Little Bite of Bliss (Creature Cafe #18)

The Barista

I took Lucy’s cock all the way to the back of my throat right as I heard the most irritating sound in the entire world.

The sound of the front door to our house creaking open and slamming shut.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Trixie's head whipped up and she muttered a curse. Currently, she was straddling Lucy’s face, her cheeks scarlet, and now her brows were drawn together in a scowl. “I swear to the gods, no one was supposed to be dropping by.”

I pulled my mouth off Lucy’s cock with a growl. “I’m absolutely certain we made sure we had time—”

“Papa?”

The three of us groaned and I covered my eyes for a moment. That was definitely Bell’s voice.

“Am I allowed to smite our children?” Lucy asked.

“No,” Trixie hissed, slapping his chest playfully. Her gaze narrowed on me, and she didn’t even have to say anything. I was already getting up.

“You know, every day I’m fucking grateful we have magical wards around our bedroom,” I grumbled.

Trixie slid off Lucy’s face and they both looked at me. Well, they looked at my cock.

The corner of her mouth tugged. “What are you gonna do about that, huh?”

“Fuck you with it when I return.”

I heard a knock on our bedroom door and now all three of us felt like we were about to faint.

“Do not come in here!” I called.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. There’s a monster that needs you,” Bell said through the door.

Lucy scoffed. “Well, send them away!”

“I’ve tried. She’s rather demanding.”

“Tell her to come back another time,” Trixie said, activating the Mom voice that often put everyone in line.

We all heard Bell’s sigh. “Listen, I’m telling you, I tried. The sphinx is insistent. Do you think I would be knocking on your bedroom door otherwise? I know what you do back here.”

I already knew the sphinx he was talking about and I had a feeling the insistence was Bell being weak to her charms, but . . . Understandable.

Still, all of us glared at the door. “I don’t like your tone,” Lucy yelled.

“I don’t like anything about this,” Bell rebutted. “It smells like sex in the house. My parents are sl . . .”

His voice was muffled, but I swore I heard him say sluts.

Lucy hissed and started to get up but I held up my hand. “Nope. I got this.”

I pulled on my jeans, tucked my cock against my waistband, snapped my fingers, and appeared on the other side of the door. Bell immediately stepped back, his eyes going wide.

“First of all, if you’re calling your parents sluts, I hope you certainly do not mean anyone other than your father,” I said seriously.

“Hey!” Lucy quipped, his voice muffled.

Bell groaned and covered his eyes. “Okay. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.

Also sorry for myself that I interrupted whatever hellish things are happening in there.

” He crossed his arms, a grimace creasing his forehead.

“I do not want to be here right now but the sphinx is very demanding, and I am but a man. I cannot tell a lady in need no.”

“You are absolutely ridiculous,” I sighed. “Did you bring her here?”

“Yeah. Again, she was insistent.” He hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “She’s on the porch. I’m going to leave now and wash my eyeballs with acid.”

“Yes, go, be gone,” I grumbled. “And pick up your siblings from school as repayment.”

Bell laughed as he headed toward the living room. “Sure. How about I take them to get something sweet and drop them off at the height of their sugar high?”

“Demon,” I mumbled, but I smiled to myself as I followed him toward the porch. “Uh, by the way, have you talked to Layla?”

Bell paused mid-step and turned to look at me. “Yes. She hasn’t been matching monsters by the way. I think those two phantoms lied to get you to match them.”

Even if they did, they’d been aware of another grim reaper. All the protections I’d been setting up around my family were slowly eroding right before my eyes.

I swallowed hard. “That’s good. Is she . . . ?”

“She’s okay,” Bell said with a shrug. “Still mad at you, of course. I think everyone is though.”

Yes. Many were. Luna, Al, Quinn, Naomi. Even Jasper, the friendliest orc in existence, had given me a fucking earful. I hated it.

Trixie and Lucy had been furious with me for multiple reasons, and I’d spent the last few months doing everything I could to make up for it.

Trixie was the first to come around when I explained everything, and for once, I didn’t hold back.

I didn’t shield her from my worries or the fears I had about the dark parts of my world trying to drag our children to its depths.

Lucy had taken a little longer to forgive me. Severing the fated mate bond between Layla and Death had brought up a lot of hurt from the past. We’d talked through it, though, and he forgave me. Truthfully, I did not deserve either of them.

The three of us were a team. Trixie and Lucy were everything to me and I was grateful they didn’t resent me. I wasn’t sure what I would do without them in my life. Love didn’t even feel like a strong enough word to describe how I felt about them.

What we had decided was that regardless of if our youngest child really was some sort of all-powerful being, she was still our daughter.

We would protect her. And if her soul had chosen to leave another realm, there was a reason for it.

Not to mention, reincarnation was complicated.

This version of her was her. Death could not simply take her back—and he had to know that wasn’t how any of this worked.

If anything, I did not think he was really here for Tana.

My theory was that Layla had drawn him to our realm, but Tana’s rogue soul was an easy excuse for his reasoning.

That there had even been a connection between Death and Layla was something unheard of.

