“If the Lilin is watching her, he might go after her tonight,” Nikolas said, and Chris nodded unhappily.
I didn’t have to ask what Chris was thinking. He and I were on protective detail tonight for the first time, and he didn’t want me there if the Lilin was planning another attack. I waited for him to say someone else would go with him.
Chris looked at the twins. “Beth and I are going to need backup tonight. You guys feel like going to a party?”
Seamus snickered. “Sorority girls and beer. Do you even need to ask?”
“Does this mean I can partner with Beth?” asked Niall, who sat on my other side.
Chris’s scowl was almost comical. “No.”
Niall shrugged. “You can’t blame a lad for trying.”
Seamus leaned back with his hands behind his head. “How are we doing this? We all going into the house, or do you want us outside?”
“Paige and her sorority sisters think Beth and I are police officers, so we’ll have to stay outside,” Chris said. “We’ll watch the front of the house, and you two can watch the back.”
“Sounds good.” Niall leaned sideways toward me. “If you get bored with his company, you know where to find me.”
I smiled and shifted uncomfortably in my chair. There was nothing inappropriate in Niall’s behavior, but lately I felt uneasy when other males got too close to me.
Chris made a sound that was suspiciously like a growl, and Niall leaned away from me. I was seeing these little displays of aggression from him more often in the last few days. I didn’t show it outwardly, but part of me liked the possessive gleam in his eyes, because I’d started to feel the same way toward him. I was just better at hiding it.
I stood, drawing Chris’s attention to me.
“If I’m going to be sitting in a car all night, I need to get a good workout in first. Do you have time to spar with me?”
His whole demeanor changed, and a smile curved his lips. “I always have time for you.”
“Great. Give me five minutes to change.”
I headed for the door, calling over my shoulder. “Today, you’re going down.”
Chris laughed. “I’m counting on it.”
* * *
“Where are we going?” I asked Chris as he turned onto a street in the opposite direction of the university campus.
“Getting some food. Neither of us had dinner, and you can’t do a stakeout on an empty stomach.”
We pulled up to a fifties-style diner, and Chris shut off the engine. When I started to open my door he said, “I’ll get it.”
“Thanks.”
I watched him go inside and stand at the counter. It took me several minutes to realize I was staring at him, a new habit of mine. Not that anyone could blame me. Chris was hot with a hard, powerful body and eyes I could happily drown in.
And he was mine.
I don’t know when I’d stopped denying it, but I knew with every fiber of my being that Chris and I belonged together. Did we have stuff to work out? Yes. Was a part of me still afraid of getting hurt? Yes.
Did I love him?
More than my own life.
It was a little terrifying to know that one person owned my heart so completely, especially the man who had hurt me deeply in the past. Maybe that was why I wasn’t ready to say those three words to him. But we were getting closer to that moment with every minute I was with him.
The driver’s door opened, shaking me from my thoughts. Chris handed me a large takeout bag and bottles of water before he got in.
I hefted the heavy bag and laughed.
“Are we feeding Seamus and Niall, too?”
“I have to keep my partner fed. And those two can fend for themselves.”
“You’ve been friends with them a long time, haven’t you?”
Chris smiled fondly. “A little over seventy years. When they were twenty-five, they came to Westhorne for a visit and stayed. They’re good guys. Some of my worst hangovers are thanks to them.”
Somehow, that didn’t surprise me.
“Worse than the last one?”
He grimaced. “No, a murren hangover pretty much tops the list. Well, except for Glaen, although I’ve never been drunk enough to try that one.”
“Glaen?”
“Fae drink,” he said as he turned a corner.
I couldn’t hold back my gasp. “But I thought Fae food was poison to us. Why would you drink that?”
“I wouldn’t. Niall told me he tried it once on a dare, and he couldn’t walk for two days.” Chris grinned. “Did Sara ever tell you about the time she beat a gulak in a Glaen drinking contest?”
I gaped at him. Gulaks were huge, scaly demons like reptiles on two legs, and they were mean brutes. Not even Sara would befriend one of those.
“You’re messing with me.”
“You should know by now that most stories about Sara tend to be true, especially the most outlandish ones. Ask her about it tomorrow.”
“Did the gulak die?”
“Yes, but not from the Glaen. He made the mistake of pissing off Nikolas.”
“Oh.”
Having seen Nikolas in action a few times, I didn’t want to imagine what a pissed-off Nikolas was like.
We reached the campus, and Chris drove us to Paige’s sorority where we parked two houses down on the other side of the street. It gave us an unobstructed view of the house but put us far enough away to not draw attention.
Mason and Brock came over to give us a brief update of the comings and goings in the house before they took off for the night. Then Chris and I settled in for our long shift.
I pulled the food from the bag, not surprised to see burgers and fries. If you send a male for food, chances are you’re getting burgers or pizza.
“Are these the same?” I asked, holding up two of the four large burgers.
Chris peered at them and pointed to the one in my right hand.
“That one’s yours. No onion or tomato.”
“Thanks. I hate picking those off.”
“I know,” he said as he took his burger from me.
I felt a silly burst of pleasure over the fact that he’d noticed and remembered how I liked my burgers. It was such a simple thing, but it made me smile.
“What’s that smile for?”
I lifted a large container of fries from the bag and laid it on the console between us.
“This smells amazing, and I just realized how hungry I am.”
It wasn’t a total lie. I was hungry, and the food was making my mouth water.
He unwrapped his burger. “Dig in.”
Chris and I didn’t speak much as we ate our dinner, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence like it would have been two weeks ago. It was nice just being around him, and my Mori was somewhat content as long as it could sense him. It would never be fully content until I gave it what it wanted and completed the bond with Chris. My heart and mind were getting there, but not fast enough for my impatient Mori.
Activity at the sorority house picked up as people began to arrive for the party. I watched two young men hoist a large beer keg from the back of a truck and lug it up the front steps, and I wondered why humans drank so much. I hadn’t been among them much before I came to Los Angeles, and I was fascinated by their behavior, especially their social habits.
Music was filtering from the house by the time I finished my meal. I picked up the bag to throw away my wrappers and realized there was another container at the bottom.
“What’s this?” I asked as I pulled the foil container from the bag.
Chris wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “Dessert.”
“Ooh.”
I lifted the top off the container and revealed a massive slice of cheesecake inside.
“New York-style,” he said. “I hope you like it.”
I stared at him. “You remembered.”
A tiny lump formed in my throat. It wasn’t the cake that made me emotional, but that he hadn’t forgotten it was my favorite.
Chris’s answering smile was so tender it made my heart ache.
“I remember everything about you.”
The lump in my throat doubled in size. I was incapable of speech as those five simple words broke through another one of the walls I’d erected to protect my heart.