Alistair loved him so much he thought his heart might burst.
“So now that the living room is done, we should pick a room for the nursery, love.”
“Mmm.” They should. The old “nursery” was a holdover from another era, far away from the adult bedrooms on another floor. That would never do.
But it made his head spin, the possibilities.
“What do you think we should do the room in?” he asked, watching Des slice potatoes. He hated that mandolin. It always looked as if someone would slice off a finger.
He distracted himself by going to put on the kettle.
The potatoes and a box of stock went into the pan, and Des popped the lid on. “I think we should do something fanciful. Fairy tales and dragons. Whales in the ocean. Dinosaurs. Something like that.”
The wheels started to turn. “Yes. Okay, yes. I’ll call Carolyn tomorrow.” His decorator was a wonder as far as ordering and organizing.
“Sounds perfect, my love.” Des’s dark amber eyes twinkled with what looked like joy. He dropped a kiss on Alistair’s mouth. “Now we just wait for the potatoes to cook.”
“Want tea?”
“Sure. I’ll put mine on ice.”
Alistair chuckled. Des loved all his drinks on ice. He was funny that way.
“Okay. I’ll get a glass.”
“I can get it.” Des steered him back to sitting, and he shook his head.
“I’m not made of glass.”
“No, but I want to spoil you.” Des made a face, regret showing in his eyes. “I missed so much time.”
“You did.” He held out his hand. “But you’re making up for it.”
Des took his hand, coming to lean on him. “Thank you, Starry.”
“Mmmhmm.” He loved how Des smelled. “I love you.”
“Love you.” Des kissed the top of his head as the soup tried to boil over. So he had to go rescue it.
Des was always rescuing something.
Chapter
Ten
Des looked at the main room of their country house, wrinkling his nose. The whole place looked like a pink llama explosion. Yes, llamas. That was what Starry had chosen for his theme. Pink, purple, blue, green… llamas marched across the nursery, and now they were in his front room for Starry’s shower.
He looked at his household manager, Kumar. “Is everything ready, Kumar?”
“Yes, sir. The food is in, and we have our own servers as opposed to the caterers’. The rooms are aired and cleaned for the overnight guests. The gift table is set up, and the cake is ready.”
“Good man. Hamish?”
“We brought in extra guys to work security. I trust them all.”
“That’s perfect.” The house would be crawling with dragons. He had to know his mate was safe. That was the only way this whole damn baby shower was going to work.
Not that he was sure it was going to work anyway. It might just kill him. Normally, as the alpha, he wouldn’t have to attend, but this was more of a house party.
