“I’m not used to being alone.”
He smiled, reached for her hand, and then led her off toward the women’s clothes. She laughed when he stopped at a rack with pants that were miles too long for her and she dragged him to the petites section. At first, Reyvor hung back and let her browse, but after fifteen minutes when she hadn’t selected anything, he began pulling things off the racks and handing them to her. Hazel’s eyes grew wide as the mountain of clothes grew, and then he was pushing her toward the fitting room.
Hazel didn’t know how long she was in there, trying on one thing after another, but eventually he called out to her.
“Don’t I get to see any of them?”
Her face flushed as she thought of how intimate that would be. It wasn’t like they were dating, and yet he was spending his money to purchase a wardrobe for her. If he wanted to see the outfits before buying them, it was the least she could do. The floral print sundress she had clung to her understated curves, but she padded barefoot to the entrance of the fitting rooms and did a little twirl for him.
His eyes lit in appreciation and he walked around her, studying her from all angles. “I hope you plan to purchase this one. It’s most fetching on you.”
Who used the word fetching? Still, the compliment warmed her from the inside out and she decided yes, she would purchase the dress. She modeled a few more outfits for him then began the process of weeding out what she felt she couldn’t live without and what she thought cost too much. A tap on the door made her squeak and clutch her chest as her gaze lifted and crashed with Reyvor’s over the door.
“What are you doing in here?” she groused. “What if I’d been naked?”
“Then I’d have gotten quite the show. You were taking so long I wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
“I’m just deciding what I want to buy.”
He frowned at the two sets of clothes hanging on the hooks, one much thicker than the other. “I hope you mean to purchase all of them. Didn’t they fit?”
“Some of them didn’t hang quite right, or were the wrong color for me.”
“Then we should go back out and find more.”
She gave him an exasperated look. “Do you really think I need all these?” she asked, gesturing toward the clothes. “As long as there’s a way to launder things, I can get by with a week’s worth of clothes. I don’t need twenty outfits.”
“No less than twelve outfits, Hazel. And I don’t mean the kind where one shirt goes with three pants. Twelve individual outfits.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but he narrowed his eyes at her. With a huff, she snapped her jaw shut and looked at the clothes again. She opened the door and handed him the five she’d already selected, then dug back through the other stack and selected seven more, including the dress he’d liked so much. The clerk at the counter rang up her purchases and Hazel’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head at the total. She’d never spent so much on clothes before, preferring the cheaper big box stores and thrift stores. Even when she had a job she hadn’t bought her clothes at the department stores in the mall. The three pair of jeans she’d tried on were on sale for seventy-five dollars. It blew her mind that people would spend more than twenty dollars on a pair of pants, but Reyvor was rather insistent.
He began walking toward the mall entrance, but she grabbed his arm and started tugging in the opposite direction. He gave her a bemused smile and followed, obviously curious as to where they were going. When they reached the men’s department, she eyed him up and down before deciding he wore a large shirt. She caught him watching her as she flipped through the racks, selecting six short sleeve shirts and two lightweight long sleeve shirts with pearl snaps.
Reyvor set her bags down and went to try on the clothes, returning a moment later with one of the long sleeve shirts on. Her mouth watered as she admired the way the fabric clung to his broad shoulders and stretched across his massive chest. The snaps held, but she wondered if maybe she should give him a size larger?
“How does it feel?” she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders and a snap popped open, making her giggle.
“I think you need a larger size. Bring back the things I gave you and I’ll find you an extra-large in them.”
Reyvor grinned and did as she asked. When he had the larger size, he tried on more clothes, modeling each one. Hazel squeezed her legs together as her body nearly melted at just how sexy he looked in the new shirts. Reyvor paid for his new clothes, then carried all of their bags toward the food court. Looking at their wilted expressions, Hazel knew their day of fun was going to be put on hold. She knew three little girls who all needed naps.
Chapter Five
Reyvor sat on the sofa next to Hazel and looked down at the floor where the three girls were nestled in their sleeping bags. Their current living arrangements weren’t going to work much longer. The girls needed rooms of their own, and he very much wanted to be able to spend some time alone with their mother. When Hazel had stepped out of the fitting room in that body hugging dress, he’d known then that things were going to change between them. He’d seen the light in her eyes and caught the appreciative way she eyed him when he’d tried on the shirts she’d picked out.
Zanar’s words flitted through his mind. Reyvor had spent the last year alone, but was it really time to move on? His mate had been sweet, and he knew deep down she wouldn’t want him to spend the rest of his life alone. Could he give up riding the streets at night on his Harley? Or would he have to? At the bar, he’d contemplated moving on with his life, but now that he was faced with a real possibility of it happening, he wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. The thought of Hazel wrapped around him as they thundered down the road made his pants uncomfortably tight as his body reacted.
He’d been in a state of arousal all damn day, ever since she’d given him that adorable sleepy look first thing this morning. The thought of becoming an instant dad to three girls should have terrified him, but he found he enjoyed their company. Little Abby had especially wormed her way into his heart overnight.
