“That’s ridiculous.” I tilt my head to give him better access. “I fell in love with you again when you said you wished Folk Haven had a bookstore.”
Finn straightens. “And that made you love me because…”
I still remember him stepping up to me in line, his eyes wide and searching as he said hello. Finn asked how long I was in town for, and I told him I was heading out again that afternoon. In fact, I had to leave right after getting my coffee if I wanted time to go to the bookstore in Atlanta before catching my flight.
And he said, with so much regret that it infused every inch of his body, that he wished Folk Haven had a bookstore.
“Because I think we were envisioning the same thing. The two of us getting coffee and then walking over to the imaginary bookstore, talking as we went, rediscovering each other. Then maybe making out between the shelves. And the fact that you wanted exactly what I wanted did it for me.”
“Did you ask the gods to take the feeling away again?”
“Yes.”
“Did they?”
“I pretended they had.”
“Until when?”
“Until I saw your delicious butt sticking through that inner tube.”
Finn barks out a laugh as his arms tighten around me. But I don’t let him close off too much space, my hands intent on sliding down his torso until I reach his fly. He stills under the caress.
“If it’s not clear, I’m trying to tell you that I love you.” I undo the button on his shorts and slowly pull down the zipper. “I have for years even if I tried to ignore the feelings.” I slip my hands into his pants and find the flap of his briefs. “And I never plan on asking the gods for it to go away again.” I free his dick, the hard length standing warm and straight in my grip. “Because I need to love you.”
Finn’s forehead falls forward to rest against mine, heavy breaths bellowing as I stroke him.
“I love you too. Think I have from the day I met you.”
Shifting forward on my knees, I position Finn’s cockhead right at my entrance. In preparation for something like this outcome, I decided to come over here in a dress without any panties. No point in overdressing for the occasion.
“Finn.”
At the sound of his name, he lifts his gaze to mine.
“I take my birth control pill promptly at eleven a.m. every day and have done so for the past three years. And it is widely speculated among our kind that mythics cannot contract venereal disease. Also, my gynecologist gave me a clean bill of health two months ago. What’s your status?”
“I—oh hell—you mean, you want to…” He’s some kind of flustered, hands fisting in my skirt, eyes tracing over my face and then fixating on our laps.
“Finn. Status. Now. Or I’m climbing off you to find a condom.”
“No STDs!” the man practically shouts. “I’m good. So good. Sit down.Please.”
I do appreciate being asked nicely. With a measure of control, I lower myself, focusing on the press, the push, the widening of myself to fit around the hard length of my human. When I’ve gone so far that my thighs rest on his, I realize a sheen of sweat covers my chest. My heart races. I feel everything.
“You’re inside me,” I tell Finn, untangling his hand from my dress so I can draw his palm up and press it flat against my chest. Directly over my heart.
“Hell, Isla. I never want to leave.” He stares at our hands on my body the same way he used to stare at me from across the room. Like there’s only one thing in the world he can see.
All he sees is me.
All I need is him.
Searching for more—the pinnacle I promised myself I’d reach to claim my mate—I begin to rock my hips. Slow at first,but then he groans, and the power of that sound infuses me, driving me on faster, harder, with unending love and absolutely no mercy.
“I wanted to take my time with you,” he gasps out before both his teeth and eyes snap shut.
“I plan to take my whole life with you,” I inform him while guiding his hand under the fabric pooling around my waist.
