Hunting Ember (Pride of Alphas #1) - Milly Taiden Page 0,15

cupcakes.”

“Triple chocolate?” he asked, drooling nearly half as much for the promise of pastries as he did for his mate.

Ember rolled her eyes. “That is all you heard, isn’t it? Just the chocolate bit?”

“You said triple chocolate,” he corrected. “And that is pretty much all I care about. I have a sweet tooth,” he admitted.

She’s sweet as hell, so devour her. Can’t you smell that? We could put chocolate icing on her for a real treat.

His lion wasn’t wrong. It wasn’t the smell of the baking that was making his mouth water and his cock strain against his pants.

It was the scent of Ember’s desire.

She was just as amped up as he was. His mate wanted him.

“I have a sweet tooth, too. I can’t help myself.” Ember shrugged. “I’ll dirty a second spoon or spatula by accident just to have something else to lick.”

He gulped audibly as she spoke the words. He would give her something to lick and not a spatula.

Ember must have caught the shift in his demeanor because she gave him a shy smile. “I like licking the icing clean off. Can’t waste all that goodness.” Her blush deepened. “I’m trying hard to not make it sound like an innuendo, but whatever I say is making it worse.”

She was right. It was making it worse. It was also making his dick harder than it had a right to be.

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t. “I didn’t notice.” He had. He cleared his throat. “So, what is the first step in these chocolate cupcakes?”

“Triple chocolate,” she corrected with a wink.

Ember took a sifter and a container labeled flour. She showed him how to sift the flour through it, gently and without a rush. She even explained the step that seemed so unnecessary.

“It makes all of the difference,” she assured him. “It makes the cakes fluffier and lighter.”

“Good to know.”

Once all of the dry and wet ingredients were mixed and then combined, Ember helped him line the muffin pans with parchment cups. She gave him a trick to scoop the batter into the cups: an ice cream scooper. It was as simple as it was genius.

“The only issue with this batter is that it’s quite dense.”

“Especially with all of those chocolate chunks,” he said, his mouth salivating at the thought of all that melted chocolate.

Ember showed him how to center up the pan in the oven to ensure each cupcake was baked at the same heat level. While they were baking, making insanely delicious smells waft through the studio, she taught him to make the chocolate buttercream icing. She demonstrated how to pour ingredients, her hands going to his to adjust his movements whenever necessary.

Kai wouldn’t admit it to anyone who asked, but he was purposefully messing up so that Ember had to touch him. He never wanted the baking lesson to end. Even if it meant that he wouldn’t get to eat the baking cupcakes.

“Now that the icing is done, all we have to do is wait for these babies to cool.” Ember popped each cupcake out from the pan and onto a cooling rack. “It won’t take very long. Just thirty minutes or so. Then I’ll show you how to pipe the icing on using one of these.” She held up a clear bag that was crowned with a plastic tube holding up a metal tip. “I like making the cupcakes look like roses, but there are about a million different ways to pipe on icing. Really, all you need is practice and a steady hand.”

“So, what do we do while the cupcakes cool?” he asked, leaning against the counter.

“We clean,” she answered with a smile. “Do you prefer washing or drying the dishes?”

“Chef’s preference,” he said, echoing her smile.

God, it was so easy to spend time with her. It wasn’t a date, but Kai sure would have liked for it to have been one. Ember was sweet and kind. She was funny and beautiful. She was all kinds of things that made him want to flat out tell her that she was his mate.

That wouldn’t be right.

It was too soon. She didn’t know him, and he doubted she even knew what shifters were.

“You look deep in thought,” Ember pointed out as she dried one of the many measuring cups they had used. “I hope you’re not plotting a way to put those delectable treats in a freezer somewhere.”

He chuckled, shaking his head as he ran a bowl under hot water. “No, I have learned my lesson. I was