“Baron Aukrae is a good friend.”
“He must be, this is a pretty nice transport that he’s got, zooming us out to this platform.” She ran her free hand over the seat’s plush trimmings.
Stron smiled. “It is a nicer one.”
She tipped her head to the side, those red curls around her face fluttering in the processed air in the sealed transport. “That’s not what you’re thinking about, though.”
Stron shook his head. “No, it isn’t.” He couldn’t help a small smile at her observation.
“You’re still kind of freaked out about the mate thing, aren’t you?” she asked.
He paused before answering her.
Was she always this perceptive? Would she always be this perceptive of him? If so, mating and Courtship would take on a whole other experience for him.
“I’m not freaked out,” he replied.
“You’re concerned, though.”
“I am ill at ease about your safety as my mate.” It seemed like a reasonable answer. It was a truth.
Not the entirety of it, but true enough.
Which gave him yet another thing to ponder. He’d always kept himself distant in relationships of any form. To now be mated, to be entering Courtship? There is a level of vulnerability that comes with that level of connection.
Something he would have to learn how to do.
He looked at Adryel. Really looked at her.
She truly was a stunning beauty. The little dots—freckles, she’d called them–covered her face. Eyes that saw him.
Really saw him.
She smiled at him, a playful grin on her face. “You think I can’t handle you?” she asked, and held up her fists like she was going to punch him. “I’ll have you know, I can handle myself.”
He shook his head, and smiled. “You have already proven your ability to handle yourself–”
"And you,” she interjected, that sparkle in her eye that he’d seen after their knotting. And during.
An expression that made him want to tell the guard to forget everything, and take them to his home. Or even a hotel.
Someplace they could be alone again.
So he could feel her. Kiss her.
Take her again.
“And me,” he replied, leaning in. He laid a hand on her leg, feeling the curve.
“I can handle whatever you want to dish out, big guy,” she said, flicking his horn with her fingers.
He leaned a little closer to her and slid his hand into her hair. She tipped her head up.
He accepted the invitation, and kissed her.
It wasn’t intense.
Correction, it wasn’t inappropriate. It was just enough to remind him that yes, this was his mate.
