Robert lingered behind to speak to the ravenous-looking women, who were both certainly super models Eve felt. She went into the comfort of the kitchen, feeling the heat still coming off from the stove. The food was plated and ready to be served soon.
“They’ll finish the salad in two minutes, tops,” Brad assured him.
She nodded. “OK, let’s do this.”
Robert
“The new chef is absolutely adorable,” Pepper drawled as she watched the woman retreat. Her sister, Ginger, batted her eyelashes.
“Absolutely. I could eat her up, lion form and all.”
Robert smirked. These particular sisters were notorious for their seduction of innocent human women. Men, they claimed, simply never crossed their minds. He wondered if Eve had been aware that the women were admiring her. He’d tease her later.
“She’s competent,” he replied with an assured voice. “Which is what counts.”
Pepper rolled her eyes in unison with her sister. “Sure, Robert. We know you’re the Chief’s son for a reason.”
He didn’t bristle under their mocking. It was common. Robert, always up-tight Robert, but Robert made sure that things got done and swiftly. He smiled calmly. His politician smile was always at the ready.
He left to make the rounds with all the other patrons. Lion Shifters were notoriously territorial and small groups liked to separate out, although eventually, they’d be shouting at one another from across the room. Money couldn’t suppress their innate nature.
The stroganoff was coming out. Robert felt every head turn as the staff arrived. He could literally hear mouths watering. It was a generous portion of sliced beef, cooked medium-rare, and served with just enough of the pungent sauce. His own stomach growled. Thankfully, nobody was around to hear it. The dish was served with large bowls of perfect-looking pasta that could be shared by the table. The staff made quick work. Eve danced her way through the interactions.
And then the crowd descended into silence—a glorious sound. He lifted his eyebrows and made his way back to the kitchen.
“Great job,” he said. Eve glanced at the leftover plates, pulling out plastic containers that they kept for to-go meals or leftovers.
“Would you like some?” she asked. His stomach clenched. From the rising smell or her delicious smile, he wasn’t sure.
“I’ll take a dish for my office. Paperwork to do,” he explained. She nodded as if it was the sanest thing in the world, and Brad prepared a tray for him, complete with pasta, bread, and a side salad. Robert felt a sting of disappointment that it wasn’t Eve; he said nothing but thanks.
He retreated away from the dining wing and towards his office, a quiet corner office that suited his needs perfectly. The lunch he dove into immediately. It was too good-smelling not to. His computer was open, but he barely looked at it. He scarfed the entire meal down in about ten minutes. Of all the Shifters in Lionheart, he liked to think that he was the best at containing his inner-lion.
But that wasn’t quite true, was it?
He remembered Eve’s scent. The scent of the beach still on her, faintly. Had she said that she would be living with her aunt and uncle? They must live right next to the beach. He sucked in a deep breath and placed his dirty tray on the other side of the room. One of the staff members would come by to collect it. They were used to collecting his piles of espresso cups, but it was rare that he ever lunched inside his office.
An hour later, he was combing through his inbox when a knock sounded on his door.
“Come in,” he called.
He was surprised (and delighted) to see Eve pop in. She smiled, carrying a tote bag.
“I’m headed home before the second shift,” she explained and glanced at the empty tray. “How was it?”
“Delicious,” he replied. “I expect that I’ll be getting a lot of compliments for hiring you.”
“Good.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He could smell that same scent on her. Of the open beach air. He gripped his leg beneath his desk and resisted the animalistic roar rising in his chest.”
“Was the staff to your expectations?” He stared at her. Despite her chef attire, she was utterly stunning with a different sort of beauty that usually surrounded him in the Shifter community. Something about her was softer but just as delightful. The inner lion agreed. He brushed a hand across his chest as if to clear his throat.
“Yes. Brad and Jacob are great. Brad’s a bit sassy, but I like that.” She glanced at the massive sleek clock that he had hanging across his office. “Well, I should be going. I’ll see you tonight, Robert.”
