by Dale Mayer
They drove back to base, through the checkpoint, waved at the security guards, grabbed Warrick’s gym bag and headed out to the real world. Or rather the other half of his world. Warrick had two worlds—the real world, which was his military life, and then the rest of the world.
He watched as Tanner, driving with almost a sense of joy, pulled the Jeep into traffic and headed to the liquor store only a few blocks from Warrick’s house. As soon as he parked, Warrick hobbled out and walked in with Tanner.
“What do you think? Grab a twofer?”
Tanner nodded. “I tried to bring some food, but Mason said there was tons.”
Warrick nodded. “The thing is, now that so many of the guys have partners, if anything, we’re completely overwhelmed in food. There are always leftovers for days.”
“And I get to have the benefit of that most of the time too,” Tanner said with a smirk. “There are some advantages to being one of the two bachelors in our circle.”
“Yeah, well, every time I meet somebody like Penny, I know why I’m still single.”
At that, Tanner gave a shout of laughter. “Well, if you’re not interested, I might be.”
Warrick looked at him in horror. “Of course I’m not interested.”
“Absolutely you are,” Tanner said with a chuckle. “I see it as the only reason you’ve messed up the paperwork as many times as you have. It’s also the only reason she hasn’t stepped in and fixed it for you.”
Warrick shot him a look but was at the cash register already. He paid for the beer, and, as they walked out the double doors, he muttered, “You’re nuts.”
“Nope, not nuts. She’s helped everyone else.”
“Exactly. If she was sweet on me, she’d be helping me, not putting me through this torment,” he lamented.
“And, if you weren’t sweet on her, you’d have done the paperwork in a heartbeat or at least asked for enough help to get through it so the process was over with. This way you keep getting the chance to visit her over and over again.”
Warrick stared at him in horror. “Hell no.”
But Tanner wasn’t listening. He was too busy laughing. Instead of going back home to Warrick’s place, he took several corners and put them on the road toward Mason’s house.
As they pulled up in front, Warrick hobbled out of the Jeep, grabbed the beer he’d placed in the footwell and walked up to the front of the house. He was totally okay leaving Tanner behind. Warrick hit the doorbell and pushed the door open, calling out, “Hey, anyone home?”
Tesla, her face flushed and tendrils of hair everywhere and the cutest little apron he could ever imagine—a big tabby cat wrapping its arms around her waist—came racing toward him. “Put down the beer.”
He obediently put the beer on the floor and opened his arms. She flung herself into them and hugged him hard. He held her close for a moment. “This is the only reason I would be interested in having a girlfriend again.”
“What’s that? Somebody to smile when you arrive?” she teased.
He rolled his eyes at her. “Not you too.”
Tanner chuckled again, snagged the beer off the floor beside him and walked past the two of them. “Hi, Tesla,” he said.
Tesla reached out, grabbed his arm. “What? No hug?”
“Warrick’s suffering,” he said. “He had another encounter with Penny.”
Tesla turned back to see Warrick’s face crinkling up in disgust. “I’ve told you that she’s a sweetheart. How bad was it?”
He just glared at her.
She sighed. “Oh.” She thought about it for a moment, and then Mason’s gentle voice came from the kitchen, saying, “Don’t bother about it, honey.”
She turned a worried gaze his way.
Mason just shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. “What will be, will be.”
Warrick looked over at Mason. “What the hell does that mean?” Mason’s bland look told Warrick nothing. But his instincts had already spiked, and he knew something was up.
He walked forward with Tesla exclaiming, “Are you still in that walking cast? When will you be back to normal again?”
He smiled down at her and patted her hand. “Anytime you want to fuss over me, you just ditch Mason. Then you can move in with me.”
She beamed up at him. “Now if I thought you loved me like Mason loves me …” she said in a loud whisper, “I might take you up on that.”
“How could I not love you as much as Mason does?” he asked earnestly. “Besides I’m twice the man Mason is.” At that, she laughed hard, and he glared at her. “My ego can’t take much more today.”
And that made her laugh all the harder. She walked over to Mason, slipping her arms around him and laid her head against his chest. “Warrick, I keep telling you. You will find somebody.”
“And I keep telling you that I’m not interested.”
She grinned up at Mason and kissed his chin. “Should be a fun evening.”
He gave a tiny nod, stepped out of the doorway, saying, “Warrick, we’re getting the prep done for the barbecues. If you want to come out with me, we can sit and attend the grills. You won’t have to walk around too much.”
“Suits me.” The kitchen was full of people, so he called out, “Hello, everyone, I’m here. Goodbye, everyone, I’m going outside with Mason.”
There was an outcry of hellos and various other catcalls. He ignored them all, except to toss a big grin behind him, and walked out the double French doors of Mason’s house.
There was a large pool, which was always nice. But off to the side was a huge outdoor kitchen area, and that’s the one thing that Mason put to extremely good use. They were constantly having barbecues here. Who knew there would be so many of them who had become fast friends? And, if the men hadn’t become fast friends, the women had. And that just meant the men came along and got to know each other a little bit better too. Every time somebody new joined the group, it seemed to shift and blend and then meld even better.
