The next morning, Vivica woke up with a start and Shane's handsome face standing over her. He seemed huge standing over her like that. He was so muscular and since he didn’t have a shirt on, she got to see all of them. Her hands were itching to touch him.
She had waited for someone to come to her and try to mess with her while she slept. Vivica didn't trust men, especially when she was sleeping. She covered up really quick, even though she was fully clothed with the same clothes that she'd been wearing the night before.
“I thought that Maria gave you some clothes to wear?”
He looked around the room and found them neatly folded on the dresser. He went to them and picked them up, telling her that she needed to get dressed.
Vivica didn't know what time it was, but she didn't feel like she had gotten much sleep, or maybe she had gotten too much sleep. She felt sluggish, and it was taking longer than usual to pull herself out of it.
“Go take a shower and get dressed.”
“I am fine, thank you.”
“No, you're not. You're covered in mud and your hair is atrocious. I can't imagine you want to go out into the world like that. You can at least straighten up.”
He wasn't saying it as a suggestion. He was telling her. Vivica could sense that immediately, and the stubborn part of her wanted to know what would happen if she didn't listen. What would he do then?
Chapter 5
Shane
Shane still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to think of Vivica. It was morning and he had already checked on her a couple of times, but he had let her sleep far later than he would usually stay home. Usually by that time of day, Shane would have already taken care of most of his day and was about to have lunch.
Vivica’s sleepy form made something inside of him lurch awake and he was in the mood to following through. It wasn't every day that some strange human was sleeping in his house, and Shane believed it was destiny or fate. He believed that things happen for a reason, so his mind was searching for Vivica's reason for coming into his life.
Shane wasn’t usually attracted to humans, not to mention Vivica was so much younger than him. She was barely twenty if he had to guess, though it was hard to tell with the dirty smudges on her face and the tattered clothes. It was hard to get any real feel of Vivica the way she was. He sent her to take a shower, far more to satisfy his own curiosity than anything else.
While she was away, there was more curiosity to worry about.
The woman barely had anything with her, but she did take the clothes off of the dresser in with her, leaving only a jacket behind. Shane usually had more respect for people's privacy but rationalized that she was in his house, and he knew absolutely nothing about her. That was enough to let him go through her jacket, see if he found anything. He wanted a sense of who she really was, anything.
Curiously, there wasn't an ID in there that was going to help him. There were several already scammed men's wallets in there though. He flipped through them and saw that they were all different. Shane didn’t know what to think of that. There was a little bit of money in them, and it didn’t take long to realize what was going on. She was stealing them. That had to be what it was. Then he thought about the fact that she didn't have anywhere to go, and he wondered if that was a more permanent situation. She barely had enough there to get a hotel room, even a cheap one, so Shane didn't know how to feel about it.
Usually, he didn't feel anything, so the fact that he was thinking about it at all surprised him. What was it about this one that made him so different than his usual self? He wasn’t supposed to be messing with humans, especially not one that made him feel anything. He knew better. He tried to stay out of trouble and humans always brought trouble.
There were many reasons that his kind stayed away from humans, and most of those reasons were just as valid still. He was doing it all against his better judgment. He really did know better.
“Do you mind?
Shane smiled. He was about to say something smart about the guys minding that she robbed. He didn’t get a chance to do that though. Or rather, he didn’t care to say anything. The words lodged in his throat for all time. Vivica was out of the shower, fresh and clean, and the difference was vast.
The dirt had been covering an angelic face, blonde hair, and the brightest blue eyes that he’d ever seen. They were the only part of her that was unchanged from the night before. With the rest of her in sight, Shane forgot how to breathe for a moment, another reaction that he hadn’t expected to have. Her porcelain skin glowed and the woman herself was ethereal.
Damn.
Not only had Vivica washed up, but she also put on the clothes that were fitted to her size and a lot more form fitting than the ones she had been wearing before. Even though she was in a club, she had been wearing almost baggy clothes, completely different than most women in those kinds of situations. He’d wondered if she was trying to hide her body, and after getting a look at the gentle curves and narrow hips, he imagined she was. She was also younger than he had imagined. Vivica couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen. Shane had to ask, just because the youthful innocence was hard not to question. She looked way too young for what he was thinking about.
“How old are you?”
“I catch you going through my pockets and that’s what you have to say for yourself, more questions?”
“Yeah, how old are you?”
“I’m nineteen, why?”
Shane shrugged and handed her the loot. In that instant, he made a snap decision, something that he didn’t usually do. Shane was more methodical with his decisions. With the current evidence, the methodical decision would have been to walk away. Vivica was obviously trouble in many ways. Instead of sending her on her way though, he offered Vivica a job, knowing the drama that would obviously come with her.
“A job? I think I told you last night that I wasn't interested in that sort of thing.”
