She paused when she got close to him and stared up into his face.
“Take it from me,” she said quietly. “No one likes to be told what to do.”
She glanced over to a stern-looking man near the front door. He glanced down at his watch and pressed his lips into a thin line.
Grace she made her way in without another glance at him.
Lucas sighed loudly. She was right. Taylor was an adult, and he was asking her to trust him when he hadn’t even been upfront with her about who he really was. If she was going to believe him, he was going to have to tell her everything about himself. No matter how hard it might be.
Chapter Ten
Taylor’s arms ached from scrubbing the counter. One damned spot refused to come up.
All she did was indulge with a little cherry-flavored drink, and this was her punishment. The rest of her cleaning hadn’t been nearly as annoying.
That said, it wasn’t a bad job in the end. Her house was now officially spotless. All that anger from before she’d transformed into positive energy cleaning her house until it nearly sparkled.
A clock hanging above her head in the kitchen ticked away. She refused to look. It didn’t matter what time it was anyways. There was no way Lucas was going to come, especially after she had torn him a new one. And she wasn’t even sure she wanted him to come after trying to order her around like that.
Who did he think he was? Telling her what to do like she belonged to him or something. The memory rekindled her anger inside.
She hadn’t been this pissed at someone since Dave.
A light knock came at the door, and she swallowed. As much as she didn’t want to hope it was him, secretly she hoped he would show up.
Desire. Anger. Both feelings intertwined to leave her confused and even more irritated. Why wouldn’t her body obey her head?
Taylor stopped to look at herself in the mirror on the other side of the front door. Her hair had slipped out of the ponytail she’d had it in. Little tendrils of hair had curled from the humidity, and she looked like she had a halo of reddish curls.
She huffed loudly. It didn’t matter. He shouldn’t even have come.
With renewed anger, Taylor swung open the door. Time for a little more righteous indignation.
Her mouth went dry at the sight of him. Fresh black t-shirt and dark denim jeans. His clothes hugged him in all the ways that they should, outlining the thick muscles along his chest and arms. His pants were tight from his thick thighs.
She brought her gaze back to his eyes and opened her mouth to tell him off when he thrust something into her arms.
Taylor blinked then frowned at… a potted violet? The deep purple stood out against the deep green of the soft leaves.
“What—” she began.
“They said to bring you flowers.”
Taylor frowned at the little plant, not really sure what to do with it. Sure, she’d had men bring her flowers but never the whole plant.
Now more confused than annoyed, Taylor stepped away from the door and walked into the kitchen.
She had been so ready to be angry with him, but this threw her a curve ball. She wondered if this was part of some plan of his. Manipulation by confusion.
Taylor put the little plant under the faucet, drizzled a little water onto the soil and then placed it in the window.
She pushed out the confusion to seize her anger again. One little plant didn’t make her forget how he’d treated her. She turned around to tell him off. To her surprise, he was standing close behind her.
“I’m sorry,” he said and ran a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have said that. You are free to choose your own path. It’s something I understand and respect more than you know.”
His words smothered her anger. Not just the words, but the heartfelt meaning behind them.
Dave had apologized only as a step along a path to something else he wanted. But with Lucas, she could see it in his eyes. He felt what he said. Her heart soared at the realization.
She shook her head. There were still some things she needed to know.
“Why don’t you like them?” she asked. “The Azilians.”
Lucas’s extreme reaction had been on her mind since the store. Sure, the cultists were weird and a bit creepy, but when Lucas talked about them, fear clung to his eyes and words. It was strange to see such a large man, such an easy-going man for that matter, react with such fear.
He sighed and ran a hand over his neck. “It’s a long story.” He looked back up to her. “One that I hope to tell on our date, if I haven’t totally destroyed my chance.”
Taylor worried her bottom lip. Despite herself, she’d hoped for this date. Now that it was here, she wasn’t so sure she trusted herself to go on it. His mere presence twisted her all around.
“I didn’t really plan on you coming over after I yelled at you,” she said and looked down at her pale blue tank and shorts. “I didn’t get ready for a date.” She already knew her hair was a mess.
Lucas smiled warmly at her.
“You look amazing,” he said, his voice low and deep. Just the sound of it made her shiver a little.
He held out his hand and waited for her to take it.
Taylor glanced back at the violet and gave a little smile before slipping her hand into his.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Lucas let out a small sigh at the feel of her hand in his. He’d hoped that she’d forgive him but was relieved that she had. After all, he had no real backup plan.
His fingers closed over hers, and he gave the backs of them a little rub with his thumb.
“Nowhere,” he said and pulled her through the living room.
“Nowhere?”
The puzzled look on her face thrilled him. He continued to pull her out to his truck and then let go of her hand as he helped her into the passenger seat.
Taylor was staring at him as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “I thought you said we weren’t going anywhere.”
He grinned as he started the truck. “We’re not really.”
Lucas drove the truck around to the side of the house and then up the small incline. At the top, he turned the truck off.
