She sighed heavily as she sat back against him. Since he was comfortable, and only because he was comfortable, he didn’t move. “They had baked goods displayed throughout the produce section right next to everything that I could have.”

He didn’t have to ask to know that she’d been worried about cross-contamination. He’d read about it last night, because he’d been curious about the changes that she was going to have to make. He also knew from his late night search that it was going to take some time and practice to learn how to shop gluten free.

He glanced up at the clock. He had a lot of shit to do today, but he could probably get away with killing a few hours. Besides, he could always use more groceries. Decision made, he reached over, snatched the rest of her candy bar out of her hand and devoured it in one bite.

“Hey!”

“Let’s go,” he said, getting up and taking her with him.

“Where are we going?” she asked even as she allowed him to lead her towards the back.

“Shopping,” he said, deciding that she was clearly in over her head and needed expert help.

She snorted at that. “Good luck.”

He didn’t need luck, not when it came to food.

When it came to avoiding his relatives…

That was another issue, he thought with a glare when he spotted the two most annoying assholes on the planet waiting for him outside.

This really wasn’t his fucking day, he thought as he shoved the door open and dragged the small woman behind him.

“Fragile!” she yelled. “Handle with care! Handle with care, damn it!”

Deciding that he didn’t have time for this, he stopped just long enough to throw her over his shoulder. “Better?” he snapped.

“Much better. Thanks,” she said with a haughty little sniffle that had him shaking his head in disgust.

She really was a pain in the ass.

Chapter 16

“Christ, what do you want now?” Lucifer asked, sighing heavily as he set her down on her feet between him and the two large, handsome men eying her curiously.

“To see our dear sweet cousin that we missed so much,” the smaller of the two, and that really wasn’t saying much, said with an innocent expression that she one day hoped to master.

“Don’t even think about it,” Lucifer ground out, obviously knowing where her thoughts had gone.

Damn it.

“Didn’t you miss us, Lucifer?” the other one asked, but he was watching her with a curious expression on his face.

“No,” Lucifer said flatly as she stepped back and glanced from Lucifer to the two men that were obviously related to him.

While they were handsome enough they just didn’t do anything for her. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to kill a little time by screwing with their heads. She did a quick glance, noting the wedding bands that they proudly wore on their ring fingers, the “Bradford Construction,” shirt the larger of the two wore, the pristinely ironed shirt and tie the other one wore and the knowing looks in their eyes that told her that they both knew just how good looking they were and didn’t care.

Unless it got them what they wanted.

Unfortunately for them, it was something that she could, and would, use against them if she got bored. For now though, she would just sit back and watch the show.

“Aren’t you wondering why we’re here?” the larger one asked, and she really needed to find out their names, because it would make it easier for her to keep track of who was who in her head.

“No, not really,” Lucifer said, sounding bored, but she knew him well enough to know that he’d reached level one in his complicated, yet entertaining, highly devised system that he’d developed over the years to properly display the various levels that made up his temper which would one day lead him to his very own episode of Cops.

The shorter one chuckled as he gestured towards her with a tilt of his head. “Who’s this?”

She was about to answer when Lucifer said, “No one.”

No one? she mused inwardly as she digested what he’d said. She could honestly say that she hadn’t expected that. Pain in the ass, annoying waitress, the devil were all things that she’d expected to hear, but no one?

“No one, huh?” the tall one asked, shifting his attention between the two of them. “Then why were you carrying her?”

“Why do you care?” Lucifer asked in that same bored tone that she really didn’t much care for at the moment.

“Because I’m curious by nature,” he said as she waited for Lucifer to rectify his answer so that she wouldn’t be forced to do something that they’d both regret, but she’d do it if it meant screwing him over and teaching him a lesson.

She’d worked too damn hard over the past five years to be a “no one,” to him. She’d earned her place as the annoying pain in the ass and no one, not even him, was going to take that away from her. That’s why she was pissed and not because hearing him call her no one had actually disappointed her.

“So,” the smaller of the two drawled as she stood there telling herself that she should just walk away before she did something incredibly stupid, but since when did she listen to reason? “Where are you and ‘no one’ going?”

Lucifer just stared at him in that unnerving way of his as she stood there, deciding that the least that she could do after everything that he’d done for him was to give him an opportunity to see the error in his ways. When he continued to stand there, glaring at the two men who were watching her as though they knew that she was about to do something incredibly stupid, she’d decided that she’d waited long enough.

She turned around, grabbed him by his shoulders and yanked him down so that she could wrap her arms around him and kiss his stunned lips before he had a chance to react. She brushed her lips seductively against his, once, twice and then one more time because she couldn’t help herself. His lips were surprisingly soft for a man that spent most days frowning that she just couldn’t help herself when she brushed her lips against his one last time before reluctantly pulled away and-

Found her lips back on his, parting along with his so that they could deepen the kiss. At some point she’d threaded her fingers through his short hair, cupping the back of his head as she moved closer, desperate for more. She felt his arms wrap around her and his hands pulling her closer until their bodies were pressed together as he did his best to devour her mouth.