Hellen complied, scooting back toward him until she felt the length of his body warm against her back and legs. He waited for her to settle her head on the pillow he was using, then snuggled his own head in right beside hers, his nose buried in her hair.
“Never figured you for a death metal fan,” he murmured.
“Hmm?” she asked.
“The shirt. Death metal band.”
“Oh. No. It was my brother’s. He left it for me when he moved to Missouri before we graduated from high school. It was really hard on me when he left. He knew I liked to sleep in it and left it for me. It brought me a lot of comfort in those days.”
“Why’d he move before graduating?”
“Got a girl pregnant and didn’t want his true mate to have to watch them together. He wasn’t walking away from his baby.”
“Harley.”
“Yes. She’s wonderful. Unfortunately, her mother, not so much. But Havoc did really try his best.”
“And he’s back now with his real mate?”
“Yes. Analise. Everyone has known they were mates since they were little kids.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, wasn’t easy for them. And now it turns out that Barron and Emmalyn were mates, too. But they didn’t know until they were almost out of high school.”
“What about you? You have somebody they all thought you would end up with?”
“No. I thought I would end up alone. Didn’t think I had a mate.”
She felt his lips press against the back of her head.
“You definitely have a mate,” he said quietly, hugging her a little closer and sighing deeply. “Sleep well,” he whispered.
Not five minutes later his breathing evened out and got deeper. Five minutes. That’s all it took and he was asleep again. “You gotta be kidding,” she said to herself. Then she grinned when she realized all he really wanted was to hold her. She thought he might try to entice her to have sex, but he’d really only wanted to be next to her. Still smiling, she closed her eyes and relaxed in his arms. His scent surrounded her and it wasn’t that much longer before she, too, fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter 12
Hellen slowly woke, taking a few deep breaths and tentatively stretching her body this way and that before turning over and opening her eyes. As her bedroom came into focus the sound of crunching began to grate against her nerves. Then she realized she heard the sounds of the most irritating reality talk shows possible, accentuated with the sound of a remote control clicking as the channels were flipped.
Sighing exaggeratedly as she realized she had to people before she was even awake good, she half pulled herself up and leaned against the headboard.
“Good morning, sunshine!” Lucien said, as he grinned at her and crunched another Oreo cookie.
Hellen continued rapidly blinking her eyes and scowling as she tried to focus.
“Not a morning person, huh?” he asked.
“Go. Away.”
Lucien chuckled. “Not a chance, cher.”
Groaning out a whine, she started scooting toward the edge of her king size bed to get away from him and the unnecessary noise he obviously brought to the morning.
“Hang on, now. Where you off to?”
“Quiet,” she grumbled.
“Tell you what, I’ll try to be quieter, and I’ll even give you a cookie if you stay.”
