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“Benjamin.”
I watch a shiver run through him and I tilt my head, studying him. His face is flushed and he’s biting his bottom lip, actively avoiding my eyes. “You wanted to talk?”
Sighing, I say, “Yes, I did. I want to apologize for how I’ve treated you since we met. There’s a reason. I had someone. It ended badly.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. What happened?”
“He cheated.”
Benjamin gives me a sympathetic look. “That must have sucked. I’m sorry. Recently or …” His voice trails off and I feel like an idiot.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I shake my head. “Seven years ago.”
It’s so quiet, you can hear a pin drop. Benjamin’s face morphs from incredulity, to shock, to anger. “You treated me like shit because you couldn’t figure out how to go to therapy and get your shit together?”
I would have gotten an attitude weeks ago, but now, I find his angry face adorable. “Yeah, well, I’m an imperfect person.”
A smile breaks across his face and I feel like I won the lottery. “That we can agree on. Tell me what happened. With your ancient ex and you refusing to work through it and turning into an ass.”
Grinning, I shake my head to tell him about Levi. “I didn’t know fated mates existed. But I thought if they did, Levi would have been it. We hit it off immediately, our relationship moved fast. We said ‘I love you’ after a month and moved in together a month after that. We were inseparable.”
“How long were you together?”
“Two years. I thought we were going to have a future together. He took heat suppressants because we wanted to get married before we had a kid, but I think it might have been because he was cheating then and didn’t want me to take him through his heat.” I squeeze the bridge of my nose, thinking about this terrible time in my life. “Anyway. I found him fucking his yoga instructor. They have a son now. He’s about six.”
“Rome …”
“When I saw you the first time, you surpassed anything I’ve ever felt before. And your scent … it clouded my mind. I just knew you were capable of breaking me.” I meet his eyes and try to stress why I acted the way I did, even if it wasn’t the best course of action. “I felt like you would leave me in a worse state than Levi did. Something that took me years to recover from. Finding out we’re fated mates makes sense, but Benjamin, you have to understand. Love hasn’t been kind to me.”
He nods, giving me a small smile. “I get it. I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’ve never been in love. I don’t date, I never thought I would find someone that was interesting enough for me to spend more than one night with.”
Hot anger runs through my body at the thought of Benjamin being with anyone but me, even though that’s completely illogical.
Tentatively, I reach over and pull one of his hands from his coffee cup. He lets me hold it and I can’t keep the smile from spreading across my face. “And what do you see now?”
He rolls his eyes. “We’re fated mates. I don’t think I’m allowed to get rid of you. Am I?”
I shrug. “Who knows? Can we not find out? I don’t want to be rid of you.”
Benjamin squeezes my hand, then slides his out of mine. “I don’t know Rome. Can we … take it slow? We don’t have to jump into anything, right?”
Everything in me wants to say no, that we belong together, but overriding that is the need to make him happy. If this makes him happy, I won’t deny him. “Yeah, Benjamin, we can take it as slow as you want. I’m not going anywhere. Looks like we’re in this for the long haul.”
This time, I’m rewarded with a genuine smile. “We are. Gods, Rome. I didn’t thinkyouwould be the one.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
He tilts his head, assessing me. “No. It’s not. Time will tell though. I will promise you something. I’ll never cheat on you. I wouldn’t put you through that. I would rather end things than do that.”
I feel my shoulders slump, stress I didn’t know I was carrying leaving me. “Thank you.” We stop talking for a bit, just stare at each other. “Where do we start? A date?”
Benjamin reaches for my hand this time and I hang on, loving how his soft palm feels in mine. “A date sounds good, Rome. I’d like that a lot.”
We sit in the bistro, talking about our interests and where we’ll have our date. It’s been a while since I’ve had one. I’m eager to see what the future holds for me and my omega.
Chapter 8
Benji
