by EA Hunt
“Damn!”
Lucy sat up slowly as she heard the expletive again. She threw back the covers on her bed, stood, and headed towards the light she saw in the hallway. Was Theo still up? She stopped at the second door on her right. She wanted to cry—the room was filled with baby furniture. There was a crib in a soft white sitting in front of the picture window. To the left of the crib was a changing table filled with diapers, lotions, baby shampoos, and anything you could think of for a baby's needs. Also in the room, not far from the window, was a glider. It was done in the same tone as the changing table and the crib but it was cloth. There was a beautiful crotched blanket on the glider—just waiting for a baby to be wrapped in it.
Lucy turned her attention to the man standing on the step stool, putting up a ceiling fan. How could he have done this without her knowing? Why would he have done this? She had planned on leaving here just as soon as she found a job and could save enough money to get her car in some working condition.
“You're supposed to be sleeping,” Theo said as he climbed down from the step stool. He had burned himself while putting up the fan—causing a very loud cuss to come from his mouth. He had hoped it didn’t wake Lucy but he had been wrong.
“How…” she had been quiet coming into the room. Only stopping in the doorway to see what was going on.
He gave her a crooked smile. He could smell her from a mile away. She had the most intoxicating scent and it had nothing to do with the fact that her soap had a beautiful aroma to it. “I heard you,” he lied. He needed to tell her the truth. If his mother found out he was keeping who and what he was from his mate, she would have a fit. She had almost taken Trevor's head off at the hospital when Aviva was born because he hadn’t told Amanda who and what he was. Mary Hart believed in honesty and she had taught her sons that honesty was the best policy no matter what. He folded the step stool and walked over to her. “Come on, I'll put you back to bed.”
“I’m not a child. I don’t need to be put back to bed like one.”
Theo chuckled, “no darlin’, you are not a child but you need your rest, and standing here talking to me at three in the morning is not resting.”
“No I guess it’s not,” Lucy said with a sigh. She was tired but her dream had her rattled a bit and the last thing she wanted was to sleep right now.
“Luce are you ok?” Theo questioned as he placed a hand on her cheek. Her coloring was a little off and her eyes were telling him the last thing she wanted was to go back to the bedroom and sleep. “Baby talk to me.”
She licked her lips.
Theo groaned—when she did that, all he wanted to do was bite that little pink tongue of hers as he plundered her mouth.
“I had a bad dream.”
“Ok,” he replied as he moved his thumb slowly up and down her cheek. “Want to tell me about it?”
She shrugged. “Not much to tell. I was in the woods running from someone and when they caught me they hurt me,” she finished. That wasn’t totally the truth. She had been running from Duncan trying to get back to the house where Anastasia was screaming for her. She had been about to run into the house when Duncan had appeared in the doorway with Anastasia in his arms. He had smothered their daughter with his hand while he raised his gun and before he could shoot, she had woken up. The whole thing had been surreal and scared the crap out of her.
“That’s a horrible dream,” Theo said. He could sense she wasn’t telling him everything but he would let it go for now.
“It was. So I’m a little rattled.”
“Want me to come and lie in the bed with you?” Please say yes. He removed his hand from her cheek and continued, “above the covers while you’re under them. I promise to behave myself,” he said quickly. When he took Lucy, he wanted her to be comfortable.
Lucy reached up. She spread her hands on his chest and swallowed. The man was sculpted to pure perfection. She licked her lips as she lifted her eyes to his. She slightly shuddered. She hadn’t been touched by a man in an intimate way for a very long time. She wondered what it would feel like to have this man's chest on hers. His hands on her body, making her feel like… no she couldn’t think like that. Theo was a stranger—a kind stranger—but still a stranger and…
“If you keep looking at me like that I’ll take you back to my bedroom and have you on all fours, driving my cock in you, before you can say boo,” he told her. He was trying to be a gentleman here but the way she was looking at him had him willing to forgo being a gentleman and go straight to being a cave man. He dropped the step stool and wrapped both arms around her. He bent his head and took her lips with his. Theo placed his hand on her lower back and brought her closer to him. God he wanted her, needed her. This woman was his other half and there was nothing he wouldn’t do to have her always.
