Page 10 of Fated Mates and How to Seduce Them (Fated Mates #4)

André tried very hard to not tease Ian on the drive to the mall.

Very hard. He mostly managed it? Which was honestly a miracle.

He blamed Ian’s initial reaction. When he’d kissed the man’s hand, he’d caught a whiff—just a hint—of arousal, which had been thrilling.

He loved knowing he had an effect on Ian.

But his arousal had come with a conflicted expression.

André didn’t know what held the man back, but he had some concrete-thick walls up around him.

André wasn’t sure if it was his own reputation, or something else?

Ian’s orientation was a complete mystery to him, but the man reacted to André, so he had to be something not straight, right? Right?

It slowly killed him, not knowing all of this. He had to draw on wells of patience he didn’t know he had. One way or another, though, he would figure Ian out.

They arrived at the mall’s entrance, André beaming from ear to ear. He had a list of shopping to do, an Ian, and kids to spoil. This day couldn’t be going better. He spied two familiar faces waiting just inside and gave them a wave.

“Liam, Mateo, hi! Thanks for coming. We need help with this.”

Both men were humans employed by his family, as well as earnest men and good workers, which was why André had asked for them in particular.

“Master André, we’re happy to help. Secretary Kim filled us in on why we’re here.

” Mateo was a former marine let go because of a torn ACL, but he was still strong as an ox.

With his shaved head and tattoos wrapping around his neck, most people gave him a wide berth, but André had always found him to be a gentle giant.

Liam was as slender as Mateo was wide, a careful sort of man with three children of his own. André was quite happy to see him because he would need his parental experience here shortly.

“Liam, Mateo, this is Ian. He’s a volunteer with the group home. He’s offered to help buy what we need because he knows the kids so much better than I do.”

Ian looked at him sideways, eyes plainly saying he was there for an entirely different reason, and André knew it.

André feigned ignorance.

Everyone gave each other a hello. André led the charge, so to speak, starting on the second story. He wanted to begin with bedding, as it would take up the most room and would take the longest to move down to the vans.

The biggest bedding section was immediately to the right of the escalator on the first floor, which was just perfect for their purposes.

André went right in, looking at the notepad as he moved.

All right, so he had three kiddos who wanted dinosaurs, two unicorns, several Marvel fans, a few Star Wars fans, and some who just listed a color, not caring about the print. Well, that would be easy enough.

First, though, sheets.

All the beds at the group home were twin sized, so he looked for those sizes first.

“André!” Ian protested, the word strangled.

“What?” André looked down at him, feeling genuinely alarmed.

“You’re not buying Egyptian cotton sheets for kids!”

Oh, that was the objection. “But if they’re high quality, they’ll last longer. Right?”

Ian’s jaw firmed, and he did not look moved by this argument. “You are not spending almost sixty dollars for a single set of sheets. No.”

“All right, fine. How about satin?”

Ian groaned in despair.

“What? Satin is half the price, so it should be fine, right?”

Ian closed his eyes, visibly praying for patience, which was just rude. André had tried to compromise, hadn’t he?

“André. There are polyester sheets right there—”

André staggered sideways, dramatically fetching up against the display wall. “Sacrilege!”

“Will you be serious?”

“No, I am. Do you know how itchy those are? And they start pilling up after, like, three washes. I learned this at summer camp. No. I won’t buy those. I refuse. My mother will somehow teleport here to grab me by the ear if I even try. Material matters. I stand firm. Or microfiber?”

Ian seemed to realize this was the best compromise he was going to get because he let his head flop forward before growling, “Fine. I’m so glad I’m shopping with you right now. You really would have spent thousands in this store without blinking.”

And here André was, thinking he’d have to come back and buy things without Ian interfering. He liked the company, no question there, but Ian was far more stingy than André.

Ian did insist on shopping the sale rack first, which was fine; André had no problem doing so as long as they bought decent quality.

They managed, between the two of them, to find something everyone would like plus extras.

In under thirty minutes, too, which was impressive.

André paid out and then handed everything over to Liam and Mateo.

Right. Bedding sorted. Clothes next.

