Chapter Six

 

 

“What are you doing, menace?”

He was standing there with a towel wrapped around his hips that were muscular and slim. He was really going to be the death of her. How many times had she told him to keep his clothes on around her? Never, she wasn’t an idiot.

She licked her lips and turned back to that blue wall because she really wanted that towel to fall. She already had her cake, did she really deserve to eat it? Her hand went to her stomach as desire bubbled over.

“Tempest?” His hand was on her concern in his eyes.

“I’m fine. I found a large duffle bag in your closet. I was packing some of my clothes. I’m not going on another road trip without them.”

He pulled her into his arm tightening around her for a minute.

“I think that’s a good idea. He stepped back; you might want to close your eyes the towel is coming off.”

She nodded her throat working, but her eyes were glued to him. He dropped the towel. Someone help me; he's huge. Her eyes were wide even as she licked her lips. He turned around and bent over. She almost had a heart attack, could she get a pic of this?

“Are you throbbing? I am.”

She tore her eyes away from him as his laughter once again circled her making her nipples hard, and her nether lips throb.

“If only we had time, but we need to leave.”

“It’s a good thing I packed for you.”

“Did you pack my boxers?”

Her lips tilted upward making her look like sunlight.

“You wear boxers? I couldn’t find any.” He leaned against the bed and let out a booming laugh. He stopped he couldn’t remember laughing this much in his whole life. He needed to cut her loose soon.

“I’m going downstairs to pack your shakes. Come down when you’re done.”

She watched him leave his back was stiff. He looked like he was fighting with himself. Her head shook. Why should she care? Are we going to play this game again? Yep, she told herself. One orgasm did not a couple make. So what, she felt that orgasm down to her toes, and her knees were still shaking.

Her hands hovered over his boxers before putting them in the bag and zipping it. She ran down the stairs and jumped into his arms when she got into the kitchen.

“What if I wasn’t prepared, and you fell?”

“You’d never let me fall.” She moved her head to the side so he couldn’t see her eyes. Every word she spoke was the truth. How could she already trust him?

He put her down. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

She flashed him a smile. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

He followed her out the house. “Where’s your car?”

“I pulled out the SUV. I don’t know where we're going, and I wanted something that could handle every terrain.”

“Good thinking.” She put the bag in and climb into the front seat.

Her eyes closed as he drove.

He turned on the radio allowing the road to capture his attention. He listened carefully trying to

 

pick up background chatter of his brothers of even the Dares.

“How long can you pretend to be sleeping?”

“How long has it been?”

“Two hours.”

“I have about two more hours in me.”

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re thinking.”

She opened her eyes and looked around. They were on the highway merging in and out of traffic. He was a good driver. His strong fingers were wrapped around the steering wheel making her remember how they felt in her. That was amazing, but the gentleness of them stroking her cheek almost made her give him her heart.

“What we are doing got real. It’s one thing to talk about it or to threaten to do it, but we’re doing it, and it's dangerous.”

“We have to find out what’s killing you.”

“No, we don’t. We could just live together in bliss until I died. I swear I won’t run.”

“Do you want to die?”

“No. Lucca, I just want you to live. This cave is dangerous. Who knows what’s waiting for us in there?”

“So, I should be okay living with you, loving you knowing every day you’re one step closer to death?”

“Isn’t that what the rest of the world does?”

“Yeah.”

She reached over and turned up the music allowing it to drown out the sound of her heart beating much too loudly. He drove for a while before he turned the music down.

“Everyone dies menace. Most of us don’t think about it because it will happen, eventually. When things become hard is when you have a death sentence placed on you, and you know it. It becomes part of your everyday life. There are people like that, people like you. That’s when you do everything to break it and pray for a normal lifespan no matter what it is. I can’t watch you die without doing everything in my power to stop it.”

He reached out and turned the music back up. Neither of them acknowledged the tears she was crying. The rest of the ride was made in silence until he finally stopped in a small town.

“We’ll get your boots here. There’s a small shop that makes the best shoes and boots.”

“Makes?”

“Un huh, by hand. Your feet are about to be happy.”

Her feet were already happy to be healed, but handmade boots sounded comfortable and expensive. How the hell was she going to afford them?

“Um Lucca, did you miss the part where I told you I spent centuries in a cave?”

“No.”

“How much do handmade boots cost?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that menace, the same way you pretend you don’t know what we are to each other.”

They were mates, their bodies aligned with each other the more time they spent together. That didn’t mean he had to buy her top of the line shoes or that his family had to buy her clothes.

She looked at him from under her eyelashes. He already knew that. They passed several malls and shoe stores, and he never stopped because he always planned to bring her here. Because she was his mate? No, she wouldn’t insult him like that. He brought her here because he cared, she knew he did, just like she knew he would deny it if she asked.

