Page 36 of Horn in My Side

JASMINE

“So,” Jasmine asked, “was dinner okay?”

“Okay?” Mal’s voice pitched higher. “You’re kidding, right? It was phenomenal.” His hands waved at the empty dishes and bowls in front of them. “How did you even get a recipe for kuj’ata stew? Or buy kuj’ata meat in the first place?”

She flashed him a mysterious smile. “I have my ways.”

Jasmine had begun to scheme their second date even before their first one ended.

While she certainly couldn’t afford to take him to Blackbyrd or another fancy restaurant, she could whip up a meal that would knock his socks off.

After all, her lola always said a way to a man’s heart was through his stomach.

In this case, she wasn’t trying to get into Mal’s hearts, but into his pants.

Her grandmother would roll over in her grave if she found out how Jasmine was using those cooking skills she’d passed on.

Initially, she’d planned to prepare one of her specialties—either lasagna or caldereta, Filipino beef stew cooked for twelve hours.

However, she had to step up her game if she wanted to beat Chef Lucien’s cooking.

After a whole day of research, she found a recipe for a traditional orc dish, kuj’ata stew.

It was actually similar to her beef stew, so she scoured the internet and found the ingredients from a specialty website, then paid extra for express shipping.

When Friday rolled round, she told Mal before she left the shop that she would be picking him up at his door at seven o’clock.

She arrived promptly, shopping bags in tow, and proclaimed that she was making him dinner at home.

Leaning back in his chair now, he patted his stomach. “Don’t tell my mother, but I think it’s better than hers.”

“Thank you.” All the effort had been worth it, especially hearing Mal’s words of praise as well as his satisfied groans throughout the meal. “And no, I won’t tell her. If she’s anything like my lola she probably wouldn’t speak to you for days.”

“Definitely. Thank you, Jasmine.” His purple eyes shone with warmth. “This . . . this was special. It’s nice to have a bit of home when you’re far away.”

“I know what you mean.” As she cooked for him, she had told him stories of her grandmother. It had been good for her too, reliving all those memories. “So, are you ready for dessert?”

“There’s dessert too?” His face lit up.

“Of course. There’s always room for dessert. It’s not an orc recipe, though. I couldn’t find any online.”

“Yeah, orcs aren’t into sweets. We eat fruits and berries, maybe the occasional honeycomb snack.”

“But you’re an exception, right?” she teased. “You did demand a whole dessert for yourself last week. You have a sweet tooth, don’t you?”

“Guilty as charged.” He licked his lips. “What did you make?”

“It’s one of my favorite recipes my grandmother passed down to me. Coconut and corn pudding, or maja blanca. Why don’t we have it in the living room? You go on ahead. I’ll bring it over.”

“All right.”

Jasmine took the metal pan she had stashed in Mal’s fridge when she arrived and then cut the contents into squares. Once plated, she garnished the maja blanca with coconut curds she’d made herself.

Holding the two plates up, she sauntered into the living room, walked over to him, then leaned down to hand him his plate. “Here you go.”

She didn’t miss the way his eyes briefly dipped down to her cleavage.

In fact, she’d been watching him all night as he watched her.

She’d deliberately worn her sexiest and shortest dress with a deep V-neck that would show off her breasts and her legs.

While he thought she wouldn’t notice, she definitely saw him ogling them that morning they were setting up for the Founding Day Festival.

“Th-thanks.” His eyes scooted respectfully above her neck. “This looks delicious.”

And so do you .

When he asked what to wear, she told him to dress more casually. So tonight he wore a pair of jeans and a tight black polo shirt that showed off his muscled arms. He looked so good that the moment he opened the door she almost dropped her bags of ingredients and jumped him right there.

Stupid three-date rule.

Jasmine had already decided that, while she wasn’t going to break their agreement, perhaps she could bend it just a little.

While waiting was a good idea, she was going to honest-to-goodness expire if she didn’t get something tonight.

Besides, next week was date number three and she just wanted a little preview of things to come.

After all, she might need a little extra mental preparation—and several rounds of prayers and offerings to her ancestor spirits—to be able to take on what Mal was packing between his legs.

“Oh.” She bounced on top of the couch, knowing it would make her breasts jiggle. “You changed the sectional?”

