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“You’re that big?”
“No, it’s just not a big enough space and my lion will want to move. I’ll be trapped in my shift for a few hours, anyway.”
“Listen, you want me to accept all this stuff about shifters, but you haven’t shown me the truth.”
“You saw the jackal turn into a human,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, but I panicked and barely even remember what happened. It seems so surreal, and I need to see you so I know that I didn’t imagine it. Don’t you want me to see you shift?” she asked.
“I do. I would have shown you at some point anyway, and I understand that it’s a lot for you to believe without seeing it for yourself.”
“So?”
“It’s dark out.”
“And?”
“Well, I’d have to reach out to my alpha, Caesar. We’d need to go to the lion paddock on the safari tour, and we’d be under guard.”
“In case I want to make a run for it? I’m pretty sure that you could catch me, whether you were a lion or not. I’m not that fast.”
He chuckled. He liked that she was making jokes and didn’t seem too angry.
Cupping her cheek, he said, “Rhomi I’m really sorry for the way things went down tonight. I didn’t suspect the jackal was a shifter, but something in me knew she was and wanted to help, which is why I fought so hard to bring her here. I would give anything to not have gone into the aviary tonight so that you and I could have come back here and finished our night. I thought…” He let the sentence die.
“Thought what?” she asked, looking up at him.
“That you might love me. Because I know it’s only been a week, but I love you. You’re my soulmate and I’m crazy about you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Her gaze was intense, her eyes practically boring through his skull.
“I do love you,” she said finally. “But I’m still kind of pissed about…everything.”
His lion let out a happy roar in his head. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“You better. I want something sparkly and a half-dozen orgasms.”
“Is that all?” he asked with a laugh.
“To start.”
He pulled her close and hugged her tightly, tension seeping away from him as she relaxed in his hold and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you, Mercer. It’s only been a week, but I couldn’t walk away from you if I wanted to, and I don’t. I want to be a lion’s mate, and I want to keep your secret safe.”
He kissed her neck, where he wanted to mark her sooner rather than later, and then kissed her lips. “I love you too. And I’m not about to let you go anyway, you’re well and truly stuck with me.”
“Good.”
“So do you want to play first or do you want to see my lion?”
“While it’s super tempting to hit the sheets with you, I really do want to see your lion. I believe you, but I still need to see it.”
He totally understood.
“Let me call Caesar. You just have to promise that you won’t run if you get scared. I’m still me even in my lion form. If you run, I’ll chase you, and while it’s tempting to say that would be fun, you could get hurt in the dark and I’d feel terrible.”
“Maybe another time, then,” she said. “For the chasing thing. How fast do lions run anyway?”
He took her hand and led her to the bed. “Too fast for you to get away.”
