“I should have protected my sisters better,” Terence said. “That’s what older brothers are supposed to do.”
“You protected them as well as you could,” Max insisted. “In fact, I’m willing to bet you put yourself in between your dad and your sisters a lot.”
“Yeah, but it was never enough,” Terence said. “I couldn’t stop him.”
“No, you couldn’t,” Max agreed. “Because the only person who could stop your dad from doing that stuff is your dad.”
Lana glanced over to see Terence sitting on the swing, staring at the ground. “I hate my father.”
“I know,” Max said softly. “And that’s pretty normal I guess. But if you can, try not to dwell on that too much. If the only thing you ever let yourself feel is hate, pretty soon, that’s the only thing you’ll be able to feel. Instead, think about how much you love your mom and your sisters, and what kind of life you’re going to have with them now.”
That was good advice, Lana thought.
Max and Terence came back over to the table a little while after that, and they all sat there, eating the rest of the fries and talking about any silly subject the kids brought up. Lana couldn’t help but notice how patient and thoughtful Max was. He made sure each of the kids memorized his cell number, telling them they could call him day or night, even if they simply needed to talk. Or wanted french fries.
She was thinking about the fact that Max was going to make an awesome dad someday when another thought popped into her head. He wouldn’t merely make a great dad to a bunch of kids. He’d make a great dad to her kids.
Whoa. Where the heck had that come from?
She’d known Max for a grand total of three days and had spent the night with him once. Even if you counted multiple orgasms as separate sexual events, she still hadn’t been with him long enough to be thinking about having a family with him.
This was insane. No, this was about four miles past the turn-off to insane. But at the same time, she realized she couldn’t convince herself it was wrong. In some ways, it all made complete sense. Her head might have been trying to tell her she was moving too fast, but her heart—and those funny flutters in her belly—were saying this was exactly what she wanted.
She glanced at Max to see him regarding her with a smile that made her pulse go crazy. “You want some more fries?” he asked. “Or onion rings?”
Returning his smile, Lana reached over and took a handful of each.
Maybe Natasha was onto something here. How many guys would offer you fries…and onion rings?
* * *
Max opened the door of his apartment, holding on to Lana’s small overnight bag as she walked in ahead of him. He certainly hadn’t minded that Lana wanted to stay at his place tonight, but he’d been shocked when she asked him to stop at her friends’ place over near Medical City Hospital first so she could pick up her toothbrush and some other essentials.
“Isn’t that stuff at your parents’ house?” he’d asked in confusion.
That’s when Lana had mentioned she’d moved in with Brandy and Miriam after getting into a fight with her father that morning. He hadn’t pushed for details at the time, but now that they were back at his place, he figured it was about time she told him the rest of the story.
“So, does this thing with your dad have anything to do with me?” he asked, setting her bag on the floor by the couch and tugging her into his arms.
She shrugged, as if trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal. But Max could tell she was upset. He could feel the tension in her body.
“Yeah,” she said. “He told me that if I wanted to keep seeing you, I wasn’t welcome in his house.”
Max had feared it was something like that, but he was still stunned to hear it put so bluntly. None of this made any sense. Even if the deputy chief knew Max was a werewolf, why would he be this vehemently against his daughter seeing him?
He leaned down and kissed away the line of stress between Lana’s brows, hugging her close until he felt her relax.
“Do you think he’ll back off in a while, once he realizes that you aren’t going to give in to his threats?” he asked.
“If he wants to see me again, he’s going to have to,” she said. “You and I are going to be together—that’s as plain to me as the nose on my face. Dad is just going to have to get used to the idea.”
Max wasn’t sure the deputy chief would give in that easily and had no doubt that this would come back to haunt them at some point, but he had to admit, he was stoked to hear Lana talking like that. She might not have realized she was a werewolf or have a clue what it meant to find The One, but she could obviously feel the strong connection between them. At the moment, that was good enough for him.
He slipped a hand under her chin and tilted her face up to capture her lips with his. He’d only intended to give her a light kiss, but the moment he tasted her, he couldn’t help groaning as a familiar tingling sensation raced through his body. Damn, one little kiss and he was already getting hard.
Lana didn’t seem to mind. Reaching up, she wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and kissed him even harder, her tongue slipping into his mouth to tease the hell out of him.
Max wasn’t sure how it happened, but at some point, they ended up on the couch, Lana straddling his hips as she ground against him in the most arousing way ever. He’d been wondering if she wanted to watch a movie on Netflix or play some video games, but he decided this was a lot more fun.