Warrick didn’t understand it, but he was damn glad to be a part of it. He made his way to the two loungers Mason had set up by the barbecue grills and plunked his butt down in the closest one. Mason grabbed a cold beer and handed it to him. Warrick popped the top and chugged down one-third of the can, then sat back with a sigh of relief and said, “Now that is a hell of an improvement on my day.”
“You were supposed to finish that paperwork.”
“I tried,” he said in an aggrieved tone. “I really did try.” Then he told Mason his trouble from start to finish.
By the time he was done, Mason was laughing, his shoulders shaking so hard that the tongs in his hands were in danger of falling from his grip.
“It’s not that funny,” Warrick muttered.
“No, it’s not,” said a woman, her familiar voice coming from behind them.
He stared at Mason, his gaze going wide, and he shook his head. “Oh no, no, please no.”
At this point, Mason gave up the ghost and howled.
Warrick slunk farther in the chair, picked up the rest of his beer, looked at it and thought, What the hell. He threw it back in one big slug.
He would need a half dozen more before he could turn around. But he didn’t have to. He turned slightly to see somebody had stepped around into full view—somebody tiny, somebody with a fiery temper, somebody standing in front of him, her hands on her hips, glaring at him.
“Hi, Penny,” he said in exaggerated politeness. “How nice to see you.”
She leaned over and said, “Not so much.”
He glared right back, shoving his jaw forward until their noses were almost touching. “You could have helped me,” he roared.
“You could have asked for help,” she roared back so the two had everyone’s attention, but neither noticed they were so locked on to each other.
And suddenly Warrick could see the humor in the situation, and his lips twitched.
She shook her head. “Oh, no you don’t. No laughing.”
Now she just got madder by the second. She looked at her beer, looked at him and reached out, as if to pour it over his head. But he caught her hand, twisted her around and pulled her into his arms, so she was seated in front of him in between his legs on the lounger. Then he snatched the can out of her hand and poured it into his mouth.
She struggled to get away, but there was no use. His arm was an iron grip around her tiny frame. Instead, all she did was get madder.
But, at this point, he was laughing so loud it was a struggle to regain control. Finally he calmed down. “Thank you. I needed that.”
She glared at him, spun in his arms and punched him on the shoulder.
He looked at her and, in an injured voice, said, “Mason, you’ve got mosquitoes here.”
She gasped and hit him again.
And Warrick chuckled again. He said, “If you do that a third time, I’ll have to retaliate.”
She leaned forward, her chin jutted out again. “Yeah? What are you gonna do? Hit me back?”
He dropped his voice to a serious tone. “Try it.” He didn’t mean to make it a challenge, but, at the same time, he couldn’t resist.
She balled up her fist, swung back and hit him hard.
“Mason, definitely mosquitos.” He grabbed her jaw, pulled her toward him and kissed her hard.
All around them, cheers broke out. She sagged against him, and he couldn’t pull back. He kissed her again and again until she was completely compliant in his arms. Then he lifted his head and whispered, “Go ahead. Hit me again and see where we end up.”
*
Penny was mortified. As shrieks of laughter, clapping and cheers broke out around her, she realized how the two of them must have looked. She didn’t know if she should run home where she could hide away in mortification and hopefully never see these people again, or if she could somehow brave this out. She wasn’t sure how to do that.
In the meantime, she was completely tucked in Warrick’s arms against his chest, his arms wrapped around her, holding her tight, and she lay sprawled, weak against him. She’d been kissed many times. Hell, she’d had several long-term relationships. But never had a kiss knocked the stuffing out of her like this one had. Of course, with the compound effect of her temper being pricked and the challenge from him …
At his last words about daring her to punch him again and to see where they ended up, she knew exactly where they’d end up. Making love right here, without a care for wherever they were. And that was a hell of a thought. She’d never been so lost in passion that she didn’t know exactly what was going on and where, and she was afraid that, with him, she would completely lose herself. Not something she was prepared to do. And yet the draw, the attraction between them, was hard to ignore.
“All right, folks, give us a moment. Then we’ll be up for round two. The play will begin after a short intermission,” Warrick joked.
At that, there was more laughter from everybody around her, but, at the same time, it was friendly teasing. Most of the people moved away, giving them a little bit of space. She didn’t want to move at all. She hoped everybody would assume they had had a prior relationship, and she hadn’t just let a stranger kiss her silly …
And finally, when almost alone, she tried to sit up, but he kept his arms firmly around her.
“If you stay where you are,” he said in a low voice, “we might be lucky to pass this off as a lovers’ tiff.”
As he wasn’t really giving her much of an option, she relaxed back against him. “That would be giving them the wrong impression.”
“After that kiss, sweetheart, I don’t think so.”
“What the hell was that?” she asked, but she kept her voice low so only he could hear her. She felt his head shake and heard the confusion in his voice.
