She didn’t have time for a boyfriend. She already knew how that story ended—with her falling deeply in love, while he left her in the dust because he never saw her. Aubrey bit her bottom lip in determination. She wouldn’t let herself fall for him. He was a good friend. He was fun. And the benefits side of their deal was pretty damn amazing.
She wasn’t going to let herself screw things up by falling in love.
Chapter Six
Brett’s feet pounded across the wet sand in time with Lance’s feet. They were running down a stretch of mostly deserted beach, sticking close to where the water met the sand. The terrain there was densely packed, and firmer than the loose, dry sand a few yards away.
Brett’s job required that he work out constantly. He had to keep himself in good enough shape to rescue survivors from churning seas. Running was the easy part of his routine. On a daily basis, he ran, swam, lifted weights, and did countless sit-ups, pushups, and pull-ups. Lance often joined him for his runs, especially when Brett was running on the beach. The uneven sand provided an extra level of resistance to the workout, and the view was unbeatable.
As they neared their turnaround point, Brett could feel his legs aching and his burning lungs protesting. Even though he was making good time today, he was feeling out of shape. His body was protesting more than normal, and he wished he could just slow down to an easier pace and lightly jog the rest of the way back.
But lives depended on his being in shape, so he pressed on. Besides, Lance was still going strong, and Brett would never live it down if he gave up on a workout in front of Lance. Brett breathed in as deeply as he could, pushing harder against the pain of his burning lungs and pulling out in front of Lance. Lance grunted, taking the challenge and catching up to Brett.
They never talked during their runs. Brett felt that if you had energy left to talk, you should be running harder. So, they pushed themselves to the limit, eking out every last but of energy until they made it back to the Coast Guard air station, where they had started.
They weren’t done yet, though. Brett led Lance through a series of sit-ups and then pull-ups. Sweat poured down both of their bodies as they wrapped up with a long series of pushups. Even for bear shifters, the workout had been intense. Brett chugged down an entire quart sized jug of water in one long series of gulps, and stood catching his breath as Lance drank a huge jug of water himself.
“Nice workout, buddy,” Brett said, slapping Lance on the back as they made their way into the station and toward the locker room.
“Thanks, you too,” Lance said. “I can’t believe how fast you were running back there on the sand. I thought my lungs were going to explode.”
“Yeah, I guess I got a little carried away,” Brett said with a chuckle. “Gotta stay on top of my game, though.”
“Why, so you can impress Aubrey?” Lance asked, giving Brett an impish look.
Brett rolled his eyes. “No. So I can save lives. You know, like our job requires.”
Lance laughed. “Hey, don’t get all uptight man. I’m just teasing you. Don’t worry, I’m not going to start another argument over whether you can trust her. What’s going on with you two, though? I haven’t seen her around since the ball. I thought you were really into her?”
“It’s complicated,” Brett said, his voice tight.
Lance raised an eyebrow. “Women usually are. Trouble in paradise already?”
“Well, no. There never really was a paradise to begin with. The problem is actually that Aubrey is the exact opposite of complicated. She doesn’t want to be in a relationship, because her work schedule is too unpredictable. Just like mine. So she proposed a friends with benefits arrangement.”
“Friends with benefits? As in, you get to sleep with her but don’t have to worry about all the annoying details of having a girlfriend?”
“Well, yes. I wouldn’t have worded it quite like that, but that’s essentially the gist of it. Friends with sex. No other relationship obligations,” Brett said.
“Dude, isn’t that every guy’s dream? You get to bang a hot girl and don’t have to deal with all the other romantic stuff like buying flowers or taking her out to a fancy dinner. I don’t know why you’re looking so glum about it.”
Brett shrugged. Lance walked away toward the showers, shaking his head in amusement. Brett couldn’t tell Lance that he was looking so glum because he wanted to do the “romantic stuff” for Aubrey. He wanted to buy her flowers, and take her to dinner, and give her a foot massage just because. He wanted to pack a picnic and take her to a secluded beach and spend the day swimming and eating and making love. Not “banging.” Making love. Maybe that wasn’t how a tough alpha should feel, but it’s how he felt.