Hazel shifted on the sofa and he glanced her way. She was watching the silent TV as if it were the most interesting thing in the room, but he caught the way her hands fidgeted in her lap. He smiled to himself as he casually reached out, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her closer. She gave a little yelp as she ended up plastered to his side, but it only took her a few seconds to melt against him.
“My girls come first,” she said. “They always will.”
“I’m not asking you to turn your back on the children, Hazel. I’m asking you to give me a chance to be part of your world. Today was fun and I’m hoping we’ll have more fun once the children are awake. Perhaps the realtor will have some homes ready for us to view.”
“Are you still asking me to look at them as your employee? Or something else?”
“I’m asking you to look at them as…” He paused. What was the term they used on Earth? He’d heard it so often at the bar. Girlfriend? That didn’t sound right. She was very much a woman and not a girl. “I’m not sure of the Earth term,” he confessed.
“We’ve only known each other a day, Reyvor. That’s not very long. You know nothing about me.”
“Then why don’t you tell me about you?” he asked. “I want the right to call you mine. What do I need to do for that to happen?”
She sighed. “I’m a mess, Reyvor. I was with the same man for over ten years, but until I lost my job last year, we’d never lived together. He wasn’t nice either. I mean, at first he was very charming, but after Winnie was born he changed. When I left him a few months ago, he’d started hitting me and screaming at the girls. They don’t know it, but he threatened our lives. I knew I couldn’t stay.”
“You were brave to leave him,” Reyvor said.
“No, I was a very foolish woman and very much a coward to have stayed so long. The moment I knew he was mentally unstable I should have packed up the girls and gotten out of t
here. But we had nowhere to go. In the end, it didn’t matter if we lived on the streets or in a house, as long as we didn’t have to deal with his abuse anymore.”
“I would never harm the girls or you. I hope you believe that.”
She nuzzled closer to him. “I know that, Reyvor. You’ve taken better care of us in the last day than anyone has my entire life. But I feel like I’m taking advantage of you. You keep spending all this money on us and you’re getting nothing in return.”
He felt his blood heat. “Do you want to give me something in return? The enjoyment of your company is quite enough, but if you wanted to take things further I wouldn’t object. I’m very attracted to you, Hazel. And in case you think I go around chasing women, I don’t. There’s been no one in my life since my mate died. And toward the end she was too sick for intimacy. It’s been well over a year since I’ve been with a woman.”
She looked up at him. “Why so long?”
“I’m not into… what do you call them on Earth? Casual hook-ups? When I’m with a woman, I want it to mean something.”
“So if we were together that way it would mean something to you?”
He eased his fingers into her hair and brought her closer yet. “It would very much mean something to me. I was rather hoping you might consider not only helping me pick a house today, but possibly move into it with me. I think the girls need a stable home environment, and definitely need their own rooms. And I can’t think of anything I’d love more than to see their mother in my bed waiting for me every night.”
“We’re moving too fast,” she protested.
“Or maybe not fast enough,” he said softly as his lips descended on hers.
He captured her mouth with a hungry urgency, fierce and hard, he quickly became drugged from the nectar of her sweet lips. She was delicious. Intoxicating. Reyvor became mindless from the long, passionate kiss, his need overriding all common sense. Dragging Hazel onto his lap and into his arms, his hands roamed her body.
The kiss slowed, softened, and became more sensual. The intensity dimmed and slowly he came back to himself and realized he was about to take things way too far with three little girls mere feet away from them. He pulled away, kissed her one more brief time, and then smoothed her ruffled hair.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I got carried away.”
She touched her lips and stared at him a little awed. He smiled at the befuddled look in her eyes. It seemed she was still reeling from their kiss, and it bolstered his ego.
“No one’s ever kissed me like that.” She brushed her fingers over her lips again. “I’ve never felt that much passion before.”
“What about the girls’ father?”
Hazel shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong, when we were together, it was nice. But it was never like that.” Her cheeks flushed. “He was usually more concerned with his own needs than mine.”
That gave him an entirely new set of questions, but ones he thought would better be asked when little ears weren’t around. The girls appeared to be sleeping at the moment, but what if they weren’t? He shouldn’t have even kissed her with them so near, but he hadn’t been able to hold back any longer. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to get to know Hazel better if the girls were always around, not that he didn’t like the girls, because he liked them very much. He’d enjoyed today, going out and doing things together like a family. It had shown him what he’d missed with his mate by being gone so much and not starting a family. He felt regret over the time he’d wasted with her, but maybe Hazel was his chance to get things right.
The girls began to stir and she slid off his lap and knelt down to check on them. He watched as she roused Abby and walked her to the bathroom. Nikki sat up and rubbed her eyes, looking around in confusion before her gaze settled on him. Clarity entered her eyes and she walked over and sat beside him. Reyvor wasn’t sure what she wanted. There were times he saw her watch the way the younger girls held his hand and there was a deep longing in her eyes, and other times she was very aloof as if she were too big for such things.
