Surrender: A Little Harmless Military Romance

by Melissa Schroeder

  “You’re too old to use the term ‘as if.’”

  Addy ignored the comment. “I was ready to blast him when I got here. Telling me what I can do, and before six a.m. and decaffeinated. But I got here and he looked so grumpy that I couldn’t help but ignore it.”

  “I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he is gorgeous.”

  “Like that would matter. The vibe I got from him tells me that he could care less about me.”

  “What kind of vibe? And since you mentioned you don’t like guys telling you what to do, I would suggest that you rethink that. He’s not only military and a Seal at that, but he’s a Dom.”

  Addy rolled her eyes again. “Not that kind, although for him, I might forgo that worry. No, I would say it was more a vibe toward you.”

  It was Amanda’s turn to roll her eyes. “If there is any kind of vibe, it’s a brotherly one.”

  “Uh, you have been without a man too long. Men do not, repeat, do not read me the riot act for not being reachable to you. Not the way he did it.”

  Amanda didn’t like the way her heart jumped at the description. She shouldn’t be so damned happy that a man called her best friend and yelled at her in the morning. And it didn’t prove anything. Maybe he was just irritated and tired. Her couch couldn’t have been that comfortable.

  Amanda shrugged. “You have a lousy track record with men, so I’m not listening to you.”

  “I know enough to know that man has a thing for you. Guys like that don’t play nursemaid for nothin’.”

  She opened her mouth to refute it again, but Addy popped up. “I have to go open the shop. You know we have nothing scheduled today other than regular shop hours.”

  Before Amanda could stop her, Mal stepped into the room. “Doc said Amanda should stay home for the next couple of days.”

  She shook her head and had to fight wincing. “Now, I can stay home today, but I need to go in tomorrow.”

  The look Mal shot her told Amanda that she was in for a fight.

  Again, before she could say anything, Addy agreed. “No problem. See, the boss here didn’t schedule anything big this week after the Washington and Michelson wedding.”

  “Boss?” Mal asked. “I thought you were partners.”

  “Yes, but Amanda runs the schedule. You don’t even think of changing anything without an hour conference with her. I mean, she schedules everything down to the minute. Then, throw a kink into the schedule and she will hunt you down and kill you.”

  “Really?” Mal asked, and she could feel his gaze resting on her. Her face started to burn.

  “Yes. You know, one time there was this groom who was military, and he was late to his wedding and she lost it on him. He wasn’t fully dressed when she burst into the groom’s room at the church and gave him a dressing down that would have frightened even the scariest of drill sergeants.”

  “I thought you were leaving to open the shop?” she asked and winced inwardly at the prim tone in her voice.

  “Right, boss,” Addy said with a smile. She leaned down, gave Amanda a kiss, then abandoned her.

  She looked at Mal, who was still standing and watching her as if he were on a security mission and she was his detail.

  “Eat.”

  She frowned at him, but she wasn’t going to say no. She could already smell the gooey cheese and eggs, and her stomach rumbled. Mal watched her as she picked up the plate and started to eat.

  “If you stare at me, it’s going to make me nervous.” He didn’t stop looking at her. “At least get yourself something to eat and sit down.”

  He sat. “I ate earlier.”

  She nodded as she gobbled up the eggs. She knew he would have been up at dawn, especially considering he slept on the couch. There had been enough room in her bed for him. Waking up next to him would have been much better than waking up alone.

  Oh Lord, that wasn’t where her mind should be going. Thinking about Mal in her bed was not a good idea. It led to thinking about all kinds of silly things like…would her sheets smell like him when he left?

  She cleared her throat. “Don’t you have to go in to work today?”

  “I took the day off.”

  “Oh, Mal, I didn’t mean for you to do that. I didn’t even know that you could take time off during a deployment.”

  He shook his head and leaned back in the chair, stretching out his long legs. “No problem. I always have ‘use or lose’ leave come September, so it never hurts to take a few days here and there. And when I explained who you were, there was no problem.”