Brett knew he was in trouble. He had already been falling for Aubrey. Every time they both had a night off, they spent it together. They were discovering each other’s favorite restaurants, and Aubrey had introduced Brett to some of her favorite swimming spots. Brett knew what kinds of wine she liked, and he could already finish many of her sentences. She had made it clear that she wanted to keep things on the level of friends, though. They had sex every time they hung out, and Brett wanted nothing more than to call Aubrey his girl. But she didn’t want to be called that. She harbored fear, leftover from several bad relationships in the past. She didn’t think he could commit, and he couldn’t do much to convince her. The only thing he could do was continue to be her friend, and hope that one day she would realize that his love for her wasn’t going to change just because their jobs kept them unreasonably busy.
To complicate matters further, Brett was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that Aubrey was his fated lifemate. He couldn’t say that out loud to the other guys, because they would all roll their eyes at the idea that a woman who they still thought was a rebound relationship might possibly be Brett’s destiny. But Brett felt a deep connection to Aubrey every time they had sex. He felt his chest glowing warm, and he knew that they were meant to be together somehow. But until Aubrey decided she felt the same way, he couldn’t explore those feelings more deeply.
Brett showered, and then got ready to head home. Another three day shift was coming to a close, and he was crossing his fingers that Aubrey would be available for dinner tonight. On the walk to his car, he pulled out his phone and called her.
“Hey, stranger,” she said, answering on the fourth ring. Brett had begun to think the call was going to go to voicemail.
“Hey, Aubs. How are you?”
“Pretty good. A lot better now that I’ve had the chance to hear your voice.”
Brett smiled at the flirtatious tone in her voice. Moments where she let her guard down and acted almost like a real girlfriend gave him hope that the future might hold a deeper relationship for them. “I just finished a three day shift,” he said. “Any chance you might be available for dinner?”
There was a loud sigh on the other end of the line. “Sorry. I’m actually just getting ready to go out on a three day research excursion.”
Brett’s mood dropped at her words, but he did his best to hide the disappointment in his voice. He didn’t want to add any fuel to Aubrey’s belief that their schedule made a relationship unworkable. “Bummer,” he said, keeping his voice light. “How are you feeling about being out on the ocean?”
“I’m surprisingly not nervous,” Aubrey said. “I think I’ve managed to get past what happened with our other boat sinking that night. It was a freak accident, and the odds of it happening again are astronomically low. Besides, now I have a personal Coast Guard rescue swimmer to call if I get into trouble.”
“You better not get into trouble. I’m not going to be happy if I have to come save your ass again. I’d rather you just stay safe,” Brett said.
Aubrey laughed. “I’ll do my best. I’ll call you when our research excursion is done and see if we can plan dinner, okay?”
“Alright,” Brett said. “Have fun. Be safe.”
“Will do,” Aubrey said, and then t
he line went dead.
Brett climbed into his car and threw his cell phone onto the passenger seat in frustration. He leaned his head back against his headrest and tried to still the bear within him, which was grumbling unhappily at the idea of not seeing Aubrey for another week. Brett had a few days off, but by the time Aubrey got back from her research excursion, he would be starting another three day shift himself. And who knew what her schedule would be by the time he finished that shift.
If Aubrey would only agree to date him for real, things would be better. They could move in together, or he could show up at her house to spend an hour with her when that’s all the time they had. Now, she never wanted him to come over for an hour. She said it was a waste of time, and that it was weird for him to do that when they were only friends. According to her, making the effort to see someone when all you had was an hour of time was the kind of thing boyfriends and girlfriends did, not platonic friends.
Brett snorted in amusement as the word platonic crossed his mind. He and Aubrey might not be in a romantic relationship, but no one could call what they did have “platonic.” When they closed the bedroom door behind them, things became scorchingly hot.