“We’re here,” he said happily.
Taylor continued to stare at him with a mixture of confusion and irritation in her face.
He hurried out of the truck and over to open her door.
“Okay,” she said and placed her hands on her hips. “What the hell is going on? I’m through with cryptic crap. Tell me right now, or I’m out of here.”
Lucas walked to the back of the truck and opened the tailgate. Taylor followed to stand by him, her arms crossed over her chest.
“I thought we might have a picnic under the stars,” he said.
Her expression immediately softened.
The sun had just dipped below the horizon, and the pink sunset faded into the distance.
Lucas climbed into the back of the truck where he’d laid out a mattress. Over it he’d placed a checkered blanket, and secured in the corner was a basket. He held out his hand to help Taylor up and was surprised to find her staring at him.
For a moment, he wondered if he’d made a mistake. Maybe she hated picnics. Maybe she didn’t want to eat finger foods. All the dating guides had said to make memories and not worry about how much money he was spending.
He thought it was pretty romantic, just the two of them and the stars.
Besides, he wanted time to talk with her away from other people. If he was really going to tell her the truth, they needed complete privacy.
She placed her hand into his, and he easily hoisted her into the truck.
“This is…” she said. His heart kicked into his throat at the pause. “This is amazing.”
Lucas grinned as she sat down on the mattress and waited for him to open the basket.
He placed all the contents on the blanket before her. When he’d been putting together the whole thing, he wasn’t rea
lly sure what she liked. He guessed meat because of the ranch and decided on sandwiches made from fresh rolls. He’d done his best to use good cheeses and meats.
Cherries lay stacked in a plastic container. He couldn’t resist since every time he saw them, they reminded him of Taylor. A few bags of pretzel thins lay near the cherries.
The contents of the last container elevated the simple meal into something truly special. He’d even had to fight off Rem to get it.
“Holy shit!” Taylor said. “Is that Jenna’s chocolate cake?”
He grinned happily as she stared at the two large slices of cake Jenna had given him.
Lucas pulled out the two glasses that came with the basket and uncorked the white wine he’d decided to bring. He poured a little into each glass and then placed the bottle back in the basket.
Taylor smiled happily as she took the glass and then a small sip.
When she looked back to him, he could feel her eyes staring right through him.
“You’re in the Witness Protection Program, aren’t you?” she asked abruptly.
Lucas nearly choked on his wine. He silently thanked television. If he hadn’t been watching crime shows recently, he wouldn’t have even known what she was talking about.
He shook his head. “Not exactly.”
Taylor narrowed her eyes a little. “There’s something going on. How am I supposed to start a relationship with someone who doesn’t even trust me? You’ve all but admitted you’re holding back a lot from me.”
She was right of course. It had been something he had struggled with himself.
Lucas glanced away and then brought his hand up to his eyes. He pulled out the contacts. When he turned back around, she stared at him in surprise.
“I knew they had to be unusual,” she whispered. Taylor leaned forward and stared deeply into his eyes. Her breath floated across his face. “So beautiful.”
He knew the instant they flashed their bright blue light. She jumped back a little, surprised by it.
“I don’t…” she said in shock, her eyes watching him as he took a drink from his glass.
“I’m a hybrid,” he said quietly. “We all are.”
His words seemed to take a moment to fully sink in. He watched as she struggled to process his confession,
“A hybrid? Like from Luna Lodge?” she said after a moment, looking him up and down. “The size makes sense, I guess, but they look different. I’ve seen them on the news. Their eyes are amber, not blue.”
Lucas was surprised by how well she was taking this. He fully expected that she’d throw her glass at him or try to run away.
“We’re hybrids, but we’re a different kind than those at Luna Lodge.” He took another drink from his glass. “We escaped from the Horatius Group from a different facility after they did. We don’t have their resources or numbers, so we’re in hiding.”
She sat in silence for a few moments before taking another drink and then looked over to him. “And Lara?”
“Lara and Jenna aren’t hybrids but help keep our secret,” he said, not really sure how far he should go with things yet. The Vestal concept would probably just be too much for her to take right away.
“And me?” She stared at him, her face a little pale.
“We hope you will keep our secret as well.”
She nodded absently and then turned to him again. “Why are you telling me?”
Lucas swallowed the lump in his throat. It was now or never.
“Because you are someone special to me.”
Chapter Eleven
Taylor’s mind raced as she processed the revelation from Lucas, but they both sat quietly eating the spread of goodies Lucas had packed. The rustle of the wind and buzz of insects kept total silence at bay, but nothing from any larger animal or person interrupted her thoughts.
Though she knew he’d been keeping something from her, the actual truth had never remotely occurred to her.
How could it? Everyone knew the hybrids all lived in Luna Lodge. And even setting that aside, she’d never truly been able to fully process the idea of real-life flesh and blood super-humans living among normal people. Seeing a hybrid on the news was one thing; making out with a hunky one quite another.