“I am not sure.”
“Well, that’s good to know,” she joked. “I hate to think it was just me.”
“That’s another reason why I don’t want you to move yet,” he said. “Otherwise the entire crowd will get to see just how I feel about what happened here.”
She caught his meaning and realized the hard prodding against her hip was something she hadn’t even considered. It had caught her sideways. She giggled.
He looked down at her, aghast. “Funny, is it?”
“Well, it is for me, yes. But not for you. Sorry.” Then she giggled again.
He grinned. “At least I know I’m not dead.”
She stared at him. “Hardly. You’re one of the sexiest men I’ve ever met.”
He looked at her and shrugged. “Since my last relationship broke up, I’ve been trying celibacy.”
She stared up at him. “Trying celibacy?”
He nodded. “Trying. As in I haven’t had a girlfriend in a while. I’ve gone out with friends. But I have deliberately avoided deepening the relationship.”
“And why is that?” she asked, curious in spite of herself. She was pretty damn sure that was the first time she’d ever heard anybody say something like this.
He shrugged. “I didn’t want it to be the basis of a relationship,” he admitted.
Just then Mason walked in front of them, holding two beers. “After that show,” he said, “I think you both deserve these.”
Penny rolled her eyes at him. “Thanks.” She took one. She watched as Warrick reached for his next one too. “I think that means you’re ahead of me on the beer count.”
“You were just very generous and shared yours,” he said with a grin.
“If that’s what you call it.” She popped the top on hers and took a drink. She was still muttering over his words. “How’s that working out for you?”
“How’s what working out?” he asked, sliding her a sideways look.
Knowing Mason was fairly close by, she kept her voice low. “Celibacy. Trying to find a real relationship.”
“Strange. Different. Nowhere near as exciting.”
She could see that. Sex was often heated overwhelming passion. Fun, but then when gone, often a hollowness was left behind. “Would you recommend it?”
He shrugged. “Only if you’re the kind of person who’s okay being alone. Because often, if you’re celibate, you’re going to be alone.”
“And here I thought a woman would say that.”
“I think women do say that a lot, and I think you’re right. It’s less common for men to think that way. But it certainly is the way I’ve been thinking.”
She took a sip of her beer and settled deeper into his arms. “Am I hurting you?”
He grabbed her hips, placing her slightly off to the side. “That’s better.” His voice was a little breathless.
She nodded. They sat there in the quiet for a long moment. “It that why you kissed me?”
“Is what why I kissed you?” He stared at her in confusion.
Her lips twitched. “Yeah, that wasn’t very clear was it?”
He shook his head. “No. Why the hell do women always have to question everything after a kiss?”
“I don’t have to question everything after a kiss,” she said. “But you’ve got to admit that, as a first kiss, ours wasn’t exactly common or normal.”
He nodded. “So what is your question? What do you want to know?”
“If you kissed me like that because you’ve been celibate for so long.”
He froze, twisted slightly so he could see her, caught her chin so she was looking up at him and said, “Are you really asking if I’m so starved for sex that that was just an over-the-top kiss because I’m desperate?”
She frowned. “No. I’m not sure desperate is the word but maybe … hungry.”
His eyebrows shot up. “I’m definitely hungry. But apparently it’s you I’m hungry for. And that means I need my head examined.”
She stared at him, hating to feel hurt. She understood what he meant though, as five minutes earlier they’d been fighting like cats.
“Lover-like,” she said, tasting the word slowly, rolling it around in her mind. “No, definitely not.” Her voice was purposefully cheerful. “Maybe sworn enemies, yes.”
“Definitely on two sides of an issue.” He nodded in agreement.
“Two sides of a counter, for sure,” she said, chuckling, parroting him.
“I really want that damn paperwork done and off my plate.”
She nodded. “So do I. Because, if we don’t do it properly, it ends up on my plate for way too long.”
“Everybody says you’re such a sweetheart and will help. And yet you never help me.”
“You never asked for help.”
He glanced down at her. “And yet you knew I was struggling.”
“Yeah, sure did. But look at the job I do, and look at the men I deal with. Most of them are blockheaded, macho mouths who never ever, ever think they need help.” She knew she’d hit home when he winced and turned his gaze away. “So the last thing I’ll do is help you if you can’t ask for help.”
“Are you telling me that everyone else who deals with you, who says you’re an absolute sweetheart, who got your assistance to fill out those forms, asked for your help? They came right out and asked you directly for help?”
“I don’t know about everyone,” she said cheerfully, “but lots of people did.”
He sighed. “I might have a problem with asking for help,” he admitted.
“Might?”
He glared at her.
She shrugged. “See? We’re back to that temper again.”
At that, he laughed. “Talk about a temper. You’re a fine one to talk.”
“Yep, I have a hell of a temper,” she said. “But I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“You punched me. Three times.”
It was her turn to wince. “I know. I don’t quite understand why that happened. I’ve never hurt anybody in my life.”
“Then you pick on me.”
“You hurt me,” she muttered.