  She nodded and took the last bite of omelet. Of course it was because she was Kyle’s wife. It was something she admired in the military. Whether you liked each other or not, you were a family of sorts, and especially with the Seals and other special forces. The constant deployments made it hard for many of the families to cope. A little help from other people in the group was usually normal. She just hadn’t expected it to last so long after Kyle’s death, but then Mal was different.

  She swallowed the last bite and tried to ignore him. It was hard because he was staring at her as if he were worried she would pass out.

  “What?”

  “Just making sure you keep it down.”

  She snorted. “No nausea here. I know the warning signs of a concussion.”

  He cocked his head to watch her. “Had experience with it?”

  “Two brothers who played football. And all three of those idiots used to beat the hell out of each other.”

  He nodded as he stood and took the plate from her.

  “I thought you should take it easy today. If you have some pain, the doc said it was okay to take the meds we got last night.”

  She was about to refuse, but when she shook her head, pain radiated through it. "Maybe I'll take you up on that."

  He nodded again and then left her alone to her thoughts. Which, with Malachai Dupree, was a problem. Now that Addy had put it in her head that he was somehow attracted to her, she couldn't get the idea off her mind.

  She thought back over the last eighteen months and his support. Her folks had been great. Her brothers...not so much, but they were guys who had never handled her tears well. There had been a part of her that thought of moving back to the safety of Texas. Her parents were there, and that's where she went to high school. They had made no concrete plans about the business, so if she had decided to run back to Texas, Addy would have understood.

  But there was one thing Amanda realized about herself in that year after Kyle died. She was too much like her father, which meant she was too damned stubborn to give up. Addy had helped, but the big part of her recovery had been through help from Mal. He had always been there when he could. Being a Seal, he was gone a lot, but he always checked on her when he was in town. And there were those pics from his travels and the Hawaiian weddings.

  "Here you go," he said as he approached her with a pill and some water. "The doc said these might make you sleepy, so he wanted to wait at least twelve hours past the time of the accident."

  She nodded as she downed the water.

  "So what are your plans for me today?"

  For a moment, he didn't say anything. He got a really weird look on his face. Heat swept through her body in embarrassment, tinged with arousal.

  "What I mean is what am I allowed to do today?"

  He rolled his shoulders and took the glass from her. "Not much. They wanted you to rest."

  "Mal, I can really take care of myself if you need to check in."

  "What do you mean?"

  "My dad was at the Pentagon, so I know what they expect of you. You can go to work."

  He pursed his lips then rolled his shoulders again. She got the distinct feeling he was irritated, but she didn’t know why. "Trying to get rid of me, Forrester?"

  She snorted. "No. It just makes me feel weird getting waited on."

  "Something wrong with that?" he asked.

  "I'm just not used to it."

 
"Are you telling me Kyle never pampered you?"

  She snorted again, but this time it was to hide the pain. "No. No, he wasn't into romance that much."

  Not with her, anyway. He apparently ran up a bunch of bills sending someone flowers. There was also a weekend in New York. She was so happy to pay those off for him after he died. She noticed that Mal was watching her, and she decided it best to think about something else. Kyle's cheating had been something she refused to let anyone know about.

  "Why don't we watch one of those SyFy movies?"

  He smiled like she knew he would. "Sounds good. Did you record the newest one?"

  She nodded and snuggled down on the couch. "Sure did."

  Their mutual love of the campy movies had been a surprise and a delight. They had spent many nights sharing popcorn and laughing at the crazy antics on the TV.

  He sat back down and grabbed the remote to start the movie, and Amanda settled back against the pillows. If this was all she was going to have, it would be enough.

  Chapter Four

  Mal watched her sleep. It wasn't hard to do. She had tried to stay awake, but she'd only made it through the first fifteen minutes of the movie.