She glanced back over at him, his shocking blue eyes now drawing her immediate attention. His brown contacts might have concealed the true color, but, upon reflection, she realized they’d made her more suspicious. His sunglasses and contacts just didn’t go with the rest of his features. On some level, she’d known they were meant to hide something.
Still, she understood the need for secrecy. She watched the news and saw the stories concerning the hybrids and some of the attacks on Luna Lodge.
Even the existence of the shadowy Horatius Group, though acknowledged by the government, seemed hard to believe. Yet, here she sat with a hybrid. A super-soldier.
She almost laughed. He seemed pretty sweet for a super-soldier. For some reason, she pictured them all as taciturn men running around barking orders and calling normal people civilians when they weren’t doing pull-ups or crawling under barbed wire fences in mud.
She bit her lip. There was so much she didn’t understand. Lucas said they were different than the other hybrids. Maybe they weren’t super-soldiers like the ones from Luna Lodge. Perhaps that is why he was so nice.
Just looking at him, it was clear they were different with those shocking blue eyes. They were so very different than the amber eyes she’d seen for the hybrids on TV.
Lucas cleared his throat. “You haven’t said anything.”
Taylor picked up one of the containers with chocolate cake and popped the lid.
“I love chocolate cake,” she said with a smile. “I can’t believe you managed to get some of this.”
Taylor took a large bite as he stared at her.
“That’s not what I mean,” he said quietly. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I want to know what you think about the other things I said.”
She closed the lid to the cake and set it aside. With all the food out of the way, it was a perfect time to lay down on the mattress and focus on the stars. With confusion still swirling in her head and heart, it was better to keep her eyes on the stars above rather than the hunky man beside her.
Lucas lay down next to her, their arms just barely touching.
“It’s just a lot to take in,” she said and sighed. “I’m a simple sort of person from a small town. The idea of you being in the Witness Protection Protection seemed crazy enough. Now we’re talking about hybrids, men I’ve only ever seen on TV or on the internet. It’s…” She shrugged.
The silence stretched between the two of them as she kept her gaze on the heavens above.
“Does that mean you want out?” he asked.
Taylor could hear the hurt in his voice and turned on her side to look at him as he continued to gaze up at the stars. His strong jaw line amazed her. It begged for her to trace it with her mouth.
“It doesn’t mean I want out,” she said softly. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
Lucas turned his head to look at her now. Hope reflected there.
“I just need time to adjust and wrap my mind around all of this,” Taylor said. “As of thirty minutes ago, I knew next to nothing about you. Only that you were cute, nice and hard-working. Now I know a little more. Maybe even a lot more, I guess. I call that progress.”
Lucas gave a lopsided smile, and her heart fluttered.
She returned to looking at the sky.
“How did you become like you are?” she asked. She wasn’t totally sure what she was asking, but she wanted to know more about him. “The news said something about genetic engineering. At least that’s what they said about the men at Luna Lodge. Is it the same with you?”
Lucas let out a sigh. “We aren’t totally sure. In our group, our pasts were wiped from our minds, and the last thing any of my people remember is waking up from cryosleep.”
“Cryosleep?”
“The Horatius Group has special technology. They can use it to cool your body down, put you into a kind of long-term hibernation.”
“And they wiped your memory? With a machine?”
“We’re not sure. We don’t even know even how long we were in cryo.”
She turned her head to look at him. His gaze remained fixed on the stars above them.
“I didn’t know those kinds of things were even possible,” she said quietly. “Then again, I didn’t know men like you were even possible.”
Lucas shrugged. Not in annoyance, as she would expect, but more like he had come to terms with his past and moved on from it.
“What about family?” she prodded. Taylor couldn’t imagine what life would be like for her father if she just disappeared.
“The Luna hybrids found some information about their own births. They were given to the Horatius Group by their mothers for a price, and we can only assume it was the same for our kind.” He turned to look at her now. His blue eyes blazed in the darkness around them. “It doesn’t matter. My family is who I decide it is.”
Taylor swallowed. Her questioning had ended up being far more intense for her than she expected.
She cleared her throat a little and looked back up to the sky. The twinkling stars filled her with peace.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
Lucas moved a little closer to her, and she smiled at his warmth in the chilly air.
“Why are you sorry?” His soft rumble came close to her ear. A pulse of heat passed through her body in response.
Taylor turned. Her face was only inches from his.
“That life has been so hard for you.”
He stared at her in surprise, like it was the last thing he expected from her.
Lucas offered her a soft smile as he continued to stare at her.
“It’s not all been so bad. And it’s about to get a lot better.”
His mouth closed the distance for a soft kiss. It wasn’t at all like the demanding one they had shared at the bar. This one had meaning behind it, feeling coursing through.
She let her hands drift into his hair and played with it at the base of his neck. Lucas groaned into her mouth. His tongue dipped between her lips and slid against her own in the most erotic way she’d ever experienced.
Lucas: #3 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) Page 6