“Rob.”
Her eyes sparked. “Rob?”
“You can call me Rob,” he explained. “I usually let staff know that within the first week.” That was a dead lie. Sometimes it took him a year. But Eve…
Well, he felt certain that things were somehow different with her. She smiled.
“Rob. I’ll see you later, Rob.” And she was gone along with her delectable scent. The carefully arranged braided up-do was the last sight of her as his office door shut. He sighed as he heard her footsteps disappear.
He was in trouble. This human woman was proving irresistible.
At that moment, another knock sounded, but it carried a different scent. Jacob.
“Come in.”
Jacob came in to collect the tray and shot him a grin. “She’s great, huh?”
“Yes, she has excellent skills. Thank you, Jacob.”
When he left, Rob rested his head on his desk. The scent seemed burned into his brains. All he wanted was more of her cooking. All he wanted was to see more of her.
Perhaps he was in trouble.
Eve
“He said I could call him Rob,” Eve mentioned casually to her family on Saturday. She cradled Joan in her arms, feeding her the bottle. Carol gasped over her coffee. They were gathered around the table for a late breakfast.
“Rob! How intimate,” she cooed. “Well, maybe you can invite him over. In fact, I might have already—”
“A Shifter in our house?” Johnny asked with a scowl.
“You’re just jealous because Carol likes the Shifters,” Eve said. He sniffed over his coffee. Carol smirked. Eve was right, after all.
“You feel the same about the Shifter ladies,” Carol argued.
“No, I don’t! They’re so pretty that they’re absolutely scary.”
Eve snorted and left her relatives to argue it out between themselves. With Joan in her arms, she went out to the porch to admire the seaside. She took a gulp of seaside air. Her aunt and uncle had landed amazing real estate somehow. She stared at the horizon. It wasn’t as glamorous as the Lionheart Lodge, but it was perfectly quaint.
She heard car tires on pavement. Baby Joan was too distracted with her bottle, but Eve turned to look. A black Audi was coming up the driveway. She squinted her eyes. The windows were tinted, so it was impossible to tell who was driving. The car stopped behind her uncle’s SUV.
Robert emerged from the car. Her mouth dropped open.
“What on Earth are you doing here?” she asked before she could stop herself. He smiled.
“Your Aunt asked me to come by.” His brows went downward. “Didn’t she tell you?”
“I tried to!” came the distant cry from within the house. Eve had left the door partly open. Johnny could be heard scoffing. She shook her head. Unbelievable!
“She barely mentioned it,” Eve explained and looked down at Joan. “Let me go put the baby down. She’s just eaten.”
“Is that your sister’s baby?” he asked as he got closer. She could now see that he had a box of sweets from some chic-looking bakery in his hands.
“Yes. This is Joan.” To her surprise, the usual timid Joan eagerly let go of the bottle and stared at Robert with round eyes. “Wow. She’s not usually this warm to strangers.”
“It’s the Shifter thing,” he said with a charming wink and reached out a hand to wave his finger at the baby.
Joan giggled in response. “She seems like a happy baby. How old is she?”
“Five months.”
“Healthy for five,” he said with a teasing light pinch on Joan’s arm.
“I wasn’t aware you were an expert on babies,” she replied coolly.
He smirked. “I’m one of eight. I was the oldest. I took care of most of them while my parents worked on establishing Lionheart Lodge.”
“I’m impressed. That work usually gets relegated to the daughters.”
“No daughters until the fourth kid and even then—” His smile teased her! Oh, how she liked it. “Shifters are very good at being equal in terms of childcare. You know, a lion has to win the graces of all the females in his group. It’s impossible to go against them. You learn to please women.”
She felt tingles skip up her spine.
Carol came barging from the house. “Helloooooo, Mr. Robert.” Oh, Eve could’ve killed her auntie!
Robert smiled and presented the box of baked goods. “A gift for the house.”
“Oh, how charming! Johnny, he’s brought us treats.”