Lucy was the first to pull away. She swallowed a breath. This man definitely knew how to kiss a woman. “That—” she took in another breath. She was three weeks away from giving birth. The last thing she needed was a fling with this handsome stranger. “Theo—”
“Come on, I'll put you back to bed,” he didn’t want to hear her say the kiss shouldn’t have happened because it should have a long time ago. If he had met her sooner, the baby in her belly would have his blood coursing through her veins instead of some man who’d beat her mother. “I’ll lie on top of the covers until you fall asleep. Then I’ll leave.”
“You..you don’t have to,” she said. She wanted Theo in bed with her. Yes, she was fantasizing about him touching her, but she knew if she said no, he would allow her some space.
“Are you sure? I—”
She took his hand. “Positive,” Lucy replied before she led them from the nursery.
EA
Well well. Amanda smiled at the young woman who was talking to Janette, one of the other servers in the diner. She couldn’t hear what they were saying but Amanda had a sinking suspicion it had something to do with a position here at the diner. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialed Theo. Why was his mate looking for a job at the diner?
“Hey sis—what can I do for you?”
“Mind telling me why your mate is in the diner looking for a job?”
“Who told you I found my mate?”
“Really?”
“You know that daughter of yours is turning into a gifted shifter.”
Amanda chuckled. “I know.” Not only had her daughter told her about Lucy but so had her husband, son and her father in law seemed to be screaming it from the rooftops. “But she was not the only one who told me. Dad has been talking about the woman since you found her.”
“Has he told Mom and Auntie?”
“No, they are still out of town.”
“Good.”
“Now, back to my earlier question. Why is she looking for a job?”
“How do you know she’s looking?”
“She’s been chatting up Jeanette for the last ten minutes—and from the way the conversation looks, she is wondering how the tips and people are.”
Theo groaned. When he had left the house this morning for his shift Lucy had been sleeping—exhausted from the long walk she had taken the day before. He had no clue she was faking sleep or that she was heading to the diner this morning looking for a job. “I’ll be there in five—”
“You won’t. I’ll handle this, and please tell me she knows about us?” Amanda questioned. Once Trevor had told her the truth, it had taken a while to grasp it. But then she had realized shifters where just like humans when it came to relationships. They wanted someone to love and care for just like humans did. They also had an Alpha streak a mile long. She and Trevor had come to many an argument about his need to dominate and her need to have some freedom. The only place he was allowed to dominate her was in the bedroom. Amanda shook slightly. That was a conversation for another day and time—right now her brother was striking out with his mate.
“I haven’t—”
“Your mother is not going to be happy and nei
ther am I, Theodore Hart. I will talk with her. Give her a job here or at the Atlanta restaurant. I assume she’s driving the SUV.”
“Yes. I will not have her and the little princess in something that’s not safe.” Her car was already being totaled and the money Jose had given him for it he’d placed in a saving account for her. His mate would want for nothing, just like Amanda wanted for nothing. Yes, she had a job, but it was doing the books for the restaurant and bar. The small salary she earned from her position she placed in a savings account for the children's education. Anything else she needed, Trevor provided.
“Good. Viv needs a playmate.”
“I thought she was getting one?”
Amanda stilled because of her run-in with Keenan and her subsequent flu. Add in her furious mate, and she had assumed her lack of period was stress-related until Monroe had called and told her she was about a month along. Trevor hadn’t picked up on the heartbeat or beats of the twins she carried because he had been busy catching up on work at the restaurant and pack business. “Monroe talks too much.”
