Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
L ucky’s lace curtains did nothing to keep the sun out of her bedroom.
The rising light had awoken Kaine an hour ago, but he’d made no moves to get out of bed.
Instead, he watched as the light dappling through her plants traced his mate’s features.
She was beautiful, especially while resting.
All that energy that crackled around her was subdued… soft. It fascinated him and his tiger.
Now that it was morning, he wondered what Lucky would think of his confession in the light of day. She’d taken it well enough last night, but he was still wary. Leaning down, he nuzzled into her neck, breathing in her scent. His tiger rolled within him, urging Ezra to mark their mate.
It was a sure way to keep her from leaving them after his confession.
Spending the night with her was dangerous. Giving his animal time to get used to her at their side was even more so. He wanted more and was seriously considering kidnapping her ass.
She stirred beneath him as his hands traced her bared stomach.
“Good morning,” she murmured, turning and arching into the erection that had been plaguing him for the last thirty minutes. She kissed him softly. “Do you want some breakfast?”
“Are you offering to cook for your mate?” He kissed her collarbone.
She smiled impishly. “Negative. I’m offering the chance for my mate to take me to this fancy breakfast place that I’ve been wanting to go to.”
Dropping kisses across her chest, he nipped at her skin. “You’re calling me your mate now, does that mean I get to mark you?”
She snickered. “Sir, the scent markers you left on my body last time are still lingering, so don’t act like you aren’t marking me.”
He chuckled and bit down, further proving her point. He licked across her chest, sucking her nipple into his mouth. She moaned and arched.
“We need to get up if you want breakfast because I have a feeling that if we stay in bed, we won’t leave.”
“That sounds about right,” he murmured, lifting her leg. He slid into her wetness and closed his eyes, savoring the way she gripped around him. “Should be a crime, the way this pussy feels,” he grumbled, stroking her deep.
She scraped her nails down his back and welcomed him in.
He loved the way she felt around him. The small whimpers she made and the way her beautiful face scrunched as she chased her orgasm.
By the time she splintered in his arms, Kaine was right behind her.
He rolled them over and got out of the bed with her in his arms. They showered together, their soft, lingering touches further tightening their bond.
It was well past breakfast by the time they left her apartment.
They made it to brunch by mere minutes, but none of it mattered to him. Seeing his mate across from him, dancing in her seat as she perused the menu, was more important than anything. She looked up at him and smirked.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“Because you’re gorgeous.”
She ducked her head. “You’re trying to charm me out of my skirt.”
He could only chuckle. Once their orders were taken, it was Lucky’s turn to stare. If he went by her expression, his mate had questions.
He sipped at the grapefruit juice in his glass. “Ask away, princess.”
“Tell me about your parents?”
He sighed. She would start with the most complicated question. “You first.”
Lucky snickered. “Fine. Let’s see, Sincere and Kathleen Bryant. Active in their kids’ lives, nosy, hard-headed but very loving. We grew up hood rich, nothing too flashy but enough to know that my father was making money. My brother and I never wanted for anything.”
He waved for her to continue.
“My dad had his street dealings, and because of that, I had an…abnormal upbringing.”
Intrigued, he cocked his head. “In what way?”
“My father taught me a lot, and oddly without revealing anything of his life. We never took the same way home two days in a row. He stressed the importance of never having a routine that people could track. No other adults outside him and my mother were allowed to pick us up. From anywhere, school, play dates, none of that.”
She frowned as she went over her childhood again.
“We had a secret handshake that me and my brother still use. It was our greeting every time he picked us up and if he didn’t do it, it meant something was wrong.
Go bags, money on hand, PO boxes for mail.
” She chuckled. “And because I grew up with Keisha as my favorite cousin, it felt normal. Like there was no one to say, ‘hey, you’re not supposed to live your life like that.’ Will you do the same for our children? ”
The question shook him. He stared at her, his tiger bucking against his chest. “The idea of you swollen with my child.” His voice was a low rumble. “Fuck.”
Her panther lit her eyes and she gulped down her drink. Lust danced in her gaze as she studied him. Tension built at their table uninterrupted until the waitress came with their food. Lucky said grace and dissipated the heat between them.
“To answer your questions, I’ll teach them to take care of themselves, the same as your father. It clearly had no ill effect on you.”
She smiled impishly. “You’re so right. I was just in my little bubble.”
