Page 24 of Promise & Artem

He closed the distance to them and gave her the flowers. “You look amazing.”

“Thank you, so do you. These flowers are gorgeous.”

“The only gorgeous thing I see is you, Promise.” His voice was gruff, his beast wanting to forget the plans to romance her and simply haul her over their shoulder and take her to bed immediately.

Her cheeks pinked and he loved the blush on her skin.

Lowering his head, he kissed her just once, even though he wanted to do much more.

“Let me, ah, put these in water,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “Artem.”

“Yeah?”

“You make me want to pull the Murphy bed down..”

“I want that too,” he said, grasping the doorjamb and squeezing until his knuckles turned white. “But let me show you how important you are to me and take you out. You’re special, you’re my truemate. It shouldn’t be a race to the bed.”

Her eyes softened, amber peeking around the edges of the brown he adored. “I’m feeling pretty dang lucky.”

“Me too.”

He followed her into the kitchenette and told her where he got the flowers, and then when she’d arranged them in a vase and set it on the coffee table, he took her hand and led her to his truck. After closing her in on the passenger side, he got behind the wheel and said, “There’s a place I want to take you. You can look up the menu online and make sure there’s something you’d like to have. It’s a steak and seafood restaurant called Elysian Grove. It’s about thirty minutes from here.”

She took her phone from her small, black purse. “Do you know what you want?”

“They have a filet that’s supposed to be out of this world. And I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy so I’d get the truffle mashed potatoes.”

“That sounds good,” she said.

While he drove them to the sophisticated restaurant that was known for its rustic charm coupled with modern elegance, they chatted about the menu and the types of food she enjoyed.

“The pictures make this place look amazing,” she said. “The menu looks really good. I’m thinking about the filet, but maybe the salmon. I don’t get to have that very often.”

“You can always have some of my filet if you want to get the salmon.”

“That’s sweet.”

He brought her free hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Everything I have is yours.”

“That’s extra sweet.”

He grinned. It was easy to be sweet with her. He wanted her to have every good thing.

By the time they reached the restaurant and were seated, she’d decided on the salmon. They both got a glass of wineand placed their orders, then looked at each other over the candlelight.

He took her hand. “I don’t know what to say, all I keep thinking is how beautiful you are and how damn lucky I feel that we met.”

“I feel the same way.” When she smiled, her eyes crinkled at the corners. She told him about her conversation with her parents and a call to her sister while she was finishing getting ready for their date. “Everyone is happy for us and can’t wait to meet you.”

“We can go visit anytime you’d like,” he said. “I’ve got the whole week off and even if we don’t go down this week, my time is flexible so I can take off whenever you need me.”

“That means the world to me.”

After the food arrived, they both split their entrees and shared with each other. While they ate, they talked about the wolf mating ceremony, because minotaurs didn’t have a mating ceremony that was performed in front of people.

“Maybe we could come up with a mating ceremony of our own,” he suggested. “One that combines your traditions and mine.”

“I’d love that, but what would we use for your traditions if your people don’t have a ceremony?”

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