Fleur paused with a curlie at her mouth. She tilted her head to the side, her voice a rare serious tone. “You don’t wants to be big and strong?”
Amelie watched their interaction closely, her chin propped on her palm. If she thought he would cave, she was wrong. Fleur fluttered her lashes waiting for his response. The fact Sulen actually considered eating the vegetables in the wake of that childish hope scared him.
Fortunately, a disturbance at the front of the restaurant prevented him from having to make good on being an example for a four year old when it was clear he was already big and strong and not because he’d eaten weird looking vegetables.
“What do you mean the place is full?!”
At the entrance, Roan’s near shout had several customers turning in that direction. His wife, Aviana, clung to his elbow beside him, looking around with her chin tipped up. The Ambassador of Trigodor was with them.
Gaze intent on the interaction, Sulen almost missed the way Fleur huddled into his side. She stood on the seat and buried her face in the base of his throat, her tiny arms around his neck.
She was shaking from head to toe. A low growl rumbled from his chest to his throat. Her fear was like setting a match to a flame and his response was instant. Wrapping an arm about her hips, he made sure his hold was solid in case he had to move quickly.
“I want to eat here. We were told it’s the best place to get a traditional Dorian dinner. Do you know how far we’d have to travel to ever have the experience of Dorian food?”
That from Aviana in a high pitched voice as they slowly drew more and more notice their way. Not that they seemed to care. The little information Sulen had pulled up on them so far wasn’t positive. If the ambassador wasn’t careful, he’d lose his seat catering to his spoiled daughter and her husband.
Rumors were already spreading about Roan’s less than stellar performance and lack of decorum dealing with dignitaries. Aviana was disliked overall and always had been. In another day or so, Sulen would have a full background on all of them and know how to act regarding their unnatural interest in Amelie’s daughter.
“I wanna go, Daddy,” Fleur mumbled against the skin of his neck.
Ire increasing, Sulen stood abruptly. Fleur curved her body with the motion, latching tighter to him. Moments ago, the tiny dynamo had been a bundle of giggles, comfortable and relaxed in an environment that had always provided her with a sense of security. Now, these pricks had taken that from her with their annoying presence.
Beside him, Amelie got to her feet. He felt her delicate touch on his wrist and realized his fist was clenched. “I don’t want another scene, Sulen.”
“Full means full, can’t you understand?!” A’shar’s bass roared across the place as he stormed from what Sulen assumed to be the kitchen area.
His gray skin was dark as slate, his large hands fisted at his side with each slamming step he took toward the group. The ambassador had the good grace to appear embarrassed while Roan straightened his shoulders and demanded, “Are you in charge? We wish to have the experience of enjoying Dorian food. We need a table.”
Fleur whimpered and dug her nails into Sulen’s skin. It was Roan’s voice she was reacting to. He’d scared her by approaching her at school then again at the community center and now he was behaving in a way designed to intimidate and bully those around him.
Sulen had never liked bullies. He dropped his free hand to the spinning star at his waist. One flick and he could end Amelie’s problems.
“Don’t,” she whispered.
She dropped her gaze to his hand on the projectile weapon. Her face was pinched and pale. Not quite trembling like Fleur but definitely scared. Sulen released a breath and gave her a chin lift. He was definitely tempted to pay the ambassador’s son-in-law a special visit but didn’t need the added attention.
“Let’s go,” Amelie said, tugging on his wrist.
He entwined their fingers and moved toward the door. The only exit was the front door and they’d have to pass the group.
A’shar was arguing with Roan and Aviana added commentary. The ambassador stood off to the side, not adding but not deflecting the confrontation either. Weak. Sulen sneered in his direction as they got closer. The ambassador ducked his head and turned away.
They were almost to the door when Roan happened to look up. His eyes bulged. Sulen needed his hands free and nudged Amelie with his shoulder. “Take her.”
