Page 10 of Tempting the Tiger

Keair looked up, seeing Sally and Bachar and Bachar’s assistant, Emily, standing a few feet away. A smile on each of their faces.

“Sorry to interrupt, my friend, but my mate is hungry.”

Keair wanted to order the others away, sling Grace over his shoulder and take her to his bed to claim her. Instead, he pulled away from his mate. Silently, he helped Grace to the table, Bachar doing the same with Sally and Emily.

“Let me know if you need anything, sweetheart.” Bachar placed a kiss on Sally’s forehead before moving toward the exit. When Keair didn’t immediately move to join him, he said. “We have a business to attend, Keair.”

“Of course, Alpha.” It took a lot of control for Keair to walk away. He wanted the privilege and right to kiss Grace goodbye as his alpha had kissed his mate.

Grace watched the two men leave, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. She wished she were alone so she could process the events of this morning. What game was Keair playing? Or was he being sincere? She had so little experience when it came to men. And, the one time she had opened up and allowed her heart to overrule her common sense, she’d been badly hurt. Her self-esteem had suffered and she’d found herself feeling lonely for the first time since she was a child. Allowing a man into her life had hurt.

That man had been an asshole, the little voice inside her head reminded her.

“Grace, did you hear me?” Sally’s voice brought Grace back to the present.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” She gave the other woman a warm smile. Now that she’d seen her with her mate, her doubts about any interest Keair might have had in the woman had been put to rest. The woman was clearly in love with her mate, and the man was possessive as hell. Grace shivered, wondering what all that passion would feel like directed at her from Keair.

“This is Emily Thompson, Bachar’s assistant. She’ll be helping plan the shower.”

The woman sitting across from her looked as if she had been cast for the part by a Hollywood movie director. She wore her dark hair in a bun at the back of her head, not a hair out of place, and was dressed in a white shirt, with a black jacket, black pants, and a gray blazer. All business. She appeared to be about Mary’s age. Grace had a feeling she was a shifter.

“Hello.” The woman’s mouth rose in a smile and her voice was soft and smooth.

“Hello.” Grace returned the greeting, immediately at ease with both women. Which was strange. It had been a very long time since Grace had allowed herself to make friends.

The three women quickly dived into details for the shower. It would actually be held at the Wolf’s Den because that hotel’s outside space was far bigger than the Lion’s Pride and the entire pride was expected to show up. When it came time to decide on decorations, Grace asked the most obvious question. “Do you know what you are having already or are you doing a gender reveal party?”

Sally let out a small laugh. “In the shifter world, there are no secrets when it comes to a mate being pregnant. Bachar knew before I did—and he swears he can tell the sex of the baby by its scent.” She rolled her eyes. “Personally, I think he’s full of hot air. How can he possibly know that?”

“It is only alpha shifters who can tell that, Sally,” Emily said, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

“Well, I’ll believe it when I see it,” Sally grumbled. Before she could say anything else, a waiter appeared with their lunch. Within minutes, they were served with an ice-cold, wedge lettuce salads, followed by a mile high club sandwiches. While Emily and Grace were served with sweet iced tea, Sally drank flavored water since she was restricting her caffeine intake.

“This is delicious.” Grace felt like she was having lunch with royalty. The waiters were never far away, anticipating each woman’s needs with refills or whisking away dirty dishes. For dessert, each woman was presented with a huge chocolate chip cookie.

Grace, even though she was full to the point of being uncomfortable, immediately broke off a piece. She tried not to grimace when she took her first bite of the cookie. It looked scrumptious but wasn’t.

“See how much I need you?” Sally sighed. She looked around before continuing. “The desserts here are not very good, are they?”

Grace hated to say anything disparaging about another baker, but the cookies truly were not very good. Especially considering where they were being served—and who they were being served to. They tasted like they had been prepared with a box mix. Maybe the increase in orders from Daniel had not been because of Keair’s interference.

“Well, it’s not that bad.”

“Pooh,” Sally waved around her comment. “It is bad. The dining room’s revenue has been going steadily downhill for months. And it’s because of the desserts.” She narrowed her gaze and studied Grace for a moment. “You wouldn’t be interested in coming here to work as a full-time pastry chef, would you? I have sooo many sweet cravings. You’d be saving my life. Well, you already saved my life by providing those delicious pies, but there needs to be more. Lots and lots more,” she winked.

The hopeful look on Sally’s face was not something easily dismissed. While owning her own bakery, being her own boss was something she had dreamed about for years, and had finally made that dream come true, the life of a small business owner was not all sunshine and roses. There were lots of times Grace felt like throwing in the towel.

“That’s a very tempting offer, but no.” Grace needed to be independent—meaning not dependent on anyone for anything—even a paycheck. And, ironically, thanks to the business the shifters were giving her, her business had never been better.

“Oh, well, I thought I should at least put that out there.” She sighed and motioned to a waiter to take away the rest of the dishes. “Now, let’s get down to business before I have to leave and take a nap.”

The three women laughed and continued to plan the shower.

“Well, at least you are a little more focused today.” Bachar leaned back in his leather chair and studied his second-in-command. When the government had forced the shifters into a corner so to speak, there had been little Bachar had wanted more than to start his own pride. It hadn’t been easy. Between government regulations, the fear of humans in general and the initial lack of cooperation between the different types of shifters, those first years had been filled with pain and bloodshed.

He’d been lucky when Keair and Tarek had decided to join forces with him. Now his pride—which was something of a misnomer since it was made up of every type of shifter, not just lions—was the force to be reckoned with in this part of the world.

Keair finished typing a note into his tablet before giving Bachar his full attention. “It would seem so.” He knew the man was referring to the other day when Keair had walked out of a meeting, his cat distraught about not being near his mate, even though they had just met. “It helps to have her near.”