Page 14 of Wolf's Whistle
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Richard was truly contrite.
“You didn’t upset me. I believe we should begin as we mean to go on. Outside of eating or asking for something to eat, everyone in this house stays out of my kitchen, except for the three girls who come in during the day to help. I gather we’ll be joining thelunchrotation. I’m very happy to take on those other bitches. I’m a better cook than all of them, even Bianca with her fancy degree.”
Richard cast another glance toward Julien who was trying to control himself. He defused the situation by saying, “I think it’s time for me to go to bed.”
“Come with me,” Julien grinned, “and I’ll show you where your room is. You need to take the elevator to the fourth floor. Right now, we’re on the first floor. We always have at least six for every meal. My assistants, the guards who eat downstairs, and us. When there are more than six, Isabel uses the catering kitchen.”
They walked through the formal dining room and into a gallery. Julien pointed out the elevator. “I’m on the third floor. In the morning we have breakfast in the breakfast room in my suite. The third floor has the master suite, dressing rooms, a sitting area, and the breakfast room. So come down in the morning when you wake up for breakfast.”
They stepped onto the elevator, and Julien pushed the button for the fourth floor. The elevator opened to a large sitting room. There was a bedroom in the back and another one in the front. “This is going to eventually be the children’s wing with what is now the sitting room, turned into the governess’s bedroom, with one room in the back for the younger child and one in the front for the older one. You take the bedroom with the sitting room. I’m sure Marcel has it made up. Good night, mon ange, I’ll see you in the morning.” Julien leaned forward and placed the lightest kiss on his forehead then, whistling, he got into the waiting elevator to go downstairs.
The spot where Julien kissed him tingled and a warm flush filled his body.
§ § §
Julien took the elevator down to the third floor. He tapped Etienne’s number into the phone he took out of his pocket.
“Hello Julien, I was expecting your call. I’m having a drink with Julio.”
“My Mate’s upstairs, in my house. I finally have a Mate. We almost kissed on the plane, but Armand came over and well, the moment passed. I have to figure out how to get him to love me.”
“You’ve been together in many past lives, and your pheromones make it easier for you. Richard sees the tether, he’s receptive. It’s only been about eighteen hours, and you’ve made remarkable progress. He’s already in your home,” Etienne reminded him.
“He did agree to come rather easily. It didn’t take a disaster to get him here.” Julien poured himself a shot of whiskey.
“You have to court him. He smelled peaches. Julio says he loves fresh peaches. Order him a basket of them. Little things show your Mate that you care about him.”
“I could bring them to his room in the morning. What’s the best fruit market in the city?”
Etienne laughed. “How would I know? Bianca does all the grocery shopping. I just enjoy the fruits, so to speak, of her labor. Ask Isabel, I’ll bet she knows. Wait a minute…Bianca says there is a greengrocer on First Avenue and Seventy-Second Street. Go early in the morning. She says you can get ripe peaches as fat as your fist. And don’t send Isabel. Do it yourself.”
“Okay. Will the fruitseller make it pretty?”
“No, you make it pretty. Buy or find a wicker basket in the house, get some ribbon, decorate the handle, and have it on the table in his sitting room in the morning. No card, just the peaches. Now I’m going to bed with my Mate. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but our first mating was last night. Any more questions, bother Armand.”
“Yeah, right…good night, Etienne. I’ll take your advice. Thanks for listening.” Julien ended the call and rang Marcel on the house phone. “We need to go to the fruit market at six. I need to buy peaches.”
“Alpha, Isabel can go to the market and have them delivered.”
“No, thank you, I have to do this myself. I’m courting my Mate.”
§ § §
Julien was back from the market at six forty-five with six fat, juicy peaches. The greengrocer told him to only buy six because they were so ripe they’d go bad if not eaten in a few days. “You can always come and get more,” the man said.
Since he was right, Julien didn’t argue. He thought about what Etienne said, little things, so he didn’t buy three dozen peaches, he bought six. The market had very pretty wicker baskets with handles, and they told him about a store across the street that sold fabric ribbon and fancy bows. It opened at six-thirty.
At six forty-five, he was in the kitchen fiddling with his basket as Isabel scolded him while he tried to fit his six peaches into the basket and make it appear pretty.
“Here, let me do it, you stubborn wolf. You bought them, the basket and the ribbon. I’ll only stack them. You can tell him you did it yourself.”
Julien gaped at her in horror. “I can’t lie to my Mate. You can do it because I don’t want to bruise the peaches, but I won’t lie.” Isabel rolled her eyes and arranged the peaches in the basket.
“Now bring them upstairs and put them in the sitting room. Richard will see the peaches when I wake him for brunch with Etienne and Julio. Make yourself presentable. You need a shower and a shave. Go.”
Julien managed to deliver the peaches without waking Richard and whistled in the elevator on his way down to the master suite. He took a long hot shower with sandalwood soap, shaved close with his straight razor, and then put on a nicely pressed golf shirt, a pair of chinos, and his deck shoes. He didn’t use any aftershave because it made him sneeze.
Isabel brought up his coffee, and at eight Richard came into the room wearing a ratty robe. “I found the peaches, thank you. Julio must have told you that they’re my favorite fruit. I brought one down to eat for breakfast. I didn’t want to get peach juice all over the sitting room.”
