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“I will.” She disconnected the call, knowing she wouldn’t get out of talking to Mom, but she still hoped she could manage to avoid the video calls. She just hoped Mom didn’t figure out they could possibly meet Cypher by video call before Lauren was ready to reveal him to both of her parents.

It wasn’t that she worried about how they would react, it was that she needed to prepare herself, and him, to deal with the judgement she had no doubt would be coming.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“This still looks painful, are you sure it doesn’t still hurt?” Cypher ran a gentle thumb just under one of Lauren’s eyes, over where the deep purple transitioned to a sickly green. They stood in the kitchen of the house they’d been sharing for almost two weeks. Lauren had managed to reschedule all of her patients since her abduction, having colleagues fill in for the ones who needed someone while she was out, except for Lacey. Lacey had seen her on the compound and knew what had happened, at least the basics, so Lauren had insisted that there was no reason to hide it from her. Since Jenna had agreed, she’d continued seeing the Squirt. But she was going to go back to work in a few days. He wasn’t thrilled but he’d made sure there would be someone keeping an eye on her office at all times once she did start seeing patients again.

“Only if I put pressure on the bridge. Or press too hard on the tip of my nose.”

He scowled.

“Why would you do that?”

“I don’t, at least not on purpose, but sometimes I push my face into the pillow in my sleep. It hurts enough to wake me up.”

Cypher leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose, then straightened and looked down at her.

“I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I’m not going to question it too hard. You might figure out that you’re way out of my league and I’d hate to lose you.”

Lauren leaned back and looked at him.

“I don’t know where you got that idea, but you’re wrong.” She leaned in and let her head rest on his shoulder as her arms went around his waist. Cypher wrapped his arms around her and held on. He liked having her there in his arms and hoped to do this every day for the rest of his life.

Lauren’s phone rang, prompting her to pull away to answer it.

“It’s my mom. I wonder what she needs,” she said before answering the call. “Hi, Mom, what’s up?”

He turned away, going to the fridge to pull out the stuff to make breakfast.

“You’re where?” Lauren’s voice rose, drawing his attention.

“Where?”

“At the airport. In Mobile.” She stared at him, her eyes wide.

He blinked.

“Do they need to be picked up or are they going to rent a car?”

She repeated the question, then relayed the answer, they were getting a car. Her eyes went even wider as she covered the microphone on her phone.

“What address do I give them? They want to come to the house and meet you.”

Cypher’s whole body tingled as adrenaline raced through his body in surprise.

“Give them the address there. I’ll call Hex and make sure they’re let in. Do you want to see them here or at the clubhouse?”

“Here.”

He nodded.

“I’ll make sure they’re shown to the house.” He left the food on the counter and went to get his phone from where he’d left it in the bedroom.

He could hear her talking in the other room as he dialed the phone.

“Hey,” he said when Hex answered. “Lauren’s parents are at the airport. They just called and surprised her with a visit. I told her to give them the address to the compound. I need someone to let them in and bring them back to the house.”

“Will do. Any clue how long till they get here?”