#Chapter 6 Let Me Help You

I can't believe he just gifted me a restaurant. “Sirius, I can't accept this.” “I'm not taking the restaurant back, Elise, and that's final.” He snaps his finger, pointing to the side exit. His mem move follows behind him as he makes his way out of the restaurant. “Don't walk away from me, Sirius!” He ignores me as I walk out of the side exit of the restaurant, and despite all of my better judgment, I run after him. His men grunt and shift, annoyed by how I push past them to confront Sirius. I stand before the pack of men, my stance wobbly but fire in my eyes. “God, you are stubborn.” “You cannot just gift me a restaurant, Sirius. I am not a charity case.” Sirius’ eyes zone in on mine, and a cold rush douses me. He takes a silent step forward, and I cautiously take one back. “ I can do as I please, and it would be wise if you remembered that.” His voice hovers around me as if he is everywhere. “You will accept this as my final act of kindness towards you.” “ I don't want anything from you. Your final act of kindness was you disappearing.” I snap, but a low growl rises from his throat and crawls all over me. He hovers around the shell of my ear. “You always knew how to push the wrong buttons. Don't you, Lisse.” His pet name for me causes butterflies to flutter in my chest. I look up at him with large eyes. “Don’t do that.” “What?” He invades my space with a slanted smile and challenges in his tone.“Look, if you don’t want the restaurant,” Sirius’s voice is low as he talks to me, slipping his wallet out of her back pocket. “I am happy to be a regular customer and fund your new business, Lisse. ” “You are insufferable, Sirius.” I bark, and he smiles at how he rips a reaction out of me so quickly. The smug look on his face causes fire to erupt over my skin. A lazy smile lays on his face as if he’s won, and I cannot let him win. He slips a black card into the pocket of my waitress shirt and I almost pop a button ripping it out. “Don’t spit on my kindness just because you know I could offer you more than he can .” I pause as Alston flashes across my mind, our wondrous life together and how much he has been there for me over the last couple of years. None of this matters because Alston will be home waiting for me, and why Sirius would leave and become this person I barely recognize doesn’t concern me. “You know what, forget it and forget you.” I push past him, knocking my shoulder into him, throwing the black card on the floor. “Why can you run back to your little boyfriend?” I pause in my escape, eyeing Sirius. “Don’t you dare talk about Alston?” I grit through my teeth “What, the man who couldn’t provide you a stable life and has you moonlighting as a call girl to make up for his lack of an ability to be a man?” Sirius barks in my ear, his eyes storm over, burning me to the spot. “No, the man who is the person you’ve always wanted to be. An actually good guy,” I counter, getting into Sirius’s face. “I remember when you wanted to be like him, taking the bad guy down, defending the little guy.” I look Sirius over with exaggerated disgust, “And now you’re the big bad guy.” “Do you think Alston could take me down?” An irritated look flashes across Sirius’s face as he growls. “I think Alston can do anything he puts his mind to.” I step into his space, my voice confident and sure. The tense is cut by the exacerbated scream of a woman: “Rosco! Come back!” I look over my shoulder at the commotion. A big ball of chestnut-colored fur comes barreling towards me. I yelp, trying to get out of the way, but the dog bumps into the back of my legs, and I stumble into Sirius. His arm loops around my waist to keep me from falling. His strong arm tightens its hold pulling me in close as his hand is spread across the small of my back. I brace myself, pressing onto his chiseled chest. “Rosco!” Sirius steps on the leash, jerking the dog to a stop. The woman runs up and bends over, hands on her knees to catch her breath. “Oh, I am so sorry!” She pants, grabbing the leash from under Sirius’s foot. Neither one of us responds to her as Sirius bores his eyes into mine, and for a second, I feel like I can’t breathe. I look over at the woman trying to offer myself a moment of reprieve, and all I can offer her is a tight smile as Sirius's heat envelops me. I don’t allow myself to fall comfortably in his embrace, pulling back from his chest as the woman scolded her dog for running away. For a second, I imagine we are the only two people here, but when one of Sirius’s men clears their throat, I jerk to get out of his embrace again. “ Boss, we’re out in the open.” The man pleads. “Sirius,” I gasped, but I quickly regretted it as the smoky wood set drowned me. Now I remember what it felt like to be madly in love with him. It's so easy for him to make me the teenage girl from eight years ago who trusted him with all her heart. Despite my jerking movements to get away from him, I grip his shirt and the smug smile that spreads across his face makes me instantly regret it. “ If I didn’t know better, Elise, I would think you still want me.” He murmurs, his breath feathering over my face. And, like everything, he ruins the moment. I placed both of my hands against his solid chest and pushed his chest sharply. When he lets go. his eyes storm over again, and he is no longer the boy from eight years ago, despite the scent of him staying the same. I stumble back, falling over my own two feet to get away from him in landing harshly on my bottom. “Ow,” I whine, clutching my left foot to my body. “ Elise,” Sirius scolds, almost falling after me. “ He extends his hand towards me as an offering, but I suck my teeth and slap his hand away. "You're as clumsy and stubborn as ever.” I rolled my eyes, placing both of my palms, friendly on the ground and pushing myself up to stand, but I immediately regretted it as the pain spiked through my left leg. “Ow!” I yelp falling back on my butt. “ Dammit, Elise,” Sirius barks as he kneels down in front of me, immediately going to touch my injured ankle. “ No, don’t touch it,” I whimper, pulling my leg away from him, but Sirius ignores me, pulling my injured leg slowly into his hands. Without a word, he unlaces my tennis shoes and goes to look at the slowly swelling ankle. his tender touch sparks up my leg, and I can’t help but want to jump out of my skin at the way my body reacts to him. “Sirius, I'm fine. See?” I whisper trying to show him that I can get up and move around fine without him, but he doesn’t allow my foot to touch the ground and immediately scoops me up bridal style into his arms. “ You sprained your ankle, Elise,” he states matter-of-factly, looking down at my reddening cheeks. “ It's not the first time Sirius. I know the drill, rest elevation, and ice. I’ll be fine.” I counter-wiggle in his arms, but he only holds me tighter as a grunt escapes his lips. “ You can play that tough girl act with anyone else, but I know you, Lessie, and you’ll let me help you.” He speaks as if it’s the law, and for the first time tonight, I don’t fight him and instead invade the heated heated look in his gaze.