Surrender: A Little Harmless Military Romance (3 page)

"So, you're telling me I should become a fuck up?"

She laughed like he’d hoped. He didn't want to worry about the future, about whatever plans they might have for him. Right now, all he cared about was keeping her happy. Forever.

Whoa, buddy, back the hell up. That wasn't his job. That was some other nameless, faceless asshole's job.

Dammit. He shoved those thoughts aside and tried to change the subject.

"How are your brothers doing?"

"Fine. Dylan is enjoying his time at the Pentagon, which I think makes him crazy. Brent is at Fort Jackson now. And our black sheep, Seth the chef, is living down in Atlanta. He's opening his new place in a couple of weeks. How's everything going with yours? I haven't heard from Nate in a while."

That caused him to pause, the beer bottle halfway to his mouth. "Nate? As in my brother Nate?"

She nodded. "I was down in New Orleans, and we went out."

He was trying to come to terms with the fact that Amanda had gone out with his younger brother Nathaniel, self-described confirmed bachelor who slept with every pretty woman he could talk into bed. And he could talk a lot of them into bed.

"Why wasn't I told?"

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean? What was I supposed to tell you? I was in town, looked Shannon up, and the three of them were going out to eat. I went with them when they invited me."

"Oh." That sounded okay.

"The next night we did the town up right."

That had his temper boiling. "Really?"

She nodded, apparently completely oblivious to his reaction. Hell, he didn't know what his reaction was. It was...uncomfortable. He was sure the death grip he had on the bottle might break it, so he set it down.

"Yeah. You know when Kyle and I went there for our honeymoon, we couldn't do a lot of bars. I wasn't old enough, and well, you know that we didn't have enough money for stuff like that."

Of course they hadn't. Kyle had just come into the military, barely an O-2, and they didn’t make a lot of money.

"I had no idea there were so many bars. I mean, definitely, it's New Orleans, so I expected a lot, but they are all packed in there tight." She laughed. "And they all knew Nate. But I bet a lot of them know all of the Duprees. The funniest part of the night was running into one of his old girlfriends. Your brother really doesn't know how to handle a woman who confronts him about being a mimbo."

"A mimbo?" he asked, his brain trying to keep up with her rundown. He was still trying to come to grips with the thought that she had spent so much time with his brother and no one had thought fit to tell him.

"You know, he sleeps around a lot. He's like the male version of a bimbo."

He chuckled and something loosened in his chest—something he knew was embarrassingly close to jealousy. It was stupid the way he was behaving. He knew they were emotions and most people would dismiss them. For him, though, it was unusual.

"That's Nathaniel."

"Well, the girl was so upset with him because apparently he said he'd call as soon as he got into town, and of course he didn't. He claimed he forgot."

She stood and started to clear the table. He watched the way her chestnut hair fell forward. It looked so soft he wanted to touch it, to feel it slip through his fingers.

Instead, he stood and helped her with the dishes.

"You staying somewhere in town, I take it?"

He shrugged. "They actually gave me a room over in Crystal City at a hotel. It's considered a Temporary Duty."

She shook her head. "Fraud, waste, and abuse."

He laughed. "It was cheaper than moving someone here."

"That's true," she said, finishing off their plates. He went back to the table and brought the rest of the dishes. He returned just in time to see her bend over the dishwasher. He almost dropped the dishes he was carrying. Lord, the woman had an ass on her. Full, but not too full, and he knew she was a walker, someone who exercised on a regular basis. He could just imagine what it would feel like to smack his hand against the firm flesh.

Take a step back, Dupree. Not yours. Too young, too innocent, too many problems.

He set the dishes down on the counter with a clatter. She jumped and turned around.

“Sorry,” he mumbled and took a step back.

“No worries.”

She apparently hadn’t noticed his reaction. He rolled his shoulders, trying to get his mind off her and the way she would look if he bent her over the table to flog her.

Shit. His cock twitched at the thought, his brain draining of any remaining blood.

“I better head off.”

She glanced up. Her eyes were filled with surprise then resignation, which he didn’t understand.

“Of course.” She shut the dishwasher and dried off her hands. He wanted to say something more, something to ease the tension that now rose between them. It had never been like this, and hell, he would rather have the sexual tension back. Now, though, he could feel something else in the air, something that felt like disgust. He wanted to do something to change it, but he didn’t know how. Hell, he didn’t even know what he did wrong.

He couldn’t let the evening end this way. “Is there something wrong?”

She shook her head and sighed. “Just a million things on my mind for tomorrow. She’s kind of a bridezilla, so I’ll have my hands full.”

Of course, it had nothing to do with him. She was a woman with a full life, one that didn’t include a man who was too old for her and had sexual needs a woman like her would never understand.

She walked him to the door in silence, and he hated it. They had never had this issue before. She opened the door and offered him a soft, tired smile. It was then that he saw the violet smudges under her eyes and realized she hadn’t been getting sleep.

“Are you getting enough rest? The insomnia isn’t back, is it?”

She looked surprised and shook her head. “No. Just been a long week. Once this wedding is over, I’m going to sleep all day on Sunday.”

He nodded. He moved closer, then realized he was going to kiss her. He stopped himself just short of embarrassment.

“Goodnight, Amanda.”

“Night, Mal.”

She shut the door, and he waited until he heard the locks slide into place. With more than just a few regrets, he headed to his car.

* * * *

Amanda sighed as she watched the bride and father walk down the aisle together.

