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I reached for him anyway, intending nothing more complicated than pulling him close, but Ash caught my wrist before I could get very far. There was no uncertainty in the gesture and, more importantly, none in his expression. “That was for you,” he said quietly.

Something in my chest tightened.

When I opened my mouth to argue, his thumb moved once over the inside of my wrist. “I wanted to. I woke up, you were there, and I wanted to do something that was just for you. You don’t have to turn it into an exchange.”

I should’ve been able to accept that.

Any normal man would’ve accepted it enthusiastically, probably before Ash had the opportunity to reconsider. Instead, everything Ignatius had told me came crawling back into my head.

Ash had wanted to.

He had chosen this.

But there was a difference between believing he’d made a choice and knowing he had all the information he needed to make it.

He didn’t.

Ash had given me his worst secret. He’d let me stay after he woke and remembered telling me, kissed me completely sober, slept beside me in Vegas, and now chosen to give me something simply because he wanted me to have it.

Meanwhile, I was lying beside him knowing there was something about me that could make him question all of it.

My dragon.

Being lifebound.

The attraction other people felt around me.

I didn’t deserve what he was giving me while I was still deciding which truths he was allowed to know.

Ash must have seen something change in my face because the amusement disappeared from his. His hand came to rest against my chest, warm and careful, while his brows drew together.

“Hey. What’s wrong?”

There it was.

For one reckless second, I nearly told him everything, because there was something particularly ugly about lying in bed with him after he’d given me something so freely while knowing the secret I was keeping could change how he understood the very choice he’d just made.

Then I remembered the playoff game waiting for us in a few hours, Ash’s ribs, his father, and the fact that Ignatius had only begun explaining what being lifebound meant when a true mate was involved. I still didn’t understand enough of it myself, and telling Ash half the truth simply to ease my guilt would be worse than waiting.

“There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

The wariness that appeared immediately in his eyes made me hate the words. “About us?”

“About me.” I turned my hand beneath his and caught his fingers before he could withdraw them. “And before you decide that means I’m about to tell you this was a mistake, I’m not. This morning wasn’t a mistake. Vegas wasn’t a mistake. None of this is.”

Some of the tension left his shoulders, although not all of it. “But there are things you haven’t told me.”

It wasn’t really a question.

“There are things I should’ve told you already,” I admitted. “After everything you’ve told me, I’m becoming increasingly aware that keeping them from you isn’t fair.”

Ash was quiet for a few seconds, his thumb moving absently over my knuckles. Eventually, he asked if I was going to tell him.

“Yes.”

“Now?”

I wanted to.