When I returned to the kitchen, Lyla was standing there staring at the abundant spread on the island. She wore a blue sweater depicting presents spilled everywhere from Santa’s sack.Her leggings matched the royal blue with elves dancing on them. Her gorgeous long hair was loose and she wore light colored eye makeup that had glitter in it.
If someone described a woman like that to me, I would say she was totally not my type. But fuck, she was a real life Aphrodite. Wacky, yes. Beautiful, holy fucking God, yes.
I stood there, unable to speak, staring like a dork.
Lyla turned her head and smiled, bright and magical. “Good morning. Did you make all of this?”
I nodded and coughed a few times to try to find my voice. “Hi, yeah, good morning. Help yourself to whatever you want. Jason and I have already eaten.” I hurried into the kitchen and fetched a plate from the cupboard to hand to her. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Thank you.” Lyla took the plate with a shy smile. She perused the various foods in containers kept warm by the tinfoil I put over them. “I’m doing much better. Almost like myself again. Which is a good thing, because I’ve got a ton of things I need to do today. After visiting Miss Eloise at the hospital, of course.”
“Unfortunately we won’t be going anywhere today. The roads are impassable. Some of the main roads might be cleared by tomorrow, but more likely on Monday.” Stuck in Primrose House with this beauty. I swallowed and turned to fetch my coffee mug from the counter.
“What?” Lyla rushed over the windows, but didn’t groan or turn sad. She marched back to the island with more determination. “That’s a lot of snow, but Christmas still has to happen.”
She picked one of the spanakopita I made with feta and kale, since they didn’t have any spinach. Then she scooped some yogurt onto her plate, sprinkling it with nuts and honey. A healthy Greek breakfast.
Why did that please me so much?
“If you don’t think we can get to the hospital, I’ll call and check on Miss Eloise. But the Big Sisters’ building is only five blocks away. I have to get the presents for the girls there today, even if they can’t have their party tomorrow. The post office is a block away from there. Postal workers are supposed to be there no matter what kind of weather is going on. But I can do the forms online and print them out, paying that way, and then put the orders in the drop box even if no one is there.” Lyla paused to cut off a bite of spanakopita and chewed it. She gave a soft moan as her eyes went wide. “Oh my God! What is this? It’s so wonderfully cheesy!”
I gripped my mug tighter. Did she even know how erotic that moan was? “I’m glad you like it. It’s spanakopita, a Greek breakfast food made with feta and spinach, but I improvised with the kale from the fridge. I added in a bit of ricotta for texture and sweetness too.”
“I want this every day.” She took another big bite and melted against the counter.
Every day. Check.
Just to have her react to something I made with such enthusiasm…
Nope. Lyla wasn’t for me. No matter how much she liked my cooking, and how much I liked that she liked it, she couldn’t be my mate.
“There’s enough to make again tomorrow.” Even if I couldn’t have her for life, I could make her that happy one more day. “I don’t know if we can drive even a block. The drifts are too big and the street is blocked by some really tall ones.”
Lyla shook her head as she chewed and swallowed. She licked her lips and grinned. “I don’t need a car. I’ll put the gifts into trash bags to keep them dry and tie them to a few sleds. There are snowshoes in the garage I can use to walk to BigSisters. I’ll put on my snowmobile suit and twenty layers. It’ll be no problem.”
No problem? The Omega was insane. She could freeze. And what if she was hit by her heat out there all alone? My immediate reaction was to forbid her to leave the house. It was too dangerous.
But the light in her brilliant blue eyes, her raised chin, and the determination in her voice made a clear statement. If I told her no, I’d be falling into the same trap that I was trying to keep Jason out of.
Fuck. I hated it. I wanted to protect her and keep her inside where she’d be safe. The instinct was making it difficult to think of anything else.
Protect. Shelter. Claim.
Whoa, no! Shit, shit, shit.
“We’ll come with you. The more of us hauling the packages, the faster we can get it done.” It was idiotic to go out in this weather. I’ve had to rescue fools who didn’t want to stay inside when blizzards hit. Now I was the idiot about to go out to deliver presents.
“That’s so sweet. Thank you. We have enough snowshoes for all of us.” Lyla cheered and dug into the rest of her breakfast, eating with gusto. She shone so brightly. If there was any such thing as Christmas magic, it was contained in her. “We might be surrounded by snow, but we won’t let it defeat us. Together, we’ll have a Christmas adventure!”
I went still.
Surrounded by snow.
Those were Yaya’s exact words.
And I was just marveling at how brightly Lyla shone. Her beauty, her personality, her heart.
No. My family would never approve.
