Page 180 of Dancing for the Minotaur

“Well…no. He didn’t. But that’s why he’s an ‘ex,” right? ” Terra tried to laugh, but there was real pain in her eyes.

It struck Taurex again how human men had truly failed her in so many ways. He couldn’t imagine treating a mate the way Terra’s ex had treated her. He wished with his whole heart that he could heal the wounds the other male had left. That he could shelter and protect her and provide for her and give her every desire of her heart.

Then Terra touched his forearm.

“Lemon raspberry,” she said softly. “That’s our cake.”

Marcia continued with the remaining samples anyway, though none displaced Taurex’s preference. By the end of the tasting Terra had eaten enough bites that she announced she never wanted to see sugar again.

Marcia began writing notes.

“So lemon cake with raspberry mousse and vanilla buttercream for both tiers?”

Terra nodded.

“Yes, that works.”

They discussed decorations after that, eventually settling on simple ivory frosting with fresh flowers rather than the elaborate sculpted designs Taurex found unnecessarily ornamental. Terra chose something understated and elegant, which did not surprise him at all—his fated mate had excellent taste.

What did surprise him was how easily he could imagine the finished cake standing at the edge of a room while Terra walked toward him in ceremonial clothing.

Again, he forced the image away. This was not real, he reminded himself. Later, Terra would call to cancel the cake—they were never going to really eat it at a Joining ceremony.

He needed to remember that.

44

TAUREX

Taurex did his best to remind himself that they were only planning for a fake Joining ceremony during their next appointment—which was at a florist’s shop. He told himself he needed to stop wishing everything was real and picturing what a ceremony with Terra would actually look like.

It helped that all the Earth flowers gathered in one place made him sneeze uncontrollably until he had to leave the shop.

After making sure he was all right, Terra ducked in by herself and made a few selections. She came back out in a moment holding a small bouquet of purple flowers.

“Here—lilac, it’s my favorite,” she told him. “But I won’t pick it if it makes you sneeze.”

Reluctantly, Taurex leaned down and took a cautious sniff of the long purple blooms that seemed to be made of many smaller flowers. To his relief, it didn’t make him sneeze.

“These are acceptable,” he said, nodding. “You may carry a whole bouquet of them in our fake Joining ceremony.”

Terra laughed and gave him a flirtatious look.

“Oh, good. I was afraid you couldn’t stand any Earth flowers at all, and my only other option would be to have a big bouquet of pleasure blooms. And we know what that can lead to.”

Taurex was instantly hard, and he couldn’t help wondering if she was teasing him on purpose or just making lighthearted banter.

“I…,er…” He cleared his throat.

She laughed again.

“Never mind. I’m going with the lilacs.”

She ducked back into the shop and Taurex sternly told his erection to go down because none of this was real.

But if that was true, why did it feel so real between them? So right? Did Terra feel it too? Did he dare reveal his heart to her a second time?

Taurex didn’t know and before he could come to any kind of decision she was back out of the shop and they were headed home while Terra talked about their next appointment, which was going to be sometime next week, where she would get to choose her dress.