Even this far from the porch, Eve could picture Johnny close his eyes and shake his head. She held in a laugh and waved to Robert to follow them inside.
“It’s not Lionheart,” Carol said with a girlish giggle. “But it’s our home.”
Baby Joan went to Johnny, who wanted nothing more than an excuse to stay away from the handsome Shifter in the house. Carol set the box down on the kitchen table.
“Thank you for the invitation to visit,” Robert said. Eve felt suddenly underdressed in her low-cut tank top and leggings. She’d been debating about doing some yoga down at the beach. Did she even have makeup on? “Sorry if it’s a bummer to see your boss on your first day off this week.” A dark chuckle left his throat.
Carol served clean plates on the table. She called for Johnny in the other room.
“Joan and I are busy,” he replied with a huff.
“You’ve made my uncle jealous,” Eve said with a wink. “He’s got a thing about Shifters.”
“Do not!” Johnny yelled from the living room. Carol shook her head and began serving the treats. They were chocolate eclairs garnished with some kind of raspberry finish. Eve’s stomach growled just looking at them. There was a lot of them too. Robert smiled, catching her eye.
“Are they okay? I wasn’t sure what to bring a chef.”
“They’re wonderful.” She pushed down the rising heat that was slowly crawling up her face and neck.
“Thank you for visiting us,” Carol said. “I hope I wasn’t a bother when I called your office the other day. I just thought it might be nice for you to get to know us.” Eve stared at her in disbelief; what a sneak, her aunt was!
“Not at all.” Robert took a bite out of his éclair. Eve followed suit. Carol glanced towards the living room.
“I’ll bring Johnny his as a peace offering.” She winked at them. Was it really a peace offering or a chance to leave Eve alone with her gorgeous boss? Eve chewed silently and nodded.
“Your aunt and uncle seem nice.”
“Sorry about my uncle,” she muttered. “Old people, you know?”
He smirked. “Oh, I know. My father is an old Chief, but I’m thankful that he’s still wise.”
“Is he at Lionheart?” she asked coyly. “I haven’t seen him.”
“No, he’s traveling for business.”
“What kind of business do Shifters have?” she asked.
His smirk deepened. “It’s as if you think we don’t work at all like humans.”
Now, she did blush. Hard.
“I’m ignorant,” she admitted. “But I’d like to listen to you talk more.”
And they did talk. For a long time. So long that Aunt Carol and Uncle Johnny invited Robert to stay for lunch. Three hours passed as though time had stood still. But Robert had work to do.
“Perhaps another time,” he told her as they said goodbye on the porch.
Deep down, she was disappointed, even though she knew this was her boss. Holding baby Joan in her arms, she watched him go.
Robert
Eve’s scent haunted him. In his car, in his condo, at the store. Worse, it was all over the Lionheart Lodge. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. Worse still, everyone was mentioning her.
“That chocolate tart she made yesterday? Rob, I’m gonna gain twenty pounds at this rate this summer. I can’t stop eating it.”
“The steak tartare was orgasmic.” This, by both Pepper and Ginger, who were absolutely crushing on Eve.
“You should get her to cater the initiation event.”
The last comment was scary because no non-shifters had ever been allowed to see the Initiation event, least of all the chef. They’d always made special arrangements to get a fellow Shifter to cook. Or they all banded together.
“What’s the use? She cooks us all under the table, and we’re all tired of doing our silly potlucks. Let her do it,” Pepper said when he thought aloud about how problematic it might be to include Eve. The comment stung. Partially, because he’d like to believe that they all had traditions they respected. Yet, as time wore on, it seemed like that mattered less and less for the Shifter kinds.
It seemed like almost every day, he was receiving an e-mail from some far-flung cousin or distant clan member who had announced that they were mating with a human. He didn’t care. Not really. His parents had never been against Shifters mixing with humans.