“Don’t blame Monroe. When Lucy went to see him yesterday to check the baby and her hand, he let it slip. I haven’t said anything to Trevor but you need to tell him. You know how he was while you were at the end with Viv and afterwards. Think how he is going to be now that you are carrying another Hart.”
Amanda sighed. Trevor had allowed her to tell off Viv's biological father but he had been at her back the whole time. Pressing against it letting her know if anything happened—if Neal made one wrong move—he would kill the man. Before that he had taken her into his office at Wolf's Hart restaurant and wouldn’t let anyone through the door. He had closed her and the baby in, making sure they were safe and secure. She had thought it was over-kill, but cute. Now she knew he was protecting his mate and the boy he claimed was his child. “I am so not in the mood for his Alpha male crap.”
Theo chuckled his brother was quite deadly when it came to his mate and children. “Get ready sis because its coming.”
“Keep laughing, because you are in the same boat as he is. A head-strong mate. Speaking of—she's coming this way. Stay away from the diner. I’ll talk with her and have her talk with you. But if you come here, you will not see the little princess grow up. Understand?”
“Yeah.” Theo loved his sister-in-law but she was a force to be reckoned with and he was not trying to enter the tropical hurricane called Amanda Hart.
“Ms. Amanda?”
Amanda hung up the phone. She smiled at the woman before her. “Yes?”
“My name is Lucy McArthur. I was told if I wanted a position here at the diner I needed to speak with you.”
Amanda nodded. She gestured towards the seat in front of her. “Have you ever waitressed before?”
“Yes. I’ve been doing it since I was eighteen,” Lucy said as she sat down at the table. Her feet were killing her. She had been walking around town for an hour debating if she wanted to apply for a job here or take the SUV Theo had given her the keys to and seek employment in Atlanta. If she did that then she could live in a motel there and give Theo back his life. That had been the problem plaguing her yesterday when she’d taken her walk in the woods behind Theo's home. The man had been so nice to her. Setting up the nursery. Giving her his car to drive while he rode his motorcycle. Rubbing her feet when she came back from her walk. Rubbing her back when she complained it was hurting. He was being kind, considerate, and she was confused as to what he wanted from her for these actions. Duncan…Lucy shook her head. She was not going to think about Duncan.
“Hmm. And how old are you?” Amanda questioned. She could see Lucy was having some kind of internal debate with herself. Did this debate have anything to do with Theo? She really wished he would have told Lucy about the family. Then the woman would not have been debating her life with Theo Hart. She would be dealing with the fact that mythical beings such as shifters really existed in this world.
Lucy blinked. She had been so deep in thought she’d forgotten about the woman before her and the job she was attempting to get. “Twenty three. I'll be twenty four in a month.”
Amanda nodded, Theo was five years older than this woman. Good age gap. “Then we will have to throw you a party.”
Lucy shook her head. “That won’t be necessary.” She had never had a party a day in her life. Whenever her birthday would come around she would buy herself a cupcake and eat it all alone—tears streaming down her cheek because she had no one to remember her, or what was supposed to be her special day.
“Oh honey. We Harts love a good party,” Amanda replied. She could see the lost little girl in Lucy's eyes. She smiled to herself—a lost little girl and a big bad wolf looking to protect. Lucy and Theo would make a quite interesting pair.
Lucy stilled. “You're Amanda Hart. Theo's sister-in-law?”
“Yes,” Amanda replied. She watched the indecision in the woman's eyes. Was she reconsidering a position here? Was she not staying in Hart? Did she not feel the mating pull? Amanda had felt it with Trevor almost instantly. She hadn’t known why but she knew Trevor would never hurt her in any way, shape, or form—her or her girls.
“You gave me the clothes for myself and Anastasia.”
“Yes,” she said with a smile. “My Aviva is growing so fast and I’m getting smaller,” for a while at least, “I had no one to give anything to until you came along. I hope the clothing fit. I’m a little bigger than you.”
