You are sitting in a car next to your mate. Say something! Anything!
Rhys had never considered himself a charmer or a ladies’ man – unlike his teammate Trent, at least until he’d found his mate, Zina – but he’d never had any difficulty talking to women either. But now, he found himself almost paralyzed.
Ithadto be just the unexpectedness of it – after the day he’d had, what with being suspended, then attacked by wyvern venom, then… everything that had happened just now, only to havehis mateappear suddenly in front of him without any warning whatsoever…
…Except, apparently wedidmeet before? And I just have absolutely no memory whatsoever of it?
He knew that it had to be the case, since justseeingyour mate wasn’t enough to spark the mate bond to life. There had to be a touch involved. That was just how it worked.
I have to find out what happened,Rhys thought desperately.And I have to do something other than sit here like a sack of potatoes while she drives me around.
“So, uh, you – you said I sucked on your fingers?”
Oh my God.
Rhys wondered if she’d take it amiss if he just quietly opened the car door and rolled out of it to be left behind on the side of the road.
When I said ‘Say anything’ I didn’t mean that!
The woman darted him a mildly incredulous look.
“Yeah, you did,” she said, before she went back to focusing on the road. “And my name’s Maisie Dawson, since you didn’t ask before shoving my fingers in your mouth. Or at any other time.”
Rhys cringed inwardly. He’d been too taken up by the fact that she washis mateto even think about asking her these things – of course, knowing her name was important, but he felt he already knew the most important thing about her, and everything else had kind of gone by the wayside.
And, he had to admit, if he reallyhadsucked on Maisie’s fingers, he wasverysorry that he couldn’t remember it.
She was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen in his life – even with her hair in a messy, damp bun, wearing wet scrubs, and clearly more than a little worn out, her allure was undeniable. Rhys had to stop himself from letting his eyes wander down over her body – which was all too clearly outlined by her damp clothes, which seemed to cling to every curve of her body.
And then there’s that fierce, determined look in her eye… the ‘take no shit’ attitude… the fact that, well, shedidsave my life…
It was clear that, even beyond being his mate, Maisie Dawson was clearly pretty incredible. In addition to beingsmoking hot…and right now, looking at him with a fairly pissed-off expression on her face.
“Hello? Are you in there?”
“Sorry,” he said, jerking himself out of his reverie on the magnitude of her beauty and how desperately he wished he couldstopnoticing the way the front of her scrubs were makingthe curve of her breastswaytoo obvious. “I swear, I’m not usually this rude. It’s just been… a day.”
Maisie glanced at him again, and this time, her features softened a little. “Yeah, okay. I guess it has been.” Her eyes narrowed. “But youdoseem to be doing a lot better now – was that green goo some kind of top-secret healing serum or something?”
Grimacing, Rhys wondered how, exactly, he was going to evenbeginexplaining everything he knew he’d need to explain to Maisie if she was going to accept him as her mate.
Of course she will accept us,his griffin cried, affronted at the very idea that he could be thinking anything else.She is our mate! She already knows us in her soul. She would never reject us!
That was easy for the griffin to say, Rhys thought morosely. To it, the issue was pretty black and white. But Maisie was human, and Rhys guessed she really didn’t know anything about the world of shifters, let alone the world he came from. But maybe he could ask her a few questions, and try to figure out what would be the best way to approach the situation.
They still had a little way to drive, after all – though Rhys was wondering now if it was really the best idea to have asked Maisie along to where he was going.
But we could not let her out of our sight!His griffin preened and fluffed its wings.And you simply need to stop being such a coward and tell her the truth.
Rhys supposed the griffin had a point there – he reallyhadn’twanted to let Maisie go. And besides which, the entire afternoon was still a complete blur.
“No, unfortunately it wasn’t,” he said, wondering how much hecouldsay, since he wasn’t sure he should jump straight tomost venomous substance on earth, made only by a mythicalcreature that’s virtually extinct these days, ever heard of a wyvern?
That really seemed more like a kind of third date conversation.
“Is that why you had to suck it off my fingers?” Maisie asked, and Rhys could hear the tension in her voice, see the way she raised her eyebrows as she drove.
At last, a reasonable explanation for why I apparently did that!
