“Your heat has come back,” I murmured.
Jasmine closed her eyes. She sucked in a breath to the count of five, then released it. “Yes.”
“You’re in pain.”
“Yes.”
I stepped toward the door. “Then let’s go back to the house. I’ll call the others and—”
“No.”
I stopped, searching her face. My heart beat hard, the desire making my insides shake. Heat built beneath my skin, and my loins grew tighter every moment. It made it difficult to think clearly, but I didn’t want to hurt her more than I already had. “What do you want?”
Jasmine bit her lip. “I told you. I think that sex is the one thing we won’t have to fake. And if that’s something we can have, even if it’s just when I’m in heat, then it’s something that we can be unified by. So…please help me.”
Her voice grew smaller, like she expected me to laugh at her. Instead, I stepped forward. My hands itched with the desire to touch her, but I made sure to move slowly. I took her hand, watching carefully. Her expression didn’t change.
“I do want to apologize,” I told her, reminding myself of the reason I’d chased after her in the first place.
“Then I suppose we’ll have to make time to talk through it. I just am in no condition to hear it right now,” she admitted.
Alright. She needed this pain to go away, and I needed something to show that I was genuine. “Is there still a bed here?”
She nodded and led me down the narrow hall. The bed was a creaky old frame and a lumpy mattress, bare and looking old and a little gross. But Jasmine pulled a pillow and blanket from the closet and put it down. When I looked at her questioningly, she shrugged.
“I wanted to make sure I’d have something here if I ever had to sneak away in the middle of the night.”
“Ah. I see.” I stepped closer, resting my hands on her hips. Though my body kept telling me to stop thinking, I wasn’t so interested in being a mindless beast. I moved slowly as I undid the button on her jeans. “How far do you want this to go?”
“Not all the way. Just enough to alleviate the pain,” she answered, cheeks flushed. Her hands fluttered, and I caught them between mine, then pressed a kiss to her palms.
The warmth of her so close to me calmed me. I kissed her wrist and pressed her hand to my cheek as I gazed down at her. “Are you sure?”
Tension drained from her shoulders as she searched my face. “I am. Are you?”
I nodded and guided her back onto the bed. “I’m sure. It’s an instinctual drive, and even if it weren’t, I agree with you. I think this is the best chance we have at finding any sort of common ground.”
She started to shove her pants off, and I stopped her. Though we were both impatient, I wanted to take this slowly. I wanted to give us both time to change our minds. Jasmine watched me, her gaze guarded, and yet when she touched me, there was trust in it. It made me shiver with anticipation as I pulled her pants down and eased her back onto the bed.
Her thick thighs pressed together, the hem of her shirt combining with her apron belly to hide her sex from me as she curled forward. She was doing it deliberately, and I had to remind myself that her caution was not unwarranted.
“Take off your shirt,” she breathed.
Heat stirred through my blood, and I bit back a groan. Maybe it wasn’t caution, after all. Maybe it was something else. I tugged my shirt off, quicker and rougher than I’d undressed her. Jasmine let out a shaky breath as she reached for me, her fingers splaying against my skin. I closed my eyes, releasing all the air from my lungs in one great woosh. It felt like something had finally been released in me that I had been holding on to all my life.
She explored my abdomen and chest, fingers touching lightly at first, then with more confidence. I savored the feeling, letting my own tension melt away. I couldn’t tell her that I’dknown she was my mate from childhood now. It would only complicate matters. But oh, having her touch me was like rain after a drought.
“Owen?”
I opened my eyes again and looked down at her. She searched my gaze, as though deciding something. Whatever she saw must have been acceptable to her, because she reached for my hand and pulled me onto the bed next to her. We arranged ourselves on the narrow mattress, but there wasn’t much room. Jasmine shuffled backward and nearly fell off.
I caught her and pulled her closer. “Hey. You’re the one who asked for this. Why are you running away?” I teased.
Jasmine giggled. Her hands smoothed over my ribs and sides, then moved up my back. I ran my own hands down her back, wishing I’d had the foresight to remove her shirt. Too late for that now. It would mean parting again, and I didn’t want to do that. Her heavy breasts pressed into me, and I gripped her soft thigh to pull it up over my hip.
Her hands tightened on me, and I pushed my hand between our bodies. As I cupped her sex, the sweet perfume of her arousal filled the air. She rocked against me, pressing the back of my hand into my cock, and then she gasped.
“Oh,” she breathed.
