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“We both know you would’ve let me go first even if you were the one cooking this morning.” I put some extra swivel in my hips as I walked away, glancing over my shoulder to flash him a grin. “Because you’re so darn sweet.”
He sighed and shook his head while I giggled. When he growled at me with a playful spark in his eyes, I raced the rest of the way into the bathroom. With Rome waiting on me—and my stomach making growling noises after all the exercise I’d gotten between the sheets last night—I was in and out in record time.
When I walked back out, he was sitting on the edge of the bed. Setting his phone on the table, he got up and gave me a kiss before he moved past me. That reminded me that I hadn’t checked mine since before I walked over to Timber Treasures last night. After I threw on a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt, I grabbed my white chef’s jacket off the floor and pulled my phone out of one of the myriad of pockets.
Several texts were waiting for me on my cell, most of them well wishes for my birthday and/or my mating. But the one that made me squeal with joy was from Peppa.
“Good news?” Rome asked as he strode out of the bathroom to check on me with a towel wrapped around his lean hips.
“Yup.” I grinned at him and turned my phone so he could see the screen. “Looks like I have an unexpected vacation in honor of our mating.”
I wouldn’t have been able to read the message from that far away, but his vision was a heck of a lot better than mine since he was a shifter. “I get you all to myself for a whole week?”
“Uh-huh.”
His answering grin was wider than mine. “Your boss just made herself one of my favorite people in Timber Ridge.”
I narrowed my eyes and my foot against the floor, crossing my arms over my chest. “Oh, really?”
“Only because she’s good to you, pretty baby.” He walked over and pulled me into his arms, brushing a kiss against the top of my head. “And because I’m not sure my wolf could’ve handled you being in a kitchen with an unmated male so soon after I found you. If she hadn’t offered to give you this time off, that polar bear shifter you work with would’ve been taking his life into his own hands by going in to work with you.”
“Mm-hmm.” His answer made sense, but I still didn’t like hearing him compliment another woman. Even though Peppa was my friend and happily mated to Cason. And knowing that Rome would never be attracted to another woman. He was all mine, but our bond was still so new. It felt fragile. Like it needed to be nurtured. Which was exactly why Peppa had given me the week off. Because she’d gone through the same thing when she met Cason. “She went through the same thing with her mate and took six days off right after our opening. And Cason still insisted on coming in with her when she came back. It used to crack me up whenever he growled at Aero or Bexley, but I have a feeling that I won’t find it quite so funny when you’re the one feeling threatened by one of my coworkers.”
“Because you’ll be too busy getting hot and bothered by my possessiveness.” I was about to huff out a denial when he leaned back and quirked a brow at me. Staring into his dark eyes, it was impossible to pretend that seeing him get jealous over me wouldn’t turn me on. “And I gotta admit, I like that you can be just as territorial over me as I am with you.”
“Good because I’m willing to bet this won’t be the last time.” His reassurance soothed my worry that I’d overreacted, and I went up on my toes to give him a quick kiss. “Now go get ready so I can feed us, and we can burn off some of this chemistry before we make my house spontaneously combust.”
6
ROME
“What do you think you’re doing?” I growled as I whipped open the door to the shower and glared at my mate. “I specifically remember telling you not to shower when I left to go to the store.”
Thora giggled and dipped her head under the water, distracting me for a moment with the soapy suds that ran down her wet, naked body. “You did. But while you’re cute when you get bossy, I didn’t agree.”
I inhaled slowly, and even though I knew the smell of cherry blossom would only overpower my scent on her for a short time, I was still irritated that she wasn’t completely saturated in it.
“I smelled like sweat and sex,” she muttered.
“I fail to see the problem with that,” I drawled in reply.
Today was our last day before Thora had to return to work that evening, and I was struggling with the idea of being apart from her, especially knowing she worked with several unmated males between the polar bear and servers. Logically, I knew she would never be attracted to them, but I couldn’t seem to make my mind, or wolf, understand that. My demand that she not shower had been rooted in my need for it to be unquestionable that she was mated. To me.
She shook her head and tossed me an amused smile that indicated she didn’t quite understand how serious I was about this. “I’m almost done.”
“You’ve left me no choice then,” I grunted before quickly undressing and joining her in the steam-filled stall. “I’ll just have to get you dirty all over again.”
Thora gasped when I grabbed her ass and hauled her body against mine, but the second our lips touched, she melted into me with a moan. She must have brushed her teeth because her taste had a delicious hint of mint when my tongue swept inside her eager mouth.
I devoured her as I slowly walked her back until she was pressed against the tile wall, then lifted her, and her legs automatically circled my hips. My cock was always at least semi-hard around my mate, but being this close to her tight, wet pussy had my dick throbbing with need and steadily leaking precome.
I bucked my pelvis, and she gasped, arching her back and thrusting her gorgeous breasts up to my face.
“I fucking love the way you respond to me, pretty baby,” I murmured before taking one hard nipple in my mouth and scraping my fangs over the delicate skin.
Over the past week, we’d opened up and learned a lot about each other, not just our preferences in bed. I’d never felt a connection like this with anyone else. Talking to Thora, just being with her, came so easily. But while I enjoyed all the time we spent talking or eating or walking in the woods, it was early enough in our mating that we could barely go an hour or so without fucking.
“Rome,” Thora moaned, wiggling a little, trying to take me inside her. “Need you.”
