Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Duncan
I never wanted to leave Clay’s hot tub room.
It was probably my favorite room in the entire house.
Well, that was actually probably the bedroom.
But the hot tub room was definitely my second favorite.
After getting another toe-curling blow job and giving my first ever one, we soaked in the hot tub for enough time that our fingers started to prune.
That meant it was definitely time to get out.
A quick shower after and we were curled up on the couch, staring out the back windows.
“We should get the rest of our clothes outside,” I said.
“Possibly. But I figured we might shift again later and then we’d just bring in all of the clothes at once,” Clay said.
I looked up at my mate. “Can we? I had so much fun earlier.”
“We absolutely can.”
We were both wearing shorts and nothing else.
At some point we would need to get dressed though because I knew we had more errands to run.
“Where else did we need to go today?” I asked.
I stretched out my legs and crossed them at the ankles.
Clay was sitting at one end of the couch and I was leaning up against his chest.
“That really depends on you,” Clay said.
I looked up at him again. “How so? We’re in this little bubble here, and out there it’s all kinds of things we have to do and it’s not nearly as much fun,” I said. “I know we have to go back to work, and we have to do all of the adulting things, but is it wrong to not want to?”
“Adulting is something we can’t get away from,” Clay said.
“But there are certain things that can make it more enjoyable.” Clay patted my arm and gave me a gentle push.
I took the hint and sat up. I didn’t want to because I was incredibly comfortable where I was, but if he wanted up, well, that meant I had to get up first.
I sat up, but he didn’t let me get far. “That thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Clay said.
“Yeah. You mentioned it was probably best if we talked about it here. Is something wrong? Did I do something?” I couldn’t think of what that could possibly be.
“It is. I know that things have changed a lot in the last few days. But I wanted to ask you about marriage. Was that something you think you could want? With me? Obviously with me since we’re mated. But I wanted to ask if that was something you would be interested in.”
I blinked at Clay several times, not really knowing what to say to him. “Are you asking me to marry you?” I finally managed to say.
“No,” Clay said. “Don’t take that the wrong way because I absolutely will marry you. I wanted to know if that’s something you wanted. In the future.”
I shrugged after a moment. “I never really thought I’d even have a mate, to be honest. I mean, I’d always hoped to find someone someday, even if it wasn’t my fated mate. But that’s what we are. We don’t have to get married.”
“But what if I wanted to? What if I wanted you to have my last name? For you to be my husband as well as my mate? For you to be the daddy to our children? For them to shout to you that Dad’s home.
To introduce you to everyone as my husband and mate.
Would that be something you’d be interested in?
Silver and Charlie are waiting to get married because Charlie doesn’t want to be immensely pregnant in his wedding pictures. ”
I smiled. “I mean, I wouldn’t say no if you were to ask me to marry you. I’m not against marriage or anything like that.”
Clay’s smile was beaming. “Awesome.” He jumped up and then reached for me. I laughed as he pulled me to my feet.
“What are you doing?”
“Going shopping. Then we’ll pick up something for supper, and then come back and have the rest of the evening in.”
I let Clay lead me to the bedroom where he stopped in front of the dresser that my clothes were now in. “Do you not cook?” I asked. It seemed like we were eating out a lot.”
“I do. I meal prep on the weekends, and I do throw things in the oven or slow cooker most days. But with everything being new for us, I’ve been off of my normal schedule.
” Clay pulled me into his arms and kissed me quickly.
“I’d like to treat you too. I happen to know that you love certain places and we could maybe get some pies from The Pizza Lab? I know it’s your favorite.”
I stared at Clay with wide eyes. I knew he knew it was my favorite because he had seen all of my memories and things like that. But The Pizza Lab was way out of my price range.
“I’m not going to say no to pizza. But we can get it from a cheaper place.” I did love a good veggie pizza. And The Pizza Lab had some amazing specialty pizzas. “We could go back to the diner,” I suggested. “The menu there is amazing and there are so many more things I want to try.”
Clay chuckled. “If you would prefer the diner, we can certainly do that. I was thinking to treat you though.”
