The Matchstick Grill (The Feminine Mesquite Book 4)

by Sable Sylvan

  Basil’s hard, moist cock rubbed past her palms, but this time, Cayenne caught it. She felt the thick shaft in her hands and thought about how good it would feel inside of her…and that was the precise moment that Basil put the Ben Wa balls inside of her. She used her pelvic muscles to move the metal balls around slowly, feeling them jingle and jangle inside of her.

  Basil had been surprised by Cayenne’s wanton palming of his shaft. She was still a good girl in his mind, even though he’d seen her giant chest of sex toys…but it was obvious that she was more of a minx than he’d ever thought she could be. Just as she had wrongly judged him, he’d made a poor assessment of her character. Maybe Cayenne did work hard and play hard.

  Basil took the metal wheel and carefully rolled it over Cayenne’s skin, tracing her curves with the pricks of the wheel. He felt her back arch as she felt Basil running the wheel over her ample hips and bust and the curves of her waist, back, and shoulders…while his other hand was still busy making Cayenne even wetter. He was only giving her a taste of what was to come, but he had steadily started to touch her harder, faster, in pinpointed circles targeting her pleasure zones. He felt his cock shiver at Cayenne’s touch and heard his bear roar. Basil was close to losing control.

  Basil put the wheel aside and took the violet wand. He held Cayenne tight, touching her down there with his hand, mixing her honey pot, while he ran the wand over her body. Because Cayenne was blindfolded, she couldn’t see the tell-tale glowing of the wand before it zapped her. One moment, there was the feeling of a cold glass tube running over her skin, the next, it was like she was being zapped by a faulty socket…but that had nothing on the electricity that Cayenne was feeling between her body and Basil’s firm physique.

  Cayenne had never been had this way before. She had never met a man who could both work hard and play hard. All the men she’d met were either too serious and focused, or weren’t serious enough, so they hadn’t earned her respect and would be unsuitable as sexual partners. Basil was different. He was more than a man, more than a bear. He was her equal.

  Cayenne let out an involuntary gasp, and the gag fell out of her mouth.

  “I need you,” whispered Cayenne. “Basil, please. I’m so close…and I want us to reach paradise together. Please. Enter me. I can feel you want me. Please.”

  Basil felt Cayenne’s self-control wavering. He could sense it, feel that she was close, and as his cock let out another spurt of precum over her delicate fingers, he knew he had to act fast.

  Basil put the toys aside carefully, then unmasked Cayenne and took the gag off her neck. He pulled the rope off her quickly and left her on the bed, lying back so she would have to watch him as he claimed her. He carefully reached up inside of her and found the loop at the end of the Ben Wa balls and pulled them out. He licked them in front of her before setting them down with the rest of the toys. There were more important things for Basil to do than having a late dessert.

  Cayenne reached up to touch Basil’s chest. It was crazy to think that such a small mark could have such a big meaning, but there was no denying Fate, just as there was no denying the passion that would soon overwhelm her body.

  Basil entered Cayenne like a bolt of white lightening. Her body arched as she took him in, all the way to the hilt, and he rubbed her curves to soothe her. She hadn’t expected to have such difficulty taking him. After all, she’d been juggling those Ben Wa balls like a champion. After all, he was a lot of man for her to handle, but she soon adapted to the increased pressure in her honeypot, turning the pressure into pure pleasure.

  “You wanna see what I did to those Ben Wa balls?” asked Cayenne, looking up at Basil as she flexed her muscles down there.

  Basil had never felt anything like that before. Cayenne could control the walls of her honeypot the way some people could wiggle their nose. She twitched and pulled and pressed at him as he dominated her, the two lovers making out while their nether regions did battle, the stakes being the first orgasm of the night.

  Basil couldn’t hold it back. He could keep going for a few minutes after he had spilled into her, but he would have to be quick if he had a chance of making her come at the same time as him…which is why he let loose so he could focus on banging her hard and fast, just like she’d wanted.

