Page 18

“How’d you find me?” Hellen asked, spinning to face Lucien again.

“Somebody told me.”

“Who?”

“I’m not sure. A couple of people. Hey, do I smell burgers?”

“Are you ever not hungry?”

“Nope.”

“Here we go, a double and double onion rings for Hell, and a regular with cheese and a single onion ring for Cristie,” one of the girls said, walking out of the back with a tray in her arms that bore all the food and two chocolate shakes.

“Vince said you forgot about drinks so he sent two chocolate shakes.” She put the food down on the table, then watched spellbound as Lucien walked over and pulled out a chair, dropping into it and digging into the double order of onion rings.

“Stop eating my food!” Hellen snapped, slapping at his hand.

“You ordered a double. You knew I was coming.”

“I did not! I’m stressed. I eat when I’m stressed.”

“You want to talk about stressed. Let’s talk about being left with a family you don’t know, who just found out the Golden Child’s woman has been hiding the fact that they’re preggers, and your damn woman ran off and left you there to try to explain how you two met.

The only damn one that didn’t want to hang me was Harley, but her freaking lizard did! ”

“Uuh, do you want some food of your own?” the waitress asked.

“Yes, please. Just add it to her tab,” he said, smiling at the waitress as he thumbed toward Hellen.

“Coming right up,” the waitress giggled and practically skipped back to the kitchen.

“Did you see that shit?” Hellen asked Christian.

Christian nodded while grinning at her.

“I can’t help that women love me.”

“You can stop encouraging them!”

“Why? You have yet to admit that you’re my mate!” he said, stealing another of her onion rings.

“You take another of my onion rings and I might rip your damn head off!” Hellen growled.

“Fine,” he said, picking up her burger and taking a huge bite.

She snarled and picked up her plates and her shake and moved to another table.

Lucien wiped his hands on his jeans and looked at Cristie. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Cristie. I’m Riley’s daughter. Hellen is my aunt. Maverik is my Poppy.”

“What’s a Poppy?” Lucien asked.

“My grandfather.”

“I understand. You’re nice. Why isn’t she?”

“I’m related by marriage. My dad, Riley, married Maia, but he already had me.”

“That explains it.” Lucien looked over at the next table. “Hi.”

“Hi. I’m Christian. My dad, Vince, is Valerie’s brother. I’m actually blood. This is my mate, Addie.”

Lucien offered his hand, and Christian shook it. “Hi, Christian — sorry about that. Addie, good to meet you. Y’all doing alright today?”

“We’re doing very well,”Addie said, grinning while Christian laughed at Lucien’s apology about being related to Hellen by blood.

“Good for you. Glad being somebody’s mate doesn’t suck for everybody,” Lucien said.

“Seriously! Who the hell told you where to find me?” Hellen demanded, dredging an onion ring through a river of ketchup before taking a huge bite of it.

“Your daddy. Then he told me I should keep my distance and play hard to get. But I’m stubborn, so, here I sit.”

“Here’s your food, sir,” the waitress said, all flirtatious glances and peeking at him through her lashes. “I brought you two doubles and double onion rings. You look like your appetite is insatiable.”

“You have no idea, sweetheart,” he said with a rumble, as he took the food from her. “Why don’t you run your sweet little self back in there and bring my mate over there another chocolate shake. Seems she finished the first. I like to make sure she’s always got everything she wants.”

The waitress looked crestfallen, but nodded and headed back to the kitchen.

Lucien looked over his shoulder at Hellen. “Better?”

“Leave me alone,” she said, taking a bite of her burger.

Christian looked at Addie. “I was going to try to convince you of how lucky we are, just to make sure that you’re not running out of patience with me being gone so much. But I think my point is already made. And I didn’t even have to say a word.”

Addie picked up her shake and pretended to clink it against Christian’s shake, then they sat watching the rest of the show play out before them.

Lucien got up and moved his plates to the table Hellen had moved to, pulling out the chair next to hers after he’d placed his food on the table. He sat in the chair, easing himself into it and turned it sideways to face her rather than the table. “Look, I owe you an apology.”

“Damn straight, you do,” Hellen grumbled.

