Reborn: The Allies of Old (Book One)

Chapter Five

The next morning Anna woke up with a start. She'd had a disturbing dream where she was running from something...she couldn't remember what but she figured it was shadow men. Austin stirred and turned over to face her.

"Morning," he smiled.

She smiled weakly back, remnants of the dream still hanging on.

He peered at her. "What is it?"

"Had a bad dream."

He put his arms around her and she snuggled into them. This was a definite benefit to the whole relationship thing, she decided, large arms for comfort.

"Coffee?" he asked after a minute, and she nodded. He got out of bed and looked at her. "On second thought..." He started to climb back in, but she shooed him away.

"Morning breath, go make coffee."

He mock pouted then grinned and strode away.

I'm his girlfriend, she thought suddenly, and shook her head in wonder. She still wasn't sure how she felt about it. Nope, not going to dwell on it, just gonna go with it. She pulled herself out of bed, yawned and stretched. Amazingly she didn't seem to be suffering from a hangover. She shuffled off to the bathroom to gargle some mouthwash then went downstairs.

Austin was standing in the kitchen next to the coffee pot looking seriously cute all rumpled from sleep, and she was suddenly struck by the urge to make him take off his shirt. She realized it had been nearly a year since she'd seen him shirtless and in that time his arms had grown pretty substantially causing her to wonder about the rest of his physique.

"You looking at something, friend?" His lip curved.

She smiled impishly, "Actually I want to look at something..."

His eyebrows went in the air. "What?"

"Would you take off your shirt?"

"Take off my shirt?" he repeated, brows still raised.

"Yeah, I wanna see your chest."

His face broke into a grin. "Tell you what, I'll show you mine if you show me yours," he waggled his eyebrows and she gave him a stern look.

"What? That's only fair."

"Not the same thing."

"Come on you're wearing a...." he looked at her chest and his mouth seemed to dry up. "No, you're not. When did that happen?"

"I can't sleep with one on."

"You weren't wearing one all night and I didn't cop a feel? I am seriously slackin'." He shook his head in mock regret.

She folded her arms across her chest. "So you won't take off your shirt for me?"

He laughed again and pulled it up over his shoulders and off. For some reason just the act of him removing it was pretty sexy. "Happy?" He asked.

She let her eyes roam over the broad expanse of bared skin in appreciation. Not an ounce of fat on his body, muscles bulging in all the right places. His skin was very lightly tanned and she knew from the past that by the end of summer he would be bronze. They had a phrase for his physique--eye candy.

He was watching her reaction and she grinned at him. "Not bad, not bad at all."

"Oh yeah? Gina said something like scrumptious...

She grabbed a dish towel and threw it at him. "Wait, when did she see you without a shirt?"

"I was kidding."