In some ways, they were just alike. Emotion didn’t come easily to them, and caring was a foreign word. She was going to have to run soon, and he knew it. She slid her hand across the seat until she was touching his thigh. Before she left, he needed to know he was worth loving.

“I’m ready to see these shoes that will make my feet feel like they have died and gone to heaven.”

His blue eyes swirled at her words making her feel good. She didn’t like it when they became cloudy. He stood at the front of the SUV with his hand stretched out. She knew she shouldn’t do it, but she placed hers in his. He pulled her close to his side placing his arm around her and led her to the shoe store.

They walked in, and the smell of refined leather hit her nose. She could spend hours in here it smelled so good, and the shoes looked amazing.

“Awe, young love. Lucca, you finally bring a young lady to meet me, but you didn’t call ahead. I would have prepared dinner.”

“Forgive me, Elizabeth. I promise I will bring her again. Elizabeth this is Tempest. Tempest this is Elizabeth.”

“Nice to meet you, Elizabeth.”

“Same to you, young lady. Did you come for shoes? Please tell me you need shoes.” Her voice was young and lively contrasting with the wrinkles on her face.

She came around the counter full of energy, Tempest liked her immediately.

“I rarely get to see Lucca, but now he has brought a beautiful young lady for me to show my shoes too. Have a seat, and I will measure your dainty feet.”

That was the one thing about her that wasn’t dainty. “I have big feet.”

She took off the tennis shoes she was wearing and stepped on the measuring device.

“You’re right they are a size eight.”

You would think her feet would be a five or even a six considering how small she was.

“She has to have big feet to carry all the attitude she has.”

She lit up on the inside from his compliment. Other people wouldn’t know it was one, but she knew and secretly hugged it to her heart.

“What boots would you like to see?” She got up and picked out several. “What shoes do you want to see?”

There was no way she could pick out shoes, but now that she asked her hand hovered over several pairs.

“I’ll be right back.”

“I like her. How did you meet her?”

“Her father used to own this shop he left it to his only daughter but back then no one felt a woman could run an establishment. They told her to get married and raise babies.”

“It was a difficult time. I eventually got married, but my husband raised the children, and I put the food on the table.”

She gave Lucca a smile before she started fitting shoes to Tempest's feet.

“That is one of the best pairs of boots I have, but I also have these.” She held up a pair of boots that took her breath away.

“They are beautiful.”

“They’re honey just like your hair.”

She turned to look at Lucca who was stroking the ends of her hair.

“You are the first female he has ever brought here. I can see you have captured his heart. He’s one of the good ones. I didn’t make these boots Pierre did. I could live forever and not be as gifted as he is. He comes into my shop and says I will make something today. The last time he did that he made these. They’re a size eight, and I have a feeling he made them for you.”

“How could he have made them for me?”

“I don’t question him anymore. He once made the most adorable pair of toddler shoes for a girl. ‘Who will pay to have handmade shoes for a toddler, I asked him.’ He simply smiled. Several weeks later, a young couple comes in. The woman is sniffing like she is holding back tears as they looked at the shoes.

“I asked her what was wrong. She tells me that the doctors told them that their daughter would never walk. She can’t seem to find her center of balance. The father asked if he could see the shoes that I had displayed under the glass counter. I was not surprised when they fit. He wanted them didn’t care what the cost was. ‘At least she can have pretty shoes, he said.’ The mother put her on the floor while he paid. Next thing I know she’s screaming his name. The little girl was walking.”

She walked over to the wall behind the counter and picked up a picture. “This is her. She’s a world-class ballerina today. They still come in and say thank you. I keep telling them to thank Pierre, but he’s never around when they come.”

“That’s amazing. To have so much talent.”

“We all have talent; we don’t always choose to use it. Let’s try on these boots.”

Pierre was a genius. “My feet feel like they aren’t wearing anything that’s how comfortable the boots are. I love them.” She was walking around the store barely controlling the need to run in them.

“Then you will take them. Let’s try the rest of the shoes on.”

She was standing at the counter with five pairs of shoes and an open mouth when Elizabeth rang them up.

“That’s too much.”

“No, it’s not. Lucca will take out his black card and say here use this. Then he will say make sure you take a nice tip for yourself.”

He added three pairs of shoes to the counter. “Tell Pierre that I’m disappointed, he didn’t make me any shoes.”

She rang him up and gave him the final total.

“Here use this,” he pulled out a black card. “Make sure you give yourself a generous tip.”

Elizabeth looked at Tempest, and they both laughed.

“What?”