“Share the love,” his father said. Easy for him to say. He’d never cared about what people thought. That’s probably why he’d made such a good leader. Robert smirked. Well, he did care that Robert had yet to be mated or have children. Maybe that’s why his father was so open about mating. He knew that Robert had never found a Shifter woman to his liking, not for lack of ignorance, but simply that it felt like Shifter women were all like family. They had plenty of non-blood relatives in the Clan through marriage and various “sister” clans, but still. He’d never found the one.
And now, he was thirty—going on thirty-one. He broke at his desk with a start. Wow. It was right after his thirtieth birthday that his clan members had begun teasing him about not being mated. He’d just realized!
Eve wasn’t helping things. She smelled of babies, thanks to Joan, and sweet seaside air. Every time he found himself around her, his inner lion was roaring for him to make a very unprofessional move. He clapped a hand to his face and sighed—long and heavy sigh.
“Everything ok, boss?” Jacob asked. Robert hadn’t even noticed him pop his head in to collect the usual tray of espresso cups.
“Work,” Robert lied. “Per usual.”
Jacob grinned, none the wiser. “No worries. Ms. Eve has made a killer lamb dish today.”
“Can you bring it to me in my office?” he asked, sitting up straight as a board. Yes, then he wouldn’t have to see her. Jacob’s eyes flickered for a moment. It was rare that Robert declined to stop in on all Lionheart operations.
“You got it.”
Faithfully, Jacob came back with a tray and set it on Robert’s desk before leaving. Robert ate and continued his work. He was so busy that he failed to notice the familiar scent coming closer and closer. In a moment, there was a tell-tale soft knock at his door. His stomach clenched. Eve.
“Come in.” He willed his voice to be as calm and strong as usual. Her hair was in two braids thrown behind her back. The starched chef’s whites were stainless. Despite the boxy shape, it somehow managed to showcase her curves. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat. “How are you, Eve?”
“Great!” Her chipper nature was as bright as ever. She cocked her head to the side. Her mouth turned downward. “Is everything ok?”
“Fine,” he lied through his sharp teeth. “Just a lot of work today.”
She nodded. “Did you enjoy today’s meal?”
“Very much,” he said and gestured to the empty tray. He’d destroyed the meal as per usual. “Thank you, E
ve.”
“Auntie Carol said to tell you hello,” she said and bit her lip. “Joan seemed to recognize your name too. She keeps gurgling whenever we say Rob.”
He smiled, a warm feeling burning in his chest. Something bittersweet nipped at him. “Thank you, Eve. I’d love to chat.” He looked down at his computer. “Unfortunately, I have a lot to do today.”
“Oh.” Her mouth formed a small ‘o’ shape as she pulled away from the door. His chest screamed. How badly he wanted to pull her into his arms. How badly he wanted to push her against a wall. He swallowed his inner-lion and cleared his throat.
“Sorry, I—”
She waved her hands in front of her wildly. “No, no, it’s fine. I understand. Sorry for disturbing you.” She grabbed the tray. “I’ll take that. Have a good day, Rob.” She scurried away with pink cheeks. He could smell the heat coming off her, the embarrassment. Great. He was an absolute ass.
He sighed at his desk and swiped his papers to the side, watching them tumble to the floor. He needed a drink; he needed a lot of things.
God, he couldn’t get her scent out of his mind.
When he was sure that she was gone, he went straight to the bar and ordered a double whiskey on the rocks.
Eve
Robert was being weird. She didn’t need Shifter instincts to tell her that. She could feel him avoiding her. When she asked Jacob what was up, he said that Robert was swamped with work. Brad watched the interaction quietly and smirked.
“Bothered with work?” he asked. “Or with suppressing his emotions?”
Jacob and Eve stared at Brad with equally baffled faces. He sighed. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”
But Eve couldn’t forget or ignore that Robert was scarce around the Lodge lately. When she went to check in with the Clan members about their meals, the twins, Pepper and Ginger, seemed to delight in bringing this up. They were always friendly with Eve, which she liked, although she felt that their eyes were hungry.
The Baby Shift- Hawaii Page 2