It was a tussle because Fleur refused to release her grip on him. He eased her into Amelie’s arms. “It’s alright, sweetling.”
Once she was cradled in her mother’s arms, face still hidden from the trio at the entrance, Sulen placed a hand on the hilt of his blaster and guided Amelie forward with his other.
“Hey!” Roan shouted.
“Keep going,” Sulen muttered to Amelie.
As soon as she was through the door, Sulen stopped and turned. Roan was on his heels. The prick actually thought to follow Amelie. Sulen made sure to block the way out and stayed directly in Roan’s path. “No.”
Roan stretched to see around Sulen’s shoulders, wildly gesticulating. “That’s my daughter. I have every right to see her.”
“She’s mine, not yours. Amelie already told you that and her claim is the only one that matters here.” The lie rolled easily from his tongue. Sulen had no problem refusing this fool any claim on the two females he wanted to protect.
A’shar crossed his beefy arms over his broad chest and grunted. “I have helped raise the little one. Everyone knows Sulen Czen bond mated Amelie before they arrived here. We don’t know you. You’re an outsider.”
Roan sputtered, his face going from vivid red to a deepening purple. “None of that changes the fact that she lied.”
“What’s your daughter’s name again?” a voice called out.
Staff and customers alike glared at Roan. The reaction was far stronger than the one Amelie received at the community center event. Sulen could only speculate that Roan and Aviana hadn’t endeared themselves to the citizens of Covard during their stay so far.
The validity of Roan’s claim was now in doubt. Adding insult to injury, it was clear seeing the blank look on Roan’s face that he couldn’t recall his own daughter’s name. Sulen snorted and shoved him back. “Stay away from Amelie and Fleur or else.”
“I want a test!” Roan shouted to his back.
Sulen had one hand braced on the partially opened door. Standing outside, Amelie held Fleur to her chest, dismay darkening her eyes. She’d heard Roan.
“If the girl’s not mine, Amelie should agree to a test on her parentage,” Roan challenged.
Chapter 11
Sulen rushed toward Amelie and hurried them home, Roan’s demand echoing in his head. Amelie shook beneath his hand at her waist as he waited for her to enter the code and open her door. It took two attempts. Fleur had fallen asleep in her mother’s arm. There were dried tear marks on her cheeks.
“I’m going to lay her down.”
Amelie was gone before he could speak. Sulen sat on the familiar sofa. Everything was the same as it had been a day ago except for a stuffed toy on the floor by his feet. He picked up the pink object with four swirling eyes that jingled and set it on the cushion next to him.
Amelie joined him a few minutes later. Fear and dread emanated from her as she sat with her head lowered to her twisting fingers. Sulen placed his hands over hers to still the motion. “Amelie, it’s alright.”
“It’s not,” she shot back, raising her head. “He can’t test her, Sulen.”
Though he knew the answer, Sulen asked, “Because he’ll try and take her away?”
Her ex had already refused the child when she disclosed her pregnancy and attacked her when he found her months later. Giving him access to Fleur in any manner would be a crime.
Eyes glistening, Amelie sniffed. “Y-yes.”
She burst into tears afterward and the emotion was a far cry from the laughter of a short time ago. Sulen reached
for her and pulled her onto his lap. He didn’t know what he was doing but he couldn’t let her cry as if her world was over.
“We’ll figure something out,” he whispered into the top of her hair.
“I wish you were her father.”
Stars help him, Sulen had the same wish because the thought of the sweet girl sleeping down the hall having to be exposed to that bastard as her father was not a pleasant thought.
“Roan and his wife are not well liked,” he stated and awkwardly patted her back.
Amelie gave a final sniff and settled against his chest. The action warmed him on the inside. He was an assassin, trained to kill. Gentleness was not in his make-up yet his behavior since arriving here and meeting Amelie had been completely opposite of who he knew himself to be.
Initially, his goal had been planned vengeance when he discovered the identity of the person on the other end of the bond.
