Page 36 of Feral Heart
Cesar chuckled, amazed at his mate’s resilience. “You’re incorrigible, colibrí.”
“But I’m yours,” Jamie replied, his smile softening. “All yours.”
With a low growl, Cesar curled an arm around his mate and pulled him close. “You say the sexiest things.”
His mate was stronger than anyone gave him credit for. Stronger than even Jamie himself realized.
The night had brought violence and fear into their home, but it had also shown Cesar something important. His bond with Jamie wasn’t just about protection. It was about partnership. About finding strength in each other.
And nothing—not Grant, not Rowan, not even the new hyena alpha lurking in the shadows—could break what they were building together.
Chapter Eleven
“No, colibrí, you’re murdering the onions," Cesar said, his strong hands covering Jamie’s to slow down the chopping. “Gentle. Like this, cariño.”
Jamie tried to focus on the knife technique, really he did, but how was he supposed to concentrate with Cesar’s chest pressed against his back?
“I’m being gentle!” he protested, even though he’d been hacking at the poor vegetable like it had wronged him in some way. “It’s already dead, right? How much gentler does it need?”
Cesar’s lips curved upward, and suddenly the room felt too small to contain that much beauty. “You want even slices so they cook evenly. Here.” His hands guided Jamie’s in smooth, controlled movements. “Feel the rhythm?”
Oh, Jamie felt a rhythm all right, and it had nothing to do with onions. For the past week Cesar had pulled him into the tavern kitchen to teach him how to cook. Yesterday it had been something as simple as frying chicken wings. Only Jamie had nearly burned down the kitchen. He’d found some frozen corndogs in the freezer and decided to drop a few into the deep fryer he’d been using for the chicken. Who knew hot oil could throw such a tantrum? Thankfully, Cesar was faster than he looked with all those inked muscles, and… What was he just thinking about?
“What are we making again?” Jamie asked, trying to remember why they were in the kitchen on a rainy day when they could be doing... other things. “Because I feel like we covered this but my brain got distracted by your…everything. And now I can’t remember if you mentioned ethnicity, and I don’t want to be culturally insensitive, but also, your hands are really warm. Did you know onions make you cry because of sulfur compounds? Random fact I learned, but—”
“Sofrito.” Cesar gave him a quick kiss. His cupcake’s way of shutting Jamie up without hurting his feelings. He wanted his mate’s kisses all the time, to the point he sometimes word-vomited on purpose.
“The base for everything good in Puerto Rican cooking.” Cesar’s breath tickled his ear, those muscly arms trapping Jamie in a cocoon of temptation. “Onions, peppers, garlic, cilantro. My abuela would come back to haunt me if I didn’t teach my mate.”
Jamie’s stomach did that butterfly thing. Cesar’s mate. He still couldn’t believe this gorgeous wolf had chosen him. It hardly seemed real. Just a week ago, Jamie had been at his register, praying a hole opened up and swallowed him. Now he was in his crush’s embrace, learning how to properly chop veggies. If this was a dream, he would use his utility knife on anyone who tried to wake him.
“Your grandma taught you?” Jamie forced himself to pay attention to the lesson, not his honey bunny’s body.
“Sí. Said a man who can’t cook can’t take care of his family.” His thumb brushed over Jamie’s knuckles. “Now, smaller pieces.”
“Bossy beefcake.” But Jamie was grinning, chopping the onions into tiny, perfect pieces while Cesar nodded his approval. He couldn’t believe he was actually preparing a meal that didn’t have microwave instructions. “Is this small enough? Or smaller? I can go smaller. I can dice them into submission. Is that a thing? Dicing vegetables into submission? Because I feel like—”
“Good. Now the peppers.” Cesar reached around him to grab a red bell pepper. “Same technique, but—”
“But first you gotta get handsy and correct my form.” Cesar’s closeness rewrote gravity, every breath pulling Jamie in deeper. “Pretty sure I need lots of correction, jellybean. Might take all night. Possibly multiple nights. Maybe a whole semester of vegetable-chopping lessons because I’m a very slow learner when you’re pressed against me like that and—”
His growl made Jamie’s toes curl. “Behave, or we’ll never eat.”
“Who said I was hungry for food?” His breathing grew shallow as he stared at his dreamboat’s soft lips. Cesar’s gaze lingered like a touch Jamie could feel hours later. Ever since his crush had finally noticed him, it had been this way.
“Jamie.” Cesar’s voice dropped to that tone that made his brain short-circuit. “Focus.”
“Right. Focusing. Totally focused.” He bit his lip, trying to match Cesar’s rhythm. “It was really sweet of your grandma to teach you. My granny didn’t teach me anything because she moved far away so she wouldn’t have to deal with my family and all the bad seeds—sorry, not talking about that. New life, new me, new knife skills that I’m totally nailing by the way.”
His pookie pressed a kiss behind Jamie’s ear. “You’re a natural, mi amor.”
“I just had a great teacher, elegido.” Jamie had started calling him that a few days ago, and it had lit something behind his tropical-blue eyes that hadn’t cooled since.
With a sultry growl, Cesar spun him around and kissed him thoroughly, effectively shutting down the word tornado.
When they broke apart, Jamie blinked up at him, feeling a bit loopy. “So... we’re done with cooking?”
“For now.” Cesar’s eyes had an amber glow, which meant Jamie was about to be carried off somewhere private.
