Between my desire to stay here with my mate and his need to keep me away from other males, I didn’t need much convincing to play hooky from work even though it was only the day after we opened. “I get what you’re saying, and I’d love to stay right here with you. But I’m not sure how Trinity is going to feel about the idea.”
“I don’t think you have anything to worry about there.” He rolled over and grabbed his jeans off the floor. Then he pulled his phone out of the back pocket and jabbed his finger against the screen. “There’s only one way to find out.”
I bit my bottom lip while the line rang. Trinity picked up much more quickly than I expected since she was still in the hospital after giving birth to twins. “Please tell me nothing went wrong.”
“Everything will be perfect as long as you don’t need my mate in your restaurant anytime soon,” he growled, his wolf flashing in his eyes as his gaze connected with mine.
“Duh,” Trinity giggled. “I assumed Peppa wouldn’t be there so soon after mating, and I already talked to her team. She definitely wasn’t bragging when she said that she has her kitchen running like a well-oiled machine. At any other restaurant I’ve opened, the kitchen staff would’ve freaked out if the executive chef couldn’t be there the second night. But not your mate’s people. Once they knew she was okay, they told me to make sure she knew that they had everything covered, and she should take as much time with you as she wanted.”
I wasn’t surprised that they weren’t worried about running the kitchen without me since I was lucky to have lured them all down here with me. Each member of my team was a kick-ass chef. But any thoughts about how awesome my friends were melted away when Cason ended the call and pressed his body against mine.
6
Peppa
My lioness and Cason’s wolf were tussling in the backyard when I heard the ring of my cell phone. Darting toward the patio, I shifted into my human form and glanced down at the screen to see who was calling. My mate stalked over in all his naked glory, and I held a finger in the air as I backed up a step so I could answer before he took the phone away from me. “Hey, Trinity. Is everything okay?”
Before she could answer, he snagged the phone out of my hand and put it to his ear. “How are my niece and nephew?”
“Put it on speaker so I can hear, too,” I hissed.
He heaved a deep sigh while doing as I demanded, and I caught the tail end of Trinity’s response. “But they miss their aunt and uncle. That’s not why I’m calling, though. I need Peppa to come into Timber Treasures at some point today.”
Cason pressed his finger against my lips so my answer was muffled before he replied, “Nope. Sorry, she’s busy.”
I glared up at him as Trinity argued, “When I told you to take some time to yourselves while you were in the early stages of mating, I didn’t mean that you should keep Peppa tied to your bed for almost a week.”
Cason pulled me against his chest and growled, “I’m not ready to give her up yet.”
“I’m not asking for you to send her off to the restaurant and never see her again,” Trinity snapped. “I just need Peppa to come in for a little bit so she can come up with new specials. We rotate them out each week, and it’s been six days since our opening. I waited until the very last possible moment to bother you guys with this.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. Normally, I would have decided on what to offer for the specials a few days ago. I’d been so wrapped up in my mate that I hadn’t realized how much time had passed since it had felt as though we were the only two people in the world. “I really do have to take care of this.”
“Only if I can come with her,” Cason grudgingly conceded.
“Even if you weren’t mated with my executive chef, you’d always be welcome at Timber Treasures,” Trinity assured him. “You’ve been one of my favorite people ever since I realized that when you pleaded with me not to reject Damon, you believed our mating meant you were cursed to spend the rest of your life alone.”
I’d learned a lot about my mate during our time holed up together, and I had already figured out how good of a person he was. But hearing the sacrifice he’d been willing to make for his brother drove home how lucky I was that fate had paired me with such an honorable man. I sniffled a little to hold back my tears as I pressed a kiss to his chest, right over his heart.
“C’mon, brother. You have to let the poor woman up for air sometime,” Damon hollered in the background.
“Like you have any room to talk,” Cason muttered, his arms tightening around me. “You couldn’t keep your hands off Trinity after you found her, either.”
I interjected before they started trading insults the way my brothers did. “Maybe we’ll stop by to see the babies after we’re done at the restaurant.”
“Ah, how I miss the days when people came over to see us,” Trinity teased.
“Yeah, I’m not feeling the love over here,” Damon added.
Cason winked at me. “Tough shit, bro. You need to come to terms with the fact you’ve been replaced in my affection by my adorable niece and nephew.”
“What-the fuck-ever,” Damon grumbled before hanging up on us.
Cason nudged me into the house, copping a feel while he did so. “As much as I love seeing every bare inch of your body, we better get dressed if we’re going to head into the restaurant. If you stay naked any longer, I can’t be trusted not to fuck you until you don’t have any energy left.”
“Quit threatening me with a good time.” I looked over my shoulder and wagged my brows but then thought better of teasing him when his dark eyes flared with lust. He wasn’t joking about being able to leave me in an exhausted heap. If he tumbled me into bed—or any other flat surface—then we’d never make it out of here in time for me to be useful in the kitchen tonight. Racing forward, I beat him into the bathroom. Not that getting there first did me any good since he followed me inside, straight into the shower.
Needless to say, we didn’t make it to Timber Treasures as early as I might have liked. When we walked hand-in-hand into the kitchen, my team was hard at work filling orders for a packed dining room. Larken was the first to spot us, and she beamed a smile at me before eyeing my mate up and down and giving me a thumbs-up. My lioness wanted to hiss at her, but I knew my friend was just being a goofball. Plus, I didn’t want to scare her off since she hadn’t known shifters existed a few months ago and had only seen my animal once.