Chapter 13
Soft. Squishy. Warm. Turning my head, I nuzzle my nose into the pillow. A sweet maple scent fills my nostrils, like fresh fluffy pancakes drizzled in sticky syrup on a cold morning.
Another inhale, and there’s a hint of earthiness, like the forest. Pine and moss.
“Why are you sniffing me, mon soleil?” The deep voice rumbles from beneath me.
Eyes springing wide, I jackknife on… the couch. How did I get here? “Luc? What are you doing here?” Cool air drifts across my bare shoulder, making my skin pebble as I tug my shirt back into place.
A column of moonlight spills through the window, illuminating my small living room. “What time is it?” And when did I change into pajamas? I pluck at the soft cotton shirt. Last thing I remember—
“It’s a little after seven. How much do you remember from yesterday?” Luc raises a hand to my face, thick fingers smoothing back the flyaway hairs. The gentle touch is a direct contradiction to the concern pooled in his eyes.
I swallow, tongue like cotton in my dry mouth.
“We were celebrating a late Christmas at my parents’ place.
I wasn’t feeling well.” My fingers run along my forehead, expecting to find my flesh clammy and feverish, but it’s not.
On the contrary, it’s icy to the touch, like it should be.
“Viktor brought me home. That doesn’t explain why you’re here. ” My brow dips, and I peer up at him.
“I was there when you called Viktor this morning. The sound of your voice… Scared. Alone. Something broke inside me.” He clutches one hand over his heart. “I had to get to you as fast as possible. Your safety, your wellbeing… it’s all I could think about. You were in rough shape when I arrived.”
“I’m sorry you had to see me like that.” Wincing, I wave my hand around. “Vampires don’t get sick, so I’m not sure what happened.” The lie rolls off my tongue. I have a pretty good idea of why my body hates me.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” The corner of his mouth twitches into a weak smile. “Viktor thinks it’s blood poisoning from going without blood. Specifically, my blood.”
His words confirm my suspicions. “Because we’re mates?”
“Oui.”
Callused fingers trace a path along my cheekbone. Before I can stop myself, I lean into Luc’s touch. “Wait,” I say, grabbing his wrist and pulling his fingers from my skin.
Instantly, I miss his warmth, but I need my brain to think logically for a second, and his blatant affection is distracting.
His eyebrows pinch when I place his hand in his lap.
“Excuse my shock, but I have a little bit of emotional whiplash right now. Last time I checked, you told me you don’t want a mate. Something we agreed on. Now you’re here.” I wave a hand around the room. “In my home. Taking care of me.”
Luc pinches the bridge of his nose, shaking his head before he says, “I know it doesn’t make sense, Vanessa.
I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around it.
You have to understand there’s a reason I don’t—didn’t want a mate.
My past shattered parts of me, and I’ve spent decades letting it cloud my vision, but I was wrong. So fucking wrong.”
The pain etched across his ocean eyes has my heart frozen. There’s a sweet side to Jean-Luc, and someone broke him. “Who hurt you, Luc?”
“It’s a long story.”
Fuck it. Giving in to the need to be close to him, the need to touch him, I climb into his lap and nestle my fingers into the fur circling his neck. Being near him soothes an ache deep in my soul that I didn’t even realize was there. “I have plenty of time, big guy.”
As if drawn by the same inexplicable need, Luc’s big hands coast a path up my thighs, coming to rest on my hips.
“I grew up in a small minotaur community in rural Quebec. For centuries, my ancestors were shielded from humans by pixie magic. Farmers by trade, they survived by selling goods to a handful of trusted humans.” His thumbs slip under the waistband of my pajama bottoms, brushing soothing circles across my skin.
“By the time I was born, monsters were newly out to humans, making it easier for us to sell our crops.”
“Does your family still live there?”
Sadness creeps into his gaze where it’s focused on the wall behind me. He shakes his head, throat muscles flexing with a swallow. “Not anymore.”
“What happened to them?”
“There was a girl.”
Of course there was. And I’m gonna kick her ass if she hurt my Luc.
Whoa. Calm down, Ness.
Luc’s hands tighten around me, and I’m forced to brace mine on his chest so I don’t topple over. Under my palm, his heart clashes against the walls of its cage. “Annabelle. That was her name. Her family owned the farm next to ours, so we were inseparable from childhood.”
That possessive fire ignites in my gut again. Somehow, I keep it from burning me alive as Luc continues his story.
