They smiled at each other, and for an instant it seemed to her as if the world fell away. There was nothing but Tyr, his wind-tousled hair and his gold-tinted eyes, gazing at her. She started to lean toward him, raising a hand and reaching to brush her fingers against his.
Tyr jerked abruptly back, as if coming out of a dream, and Cela recovered her sense of herself and hastily put her hand down.
“Yeah, this sucks,” Tyr said under his breath.
“There’s got to be a way to change it.”
“I believe there is.” He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself, but then his voice firmed into resolve. “If itturns out to be what it takes, I’ll go back to Griffin Island and confront Kav, the elders, and all the rest of them.”
“Tyr, you’re an exile,” Cela said in horror. “They’ll kill you.”
He met her eyes with his fierce, level gaze. “And you’re my mate. I’ll do anything.”
Cela was the one who had to break their stare, becoming acutely aware they were arguing about intensely private matters on a public sidewalk. “It won’t come to that. We’ll find a way.”
Now she was the one having to struggle to convince herself.
TYR
Warm baking smellsgreeted them in the Brown Bear Café, where Gaby and a small staff supplied Autumn Grove with delicious donuts, flaky croissants, fresh bread, and other treats.
“Oh, hi there, Terry, Cela!” Gaby waved to them from behind the counter with a floury hand. “You brought the babies! Hold on, I’m about due for a break anyway. Let me get my assistant up to speed on the donut glazing and then I’ll be out to say hi. Want some coffee or something? Donuts?”
“Yes,” Cela said, her gaze rapturous as she stared at the luscious donut case, full of plump donuts covered in chocolate, nuts, or pink frosting.
“Pick out anything you like,” Tyr told her. His griffin was in rapture.
Feeding our mate! Let us hunt her a fat rabbit next!
Being a griffin herself, Cela might actually appreciate a fat rabbit, a lot more than a human woman would. Tyr supposed he might give it a try later, if only to get his inner animal to settle down.
“Do you want to try a fancy coffee?” he asked Cela after they picked out a box of assorted donuts. She had sampled his coffee at the house, but had seemed unimpressed. “It took me a while to develop a taste for it, but adding sugar and chocolate helps a lot at the beginning.”
“Isn’t that the stuff that humans are all addicted to? I think I’d rather not.”
Gaby laughed. “If you don’t want coffee, how about hot chocolate? It’s sort of like a donut in a cup.”
Cela’s eyes lit up. “I would love to.”
While Gaby fixed her a frothy hot cocoa with whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon and chocolate sprinkles, Tyr watched Cela. Her cheeks were pink with excitement, her eyes bright. He could have gazed at her like this forever, watching her sample the pleasures of the human world.
It was some compensation for not being able to do what he really wanted, which was to bury his face in her waves of silvery blonde hair and inhale its fragrance—kiss her coral-pink lips—rub his face on her glorious breasts, peeking in creamy mounds from the scoop neck of her sweater ...
“—said, do you want anything else?”
Tyr hastily pulled himself away from contemplation of Cela’s breasts. Gaby was looking at him with the knowing smile of a woman who was several years deep in a close relationship with her own mate.
“No, that’s fine.” He ran his card through the reader, tacked on a generous tip that he probably couldn’t afford, and turned with their drinks to find a table.
Cela checked on the babies under the fabric cover and settled their stroller between her chair and the wall before sitting down. She turned her admiring gaze on the box of donuts. “I don’t know which one to start with. They all look amazing.”
“Whichever looks best to you.” Tyr waved a hand across them with a flourish and smiled at her.
“Okay, this one, then.” She pounced on a pink-iced cake donut with sprinkles.
Tyr’s smile broadened into a grin as her eyes half closed with nearly orgasmic delight.
“Tyr, this is amazing.Amazing. The human world has incredible food.”
