The words hit Kivani like a match to gasoline. He pulled Dakota back into another kiss, this one harder, more demanding. Dakota’s legs wrapped around Kivani’s waist, arms circling Kivani’s shoulders, and suddenly they were pressed together with no space between them.
Dakota kissed like he was starving for it, his mouth eager and his hands restless. He threaded his fingers through Kivani’s hair, tugging slightly, and Kivani growled again, louder this time. The sound made Dakota whimper, his hips rolling forward.
Kivani’s control was slipping. His tiger wanted to mark Dakota as his in every way possible. He forced himself to slow down, to gentle the kiss, even as every instinct screamed at him to do the opposite. Dakota was human, fragile, and Kivani needed to be careful.
Kivani pulled him back in, and this time he didn’t try to suppress the sounds his tiger wanted to make. The growls rumbled between them, soft and continuous, vibrating through both their bodies. Dakota whimpered and pressed closer, his smaller frame fitting against Kivani’s like they were made for this.
They kissed until Kivani’s lips felt bruised, until his mate was trembling in his arms, until his tiger was yowling at him to make Dakota understand that Kivani was never letting him go. But he pulled back, resting his forehead against Dakota’s and breathing hard.
“We should slow down,” he said, even though every fiber of his being was screaming the opposite.
Dakota’s hands were still fisted in his shirt. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to rush this.” He pressed a kiss to his mate’s forehead, then his temple, then the corner of his mouth. “Because you deserve better than me losing control.”
“What if I want you to lose control?” Dakota’s voice was small but daring, the words of someone testing boundaries he wasn't sure existed.
Kivani groaned and pulled his mate into a hug, burying his face in his hair and breathing in his scent. “You’re going to kill me.”
“That’s not a no.”
“It’s a not-yet.” He forced himself to loosen his grip, to step back far enough that he could think clearly. Dakota looked thoroughly kissed, his hair mussed and his sweater hanging even further off his shoulder. Kivani wanted to pull it down more, wanted to see what other sounds he could pull from that pretty mouth. “Stay with me today. Hang out in the shop while I work. We can talk. Get to know each other better.”
Dakota worried his bottom lip between his teeth, and Kivani watched the movement with hungry eyes. “What would I do while you’re working?”
“Whatever you want. Read, watch videos, organize more things.” Kivani smiled at the way Dakota’s face lit up at that last suggestion. “I’ve got a whole back room that’s a disaster. You could work your magic on it.”
“You’re just saying that because you know I can’t resist organizing things.”
“Is it working?”
Dakota rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “Yeah, it’s working.”
They cleaned up the fruit and headed downstairs to the shop. Kivani unlocked the door and flipped on the lights, and the familiar smell of sugar and vanilla wrapped around them. His mate wandered through the space, running his fingers along the display cases, while Kivani gathered the ingredients for his caramel-apple taffy.
“The back room is through there.” Kivani gestured to a door behind the counter. “Fair warning, it’s bad. I’ve been meaning to organize it for months.”
Dakota disappeared through the door, and Kivani heard him gasp. “Kivani, this isn’t bad. This is a disaster.”
“I warned you.”
“There are boxes from 2015 back here!”
Kivani grinned and turned his attention to the stove. He measured out sugar and corn syrup, butter and vanilla, falling into the familiar rhythm of candy making. The mixture bubbled and hissed as it cooked, filling the kitchen with sweet steam. He could hear his mate moving around in the back room, the sounds of boxes being shifted and reorganized.
After a while, Dakota emerged with cobwebs in his hair and dust on his sweater. “Do you want to keep the Christmas decorations from ten years ago, or can those go?”
“They can go.”
“What about these order forms from a catering company that doesn't exist anymore?”
“Those too.”
Dakota disappeared back into the room, muttering to himself about organization systems and better storage habits. Kivani poured the hot candy onto a marble slab and began working it with a scraper, folding and turning until it was cool enough to pull. His muscles flexed and released with the familiar motion, and he lost himself in the work, content knowing his mate was close by.
Chapter Five
The knock on Dakota’s apartment door came at nine forty-seven on a Thursday night, which was already suspicious because nobody visited him. Ever. Especially not in Crimson Hollow, where he’d specifically moved to get away from a particular person who thought they had claims on his time or attention.
