“You don’t want children?”He said that he didn’t, not right away.“I don’t either.Maybe not ever.I don’t know a great deal about them and haven’t any idea if I’d ever want any in my life.”
“I’m not sure about them either.I’m the youngest of my brothers, so I’ve never been around children until my brothers started having them.Brandy has a little boy whom she and Lica raise together.But he was planned, I think.My other brother, Ayden, and his wife, Summer, have two little girls; they’re about seven now.They’re Selma and Harlequin.Something you should know about Selma is that she can see ghosts.”
“Ghosts?”He nodded and told her how her father had shot her in the head, and if not for the magic of Brandy, she would have died.“Does she see them all the time?That would be exhausting.”
“I guess she does.Guy, my other brother, was hit in the head by a baseball bat, and he can see them too.I don’t know that he helps them, but he can see them, he told me.Guy writes books.His pen name is Adam Sloan.You might have heard of him.”She said that she didn’t get the chance to read all that much, but would look out for him now.“Good.He’s been giving us copies of his books so that we can keep up.Right now, he’s writing another murder/mystery about an unsolved death.I think the ghosts tell him their story and he solves their murder.”
“You have a very eclectic family.”He told her they were all wolf shifters too and that their oldest brother, Lica, and Brandy, his wife, were their Alphas.“What is it that you do for your family?I’m assuming that you all work in some outside job.”
“I’m an attorney for the family, as I said.I can’t see ghosts, but I do help with research on the murders if there are any for the other two.”She nodded.He was blasting her with information, but it wasn’t too bad.She wondered how much he knew about her and asked.“Just the surface stuff of a background check.I’ve done them on everyone who works at the Little Diner.You’ve been in the service.I know that you have owned this condo as of three months ago.You have an excellent credit score.I didn’t know that you drove a fourteen-year-old car.I know nothing personal about you.As I said, just the personal stuff that you get in a background check.”
“I’m glad to hear that I have an excellent credit rating.I want to buy myself a house.”He said that he was looking into houses as well.“Do you want us to live together?Or do you want to get separate houses so that we can do our own thing?”
“I’d rather we got a house together.But that’s up to you.As a wolf, I’m going to want to be around you a great deal, so there is that.”She asked him how much a great deal was.“Right now, I just want to touch you.To make sure that you’re all right.I have a feeling too that you’d knock my head off if I were to get too fresh with you.”
“I don’t need you to be pawing me to death when we just met.”He nodded as if he understood.For some reason, she thought that he did.“I’m not going to have wolfee sex with you either.That’s a big fat no-no.”
“No.I don’t want that either.”When his face reddened, hers did as well.She’d not meant to beso blunt, but did feel the need to get that out in the open with him.“I don’t know what you’ve heard about from other shifters, but that isn’t something that is done in our pack.At least I don’t think so.Not that it matters, it’s nothing I want to—”
“I get it.”He nodded once again and leaned back on the couch.“There are other things we need to clear up.Mostly to do with living arrangements.I don’t want to have sex with you at all for a while.We’ve only just gotten to know one another, like ten minutes ago, and I’m not going to be jumping into bed with you, no matter how charming you are.And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to force me.I’ll hate you for that.”
“I have no intentions of having sex with you at all until you say so.And it will be on your word, too.”She nodded but didn’t believe him.“On the honor of your heart, I promise you I’d never force you into anything.”
“Why, my heart?I thought that you were supposed to say that of your mother’s heart.”He said he didn’t believe that his mother had a heart.“I’m sorry.I guess she wasn’t a good person then.”
“She’s not.She and our father beat us daily and even starved us at times.What ended up with our father being killed and her in prison was that they were going to knock each other around and then blame it on us after they killed my older brother Lica.They both hated him with a passion, more so my mother.Now she’s in prison, and we’re trying to figure out how to be good parents to children that we might have.You might say we didn’t have such a good upbringing and have no idea how to be good moms and dads.But they’re learning.I think it has to do with the couple, the Wilkins, who raised us after our parents were separated from us.I know that I’m happy that they’re both where they can’t get at us anymore.”
“I’m sorry.”He said that he was as well, but didn’t want to talk about them right now.“All right.I can understand that.Both my parents are dead as well.And I was an only child.So I have no relatives to speak of at all.I think that’s why I stayed at the Little Diner for so long, they felt like family to me.”
“We have a good family now.With the other women joining our family, they’ve made us into better men.I know that my older brother has changed for the better.He used to hate humans, with good reason, and was pissed off that one was his mate.He treated Brandy like shit when they first got together.”She said they seemed all right now.“They are.As are my other brothers.I think the only one that didn’t have any turmoil in his life when he met his mate was Ivan.He and Sen, short for Serenity, seem to me like they’ve been together forever.”