Torturing or maiming had been some of his more fonder fantasies for the confrontation. Anger had guided those thoughts, though. The reality of her was far different than his expectations. Amelie Haven was a single mother working hard at a garden center to make a good life for her daughter.
From what he’d witnessed so far, she’d been quite successful at it too. He admired her courage in the face of what must have been a difficult situation. “Let’s start at the beginning. You had a relationship with Roan.”
The irony of his arrival coinciding with Roan’s was too much to take in at the moment. Maybe one day he’d laugh about it.
“Yes.” Amelie adjusted on his lap, attempting to move away but Sulen locked his hands on her hips and held her in place.
“Stay.” His voice was a deep rasp in his throat but he didn’t want her to move.
***
Amelie didn’t want to get up and was pleased Sulen refused to let her move. His body was warm and if she wasn’t mistaken by the lump at her thigh, he was aroused.
She felt better knowing she wasn’t the only one sensing the crazy attraction between them. Lifting her head to see his face clearly, her gaze caught on his. Sulen lowered his mouth and the first contact between them created sparks.
She jerked back instantly, her hand going to her tingling lips. Sulen smiled and leaned forward again. Amelie met him halfway and this time their mouths crashed, danced, and slid against one another. Her arms looped about his neck, tugging him closer on a moan.
Sulen pressed his hands to her back and held her tight against his frame. He groaned and pulled back on a sigh. “We have to finish talking. I need to know everything to help you, Amelie.”
He was right. Amelie drew a panting breath and eased back down on his lap. Her fingers dragged through the ends of his dark hair when she managed to pull them away.
Sulen’s mouth quirked. “I want to. Very much. This first, then...other things.”
Amelie flushed and swiped a hand over her hair. “I don’t know why I did that.”
“It was both of us. I’ve wanted you since I first saw you. The desire is mutual.”
There hadn’t been anyone since Roan. The last four years had been devoted to her daughter and their safety. Risking her heart with a stranger was the wrong thing to do but as he’d said, the desire was there and mutual.
Taking a deep breath, Amelie started her story. “I didn’t get to tell you everything before when you asked. You know about the mating and that Roan and I were a couple on our home world.”
Sulen nodded.
“I reached out to my friend and she told me to come here. She’d help me with my baby and do what she could.”
Amelie deliberately left Scarlett’s name out.
“Is this friend the one who helped you falsify your records to gain residency here?” Sulen asked.
His awareness of the truth was there in his eyes but she gave him all of it. “Yeah. I didn’t know what else to do and had nowhere to go. I was here on a visitor’s visa at the time.”
“So you lied,” he interrupted.
This time, Amelie pulled free from his embrace and slid to sit on the sofa beside him. “Yes. My friend had access to your hormones as I mentioned.”
“If she had access, the person would have had to be someone at a clinic I went to. I came here a few years ago due to an emergency and injury.” He frowned as if in thought. “I had to be rendered unconscious for a simple laceration and broken arm. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly due to the pain but agreed.”
“Please don’t be angry with her. I was desperate and she was trying to help.”
Sulen reached up and gripped her chin, turning her face to the side. His gaze narrowed on the marks. “She gave you my hormone and cut you to create the impression of bonding scars on your neck.”
His fingers glided over the two slashing lines at the base of her throat. “Yes. No. It was an accident. We’d decided against doing it but I tripped. A stupid accident and my hand landed on the injector.”
“I felt the bond. When you did it, I was returning from a—.” He broke off then pressed a hand to his chest. “I felt something ignite here. I knew what it was instantly but knew it wasn’t possible.”
“We had no idea that would happen. Sca—my friend assumed it would change my scent or something. All we’d heard was that Gerelins can tell if you’re bonded. She...we didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
Amelie knew it sounded awful. It sounded awful to her saying it aloud but if he could only understand how desperate she’d been back then. Worry for her unborn baby, worry for herself, every choice had weighed heavy on her mind.