“But still, you’re not so oblivious to the world around you that I worry about you fitting into this lifestyle. Especially the way you took the information I dropped on you last night.”
He studied her for any telltale signs of her changing her mind, but Lucky met his eyes with no hesitation.
“And like I told you last night, I have no plans of giving up what fate has blessed us with.”
Ezra nodded, relaxing his shoulders. They ate in silence but before long, the curiosity was back in her gaze.
“My parents are not as loving as yours,” he answered her unspoken reminder.
“My father is the preacher at the biggest church in Oakridge and highly disapproves of the way me and my siblings carry the family legacy. He tried to make my mother shun her family when he started his church. That included us when my grandfather made it clear that we would inherit our place in the family guild.”
“Rah,” she whispered.
He shook his head, not wanting her pity. But when he glanced at her, there was none. Instead, anger swam in her eyes. For him? His tiger rattled his chest.
“I won’t lie to you and say that we didn’t feel the lack. Each of us dealt with it in our own way. My way was to throw myself into my…work.”
Empathy filled her eyes and she reached across the table to grip his hand. “You want me to beat up your mom?”
Laughter erupted from him and loosened the band that had tightened his chest. Her smile further relaxed him.
“Vivian’s kind of scrappy. My grandfather taught her how to get down and dirty,” he teased.
“Shit, Sin ain’t raise no pussy.”
His smile widened. Even while he’d expected to have feelings for his mate, the ones roiling within him took his breath away. Lucky had talked about the beginning strings of love, but he was already hopelessly tangled within those strands.
“Because of my father, me and my siblings grew up straddling two worlds,” he explained.
“My mother was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and she wanted the same for us. Private boarding schools, Jack and Jill, all that. But my father? We spent summers in the woods with his family, running wild. He thought his mother would teach us Godliness and Gran taught us how to hunt and trap in our animal form. I would dare say she and my grandfather conspired together.”
He thought back to his paternal grandmother with fond memories, but he knew from his uncles that the old tiger had not been the same with her own children.
According to them, Gran had been hard, God-fearing, believing that she alone was responsible for saving her sons from the wickedness that had beset her mate.
Kaine had never met his other grandfather, but the stories had given him insight into Jeffrey.
While he held grace for the way his father grew up, he had a harder time forgiving the way he kept the cycle of violence going with his own children.
Kaine had long ago promised that he would never do the same to his own.
“That explains so much.” Lucky’s voice shook him from his thoughts.
He lifted an eyebrow in question and she smiled.
“There is a wildness in you that doesn’t give boardroom.”
Kaine liked that she saw beneath his public-facing persona.
Hell, she could tell the difference between him and his tiger.
It told him that his mate didn’t miss much.
She would be a valuable asset at his side.
A part of him knew that Henry would wholeheartedly approve of this woman for him. That gave him comfort.
“The boardroom is new. I’ve only been in the position for a little over ten months.”
“So before that, you were…” She cleared her throat and nodded. “What’s your favorite color?”
He chuckled at the subject change but allowed it. His mate would need time to adjust to what he’d done in his life and despite his impatient animal, he would give her that.
After brunch, Lucky took him to downtown Eastfield, and they held hands as they walked along the riverfront.
Kaine reached into his bag and pulled out his camera, snapping shots.
There were shifters everywhere, some in their animal form, some out with their families.
The park was peaceful. Lucky chatted next to him, telling him about her family.
Kaine allowed her voice to flow over him, keeping his tiger in a calm state.
Every now and then, he would sneak a picture of her, the relaxed smile on her face tugging at his heart.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Just enjoying this time with my baby.”
She smiled. “What are you taking pictures of?”
“Some of everything.”
“You carry the camera everywhere?”
He nodded. “It’s the one hobby I kept from childhood.”
Her smile turned wistful. “I like that for you. Let me pose for you.”
She released his hand and rushed ahead of him. Her poses were silly, but he snapped them anyway. Lucky even convinced him to allow Griff to snap a few of them together. While he acted reluctant, he already knew that they would be front and center on his desk in his home office.
Kaine sighed as his phone vibrated against his hip for the tenth time. He thought ignoring it would work, but Griff signaled to him that he needed to answer it. Duty called, and while he enjoyed spending the day with his mate, he’d known it would only be a matter of time before reality intruded.