Royal Mess (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation 3)

Indiana waved her hand at me. “You’ll be a pro in no time. All you’ll have to do is the beginner classes.”

“A beginner teaching the beginners,” I laughed. “I don’t think we should make that a known fact.”

Indiana rolled her eyes. “After two weeks, you’ll hardly be a beginner. You gotta have faith, Royal.” Indiana put her arm through mine. “Now, let’s get some food in your tummy so that baby can eat.”

Meg and King moved to the side, and we squeezed past them.

We followed the noise coming from the kitchen, and I was a little taken aback by the large group that was gathered in the dining room and trickling into the kitchen.

My eyes unknowingly scanned all of the faces, and I was a little disappointed when I didn’t see Marco.

Indiana grabbed a plate and handed it to me. “I didn’t see him either,” she whispered.

“Uh, who?” I asked, dumbly.

Indiana grabbed another plate and stepped up to the kitchen island. We both filled our plates and managed to find a seat at the dining room table.

“I didn’t have to avoid anything, did I?” I asked. I remember the last time I had eaten at the clubhouse, and Indiana had told me what I shouldn’t eat because Marley had made it.

Indiana shook her head. “Marley didn’t come with. Though,” she laughed, “she did send along two casseroles.”

I looked down at my plate and frowned. “Uh, did I take any of it?”

“We separated her dishes from all of the others and threw them away when we got here,” Cyn called. “It’s much easier to not eat her cooking when she isn’t here. Everything on your plate should be good to go.”

Thank God. I didn’t want to eat something bad and possibly throw up all over the dining room table.

I listened to everyone chat and laugh while I shoveled some absolutely amazing food into my mouth. The one thing I loved about being pregnant was no one looked at me twice when I ate like a linebacker. A second helping of everything and half an hour later, I was sitting at the dining room table in a blissful food coma.

And I still hadn’t seen Marco.

I know I had already told him thank you for letting Indiana come over, but I still felt bad that basically the whole club had come.

The empty chair next to me moved, and then, Marco was there.

“Eat enough, mio amore?” he asked softly.

There he was. Where had these butterflies in my stomach came from? Marco’s beautiful chocolate brown eyes stared back at me and I sighed. “Yup.”

He grabbed my plate and set it in front of him. He ate the lone stuffed mushroom that I had left on my plate.

“Maybe I was saving that for later,” I laughed.

Marco licked his fingertips. “I watched you for ten minutes. You had no plans to eat it.”

“Is that all you’re going to eat?” I asked. I wasn’t going to touch on what he had said about watching me for ten minutes.

“I’ll get some more in a little bit.”

I rested my elbow on the table and held my head up with my hand. “You might want to get up there sooner or later. Pie is on a mission to eat his weight in stuffed mushrooms and cherry almond bread.”

Marco chuckled. “Some things never change.”

I sighed and smothered a yawn.

“You should get to bed, mio amore.”

“Why do you call me that?” I asked boldly. There was my inner Sophia coming out. Blurting things out without realizing what I was saying.