That was his last concern compared to her safety, but he just listened.
“And the shop is all I have. Even though it’s not doing well, it’s all that’s left of my life with my dad. And all I know how to do. And it’s mortgaged to the hilt. And now that I’ve hired you, if things don’t start to look up, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” She put her head in her hands again, and he got up and slid into the booth with her, putting an arm around her.
It wasn’t about her being his mate anymore. It was just about empathizing with this good human woman. Seeing that she needed comfort. That meeting her own needs was more complicated than he ever could have thought.
As she cuddled in against him, seeming grateful for his strength, he felt warmth flood through him. Helping her with her problems made the anxiety in him, the guilt of the past, fade away.
If only he could do this forever.
But she sat up, looking embarrassed. “Thanks for listening. I don’t know what got into me. I’m usually so closed up. Especially with hot guys, and—”
“Hot guys?” he asked, amused as he pushed her another plate of tasty fried foods and took a long moment to glance at her luscious, curvy figure.
“You know what you look like,” she said. “I’m not going to feed your ego. You’re way out of my league.”
He leaned back in the booth, a laconic smile on his face. “Or maybe I’m just another one of those things you could have, but you’re denying yourself.”
She stopped chewing and stared at him, an adorable, embarrassed flush reddening her face. Then she shook her head and looked away. “Stop teasing me.”
“I’m not,” he said, leaning into her and tilting her small chin with one finger. Her feminine little face looked up at him, shocked. He leaned in and gave her a little kiss on the side of her mouth, lightly licking away a crumb on her bottom lip.
Then he sat back, just to enjoy the little shudder of pleasure she made as she looked up at him. She squirmed slightly, and he laughed, getting up and going back to his side of his booth before he could be more tempted.
He hadn’t been able to resist taking a tiny taste of his mate, but she was quite drunk, and despite the fact that she now looked quite hungry for him, he wasn’t going to take any more.
With a cute, reluctant sigh, she focused back on her food, and he picked at his, watching her.
He noticed her sneaking looks at him and wondered how much of this she was going to remember tomorrow.
5
Lindy woke up in a dark room, thinking she’d just had the weirdest dream.
She’d been at dinner with Magnus, of all people. And she’d eaten and drank too much, and—
She started, realizing it wasn’t a dream, and sat up quickly, patting herself to make sure she still had clothes on.
“I didn’t do anything,” a lazy, amused voice said as a light clicked on, illuminating her living room.
She groaned, pressing a hand to her head. “What time is it?”
“Six in the morning,” he said.
“Shit,” she said. “What did you give me?”
“Nothing. You just enjoyed a few drinks, and it appeared to be too much for you.” He was sitting on the chair in the corner, looking infuriatingly sober and smug, with that beautiful hair and that beautiful body and those beautiful, creamy-jade eyes.
He had something on his lap. Something small and fluffy that looked exactly like her Pekingese dog, Perky.
But that was impossible. Perky hadn’t been perky since Lindy’s dad died, and she hated strangers. Heck, she barely ever came out to snuggle at all, preferring to sit at the foot of the couch and watch movies with Lindy quietly.
Lindy was oddly touched by the sight of Perky curled up on Magnus’s lap, sleeping peacefully.
“How did you do that?” she asked.
Magnus shrugged. “Once I figured out this thing was a dog, it was easy.” He scratched Perky gently around the ears. “Who knew they could be so tiny? Or fluffy?”
“Her name’s Perky, by the way.”
“Good name.” He gave her a smile and she felt caught off guard, first by him being in her place, looking so comfortable. And then by her attraction to him, too strong to be ignored.
And then by that smug, knowing expression on his face that said he was completely aware of it.
She let out a small sigh and then remembered the feel of his lips just barely brushing hers. “You kissed me when I was drunk,” she said accusingly.
He shrugged his massive shoulders encased in a black tee shirt that hugged every muscle. “I got a crumb off of you.”
She frowned, not sure if she was irritated that he’d taken liberties or because he’d stopped there.
She was tired of fighting her attraction to him, and she wasn’t going to make another stupid mistake getting involved with an employee.
What if he just meant to use her? What if he was just like Ed? She didn’t want to be tricked again. Depend on anyone again.
But there was something different about him. The more she’d relaxed at dinner, the more trustworthy he’d seemed.
He genuinely wanted to get to know her, and the thought was foreign to her after a life of men just being her friend.
Or a douchebag pretending to be interested to get something.
But unless she was crazy, there was no mistaking the heat in his green gaze, even in the dim light from the lamp he’d turned on. On some deep, primitive female level she didn’t often access, she could tell he wanted her.
She just didn’t know why. “Are you a chubby chaser?” she asked.
He nearly fell off the chair. He walked over and set a sleepy Perky down on her doggy bed and then came back to sit across from Lindy. “A what?”
“You know,” she said, flushing. “A… guy who likes chubby girls.”
He frowned. “What guy doesn’t?”
“What world are you from?”
“You don’t see the way men look at you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow that was a fascinating shade of reddish-brown. “You’re crazy.”
“Men are always going after skinny girls.”
“I don’t care what men are going after. I like curves and softness, but I wouldn’t say I’m a chubby chaser or whatever.” He thought about it, crossing those impossibly long, muscled legs. “I’m a you chaser.”
“I’ve worked and interacted with a lot of guys over the years,” she said. “None of them have noticed me.”
He stood, and she felt a shiver of apprehension as he walked over, his handsome face calm and amused as he knelt on the ground in front of her couch. Somehow, that put them on the same level.
Damn, he was tall.
“Then they were fools,” he said. “And I’m lucky.”
This was some kind of dream. It had to be. And she felt something inside her snapping. Something she’d been holding back, masked behind anger and defensiveness ever since she’d met him.
Ever since that night he’d stopped to help with her stupid tire.
She was aware of him as a man, and she’d never wanted anything more in her entire life.