Chapter Fourteen
Jamie looked at the clock and let out a long sigh.
She glanced down at her phone. Lucan had received her text, but he hadn’t responded or called back.
A quick walk to the window and look around the street didn’t find his bike. She tried to tell herself it was dark, and maybe she just couldn’t see him, but the cold, hard truth was staring her in the face: her plan had failed.
Okay, so maybe she expected that Lucan was going to come by after her sexy pic. If she were being totally honest, she might have even admitted that she expected him to come over pretty quickly for a little morning or at least early afternoon delight.
In fact, she may have spent the whole damn day hanging around her apartment on the off chance that he would. What a waste of time.
The plan seemed so perfect before. Whatever else she thought about Lucan, she knew he found her sexy. She knew he wanted her. She just thought she needed to give him a little more encouragement.
Jamie resisted the urge to throw something. She knew she shouldn’t be mad.
Maybe this wasn’t about commitment. She’d been around the hybrids long enough to know that most didn’t intend to play hard to get.
They’d grown up in a fucked-up situation that would driven most people crazy. They had all sorts of issues, lot alone with intimacy, and she totally got that.
But Jamie would be damned if she wasn’t a little pissed he didn’t at least come around to check on her considering the shit that had gone down the day before.
Now night had come again, and it looked like she was going to be sharing her bed with no one.
About the only useful thing Jamie had accomplished that whole day was checking on Leah. Her friend was acting a little strange, but she was alive, and that’s all that really mattered.
After yesterday’s incident, it would have been surprising if she had been totally normal.
Jamie sighed as she lay down on top of her bed. She wished she could have managed more anger, it’d have covered the hurt.
Lucan could have been the one. As silly as it sounded, she truly believed it.
Damn men. Why did things in the love department always have to be so complicated for her?
After a string of failed boyfriends and a few one-night stands, Jamie didn’t particularly feel bad about her sex life. A girl had to scratch an itch from time to time. However, what she did feel bad for was that no one ever stayed, not for any length of time.
Jamie liked to believe that it was them, and not her, but even that didn’t help. In the end, she was the one picking those men, so maybe it was her fault. She just didn’t know.
She couldn’t fix the problem if she didn’t know the true cause.
Once again, she was in the same boat. She just hoped that Lucan would be different. He sure felt different, and not just in the between the sheets sort of way, although maybe that as well.
No, he listened to her. When he said she was just herself, it sent a warm tingle all over her body. Never in her life had anyone said something like that to her. It was like just being herself was some amazing thing.
Another sigh followed. Maybe she picked the wrong guys before, but she knew she didn’t pick the wrong guy with Lucan.
Jamie rolled over onto her side, her legs sliding against one another, which only reminded her of the night before.
Damn him.
Maybe if she took another shower and dealt with things, she would be able to finally go to sleep. Jamie doubted it, but it was better than lying there wishing he was inside her again.
Jamie bounced off the bed and hurried into the bathroom to turn on the shower. Hot steam filled the room as she tore off her clothes.
“Just one time, and I’m off to bed,” she mumbled.
* * *
Lucan sat outside in the car Nikon insisted they ride over together in. Not that he was there with him. The prick had hopped out and walked right up to Leah’s apartment like it was the most natural thing in the world.
He grunted. He really shouldn’t be angry the other hybrid was finally finding some peace.
After the hell Nikon had been through, it was good for him. He’d already lost more to the Group than anyone.
No, Lucan was really pissed that there was his own beautiful woman upstairs, and he couldn’t touch her. Wouldn’t touch her.
He fought with himself to not pull up the picture she’d sent him earlier. It didn’t really matter much. The image remained seared into his brain. Probably would for the rest of his life.
The ache between his legs returned, the need to be buried deep between her legs that never seemed to go away. His inner beast gnashed its teeth and snarled at being caged from his woman.
“Fuck,” he grunted. “I know already.”
The ache spread to the rest of him. Every cell in his body screamed for him to be with his Vestal.
Nothing would ease the ache, and he knew that there was only one thing that would. Being with Jamie.
The memory of her scent, her moans, and her soft body entered his thoughts. For those hours, Lucan didn’t worry about the Group, didn’t care about vengeance. It’d been perfect bliss, and he craved more.
A high-pitched scream erupted. Though it was muffled by the apartment walls and his own car, he knew it was Jamie instantly.
Lucan rushed out the car and raced up the stairs to her door. Nikon stood outside her door, shirt off and with a somewhat dazed sleepy expression as he knocked on the door. Leah peeked out from her own door.
