Redeemed Book 2: A Military Stepbrother Romance (13 page)

But I’d never tell him that, and the thought that he might already know how aroused I was made me turn crimson even faster.
 

“Oh, I don’t, but when you get wrapped up in a story like that….” He trailed off, still smiling.

Harrison straightened out, once again towering over me. “Those romance writers really know how to string a story together.”

“Oh, I dunno,” I tried to be dismissive, “most of them are pretty terrible. Way too wordy, and the heroines, if you can call them that, don’t really ever take matters into their own hands.”

“Yeah. That’s probably why I don’t read romance?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. I tried to picture Harrison reading a trashy romance novel like the ones I love, and the image was just hilarious. I imagined him furrowing his brow, trying to understand the dumb things people did these books, and I imagined him looking up in exasperation, asking himself why anyone enjoyed them. “Oh so that’s the reason? Too many weak women in these stories for you?”

“Totally. Give me a girl who figures out the right thing to do and then goes for it, goes for what she wants every time.”

It dawned on me that we weren’t talking about romance novels any longer. In his own stupid and headstrong way Harrison was apologizing to me. Maybe not the way I would have preferred, of course. There weren’t nearly enough roses and soft romantic music around, but hey, a girl takes what she can get in situations like these.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, warmer this time. I needed him to know I knew what he was doing and that I understood. Maybe I didn’t quite accept his apology yet, but we were moving down the right path.

“You do that.” Harrison kept the smile on his face, but didn’t go anywhere. After a moment or so I couldn’t ignore him anymore; the glint in his eyes as they sparkled was too much for me to bear.
 

I sighed heavily, exhaling.”You’re still here. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Factually correct, Laurel.”

“Factually correct is the best kind of correct, Harrison.” I would never admit it, but I had missed this arguing back and forth between us. It was still totally new to me, but even when it wasn’t so great, it was much better than sniping at each other and slamming doors. Despite the horrible things he’d said a few days ago, I still really wanted to work things out between us. Though I didn’t want to make it easy.

“Ooh, that is true. When he think about that for a second.” Harrison leaned back on his heels, and crossed his arms under his massive chest, looking like he was thinking really hard about something.

 
“Any chance you could do your thinking hard somewhere else?” Obviously, I really didn’t want him to go anywhere, but I had to keep up pretenses.

 
“No,” he shook his head, after giving it another thought, “no, I can’t really do this kind of thinking anywhere else. You just happen to be sitting next to the spot where I do my best thinking.”

 
I looked around the large living room, seeing how closely packed together we were. Time to up the ante a little bit. “Oh well, I don’t want to get in your way. Sounds like, and looks like, you’ve got some serious work to do.” I started to get up from the couch. “I’ll just get out of your way, then. Leave you in peace to work out whatever you need to figure out.”

 
Before I could stand up all the way, though, something pushed me back down into the comfortable leather of the couch. Harrison leaned over, and had given me a playful knowledge back in the direction I came.

“What was that for?” I didn’t really care, I just like it when he touched me.

 
Harrison’s face was back in front of mine, and this time I had no book with which to distract myself. I couldn’t help but stare at him, getting reacquainted with every contour and strong line of his face, a hint of stubble around his cheeks and chin, the quiet strength of his shining dark eyes. “You haven’t answered my question yet,” he whispered.

 
I pressed my head back against the couch, trying to create as much distance between us as possible. It wasn’t that I wanted the gap, but truth be told, I was a little scared of Harrison. Turned on, aroused, of course. But a little scared too.

“Which question was that?”

 
“Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?”

 
I raised a finger in between us. “Point of order,” I began, “you never actually asked me that question.”

 
“Point of order accepted. Well?”

 
I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell Harrison to get bent; I wanted to make him apologize for real for that outburst after I tried to help him over the weekend. I wanted to get him to promise that we wouldn’t be on this roller coaster anymore.

 
But in the moment, all I could say was, “yes.”

 
He stood up, straightening himself so quickly that I could feel the rush of air moving into the place where his head used to be. I realized I’d been holding my breath, and started breathing again relief. “Great! We’ll leave at six. Not too fancy, but a little fancy.”

 
And with that, he turned and left the room without another word. All I could do was watch him go. That back, those muscles, that animal of a man barely kept inside the cages of humanity. Every time I looked at him I wanted to tear his clothes off.

 
Actually, every time I looked at him I wanted him to tear my clothes off.

 
I picked up my book and tried to read for a couple more minutes, but I couldn’t get back into the story.
 

Suddenly whether Sophie and Hunter reunited didn’t matter. I knew they would anyway.

Suddenly, my book wasn’t so interesting anymore.

 
The roller coaster of my life had a lot more going on than any romance novel.

***

I didn’t know what to wear. What do you wear when your drop-dead gorgeous stepbrother takes out to dinner after having hot sex with you twice then ending whatever this was after he got arrested for getting in a fight saving you from a drunk who got a little too handsy for his own good?

I don’t think the fashion magazines had a section for that. At least, none of the old ones I had laying about my room did. I searched my closet, going in as far as I Dared. Any further would have meant dragons.

Finally I settled on a longer dress that hopefully would keep me a little bit warm. It wasn’t all that sexy, but then again sexy really wasn’t what I was going for this evening. I didn’t know what Harrison had planned, but I wasn’t about to show off any skin after the dressing down he had given me a few days earlier.

Harrison stayed out of my way for the rest of the afternoon, and when I came downstairs, our parents were nowhere to be found either.
 

My guess is it had something to do with their anniversary party coming up soon. Ordinarily, someone else would plan such a party for the couple, but our parents were enough of control freaks that they didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Of course, they had gone the whole 9 yards and had a party planner and everything, but even so they both still like to oversee things and make sure that every little thing was exactly the way they want.