She enjoyed talking to him.He seemed to have answers for all her questions, and when he didn’t, he pulled out paper and pencil and wrote them down.He said that he could contact his brothers about her questions, but didn’t want them to know just yet that he’d been found by her.She asked him if he was ashamed of her being a waitress.
“Ashamed?Good heavens, no.I’m as proud of you as anything I’ve ever encountered before.You’re smart, articulate, and seem to be nice so far.I love the fact that you’ve invited me to your home to get to know you.That makes me think you have an open mind.No, I could never be ashamed of you for any reason.”She blushed hotly, and he smiled.“I’ve embarrassed you now.I’m sorry.I meant only to tell you what I thought about you.”
“I appreciate your honesty about everything.”He said that he couldn’t lie to her.“Not able or just won’t?”
“I won’t nor could I do it.We’re mates.And speaking of that, I’d like to have a connection to you.It will only take a small amount of your blood to be able to talk to you through a link that only the two of us will share.”She put out her hand and was embarrassed that it was shaking a bit.“I won’t hurt you either, Lisa.Never.I mean it when I say that you’re my other half now, and I would no more hurt you than I would anything in this world.With the exception of my parents.”
“Thank you for that.”She hardly felt his bite and felt a connection to him like a rubber band snapped into place.After the connection was made, he told her how she could use it by just thinking of what she wanted to say to him, and he’d be able to hear her.As soon as she tried it, she felt better.It was nice having a connection with Devlin, but she didn’t know why yet.She was just happy to be ableto talk to him when she needed.
It was nearly midnight when he left.He didn’t say a word about leaving so late and asked if he could stay.She wasn’t sure if she would have let him or not, but was glad that he’d not asked.As soon as Devlin was gone, she finished up the last load of laundry and made her way to bed.It was the strangest day she’d ever had, but the nicest too.Devlin was her mate, and she thought that he was a very nice man.
~*~
Devlin thought about Lisa all the way home.He made himself a mental note of things that he still needed to tell her.He also remembered that she wasn’t opposed to looking at houses with him.They were going to need something bigger than the one that he had now.And her condo was simply too small, being a one-bedroom place that didn’t even have good parking for a second car.
She had already decided that she didn’t want to live in the same area where she was now.Lisa didn’t want to be caught up in working for the Little Diner again, so she wanted to move as far from it as she could.He could understand that.He had nearly gone back to looking at firms he could work for when he was down in the dumps about his job.Not that he’d ever worked for a firm before, he’d always worked for the family, but sometimes he would get bored just working on contracts and the like.He thought that was why he would take on cases like the one between Sen and her family.It was something that he could sink his teeth into for a change.
Tomorrow afternoon, she was going to drive to Dresden to see his family.He was a little nervous about that, but knew that she would do all right around them.While he was thinking about how she was coming for a visit, he decided to make her reservations at the local Bed and Breakfast so that she’d not have to drive the three hours back to where she lived all in one day.He’d done it, but there was no reason for her to have to be exhausted when she got home.Besides, it would be an extra day for them to spend together getting to know one another.He liked that reason best of all.Pulling into his driveway at nearly two in the morning, he was just tired enough to sleep in his car.But knowing that he had a nice bed inside his house was the only thing that kept him going.He was supposed to contact Lisa when he got home, but wasn’t sure if he should disturb her.
“I’ve made it home.I’m headed to bed right now.”He could tell that she’d been asleep and told her that he was sorry.“I shouldn’t have bothered you so late.”
“No, I’m glad you did.I can go right back to sleep.I’m glad you made it home.I’ll see you tomorrow.”He told her good night, and it was on the tip of his tongue to tell her that he was falling in love with her, but he figured that might be too much.He was going on the advice of his brother and doing things slowly.There was no point in scaring her right now.“Good night, Devlin.Sleep tight.”
Setting his alarm for eleven, just on the off chance that he slept in, he was glad that his place had had a once-over before she came.He didn’t have staff; his house wasn’t big enough for that, but he did have a cleaning service come in once a week to dust and pick up after him.While he wasn’t a slob, working fifty hours a week would tend to catch up with him through the week.He liked having a cleaned-up place while he was living there.
Getting up the next morning, he was ready to go for the day by the time his alarm went off.He already had three houses lined up for them to see today and then four more the following morning.Just as he was getting ready for his day to begin, Lisa reached out to him and let him know that she was on her way.
