Page 13 of Tiger's Little Waif

Instead, he would give her something else to focus on.

“Waif, you’re in charge until Kevin finishes with me,” he said, gentling his tone.

“Yes, Chef,” she answered softly.

He watched as she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. He had no doubt that after watching him for the last week, she knew exactly what needed to be done to shut down after breakfast and begin the prep work for lunch.

Taking that as his cue, Kevin grabbed the wrist that was not injured and pulled him toward his office. “I’ll be the judge of how fine you are, if you don’t mind,” he said with a smirk.

Marshall huffed in disgust as he allowed the panther shifter to lead him into his office. Once they were in the office, Marshall closed the door then moved around to sit in the chair behind his desk. He wasn’t surprised when Kevin settled on the corner of his desk.

“How’s the hand?”

“I’m fine,” Marshall looked at his hand before holding it up. The hand that had been blistering a few minutes before was nearly healed.

“I knew you would be, but that Little girl of yours was so panicked, I did not want to upset her further by not looking you over. How’s she doing?”

“She fussed this morning that she was healed enough to work and be mated. Almost earned herself a spanking because of her display of temper,” Marshall said with a twitch of his lips. “We’ll see how she feels tonight, after a day of baking, but it looks like yet another mating will be happening soon.”

Chapter Seven

By the time Shaw put her apron in the laundry basket that evening, she was ready to crawl into bed. But it was a good kind of tired, the kind that came from working hard and making a whole lot of people happy with her sweet creations.

Even Chef seemed impressed with her creations despite her keeping things simple with oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies at lunch. For dinner, she had decided on cupcakes and made strawberry banana and yellow cake with mocha chocolate icing. Though she did not want to admit it, she was surprised there were only a few cookies and a half-dozen cupcakes left at the end of the evening.

“Ready to go home?”

She nodded, but instead of speaking when she opened her mouth, she yawned widely. She approached Marshall slowly, wondering if he would take her to his bed tonight, or if she would spend yet another night in the guestroom, dreaming about him.

“How is your hand?”

He held it up, palm toward her, so she could see. “All better. Something you should know about shifters. We have remarkable healing abilities. Cuts and burns are nothing. Even bruises heal in hours instead of days. The only thing we really have a hard time healing from are losing limbs and massive blood loss.”

“Oh. So, I didn’t need to get Kevin this morning, huh?”

“No, but I’m glad you did. It showed the others that you care.”

“Of course I care! You’re my mate, and I don’t want you hurting because of a kitchen accident.”

Marshall stepped close and wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you, sweet waif. Now, are you ready to go home and go to bed?”

Shaw could not stop her bottom lip from poking out as she pulled back and frowned up at him. “I don’t want to go to bed so early. Can’t we do some mating practice instead?”

Marshall tapped her bottom lip with a slight frown. “Put this away, it won’t work on me and will only get you sent to bed a hot ass.”

Shaw sucked it in, rolling her lips over her teeth so they disappeared completely. But she could not stop herself from huffing a sigh to show her disappointment. “Yes, Chef.”

She could not help squealing when Marshall suddenly scooped her into his arms. When he shifted her to straddle one hip, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding on like a monkey in a tree.

“Shh, little waif. I’ve got you,” he rumbled as he headed out the kitchen door. He pulled it closed then headed down the steps and across the yard.

“What are you doing?” she asked when he did not put her down but kept walking into the dark of night.

“I thought it was obvious, waif. I’m carrying you home. You’re tired and need to save your energy.”

His long strides quickly carried them toward his cabin in the woods. Shaw turned her face and giggled as the breeze brushed over her face. It took them less than half the time to reach the cabin than it had walking into work that morning.

“Wow, you move fast, when you want to,” she said as he entered the front door with her still riding his hip. Her pussy clenched as her clit rubbed against his body.