What if I explain all that to him and Maverick decides that’s not what he wants? We can continue a relationship without bonding, but it would get harder and harder for me not to claim my mate and I would eventually waste away.
I point to a bench and we sit down, Maverick turning his body slightly to me.
“Yeah, bond,” I say. “As a shifter with a fated mate, I claim my partner, and we’re a pair…for life.”
His eyes grow wide. “And that’s binding?” I nod. “And I can’t send you away if you piss me off?” I shake my head. “No divorce?” I shake my head again. “What if we don’t like each other after a while?”
“That doesn’t happen. Yeah, we won’t agree sometimes and we might argue, but we’ll always figure out a way to solve our issues. Communication will be easy for us. Easier still because you hold nothing back.” I bump him and he grins. “But no. No divorce. We could break our bond, someone strong like Blossom would be able to give us a spell, but it would almost kill us.”
Maverick blows out a long breath, his eyebrows dipped. “How do you claim me?”
“I have to be inside you, then I suck my mark above your pulse point.”
He looks at me, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. “Oh wow. You didn’t…the first time…”
I chuckle and adjust myself in my pants, thinking about how pliant Maverick was when I took him the second time in his bed. Sure, I wanted to claim him right then, but I held myself back, only sucking at him enough so he could feel it down to his toes. But his scent in my nose and his tight ass around my dick had me almost losing myself and claiming him right then.
The only thing that stopped me was remembering exactly why I was a fucking recliner—doing shit I wasn’t supposed to do.
I want Maverick to pick me. I want him to choose to have my claiming.
I could tell him what could possibly happen in the next decade or so if I don’t claim him, but I don’t want him to feel guilty or pressured. No, he can choose and we’ll go from there.
“No,” I answer, “I didn’t. But it would feel like that times ten, times a hundred even.”
Maverick shivers and darts his pretty tongue out to wet his lips. “I would like that, I think. But if there’s no option for divorce if things don’t work out…that’s a lot, right?”
I nod, my heart thudding behind my ribs at his hesitation, even though I understand. “It is. It’s not something you have to decide right now. Or for a while, even. We can simply buildon what we have and when—if—you’re ready, you can tell me. Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Maverick gives me a quick kiss, then lays his head on my shoulder. There we rest for a while, enjoying the weather and each other’s company.
thirteen
MAVERICK
“Cade?”I call out as I enter the apartment.
I spot him in his favorite spot by the bookshelves as a recliner before he shifts back to his human form, his naked body bared to me. Fuck, I’m in trouble. There’s no way I can see all his sexy body on display without wanting him inside me.
Cade shakes himself out and smiles, rushing to greet me. I laugh when he pulls me into his arms, kissing me deeply. I melt into him, threading my fingers in his long dirty blond hair.
His hands drift down to my ass, kneading gently. He walks me back to push me against the wall and I don’t stop him, even though I have to be back at work in the next twenty minutes.
But it’s been days since Cade and I have been together—I’m usually tired from work and he helps me relax by having me rest in his recliner until I fall asleep. I’ve thought about having him inside me again since our first time and I want more.
He hefts me into his arms, and I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. I moan into his mouth as he dips his tongue inside for a taste. I’ll never get tired of kissing Cade.
“Bedroom,” I whimper when I pull my mouth from his. “Hurry.”
With a filthy smile, he carries me to the bedroom, staring at me the whole while. It’s heady to have all of his attention on me, someone who looks like he used to be a model before he was cursed.
When we get into the bedroom, he lays me out on the bed, stepping back so he can look down at me. I’m sure I’ve looked better, as I’m in my work clothes and my hair is probably all over my head from the heat of the ovens, but he looks at me like I’m the most beautiful thing in the world.
I preen under his attention, raising my arms over my head so he can look his fill. Cade’s eyes darken as he licks his lips, his expression speaking to all the things he wants to do to me. All the things I’dlethim do to me.
“You just gonna stand there,” I ask in a voice I hardly recognize, “or are you going to fuck me into the mattress?”
