Toronto and work.” He started to lift a bite of beef to his lips.
The fork was almost at his lips when he suddenly glanced past Armand and froze. His eyes widened, a curse slipped from his lips, and then he almost whispered, “I’m going to kill her.”
“Who?” Armand asked with confusion, and then turned to glance in the direction that Lucian’s gaze now seemed fixated. He was staring past him at the dark road outside. Armand peered at the long stretch of dark highway for a minute, slow to recognize the fiery vision approaching for what it was, a motorcycle with red, yellow, and orange LED lights around the tires and across the body that made it look like the bike was roaring up the road aflame. It was one hell of a magnificent sight.
“Eshe,” Lucian snapped, finally answering his question. “That’s her.”
The motorcycle roared into the diner parking lot, spitting up gravel, and then eased to a halt beside Armand’s pickup. He had a moment to get a closer view of the array of lights on the machine before the engine fell silent and the rider disembarked. The woman was tall, at least six feet, and she appeared to be all lean muscle in the black leather she wore. She also moved with the predatory grace of a panther.
“She looks like she was born to ride,” Armand murmured, his eyes devouring her.
“More like born to bite,” Lucian muttered.
Armand glanced curiously to his brother. “Why so annoyed?”
Lucian’s mouth twisted with irritation, but he admitted, “I told her to make herself less conspicuous.”
“Ah,” Armand murmured, biting his lip to keep from grinning. It was the rare person, immortal or otherwise, who went against Lucian’s orders, and he couldn’t help but be amused that Eshe d’Aureus was apparently one of them. This was far away from being inconspicuous. There were probably eyes peering out the windows of every house she was passing and fingers excitedly punching in numbers on phones as word spread about the super-cool motorcycle that just rode past their place. It would be the main topic of conversation tomorrow in the diner as those who had seen it described it to those who hadn’t. Not much went on in this small community.
“I’m going to tan her hide,” Lucian growled as she walked past their window toward the entrance of the diner.
Armand couldn’t help but think he wouldn’t mind volunteering for the job as his gaze automatically dropped to the hide his brother thought needed tanning. The woman had a perfect body, with a nice round rump he suspected it would be a pleasure to touch for any reason…and he was contemplating the various reasons for doing just that—none of which included tanning her hide—when she opened the diner door and stepped inside, ending his view of her behind. It forced him to shift his attention to her front as she paused inside the door to undo her jacket and peer around. It was quite a nice view too, he had to admit. She still wore her helmet, so he couldn’t see her face, but everything else on display was lovely. Black leather pants stretched tight over long, lean legs, but she also wore the black leather jacket now open to reveal some sort of black leather corset that left the upper curves of her breasts and her upper chest and throat on display. The woman had rich, mahogany skin that seemed to gleam under the diner’s fluorescent lights as if she’d powdered herself with some sort of shimmery powder.
“I told you to make yourself inconspicuous.” Lucian glared at the woman as she spotted them and approached.
“You said to make myself less conspicuous,” she corrected in a calm voice. As she removed her helmet, she added, “And I did. See?”
Armand didn’t know what Lucian was supposed to see, but he was seeing what he considered the finest-looking woman he’d seen in a long time, since his life mate had lived even. Eshe d’Aureus had huge, beautiful eyes that glowed golden with black flecks, a straight Egyptian nose, and the most seductive lips he’d ever seen. He found her heart-stoppingly beautiful…and nowhere near inconspicuous.
“Eshe,” Lucian growled with little patience. “Dying your hair hardly makes you less conspicuous when you’re on that carnival bike of yours.”
Armand’s eyes shifted to her hair at those words. She wore it short on the sides and a little longer on top, and was presently running her long fingers through it in an effort to repair the