  Cayenne was filled with a sudden feeling of fluid warmth. She let out a moan as she felt the liquid hit her innermost parts. It was like Basil had shot a syringe of white hot lube up into her canal. Her body wanted to pull it in on its own. It was all nature. Bear shifters weren’t the only ones who experience animal magnetism or animal urges, and Cayenne could not control her body.

  Basil kept pumping away inside of her, and she held her legs back even further so he could enter her more deeply. She had never felt such pleasure before, and suddenly, she felt her petals fold around Basil. It was really happening. Her fantasy had been fulfilled with the man of her dreams, now the only question was, was she her prince’s princess, or would this Cinderella be left without a partner at the Quincy-Scoville wedding ball?

  Chapter Ten

  The mark on Basil’s chest was undergoing a transformation. Neither Basil nor Cayenne had ever seen anything like it before.

  The pit started to change, brightening under Basil’s skin. A golden light filled the pit, and the light suddenly sprouted, turning into a seedling, the seedling coming out of the top of the pit. Even though the lines and shapes were pure gold, there was no mistaking the shapes as anything but those of a sprout, complete with stem and leaves. As the sprout grew, trails of gold fractals spun out of the bottom of the pit. The pit stayed there through the transformation, unchanging.

  The roots stopped growing, and the golden tree grew leaves of pure gold, with blossoms of pure silver that were almost white. Then, small marks of bronze appeared. It was a brownish-orange-reddish-yellow glow, and it became apparent what was happening.

  The marks were circular and grew. They grew quickly, melding into one large circular mark around the pit. The mark was many shades of pink and orange and yellow and some purple and brown as well. Out of the top of the mark came another sprout, which turned brown, except for a single golden leaf.

  The dark mark on Basil’s chest was a pit but it was also something else. It was a seed. The seed had grown, in front of their eyes, into a peach tree, and the peach had grown around the pit. The glow faded, but the mark on Basil’s chest remained. It was a realistic looking peach, except the brown stem’s leaf was a shade of gold that almost seemed to shimmer in the light due to the sweat on Basil’s pecs from the passionate mating that had occurred.

  “Your mark,” said Cayenne, reaching up to touch it. “Your mark…changed.”

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Basil. “But Kai, I didn’t have to see my mark change to know that you, you’re my fated mate.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what the mark meant before,” said Cayenne. “I just didn’t want to get in your head when you had a restaurant opening to deal with. I feel like I caused so many problems for you this summer, and I just didn’t want to cause another one.”

  “It’s fine, Kai, don’t cry,” said Basil, wiping a budding tear from the corner of Cayenne’s eye. “You did fine. What matters is we’re together now…and we’re fated mates. We know that for certain now.”

  “What comes next?” asked Cayenne. “I don’t know much about shifters. I know you can turn into a bear and you get a fated mate, me. What happens after that?”

  “We get married,” said Basil.

  “Married?” asked Cayenne. “Without…dating first?”

  “Will spending nights eating fancy dinners and going to movies change anything about what we have?” asked Basil. “It’s unorthodox for humans, but nothing about this relationship is standard. You and I have spent the last few weeks butting heads and the last few hours bumping butts. Look into your heart. Do you think that you need to know anything more about me before we get married?”

  “You’r
e so sure we’re going to get married, aren’t you?” asked Cayenne.

  “I know we are,” said Basil. “And I know that you want me, too, Cayenne. Haven’t we denied what we have for long enough? We can’t deny Fate…and hey, if we get married this summer, we don’t have to plan a whole wedding. It’s one less job for you to do, and you did say you’d try to relax more.”

  “That’s the worst promise I ever made you,” said Cayenne. “And…it’s the best promise, too. You’re right. Everything’s perfect, except…one thing’s missing.”

  “A ring?” asked Basil.

  “No, silly, you think I care about a frikkin’ loop of metal and some rock?” asked Cayenne. “No…a proposal. You can’t just say, ‘hey, Kai, wanna grab burgers, oh, and make a pit stop at City Hall to get a marriage license, too? Or would you prefer Chinese?’.”

