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The one time I’d decided to sleep with a guy, just so I didn’t feel like some kind of a freak who never had sex at all, my virgin defiler of choice left as soon as I revealed my status. That was not happening tonight. Not even if I had to lie.
“Never mind. It’s nothing. I was teasing.” But his voice did not sound like teasing. There was something more there.
And I wanted to know what it was, but before I could ask, the rumble of a Jeep and a couple of ATVs interrupted us, and he turned so his body was between me and the passersby. He’d done that before, too. Did he think he was protecting my reputation or maybe keeping me from the kicked-up dirt and gravel from their wheels? Very gentlemanly of him either way.
It had really been a miracle that we had so much time alone. We hadn’t been the whole time. The canal was a popular place for locals who just wanted a walk outside without much altitude gain after work or on the weekends. Also, swimming. There were small pools both hot and cold scattered nearby, and fishermen loved to lounge on the banks and troll for rainbow trout and bass. More of an excuse to drink beer, I’d always thought. But we’d been by ourselves quite a bit.
“I guess I should get you home.” His words preceded his leading me to the passenger door of his car. He winced at the dust collecting on the sides. “If we’re going to do this much, I’d better look into that off-road vehicle. I don’t want to be getting my car detailed multiple times a week.”
“Oh…good idea.” This was moving so fast, and he sounded so sure. Normally that would have had me running as hard and fast as possible in the opposite direction, but for some strange reason, his surety that we’d be spending a lot more time together had me tumbling right into his arms.
Chapter Ten
Tom
And don’t contact the client until you read it all the way through, all right? Not a word.
At what point did that translate to, it’s okay to get the client naked and ravage her? I was thinking probably never. But I couldn’t help myself. Her scent was heavy in my nose, my lion was still chantingmate, and all he wanted me to do was make love to her and mark her. It would have been so much easier if I didn’t agree with him 100 percent.
I kissed her softly, taking my time and getting to know her taste and everything about her. We would only have one first time together, and I wanted it to be special for her. We were still standing in the doorway of her home, and I backed her inside, still having enough presence of mind to want to get her where it was safe.
No one at the canal had seemed to follow us, but that didn’t mean they weren’t or that someone else wasn’t watching. I’d been watching her all day. And studying each person who so much as looked in her direction. Many of her customers were familiar to me, and my first inclination was to dismiss them as a danger to her, but I couldn’t do that. The menace might be from far away, but that didn’t mean they weren’t using locals to capture the princess.
While waiting for her to complete her shift, I’d gotten more information from the office. Her father was aware of her existence, but due to a threat in his principality, he wanted her to stay unaware of him for a little longer. I did not know how recently he had learned he had a daughter—his only child because his late wife had not borne him any heirs. What this meant for Emmalise I could only guess, but what it meant for me, her mate…could be disastrous.
Easing her past the door, I closed it and locked it behind us, breaking our kiss enough to say, “Emmalise, are you sure? I know we just met, but I want you so much.” And I was probably being foolish to continue even with her permission. She didn’t know the whole story of her life and why I was in it. I should say good night and leave. And while I would make love to her all night, I could not mark her until she knew everything. My lion rumbled in displeasure, but there was nothing to be done. Claiming was cementing something she wouldn’t understand without some explanation, and it would be entirely unfair. I wasn’t sure that it would be binding in the same way as between two shifters, but I couldn’t take the chance. Self-preservation warned me that even if she could walk away after that, I could not. My life would be hell with a mate who was claimed and then rejected me.
So we would have to wait on that until her life was not in the balance. The information I’d gotten earlier had me even more on guard.
“This way.” She linked our hands and led me down a short hallway into her bedroom. And I didn’t have the strength to walk away because it might be our first time, but it might also be the last, and I didn’t have the strength to deny myself one night with my mate. “It’s probably a mess in here.”
“I only see you.” Kissing her again, I moved her toward the queen-sized bed against the wall in the bedroom barely big enough to hold it and one three-drawer dresser. Her comforter was tumbled at the bottom of the bed, and a pair of jeans tossed over the dresser were all the things out of place that I could see in the dimness.
Emmalise left me there for a moment, saying something about freshening up, and I sat on the edge of the bed. Our mate was fairly tidy, something I’d noticed this morning when peering through her windows and on our way in here.
But if she’d been completely the opposite, I wouldn’t have cared. The gods didn’t match us up for housework. Fated matings were a soul connection, a promise made before entering this life to be together and support one another in our journey.
I stood and paced over to peer out the window. When this was over, when the threat against her was resolved, she would have new information about her life and likely decisions to make. If she was a shifter, I could be confident what those decisions would be. But for a human? I just didn’t know. She might or might not choose us over a new life in another country.
Why couldn’t our mate be just an ordinary mountain lion shifter? Or even a wolf? But if she was anyone other than just who she was, she’d be someone else. And not our…
Mate.
No, she wouldn’t be our mate. The air of her room was permeated with her scent, making me crave her company, miss her even though she was just a few yards away. No matter what happened with her father, we would find a way to be together. No gods could be so cruel as to separate fated mates. I refused to believe that they would. But the final choice would be hers.
While Emmalise did whatever women did before joining their mate in bed, I took the opportunity to check all the doors and windows, making sure they were securely locked. It was a little warm to have everything closed up, but we’d have to cope. There would be sweating either way.
I returned to take in the scene outside the window, doing my job while taking actions that would probably get me fired, and I ducked behind the curtain for a better look. It could be wildlife, probably was, in fact. Still, I needed to know. A moment later, I knew for sure it was no raccoon. Not a skunk, either, at least not of the four-legged variety. No, this one was two-legged and creeping past Emmalise’s trash can on his way to her back door.
And suddenly, what I’d planned on was no longer a thing. I would not be taking my mate to bed. Not for a while anyway. Whoever was stumbling around out there was about to find out that my mate was under my protection, and I would not hesitate to take out anyone who threatened her safety and happiness.
Or who I thought might be considering doing so.
Chapter Eleven
Emmalise
I didn’t shower, but I did everything short of doing so, very nervous about what I was about to do. Never intending not to have a normal sex life, I just hadn’t had good luck in it. Between the one guy I’d been ready to sleep with just to get it over with and all the rest who I had no intention of sleeping with, it had never happened.
