Lucie nodded her head but didn’t ask him to elaborate and for that Kane was grateful. No matter what, he knew she was going to argue with him and probably be a little pissed off that Kane had already arranged for her to be off work for an entire week, but at this point, he didn’t give a shit.

The other night was a precursor to what Kane wanted from her. Now he just needed to seal the deal.

~*~*~

At three o’clock, Lucie was dead on her feet. The bar had cleared out at two when the decision maker lights had come on, yet the McCoy crowd had stuck around for longer than she expected. Something about a celebration although Lucie hadn’t understood what they were celebrating. Nor did she ask.

As she walked past the bar, half tempted to sneak out without talking to Kane, she found herself stopping abruptly. The scene she was witnessing caused something dark and bitter to flood her system.

There, at the other end of the bar was Kane... and some blonde floozy who seemed to be cozying up to him quite nicely. To his credit, it didn’t appear Kane was at all interested in the overly intoxicated woman, but there was a jolt of possessiveness that flooded through her, making her want to scratch the woman’s eyes out.

Never having been the catty type, Lucie smiled in spite of herself. After the night Kane had stayed at her apartment, something had undoubtedly changed between the two of them, yet they hadn’t spoken much since. He’d visited Haley just like normal each day, but they still had yet to have the conversation that was looming over both of them.

Feeling a little bold, and a lot possessive, Lucie approached Kane and the woman just to see what was going on.

“Let me call you a cab,” Kane told the blonde, turning back to the bar.

“I’d much prefer you to take me home,” the woman said, although the words were jumbled together and slurred. When the woman grabbed his arm, effectively stopping his efforts to reach the phone, Lucie interjected.

“I’ll call for you,” Lucie offered, glaring at the woman and not looking at Kane.

“Thanks, baby.” Kane’s words penetrated her brain and Lucie froze in place, a strange, but not uncomfortable tingle just beneath her skin.

Did he have any idea what he just said? A bright ember of hope bloomed in Lucie’s chest, and a smile graced her lips. Reaching for the phone, she quickly dialed the cab company’s number that was taped just beneath the bar.

A minute later, she turned back to the woman who was still hanging on Kane, although he looked more than a little irritated at this point. When their eyes met, there was a plea for help in the turbulent gray orbs, and Lucie almost smiled. Almost. It was comical to see the big, bad, surly Kane Steele needing help to fend off a poor, helpless drunk woman.

Instead of ignoring him, like she would do normally, Lucie moved closer. “Cab will be here in five.”

“Thank you,” Kane mouthed, his eyes glued to her lips, which made Lucie’s thighs quiver. She subconsciously licked her lips and to her surprise, Kane groaned.

“You’re killing me, baby.”

Lucie had never considered herself the kind of woman that a man would want with the type of desire she saw in Kane’s eyes. But she’d seen it before from him and quite frankly, it empowered her.

Over the last few years, Lucie had lost touch with herself, being more focused on being Haley’s mom and nothing more. She worked, she slept, she took care of her precious little girl, but beyond that, she’d become a shell of the woman she had once been.

She’d become the meek, timid woman that she hated, but when Kane looked at her like that, she felt her old self deep down, begging to get out. Interestingly enough, she reflected back on the night he had come to her apartment and all but insisted she go down on him in her shower and her body flared to life once more.

Not that Lucie had ever been the flirty type, but she had been fairly popular with both men and women. She knew what she looked like, knew that men hit on her every single night at the bar, but she figured that was primarily the booze talking. Except in high school, she had been sought after by the boys, but she’d been the nerdy type, so she’d spent four years ignoring them in hopes of making something of her life.

That hadn’t happened though, but not because she didn’t try. The turn of events in her life had sent her down a different path than she originally planned and Lucie found herself taking care of her mother for a few years right after high school. Thankfully, they had found some truly excellent doctors who managed to get her mother back on her feet, after four successful back surgeries to repair her spine after a horrible car accident had all but paralyzed her. It had been a long recovery, but her mother was a different woman today than she was back then.




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