Taking a chance, he reached over and pulled her against his side. She stiffened for a moment then relaxed against him. As she cuddled against his side, he ran his hand over her hair.
“Did you have a good nap?” he asked.
“I’m too big for naps,” she mumbled.
“No one is ever too big for naps. When I get tired in the middle of the day, I still take a nap. So, if I can take one, don’t you think it’s all right for you to take one?”
She seemed to think it over a moment then nodded.
Winnie slowly sat up, rubbed her eyes, then clambered over to Reyvor and climbed onto his lap. With both girls snuggled close, he realized this was what he’d been missing his entire life. Having a mate had been nice, but nothing compared to children. Would Hazel want more of them? He supposed it didn’t matter since they had the girls. Reyvor had no problem claiming them as his own.
Hazel and Abby stepped out of the bathroom and the little girl ran over, only to stop in front of him and pout.
“What’s that look for?” he asked.
“There’s no room for me.”
“Hmm. Then I guess you’ll have to sit in my lap in the limo. How does that sound?”
She brightened. “We’re going somewhere else?”
“I thought we’d stop by the realtor’s office and see if he has some houses for us to look at. How does that sound? Would you like to go house hunting and help me pick one?”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“Then I suppose we should head out. Anyone else need to use the bathroom before we go?” he asked.
Winnie scrambled off his lap and ran into the bathroom, nearly slamming the door in her haste. He smiled and stood, pulling Nikki to her feet. When Winnie was finished, they walked down to the waiting limo and rode over to the realtor’s office. John happened to have a stack of flyers ready for them to peruse.
“All of these meet my requirements?” Reyvor asked skeptically.
“Well, maybe not all of them. Some don’t have a pool, but if the yard is large enough, you could always add one later.” John looked at him nervously. “There aren’t a lot of listings with pools that are large enough to meet your needs. I did the best I could with what is currently available. If there were more time, I’m sure we could find something better.”
Hazel took the stack from Reyvor. “I’m sure these are fine.”
She began flipping through them and pulled out three to hand to Reyvor. He looked them over and frowned a little. They were on the small side, weren’t they? With a glance at her, he took the rest of the stack and flipped through. When he found what he was looking for, he showed the listings to her.
“Reyvor, there’s no need to spend that much on a house!” She narrowed her eyes at him. “You don’t need a mansion.”
The girls reached up and snatched the flyers from his hand and looked through them, their eyes getting bigger with each one. They whispered amongst themselves then handed one flyer back to Reyvor.
“We like this one,” Nikki said.
It was a large home made of natural wood with lots of windows. There was a swimming pool, pool house, and a small guest cottage. His eyebrows rose at the seven bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms. If all went as planned, three of those bedrooms would be taken by three certain little girls he knew. But just who did the little devious creatures think would fill the other bedrooms? It cost a bit more than the other house he’d planned to purchase, but he had to admit it was a rather appealing home.
Handing the flyer back to the realtor, he said, “We want to see this one.”
“I know it’s more than we had discussed,” John said, “but the owners are very motivated to sell. They’re getting divorced and are supposed to split the proceeds of the sale.”
“Divorced?” Reyvor asked. “What’s that?”
Hazel cleared her throat. “It’s when two people get married and then decide they c
an no longer live together. They go to court and get a divorce, dividing their assets.”
“A Terran would never leave his mate! What a cowardly thing to do.” Reyvor was appalled at the human custom. “Any woman who mates with me will have to realize she’s signing on for life. I don’t want someone for just right now, I want them for forever.”
Hazel’s eyes misted a bit and he wondered if what he’d said had upset her.
John’s eyes widened. “The two of you aren’t married?”
Nikki’s little chin jutted out at a stubborn angle. “Not yet, but they will be.”
“Nikki!” Hazel looked horrified by her daughter’s outburst, but it only made Reyvor think maybe the little girl had the right idea.
John cleared his throat. “If you’ll give your driver the address, I’ll meet you at the house.”
Reyvor accepted the flyer back and herded his group of females out to the waiting limo. He gave the driver the flyer. Once everyone was settled, the limo pulled away from the curb. Hazel looked decidedly uncomfortable, sitting across from him. Winnie had chosen to sit beside Hazel and he realized how very much they looked alike. All three girls were an exact replica of their mother, making him wonder if they got anything at all from their father.
The house was on the outskirts of town in a rather nice subdivision. When they reached the gates of the community, the driver stopped to speak with the guard. It only took a moment before the gates opened and they were ushered through. The driver seemed to know exactly where he was going and a moment later they pulled to a stop in front of a home that was far larger than it had looked on paper.
“It’s rather contemporary,” Hazel said. “But I think it suits you.”
The little girls went squealing across the front lawn. He could easily see them playing out here every day. If only he could convince their mother to live here with him. The kiss had been a good start, but he wasn’t sure it was enough. If they hadn’t had the girls this afternoon, he knew he would have tried to make love to her, if she’d let him.
Hazel and the Alien Biker (Intergalactic Brides 5) Page 5
