She inhaled deeply, buffeted by the driving wind and rain even as the thunder and lightning died away, becoming more distant, less intense, allowing space for her to hear Lucas stop in front of her.
She felt his body heat, felt his breath lance the side of her face.
Opening her eyes, she saw Lucas’s chest and shoulders heaving in front of her. Lifting her gaze, she found herself captured by radiant green eyes still lost to wildness. She reached out and pressed her hand against his jawline.
He bared his teeth, growled low in his throat.
She lifted her other hand, cradled his head in her grasp. He closed his eyes. She felt tremors wrack through his body before he opened them again.
“There you are,” she murmured gently swiping a thumb over his brow. “There’s my Lucas, my Big Country Beaumont, my Big Luc, wild warrior, safely back in the driver’s seat.”
“For now,” he muttered. “But if another person lays one more hand on you…” He sighed. “I told you to shoot me.”
“I know, I was going to, but I chose to take a chance. After all we’ve been through in this brief moment in time, I chose to trust you, to trust myself with all parts of you.” She nodded. “I’m not a mangled mess, I’d say it turned out to be a damned good decision, and now you’ve got proof that shows you it’s okay to trustyourselfa little more.”
He lowered his head to kiss her and she reared back.
“Ohhellno. It would be great to kiss you—perfect end to an adventure and all that—but you’ve got your brother’s blood all over your mouth and that’s just nasty.”
He frowned, swiped his forearm over his mouth and spat out to the side, leaning forward again.
“Yeah, not happening, cousin.” She laughed.
“What kind of fucked-up twisted story is this, that a man, a big strapping warrior of a man like me can fight for the veryfabricof his soul but can’t kiss his woman after? That ain’t how this is supposed to end, darlin’.” He lifted her off the ground and held her tightly against him. “But that just lets me know our little adventure ain’t nowhere close to the end. I’m thinking this is just the prologue, yeah, that maybe I got the rest of my days to kiss on you as I see fit.”
Stormy wound her arms around his neck. Closing her eyes, she rested her head against his shoulder and finally granted herself the freedom to release her tears of fear, sadness, love, into the steadying stream of rain water washing over them.
“Don’t stop loving on me, Sienna Red. My poor heart couldn’t survive without its calming storm.”
Chapter 13
“Come on now, chi, we made it through, yeah? Worst part is over.”
Stormy was silent but her double and triple breaths and hot tears flowing onto his shoulder let him know she was still having a good cry.
Big Country tightened his arm around her waist and rubbed her back with his free hand. “All right then, darlin’, go ahead and have your cry, but just think, when you’re all done, and we’ve gotten rid of my kin, I’m thinking we have, oh I don’t know, at least a couple of weeks of adventure time before you get back to real life.”
Her tears quieted. “We let the Brood clean up the Delilah situation, and me and you, we’ll start by going to see your relatives in Louisiana, then head on down to New Orleans for a day or two before hopping over to my houseboat on the bayou. You’ll see nature’s wild beauty. I’ll get some knockout pills from Merlee, then we’ll hop on a plane to France, pay homage to my ancestry and after we’re done fucking, eating, and drinking, we’ll make our way back to the Bay.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m really gonna blow your mind then.”
She looked up and dragged the back of her hand over those pretty whiskey-brown eyes, moisture binding her long lashes together.
“I want beignets,” she said, sounding like a child bargaining with an overwhelmed parent over good behavior.
“I’ll make you beignets, real ones, not that tourist-trap bullshit.”
She wrapped her legs around his hips and leaned back, her hands on his shoulders, her eyes knowing. The game was afoot.
“Toys. I want to bring at least two more toys for us to play with.”
“I’m a daring sort, darlin’, I think I can handle one or two of your little dick emporium toys,” he said, reaching down to pat her ass cheek.
She threw her head back and laughed.
When her eyes grew somber, he held her more securely. She cleaned a spot at the edge of his mouth and pressed her lips there before resting her cheek against his. “I wanted them to do better by you. Not that I believed in a happy-ever-after, but it wasn’t unreasonable to want them to own up to hurting you and just move on.”
“For them it was highly unreasonable—but I’m fine, Sienna Red, better than fine even.”
He placed her on her feet. Despite the rain, he was still covered in mud and blood. “Look at that, I’ve gone and got you all dirty,” he said, rubbing his hand over her breasts.