He just sat there, smiling at her, knowing it was coming.

“For what, exactly, do you plan to apologize? There are so many things you’ve done to really piss me off,” Hellen finally said angrily.

“Several, actually. Thought I’d start with the obvious — I’m sorry I left and made you worry. My plan was to follow you. But when I got out there, I couldn’t fucking function. I found a place to lie low in the water and let the salt water do its thing. Then I came to find you.”

“And?” she asked.

“And I’m sorry for snarling and growling the whole time you tried to help me. I was angry and hurting and pissed off.”

“Isn’t angry and pissed off the same thing?”

“Yes, I was really mad.”

“And what about the accusing me of trying to bury you alive?”

“In all fairness, you did.”

“How was I supposed to know you were alive?”

“You could have checked before you started burying me.”

She raised her gaze from her food to his face, her eyes a little glassy from unshed tears as she saw the image of him cut up, shot up and bleeding in her mind. “I thought there was no way any creature could survive what had been done to you. I’m amazed you’re sitting here talking to me.”

“Me, too. But not for the same reason.”

“Huh?” she asked.

“You are the single most infuriating female I’ve ever met.

You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen anywhere, anytime, in my whole life.

You’re the most righteous, furious, protector of those who can’t protect themselves I’ve ever even heard of.

And you’ve got the purest heart I’ve ever met.

I can’t believe I was fortunate enough to survive all I have, and then be gifted with you after all I’ve done.

All I can figure is the powers that be made me for you, and had no idea how I’d buck the system and turn out to be me instead of whatever they had in mind.

So they decided to let me live long enough to introduce me to my future so maybe I’d calm my ass down and be what you need, instead of my usual self-indulgent arrogance. ”

“What are you saying, Lucien?”

“I’m saying, I’m not leaving, Hellen. You’re stuck with me for as long as it takes me to convince you that I’m here for the right reasons. After that, I’m hoping you’ll accept me and we can manage to be happy instead of arguing all the time.”

“I kind of like the arguing,” she said quietly without looking at him again.

“How about sixty/forty? Or maybe fifty/fifty. We’ll balance our arguing with some laughter.”

“And sex, cough, cough,” Cristie said under her breath.

“Oh, I think the sex will be fucking mind-blowing, whether we’re arguing or laughing. Doesn’t matter.”

“Do you even know how to be tender and loving?”

“Right back at you, cher,” Lucien said.

“I don’t know if I want to be nice to you.”

“You do. It’s why you’re so mad,” Lucien said, smirking at her as he reached out and took another of her onion rings.

“Goddamn it, Lucien! Eat your own food!” she said as she reached out and snagged half of his onion rings, plopping them on her plate.

Lucien laughed, that rich, deep velvety laugh, and even Addie sat there with her mouth hanging open as she watched him.

Two of the waitresses walked out of the back and stood there undressing him with their eyes.

“Sorry ladies, I’m afraid my heart, and my ass, are fully claimed,” he said, still chuckling.

“I have not claimed a damn thing,” Hellen snapped.

“I can tell them I was wrong if they want to meet me in the back,” Lucien teased.

“You do and I’ll kill every single one of you,” Hellen threatened, the eyes of her beast staring out at him angrily.

He grinned at her and kissed her lips quickly before she had time to pull back.

“Don’t worry, my cher. All I want is you.

All I see is you. And all my damn onion rings you stole.

” He raised a hand to reach for the onion rings, and Hellen grinned, snatching them out of his reach before he had a chance to take them.

He squinted at her, his full lips a little more pouty than usual. Finally he nodded. “Okay. You can have them. But later when we get home, I get to have whatever I want.”

The surprise on her face was so sudden it was almost comical, then she quickly put all his onion rings back on his plate. “Everything is not okay, yet,” she mumbled as she picked up one of her own onion rings and started munching on it.

“Maybe not. But it’s better. And for now, that’s enough. We’ll work on the rest.”

“You’ll work on the rest.”

“And you’ll respond, otherwise why am I even bothering?”

“To see just how much you mean it. I mean, once you get your fill you might be on your way, you know?”