I nodded. “Yes, but any time I don’t have to cook myself, it’s a treat for me.
If you cook for me, and it involves more than maybe three or four ingredients, it’s a treat.
I love to cook, but sharing a kitchen with three others, I’ve always had to make sure things were super simple because I just couldn’t afford to feed three other grown men. ”
“I’m not a fan of your roommates,” Clay said. “And I’ll cook for you later this week, and you are more than welcome to cook anything you want here at any point. Except for Sundays. On Sundays we almost always go somewhere else and have a family dinner.”
“Every Sunday?” I usually worked Sundays.
“Yeah.” Clay handed me a pair of jeans. I took them, and after pushing down my shorts, I pulled the jeans on.
“I usually work Sundays,” I said as I tucked things and buttoned the jeans.
“Saturdays too.” I looked up at Clay. “Actually, I work most evenings. That’s how the schedule works.
The restaurant doesn’t open until ten thirty and closes at eight at the latest. I usually work the majority of the shift. ”
Clay seemed to be irritated by that. Not only did his face say so, but I could actually feel the irritation through our bond.
“Would you be willing to quit?” he asked. “Or…if not, possibly come to Silverback and work in the office? I know it’s a lot of changes and even more to ask of you, but I want to be able to spend time with you. I would like to be able to strengthen what we have together.”
I blinked up at Clay again. “You want me to quit my job?” That thought terrified me. I liked the idea of not having to work while having a young baby, but to completely quit?
“Ideally, yes. But we could use another assistant at the office. Especially since we’re expanding. Silver is pulling back now that Charlie is pregnant with twins. I’ll probably work fewer hours, but I don’t plan on cutting back quite as much as Silver. But we could certainly use another assistant.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how to be an office assistant.
I’ve never done anything except work in a kitchen.
I started as a dishwasher. I quickly moved to waiting tables.
That’s it. That’s all I’ve done.” It sucked, and at times I’d actually made good money.
It was how I’d saved up and bought my car.
It was how I’d been able to afford my first apartment.
But I knew absolutely nothing about working in an office.
Clay handed me a shirt, and I pulled it on.
I looked down and saw it was a solid gray polo.
“Are we going somewhere that requires a collar?”
“Not necessarily.” Clay smiled and pulled me close. “I was thinking that perhaps we could go to the jewelry store and look at rings? The chances of them having something we like in our sizes are probably slim, so they would need to be sized. You said you weren’t against marriage.”
This guy was serious.
“Yes. I’m serious. I want to marry you. I want all of the things with you.”
I smiled. “Maybe I should meet the rest of your family first. I mean, I’ve not even met your siblings except for Silver.
And your parents. What if they don’t like me?
” I knew that wasn’t going to be the case.
Clay had warned me about his mother. His father seemed cool, but his mom was going to be all over me.
Especially when she realized she would get more grandchildren from me and Clay.
“We can certainly work on that. In three more days, we’re supposed to be meeting at Mica’s this week. He lives just down the street, and you can meet everyone then.”
I nodded. I wanted to meet his family. Charlie had said how nice they all were, which was reassuring.
“I’d like to meet them,” I told Clay. “And I wouldn’t mind looking at rings.
Mine won’t shift with me though. It won’t make you upset if I have to take it off to shift, will it?
It’ll be too big for me in my panda form. ”
Clay leaned down and kissed me. “Not at all. I’ll have to take mine off as well. My fingers in my shifted form are much larger. But I don’t foresee either of us shifting in a hurry, so it shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. There were so many changes, but we were already mated.
It wasn’t like he could take that back. We were stuck with one another.
Not that it seemed like it was going to be a hardship to be with Clay.
The man was amazing. He was so sweet and attentive and I loved that he wanted to do all the things with me.
I’d not expected that. “Then yes. Let’s go ring shopping.
” I looked down at my finger. “Probably something on the plainer side. I’m not a very flashy person. Okay?”
Clay’s smile was back again. I didn’t know if he often smiled or not, but he definitely did that a lot around me.