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“I’m over a hundred years old, Leona, and I’ve never wanted anyone like this. Do you want to know my theory about why that is?” He skims his hand down my waist then touches the exposed skin between my shorts and my shirt.
His touch sets me on fire with need, and I lift my hips trying to get some friction. Any small satisfaction would help this fire roasting inside me. “Tell me your theory.”
“I think you’re my mate. I think after all these years, you are the one woman who can complete me.” He kisses my neck and his tongue touches my pulse.
Gasping, I wrap one leg around his and press my center against the bulge in his pants. My moan fills the room. I’m breathless, but I say, “I don’t believe in soul mates or that there’s only one person meant for each of us. I’m not even a manticore. So how can your theory be true?”
Cade cups my ass with his hand, squeezes, and rubs his shaft against me. “Soul mates are something different. I can’t say if they exist or not. Even love is something else, though not mutually exclusive. A fated mate is nature’s way of bonding two people for life. I can’t give you scientific proof or even explain how it works. Last night I was a monster. I might have killed a human who came close to me. I was starved and barely aware of who I was. When I saw you, that changed.” He suddenly stands and rubs the back of his neck.
“I knew the moment I caught your scent that you are my mate, Leona. Don’t ask me how, the beast inside me just knows.”
Lying on his couch, probably looking wanton and disheveled, I should be embarrassed, but I’ve never wanted anyone more. “I don’t know what any of that means. I only know that I feel like I’ll die if you don’t make love to me.”
Four
Cade
Her admission should make me take a step back and give her time, but I need to feel all of her and have her feel all of me. It’s primal, and I can’t push it away. I kneel so that we’re eye-to-eye and run my knuckles along her jaw. “I don’t want you to regret anything between us.”
Leaning into my touch, she bites her bottom lip. “Will you promise me something?”
“Anything.” I would give her the world if it were mine to give. There’s nothing she can ask of me that I wouldn’t move mountains to make hers.
“Promise me that you’ll never lie to me. Even if you think the truth will hurt me. Even if you’re sure no good can come from me knowing. I know it’s possible this is a weird expression of my insane year and maybe none of this is real. Maybe I just need to be good and laid.” She laughs, but her eyes shine with unshed tears.
“I promise you there will only ever be truth between us.” I lift her from the couch, stand, and carry her upstairs to my bedroom. Laying her gently on my bed, I have to take a moment to calm the beast inside me. He is jostling for position and perhaps one day, I’ll let him have his way, but not today. I don’t want to scare her. I want to worship her.
She sits up and scrambles to the middle of the mattress. “Um, I have a concern.”
With one knee on the bed, I freeze. “Tell me.”
Her face is bright red and the flush goes all the way down to where it disappears beneath her pink top.
Stretching out with my head on the pillow, I open my arm for her to lie back with me.
Kicking off her little white sneakers, she eases in beside me and presses her cheek to my chest. Using her delicate fingers to toy with the buttons of my golf shirt, her manicured nails lightly scratch my chest. “I’m not a kid.”
“I’m aware.” I caress the strip of skin that gets exposed between her shorts and top every time she reaches her hand up. She’s soft and smells of jasmine and moss. I’m drunk on her as I kiss the top of her head.
“Well normally, there’s time in a relationship where I get to know a person before I’ve seen them naked and, um, well, aroused.” She buries her head against me.
“Not the case with us as I was already hard when I shifted yesterday.” I try my best not to laugh at her obvious embarrassment. “What concerns you, Leona?”
“I’m not a virgin, but um…”
Changing our positions so she’s on her back and I can look into her eyes, I wait for more, but she blushes impossibly darker and closes her eyes.
“And now the siren from the living room is shy?” I kiss her cheek, her jaw, her earlobe.
She moans softly. “You’re very big, Cade. I’m concerned that you’ll be disappointed.”
It takes a lot of willpower not to chuckle, but I can hear in the shake of her voice that she’s serious. “I promise you, nothing between us could disappoint me. There’s a lot to do before we get to that, sweet little lioness. I need to make you come at least three times before I bury my cock deep inside you.”
“Three times.” She lets out a short loud laugh. “I never orgasm more than once.”
It sounds like a challenge to my beast and I have to agree. “Today you will.”
Biting her lip, she says, “I trust you, but…”
