Page 43 of Cheating Fate

“You died, Gavin,” Zhara said with a quivering voice. “We teleported out of that nightmarish place only to see that you had died.”

My jaw dropped. A series of terrible images flashed before my eyes. Halfway through the climb, I started feeling myself dying. But it was the moment that the metal rubble slipped from my hands that I realized I was floating away from my body.

I refocused on my mate, and she looked surprised by the awe visible on my face.

“Yes, I died. And you brought me back. No one else but you could have done that,” I said, my heart filling to bursting.

“Just like no one else but you could have gotten me out of that pit. You saved me!” Zhara exclaimed.

“We saved each other, my love. I knew you would take care of me just like I will always take care of you,” I said while caressing her hair before taking on a mischievous expression. “But if you don’t mind, let’s try to have a less eventful second date.”

She snorted then nodded with a sheepish expression.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind something a bit more traditional for next time,” she said before giving me another hug.

We remained in each other’s embrace for a few moments, my arms tightening possessively as she pressed her slender body against mine. With much reluctance, I loosened my hold, and we exchanged a tender kiss.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” I whispered more to myself than for her as I gazed at my mate’s features. “I thought this day would never come.”

The way she looked at me with something verging on adoration messed with my head. I had dreamt of this for so long while constantly fearing that she would be disappointed once she met me in person.

“You’re also stunning,” she said with a sincerity laced with timidity that messed me up.

I always struggled with compliments about my appearance. While I didn’t consider myself ugly by any means, I also wouldn’t call myself handsome, if only for my more brutish Braxian traits—subtle though they were. On Venus Hive, countless women had thrown themselves at me. Although some of them had genuinely been interested in me as an individual, the majority had merely sought to get their claws into my family’s substantial wealth and status. It still boggled my mind that someone as gorgeous as my Zhara could find me attractive.

So as always, I resorted to humor to hide my embarrassment.

“Stunning isn’t exactly the term I would use to describe myself. I’m burnt to a crisp,” I said teasingly.

She firmly shook her head before giving me a mischievous grin. “That might have been true before, but not anymore. Now, I would say that you’re rather just on this side of well-done.”

I burst out laughing, which made her chuckle. But that amusement was short-lived as my laughter shifted into a bout of coughing and wheezing.

Zhara instantly pressed her palm to my chest, and the most wondrous heat spread throughout my torso. The coughing stopped, and my breathing returned to normal.

“How bad is it?” I asked carefully when she stopped what she was doing.

“Much better than where it all started,” she replied in an apologetic tone. “You need to rest for at least a week and eat lots of food so that we can perform frequent healing sessions in stages. After that, you will be as good as new.”

“And you will be the one healing me, right?” I asked, relieved.

She looked at me as if I had said something absurd. “No one else will put their hands on you again but me! Far too many pretty ladies groped you over the last three days.”

“Three days!” I exclaimed, flabbergasted to have been out this long, even though it shouldn’t have surprised me. “And I slept through all that fun time?”

“Hey!” she exclaimed with false outrage.

I burst out laughing but immediately clamped down on it to avoid another round of coughing.

“I’m only teasing, my love. But I won’t lie that I enjoy you being possessive of me,” I admitted sheepishly.

She wrapped her arm around my waist and pressed herself against me. “I am extremely possessive of you. I didn’t wait all this time just to have some other female swoop in. You’re all mine, and I do not share.”

“Good, because I don’t share either, and I don’t want to be shared. I waited for you my whole life, Zhara. Everything that I am is yours, now and always.”

She beamed at me then lifted her face to receive my kiss. Ancestors, I was crazy for her.

A firm knock on the door startled us. We broke the kiss and glanced at the door. Zhara leaned on her elbow but didn’t get off the bed.