None of the elder creatures had mates. Their roles within the world prohibited them from that sort of connection.

As long as I had lived, I’d never seen anything like it.

Bell pressed his lips together. “You should know that Layla still wants to find Death. She has been attempting to do so . . . I do not think she will give up. You know how she is.”

Stubborn to a fault at times—wonder where she got that from?

“Has she mentioned that she might forgive me?”

Bell laughed and he reached for the door. “I’m not getting in the middle of all of this. I love you, Papa. And I love my sister. You guys gotta work this out.”

“Fair enough. One more nosy question. How is Luca doing?”

“Well. Last I checked, he wants to go to Hell. But you guys aren’t letting him.” Bell opened the door and gave me a sharp look. “At some point, you have to stop interfering with our fates.”

My chest ached. “It’s difficult not to want to protect all of you.”

“I know. But you raised us well. Layla, Luca, and I aren’t kids anymore. Personally, I think they both should have taken off like I did. It was good for me to get away from the comfort of home.”

I swallowed hard. Bell leaving the way he did had been difficult, and for the first two months, I’d had him tracked by a vampire friend to make sure he remained safe. Was it overbearing? Yes. But our children were the most important thing in the world to myself, Lucy, and Trixie.

“Is that why you left?” I asked. “To get away?”

He shook his head. “Not particularly. I just knew I needed to fly the nest. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cafe. I love our family. I like helping where I can. But I should live my life how I want it. Layla and Luca deserve the same, even if it means they go in a direction you don’t like.”

Bell stepped outside. I took a moment to steady myself, then followed after him. I still had a damn creature to deal with.

Leaning against the railing and waiting impatiently was the sphinx I knew as Eleni. Tan wings were tucked against her back, her silky black hair falling to her collarbone. A fur-tipped tail swished back and forth with irritation. Her diamond pupils were sharp in the sunlight.

“Barista,” she greeted. Her gaze slid over to Bell and she smirked as his spine straightened. “I could take this one, you know. He’s handsome.”

I scowled at her. “He’s not yours.”

“Uh, I’m gonna go,” Bell said nervously.

He waved his hand and headed toward his car. I waited until he pulled out of the driveway before speaking again.

“You interrupted me,” I said. “I was busy with my mates. And you forced one of my children to bring you to my home.”

“And? I want my mate. It’s my turn.”

“And how would you know that?”

Eleni laughed, like a cat playing with its prey. “I simply know. As many sphinx do. So, will you help me?”

“I guess.” I rubbed my face with an irritated sigh. “But we should make it quick—I am busy. And I should warn you, those I match could be in danger.”

“From Death?” she asked.

I frowned. “How do you know about him?”

Eleni shrugged her shoulders. “Once again. I know things. Besides, you’ve been making waves. You and your little family, drawing a lot of attention. But I’m not worried about the entity. Death has always been fair, unless provoked.”

Did cutting his fated mate bond count as provoking? Without a doubt.

The good news was, in Eleni’s case, I already knew who her mate was.

I didn’t have to do any research or hunt them down.

He was Dante and Peter’s son. But there was a complication there, and I was sure Eleni wouldn’t like it.

Was it my business to tell her about it?

To tell her that Archer had fallen for someone years ago and had attempted to make a mating bite with them, only for all of that to go terribly wrong?

Wrong enough I’d been forced to interfere?

Archer and Dante still had such a strained relationship.

It didn’t matter how much Peter or Inferna had tried to talk it out with them, the tension was impossible to diffuse.

Dante had softened over the years, but he could still be difficult.

Regardless of how much he loved Archer, it didn’t change that the way he’d reacted to that situation had damaged Archer’s confidence in fate.

Was I any different in how much I’d fucked up?

I hastily pushed that thought away.

The real trick was going to be convincing Archer to show up for the date.

“I don’t like the look on your face, Barista.”

“It’s nothing,” I dismissed. “I know who your mate is. I will set things up.”

“Good. When should I be at the cafe?”

“Friday,” I said. “First dates always seem to go well on Fridays.”

“Maybe I can steal them away for the weekend . . .”

“That does often happen.” I paused, considering giving her a warning to be gentle with Archer. But he would be fine. Probably. Hopefully. “Be there at nine. And try not to seduce anyone else at the cafe or use your damn pheromones to drive anyone mad.”

Eleni smirked. “No promises. I’ll be at the cafe on Friday.”

“Great. Get off my porch and out of my sight.”

She bared her fangs at me but was already leaving. Her wings spread behind her and she took off into the air. A gust of wind whipped through my hair. The moment she was out of sight, I shook my head and stalked back inside to my mates.

I stepped through the bedroom door and smiled. Lucy and Trixie were both waiting patiently for me.

“Everything is resolved,” I said. “I guess I am matching monsters and humans again. It worries me.”

“Well, I don’t think Death will harm them,” Lucy sighed. “He has no ill will toward the living. He kept Oli and Steel safe.”

Lucy had a good point.

Trixie’s eyes softened and she patted the bed between them. “Come here. I want you.”

“And you’ll have anything you want, angel.”