His cock jerked. Threatened to burst through his jeans. “Fix our breakfast.”
“Oh. Yeah. I knew I was doing something.”
That made him smile and the fierce edge to his temper was gone just like that. He went to the coffee machine and began the process. “I want to make certain you understand the rule we’ve got going in this house.” He kept his back to her. He could hear her chopping vegetables and she was fast at it. There wasn’t a second’s hesitation. She’d be good with a throwing knife.
“Rule?” she murmured, already distracted.
He didn’t want her distracted. “Cat, look at me.” He turned his head to look over his shoulder, waited for the full impact of her beautiful blue eyes on his. “When you wake up, where does your mouth go?”
“Seriously, Eli? That can’t be a rule.”
“It’s a rule.”
“I might have morning breath. Or I might have to go to the bathroom. Or I just might want to wake up before you and sit on the porch with a cup of coffee. That can’t be a rule,” she protested.
She stood there, gesturing with the knife, a little frown on her face. Her eyes were bluer than the deepest sea, and her hair was everywhere, falling in sheets to her waist. Her beauty took his breath.
“It’s a rule,” he repeated. “You wake up, your mouth belongs either of those two places. After that, you can do any damn thing you want.”
“Lucky me.” She went back to her chopping.
He found himself smiling. She didn’t argue with him and he was fairly certain he’d made his point.
“Speaking of kissing, Kitten,” he said, paying great attention to the coffee machine. He didn’t understand why her coffee was so much better. He followed her instructions to the letter, but it just didn’t come out quite the same. “That same rule applies at night when we go to bed.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. What about your mouth?”
He laughed softly and toed a chair around so he could straddle it as he watched her work. “It’s only fair if the same rule applies to me. I wake up, my mouth is on yours or between your legs. Whichever works best at the time.”
She nearly choked. The blush stole up from inside the shirt to her neck. “I see,” she managed to get out.
He liked watching her cook. She enjoyed it. There was no doubt in his mind, she would be happy in his house, making it a home for them. He liked sitting in their kitchen with the smell of coffee and breakfast surrounding him. He liked having her scent in his lungs and the taste of her in his mouth. He especially liked knowing her naked body, warm and soft, was wrapped in his shirt while she worked. He felt comfortable teasing her, and watching a blush steal up her neck and into her face.
“Did you think I was going to neglect you?” he persisted.
She narrowed her eyes. “Quit trying to distract me. I’m working here.”
“I just wanted to make certain you know I’m not altogether a selfish bastard. Well, now that I say that, maybe it isn’t true. Maybe I am. I like my mouth between your legs, taking all that sweet honey from you. It’s mine, right? Belongs to me. A man ought to be able to harvest honey anytime he gets a notion if it belongs to him.”
“I’ve got a knife in my hand,” she reminded him. “And you’re trying to embarrass me.”
“Kitten,” he said softly. “I’m doing a damn good job of it.”
She laughed, and instantly the kitchen flooded with warmth. She didn’t laugh that often, not like this, not for real and the sound felt a little like music.
“You are,” she admitted. “I’m almost finished. The beignets are almost done and the omelets are perfect. I didn’t have a lot to work with. We really need groceries, Eli, and I can do so much better.”
She arranged his omelet and hash browns mixed with ham onto his plate and set it in front of him with his silverware. The way she arranged everything with such care made his heart melt around the edges. She liked taking care of him. He hadn’t had anyone want to take care of him since his parents had died when he was a boy. She liked it. He could tell by the way she put a napkin out for him, checked his coffee and put the basket of fresh, hot beignets in front of him before she settled with her own food across from him.
“Never going to give you up, Catarina,” he said firmly. “Not ever. I’m going to take such good care of you, you’ll never want to leave me.”
She sent him a small smile and pushed her hair out of her face, tossing the long strands over her shoulder in a purely feminine gesture. She was sexy without even trying. Still, she had an expression that told him she wasn’t certain he meant what he was saying.
Eli leaned across the table toward her. “We’re shifters, Cat. Shifters mate for life and beyond. It’s said we find one another over and over, that sometimes we can even remember things about one another. Leopards smell lies and that makes it impossible for mates to lie or deceive one another.”