Page 19 of Delivered to My Elves

While rummaging in the fridge, I pulled out a pack of bacon and fried it up while I worked on my second cup of coffee.

My mates were up. I heard water running and footsteps coming from the back of the house. My bear picked up every breath and footstep.

I leaned against the counter and felt my body heat up remembering something. Last night, while one of the showers was running, I could’ve sworn I heard my name being moaned. It was Callon. My thoughts drifted to why he would be calling out my name, when it struck me right in the core.

He was in the shower.

Moaning my name.

My core pulled tight thinking about the lean, tall elf stroking himself in the shower but more so because he’d said my name while he was doing it.

My name.

“Shit!” I said as I turned. Lost in my thoughts, I found that my daydreaming had me burning the bacon. It was bad enough that the pancakes looked more like the soles of elephants’ feet but burned bacon?

I had some things to learn about all of this stay-at-home mom stuff.

“Are you okay?” Aerin rushed into the kitchen. He was shirtless, only wearing a pair of low-slung gray pajama pants. His hair was wet and I could smell the mint of his toothpaste.

“Yeah. I just suck at frying up bacon, apparently.”

“Don’t talk about yourself that way, female. Why don’t you step away from the griddle. I don’t want any of the grease to pop and burn you.”

I scoffed but did as he said. My bear purred inside me, content and happy that her mate was trying to keep us safe. “You don’t even have a shirt on. It’s going to burn you.”

He didn’t listen. Instead, he unplugged the appliance and brought the griddle to the sink. He turned and gave me a once-over. I was sure it was to make sure I was okay, but his looming stare shot straight into my core, making me almost whimper with need.

A smile tugged at the right side of his mouth. “See something you like, Misty?” he asked.

Heat pulsed to the surface of my skin. “Maybe.”

“I can work with maybe. Thank you for making breakfast. That wasn’t necessary, but thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He moved past me, scooting between me and the counter. Before we broke eye contact, he winked, instantly making mewet. They didn’t even know they were my mates and here I was, a shivering mess on the verge of coming because of a simple wink.

“I smell coffee,” Callon announced, walking into the kitchen. He strolled toward me and grabbed a cup. As he did, he leaned down a bit and whispered into my ear. “That’s not all I scent. Everything, and I mean everything, smells delicious.”

Chapter Seventeen

Misty

Breakfast did nothing but prove my “freezerian” status, unfortunately. I had good luck with toast, usually, and if I’d stuck with that, it would have been a light but fully edible breakfast. At least the guys couldn’t say they weren’t warned. And as they pointed out, they hadn’t joined the app to get a cook…or something like that.

But, to their credit, they ate far more of my disastrous attempt than was probably good for their stomachs and then insisted on doing the whole cleanup while I rested and “entertained” them. I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but if they were hoping for more than anecdotes from my childhood, they were likely disappointed.

You’d never know it, though, because they laughed and asked questions and appeared genuinely interested in my far-less-than exciting life. And by the time they finished putting away the dishes and tossing the last of the food into the trash—they were kind but not insane enough to save any—I’d managed to share more of my life than I’d have done if I’d been paying attention, having grown comfortable while their attention was not laser focused on me.

But I wanted to know a lot more about them, so when they suggested we take an after-breakfast stroll, I was all in. Running to grab a jacket, I came back to meet Callon and Aerin on the front porch and set out to spend time getting to know one another. A cool breeze whipped a few last fall leaves around our feet. “It’s going to snow tonight,” Callon remarked. “I hope you don’t hate the cold.”

“If it’s too chilly, I can just curl up by the fire with a good book.” The idea made me feel so cozy inside. “But my polar bear loves the snow.”

“What is it like to shift from one type of being to another?” Callon asked, pausing to pick up a vibrant maroon leaf. He handed it to me.

“Nature is marvelous, isn’t she?” I smoothed the leaf between my hands. “All the beauty and sometimes the oddness.”

“And which do you feel shape shifting to be?” Aerin asked, surprising me.

---