“Uh”—he swallowed audibly—“yeah, it was pretty worn out so I ordered a new one. I mean, I’m probably going to regret it when I have to get rid of it once this place sells, but I couldn’t stand sitting down on those lumpy cushions.”

“I see.” The oh-so-casual reminder that he would be leaving in a few months slid off her like water on a duck’s back, though a small knot formed in her stomach. She quickly pushed that thought aside. “If I haven’t said it yet, thank you, Mal, for helping me with my magic.”

“Of course.”

As Mal said, their magic was very different, not just in type.

Mal’s skills were miles ahead of hers and there were things he could do that she could only dream of.

But he reminded her that he had basically been using magic since he was a teen when he was apprenticing with his stepfather, plus he continued to grow his skills by attending regular spell-casting workshops and seminars and through using them every day for his job.

While he wasn’t able to teach her how to use her magic directly, Mal helped her pinpoint her main weakness.

Just as she had thought initially, knowing she actually had magic made her second-guess herself even more.

It was easier before, as all she had to do was to make an intelligent guess based on her observations.

If a fenrir cub was whining, then it was sick, hungry or tired, and her first guess would always be correct.

Now, however, it was hard to tell if she was using her magic or her gut, and that only made Jasmine doubt herself.

For example, earlier that week, she had been trying to figure out why the luscas were swimming lethargically.

From her experience, it was one of three things: the water in the tank was too warm, they were stressed by the customers, or their diet needed to be changed.

However, she was so overwhelmed with trying to tap into her magic for the correct answer that she couldn’t decide, fearing that she would choose wrongly.

Jasmine thought she was a hopeless case, but Mal made her see that it was her approach that was the problem.

“Your magic is part of you—it always has been,” he had told her.

“But when you’re new to it, your body and brain just haven’t realized it yet.

Just do what you always did and trust your first instinct. ”

After that, she began to relax more and trust her instincts and her magic. It had only been a week, but Jasmine was beginning to feel more confident in her abilities and that was all thanks to Mal.

“And those greedy phoenixes definitely wanted more birdseed each meal,” she confirmed. “And my turkey sandwich too.”

He chuckled. “Hopefully you won’t regret this.”

“No, not at all.” She took a bit of the pudding, the flavor of coconut bursting on her tongue before swallowing it.

“I used to think I had this bond with the animals because I loved them. But now I know I really can connect to them. It’s weird and hard to explain, but I like to think of it as a deep empathy.

And if anything, my affinity with them just confirms what I already know.

Much like every other species on this planet, pets just want to feel safe. ”

“It makes perfect sense when you explain it that way. By the way, have you told your dad?”

“No, not yet.” She shoved a generous spoonful of pudding into her mouth before quickly changing the subject. “Have you tried the maja blanca yet?”

“Oh, no, sorry. I was, er, distracted.” Once again, his gaze fell to her chest. “By your explanation of your cleava—your powers.” Mal’s eyes shot upwards, and he quickly took a bite. “Oh wow, that’s amazing. That coconut flavor really comes through and the sweetcorn adds a different layer to it.”

“It’s my favorite dessert. My grandma and I would literally make it from scratch from the coconuts in our backyard, scraping the meat and squeezing the milk ourselves. This version uses the canned milk, but it tastes almost as good.”

“It’s delicious. Thank you for making it.”

“My pleasure. And I love making this dish. It makes my entire apartment smell amazing.”

Jasmine waited for Mal to finish his plate, then reached for it. “Here, let me get that and put it away.”

“No, no, please.” He stood up. “I’ll help you clean up.”

“Mal . . .”

“You cooked. It’s only fair I clean up. You relax.”

“All right. But I’ll still help, okay? I can’t just sit out here and wait while you wash dishes.”

“Okay, you can help.”

Heading back to the kitchen, they began clearing the remainders of the meal.

Mal did most of the major cleaning, like pre-washing the dirty pans before stacking them in the dishwasher and wiping down the table and counters while Jasmine put away the leftovers.

She did take the opportunity to brush up against him when she could, like reaching over to grab the covers for the plastic containers or the paper towels hanging over the sink.

To her delight, he didn’t discourage her or flinch when they did “accidentally” touch.

Rather, she heard his sharp intakes of breath.