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I loved that Marney wasn’t shy about asking what she really wanted to know. I hated when people danced around subjects.
“Not a pinch,” I laughed, and Riggs joined me. “Mine is more of a clawing me open from the inside out. It isn’t painful, but I can feel what he’s doing. That’s not making sense. For someone who writes books, I’m mincing words. Riggs?”
“The clawing would happen to get our attention, mostly. But more than anything else, there would be images exchanged between the consciousnesses. He would say the word mate to us. Yell it, actually. He makes himself known, and he tells me what, or in this case, who he wants.”
“Right away? Like love at first sight?”
Riggs blushed. “Not always right away. But in the first few encounters.”
The question she would ask next hovered above us, a welcome rain cloud threatening to pour. “You…he hasn’t told you anything about me?”
Despite feeling semi-prepared for the question, I wasn’t ready to answer it.
Or maybe I was. My bear knew she was the one when she approached us right off the airplane.
I wouldn’t lie to her. It simply wasn’t in me. “Yes,” I answered.
“And yours?” She turned to Riggs.
“Yes,” he answered.
After pushing a lock of hair behind her ear, she let out a long breath. “I’m sure about both of you as well. And that master suite is very big for one person.”
My heart thrummed faster than after running or jumping into a freezing lake. She was offering herself to us. Offering her body but, more than that, her life.
“Mating is not something we take lightly,” Riggs took over, and I was glad for it since my throat had constricted. “Sex with you…Marney, once we step into that bedroom, we would want you for life. You’re still recovering from a hurtful and traumatic event.”
“You think I’m here as some rebound romance?” she scoffed as sourness settled all around us.
“We didn’t say that, Marney,” I said, trying to take her hand, so she would be soothed, but she was all wrapped up.
“I’m offering you two…you know what? Nevermind. I’m going to the big, empty bedroom by myself to think for a while.”
“Marney…” Riggs started.
She turned. Tears welled in her eyes. “I might be human, but I know what I want. And it has nothing to do with being traumatized.”
Chapter Seventeen
Riggs
“She’s not leaving,” Nacho said as we prepped dinner. Marney hadn’t come out for lunch, which upset us, but our bears were leading us at this point. We needed to give her all the time she needed.
My bear felt like his mate was still boiling, more than the egg drop soup on the stove.
With some extra time on our hands, we’d made chicken and vegetable hand pies, along with the soup for dinner.
“Who said she was? Wait, are you reassuring me or commanding?” Both of us were gruff and upset, since our mate had stormed into the bedroom. We hadn’t meant to hurt her. We knew she was ours but also that it was different for humans.
She also needed to understand that our desire for her would never trump her emotional needs.
“It’s all ready,” I said, ignoring his question as I painted broad lines of butter on the hand pies and sprinkled on sesame seeds for a finish.
“Do you think we’ve given her enough time?” Nacho’s bear was likely hurting as mine was.
“I think we need to go talk to her.”
Together, we walked toward the master suite and then knocked softly. At first, there was no answer, but we heard her steady breaths. “Come in.”
