Page 69 of Duke's Baby Deal
“Jason’s doing it,” Duke said, though he couldn’t believe he was already playing his trump card.
“Yeaaah,” Bram said in an uncertain tone. Then, a little more enthusiastically, “Bax said he was working the puppy yard tonight.” He looked up at Duke and gave him a smile full of promise. “I know what you’re after, Duke Mercy Hills.” He leaned in close. “Maybe I’ll just tackle you here.” He pressed his lips to Duke’s, but before anything could start, a wailing cry sounded from right in front of them.
Bram broke the kiss with a sigh. “All right, Isolde. They’re his toys too, you know.” He crouched to separate the pups, and offered Isolde a hammer and a tiny drum. “Here you are. Go nuts, and leave your brother’s baby doll alone.” He stood up and hugged Duke. “Yeah, let’s have a night just for us.” Isolde began banging on the drum and Bram winced. “How soon can we drop them off?”
Duke shooed him off to clean up and get dressed for the night, while Duke tried to teach Isolde to drum to a rhythm. By the time Bram had come out of the bathroom, though, naked except for the towel he was using on his hair, Duke had to admit that his daughter was never going to be much of a musician. He turned to shamelessly watch Bram walk to their bedroom, and let out a melodramatic sigh of disappointment when Bram reemerged completely clothed.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Bram scolded. “I’m not going to the dance naked. That’s for later.” He started opening cupboards, muttering to himself about what he could bring to the potluck.
“Just make that rice thing you made last week. That was good.”
“Will you promise not to eat it all before we get there if I do?”
“If you make enough of it, yes.”
“Ha. Funny alpha.” But Bram pulled out their big bag of rice and began measuring things out into their large pot.
Duke had been surprised when he’d told Bram that Justin was there. Bram had frowned and thought about it for a moment, and Duke had fully expected something—a tantrum, a breakdown—something. But Bram had just shrugged. “I’ll ignore him. But if you’re around, be prepared to get groped in public.” And then he’d winked and showed Duke exactly what he meant by groping. Not that Duke couldn’t smell the apprehension in Bram’s scent, but Bram seemed to be taking the news of his attacker’s presence in his stride, and Duke wasn’t going to do anything to interfere with Bram’s increasing self-confidence.
An hour later, they left for Central Park. Bram carried the pot of rice as they walked toward the park, the steam rolling off it enough to make Duke’s stomach growl louder than Duke could. This was a smaller celebration—it was only in the spring and the fall that the entire pack would turn out and the Alpha paid—but it was still fun. Duke pushed the stroller, while the babies twisted and stared around them the whole time, even though Duke knew they’d been to the park at least three times just this week. It was fun to watch them get all excited, especially when one of the neighbors’ pups was running in wolf form and came up to investigate them. The shrieks of laughter from the stroller as the pup stuck her nose in the babies’ faces made Bram laugh and share a fond glance with Duke.
Bax met them at the gate of the puppy area. “Hi! I’m glad you came.” He bent down to tickle the babies. “And how are you two doing?” He straightened again. “It’s still so warm, we thought we’d set up a sleeping tent for them out here, and we moved the older pups out behind the daycare, to keep it quieter.”
Bram handed the rice pot to Duke and pushed the stroller inside the gate. “Thank you for looking after them. I’m more nervous than I thought I would be.”
“The first time is always hard.” Bax smiled and his eyes danced. “And the second. But by the time the third one comes around, I’m looking forward to it. You forget what peace and adult conversation is sometimes.”
Duke laughed. “I’m going to go drop the rice off and get something to eat. You coming, Bram, or are you going to stay here with the pups?” He raised his eyebrows at his mate.
Bram looked down at his pups and his reluctance to leave was obvious. But, taking a deep breath, he shook his head. “I’m coming.” He turned to Bax. “There’s bottles made up in the bag, all you have to do is heat it up a little—test it on your wrist to make sure it’s not too warm—and they’re fine. You don’t have to hold them or anything if they’re in the stroller, because they can hold the bottles themselves. They like to throw them on the ground though, so you have to keep an eye.”
“I will. You go have fun.” Bax hugged him and whispered something, to which Bram nodded with a wide grin, and danced back to Duke.
“Come on, let’s go eat, and then you and I are going to dance!”
They dropped off their contribution to the food, picked up plates, and filled them with so many delicious things, Duke worried he’d be too fat and lazy to go running after his mate to molest him. But Bram stayed close—so close he kept bumping into Duke, arms brushing arms, fingers offering tidbits of food to Duke’s lips, and Duke belatedly realized that Bram was a hell of a lot more experienced at flirting than Duke was.
And Duke’s pants were becoming too tight now. Not only that, but he was seriously considering just throwing Bram over his shoulder and carrying him off to some relatively deserted grove in the woods. It was only right—after all, the uncomfortable tightness in Duke’s pants was all Bram’s fault.
And the darn, saucy omega knew it too, by the look in his eye.
As the meal wound down, a couple of shifters set up by the flattest part of the park with their guitars and started up a song. Not a dancing song, really, just something to get everyone’s attention, let them know the dancing was going to start.
Abel and Quin strolled over to chat with Bram about school and about spending summers working with Adelaide, and they’d find someone else to look after the house in the summer. It had little enough to do with Duke—he would go where Bram went, and he could find something to do. There was always the pups to look after, anyway.
When the conversation turned to the intricacies of living in the middle of a human neighborhood, Duke’s attention wandered. He saw some of the security group hanging around, a few just enjoying the party, some others obviously working. People were starting to put their plates away and change their shape to run under the moon.
Duke leaned into the conversation and touched Bram’s arm. “Give me your plate and I’ll take it over to the table.”
“Oh.” Bram didn’t look too sure, but then Jason walked up, babyless, with Mac grinning broadly behind him. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.” He put a hand on Duke’s chest and popped up on his toes for a quick kiss. “Don’t be too long, though, okay? I want to dance with you.”
“Oh, not long at all,” Duke promised. He nodded farewell to the group, took Bram’s dirty plate from him, and headed for the table where the dirty dishes were being collected.
By the time he got back, the dancing had started, and Bram pulled him out into ‘Chase the Partridge’, ‘The Mountains of the Moon’, and a crazy one that was popular with the teenagers that was mostly just holding onto each other and spinning in circles until one of the pair either fell or lost their grip and tumbled into another pair of dancers, starting a chain reaction that quite often ended with everyone in a heap on the grass. Duke thought it was called Landslide, which seemed appropriate.
Bram laughed and yelled as he and Duke whirled around each other, clearly having a fantastic time. They made it almost to the end of the song before shifters on two sides of them crashed into Duke and sent him tumbling to the ground, pulling Bram down on top of him. Bram whispered in his ear, “Now you know why we like this one so much.” He licked Duke’s lower lip, then pushed himself up, his groin rubbing against Duke’s as he moved.
Duke caught up and wrapped his arms around Bram’s waist from behind. “I think I like it too. The end, anyway.” He nibbled Bram’s neck, but allowed himself to be pulled into the next dance.
