“Only with you, pretty baby,” he rasped, stroking his thumb over the mating mark on my shoulder. His touch sent a spark of desire coursing through my body, making me shiver. “You like that?”
I nodded. “Feels so good.”
“I’m gonna play with that mark while I pound in and out of your body,” he promised, his eyes flashing wolf. “But later. First, I need to feed you.”
“That won’t be a problem.” I pointed at my chest, not bothered by the fact that I was completely naked. I couldn’t be after he’d explored every inch of my body with his hands, lips, tongue, and teeth. “I’m a chef, remember? Food is my thing.”
He chuckled with a shrug. “I thought maybe it was like how doctors make the worst patients, and you might hate to cook when you’re at home.”
“Nope, I love to cook no matter where I am.”
He patted his six-pack abs. “Then fate did me an extra favor because I love to eat.”
Rubbing my hands together, I thought about the ingredients I had in the kitchen. “How does ricotta hotcakes with thick-cut maple bacon sound?”
“Fucking fantastic.” He patted my butt to nudge me toward the bathroom. “If you’re going to make me a gourmet breakfast, you get first dibs on the bathroom.”
“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.”