Page 23 of Born into Blood

“It’s just me and my mom,” she finally says, and then quickly changes the subject. “Do you think he needs a bed?”

I know she must be extremely uncomfortable and desperate for a subject change if it made her suggest adding something else to the already full cart.

My fingers meet hers on the soft, blue bed, and I graze the pad of my thumb over her wrist. When my thumb barely slips under her sleeve, she jerks her arm back like she’s been stung.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, refusing to meet my eyes.

She looks so incredibly uncomfortable that I grab the bed and toss it next to the other supplies and say, “I think he definitely needs a bed, and I think we need to grab some toys, too. I also saw a cat carrier near the front that we should probably get.”

When she finally meets my eyes, I give her a wink to let her know I’m not upset. “He’s going to outgrow that backpack pretty quickly. I also want to get him a leash because I’m going to teach him to walk around like a dog.”

She gives me a hint of a smile and nods her head. “It’ll be really funny to see you try.”

I laugh and start walking. “I always did like a challenge, kisa.”

After we’ve gotten him everything a cat could possibly need and then some, we start unloading. When the cart is empty and things are getting scanned and bagged, Lara reaches out and grabs my forearm.

“I forgot we came on your motorcycle,” she whispers, eyeing all the supplies that we sure as hell can’t fit on the back of a bike.

I lean down and whisper in her ear. “Don’t worry, kisa. They deliver.”

“You have to let me pay you back.”

With my lips still hovering by her ear, I say, “I don’t want your money.”

I swear I hear her breath hitch when she asks, “What do you want?”

There are lots of ways I can answer her question. I can tell her how goddamn hard she makes me and how badly I want to lift her skirt and bury my face between her beautiful thighs, but I don’t want to scare her off, so instead I say, “A date. I want to take you on a date.”

“Why?”

That one whispered word is filled with a stunned sort of surprise that I don’t understand. She must have men falling over themselves for a chance to take her out, but she seems completely bewildered by me asking for a date. Pulling back so I can see her, I say, “Because I like you, Lara Swan,” and then I turn and pay the cashier, adding in extra for the delivery charge and then adding a big tip so they’ll do it within the next hour. If she’s surprised that I’ve already memorized her address from the vet form she filled out earlier, she hides it well.

We grab a bag with the kitten formula and a small fish that has a few feathers on it so he’ll have something to eat and play with while waiting for everything else, and then we leave the store. At my bike, she shifts her feet and looks at her watch.

“I should probably just take the subway home.”

I laugh and hand her the helmet. “You don’t know me at all.”

“No, I don’t.” She tilts her head, clearly trying to figure me out. “I don’t understand why you’re doing all this.”

“I’m doing it because I want to. I already told you. I like you, Lara Swan, and I want to get to know you better.” I reach out and take Pip so I can put him back in the backpack that I’ve slung across my chest. “Besides, we just adopted a cat together, so joint custody, yeah? When’s it my turn to watch the little guy?”

She laughs before she can stop it. “I don’t understand you at all, Luka, but thank you for tonight.”

“You’re welcome, and there’s not much to understand. All you need to know right now is that there’s no way in hell I’m going to just let you walk off and take the fucking subway by yourself at night with nothing but a tiny kitten to protect you. Jesus,” I mutter, shaking my head at the very idea of it. “That’s never going to fucking happen.”

She hesitates before putting the helmet on. “Can you please go into the underground parking garage at my building instead of pulling up outside it?”

“I can do that.”

Her shoulders visibly relax when I agree to her terms, making me wonder what in the hell she’s hiding. Knowing I’ll eventually get all my answers, I don’t push it. I just wait for her to pull her helmet on before I check the strap and then sit on the bike, reaching in to pet Pip while she gets situated behind me. We’ve already formed our own routine, and I like that more than I probably should. The engine sparks to life, and I reach back to squeeze her calf, but this time I caress her skin with my thumb and she tightens her grip on my abs, pressing tighter against me. I don’t think she has the faintest idea what that small movement does to me, but if she slips her hands a little lower, she’ll find out.

The apartment building she lives in is in our territory, but only barely, and I don’t like that. It’s not a shitty neighborhood, but it’s not a great one either, and the building looks a little rundown. I pull into the underground garage and follow her directions, ending up near an elevator and a stairwell that have warning bells going off in my head at just the sight of them. This is the kind of place that every woman is warned to not go into alone. The door to the stairs is propped open with a brick, and several of the bulbs must’ve gone out, because it’s more shadow than anything. The elevator is probably safer, but that’s only if no one else hops on it with her.

As soon as I cut the engine, I pull off my helmet and ask, “How long have you lived here?”

She hands me her helmet and gets off the bike. “My whole life. Why?”

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