closed her eyes, dreaming about the moment he’d kiss her. She wanted it. Craved it. This was why she hadn’t been able to sleep.
“I ready!”
Fleur’s announcement had them jumping apart. Sulen went one step further and was on his feet, hands rubbing down his face on a rough exhale. Amelie smiled. Having a child meant all sorts of unexpected interruptions. Being with a man and about to kiss him was a new one for her.
And she liked it.
She stood and brushed off the few creases in her pants and picked up her apron from the bed where she’d dropped it. “If you’re sure, I have no problem with you taking Fleur to school. Is there anything I should know about your work? Will you...come back?”
“I’ll be back, Amelie. I promise.”
She felt the vow behind his words and had to accept them. Sulen followed behind her as she left her room with Fleur trailing along.
“Is Daddy leaving?”
The quiver and hesitancy in Fleur’s voice gutted Amelie. She went to her daughter but Sulen got to her first and picked her up. A brief spurt of humor flared. Amelie wondered if the bottom of Fleur’s shoes would ever spend much time on the ground again with Sulen around.
“I have to go to work later today but I’m coming back here,” Sulen said.
Fleur cupped his face in her tiny hands and brushed her nose against his. Her voice was whisper soft when she asked, “What if the bad man tries to get me at school again?”
Sulen froze and Amelie’s heart leaped in her throat. They couldn’t forget the threat Roan represented.
Stroking her daughter’s hair back, Sulen spoke to Fleur but directed his gaze to Amelie over her daughter’s shoulder to include her. “We’re going to talk security protocols with the lovely Madame Tessa today and what will happen to her if the bad man gets within inches of you. Then we’re going to make sure she understands I’ll hold her personally responsible if you get so much as a scr—”
“Well.” Amelie clapped her hands to drown out the rest of Sulen’s words. Specifically what sounded like threats for the woman who ran Fleur’s school. “Time to go.”
Fleur dropped her hands from Sulen’s face to say, “But I wanna talk ‘bout secure protalls.”
Amelie bit her tongue to control her laughter at the twisted interpretation of Sulen’s words and shot him a sharp look. “No time, sweetie. We have to get you to school and I have to get to work.”
Fleur’s pout stopped working on Amelie two years ago but Sulen seemed susceptible so she aimed another pointed glance at him when it looked as if he’d add his protests to her daughter’s. “Thanks for helping out. Will I see you before you have to go to work?”
“After I drop Fleur off, there are a few things I need to do to get ready for the job. Once I’m done, I’ll come see you at the garden center. I want to give you some information about a...peer from my...place of work.”
All of his cautious pauses worried Amelie but she focused on the first part of his statement. She wasn’t losing him yet. The tightness in her chest eased. “Alright. I’ll see you then.”
Chapter 13
Amelie was finishing with a female customer when Sulen arrived at the garden center. The woman smiled up at him, missed a step with a squeak and tripped on her way out the door. It was understandable. Sulen made quite the figure rolling in with his long steady strides, stern features and no nonsense demeanor.
His customary ankle length coat was absent, giving an unobstructed view of his broad chest straining another black tee shirt. He hadn’t forgone the weapons though and the holster at his hip displayed the familiar laser blaster, two knives on his left thigh and across his belt was a row of silver spinning stars.
Amelie didn’t blame the woman for being distracted to the point of clumsiness. It was evident he controlled his body with an economy of motions. Snug leather pants highlighted the length of his legs and cupped his groin area in a manner that could only be called mouth watering.
Intense power bottled and locked tight but fully capable of being unleashed at full potency in a moment’s notice described his appearance to a T.
To Amelie’s delight, Sulen didn’t appear to notice the customer and kept his attention solely on her. She glanced at her comp and security vid to note he’d once more managed to enter without