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“Sorry. Next time, it’s all yours.”
He set the folded tarp on the others and pulled our bag off his shoulder, then tugged out a few pieces of fruit. They were all around half the size of my fist, with fuzzy black skin that didn’t look incredibly appetizing.
Ivaylo noticed my lack of enthusiasm, and reassured me. “You’ll like the taste.”
I wasn’t convinced, but nodded anyway.
There was a table with two chairs in the den, so we both sat down at it. I took a reluctant bite, and my eyes widened when I realized he was right. The berries were delicious.
My thoughts wandered again as we ate. It seemed sad to me that we were staying in the den of a male shifter who had faded away without a mate, and there weretwochairs inside it.
How many nights had he spent sitting down, staring at the empty seat across from him?
How many times had he yearned for a mate to love?
My heart broke for the man I’d never meet. I hoped that the shifters were right—that there was a veil they crossed at their death. I hoped there was another world after Evare, where they’d have a chance to find more happiness.
“Why doesn’t our den have a table?” I asked Ivaylo, wondering if the reasoning had occurred to him as well.
He lifted a shoulder. “I realized eating alone at a table for two was a trigger for immis, and made everyone burn them.”
Damn.
I hadn’t wanted to be right about that, but it was probably better they had gotten rid of them.
He asked about my grandparents while we continued eating, and I wore a sad smile as I told him about them. Though I missed them desperately, the intimacy of telling him stories I’d never shared with anyone else didn’t go unnoticed.
The glows of our frenzy seemed to dance off one another as the night went on, swelling and moving with every brush of our legs, hands, or knees.
As the magic played, it warmed my body and reminded me of my promise.
It was late, and I was wet between my thighs… and I was excited that I was finally going to do something about that.
Our conversation faded as my gaze lingered on the magic around us. Ivaylo’s knee brushed mine, and I found his smoldering gray eyes moving slowly over my face, as if he couldn’t help but take me in.
My thoughts slipped back to our conversation about his worry that I would walk away. I hoped tonight would clear that up—for both of us.
I said softly, “I would be attracted to you even without the bond.”
“And I, you.”
“I’m serious, Ivaylo.Vay.” He always called me Ez, so I figured that justified me in shortening his name. “I thought you were the most beautiful man I had ever seen the first moment I saw you. The biting scared the shit out of me—but I was still attracted to you from the beginning. The frenzy wouldn’t have wrapped around me at all if I wasn’t, right? You said it depends on my desire, and even that night, I was glowing.”
“I suppose you were.”
“Don’tsuppose. Know.” I sat down on his lap the way I had earlier. “Can I touch you?”
His chest rumbled. “Always. You never need to ask.”
I liked that.
I liked it a lot.
Setting my hands on his shoulders, I slowly ran them over his thick arms. “I’ve only ever seen muscles like this in pictures,” I told him, moving my hands to his chest. “They feel so much better than I would’ve imagined.”
His eyes closed, his head tipping back as he enjoyed my touch. The frenzy’s glow around him was as bright as I’d ever seen it, and his erection throbbed beneath my core, but I just continued touching him. The only fabric separating us was the thin material of his shorts, but that only made the moment more thrilling.
My fingers made it down to the chiseled lines of his abdomen, and he growled, his hips arching slightly to press his cock against me. I noticed his hands gripping the sides of his seat, as if to hold them back.
