His voice raised until it cracked on the last sentence. He teared up again but this time he was too distracted to wipe them away.
"I thought kissing you two or three times would've got the message across," he went on. "Do I have to do it a fourth time? Because I will. Look."
Ashe dove in, crushing his lips against mine. I let out a muffled sound of surprise as Ashe's tongue delved into my mouth. The hot, wet sensation of his passionate tongue sent a shiver down my spine.
Fuck, it felt good to kiss him.
Ashe pulled off with a gasp. He grasped the sides of my face as his furious eyes bore into me. "You are not broken. Get that through your fat head."
I blinked, then grinned. "My head is fat?"
"Yeah, 'cause you're a bear." He knocked his knuckles playfully against my forehead.
I realized that Ashe was straddling my waist. He must've climbed on top of me in his fervor. Heat flooded to my cheeks at the same time Ashe's face turned pink.
Desire pooled below the pit of my stomach. It was getting harder and harder to deny that I wanted him.
And I was starting to believe that he wanted me, too.
Hope fluttered inside me. Never in my life did I imagine I'd find an omega willing to kiss me, one who told me I was worth something. It was too painful to think about, so I didn't.
But now Ashe was here in front of me. He was kind, supportive, and wonderful in every way. He wasn't a figment of my imagination. He was real.
For the first time in my life, I allowed myself to wonder if I truly did have a fated mate after all.
And if so, I was sure it was him.
15
Ashe
You knowwhat's worse than being trapped underground in a dark tunnel with no apparent way out?
Doing all that with a hard-on.
Kissing Bear aggressively just now was a mistake. Not because I regretted it—I didn't at all, and in fact, I wanted to kiss him more-—but because my body took it as an excuse to get all excited when now wasnotthe time.
Despite the mushrooms' glow, it was graciously dark enough to hide the bulk of my erection, as long as Bear didn't peek between my legs. But as we followed the water upstream, he looked straight ahead. I wondered what he was thinking about. Probably not anything nasty, unlike me.
Ugh, what is wrong with me? Can I please save this horniness for when we escape this fucking tunnel?
But brushing up against Bear proved too much for my hormones. They flared up and refused to settle. If I didn't know any better, I would've thought my heat came early, but that was impossible. I was regular and my heat wasn't due for months.
Then why was I reacting this way?
As a small act of mercy, the stream seemed to be leading us in the right direction. We reached another underground hollow. This one had plant roots dangling from the ceiling, which meant we were approaching the surface. Either that or the roots were trying their damned hardest to reach the core of the earth.
Our route took on an incline, making my thighs ache. All we'd done for the past few hours was walk, and that was rough on my body after healing from my injuries so recently.
"I need a break," I said, breathless. "Is that okay?"
I noticed Bear wouldn't quite meet my eye. He nodded stiffly, then turned his back on me to drink from the stream again.
I went to the opposite corner of the hollow and sat on a natural dirt ledge, huffing. My face was hot and sweat trickled down my brow. Was it really from exertion alone?
Bear coughed. He stood up and quickly signed, "Going to scout ahead for a minute. Won't be far. Call if you need me."
"Um, okay."
