Darin will be out tomorrow on http://www.extasybooks.com/Darin/ and as always, I wanted to share an excerpt, but since Darin is a baker and he bakes a few different cupcakes in the book, I also wanted to share the links to the recipes I got my inspiration from 🙂 and if you try them, let me know how they came out!
Sometimes you need to listen only to your heart rather than to what other people say.
Darin hasn’t actively been looking for his mate, even though he wants nothing more than to meet him. He’s lonely and he works too much, so he’s been hoping for a miracle—for his mate to walk into his bakery. It hasn’t worked yet, but then a man walks into the mansion’s kitchen and declares he’s Darin’s mate, and Darin gets the miracle he’s been waiting for.
Ira has known Darin was his mate for a few months, but he’s been burned by people who should’ve loved him before, so he took his time before deciding to talk to him. Now that he knows Darin won’t hurt him, he takes advantage of a trip to Whitedell to finally properly meet his mate.
Darin and Ira don’t wait to mate, even though they know their families might not be happy about it. But what their families think isn’t their only problem, and when the hunters attack again, Ira will need to fight for his mate and his friends.
Darin added the eggs to the mixture of butter and sugar and carefully mixed them. Taylor came back in, Nysys trailing behind him, and Darin groaned. “Don’t touch anything,” he warned the Nix.
Nysys gave him his most innocent face. “Me?”
“Yes, you. Stop playing innocent, you know your hands are itching to do it. I’ll kick you out of my kitchen if you misbehave.”
Nysys slumped in one of the stools by the counter. “What am I, a kid?”
Taylor and Darin looked at each other and answered together, “Yes.”
“You remember how many times you made something explode in here, right?” Darin asked as he added part of the flour mixture to the eggs, butter, and sugar.
“I’m better now!” Nysys declared. “I’m taking lessons, and I haven’t made anything explode in at least a month.”
Darin added part of the rum mixture he’d kept on the side and mixed. “A month? Wow. I feel like I should give you a medal or something.”
Nysys started to swat Darin’s arm over the counter, but Taylor caught his wrist before he could. “Don’t hit him. We wouldn’t want him to screw up the cupcakes.”
Nysys’ eyes went shiny. “Oooh, what’s he baking?”
“Piña Colada cupcakes.”
“Mmm, do you think they’ll be enough to make us drunk?”
“I highly doubt it,” Darin answered. “There isn’t that much rum in them.”
Nysys pouted. “Spoilsport.”
“You can take the rest of the rum bottle if you want. Just make sure to replace it if you finish it.”
“I think you’d better stay away from the alcohol,” Taylor told Nysys. “Remember how it went the last time?”
“Hey, we didn’t actually paint Dominic’s office pink!” Nysys protested.
“That’s only because Jonah stopped you. Keenan had already managed to find the paint and everything.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask why pink,” Darin said as he filled the cupcake liners.
“Because Dominic could do with a bit of calm, and everyone needs a feminine touch in their lives,” Nysys told him.
“Did you know that pink was a boy color until the 1940’s?”
Nysys cocked his head. “How do you know that?”
“Jayden.” That said it all. They all knew how Jayden was with his books, and how he tended to talk a lot and about things that didn’t actually have anything to do with each other.
“Ah. But see, pink was a good idea. It’s a manly color.”
Darin chuckled. “I don’t think Dominic would’ve been as enthusiastic as you are.” He opened one of the ovens and put the first tray of cupcakes in. He closed it, opened the second one, and repeated the operation before starting to fill liners again. He always had to bake a lot of cupcakes, and even then, not everyone in the pride managed to taste them. It was a first come first served kind of thing, and that meant that some people, much like Taylor, tended to hover in the kitchen when he baked.
That was why Darin wasn’t surprised when the kitchen door opened ten minutes later and Keenan, Delevan, and Isaiah came in, Trevor close behind them.
“What is it this time?” Delevan asked as he hopped on one of the stools.
“Piña Colada,” Darin answered him. “I think I’m going to buy one of those small blackboards. I’ll put it on the kitchen door and write what cupcakes I’m baking, just to let everyone know.”
“Don’t you dare,” Nysys said. “Then we’d have to share.”
“I’m baking about fifty of them.”
“That’s only one per person! It’s not enough.”
“Yeah, well, unless you or someone else volunteers to clean up once I’m done, I’m sticking with fifty.”
They all looked at each other. Darin pressed his lips together and mixed powdered sugar with the cream cheese and butter. “I don’t hear anyone,” he sang teasingly.
Catherine Lievens 