“She was with me through everything. When Papa died of a heart attack. When I had to drop out of school to work on the farm and take care of Mama. When Mama got sick and eventually passed, too.”
On their own, my hands loop around his neck, and I hug him tight. “Oh, Luc. I’m so sorry you went through all of that at such a young age.”
When I sit back, he cups my face, and a sad smile flits across his lips.
“It was decades ago, but some days, the wounds feel fresh. Annabelle made it bearable. She was my first friend. My first kiss. My first… everything.” Pain flashes across his cool gaze.
“After my parents’ deaths, it only seemed logical to take the next step with her. I asked her to be my mate.”
“I don’t like where this is going. Tell me she didn’t do what I think she did?” I bite my lip.
Luc’s thumb presses against my bottom lip, applying pressure until I let it pop free.
“I’m afraid it’s exactly what you’re thinking.
” He blows out a heavy sigh that ruffles the knotted strands of hair around my face.
“She said yes, and we made plans for her to move in with me once she’d finished the semester.
She was going to college to be a nurse. Our community was still pretty closed off from the outside world, and she’d always had big plans to leave home and travel.
I guess that should have been my first red flag. ”
“What were the others?”
“Raul,” he growls, lip peeling back into a sneer. “The flashy Italian minotaur moved to our quiet community, and everyone was enamored… including Annabelle. He was new and exciting, promising her the world—behind my back.”
Cupping his cheek, I run my fingers over the downy fur. “Luc, you don’t have to—”
He shakes his head. “It’s fine. I want—non, need you to know this part of me.
Annabelle grew distant. We fought over stupid shit.
Finally, I’d had enough. I went to her father’s house to confront her.
When I got there, she was packing. She was going to leave with Raul.
” He spits the name like it physically pains him to say it.
A forceful gasp rushes from my mouth. “No.”
Luc nods. “Oui. And the worst part?” Moisture shimmers along his lash line. “O-On the nightstand…” He clears his throat, and I can’t help but wipe my thumb under his eyes. “Sorry.” He winces.
“You have nothing to apologize for. If it’s too hard, we can wait.” With his face in my hands, I hope I convey my seriousness when I say, “I’m not going anywhere.”
He ducks his chin in a nod—as much as he can in my grip anyway. “There was an ultrasound on her nightstand.”
My stomach falls out my ass, landing on the floor next to my heart. “No,” I whisper.
“Yeah. Annabelle was pregnant with his baby.”
“It wasn’t yours?”
“No. Female minotaurs can only get pregnant during heat, and we’d never been together during hers. I wasn’t even sure if she’d had her first heat yet… we were only twenty.”
“That bitch,” I hiss, the venom rolling off my tongue before I can stop it.
Luc’s eyes double in size as he chokes, bringing his fist to his mouth to cough. “Wow, guess I don’t have to worry about anyone taking advantage of me when you’re around.”
“She didn’t deserve you, Luc.” It’s true. I’ve only gotten small glimpses, but there’s a hidden sweet side to Luc. One I’m not even sure I deserve.
The selfish side of me doesn’t care, wanting to keep him and make him mine.
And I would rather die than do anything to hurt him.
Okay, slow your roll, girlfriend. That’s a little fast, yeah?
It must be the mate bond making me irrationally attached to Luc after spending mere days together.
His rough voice rips me out of my thought spiral, and I focus on his words instead of the inevitable worry that this is all happening too quickly. “I had to leave after that,” he says. “I didn’t want the pity of the community. It was like everyone looked at me differently.”
“Is that how you ended up working for Maggie?”
He hums. “In a way. I sold my farm to Annabelle’s father. He’d been good to my family and me—”
“Even though his daughter is a cunt.”
To my surprise, he doesn’t scold me for my harsh words.
Instead, a chuckle tumbles from his throat.
Raucous and gritty, like he doesn’t use it often, but there goes my stupid heart.
Pitter-pattering at the sound vibrating my body as I lean against his chest. “You’re trouble, aren’t you, Vanessa Bielski? ”
I shrug, flashing him a flirty grin.
“Anyway, he gave me a fair price. I never looked back, landing in Maple Ridge Hollow when my truck broke down. The previous owners of Maggie’s orchard gave me a job and a place to stay until I was back on my feet.
The rest is, how you say, history.” His shoulder lifts in a nonchalant shrug, but his face is hard as he says, “But I vowed to protect my heart from anyone else… until you blew into my life like a snowstorm.”
