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When I open my mouth to respond, he pushes the bite inside—muting me.
“I don’t want you to compromise your comfort for my sake. I wish to be entirely at your mercy. I will stay if you tell to me to stay, and I will leave if you tell me to leave. I will not condemn you to a life as a werecanine unless you lose nothing in the change.”
I push his hand away after I swallow. “Isn’t that a tiny bit extreme?”
“No.”
“Anything else?”
He nods, sharply. “It is hard for me to want you so badly so constantly. I promise to obey your commands until the point when you release me from this oath except in the case where obedience would cause you harm.”
A flutter starts low in my belly. “Now I’m certain it’s extreme…”
“If you are certain, perhaps I simply love you in extreme ways.” He skates a knuckle down my cheek. “If we’re proceeding with an assumption we’ll find a way to bypass natural laws and give you the best of both worlds, then we are proceeding as though we are lovers waiting on marriage. In treating you like a lover, as you have asked, I do not want to accidentally lose myself in my desire for you. Throughout the duration of this oath, I promise I will do nothing to you unless my thoughts are innocent or I have your command.”
Heat crawls up my neck. A shiver wracks my bones. Clapping a hand to my mouth, I pull my gaze off him. “H-hold on. It feels like you just upped the content rating in here by several entire chili peppers.”
Out of the corner of my eye, he digs out another scoop of ice cream and licks the spoon clean without looking off me for even a moment. “Is that unacceptable?”
“N-no. This is…um…great.” I love not having to worry about him leaving me for my own good or something stupid like that. I’m a people pleaser with a minor in control issues. Having absolute control of a situation is probably the best way ever to give me uncanny peace. However… “I just don’t know what to do with myself when two characters’ hands brush, so…I don’t know how much…uh…I’ll be…commanding of you.”
“Brittny.”
My heart leaps. I force myself to look at him.
“You have run directly into the point, yet you’ve kept on going.”
I push a fragile inhale through my lungs. “Let me make sure I understand. If I want you to kiss me…”
“You have to tell me to. Faerie promises are unbreakable oaths. I have effectively tied my hands behind my less-than-innocent back and given you the controls.”
“You…” Distress riots in my gut. “How do I even know you’ll want what I ask for?”
He eats another bite of ice cream and mumbles around the spoon, “I’m not really concerned about that. At all.”
“I’m sure we don’t need to go quite this far. How do I—”
“It makes me more comfortable.”
“You said not to make you more comfortable,” I point out.
“I said not to compromise your comfort for my sake. These are my boundaries.”
“Your boundaries are no boundaries.”
“My boundaries are making sure yours are given precedence.” Leaning forward, he kisses my cheek. “I will not let my history of weaknesses hurt you. I adore you. So very much.”
My lips gape as he moves back, gets another scoop of ice cream, and carries it to his lips.
I hardly know where we go from here, how we overcome the fact I’m not fae enough to stay with him and changing that means losing my sister. I hardly know what to do with being adored. “What…now?” I whisper.
His gaze skims back to me. A question lingers in his eyes.
“How do we start looking for a solution that gives me the best of both worlds?”
Ollie bends a leg up against his chest and stuffs another bite of ice cream in his mouth. “We ask.”
“We ask…who?”
