With a soft smile I couldfeel, Stevie cupped my cheek in her palm. “Because you need to think about what happened?”
Unable to help myself, I leaned into her touch.I need to think about a lot of things, including claiming you. But what I said was: “I need to think aboutyou.”
Her gaze darted over my face, as if searching for the truth, and her voice was barely above a whisper when she asked, “Am I your Mate, Garrak?”
I squeezed my eyes shut in a futile attempt to quiet myKteerand my cock and, yes, my heart as I breathed the truth. “I think you must be.”
Stevie’s kiss was the merest brush against my lips. “Then go, Garrak. I’ll be waiting when you get back.”
I went.
Gods help me, I went, and I walked until my leg cramped. Then called up Sylvik, borrowed the plane, and went shopping on the mainland. It was a distraction, nothing else.
And I still wasn’t certain of the future, but I knew one thing: I wanted Stevie.
Forever.
Stevie
I wokeTuesday morning in Garrak’s arms, and I didn’t think I’d ever been so warm, so comfortable. So safe.
Last night I heard him come home after I was already half asleep, and I’ll admit I breathed a little sigh of relief. Even knowing he was strong and dangerous—and hadn’t his response to Brakkor’s slurs yesterday showed that?—I worried about him being alone in the dark.
He’s been alone in the dark before.
Yes, and the deeper I fell in love with him, the more my heart broke for him, that he’d had to experience that terror.
Love him?
I smiled sleepily and snuggled closer to Garrak.
Yeah, I loved him. How could I not? He was the first male in my life that I could trust one-hundred percent to be there when I needed him, to stand up for me and take care of me and?—
That’s going to get old.
Would it? I mean, this last week had been like heaven?—
Like a vacation. You’re going to have to return to the real world.
The real world. New Orleans. Avoiding my father’s demands, trying not to piss him off, scrambling with whatever jobs I could find, always on the alert for who was going to hurt me next?
I could stay here in Eastshore. With Garrak.
If he wants you.
And if I could get used to being some fuckbunny pillow princess, kept around just because I liked to be taken care of. I didn’t have a realpurposehere.
Not like I had one back in New Orleans either. This place felt more like home than anywhere else. Here, in Garrak’s arms.
Who are you kidding? You’d rather stay here with him as long as he’ll have you, even if you’ll end up bored.
That was the truth. I loved him, and I wanted to be with him…even if I didn’t feel like I had a real place here on Eastshore other than as Garrak’spretty little human.
Besides, if I was his Mate, Garrak wouldn’tletme leave, would he?
When I sighed, Garrak’s arms tightened around me.
“I can hear you thinking,dkaar.”
