Page 97 of My Pleasure

“Graham made me run laps until I passed out. Then he carried me back to Ma. Couple hundred years later, here I am. Caiden laughed until he cried when I arrived and reported in that first day.”

“He spoils you, doesn’t he?”

Hunter thought it over. “Maybe a little.”

“It still blows my mind we were so close, for so long and didn’t find one another,” Kiera said.

“Warriors usually stay at the perimeter. Very rarely, did we go into Storm Keep. It’s only due to the recent chaos with the Witches’ Council have we started wandering around the city proper.” He kissed the top of her head. “I wish I could have been there for you five years ago.”

“The Goddess knew we weren’t ready for each other yet.”

“I beg your pardon, I was ready for you as soon as Ma told me what a mate was.”

“How old were you?”

“Four, I think.”

“Precocious.”

He cleared his throat and dug into his pocket. Without ceremony he held out the necklace he bought her. “Here.” He regretted throwing the box out, but after the first week he carried it around in his pocket, it had gotten annoying.

She sat up, then took the necklace. “Hunter, when did you get this?”

“When the dreams started.” He pointed to the chubby bear charm. “That’s me. The larger moonstone is you and on either side of us, the two smaller moonstones are Keran and Nicol.”

She touched each charm.

“I’ll get you something more expensive later,” he started.

“Don’t you dare! I love it,” she said, and immediately put it on.

“It can hold up to another fifteen charms before it starts to get heavy.”

She raised a brow. “That’s very ambitious of you.”

“I like to think I’m prepared.”

She brought the charms up and kissed each one.

He felt his heart explode with happiness and stood. “I’ll get some more firewood for us.” He couldn’t stop smiling if he tried. She liked what he got her.

Without much thought, he began pulling apart logs and stacking the wood off to one side by the tent. He was happily humming to himself when he caught a delicate fragrance on the air. He looked around for the source and saw that his mate was staring at him, mouth slightly open.

“Hun?”

She swallowed hard. “Do that again.”

Hunter had to think about it for a few seconds before he realized his sweet mate was lusting after him.

He straightened and began preening a bit. In a fit of inspiration, he pulled his shirt off over his head and continued ripping apart logs.

“Goddess above,” she whispered.

Even though his hands were killing him, he hid it to flex a bit more.

“Kiera, do you like watching me gather firewood?”

“Uh huh.”