My answering smile is shy, and my lashes shield me from the brunt of his penetrating stare as I peek up at him. “You know, I’ve never been in a real relationship,” I admit on a whisper.
“Never?”
I shake my head, eyes dropping to his chest, where my fingers toy with the button on his flannel shirt.
“I’ve had my fair share of flings, but no one has held my attention like you, Luc.
” As I finally meet his gaze, I gulp at the intensity in the depthless pools of icy blue.
At least I’m not the only one who was thrown into the deep end by this damn mate bond.
“I may hop from one relationship to the next, but you have to know, I would never cheat. That’s not me. ”
His gaze flits to my mouth, then to my eyes. “I believe you.”
I pluck at the button one more time. If I don’t stop, I’ll accidentally rip it off. Smoothing my hands up the placket of his shirt, I play with the collar instead. Stupid nervous energy. “So… what do we do now?”
He brushes the matted mess that is my hair behind my shoulders.
I tremble when his palm comes to rest against the side of my neck.
His eyes drop, pupils growing larger as they track each swipe of his thumb against my throat.
My pulse flutters like hummingbird wings under his touch.
“I don’t know about you,” he rasps. “But I can’t stop thinking about you.
And it’s more than the sex. That was magnifique, don’t get me wrong.
But it’s more. It’s the way your eyes light up when you smile. ”
Proving his point, my stupid lips curl into a grin.
“Just like that.” His thumb trails from my neck to the corner of my mouth. “It’s that you tried to cook for me, even though you don’t have a culinary bone in your beautiful body.” He laughs… and I scowl.
“Asshole.”
“Aww. Come on, Ness. That was a compliment. You tried to make the best of being stuck with a grump on Christmas by bringing a little bit of holiday cheer with you.”
My palms tap against his chest. “You are very grouchy.”
He blanches, mouth falling open.
Hooking a finger under his chin, I close his mouth. “What? I’m just agreeing with you. And… you may have crossed my mind a time or two over the past week, too.”
One dark eyebrow arches. “Is that why that monstrosity is on the drying rack in your kitchen?”
A furious blush burns across my cheeks. I’m as sex positive as they come, but the fact that Luc found the toy I specifically bought because it resembles his dick… Yeah, that’s a tad bit embarrassing. “You saw that, huh?”
“Kind of hard to miss.” A wry smirk curls one side of his mouth.
Scoffing, I throw my hands in the air. “Heaven forbid a girl have hobbies! All joking aside. Besides what you just told me, I don’t really know you, Luc.
Your likes and dislikes. Your hobbies.” I wink.
“I sure as fuck know I like your big cock, but I want to know what’s in here.
” My finger taps his temple, then his heart. “And here.”
“Let me take you on a date, then.” He makes the statement with such nonchalance, like we’re going to get groceries, not deciding whether to give in to this invisible pull between us.
I glance down at my disheveled pajamas. “Now?”
“No time like the present, mon soleil.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “A vampire who’s allergic to commitment and a minotaur nursing a broken heart. What could possibly go wrong?”
A wide, winning smile stretches across his face, straight white teeth on display. He has a beautiful smile. Hopefully, I’ll be seeing a lot more of it. “We’ll take it slow, Ness.”
That small sentence eases the snake of tension coiled in my stomach, and before I realize it, my mouth is hovering over his. Dropping my voice to a husky whisper, I say, “I really want to kiss you, but I think something died in my mouth.”
Warm breaths puff against my lips when Luc laughs, full-bellied and smooth as silk. I’ll be doing everything in my power to get more smiles and laughs from this big minotaur. You can count on it.
He tucks a frizzy strand of hair behind my ear before pressing his lips to my forehead. The kiss is featherlight, a barely-there caress, but it turns my insides to goo… in the best way. One I’ve never experienced before. “Go brush your teeth and shower, Ness. Then I’m taking you out for some food.”
“On our date.”
“On our date,” he echoes, icy eyes melting into the brightest blue flames and sending a drove of pixies swarming in my tummy.
It’s confirmed… sweet Luc is my favorite Luc.
Leaving his lap, I can’t wipe the dopey grin off my face as I race up the stairs to my room.
In fact, it’s still firmly in place when I brush my teeth, using a little extra toothpaste to banish the awful taste in my mouth.
It’s still there when I wrestle through the tangled mane of my hair in the shower.
And it’s still there when I dry off and put on a warm sweater dress and fleece-lined leggings.