When he hung up he turned back to her and his lips moved toward hers. She gave a soft sigh until she heard Cade bellow up the stairs that dinner was ready.

Lex cursed under his breath and sighed.

“Let’s ignore him,” Nina murmured and pulled him back toward her.

He extricated himself from her. “As much as I’d like that, he’ll never quit. He’s an alpha, used to being obeyed. It’s damned annoying sometimes but that’s the way things go. He’s mellow, but when he’s spent hours cooking he’ll be pouty if we don’t go down there and ooh and aah over everything.”

“God, you two are girls,” she mumbled and got up. Failing to find her panties she put her jeans back on without them.

“You’re awfully mouthy for such a beautiful woman,” he said, catching her at the door and pulling her into an embrace.

“Yeah? Too late to complain, you bought the cow, even though I’d have let you milk me at least five more times.”

He laughed and swatted her bottom as they walked out into the hallway. “You’re going to keep my life interesting, I think.”

* * * * *

Cade was putting the opened bottle of wine on the table when they walked into the room. He spun, nostrils flaring, and rushed over and pulled them both into an embrace. “Congratulations!” He kissed Nina’s cheek. Lex growled at him and Cade gave him a raised brow and a smirk as he whisked Nina to the table.

“I’d better call them before we get started. If mom finds out we had dinner before I told her you’d claimed your mate she’ll never let any of us hear the end of it,” Cade said and grabbed the phone.

Nina snorted and grabbed a piece of garlic bread. Lex poured her a glass of wine and then one for himself and Cade.

The conversation was short and he returned to the table.

“Well?” Lex asked, a fork at the ready to spear a steak.

“They’re on their way over. Let’s go ahead and eat, it’ll take them a while to get here.”

“You know, maybe I’ll just shower and change,” Nina said, getting up.

“No. Nina, you need to eat. You’ve had a really rough few days,” Lex said, putting his hand on her arm to stay her.

“Lex, I am not meeting your family in jeans and no makeup. God. I’ll be back down in a few minutes.” She narrowed her eyes at his hand and he removed it with a sigh. She caught Cade’s pout and snorted. “Look, blossom, I’ll be back in a few minutes, don’t cry.”

Lex gave a surprised bark of laughter and Cade sputtered as she jogged out of the room and headed upstairs.

Rifling through the clothes she’d bought earlier, she decided on a pale peach-colored pair of clam diggers and the cream tank that went with them. She took a quick shower, put her hair back in a long braid and dashed on some makeup. She examined the results in the mirror and shrugged, that was as good as she could get on short notice. She shook her head. She was meeting her boyfriend’s, no, husband’s family in a bit and she had no idea what they’d think of her. In the past, parents had never been overly thrilled with her. The class thing had been an issue and the race thing too. Sometimes blonde mothers were not happy to see their sons bring home a Latina. And when Gabriel got into trouble all the time, that was another factor.

She hadn’t met anyone’s parents in at least seven years though, so maybe it would be different. She was a business owner and used to be a homeowner. Respectable. She snorted at herself in the mirror and headed downstairs.

“Finally,” Cade mumbled and went into the kitchen, bringing back a tray of food he’d been keeping warm for her in the oven.

“You look beautiful, Nina. But it’s not necessary to dress up. My family is going to love you.” Lex kissed her hand.

She snorted and began to eat, despite her nervous stomach. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was starving. The last thing she wanted to do was faint when she met his parents.

“This is delicious, Cade,” she said, meaning every word.

He smiled proudly. “Thanks. The marinade is something I’ve developed over the last ten years. I’m going to sell it to some of the smaller gourmet food shops in Seattle and Bellevue later this year.”

She finished the delicious steak and veggies and limited herself to one glass of wine. Lex cleared the plates and refused to let her help so she sat with Cade in the large living room and looked out the wall of windows toward the city.

“Wow, you can see Bellevue and Seattle too.”

“Welcome to our family, Nina. Truly,” Cade said as he took her hand and sat next to her on the couch. “Lex deserves someone like you. You’re strong, you’ll stand up to him and anchor him too.”

She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “Thank you, Cade. I don’t quite know what to say other than that. I don’t even know what to think about all of this.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I can imagine it’s a bit overwhelming just now. And there’s some more stuff that we need to talk about…”

“Not now, Cade,” Lex said shortly as he came into the room and sat down on Nina’s other side.

Cade sighed and got up to look out the windows. “It’s too late anyway. Their cars are coming up the road.”

“Too late for what?”

“We’ll talk about it all later,” Lex said, cutting off any further discussion.

“Cars? Plural? How many of them are there?” Nina’s heart began to pound.