ve probably got close to fifty messages from me that finally sent when we were at breakfast.

Skeptically, once they had reached a stop light, Hannah reached down and checked her phone, her face reddening in embarrassment as she saw that Andrew was indeed right and she had received sixty-four messages from him and she just hadn’t heard them come in since her phone had been on silent.

“Oh, well, fine. I guess you get to be right every once in a while,” Hannah said, laughing at her own silliness as she reached over and squeezed Andrew’s hand in her own. “So, who’s messaging you this early anyways?”

“It’s Jim; he works mornings so he’s probably been up for a few hours already. He wants to know if I can go and get drinks with him and a few of the guys later tonight.”

“Well you’re not going are you?”

Andrew paused, midway through typing up a response to frown at her. “Well why wouldn’t I? I haven’t seen them in forever; it’d be nice to catch up.”

“You know who else you haven’t seen in forever? Me. I wanted today to be just the two of us. They need to take a number and get in line because you’re my husband and I’ve spent far too many nights alone in our bed for you to just run off to drinks with the guys your first night back only to get drunk and crash on Jim or Parker’s couch while I sleep in a cold bed.”

“Babe, it’s just a few drinks, really. I haven’t seen them in forever. I’m hardly going to get black-out drunk and have to spend the night on anyone’s couch. I promise to come back home and warm up the other half of the bed for you.”

“It’s not the same, and that’s not the point Andy and I think you know it.” Hannah huffed in frustration as she pulled into their driveway, shutting off the car and turning to face him.

Andrew blinked, processing her words, clearly confused as to why she was so upset. “What’s wrong?” Andrew asked, trying to figure her out.

“What do you think is wrong?” Hannah scoffed, agitatedly yanking the keys out of the ignition and taking her seatbelt off. “I’ve already told you, I haven’t seen my husband in months, I’ve spent those months worried sick about him, and the moment he gets back he’s rushing off to leave me and go hang out with a few of his drinking buddies.”

He frowned, getting frustrated himself. “It’s not like I’m eager to leave you by yourself, if you want you can come too.”

“I don’t want to come too! I don’t want you to go at all. I just . . . I just wanted to spend a quiet night in with just the two of us catching up, I’ve missed you. God, you have no idea how much I’ve missed you Andy.”

“And you think I haven’t felt the same? More so even? You had Geena and Becca and your friends to keep you company, to distract you; I had nothing, I was always on duty. I missed you, so much, but I’ve also missed my friends, and drinking, spending a night out on the town without a care in the world. There’s so much I’ve missed and so much I want to do, and I only have a little time here before I ship off again.”

Hannah was silent for a long moment, shocked by the hard truth of the words. She swallowed, mouth working for a few moments before she finally spoke, hand on the door handle. “Yes, well, thanks for reminding me. If you’re so eager to go drinking, go on, I won’t stop you,” she said, yanking the door open and slamming it shut behind her as she strode briskly and angrily to the front door, frustration, hurt and annoyance radiating off of her in waves.