  “Point taken,” said Basil. He got out of bed and walked to Cayenne’s side of the bed. Cayenne sat up, wrapping the sheet around her nude body, while Basil got down on one knee.

  “Cayenne Quincy,” said Basil. “Ever since I met you, I’ve been enraptured with your beauty, your grace, your ambition. You have the curves I hope I deserve, a fire that inspires, and there’s not enough time for me to make another rhyme.”

  Cayenne covered her mouth to hide a laugh as Basil mimed opening a ring box.

  “Will you accept me as your husband, for all time?” asked Basil. “I promise to love you, to cherish you, to care for you, and to protect you. You are the only woman I have felt anything like this for, and the only woman I will ever feel these feelings for. Will you accept a polar bear who knows more about frequent flyer miles than about Texan traditions, who knows more about the spice trade than how to trade in an old pick-up truck, as your future husband?”

  “That depends,” said Cayenne. “Will that polar accept a sassy girl with more curves than a snake shifter, more business sense than common sense, who can work too hard and play too hard, but is working on not doing as much of the first, and doing more of the second?”

  “She’s the only woman in the world I can accept, who I love for both her strengths and for her all-too-endearing flaws,” said Basil.

  “Then I accept your proposal,” said Cayenne. “But…you’ll have to pay a bride price.”

  “A bride price?” asked Basil. “I guess the Quincys are more traditional than I thought. Name the price, and I’ll pay it.”

  Cayenne leaned in to whisper something naughty to Basil and Basil lit up like a Houston Christmas tree.

  “I think I can do that,” said Basil, before getting back into bed to fulfill every last one of Cayenne’s demands.

  Epilogue

  Two Weeks Later

  The restaurant was a resounding success. People were coming from all over Bright Star County to try the churrasco. The format was novel, the food was good, and the price was reasonable. That was a recipe for success. The new ‘Fated Mate Sauce’ was flying off the shelves, and at the engagement barbecue, meat was flying off the Nordic grillhaus’s grill and onto people’s plates. Of course, the food was cooked churrasco style, with the new ‘Fated Mate Sauce,’ with a portion of the proceeds from the ‘Fated Mate Sauce’ going to the favela school that Basil had set up back in Brazil.

  “Cayenne Quincy, we’re gathered here today because I love you so frikkin’ much that I couldn’t wait to ask you to marry me,” said Basil. “I know you must love me, too, because if you didn’t, there’s no frikkin’ way I could’ve gotten away with proposing to you without a ring…but that doesn’t mean I want you walking around without one.” Basil took something out of his pocket. It was a wooden box, engraved with runes.

  “Your name is on this box,” said Basil. “It’s written in the Elder Futhark, the ancient Nordic runes of my ancestors. Words have power…and your name has power over my heart.” He opened the box, revealing a traditional diamond ring.

  “This ring is for you,” said Basil. “Of course, the diamonds are ethically sourced, from my grandfather’s treasury. He’s got so many jewels that I swear he must be part dragon shifter, what with his horde.” The Scovilles laughed. It was a shifter joke.

  Basil slipped the ring on Cayenne’s finger. It fit perfectly.

  “Cayenne, I promised that as long as you are with me, you will never be cold or hungry, or bored,” said Basil.

  “Basil…I trust you so much that I don’t need to hear you say those words out loud to know your promises are true,” said Cayenne. “I love the fact that you know that by saying them, you soothe my every anxiety, my every worry, and help me to calm the heck down.” The Quincy sisters laughed. They all knew that Cayenne could work way too hard. They also knew that Basil was the one person who could get her to slow her roll. He’d helped her take life one day at a time, one step at a time, hand in hand with the man who was confirmed to be her true love, and she, his fated mate.

  “I have a gift for you as well,” said Cayenne.

  Out of the house came Lauren, head of the staff, carrying a large wrapped rectangular item carefully. She passed it to Cayenne and stuck around to watch what would happen.