Harrison came down a few minutes later, looking utterly gorgeous as always in nice dark slacks and a blue collared shirt. I hadn’t seen him dressed up since his welcome home party, which was less than a week ago, despite feeling like forever and a day had passed since.

He coolly appraised me when he hit the bottom of the stairs, looking me up and down and nodding as he adjusted the cuffs on his shirt sleeves. “You all ready?” Gruff and direct! I guessed I was getting the stern Harrison tonight.

“Yeah,” I said, tearing my eyes away from him long enough to pick up my purse from the hallway side table, then headed to the closet to get my coat out. “Where are we going?”

Harrison watched me put my coat on without making any move to help me. “I found a place, it’s a little out-of-the-way, but it’s nice.” He didn’t elaborate any further.

“As long as it’s not in the forest,” I quipped, trying to lighten the situation a little bit. The air was tense, and I wanted to bring it down a notch if I could.

Harrison didn’t respond to my bad joke In quite the way I’d hoped. “Nope, not in the forest. Let’s go.” I nodded, and Harrison picked up his keys from the dish on the table and I opened the door.

We got in Harrison’s car and drove out of town in silence. After a few minutes, Harrison turned on the radio, a little louder than I would’ve liked, but I said nothing. He focused intently on the road, and I didn’t want to disturb his concentration. Instead, I looked out the window and watched the families and their houses as we passed by. The little second long clips as I got into each of their lives made it clear that it was possible to drag happiness out of tough times.

Soon, we were out of Summitville, and driving toward one of the neighboring towns. “What kind of food are we eating? I broke the silence, trying to start a conversation.

Harrison didn’t look at me. “I was thinking Mediterranean.” I didn’t say anything, not sure if Harrison knew that I loved Mediterranean food and could eat it any time, any place. He may have picked that up over the years, but knowing Harrison, he wasn’t paying attention.

There weren’t many cars on the road - people stayed in their houses with family and friends as we got closer and closer to Christmas, and last minute shopping wasn’t as big around here as it was in the city.

There was an odd kind of calm in the car, which was strange because Harrison and I had barely spoken to each other in days. I resisted turning my head toward him in the driver’s seat, not wanting to risk him noticing me and losing focus on driving. I figured there would be time enough to talk about what was going on at dinner.

I knew this was his pattern - get into something, find a reason to get out of it, then realize that maybe he hadn’t made the right decision the first time, and set out to try and fix things. I hated that I let him drag me along on the ride like I seemed comfortable doing these days, but just being around him made me feel something no other man had ever made me feel.

That was the best way I could put it. I didn’t really understand it, but I also couldn’t help but let him carry me along like this.

Finally we got a few towns over and Harrison started looking around for a parking spot after we turned onto the main street, lit on both sides with holiday lights. Small groups of people milled around as they hurried to wherever they were going in the bitter cold.

I pointed out a couple parking spots along the way with my finger, but Harrison grunted that he could probably find something closer.

I kept quiet, looking out the window, and watching the couples as they moved down the street. Everyone was a combination of happy and soon to be happy once they got out of the cold. They were a couple brave souls walking around without jackets on that made me shiver just looking at them.

Finally, Harrison pulled into a side street and found us a parking spot. When the car turned off he looked at me and opened the door, getting out without saying a word.

This was already going well.

I close the door behind me, and braced myself against the stinging wind, glad that at least it was not snowing this evening. Harrison waited on the curb for me, and when I stopped next to him, we started down the street, still not speaking.

I’d been to this town before, but it’d been many many years since, and I did not know my way around. Every so often Harrison would glance from left to right, looking at street signs, as if to make sure he was where he thought we were, but he still moved without hesitation.

We stayed off the main street, away from the holiday lights, and finally stopped in front of the Mediterranean restaurant. I assumed this was the place, because I hadn’t seen any other Mediterranean restaurants on our way, and I stared at the menu posted on the wall for a quick moment before Harrison put his strong hand on my lower back, and guided me in, opening the door in front of me.

Well, at least there were a few small vestiges of chivalry still in him tonight.

The restaurant was warm, and I shrugged out of my coat as soon as I could. Harrison took it from me, and, joining in with his own, hung it up on the waiting coat rack on the wall. He stepped toward the maître d’’s booth, and spoke a few words with him, before the maître d’ picked up two menus and ushered us forward into the dining room.

Once we sat down at our booth, I had a moment to take in the restaurant. It was a little bit fancier than I was used to, given that I was used to dive bars and taco stands in New York, and I could hear the soft tones of light orchestral music in the background. It wasn’t exactly a suit and tie formal affair, but it was a nice change of pace nonetheless.

The walls were covered in rich and dark wood, and I could smell sandalwood in the air. Bright and colorful paintings with nautical themes, and Greek beaches with happy people relaxing on them as they sipped from glasses of wine adorned the covered parts of the walls.

People in paintings always used to have all the fun. When would I get to sit on a beach and sip from a glass of wine?

I held up the menu, purposefully high to make sure that I wasn’t looking at Harrison. I’m still getting used to seeing him dressed up like this, despite what I’ve seen at the party a few days ago, and it’s still intimidated me. He still looked like he belonged in combat gear, or something else, something more sinister, but at the same time he knew how to Dress up in such a way that made my knees weak At a glance.

So holding the menu up more defensive than anything else. I was just looking out for my own self-preservation. Plus, it had pictures In it.

Because it was Mediterranean food, though, I already knew what I wanted. I was a sucker for a well prepared lamb and beef shawarma plate, and the photo in this menu made my mouth water almost as much as Harrison would have if I was able to see him sitting across the booth from Me.