Now, it all felt juvenile and petty. Fortunately, Beck and Dewi had both accepted his belated apology for the incident.
“I should get up and shower,” Malyah said, sounding like she wanted to do anythingbut. “Sis’ll be up and wanting help makin’ breakfast for everyone.” Meaning Nami, he knew. The three younger Drexler siblings treated their eldest sister more like their mother than their sister. Which was natural, considering how she’d raised them.
Now that Nami didn’t seriously want to murder him anymore for mating with Malyah, he loved her, too, although as a sister.
Today, Nami was getting a surprise baby shower right after breakfast. A family breakfast was the easiest excuse to gather everyone together in one place without raising her suspicions.
“Yes, we should get up.” He tightened his grip around her with his arm and kissed her again. “We really should.” He nuzzled her neck.
She poked him again. “You’re gonna make us late and get us in trouble.”
“I like being in trouble with you,” he mumbled against her flesh.
Another poke, and before he realized it, they were trying to tickle each other. Her laughter ringing in his ears always helped lighten his soul.
She made him feel like a better man. Turns out that wasn’t just some stupid greeting-card cliché.
She really did.
Joaquin had seriously grown up a lot since his days as a wild wolf chasing tail. At thirty-nine, he was still young for a wolf, but had seen and been through plenty to give him perspective. His parents had moved them from Colombia to the Targhee Pack compound in Idaho when he was only four years old. Cartel violence had scared his parents and they’d taken the Targhee Pack up on their offer to help with relocation.
She finally sat up and rolled on top of him. “Shower. Now.” She brushed a kiss across his lips and bolted from the bed, nearly triggering his prey drive before he caught himself.
Malyah wasn’t a shifter. He couldn’t simply chase and roll her tumbling across the floor like he could with a shifting packmate.
With a sigh, he climbed out of bed and followed her to the bathroom, where she was rewrapping her hair in a shower cap to keep it dry. “You, my dear love, are dreadfully responsible,” he teased, nipping the nape of her neck in passing on his way to start the shower.
She giggled, catching his gaze in the mirror. “One of us has to be, mister.”
* * * *
Malyah could see Joaquin’s brown eyes looking even darker as he struggled against the desire to drag her back to bed. That was one of the things she loved about him, that she could make him nearly lose control like that.
That his thoughts were solely about her, in that way.
That she had absolutely no doubts about his love and desire for her.
Hishungerfor her.
One day…yes, she did want children.
Right now, however, she was too interested in going back to school to earn her second degree, this time for creative writing. Her accounting degree the first time around had been practical, so she could contribute to their family’s income by getting a good job, and therefore ease Nami’s burden.
This time, since Joaquin assured Malyah money wasn’t an issue, she was seeking a degree for something she’d always felt passionate about but felt she couldn’t “waste” time doing at her family’s financial expense—writing.
Once she had her hair completely covered she joined Joaquin in the shower. Now that they were vertical, she had a reasonable chance of actually making it out of the cabin and not heading back to bed.
Heading back to bed with her wolf wasn’t a bad thing, but their time in Idaho would come to a close all too soon, and she didn’t want to miss time with their extended family.
Plus, Nami’s baby shower was this morning.
She definitely wasn’t missingthat.
“Did you already take Nami’s present to Asia?” he asked as he scrubbed her back for her.
“Yep. Safely stashed there with all the others. They were supposed to move everything to Peyton’s last night once we all cleared out of there. I hope she’s going to be surprised.”
“Since we didn’t tell Beck about it, I’m certain she will be.” She turned and took the washcloth from him so she could scrub his back for him.
