“This is the best burger I’ve ever had,” his father said, pulling his attention back to the fact that he had two Bradfords in his restaurant for the first time since he’d opened its doors.
Aidan nodded in agreement as he tore into his burger. “Is this your recipe?” his brother asked, and if it had been any other Bradford he would have assumed that they were fucking with him, but this Aidan, the brother who had always accepted his fucked up ways without question.
“Yes,” he said, eyeing them both carefully, looking for any signs that they were just trying to be polite.
“You need to give your mother this recipe,” his father said, devouring the last bite of his cheeseburger before moving onto the next platter and digging in.
Aidan murmured his agreement as he continued to tear into his food. Every few seconds he would glance over at Lucifer, probably waiting for him to kick him out, but thanks to the little brat upstairs, he had other things on his mind.
He waved Pauline over and gestured to the two men eying him suspiciously. “Bring them a few orders of the House Special and four orders of the dessert sampler, please.”
“You got it, Mr. Bradford,” Pauline said with a smile as she made a quick note of it.
“Thanks for coming,” he said with a nod of thanks to his brother and father, who had apparently forgotten that he was alive since they’d discovered the coleslaw that had taken him two years to perfect.
“Yeah, no problem,” Aidan mumbled as he reached for a small bowl of coleslaw only to end up grabbing air when their father snatched it away from him.
Praying that he didn’t regret this, he headed upstairs, counting on the fact that his father wouldn’t fuck him over and start a riot. He could hope at least, he thought as he made his way upstairs where a very beautiful woman better be waiting in his bed with a fully thought out apology and a sexy little smile just for him.
Just thinking about her waiting in his bed had him moving his ass faster. He knew that sex was out of the question and surprisingly he didn’t care. He just wanted to see her. Pretending that didn’t scare him wasn’t even an option anymore. He’d still had absolutely no idea why he’d told her that he was falling for her.
He should have kept that to himself, had actually planned on doing just that, but the second that she’d blurted out that she felt the same he’d lost control of his fucking mind. The truth was that he’d never felt like this about anyone and he still wasn’t sure what it meant, because he’d never been in love before.
The thought of falling in love with Rebecca terrified him, but it also excited him. She was an annoying pain in the ass that got way too much fucking pleasure out of fucking with his head and he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself, backtracking to the refrigerator when he remembered the fourth item on her aftercare list, ice.
After quickly putting together an ice pack, he headed towards his bedroom and the woman that was most likely going to be responsible for his stay at either a mental institution or a high max security prison. Either way, she was guaranteed to make him lose his fucking mind.
“What…the…fuck…,” he said when he walked into his room to find it empty.
Maybe she was in the shower? he wondered, but he knew before he opened the door that she wasn’t there.
Sighing, he tossed the bag of ice into the bathroom sink and leaned back against the wall. This was probably for the best. She needed her rest and he had a lot of shit to do anyway. He’d check on her in the morning. He headed to the kitchen, deciding that this was a good time to play around with those recipes that he found last week.
*-*-*-*
“Hurry up!” Melanie whined from the hallway.
“I’m hurrying!” she said, trying not cringe when she finally managed to turn just enough so that she could see the damage from her latest episode of breaking and entering.
She groaned when she saw the large bruise covering most of her lower back and bottom. Sadly, even after seeing the damage and spending the night crawling back and forth to the kitchen for ice she couldn’t say that she’d learned her lesson.
Fighting back a yawn, she reached past the prescription bottle of painkillers and grabbed the bottle of Advil. As much as she would love to spend the day curled up in her bed trying to pretend that her ass wasn’t on fire, she was going to have to suck it up and go to work. Rent was due next week and she couldn’t afford to miss the hours. It didn’t matter that she had enough in her checking account to cover next month’s rent and bills. She had a job and she needed to be there to ensure that the customers were taken care of properly, that everything was clean, the condiments neatly organized and-
Okay, fine so she really just wanted to see Lucifer.
She wanted to see him, because she missed him!
God, she was pathetic, but then again, so was staying up most of the night waiting for him. Around three this morning she’d finally accepted the fact that he wasn’t coming and that her ass wasn’t going to stop throbbing and gave up. She tried to fall asleep, but it never happened. Now she was trying to pretend that her ass wasn’t throbbing so that she could see him.
Definitely pathetic.
“Move your ass, Shaw!” Melanie snapped, sounding unreasonably irritated for a woman who liked to stay up all night eating junk food and watching sappy romance movies.
“Stop rushing me!” she snapped back, wondering why they kept settling for apartments with only one bathroom.
“It’s your turn to take Mojo out!” Melanie said, obviously desperate if she was resorting to using Mojo, who was probably passed out by the door.
“I know it’s my turn!” she said, which at this point was the only thing that she knew, because she had absolutely no idea how she was going to walk Mojo this morning without falling on her face. She could barely walk and here she was getting ready to work an eight-hour shift right after she took a two hundred and sixty-five pound dog for a walk. It was going to be the best day ever, she thought miserably as she pulled her shirt back down.
“Seriously, move your fat ass!” Melanie yelled.
“I’m trying to get my fat ass ready for work!”
“I see,” Melanie murmured thoughtfully instead of arguing with her, making her wonder if today was actually going to end up being a good day after all.
Biting her lip, she carefully tucked her shirt in. Once she was done, four or five minutes later, she zipped her pants up, buttoned them and-
Rolled her eyes when the banging started all over again.
“I’ll be out in a minute!”
“You are not working today or any day this week,” the incredibly sexy deep voice that she loved said, letting her know that there was a traitor that needed to be dealt with.
“I really am,” she said, wondering why he was bothering to argue with her when they both knew that she was going to-
“In two minutes I’m going to open this door and if I don’t find your beautiful ass soaking in that tub, then you and I are going to have a problem,” he said evenly, making her roll her eyes.
It was so cute when he thought that he could intimidate her.
“A minute and a half,” he announced as she stood there, shaking her head with a sigh, because they both knew that he wasn’t going to do anything.
“I’m getting ready for work,” she said, checking her hair to make sure that everything was in place.
“A minute and fifteen seconds,” was his reply.
He wasn’t going to do anything except glare at her while threatening to spank her ass. It was cute, but it wasn’t going to work. She was going to work and that was all there was to it.
“Sixty seconds.”
She was going to work.