Tease Me (8 page)

She looked genuinely confused by his
reaction. Hell, he was confused by it. In most cases, he was
completely comfortable with keeping things light, not making a fuss
over a relationship.

But that wasn’t going to work now
because he was in love with her.

Shit.

He
was
in love with her. She
was beautiful and smart, dedicated to her job and too much of a
know-it-all for her own good. Even knowing that, he loved her.
Hell, he even loved the fact that she was always trying to tell him
what to do. For once, he wanted to take things to another level and
she didn’t.

And because it hurt him more than he
would ever admit, he struck out.

“
I thought you had more
respect for yourself than that,” he said.

“
What the hell does that
mean? It’s okay for you to run around with women, but someone you
know isn’t allowed to do the same thing…even with you.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but her
cell buzzed. She picked it up and sighed.

“
Yes, sir.”

He watched her and knew that she was
being called into work again.

“
I will be there ASAP. No
problem, sir.” Then she hung up. “I have to go into
work.”

“
Yeah, I gathered that. I
thought they would at least give you a little more time
off.”

“
I’ve been gone for almost
twenty-four hours. Plus, this is considered an emergency. Another
wave of stomach flu has taken out a few more of the
nurses.”

He wanted to tell her she had to stay
there and they had to decide what to do about this, but there was
one thing he understood and that was duty. She was needed at the
hospital and he couldn’t stand in the way of that.

“
Well…”

She looked unsure of herself and that
wasn’t Tess. He knew she didn’t want to leave him
either.

“
Go,” he said as gently as
possible. They had things to work out, but he knew she needed her
mind on work.

She nodded and rushed back to her room
to get ready for work. As he sipped his coffee, he realized he
couldn’t stay at her house. It made things too…familiar. He needed
some distance, they both did. Somehow, he was positive that would
help. It might help her see their relationship differently. He
hadn’t really courted her…to use an old fashioned term. With time
and distance, he might be able to figure out a way to get her to
understand his feelings.

When she came back out, Bran felt his
heart turn over. Damn, now that he realized how much he loved her,
he wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to seeing her. Even now his pulse
was dancing some kind of funky two-step and he felt
lightheaded.

And she wasn’t even dressed sexy. A
pair of green scrubs and no makeup. She gave him a wary
smile.

“
Hey, I was thinking of
moving out.”

Her smile faded.

“
No, don’t look like that.
I just…I think we need some time and you’re getting called in so
much.”

She nodded but didn’t look like she
believed him. “Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later.”

When she turned to leave, he knew he
couldn’t let her go without touching her one more time. He grabbed
her by the wrist and pulled her closer to him.

“
Not so fast.”

“
Bran…I have to get to
work.”

Even as she said it, he heard the
yearning in her tone. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. He
could build on that and prove to her that they were meant for each
other. He tugged her into his arms and kissed her. Bran had meant
to keep it easy. Tess had to get to work and he had things to sort
out. But the moment his mouth touched hers, he was lost. He closed
his eyes as he slipped his tongue between her lips. She sighed and
leaned into him.

Moments later, he was pleased he was
the one who pulled back first. Her eyes were still closed and her
lips were still wet from his kiss.

“
Hey, Tess, better get to
work.”

She opened eyes and he wanted to
cheer. Bran could see the need there in the depths of them and he
knew if he pushed it, he might get her back in bed before she went
in. He wouldn’t do it, but it was nice to know she was affected by
the kiss as much as he was.

“
Well, I guess I should
go.”

She walked toward the door, then made
a disgusted sound and turned back to get her purse and keys. He
smiled as he watched her go, but then felt it fade. He couldn’t
believe she still thought they would be
friends with
benefits
. He knew he loved her, knew that there was a chance
she was the only woman for him. But now he had to play things cool
and figure out his next step.

If there was one thing a Johnson
understood, it was how to strategize. His older brother might be
best known for it, but Bran knew how to use it to his advantage.
Tess was just going to have to learn he was there to
stay.

* * * *

Tess sighed as she finished the double
shift. Work was hard enough. The last week had been horrible, but
now add in the layer of stress of Bran…that was almost too much to
handle.

They had left things open that
morning. She had been happy at the time. Happy to avoid any
argument, because that was the way she was raised. Tess could
debate anything that wasn’t personal, but she didn’t like getting
into personal spats.

Her parents never argued. In her
entire life, she couldn’t seem to remember a fight between them.
Her mother always seemed to allow her father to have his way. Tess
knew her mother hated living in Florida, but her father had wanted
to go, so she went along without a fight.

Tess knew that on some level that was
why she never got serious with a guy. She had always told people
she wanted to focus on her career, but the truth was she was
afraid. It hurt to admit it, but she didn’t want to be her
mother.

“
Deep thoughts, Keller?”
Westin said. She smiled at the older nurse.

“
Lots of things going on
in my head, and none of them good.”

“
I can imagine, especially
since I saw that tall drink of water who brought you breakfast the
other day.”

She felt her face heat up.

“
It’s about
time.”

She stopped working and turned her
chair to face Westin. The older woman was giving her a knowing
smile.

“
What?” she
asked.