  She looked good. The color was back in her face, and she no longer looked that fragile. Still, he was worried. A hit like that wasn’t the best thing in the world. He knew he was overreacting, but there were things he couldn’t handle and this was one of them.

  He needed to know she was okay. It was the same with his family. He couldn’t even fathom one of them getting hurt. Chris knew it and had ordered the family to keep quiet about Jocelyn’s problems a few years back. They had eventually told him, but he had been going through Hell Week at the time. Mal had been pissed, but he had understood. He knew his brothers in the Seals would be under fire, that there was always a chance he would lose one of them. One thing he needed was to know those he cared about were safe.

  He leaned back in the chair and thought about getting a little catnap in. He hadn't slept much the night before. The doc had said Amanda would be okay, that the concussion wasn't that bad, but Mal couldn't keep from peeking into her room every thirty minutes to make sure she was still okay. It had been almost too tempting. She had a huge bed, and seeing her lay there snuggled against her pillows had made him want to slip in beside her, pull her close, and snuggle there with her.

  But he didn't have that right. The need had been almost overwhelming, but Mal knew that his role was as a friend and nothing more.

  He was dozing off when the front door buzzed. He glanced over at Amanda and noticed she hadn't budged. He padded to the door and looked out the peephole. Dylan, her brother.

  Mal opened the door.

  "She's okay?" he asked without saying anything else. Mal moved out of his way as Dylan stepped over the threshold of the apartment. The worry in his expression was easy to see. "Mom and Dad said it wasn't that bad."

  Mal nodded toward the couch. He saw the man's shoulders relax.

  "Let's talk in her bedroom so we don't wake her up," Mal said.

  The major followed him in, and Mal closed the door.

  "The doc said a mild concussion, although she lost consciousness for a few seconds after it happened. He took an MRI and everything looked okay other than that, but she needs to see her doctor next week. She rested all night."

  "I appreciate it. Mom was going to fly up here, and Dad and I talked her down."

  "You were in San Antonio?"

  He nodded. "I had TDY at Fort Sam that I extended a few days so that I could spend some time with the folks. They've been complaining none of us come down there anymore, so I thought this would be perfect. Of course, I should have known something like this would happen. Amanda always did have the worst timing."

  “Amanda didn’t cause this,” he said.

  It wasn’t until Dylan gave him an odd look that he realized how mean he had sounded. He didn’t have the right to get pissed at her brother, but the thought that she had no one here to watch out for her when he was gone was irritating Mal. He had thought he could count on Dylan, but apparently his support was sketchy at best.

  “No, she didn’t. You’re sounding like it’s worse than you let on.”

  It wasn’t. It was a bump on the head. It was just the idea that if he had been deployed, she wouldn’t have had any kind of backup apparently. Amanda was the kind of woman who was always there for people, but when she needed someone, she hadn’t had anyone to call.

  He pulled back his temper. She wasn’t his so he shouldn’t be getting so damned angry on her behalf.

  "She's fine. She has some meds," Mal said as he slipped into the bathroom and then returned with a bottle of painkillers. "I gave her one about thirty minutes ago, so she should be good to go."

  "Mom and Dad really appreciate you taking care of her. She thinks she doesn't need anyone, but she does."

  He studied her brother for a moment, and then it hit him. "You took that horrible job because of her, didn't you?"

  Dylan sighed and settled on the bed. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong. It will help my career, but I still would have taken the job if it ruined it. Amanda's...well you have to know how she keeps everything beneath the surface."

  "Yeah," Mal said.

  "Mom wanted to move up here, but then they were worried that if they did, Dad would be lured back in to the Pentagon and politics. He just can't resist it, and it isn't what they want now. So this job popped up and I got it."

  "Amanda's doing fine."

  "You think?" Dylan shook his head. "Then you don't know everything about her."

  "Explain."