“Touche’, cher. I did say that. Then I got to know you. And I got to know your people — a little bit anyway. And I honestly can’t see me leaving, no matter what. The more I’m around you, the more I need to be around you. Seems I’ll never get my fill.”

“We shall see,” Hellen said.

“That wasn’t a challenge,” he said, shaking his head.

“Could have been,” she said, as she concentrated on eating.

“Yeah. But it wasn’t,” he said.

“Fine.”

“We’ll figure it all out,” he said, sipping his chocolate shake.

“If you stop freaking laughing all the damn time,” she grumbled.

He didn’t do it on purpose, he really didn’t, but the laughter bubbled up out of him again, and all the females went all warm and fuzzy.

Hellen turned to glare at him.

“This is your fault. All I’m doing is laughing!”

“Stop it.”

“You can’t be mad at me for just laughing.”

“Why are they all doing that?” she demanded, swinging an arm out to indicate the women standing around watching him and her own friends and family watching him like he was their favorite treat.

“I have no idea. Always been like that. But, you’re forgetting, I told you I’m not even seeing what you do. I see you, Hellen. Just you. And that is not even the way I usually operate. What have you done to me, female?”

“I saved your ungrateful ass, that’s what I did.”

He laughed again. “This ass is becoming more and more grateful.”

“So are theirs,” she grumbled.

Lucien sat for a second, looking at her, realizing what she was feeling was insecurity where he was concerned.

And honestly he understood it. He’d not given her a lot of reason to believe in him so far.

And furthermore, he felt a shit-ton of insecurity where she was concerned and that irritated him to no end because he usually didn’t give a damn what a female did in his absence.

This one, though, was different. This one would never know the touch of another male.

NEVER. He leaned close to her and whispered her name in her ear. “Hellen?”

Though she knew he was right there, staring directly at her and so close she could feel his breath fluttering her hair, she didn’t expect him to whisper her name. She jumped and turned quickly toward him.

The moment she looked his way, he held her head in both his hands as he slowly kissed her, taking the time to learn her taste and feel, and little pressures and nips that brought her strongest responses, before pulling away just a centimeter to look into her eyes.

He waited until she opened her eyes and looked at him, before he went back in for another kiss.

This time, though, she lifted her hands and laid them over his where he was still holding her head, moving her just slightly here and there to better angle their heads to deepen the kisses.

When she was breathless, he pulled away from her just an inch or two.

“Regardless of whether or not you accept me, from this day forward, no one will ever know what it is to be kissed by me except you. You’re it, Hellen.

No matter how much I wanted to deny it, or you wanted it to be a lie.

You’re it, and you can’t scrape me off with a stick. ”

The edge of her lip twitched just a bit, letting him know she was about to say something smart-ass to him. “Not even a big stick?” she asked with a slight smirk.

“Not even the biggest stick. Now be good and eat your food. I want to go home and rest for a while.” He let the shield he usually kept in place drop for a second so she could sense the pain he was dealing with, before slamming it back up again.

“I’m never good,” she said.

“Oh, I bet you’re so damn good. But even so, I couldn’t take advantage of it tonight. I gotta lie down.”

“Okay,” she said, trying to stand up.

“No. Eat your food. I’m going to eat mine, too. Then we’ll go.”

“You’re sure? We could take it to go.”

He shook his head. “Won’t take long to eat.”

She nodded and started eating, as did he.

He lifted his chocolate shake, making a slurping sound when he tried to drink it. “Damn,” he muttered, then reached for hers.

“Hey!” she objected.

“Excuse me!” he shouted as he awkwardly turned in his chair. “Another chocolate shake, please.” He turned back around and smiled at her. “You really like those shakes, huh?”

“You just stole my second one! I only had one, technically.”

“Yeah, they’re good aren’t they?”

“They are so good. My favorite thing ever.”

“You haven’t had me yet.”

“Nor you, me!” she countered.

“Can you two please stop?” Christian asked.

Both turned and looked at Christian. “Why? You jealous?” they said in unison.

“Oh, good Lord. There’s two of them,” Christian said, shaking his head.

Lucien and Hellen smiled at each other and went back to eating so they could get back home and Lucien could rest his body.