“A little prosciutto, maybe a balsamic drizzle…” He looked over the vegetables.
“Let’s do that with the next one.”
“As my lady commands.” He spread on some yellow onion and green bell pepper before hesitating at the sliced olives. He released a breath, and I grinned as he reached for some.
“I thought we were sharing?” I asked sweetly, knowing he hated the very idea of olives.
“We are,” he said, spreading them on half. “I’ll be feeding you first, and I have your half all picked out.”
I laughed. It was an intimate, often erotic thing for shifters to feed their mates, a sort of throwback to their primal need to look after loved ones. I didn’t share the same primal excitement, but I loved the way Austin responded to it, to me.
He sprinkled the pie with salt and pepper and a couple other spices before heading for the door.
He stopped, though, noticing Mac standing not far away, holding his uncooked pizza, watching us.
“What’s up?” Austin asked, glancing at his nephew’s creation. “Do you need help?”
“No. I’m picking up tips on how to woo girls. This is legendary.”
Austin started forward again. “I never did any of this with—” He side-eyed me. “Before Jess.”
“Nice recovery,” I joked.
“But I can see how it would be a good party trick. Wear a stupid apron—”
“Check,” I said.
“Toss the pizza dough—”
“Preferably with shirt sleeves rolled up, exposing muscular forearms,” I added.
“Okay, back up,” Austin said. “Next, Mac, get muscular forearms.”
“Har, har,” Mac said as we stepped outside. “That’s about the only thing I’ve got going for me—
my physique. I have the body of an alpha but not the drive for it.”
“There could be worse things.” Austin handed our creation to Kingsley, who used his fancy pizza peel to move his cooking pizza over and slide ours into the oven.
“You know Auntie Jessie really well, though—”
“Aww, cute.” I smiled brightly at him. “You’re calling me Auntie Jessie!”
Mac paused for a moment, not sure what to make of that apparently, and continued. “What about if I’m going for a girl I don’t know that well?”
“What are we talking about?” Kingsley asked, suddenly gruff. “What girl?”
“You just watch her body language,” Austin said, moving out of the way so Mac could give his pizza to Kingsley. “You stop by things, or suggest things, or randomly talk about things you might do, like fancy versus laid-back—”
“Cheating!” I smacked Austin’s arm. “Very suave.”
Austin laughed. “Just pay attention to her signs. She’ll tell you what she wants, even if she doesn’t voice it.”
We continued talking about idle nothings while the pizza cooked. Once it was ready, Austin sat us away from the others and placed our food down in front of us. One of his hands slid up my shoulder and around the back of my neck, pulling me closer so he could taste my lips. A moment later, he lifted a slice, watching as I pulled a pepperoni from his offering and popped it into my mouth.
“It was a rough start to the night, but I like the direction it’s going,” Austin murmured, his eyes hooded and his body hard.
“I didn’t set up any fondue for afterward,” I said after I finished the bite. I’d done that recently after a date I took him on. The chocolate fondue had been an erotic treat, though soon forgotten as we explored each other’s bodies.
He smiled as he fed me a bite of pizza, and then accepted one from a slice I held up for him, realizing too late what he’d been offered.
“No! You didn’t!” He pulled away from me, laughing and then making a face. “I can feel the olives in there. How dare you!” The last was said to mimic Mr. Tom’s new favorite phrase.
Mr. Tom’s eerie voice rose from the darkness. “If that was intended to mock me, I can assure you, I am not wounded.”
“Feel the olives?” I took a bite of the slice I’d grabbed for him. “Hmm! I don’t know about feel, but they sure are delicious.”
“They have a weird consistency.”
“You have a weird consistency.” I stuck my tongue out at him and laughed again.
We finished that pizza and went back to make more, Austin teaching me how to catch and throw the dough and laughing at how bad I was at even the simplest things in food preparation.