Page 26 of House of Kallan
Toby’s eyes went wide. “Sorry. Inappropriate dinner talk.”
Aden shook his head, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. “Just so it’s clear, when they harass me long enough, I’ll cook in the nude. It’s not an every meal occurrence.”
“Noted,” I said, trying not to smile too wide. “Do you prepare every meal?”
He shook his head and shrugged at the same time. “Eh. Sometimes. I don’t get up early enough to do breakfast most days, so they have to fend for themselves there. I make their lunches about half the time, but that’s because I watch this woman on social media that prepares her daughters’ lunches in bento boxes and there’s just something fun about all the little compartments.”
“He writes us sweet notes too,” Rahael said, smiling at Aden.
Aden shrugged. “It’s nice to know someone was thinking about you when you’re in the middle of a hectic day.”
“It is,” Hadrian agreed. His smile was nothing but adoration for Aden.
It made Aden blush again as he looked back at me, a bit harassed. I grinned. “Where did you learn to cook?”
“Oh,” he said and looked at the table. I wasn’t sure why the question bothered him, but he looked like he didn’t want to talk about it. Before I could take the question back, he answered. “I’m actually self-taught.” His eyes flickered to mine. “When I got here, I was, uh, rough. I spent a lot of time online and stumbled across cooking shows. I think I spent months watching them and one day, decided to give it a try. Mostly it’s trial and error.”
I wasn’t sure why that bothered him, but I smiled at him all the same. “It’s delicious, Aden.”
His lips curled down, and I thought maybe it wasn’t the food so much as what started the conversation. He absently pulled hisshirt sleeve down to cover the palm of his hand and then dropped it under the table into his lap.
Deciding not to call attention to it, I turned back to the table. “You all met through The Harem Project?”
“Not at all,” Cobalt said. “We’re childhood friends, the six of us.” He gestured to all the supernaturals at the dinner table. “We were kind of on and off together all through our childhoods. Eventually, Hawthorn and Laz wandered away in separate directions and Hawthorn managed to get himself killed.” He gave Hawthorn a glare.
Hawthorn smirked and shrugged.
“Luckily, Lazarus happened to be close and shoved his ghostly soul back into his body. They kind of randomly stumbled into our path again and this time we didn’t let them go.” He grinned at them both. “But our sweet baby Aden came to us through The Harem Project. He matched nearly perfectly with all of us.”
Aden smiled into his plate as he continued to pick at his food.
“That’s unusual that you all met as children,” I said. “I’ve never run into a family like that.”
“Hadrian runs a tight ship as our almighty leader,” Aden said. “He wasn’t giving them a choice but to remain together.”
I could tell by the way he tried to hide his smile that the remark was intended to get a reaction. Hadrian’s dark eyes landed on Aden, but Aden continued to look at me. I held his gaze, attempting to fight my own smile from getting too big. In the corner of my eye, I could see others either covering their lips or stuffing food in their mouths to hide their laughter. Toby was nearly bouncing in his seat.
“Aden wants a spanking,” Toby loudly whispered.
“I don’t mind a spanking from time to time,” Aden said. He somehow kept his tone conversational and I think it was only because they were working on riling up Hadrian that he wasn’t blushing.
Hadrian sighed. “You two are as far away as you can possibly be at the dinner table, and still troublesome.”
“It’s important that Tatum sees us for real,” Toby said. “And we really like to make you spank us.”
Hadrian gave me a dry look. “They’re perfect pains in the ass.” I didn’t miss the way his lips twitched as he tried to contain his smile.
I laughed, sitting back in my seat and taking them all in. This family was divine perfection. Every last one of them. I loved their teasing and their bonds. The way they looked at each other, even when being the butt of the teasing or the one doing the teasing.
Aden took my plate when we were finished and stacked it on top of his.
“Do you clean up too?” I asked, raising a brow.
He laughed. “No. I make the mess. My husbands clean up after me.”
Lazarus took the dishes from in front of him. “He cooks for seven men every day. The least we can do is the clean-up.” He kissed the top of Aden’s head as everyone made quick work of clearing the table.
Aden turned a smile on me. “See? Kept man!”
