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“Did I do something? Are you angry?” He placed his hand on her shoulder.
She stroked her hand over his cheek, the firm line of his jaw, grateful to see him up and awake. “No. No, of course not. I’m just...just thinking about our next move is all.” She caressed the stubble of his cheek and he leaned into her hand, the rumble in his chest an aroused purr.
“I practically became possessed in front of your entire pack, and David said you just ran off afterward. It made me think...”
“Don’t think that way,” she reassured him. “I just...needed time and space to think, that’s all. Time to process.”
“And your deal with Amarok?” he asked.
“It’s over,” she said, quietly. “Fated mates are so...regarded among our kind it’s something even Rock had to respect. Our deal is off. He won’t come between us.”
“And your pack?”
She released a long breath. “They’ll come to terms with it. Give them time.”
Jace stepped closer, so close that she could feel the heat of him against her back. He snaked his hand around her waist and gently pulled her against him. “Icanget along without you, if you need me to, but I don’t want to.”
If David had told him what she’d said, how she’d declared him as her mate, he was no doubt talking about the fallout, the consequences for her pack and her broken deal with Rock.
“We’re past that now.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, resting her head against him. “I’m handling it.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her hair.
“Don’t be. Don’t act like that.”
“Don’t act like what?”
“Like you have anything to apologize for.” She pulled back to meet his gaze. “You don’t. It’s me who should be sorry. I should have recognized what you are to me sooner.”
“You never have to apologize to me for needing time, for needing space, Frankie. For your feelings.” Jace smiled a little as he shook his head. “Not today, not tomorrow. Not ever.” He tipped her chin up toward him, meeting her gaze. “But there’s one thing I need to know.”
She shook her head. “Of course. Anything.”
Jace’s emerald gaze pierced through her. “What held you back?”
Frankie lowered her hands from around his neck, stepping away and he let her. She wasn’t sure she was ready to have this conversation. Not yet. Not in the wake of all of all that’d occurred. Of all they still had to face.
“The deal with Rock...”
Jace growled, low in warning, but there was no true threat to it, only frustration. “Don’t lie to me, mate.”
It was the first time he’d addressed her as that, at least directly, and the weight of that word, of all they meant to each other, and all they would be to one another in the future, shivered through her, making her warm not only in her core, but everywhere, including her heart. She turned her back toward him. “It seems trivial in the face of...well, everything,” she gestured around them, “but...” She turned to face him again. “How can you love me, Jace, when you still don’t know how to love yourself? How to accept who and what you truly are?”
Jace stilled then.
The space in the studio between them filled with nothing but the sounds of their breathing as she waited for an answer. She might as well have asked him to wrangle the moon for her.
“You’re right,” he finally said, the rough pain in his voice tearing through her. “And I can’t promise you I’ll change that. Not today, not tomorrow, or hell, even ten years in the future.” The sharp eyes of his wolf speared her. “But I’m trying, Princess, truly, and being loved by you makes it easier. All I can give you is that.”
“That’s more than enough,” she answered. “You’remore than enough.”
They came together in a collision of loving arms and lips before Frankie had even realized they’d stepped toward one another. They continued like this, coming together in a harsh joining of tongue and teeth, until suddenly Jace was dragging her to the floor with him, burying himself in her. She accepted him willingly, claiming her pleasure as she rode the top of his hips. Their lovemaking was messy and fevered, just as they were.
But whatever challenge faced them, she knew that together they’d get through it.
She came on a hurried shout, Jace pumping into her as he filled her full, the warmth of his seed coating her. She collapsed on top of him in a fevered heap of kisses against his chest, his neck, but he quickly brought her mouth to him, claiming her lips.
“I love you, Frankie,” he whispered against her as he finally pulled back.