Brett reached for his car keys and started the engine. He had to get his mind off of Aubrey, since he wasn’t going to be able to see her tonight. He had an itch to scratch, and he wasn’t going to be able to scratch it anytime soon. The more he thought about her, the more restless his bear grew. Brett started heading for his apartment. He would change and head out to have a pint somewhere. Maybe he’d try a new bar, even. He’d been meaning to explore his neighborhood a bit.
Yes, that was a good plan. He’d do some exploring, and push Aubrey out of his mind until the next time they had a matching opening in their work schedules.
Chapter Seven
Three weeks later, Aubrey stepped out of the lab after wrapping up work for the night. The last few weeks had been a whirlwind of activity, punctuated by a brief day off here and there. Those days off never seemed to match up with Brett’s days off. The longer the time between their last meeting stretched, the more Aubrey felt that she had made the right decision by telling Brett they needed to keep things at just the friends’ level.
True, Brett made her laugh like no one ever had. And the sex left her craving his body like she had never craved anything before in her life. But a night or two of time together each month wasn’t enough to make a relationship.
As Aubrey made her way toward her car, she heard a voice behind her calling her name. She resisted the urge to groan aloud when she realized who it was: Gary.
“Hey, Aubrey! Wait up!”
Aubrey stopped to wait for him, but didn’t turn around. Gary worked at the university, too, but in a different department. He was chair of the mathematics department, and was obviously a very smart guy. But all his smarts didn’t seem to help him realize that Aubrey wasn’t interested in him. He had been continuously bugging her to go out for dinner with him over the last several weeks. Aubrey had pushed him off, saying that she wasn’t interested in a relationship right now. Which was true—she just didn’t add that even if she had been looking for a relationship, she wouldn’t be looking for one with Gary. He was nice enough, but he seemed to live a boring life. One time, he had cornered her at a cocktail reception and talked her ear off about the Pythagorean Theorem. Ever since then, she’d been wary of being stuck alone with him.
Gary caught up with Aubrey, breathless and flushed from sprinting toward her. “What are you up to tonight?” he asked. “I was thinking of heading down to Pete’s to grab a beer. Want to come?”
Aubrey hesitated, trying to come up with an excuse. Pete’s was a bar down the street from the university, and it was a popular place for the staff to grab drinks after work. Aubrey really liked the place, but she didn’t want to get stuck listening to Gary yak about math for an hour. Before she could say anything, however, he started insisting.
“Come on, just come get a drink with me. It doesn’t have to be anything more than hanging out as friends. What’s the harm? Or do you have a boyfriend who would be jealous to see you throwing back a pint with another guy?”
Aubrey frowned. She didn’t have a boyfriend. It was her own fault, but somehow the way Gary asked the question made her feel defensive. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend,” she said, her voice indignant. “I don’t need a man to fulfill me.”
Gary crossed his arms. “If you don’t have a boyfriend, then there’s no reason for you not to come have a drink with me tonight. I know you’re trying to blow me off. Just give me a chance. I don’t bite. And I’ll buy your beer. You can’t say no to a free drink, now, can you?”
Aubrey sighed. “Fine. I’ll go. But just this once.”
She knew it was a bad idea. She was only going to end up encouraging Gary to continue pursuing her. But she was tired of fighting him off, and she did want a beer. Who knew, maybe after one long, awkward drink at the bar, he would finally get the message and leave her alone.
So Aubrey followed Gary to Pete’s and ordered a pale ale. Pete’s was a small place, and pretty divey. You could easily see the whole bar from any seat in the room. But despite its small size, the bar boasted an impressive array of beers on tap. Aubrey had spent several nights here drinking beer after beer when she wanted to try many of the different brews that were available. This evening, however, she was determined to stop at one beer. Gary started in on a story about a spreadsheet for his department that had been messed up by too many people editing it, and Aubrey stifled a yawn as she tried to look at her watch without making it too obvious. She didn’t want to be rude, even if Gary was a rather dull drinking companion. He seemed to have a good heart, he was just a little oblivious to the fact that Aubrey had no romantic interest in him. Gary didn’t seem to notice Aubrey’s boredom. He kept ranting about how only people who had an actual business need to edit the spreadsheet should even be allowed access to it.
