The thought popped into his head unbidden, and he swallowed hard. He had to work out how to tell her that she was his mate, in a way that wouldn’t send her running for the hills.
Perhaps sensing that she was being watched, Diana opened her eyes, blinking owlishly at him in surprise.
Before she could get embarrassed, he gestured down at his waffles. “Would you like to try some? They’re really good.”
She blinked again, before nodding. “Only if you’ll try some of mine, though. I mean, if you want to.”
Our mate wishes to share her repast with us,his wyvern said triumphantly.Surely human wedding ceremonies are not far off.
Ignoring it, Calvin nodded. “If you really don’t mind.”
“Here.” Diana speared an enormous hunk of waffle and fried chicken on her fork, dragging it through the glistening maple syrup that had accumulated at the side of her plate and then holding it out toward him, her hand trembling ever so slightly.
Does she want me to take the fork, or does she want to feed the food to me?
As much as it felt like things were moving fast, he was pretty sure that it was the latter. Well, he hoped so, anyway. He’d look pretty silly if he’d misinterpreted the situation.
Calvin leaned forward, and his eyes locked with Diana’s, her gaze intense, as she placed the forkful of food into his mouth.
And now he could see why she’d been looking so blissful just before. Because it was really,reallygood.
The waffle practically overflowed with salty, melty cheese that was offset by the sweetness of the maple syrup, and somehow the fried chicken batter managed to be impossibly light and crispy. What could’ve been an overwhelmingly heavy meal was, in reality, something that he could see would be perfectly satisfying.
He swallowed the mouthful almost reluctantly, trying to savor every last bit of it.
“Thanks,” he said. “That was amazing.”
Diana’s face broke out into a sunny smile. “Everything here is always good, so I wasn’t too worried, but you know what it’s like when you ask someone out for the first time and want everything to be perfect!”
“Perfect is one way to describe it,” he said, smiling back. “But now it’s time to return the favor.”
“Ooh, you don’t say.” Diana’s eyes were sparkling, and she raised her eyebrow in a way that made Calvin’s stomach flutter – just a bit.
“Of course,” Calvin managed to get out over the paroxysm of lust that was currently stampeding through him. He scooped up an enormous, juicy blackberry together with a sizeable piece of waffle, making sure to get plenty of cream and hot fudge sauce.
He paused for a moment, and then held the fork out.
When in Rome…
Diana leaned forward, her hands coming up to pull her hair out of the way as she took the fork into her mouth.
Calvin waited, happy just to watch as she chewed happily for a good long while.
“Oh, man,” she said eventually. “Do you think I’ll have room to order one of those for dessert? I might die, but what a way to go.”
“Well, I would prefer it if you didn’t die,” Calvin laughed. “How about you just help yourself to mine as much as you like?”
Diana’s eyes shone as she smiled. “I wouldn’t say no to that. And the same goes for you, of course – help yourself.”
“I might take you up on that,” Calvin said, meaning it – the chicken waffles really were that good. But first, he had to make headway on his own meal – he hadn’t even tried all of the components yet.
He stabbed his fork into a large piece of waffle, swirled it in cream and fudge sauce, and then carefully loaded one of each type of berry onto his fork.
Diana watched, her amusement clear, as he raised the fork and carefully lifted its precarious cargo to his mouth.
The flavors danced on his tongue, the tartness of the blackberry perfectly balanced out by the sweetness of the strawberry and the heavenly hot fudge sauce. It was astoundingly delicious.
“Is that good?” she asked as he chewed happily.
