Her bodyguards surrounded her on the way to their car and again when they walked her up to the front door. Trey and Tomas went inside with her, disarming the alarm and doing a walk-through before Tomas led her to the kitchen.

“Is that always going to be necessary?” she asked.

Tomas looked startled, as if he hadn’t expected her to actually speak to him. “What?” He was soft-spoken, but had the same intimidating build most of the leopards had, with the roped, defined muscles. His tee was stretched tight across his chest, and his shaggy hair looked as if it needed cutting weeks ago.

Siena shook her head. “Nothing. We’re good. Thanks for walking me in.”

He lifted his chin and left her there in the kitchen. A foreign, alien place. That didn’t matter. She was actually excited. She wanted to find ways to take care of her man. To do more than have sex with him—not that she didn’t love having sex with him—that was utterly glorious—but she wanted Elijah to feel loved in every single aspect of his life. She wanted him happy and, more than anything, to know she thought he was the most beautiful, wonderful man in the world.

She’d always wanted to learn to cook. She’d contemplated taking classes, but she’d been so busy getting first a business degree and then studying oenology and viticulture, learning everything there was to know about grapes and wine making, that she kept putting off the cooking classes. Washing her hands, she tied a makeshift apron around her clothes, using a towel.

The first recipe she’d decided to try was starred. The page was worn and smudged so she knew it was one of Elijah’s favorites. The recipe was titled Camarones a la Diabla: shrimp and spicy sauce. She liked shrimp, and spice was good.

The recipe itself didn’t look that difficult. Once she got it going she was going to make avocado dip to go with the meal. She had tortilla chips from the store. She would learn to make them another day.

The recipe seemed fairly straightforward as she studied it. She was to put all the ingredients in a pot along with a cup of water and cook it for twenty minutes. Once it came to a boil, she would put it in the blender and blend it. Not difficult. She could do that. The raw and peeled shrimp was then sautéed in olive oil in a frying pan with garlic salt and pepper. The salsa was added and the shrimp was cooked in that for twenty to twenty-five minutes on low heat. Elated, she laid out all the ingredients. She could do this. It was totally easy.