Page 36 of Lucius

“As many times as you want.”

“As many times asyouwant, sweetheart.” He ducked his shoulder and hauled her over it until she was hanging upside down and staring at his butt. She gave it a pat with a giggle.

“You’ve got an hour, I think. After packing up, we have to be back for dinner at six,” she said.

He prowled to the bedroom, his hand on her thigh and his lion purring loudly. “Challenge accepted.”

Lucius didn’t likethat Sidney was nervous, but as they waited in the employee lot for their escort to her mom’s salon, he couldn’t help but feel how nervous she was. She was practically vibrating with nervous energy, pacing by the SUV he was going to drive.

“My car?” she asked, chewing her bottom lip as she turned on her heel and walked the length of the SUV.

“It’s here somewhere,” he said. “My dad said he brought it to the employee lot.”

“Okay.” She blew out a breath. “I don’t care about it. My mind is just going a mile a minute and it passed through my runaway train of thought.”

He smiled and reached for her as she came back his way. Pulling her close, he loved how she melted against him.

“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.”

She tilted her face to look at him. “My pacing is a dead giveaway that I’m nervous. I can’t just be still when I’m anxious.”

“Yeah, but I can also feel your worry. Whatever happens, I’ve got your back. Your mom’s had some time to think about everything. Maybe she’ll be really happy for you.”

Sidney pursed her lips, then sighed and rested her head on his chest.

“I don’t really like confrontation,” she said. “If I did, I would have left ages ago, but it makes my stomach hurt to think about talking to her and telling her I’m quitting.”

He knew she wrestled with not giving her mom notice for the job as well, but they’d made some arrangements her mom could utilize, and she’d told him she’d been to salons where they didn’t even have a front desk person full time.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry that things happened the way they did, I’m sorry I can’t live anywhere else, and I’m extremely sorry that because my lion couldn’t wait to meet you, I’ve messed up your relationship with your mom.”

She grasped her hands together behind his back. “I’ve already forgiven you, so I don’t want you to keep apologizing, okay?” She tilted her head back to look at him, squinting one eye as if to show she meant business. “And honestly? Even though my stomach hurts because I don’t want to get into another argument with my mom, I feel free. For the first time in years, I feel like I’ve got freedom to make my own choices.” She went onto her toes and kissed him. “I choose you, Lucius.”

His lion growled in happiness as he chased her lips and deepened the kiss. He wanted to go back down to the house so he could show her how much she meant to him, but his sensitive hearing picked up people approaching and he knew they really needed to get on the way anyway.

The sooner they left, the sooner they were back and having dinner with the pride, and then…whatever the night brought.

“Hey, guys,” Amadeus called. “Ready to go?”

Lucius reluctantly loosened his hold on Sidney so some space appeared between them, and let out a little snarl toward his brother.

She grinned at him. “Be nice, he’s helping us out.”

“I’d rather be nice to you.”

“You can be nice to me later.”

“Oh, I will,” he said, letting his lion out a little so his voice lowered.

Behind his brother was Benjamin, one of the wolf shifters, and Indio, one of the elephants.

“Hey,” he said, introducing them to Sidney. “We need three escorts?”

“On the way back, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if we swung by the feed store so I can grab some supplies for the petting zoo?” Indio asked. “The place we order from has a shipping delay.”

“Yeah, of course,” Lucius said. He opened the passenger door for Sidney and helped her in, then said, “We’ll see you guys at the salon. The apartment is above it, so we won’t have to go far to grab her things.”

“If there’s heavy furniture I’m going to call sitting in the SUV instead of hauling things around,” Benjamin said.

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