Fire & Brimstone was a huge success. In her opinion, it was the best restaurant in town. It had taken some time, but it now had the highest reviews online, was constantly packed and had the best food and staff in town. It was also packed every night of the week and in her opinion, could probably use an edition or a new location to help manage the demand. She liked the fact that he was always trying to change it up to stop it from becoming boring, but at some point he needed to realize that he’d struck gold with the Fire & Brimstone and stop being so damn hard on himself.

As she lay there next to him, she couldn’t help but smile as she looked at his handsome face. She wondered if anyone would believe her if she told them that he was actually kind and funny. They probably wouldn’t believe a single word out of her mouth and that was actually okay with her.

She liked being the only one who knew that he wasn’t an asshole, but a seriously sleep deprived man with a possible problem with OCD. It made her feel special as well as entertained her when she watched as everyone paled whenever they heard his name.

It really was the little things in life that made her happy, she thought as she leaned closer so that she could kiss him goodnight. She brushed her lips against his as gently as she could so that she didn’t wake him. As she pulled back she couldn’t help but smile as Lucifer followed her, keeping his lips on hers.

“What are you doing?” he whispered against her lips, sounding half-asleep.

“Saying goodnight,” she whispered back as her head touched the pillow and Lucifer shifted so that his lips never had to leave hers.

“What if I’m not ready to say goodnight?” he asked, teasing her bottom lip.

“You’re exhausted,” she reluctantly reminded him since there was nothing that she wanted more at this moment than to repeat what they did last week in his truck.

Christ, she couldn’t even think about his truck without trembling. She’d never been with a man like that, needing him inside her so badly that she seriously thought that she would die without him. One minute she’ been standing next to him in the bakery and the next they’d been in his truck making out as she cupped him through his pants and nearly screamed in frustration when she realized exactly what he’d had waiting for her.

She’d never been like that with anyone else, wild, desperate and reckless. She wasn’t a saint when it came to men and sex, but she’d never had sex with a man in his truck in broad daylight right outside a busy restaurant without a condom. Even though she still couldn’t believe that she’d lost control like that, she knew that she would do it again in a heartbeat if she got the chance.

There was just something about the way that he touched her that set her body on fire. When he touched her, she couldn’t think about anything but him and how badly she needed him and right now was no exception. Her stomach was still angry with her for the popcorn, but she didn’t care. She wanted him to touch her, taste her and slide back inside her all while she ran her hands over him as he fucked her, but apparently he had other plans tonight.

Plans that were most likely going to get him killed.

Sighing heavily, he pressed one last kiss against her lips before he pulled back. “We shouldn’t be doing this when you’re not feeling good.”

She opened her mouth to explain that him touching her would make her feel really good, but one look at the stubborn bastard’s face told her that she’d be wasting her time. As he grabbed the remote and raised the volume so that they wouldn’t miss a single growl and scream as zombies tore humans apart, she couldn’t help but wonder if he knew just how close she was to beating him to death with a pillow for leaving her this frustrated.

Maybe he really was an asshole?

Chapter 26

Maybe she had a life insurance policy on him and she was trying to collect? he absently wondered as he watched that generous ass of hers sway back and forth…back and forth…as she wiped down another table.

Or maybe she was trying to get back at him for all those times that he’d tried to fire her?

Whatever it was, it was fucking killing him.

It had been almost two weeks since he’d last touched her and he wasn’t sure that he was going to survive one more day without gripping that beautiful ass of hers as he slid inside her. For the past week he’d somehow found the willpower to keep his hands to himself, but that all ended today.

Or at least, it should have.

She was feeling better today, which meant that he could touch her without feeling like a complete asshole, but there was a problem. One that he would happily get out of if he could, but he knew that if he even tried to get out of going tonight that his mother would kill him since he’d skipped the last three family dinners.

Four times a month his mother made a huge family dinner and unless you were dying or had a really good fucking reason, you were expected to be there. She usually checked in with everyone before she planned a family dinner so that she could pick a day and time that worked for everyone. Thanks to some of his employees quitting, he’d been forced to find and train their replacements he’d been able to get out of going, but not tonight.

Tonight his mother expected him there and to start answering some questions courtesy of his fucking cousins and their big fucking mouths. Now everyone in his family wanted to know about Rebecca. They were probably expecting him to bring her tonight, but he wouldn’t do that to her until it was absolutely necessary and right now, it wasn’t necessary.

“Are you aware that you’re drooling?” Melanie, his newly self-appointed sidekick, whispered conspiratorially as she sat down on the stool next to him.

“Go away,” he said, forcing himself to look around the busy dinning area to make sure that everything was going smoothly when all he wanted to do was watch Rebecca as she moved, bent over and scrubbed her little heart out.

Actually, what he really wanted to do was-

“I can’t believe they did this to her,” Melanie said, looking seriously pissed off while she sat there, looking at Rebecca with something close to pity.

He didn’t like that look, especially since it was directed at Rebecca.

“What’s going on?” he asked, trying to go for casual, but he was an asshole so casual really didn’t work for him.

Just like that, the pissed expression was wiped clean from her face and in its place was a mixture of pure shock and curiosity, which he also really didn’t appreciate.