“I mean, can you imagine? I spent eight hours one day working on that thing, and the next day some buffoon messed it up in about twenty minutes,” Gary said. He rolled his eyes, but then laughed. “I managed to fix it, though. I was the only one who could figure out what had gone wrong. Job security I guess.”
Gary winked at Aubrey and then placed his hand on her arm. She stiffened up and started to draw back. He was taking their “friendly” drink outing a little too far.
“Gary, look, I should probably get going,” Aubrey started to say. Before she could get any more words out, she heard an angry sounding roar coming from the front entrance. She looked up, and was startled to see Brett standing in the doorway. His huge physique filled the doorframe, and his face was flushed red with anger.
“What the hell is going on here?” Brett asked.
“Brett? What are you doing here?” Aubrey asked. She felt relief flood her at the sight of him. He would give her an excuse to get away from Gary.
“I thought you said you didn’t have a boyfriend,” Gary said, crossing his arms and giving Aubrey an accusing look.
“I don’t,” Aubrey said. “This is my friend. But I don’t get to see him much since he works a lot, so—”
Brett let out another roar and kicked a chair across the room. “Your friend? You tell me you don’t have time for a relationship. Then I come here to surprise you when I get an unexpected day off, and you’re sitting her letting some other guy feel you up. I trusted you, Aubrey. You lied to me. I can’t believe this.”
“Brett, it’s not like that. Gary’s just a coworker and—”
“Oh, really? Do you normally let your coworkers hold your hand?”
Gary chuckled, apparently enjoying the tense exchange between Aubrey and Brett. Aubrey gave Gary a sharp glare before trying again to explain to Brett.
“I told him I would have a drink with him as long as he knew it was only as friends. But he overstepped his boundaries. I didn’t want him to hold my hand, and I certainly didn’t invite it.”
; “Your friend?” Brett spat out. “Seems like you have a lot of ‘friends.’ Does he come with benefits, too?”
“Brett!” Aubrey snapped. “Why are you acting like this? You’re not even giving me a chance to explain. And, for the record, this is exactly why I don’t want to be in a relationship. I can’t deal with all the jealousy. I’m a loyal, good person. I won’t be treated like a cheater when I’m not even doing anything wrong.”
Aubrey could feel anger bubbling up in her body, starting all the way down in her toes and making its way up to her eyes, which were furious and blazing by this point. She looked at Gary, who was smirking at her now, apparently thinking that he had caught Aubrey lying about not having a boyfriend. But she didn’t have a boyfriend, and this whole incident was just confirming for her that she did not want to get tangled up in a relationship. She was just fine on her own, pouring her time and energy into her work. She didn’t need anyone else.
Aubrey stood up and grabbed her purse. “I’ve had enough of this,” she said, storming past Brett and out the front door.
“The guys were right,” he called after her. “I should have known that a rebound would end in the same way as my relationship with my ex.”
Aubrey stopped for a moment, and turned to put her finger right in Brett’s face. “You said I wasn’t a rebound,” she hissed. “And besides, even if we were dating, which we weren’t, I didn’t do anything wrong. You jumped to conclusions and didn’t even give me a fair chance to explain. I’m not interested in spending time with someone who isn’t going to trust me.”
Brett stared at her without saying anything. His expression was set in a hard line, and his nostrils flared in anger. Aubrey shook her head in disgust and turned on her heel again. So much for the friends with benefits thing actually working out. She should have known it wouldn’t. It never did. She was obviously glad Brett had rescued her from the ocean when her research boat had sunk, but she wished she had never met him again after that. Her life was complicated enough without adding an angry, jealous man to the mix.
An Alpha's Storm (Water Bear Shifters 1) Page 6