“Jamie?” Nikon said.
When he saw Lucan, Nikon moved to the side.
“Can’t smell anything weird,” Nikon said, “but it could be the same woman who followed them before, or maybe they are masking the smell.”
Lucan frowned. He stared at the door and pounded his fist against it.
“Jamie!” he shouted, his heart pounding. He’d kick down the door if necessary.
A small click came from inside the door, and it opened slightly. She peeked through the gap.
“Lucan?”
Her gaze skirted over to the shirtless Nikon and her friend across the hall.
“What the hell is going on?” she asked.
Lucan cleared his throat, and she looked up to him again.
“Open the door,” he demanded.
Nikon patted his shoulder.
“Get some rest, man,” he said, before going into the other woman’s apartment.
Lucan watched as Jamie nibbled her lower lip.
“I’m not dressed.”
A low rumble filled his chest again. “Open the door,” he said again.
She closed the door, but he could hear the chain being pulled off. As soon as it was open, he stepped into the room.
Lucan searched the place. He didn’t know what he was going to find, but she was naked, and it made his mind work in all the wrong directions. Lust and fear for her safety battled in him.
Once he’d secured the place, he turned back to the naked woman standing before him with just a small towel around her that did little to cover her lush body.
“You screamed.”
Jamie frowned. “Yes.”
“I thought you were being attacked.” He sighed loudly. “Why did you scream?”
“I was about to.” She pointed to the bathroom where the shower was still running. “There’s a spider.”
“Huh?” Lucan stared at her for a moment. “A spider?”
She nodded.
“Like a bug?”
“Yeah, you know, eight legs, bunch of eyes. A spider.”
Lucan was having trouble wrapping his mind around what had just happened. The crazy woman could take on a mind-controlled townsperson intent on hurting her, but got spooked by some tiny bug.
He was laughing before he could even think to stop. The whole idea was so ridiculous. Here he’d been thinking it was the Horatius Group or a robber, but it was nothing more than a dumb spider.
“Probably isn’t even poisonous,” he managed between laughs.
Jamie glared at him, crossing her arms across her barely covered chest.
“Hey, Chuckles. You wanna take care of the spider since you decided to burst in?”
Lucan went into the shower and was unsurprised the spider had already scampered away, likely more afraid of her than she was of it.
“Looks like your deadly threat has escaped.” He turned off the water and headed back in the bedroom where she was.
Jamie frowned at him. “I was going to take a shower,” she huffed.
Lucan stepped forward, the predator in him looking for a little hunt. “Now you’re not.”
She stared wide eyed at him, and it only made him want to eat her whole.
“Just one second.” Jamie held up a finger as she backed away from him. “You didn’t come today,” she quickly said. “And I even sent a reason to come. I was waiting for you the entire day.”
Lucan pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it across the room. “Didn’t need it,” he said as he moved forward. “Already wanted to come back.”
Jamie bumped into the wall behind her as he continued to move forward. Their bodies were now just a breath apart. “Then why didn’t you?” she whispered.
Her quiet words made his heart ache as she said them. He leaned down and placed his head against hers.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said.
In truth, he had run, had tried to sneak away from the one woman who could complete him. Though if he hadn’t been in the middle of a mission, he was sure the picture would have broken down all his defenses and sent him back to her.
“We were trying to find the guy who did the bombing,” he said, and stared down at her. “We tracked him to a house. He wasn’t there, but there were files there, and pictures of you and Leah.”
Jamie opened her mouth in surprise. “Oh.”
The way her mouth formed only made him want to kiss her more than he already did.
“It’s why I was downstairs,” he said gruffly. “It’s why I came running when you screamed.”
Her breath came in small puffs against his chest.
Lucan sighed and leaned his head against hers. “I don’t know what to do,” he whispered. “But none of that changes the fact that I did run out on you this morning. I’ve been trying to convince myself that I did that for your safety, and that it’d be better for you if you never knew.” He bit back a growl. “Everything in me is saying that I should be with you, but I know it’s dangerous to be by my side because I’m a hybrid. You know this. You’ve seen it first hand.”
Jamie frowned and placed a hand against his chin. “Don’t you think I should get a vote in all this?”
He let his eyes meet hers. So many things were left unspoken between them.
“And how would you vote?”
“To be with you,” she whispered. “Always to be with you. I don’t care if the whole world is against us.”
Jamie stood on the tips of her toes and leaned in to place her lips against his.