Chapter Seventy-Seven
Feralyn
Three days later, with his Delta Force swagger and his hand on the back of my neck, exactly how he held me during sex, exactly how he’d grabbed me in front of Ghost and Raine, he guided me through the restaurant and onto the green padded bench seat.
But then he didn’t sit across from me.
He slid in next to me.
His giant frame taking up most of the space, his muscled thighs spreading out seemingly casually, he leaned back, but he didn’t let go of me.
He scanned the restaurant. Our restaurant. Isla Canarias. Where he’d been bringing me almost every week for the past eight years. Where we’d come for my sixteenth birthday.
It was also the very first restaurant he’d brought me to after I’d healed from my broken ankle and wrist. In fact, we were at the same table, and I was sitting in the exact same seat he’d guided me to eight years ago.
The same table we sat at every time we came here, which always happened to be available, even if the restaurant was packed, and suddenly, it occurred to me.
“Do you call ahead when we come here?” How else would our exact same table always be free when we came?
His thumb stroked the side of my neck, briefly pausing over my pulse point, then he ignored my question. “You getting the usual?”
There was nothing usual about this.
The waitstaff was stealing furtive glances at us. The older woman who usually served us was smiling to herself, and Helios was very blatantly and very dominantly claiming me in public.
“I know what you’re doing.” This was Helios. Full immersion. Not only was he repeating his method of desensitizing my fears, same as he’d done all those years ago when I’d been afraid to leave the house, he was doing exactly as he’d warned. He wasn’t hiding us.
I’ll touch you wherever, whenever, no matter who the hell is watching.
“Yeah?” Tilting his head down as he tipped mine up, Helios kept his expression locked. “What do you think I’m doing, woman?”
I didn’t have a chance to answer.
His mouth covered mine, and he launched a tactical assault on my senses. Taken unaware, too late to protest or warn him not to, his tongue swept across my lips and parted them before he plundered my agency.
Then I was there—soaring in that sunlit painted sky where the world ended and Helios began. But he didn’t just begin.
Helios became everything.
His tongue dominated mine. His kiss consumed me. His hand on the back of my neck gripped hard, but his other gently cupped my face. Stroking my cheek, angling his back toward the restaurant, enclosing me in the protective circle of his arms and body, his soap, man, and musk scent was my home.
Pulling back before I was ready, he brushed his lips once more against mine. Then his rough voice turned even deeper as he spoke so only I could hear. “You and me, Haven. Our world. Our life.”
I stared into the storm that’d darkened his gray-blue eyes.
He dragged his thumb across my bottom lip.
“I know you’re feeling me, woman. But I need you to hear me.
Our world means our goddamn world. No outside bullshit.
No hiding. We fucking own this. And yeah, I’ve got my hand on you.
I took your mouth. I’m letting every prick in here know you’re mine.
But, woman, I’m not inside you. I’m not disrespecting that intimacy between us.
I’m living. You’re living. Our life. You copy? ”
I drew in a deep breath and absorbed every word and every touch that had just been Helios’s living. “Okay.”
“Not looking for an okay, woman,” he warned. “We’re fucking better than okay.”
“Yes.” He was right. So, so right. “I hear you.”
“Good.” He pulled back and glanced up right as our usual waitress approached.
Looking between us, smiling knowingly, she set two waters down.
Before she could even say hello, Helios was ordering for me. “She’s having croquetas, plátanos maduros, and a banana shake.”
“Sí. And the sampler for you, extra lechón asado?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Helios released the back of my neck and draped his heavy arm around my shoulders.
Still smiling, watching Helios’s deliberate gesture, our waitress switched to Spanish and spoke to him too rapidly for me to understand.
Helios smirked. “Not new. She’s just catching up.”
Our waitress smiled wider. “A donde el corazón se inclina, el pie camina.” Then she winked at me and left.
I glanced up at Helios. “What did she say?” He didn’t talk about his time in the military, but I knew he’d learned several languages. Five that he’d admitted to. And Spanish he’d known since before I’d met him.
Picking up his glass, Helios scanned the restaurant. “Literal translation?” Then he drank half his water.
Watching his Adam’s apple shift with every swallow, I longed for my camera. “Yes.” To start.
He set down his glass. “‘Where the heart inclines, the foot walks.’”
“And the actual meaning?” I understood it, but I knew I was missing a slight nuance.
Helios smirked. “She said I chased you.” Leaning down, he nipped my ear. “Not inaccurate.” Then he dragged his lips across my sensitive flesh with a teasing kiss that made desire flare and my face flush.
“Helios,” I whispered, suddenly wishing we were home despite my growling stomach, but also noticing all the patrons glancing at us.
Not that this was new. Helios’s size, build, and looks drew attention wherever we went.
Women especially had always looked at him.
But right now, this was more. They were watching us and Helios’s very public display.
“Yeah?”
“You’re living a little too… loudly.”
For a split second, his mouth froze on my neck. Then he sat up and looked down at me with a narrow-eyed warning scowl.
For two frantic beats of my heart, he held his dominant stare.
Then a half laugh preceded his trademark smirk right before he broke out in a brilliant sun-god smile. “Get used to it, Haven.”