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“I don’t know, Ford. It’s just going to take me some time to get used to everything. I believe you about mates—Tea and Jesse are about as perfect for each other as it gets. I’ve never heard anyone argue like that or have as much fun doing it. And your parents are clearly deeply in love, despite being together for what, three decades?”
He nodded. “Thirty-five years.”
“My grandparents have been together even longer, and the way they look at each other… I don’t know, I’ve just never felt that way about anyone. And you and I can probably get there, but it’s not going to happen overnight. We’re mates, but relationships don’t just appear out of nowhere. And communication doesn’t just happen. We’ll have to work at it. Which I’m willing to do, and I think you’re willing to do too, but it’s going to take some time.”
Ford nodded. “You’ve got all the time in the world, Pretty Girl.”
“Pretty Girl?” I tilted my head sideways, recognizing the nickname immediately—or half of it.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Not a fan?”
“That’s what you were going to say to me in the sandwich shop? Before your wolf took over?”
“I may have been subtly checking you out every time I had dinner with Jesse.”
I had noticed that he was always with Jesse when Teagan and I met up for dinner; I hadn’t thought he was doing it on purpose, though. And I definitely hadn’t thought it was because of me.
“I asked Teagan if you were single,” I admitted. “More than once.”
He chuckled. “I heard you. That was the first time I wished my wolf would let me date.”
I bit back a smile. “See, we’ve got a good thing going. We’ll just take it slow, and it’ll work out.”
“Mmhmm.” His hand slid over my thigh lightly. “For the record, we can take it slow and still have sex though. If you want to. Because I’m definitely up for it.”
I snorted. “I’ve created a monster.”
He flashed me a grin, and I held up a hand. “Whatever you’re about to say, don’t say it.”
“I was just going to say that I can think of bigger problems you could have than a mate who’s perfectly willing to have sex in pretty much any given time or place.”
I groaned. “That. That was what I didn’t want you to say. We’re taking things slow, Ford.” I opened my door, stepping out of the car, and he followed my lead.
“What does that really mean, though?” He pressed. “Physically slow? Emotionally slow? Are we dating like humans, or just moving through the werewolf mating steps at a slow pace?”
Dating like humans was one of the options? Sign me the hell up for that one.
“We’re dating like humans,” I decided.
“Dating humans have sex,” he pointed out.
Dammit, I’d walked right into that one.
“Not all of them; that depends entirely on the humans,” I pointed out. “There are plenty of people in different cultures and religions who take the physical part of a relationship slowly. Mainstream media doesn’t want you to think that’s true, but it is.”
“I’m one of those people, Ebony. People in my culture save ourselves for mating.” He gestured around us while he held the back door open wide enough for me to slip into his house.
I opened my mouth to tell him that “werewolf” wasn’t a verifiable culture, but then closed it and decided not to say so. Who was I to determine whether or not werewolves had their own culture? They were definitely unique.
“Technically we haven’t finished mating until my wolf picks yours,” I pointed out.
“Technically the mating process won’t end until we’ve ridden out The Climax,” he countered.
“The Climax?” I frowned. “No one told me about that.”
“After your wolf claims mine, we’ll go into a period of sealing the mating. We’ll either have sex for multiple days straight or we’ll be in horrible pain for two weeks or so,” he explained. “My pack didn’t explain the mating process to you very well.”
“No kidding.” I sat down in one of the kitchen chairs. “At least we know we’ll have fun with it.”