  He rolled his shoulders. "Amanda had it tough being the youngest and a girl. We terrorized her so much. She just wanted to be one of the boys, and she thought by doing what we did, she would fit in. By the time she was seven, she rarely cried. I mean, what little girl doesn't cry when she breaks her arm climbing up a tree?"

  "A tomboy."

  Dylan snorted. "Yeah, and then some. Of course, Seth and I got in a lot of trouble for it, which she enjoyed."

  "Why did you get in trouble?"

  He smiled, and Mal saw even more of the resemblance between Dylan and his sister. The quick grin, the sparkling green eyes—he was the male version of Amanda. "We dared her."

  Mal chuckled. "And Amanda can't deal with anyone daring her."

  Dylan gave him an odd look and then nodded. "You do know her well. Anyway, she fell, we panicked, and during all the yelling and screaming, not to mention the smacks to the back of our heads, she never cried. Not once did she shed a tear in front of us. So I had to get the next flight back or you would have been dealing with my mother, and believe me, the no crying doesn't extend to Mom."

  Mal smiled. "If you want to go back to your place and clean up, I can wait."

  He shook his head. "I'll take care of that later. Maybe I can talk her into staying at my house in Arlington."

  "Yeah, good luck with that, Major."

  "Just what are you two plotting in here?" Amanda asked sleepily.

  Both of them turned at the same time, but Mal knew Dylan's heart didn't turn over at the sight of her. Her hair was a mess, a tangle of silky locks tumbling over her shoulders. She was rubbing her eyes as if trying to wake herself up, and he could imagine she was having a hard time doing so. The pain killers were strong.

  "What are you doing up?" he asked.

  She frowned. "You guys aren't really quiet."

  "Yeah, like you can talk," her brother said as he rose from the bed and hugged her. "Mom wants to talk to you today. And I'll warn you, unless you want both of them here, you will make sure to ease her worries. She was halfway packed before Dad and I convinced her to stay in San Antonio."

  She smiled as she kept her arms locked around her brother. They had a family much like Mal's. They were close, closer than most families, and he knew that came from being a military family, but there was more there. The love they felt for each other was never hidden.

  "I
can take care of her now, Dupree," Dylan said. "I was already scheduled for a few days after the TDY, so I'll stay here and take care of the invalid."

  That earned him a punch from Amanda. "Suck it, Dylan."

  He studied her for a second, a frown marring those movie star looks of his. "Get in bed or I will call Mom and tell her you want her here."

  Amanda matched the frown. "You fight mean."

  "You should know that by now."

  She smiled at him. "Thanks again, Mal, for taking care of me."

  “Anytime,” he said. “Call if you need anything.”

  He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay and make sure she was cared for. He knew that Dylan would look out for her. Still, there was a part of him that wanted to make sure that everything was taken care of, and for some reason, he was the only one who had the right to watch over her.

  He said nothing else as he stepped around the brother and sister. He just needed to remember the woman wasn’t his for the taking and he would be fine.

  But as he was driving back to his room, he wondered just when his body would start listening to him.

  * * * *

  "What's going on with you and Dupree?" Dylan asked her.

  Amanda had just taken a sip of water and choked on it.

  "What?" she asked and tried to cover her dismay by patting her lips with a napkin. She didn’t need her brother embarrassing her with Mal. Sure, she had a little crush on him, but it was no big deal. Really.

  Dylan was studying her like he was trying to put a puzzle together. And that was bad. Really bad. Dylan loved puzzles. "There's something going on there, and I’m not too sure I’m that happy with it."

  "All those slaps to the back of your head Dad gave you must have knocked something loose. There's nothing going on. Mal thinks he needs to take care of me."

  "No. Well, okay he does, but it has more to do with the fact that he wants to be here. When I told him he could go, you should have seen the look on his face."

  She frowned. "What do you mean?"

  "He was going to argue. I could sense it."

  She shook her head and was happy that for once that day, it didn't send the room spinning around her. It meant that she should be able to handle work tomorrow.