Fire & Vice: In His Sights

Chapter 11

"When you said you were taking me out for dinner, I was expecting something-"

"Fancier?" Mack suggested gruffly as he switched off the ignition to his truck and turned to look at Lucy.

She looked at the small bungalow in the somewhat ramshackle, rundown neighborhood. "No, Mack. Something more in line with a restaurant. I'm not disappointed if that's what you're thinking. Where are we?" she asked curiously.

"My dad's place," he grunted. "We do Sunday dinner here whenever I'm available."

"We?"

"Yeah. Me, my sister, her husband if he's around, their kids and my dad."

"Oh my gosh," Lucy exclaimed excitedly. "And you brought me?"

"Yeah," he said in a voice that sounded as though he was starting to regret it. "Don't s**t a brick over it, okay?"

She shot him a disgusted look and reached for the door. "I would never s**t a brick. Come on, let's go! I can't wait!"

"She's fuckin' excited," he snarled under his breath, climbing out of the vehicle and slamming his door viciously. He reached for her arm and she skittered excitedly around the front. "This is a bad f*****g idea."

"Why?" she demanded, tipping her face up to his. "Because I'm a lovely person and they're all going to love me? Or because you have grumpy face issues?"

His eyes narrowed, and his hand tightened on her arm as they walked. "I shouldn't let you get away with talking s**t. Where did you get such a big mouth from? Your parents not spank you enough as a kid?"

She laughed and jerked her arm from his grip. Skipping ahead she turned on her heel to face him and walked backwards. She shrugged, lifting her arms. "This is the way I am, big guy. You know you love it."

He caught her against him and crushed her lips beneath his for a few seconds, breathing her in for a moment. "Stop saying the love word, you brat. You're doing it on purpose."

She widened her eyes and stared up at him guilelessly, standing on her tiptoes, her lips inches from his. "Does it make you uncomfortable when I talk about love, Mack?"

"Yes," he growled down at her.

"But you want me, right?" she asked him innocently. "Real bad. Don't you?"

His eyes narrowed again, and he frowned fiercely at her, apparently caught between amusement at her playful banter and annoyance at the direction she was forcing the conversation. He swatted her ass, hard, drawing a startled yelp from her. "No woman is going to force a commitment from me again. Hear me?" He gripped her rounded ass over her skirt. "Not even one I want as bad as you. If I want you, I'll f*****g take you. When and where I want."

She narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. A gauntlet of emotions rippled through her – hurt, sympathy, anger. Then, before she revealed more than she wanted him to see, she shuttered her eyes with long, slightly curved light brown lashes. "Sure, Mack. Whenever and wherever you want." She flickered her eyelashes upward again and gave him a sunny smile. "But my heart will still be here when you're ready for it. Let's just hope you want it before I'm ready to go back to the farm."

She whirled around him and headed toward the bungalow, an excited skip in her step as she anticipated meeting his family. She looked back over her shoulder where he stood motionless, stunned and seething in the middle of the street. She knew he wouldn't like her talking about going back home, which is why she brought it up when he used his commitment issues as a shield. She might not be able to best him physically, but she was a master of words.

"Come on, Mack," she urged. "I'm hungry!"

Mack's family was the best. So different from her Amish family and community, different from Jane and the Russians and different from her waitress friends. They were warm and welcoming once they got over their shock at Mack bringing a woman over to meet them.

Mack's sister, Tawny, a tall, statuesque woman with a wild kind of energy surrounding her, was especially vocal in her surprise at Lucy's presence and did not hold back her extremely delighted opinion. "She's beautiful and, wow, Mack! She's so freaking young!" Tawny exclaimed, practically wrenching Lucy's arm in a vigorous handshake. "Where the heck did you find her? Damn, is she beautiful. Look at all that glorious hair and those eyebrows! I had no idea you could attract someone like this anymore with that ugly face and the horrific scowl you're always wearing. Women usually run screaming the moment you open your mouth and say something awful." Then she burst into tears and started hugging Lucy dramatically. "I'm just so happy. After what that witch, Daniella, did to him, I didn't think he'd ever bring a woman over again. You must be something else, honey."

Lucy hugged her and patted her back awkwardly, blowing some of Tawny's wild blond-streaked hair out of her face, while Mack tried to extract his sister so Lucy could breath and meet the rest of his family. Tawny's kids were hilarious little distractions that reminded Lucy sharply of her community and, for almost the first time since moving to the city, she missed home. In her community, it was a shared duty for the women to mind the children and she'd hadn't realized how much she missed it. At five, Tanis was high energy and demanded a lot of attention, while her adorable, chubby two-year old brother, Lucas, was a hellion clearly set on proving the two-year-old stereotype correct.

Apparently, Tawny's husband, Donny, had to work late and couldn't join them for dinner. The love shining clearly in Tawny's eyes when she spoke of her Donny made it clear that she was head-over-heels for her husband. Mack reached for his sister and kissed her on the head, murmured something in her ear while Lucy sat on the floor cuddling baby Lucas and laughing at Tanis while the little girl showed her over and over how she'd learned to do cartwheels.

Though Lucy really liked Tawny and adored her children, she absolutely loved Mack's father, Abel. And it wasn't just because he was a domestic God in the kitchen, creating a meat and cheese lasagna with Caesar salad and garlic bread that was so mouth-wateringly fantastic that Lucy ate more than she'd eaten in one sitting in longer than she could remember. No, it was because of the love and acceptance he showed for Mack and Tawny, and the adoration he held for his grandchildren. Though she didn't know him well yet, she thought Abel seemed like a good and honest man. He was a big, solid man in his 60's with dark skin and a calm presence that seemed to permeate the household creating a happy, enjoyable atmosphere. Even Mack seemed more relaxed than she'd expected given the tension he felt over introducing her to his family. He checked to make sure Lucy was getting on with everyone and sent her the odd smile. He helped in the kitchen, he smiled, he played with the kids, he touched his sister and his father with ease.

"You're wondering about us, aren't you?" Tawny asked, settling next to Lucy on the couch, Lucas in her arms. Tanis was curled up in the shelter of Lucy's arms reading a book and nodding off after eating herself into a food coma. Tawny set Lucas on her lap, tilted him against the crook of her arm and set a sippy cup to his lips. "Wondering how a man as black as my dad came to have two kids as blond and blue-eyed as me and Mack." She laughed at the look on Lucy's face. "You don't have to be embarrassed. It's a normal question and you're bein' polite about it."