Lucy stared at her mouth, aghast. The woman wore a size twelve, if she was to take a guess. Her stomach was slightly rounded but there was nothing on this woman which spoke she wore anything but smaller clothing. Not like the size eighteen Lucy wore when she wasn’t pregnant.
“Oh honey I’ve lost weight. I weighed almost three hundred pounds before Aviva was conceived. I had shed fifty pounds when I conceived my baby girl, then the weight seemed to want to stay at that number until I delivered. Once I did, I lost another sixty pounds. Plus, Trevor keeps me pretty busy,” she finished with a wink.
Lucy blushed. If Trevor Hart was as handsome as his brother she could see why Amanda Hart kept losing weight. She would love to have Theo keeping her that busy. After they had gone to bed the other night she had just laid there staring at the beautiful man lying above the covers. Sleeping so soundly—making her nightmares seem like they were a thing of the past. Lucy swallowed as she watched him sleep. She imagined of all the delicious things he could do to her. All the places he could put his hands, his mouth his…“I—”
“—am hired,” Amanda said. She liked the young girl and if she didn’t hire her then Lucy would go somewhere else to find a job and would not have the protection of the pack—something which was not going to happen. “When are you due?”
“Two and a half weeks. I can work until then, I promise.”
“You can work the register and when Ms. Mary comes back you can help her in the kitchen with some of the desserts.”
“Ms. Mary?”
Theo had a lot to explain to his mate. Their family was large and the men in the family protected to the highest extent, which Amanda had to get used to. When Trevor wasn’t hovering over her, her brothers-in-law were, and her uncle and father-in-law hovered over all of them, especially Taylor. Her daughter was seen as the future of the Hart pack. With Patty mated and living with her mate's pack in South Carolina, Taylor was the only mateable girl in the Hart wolf pack in the last twenty-some-odd years—making her daughter a target to some and a nuisance to others. “Yes, she's our pastry chef,” and your new mother-in-law, if Theo would just get off his ass and take the plunge. What was the man waiting for?
“Ok. Do you think she will mind me being in her kitchen? Most—”
Amanda waved away the concern. “Mary will love it. I’m not a baker so when she asks me to help her I am all thumbs.” She tilted her head to the side. “Do you bake?”
Lucy moved her hair from her face and placed it behind her ear.
Amanda suck
ed in a breath when she saw the fading bruise on the woman's cheek. Now she knew why Theo was waiting. The woman had been abused. Knowing the Harts the way she did, the fact this woman's face looked like that did not sit right with Theo, and he wanted to end any threat that came this woman's way before he mated her.
“Sorry if my face…” Lucy said at Amanda's audible gasp. She moved her hair back in place, covering her bruise. Her bruises were fading but there were still some that were visible. When she and Theo had been at the store she’d seen people staring at her. Some whispered, probably thinking Theo had harmed her. That was the furthest from the truth. The man may be big and menacing but he would not hurt her or her baby.
“Has Theo seen that?”
Lucy looked at her. “Yes.”
“And did he say anything about it?”
Lucy shook her head. “No, he just held my hand and—”
“Good,” Amanda smiled. “Now, we open at seven but you can come in at ten. I don’t want you on your feet much. Not in your condition. Theo would kill me if something happened to you.”
“Theo—”
“Have you talked to him about working here? I don’t want there to be any conflict with you working at the diner and Theo wanting you home. Trust me, when the Hart men lay down the law they expect us to follow, no matter the fact that we have minds and jobs of our own which do not consist of just being married to them.”
Lucy stilled when the last part of Amanda's statement came to her. She thought Theo was going to marry her? She had only known the man three days. Granted, these had been some of the safest three days of her life, but she was not going to marry Theodore Hart. “Why would I need to talk to Theo about me working here?”
“Like I said, he may not want you to work,” Amanda finished. she wanted to see how this woman would react to her statement.
“Theo cannot dictate what I can and cannot do. I’ve been in that situation before. I won’t be there again.”
That got Amanda's attention. “Want to—”