“
Honey, I have seen you
love them and leave them, but it’s nice to see one of them tangle
you up.”

She frowned. “What do you mean by
that?”

“
You make sure you keep
them at arm’s length. I don’t blame you. I’ve been married to a
Marine for the last ten years, and you have to make sure you put
them in their place. Otherwise, they just roll right over you. You
already have this one dancing to your tune.”

Tess shook her head. “You don’t know
what you’re talking about.”

She had to remind herself that over
and over. If she didn’t, Tess knew she would start to believe it.
That would be disastrous.

“
I do but I will let you
live in your fantasy land. Some day you’ll wake up and be
married.”

With that statement, her friend
sauntered off. Tess knew marriage wasn’t part of the plan for Bran.
He’d always said he didn’t want to marry early in his career. The
type of job he had would make it hard on the spouse. Tess
understood that. It still made her sad to realize that no matter
what she said to him or anyone else, she wasn’t going to keep it
simple.

And that just plain sucked.

* * * *

Bran was just settling down in his
room when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller id and
wanted to groan. He wasn’t in the mood for his father, but Bran
knew better than to ignore the General.

“
Hey, Dad.”

“
Good morning, Brandon.
I’ve had a time trying to track you down.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I called Tess Keller’s
house and you weren’t there.”

“
Why would you call there
and not call my cell?”

“
I tried. It kept going to
voice mail.”

“
Oh. There isn’t anything
going on with MJ, is there?”

“
No, you’re sister is
fine. In fact, I am on my way there.”

He pulled the phone out from his ear
and looked at it then put it back to his ear. “Is there something
wrong? You’re taking time off…and you’re going to drive
somewhere?”

That wasn’t like his father at all.
His father was someone who rarely took time off and when he did, he
usually stayed home.

“
Yeah. You act like that’s
a bad thing. I want to be there when my first grandchild is
born.”

“
Okay. Wait, you’re coming
here? Where are you staying?”

“
On base. I got into the
VIP quarters. I should be there in about two hours.”

“
Oh.”

“
Tess invited me to
dinner, and I’m assuming that you’ll be invited too.”

He realized then that might have been
what she had been calling about.

“
I’ll call
her.”

“
Good. I’ll see you in a
bit. Where are you staying?”

He told him the name of the hotel.
“But I’ll meet you on base. That way I can just drive us both to
Tess’ house.”

“
Sounds good, Brandon. See
you in a few hours.”

He clicked off his phone and his
stomach started to churn. When the General was coming into town, it
wasn’t a good thing. He didn’t just drop by to talk. That wasn’t
his way. Bran loved his father, but he had always run their house
like a miniature military. They’d always had a bit of distance
between them.

And, he didn’t need his father
sticking his nose into his business, not now. He could really screw
things up with Tess.

Just thinking her name brought back
the memories of the night before and Bran couldn’t help it—his body
reacted.

He didn’t know how he had ignored the
feelings he had for her so long. Okay, in a way he did know. He’d
avoided her. Kind of cowardly now that he thought about it, but he
had done just that. There were times he’d been close to her duty
station and not stopped by. At the time, he told himself it was
because he was too busy…or that she didn’t have the time to spend
with him. Looking back, he understood he’d been avoiding her. Well,
that was over.

He still couldn’t believe she was
trying to do the
friends with benefits
thing. He knew she
was pretty open sexually, but that went beyond what he had
expected. He dialed her number.

She picked up on the first ring. “It’s
about freaking time, Johnson. Do you know who called
me?”

“
My father.”

“
Your father. Wait, you
knew about this?”

He paused. This was not the Tess he
was accustomed to. She was shrieking. As if there was something
really, really wrong.

“
Why didn’t you tell me? I
am having to run around the house cleaning it up.”

“
First, I just got off the
phone with him. Second, your house is clean.”

“
Not enough for Mr.
J.”

He hated to admit it, but the
reverence he heard in her voice made him a little jealous. Of his
father.

Being in love with her was really
screwing him up.

“
You didn’t have to invite
him over.”

“
Yes, I did. My father
would be furious if I didn’t. I thought he would just say he was
busy, blah blah. I didn’t expect him to say yes.”

This was completely out of character
for her, but he rolled with it. “Well, he appreciates it. I’m
picking him up.”

“
Thank you. It’s the least
you could do.”

He bit back a chuckle. Tess was
back.

“
And make sure you warn
him I had to put up with you for a week. He’s not allergic to
anything, is he?”

“
No. Not that I know
of.”

“
Brandon Johnson. You
don’t know if your father is allergic to anything?”

She was back to shrieking, so he
decided to change the subject. “Everything will be fine. Also, I
wanted to tell you that I am okay with the
friends with
benefits
.”

She didn’t need to know that he was
doing it with dubious intent. If he could stay close to her, he
could control the situation.

There was a beat of
silence.

“
Okay.”

He was a little disappointed. He
wanted her to get pissed and fight him, but he should have known
she would dig in.

“
Anyway, I have to get
ready so I can pick the old man up.”

“
Sure.”

“
See you
tonight.”

“
Bye, Bran.”