A few stores down, André spotted a children’s clothing store with adorable outfits in the display window, so he went for it first. Two friendly looking young women manned the counter as he stepped inside, and he could tell they liked the look of him.

Oh good. He could use their help.

Armed with a smile that never failed him, André went straight for them. “Ladies, I’m on a mission. Can I enlist your capable help?”

The petite one blushed a little as she pushed her glasses up. “Of course, sir. How can we help you?”

“I’m shopping for a lot of kids.” André gently freed the notepad from Ian’s hands to show them both the list. “I want to buy five outfits a piece in each of these sizes—”

Ian made a strangled noise next to him.

“—and in these colors, if the kids specified a color they liked. Think you can help me?”

“Absolutely,” the other woman said decisively. “Here, follow me.”

Ian grabbed his arm before he could move, whispering harshly, “No one said anything about five complete outfits for each child!”

“Well, their clothes are shot,” André responded reasonably. “I’d replace the whole wardrobe—”

Ian shook his head rapidly in denial.

“—but we don’t have room in both vans. I can get them sorted later. This trip is just to tide them over.”

Ian stared up at him, eyes wide with disbelief, for a full five seconds. “André. Just for my knowledge, do you have any other speeds besides dead stop and full steam ahead?”

Funny, he’d been asked this before. “Uh…no. Come to think of it.”

Ian rubbed the bridge of his nose, muttering something about paying better attention to the warning signs.

He might have been praying for strength, too, but André could tell him his concern was a lost cause.

André’s parents had been muttering similar sentiments since he was three years old to no noticeable effect.

Anyway, no one could argue the kids needed clothes. André went to where the women patiently waited for him in the little girl’s section, looking over the selection she’d already pulled, the other employee steadily pulling more items from the little boy’s section.

“You’ve got a great eye,” he complimented her. The three outfits she’d coordinated were cute and right in line with what he should buy. “I love all of them. Those, definitely, and what else can we pull? Oh, I like the look of that red shirt there. What sizes does this come in?”

Both women dove into the job, and while Ian might be trying to rein him in, he stayed right there in step with André the whole way. He kept the reclaimed list in his hand, marking things down to make sure the right clothes went to the right child later.

They couldn’t buy all of the clothes for the kids in this one shop because they only went up to pre-teen sizes. Still, they made a sizable dent in the store’s inventory before André called it good.

Liam caught up with him as he was checking out. He greeted the man with a wave. “Liam, how full is the van?”

“About two-thirds. We packed it tightly.”

“Good. Here’s the first batch of clothes. These lovely ladies are still packing them up, but carry them as you can. We still have more to go. I think we’ll hit the big department store next, for the older ones.”

“Yes, sir.”

He repeated the same routine with the department store clerks.

It worked perfectly, as it always did. André knew some people didn’t like shopping with a salesclerk helping them, but André did.

They knew the inventory far better than he did, after all, so it was easier to tell them what he was looking for than to hunt for it himself.

Besides, today, especially, he didn’t have all the time in the world to shop.

He wanted to be back at the group home by dinner so he could hand everything out.

Shopping with Ian felt nice and domestic.

Also enlightening. He learned oodles about Ian just from shopping.

Seeing what the man gravitated to and what he was willing to spend told him a lot about Ian’s upbringing and values.

It also told him to steer clear of anything brand name.

He was fairly sure if he tried to buy something with a designer label on it, Ian would have a heart attack on the spot.

Finally, though, the clothes shopping and shoes were all bought. Now for the fun shopping.

André dove right into the first toy shop with a cackle of glee.

Ian snagged him by the arm, once again trying to rein him in. “One toy each, André. One .”

André gave him a pitiful frown, lower lip pushed out and faux trembling. “But I promised the kids three.”

Ian stared up at him suspiciously, voice sounding defeated. “You did?”

“I did.” André’s frown flipped into a smile, knowing he’d won this round.

“Dammit. Fine. I won’t disappoint them.”

See? He couldn’t argue. André knew it had been smart to tell the kids beforehand. The adults couldn’t stop him that way.

Now, back to fun things.

There were some items not on the list that were just a given to André. Like soccer balls. Everyone liked to play soccer, and it would entertain multiple kids at once. He put those items immediately into the buggy.