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“You don’t,” he murmurs, still petting my little pearl delicately until I reach down to grasp his wrist. He finally stills with a small sigh. “I just want to make you feel good, baby girl. I won’t penetrate until your body is ready again.”
“It still hurts. Everything down there is just… used up.”
He gives me an indulgent smile and pulls me into his chest. “I think my mate has a bit of a dramatic streak, hmm? Used up? Darling, I’m never going to be done with that magical little pussy of yours. But I suppose it’s Christmas—if you really don’t want to come tonight, we can wait until the morning. Would you like that? To wake up to me worshipping your clit?”
I narrow my eyes at him, entirely aware of the manipulation—he's trying to make me say I want him to touch me in the morning if I don’t want him to do it tonight. But my clit is already tightening with anticipation at the promise of beingworshipped,and I’m much too sleepy and comfortable to put up a fight.
“Okay,” I murmur, nuzzling into his bare chest. “Tomorrow. But no penetration, all right?”
“No penetration,” he agrees softly, warm lips skimming over my scalp. “Yet.” Then he begins to stroke my back slowly and rhythmically, pulling me deeper and deeper toward the blissful haze of unconsciousness.
As I drift off to sleep, I feel one of his large, warm hands find my lower abdomen and curve protectively around it.
* * *
On the twenty-seventh of December,Adam takes me to the bank to pay off my mortgage. It’s a surreal experience to sit in the back of his Bentley as his honest-to-Goddrivernavigates Mattenburg’s busy streets. It’s not really clicked for me until then that I’mdatinga billionaire. I don’t know why it takes a fancy car and staff members to sink in, but I’m guessing it’s because up until now, all dating-related activities have taken place in my very modest little townhouse, and Adam has a way of looking remarkably at home there.
“Are you my boyfriend?” I blurt.
He glances at me, one eyebrow raised. “I’m your alpha.”
“Well, yes, but…” My cheeks flush a little at the clear displeasure in his voice, and I give him a sheepish smile. “If I were to describe you to normal people. Y’know, who don’t break into their crush’s window and rape her.”
“I didn’trapeyou.” Despite the softness in his voice, there’s a warning tone to it.
I roll my eyes. “Well, no, not technically. But you were planning to.Anyway—back to my question. What… Whatarewe? Mates-to-be just sounds… so ridiculous.”
He stares at me for a long moment, a hint of possessiveness in his eyes. “But that’s what we are, Eve—mates-to-be, until you are ready to love me. Then we will simply be mates.”
“What, so we aren’t getting married? I won’t be your wife?” I ask, surprising myself with the note of disappointment in my voice. My blush intensifies.Ridiculous.Two nights ago I was busy telling myself I was only allowing him inside me for the chance at a mortgage-free life, and now I’m… what,upsetthat I don’t get to walk down the aisle in a pretty white dress? God, his stupid pheromones are really screwing with my head!
“Eve, look at me.”
My head turns toward him without my conscious intent, and I bite my lip with frustration. He truly has infiltrated every part of my biology, and I’m hardwired to obey my alpha. Yeah, he isn’t wrong. That’s what he is, even if I refuse to admit it out loud yet.
He cups my cheek, the comfort of his large hand already familiar. “I will marry you in a heartbeat, and I will be proud to call you wife. But those things… For alphas, they are superfluous. The only thing I need is my mark on your neck and our bond anchored safely in my heart—the knowledge that you are mine completely, including in the eyes of the law. But I understand that things might be different for you, and so yes—you will be my wife.” He sighs softly, resigned. “And I suppose until then, you can call me your boyfriend, if that makes you comfortable.”
Comfortableis probably not the right word, I think as I look at the stern alpha CEO who has reluctantly agreed he’s myboyfriend. I still can’t hold back a smile. Yes, my poor vagina has had a thorough lesson in alpha dominance, but it’s the small moments of conceding the complete control over me, over us, he so very easily could demand that makes my heart flutter traitorously.
His demand that we become mates is born from a biological imperative, but letting me call him my boyfriend when it clearly goes against his alpha instincts to accept such a beta term, and allowing me to decide when we have full penetrative sex again, despite his constant, and probably rather painful, erection shows me there’s more to my intruder than brutish animal instincts.
I reach out on impulse and take his hand, my slim fingers wrapping around his thick digits looking almost comical with the size difference.
Adam makes a small noise at the back of his throat. When I look up and catch his gaze, the softness there makes my heart flutter.
“I already love you,” he murmurs, voice thick. Without waiting for my response, he pulls me into his embrace, kisses the top of my head—and begins to purr.
“Oh,”I sigh, the immediate calm flooding through my chest easing the pang of anxiety at his words.
Love,I think as I snuggle in against him, burying my face in his expensive wool coat so I can inhale his delicious scent.
“Would you have taken the stairs that day we met in the elevator, if you’d known the outcome then?” My voice is already drowsy from the soothing effect of his purr.
For a moment he doesn’t respond, and I think he’s going to ignore me. But then, softly, he says, “I might have, if I’d realized how profoundly you’d change my world. I was told as a young man that meeting your mate alters your priorities, but I never knew how completely until you ran out of that elevator and a part of me left with you.”
He kisses the top of my head again. “I will do anything for you, Eve. I’ll give my life for yours, my dignity and every cent I own to keep you by my side. If I’d known my life would no longer be my own, it might have been enough for me to flee like a coward before we met and my fate was sealed for the rest of eternity. But now? If I could do it over? No. Just the thought of a world without you… it’s unthinkable. Unbearable. The only thing I would have changed about our meeting is that I would have kissed you under that mistletoe, then asked you out for dinner.”
“I think I would have said yes,” I say, eyelids closing halfway as he resumes the soothing purr.
