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Gage swallowed his pride. It was kind of mortifying to have his lack of sexual activity announced like that. But Naomi had no prior sexual activity, so she was hardly one to judge.
“I don’t understand,” Naomi said.
“May I explain better?” Gage asked her. “Privately?”
She nodded.
“Privacy mode confirmed,” Oberon said.
Instantly, the space around them repopulated and the house appeared as it had before.
“I’m so sorry,” Gage told her. “I guess you know now that I’m a little rusty when it comes to talking to a woman I care about.”
“Okay,” she said. “So, what’s going on?”
“You are my mate,” he told her simply.
She blinked at him, as if she had forgotten how words worked.
“Can’t you feel it?” he asked her. “I know you haven’t been with anyone else. But can you feel the pull, the fire between us? That’s special.”
She nodded slowly, but didn’t move closer to him.
“I know you came here to help me,” he said. “And so that my seed would awaken your womb. But things have changed now.”
He moved to her, coming as close as he dared without touching her.
“If we go through with this project, it won’t just be a mating,” he explained carefully. “It will be a claiming.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“It means that I will need to be by your side forever,” he told her. “I will protect and comfort you. I will fill your womb, not just with this child, but with as many more as you will allow. It means it will be my whole job to love and cherish you for as long as we live.”
She sucked in a breath and her eyes went slightly hazy.
“I will share in your joys and your troubles, forever,” he assured her.
Suddenly her eyes widened slightly, and she backed away from him.
“You don’t want this?” he asked her, pain slashing through his heart.
“I-I have to think about it,” she stammered.
“Is there someone else?” he asked her. “Someone back on your home world who you want to be with?”
She shook her head.
“You don’t like me?” he asked.
“Of course I like you,” she said. “You’re handsome, amazing at… you know. And although I’m not sure how many babies I want, I know you would be able to provide for them and then some. I just, I need time.”
He longed to demand that she tell him why. He knew she was screaming with pleasure last night. They got along so well already, and the mate bond would ensure that they only took more joy in each other’s company.
But he had no right to make that demand.
Had she responded as he hoped, with happiness, he would have told her the other thing she needed to know before accepting.
He’d been so fixated on figuring out why he was so drawn to her last night, that he hadn’t stopped to think about the impression he had made on her.