“You bonded with an unknown male to stay here and gave yourself a background to explain your child,” he included.
“It was supposed to be on official forms only. Then it just made sense to stick with the story.”
“After the bond was in place, something happened a few months later.”
Amelie flinched and started to get up. The memory of what he referred to made her ill. Sulen caught her hand. “What’s wrong?”
Amelie squeezed his fingers, her pulse leaping erratically beneath his touch. “It never entered my mind that Roan would find me. He came here on a routine visit with the ambassador and saw me outside the house. When he realized I was still pregnant with his child, he exploded. So much rage. He attacked me, kicking my stomach over and over.”
Sulen surged to his feet and grabbed her shoulders. “He what?!”
A lump lodged in her throat when she tried to speak. Tears hovered but Amelie blinked them back determinedly. Sulen pulled her in close and held her. His chin rested on the top of her head and his palms smoothed up and down her back in a reassuring caress.
“He kicked me,” she choked out. “He kicked me and I could tell when I started bleeding, he got excited because he thought he’d made me lose the baby.”
“And you almost died?” Sulen murmured.
They were swaying together in place and it was the most reassuring embrace Amelie had ever been in. His solid hold helped her to settle. “Yes. Sca—my friend is an amazing medic. The best but even she thought Fleur and I were too far gone to save. I remember being surrounded by darkness and then I saw this golden burst of energy welling inside me. Scarlett says my vitals began improving immediately when I arrived at the medical center.”
“I thought I was going to lose you.”
Something in the way he said that caught her attention. Amelie jerked and leaned back. He was staring at her with longing and frustration. “What do you mean?”
“I was asleep when I suddenly felt you slipping away, the bond quickly unraveling. At first, I was angry, thinking you were trying to escape my wrath. My impulse was to save you and make you pay.”
“And now?” she asked, fearing his answer.
“Now I want to care for you, protect you. I’d be lying if I didn’t say part of it is the bond. It’s designed to increase the attraction and pull but the rest is all you, Amelie. How you’ve survived. What you’ve done with Fleur who by the way i
s incredible.”
Amelie laughed weakly. Her daughter was pretty amazing. “I don’t know who she gets it from. She’s been this bundle of energy from the moment she arrived. I know as the parent, I’m supposed to set the example but Fleur...I admire her and every day I hope to have a smidgeon of her courage, her love for adventure and her generosity of spirit.”
“I take it she doesn’t get that from her father?”
Sulen was still rubbing her arms up and down and Amelie felt far calmer. She thought about Roan and Fleur to see if any similarities came to mind and laughed. “Uh no. Roan has always been selfish. I overlooked it because I was excited to have his attention and it seemed like he really loved me.
“Aside from getting the job for the ambassador, which I motivated him to apply for, he wasn’t much for adventure. Those late night conversations were all a lie. Roan continually discouraged me in subtle ways about wanting to leave our home world to see more but I thought he was being careful and wanted things to be planned better.”
“Working for any ambassador is not easy work. It requires lots of travel and despite the safety policy in place for diplomats, there is some risk involved.”
Amelie twisted her lips. “Money. When he got accustomed to the money and attention, I’m sure his mindset on adventure changed. Marrying Aviana only increased his level of greed.”
“Sounds like a bastard who hasn’t changed much.”
A jaw breaking yawn escaped as an unbelievable wave of exhaustion rolled over her. Amelie clamped a hand over her mouth.
Sulen laughed, pulling away from their embrace and bent over. His arms curved behind her legs and shoulders as he lifted her. “Someone’s tired.”
“What are you doing?” No man had ever picked her up before.
“Taking you to bed.”
“What?! Wait!” Amelie struggled and kicked but Sulen only tightened his hold.
“I won’t be joining you.” He smirked down at her as he unerringly headed down the hall toward the correct room. “Unless you want me to.”
Claiming His Unexpected Baby Page 8