“Feeling melancholy?” Addy asked from beside her.

She glanced at her business partner and shook her head. “Naw. Well, a little. This time there is more relief.”

Addy slung her arm over Amanda’s shoulders. “Don’t be sad. You’ll have a real wedding one of these days.”

But she wouldn’t. She knew it better than anyone, but she never argued with Addison Mahler. Amanda knew she wouldn’t win.

“What do you say we clean up right now so when the ceremony is done, we can run away?” Addy said.

Amanda nodded and followed her back to the bride’s room. They were an odd couple of friends. Addison had grown up in the wealth of DC, a daughter of a federal judge and the niece of a former attorney general. You would never know it by looking at her. From the top of her spikey purple hair—that was the color this week—down to the grunge clothing, she was the antithesis of DC upper class.

“She wasn’t so bad today,” Addy said. “I thought it was going to be horrible after the way she was all the way up to the wedding.”

“There was a little stress inside the family.”

Addy nodded. “I know. We both understand having a mother diagnosed with breast cancer, but still. She attacked my choice of hair color a few weeks ago.”

“It was green. And not just green, but neon green.” Amanda picked up some of the boxes they had brought the flowers over in. “Plus, I think she was worried her mother wouldn’t be here for the ceremony. She lost an aunt just two years ago to breast cancer.”

Addy stopped in gathering up the equipment. “Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, that makes sense. Still, there was nothing wrong with my green hair. And, to be nice, I dyed it purple to match her bridesmaid dresses.”

Amanda chuckled. “She did thank you.”

“Not our worse, huh? I think our worst would be that Denise Charles. It was hard not to run down the aisle and rescue the groom.”

“They just got divorced.”

She smiled. “Oh, see, I could have saved him a lot of money.”

They finished packing away their supplies and headed out to the van. “What do you have on tap tonight? Why don’t we go clubbing?”

“Addy, I don’t know how you do it. All day at work and out at night. And worse, I’m five years younger than you.”

“So that’s a no, right?” she asked. “You have no social life.”

They were walking up the path to the church. “I have a social life.”

“You can’t count these functions as a social life, even if you go to the reception afterward. Are we going to this one?”

She hadn’t thought about it. They’d made the arrangements and they usually went and checked, but they had worked with the reception hall before, and it wasn’t part of the contract. Amanda had thought a hot soak in the tub sounded heavenly, but now going back to her little apartment didn’t hold the same appeal.

“I heard they were going to have shrimp.”

Addy glanced at her. Four inches taller than Amanda, her best friend could eat just about anything. It was disgusting, and if she didn’t love her like the sister she never had, she would hate her.

“You don’t say.”

Amanda shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Is there some reason you don't want to go home?"

Addy was a little too smart for her own good. From the moment they met in a survivor's support group, they had hit it off. Addison's older brother had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and Amanda had been dealing with the repercussions of the death of her husband and the lies he left behind.

"Nope. I just think a nice big meal, then a relaxing night in is just what I need."

"You did that last night. I know you went to bed before ten."

Of course she had. She hadn't had much sleep because images of Mal looking at her with heat in his eyes had kept her awake all night. She had never seen that look on his face before and it made her...burn.

"Ohhhh, what's his name?"

She glanced at Addy and saw the interested look in her eyes. Dammit. "What do you mean by that?"

"You got a dreamy look on your face, and I have never seen that look on your face. Well, except when you talked about going to the Netherlands for the tulip shows. Did you hook up? Come on, tell me."

She sighed. "I did not hook up and there was no dreamy look on my face. Mal was over last night for dinner."

"Dupree? You had him over for dinner? And you didn't invite me?"

She chuckled. "It was by accident. We bumped into each other at Wegmans."

Addy let out a little sigh of pleasure. "Wegmans. Wait, let me think about that place for a sec." She stopped walking, closed her eyes and hummed. "I love that place."

"Yes, I know you have an abnormal attachment to Wegmans."

"There is nothing abnormal about it. So you bumped into him, and then how did he end up sponging a meal off you?"

"I invited him."

There was a beat of silence. "You invited him over on a Friday night?"

"Yeah. You should have seen what he was eating. Some kind of wings or something, it was disgusting. And I was in the mood for scallops--"

"You made your pan seared scallops and didn't invite me?" Addy asked, pouting again. “I can’t believe you did that.”

"You had a date last night."

"Oh yeah, he was boring. And definitely not a Seal I have a crush on."

"You have a crush on Mal?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, you do, Amanda."

She sat down in one of the chairs lining the hallway in the back of the church. Since there was a row of windows and a door that separated them from the wedding guests, she felt free to talk. "I do not."

"Yes, you do. Remember, I've seen you with him. You get all goo-goo over him, and I say about time."

She sat down next to Amanda with a satisfied smile on her face.

"I do not, and if I was ready for another relationship, I would definitely not pick a Seal. There is only heartbreak with those guys."

She could feel Addison's study of her, but she said nothing else. Amanda told Addison just about everything, but she hadn't told her about the worst part of her marriage. Even being a smart woman and knowing her husband's infidelity had nothing to do with her but was a default in his personality, Amanda couldn't help but be embarrassed by it. It was the one thing that she would keep to her grave.

“Let’s just get through this, get some good food, and then I am spending all day in bed tomorrow with a book. In fact, I might just move only for food.”

“That sounds like an excellent plan. I can’t do it myself because I have been summoned to the family estate for brunch. Wanna come protect me?”