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“Absolutely not, Oliver,” she said, standing under the awning outside the pub. “I am not letting anyone follow me around like that. And you said she has a husband and kids? Why do that to her?”
Oliver shrugged self-consciously. The parking lot was beginning to empty as patrons filtered out. His shoulders sat rigid as the rain sprinkled over the canopy and onto his head.
“I can send someone else then if that concerns you," he said, his voice changing from the playful leader to the stoic authoritarian. “I need someone to watch over you, Lily. I thought we decided this already."
She huffed, then leaned up against the brick wall outside the pub. Oliver remained still, the rainfall getting increasingly heavier beyond him. He stared at her darkly.
“I’m not doing that either,” she said adamantly. "Why do you keep sending someone else to do your job for you? Why can’t it just be you?”
Oliver took a step closer, his eyes averting for a moment. He was still serious when he spoke, rain cascading down the side of the building.
“I have a town to run, Lily. Being the alpha keeps me busy.”
Lillian folded her arms again, elevating her voluptuous bosom. She knew he exerted effort in not sneaking a peek down her shirt, and it made her feel powerful and desired.
Her voice became husky, and his eyes widened as she spoke.
“Something tells me that you can run your town perfectly fine while I stay the night with you, hmm?"
Oliver was stupefied. He glowered at her like she had just sprouted a second head.
“I … I didn't think you’d want to stay here. You have your life, your art, your apartment in the city.”
Lillian smiled and shook her head. She was amazed by even the shifter’s obliviousness.
“I’m an artist, Oliver. My work goes wherever I go. I love that nomad lifestyle. My apartment is bursting with paint supplies. It looks more like a storage room. I’m only there to sleep.”
He stared at her, the scowl softening. He looked like he was studying her words, combing through them with a detective’s attention to detail.
“What about the studio?”
“I rent it out because I have no space in my apartment to work. But I can do that, as I said, anywhere there’s space. You seem to have a lot of space in that mansion of yours."
The showering of rain filled the lull in the conversation with its tranquil pattern. Lillian envisioned the calculations going on in Oliver's brain.
He had made assumptions about her and was blindsided by her willingness to give it a go. She started to wonder if he’d ever met a woman as forward as she was.
“So …” he began, sauntering closer to her and leaning up against the wall. “If you can work anywhere, then you could live here?"
Lillian’s heart picked up the pace. He towered over her, and she had to crane her neck to meet his eyes. Something in her stomach coiled. It was nerves. Thunder crackled, and white lightning threaded through the sky beyond.
“Yes,” she breathed, then had to swallow hard to get herself together. “I mean, we aren’t moving in together right now. That's way too fast.”
Oliver did not miss a beat, gazing deep into the confines of her soul.
“Not for a shifter."
Her belly stirred with a surge of excitement that spread down into her pelvis. She was uncoiling, intoxicated, and terrified all at once.
“I see,” she whispered, then swallowed again, shifting against the wall. “Actually, I don’t see. Why is that not too soon for your kind?"
Oliver’s voice was velvety smooth. “There’s something called a mating instinct with shifters. All shifters. We know immediately when we have met the person we are meant to spend the rest of our lives with.”
He looked away and took a deep breath. Lillian felt like she was lost in a dream. The rain, his beauty, it all felt so surreal. And the conglomeration of sensations in her belly felt like everything she had hoped for. When he looked back, she swore she saw something like a comet in his eyes. Something burning.
“You are my mate, Lillian. I knew it from the moment I met you. That is why I can’t let anything happen to you. It physically pains me to think of anyone or anything hurting you.”
Her breathing increased, and her heart rate soared. There was nothing more romantic in the entire universe to Lillian than someone saying they were meant to be. Even if it sounded kind of absurd, she adored the idea that she was marked in his world as his person.