  Cayenne passed the present to Basil and Basil unwrapped it carefully…and when he saw what it was, he nearly cried.

  “Is it okay?” asked Cayenne quietly. “I hope it’s all right.”

  “It’s perfect,” said Basil. He passed the painting to Mace, who held onto it for him while he gave Cayenne a hug.

  “What is it?” asked Savina.

  “It’s…my grandmother,” said Basil. “My grandfather Morten’s wife. She passed on when I turned eight. How did you paint this?”

  “I looked at the photos of her downstairs on the family mantle in the living room,” said Cayenne. “I was careful and took pics of them so that I wouldn’t get paint on them, then printed those pics out to use as a reference. That’s why I asked you for privacy in the studio over the last two weeks. It wasn’t a matter of me needing a lack of distractions. I didn’t want the surprise to be ruined.”

  “It’s perfect, so perfect,” said Basil. “And I know where we should hang it.”

  “Where?” asked Cayenne.

  “The restaurant, along with the rest of your paintings,” said Basil.

  “That’d be perfect,” Herb assured Basil, patting Basil on the chest, over the mate mark. “It is a perfect way to honor our grandmother’s memory. She will always, and I mean always, be with us, in here. Our family and our shifts will always live in our hearts.”

  “There’s one more gift,” said Cayenne. She lowered the shoulder of her shirt. She was wearing a string tank top underneath to cover up. Basil couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  His mate mark had been replicated in the center of her tattoo. The peach half now had a brown peach pit on it. Underneath the peach, there was a new date underneath the old date. It was the date that Basil and Cayenne had learned that they were fated mates.

  “When the heck did you have time to get that?” asked Basil. “And…weren’t you afraid of the pain?”

  “It was nothing a mint julep and a shot of bourbon couldn’t fix,” said Cayenne. “Remember when all us girls went into Dallas last weekend for wedding stuff? That’s when I got it filled in. Is it okay?”

  “It’s more than okay,” said Basil. “It’s perfect, like everything you do.”

  “Aww, you two are so cute,” squealed Savina. “I usually hate mushy stuff, but you two are suited for each other.”

  “That means a lot coming from the head Quincy bridesmaid,” said Cayenne, giving her little sister a smile. Savina had been a champ. She was juggling not one, not two, but four hormonal Texan brides who were battling the vapors, the nerves, and spending every last minute either working on growing their company or planning the biggest wedding that Bright Star County would ever see.

  “It’s too sweet,” said Mace. “It’s making me sick.”

  “Mace, you don’t know the first thing about love,” said Savina, putting down her fork
to put a hand on her hip.

  “Says the last single Quincy sister,” teased Mace, eating more meat from his plate as he sat down next to Savina. After all, the other seats had all been claimed by the real Quincy-Scoville couples, leaving the Scoville omega and the sassy youngest Quincy Sister together.

  “Says the only Scoville Polar without a mate!” retorted Savina.

  Mace and Savina kept squabbling and Basil shot Cayenne a look. He raised his eyebrow, and Cayenne smiled and nodded. She knew what he was thinking. There was one last couple that would need to realize they were meant to be before the wedding happened in the coming weeks. The only question was, would Mace and Savina be always the groomsman and bridesmaid, and never the bride and groom, or would they realize that what they had was more than just a fiery rivalry, but a spicy budding romance? The only thing that could bring these two together? A summer of hard work spent at…The Feminine Mesquite.

  Sneak Peek: “Little Red Hot Sauce”

  My dear readers,

  A special sneak peek of the fifth and final book in this series, “Little Red Hot Sauce”, is coming up next. The Matchstick Grill” and the rest of the books from “The Feminine Mesquite” series are already available on Amazon!

  Get your official “The Feminine Mesquite” hot sauces and teas now! You can find all these items and more on www.shopsablesylvan.com !

  Love this book? Join the Sable Sylvan ARC (advance reader copy) team today! Learn more about it here:

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