Barron reached over and grabbed the alarm clock. Yep, he used an old fashioned alarm clock to get him up, because the phone alarm wasn’t persistent or irritating enough to push him to fully awake status. He peered bleary-eyed at the red numbers and groaned as he set it down on his bedside table, threw his covers off his body and swung his feet to the floor.
Almost immediately Brandt started knocking again.
With a soft snarl Barron got to his feet and started toward the door. Just as he left the bedroom, he cast a glance toward the sleeping form of his mate, still slumbering away in their bed. He pulled the door to, but didn’t close it all way and went to stop whoever was pounding on his door before they woke up Emmalyn. He snatched the curtains on the window next to the door aside and glared at Brandt.
“It’s raining! Open the door!” Brandt said irritatedly.
“Go away.”
“No, open the door,” Brandt insisted and went back to knocking on the door while maintaining eye contact with Barron.
Barron unlocked the door and walked away, his focus the coffee pot in the kitchen and a full cup of steaming coffee as soon as he could manage to get a pot made.
Brandt let himself in and followed Barron to the kitchen. “Why are you still asleep? You know how late it is?”
Barron took only a split second to glare at Brandt, then turned back to the task of making coffee.
“It’s almost ten o’clock.”
“So?”
“So, you missed breakfast.”
Barron gestured to the coffee pot which was just starting to percolate. “Obviously, I didn’t.”
“Seriously, though. I was just checking. I was starting to get worried. You never sleep in this late, even on your day off.”
“It’s Saturday. No work today.”
“Still, you don’t sleep this late.”
“Didn’t get a lot of sleep.”
“You watching over Emmalyn all night?”
“Something like that.”
“She know we know she’s in trouble?”
“No, and we don’t technically know that. I’m thinking we overreacted. ”
“Maybe. Maybe not. And besides, her mother believes it. If you were up all night watching her house, you believe she’s being stalked as much as I do.”
Barron nodded as he waited for his coffee. “I wasn’t up all night watching her house.”
“Then what were you up all night doing?”
“Why are you here before I even have my first cup of coffee asking me personal questions?”
Brandt shrugged. “Why not?”
Barron looked him up and down, then figured out what was going on. “Tempest visiting her family again?”
“Yes. I really love that she can go whenever she wants. But I get lonely.”
“So, you’re here irritating me.”
Brandt grinned. “Should make you feel special.”
