Should she sit down and shut up?
Should she continue fighting for some kind of freedom?
She just didn’t know until he stood up and ambled across the room toward her. She froze as he approached, her fight-or-flight instincts shifting into freeze mode.
He stopped about six inches away from her for a few seconds before extending his arms, wrapping them around her, and then closing the last distance between them. His arms tightened around her, gently holding her to him.
He was hugging her.
After ignoring her for two days, the man was hugging her.
What the fuck was going on?
Sailor closed his eyes and hoped he’d been doing the right thing. With no other gorilla shifters he could contact for advice, he wasrunning blind. While he’d watched a few of the shifters during their mating periods, they were of no help when he felt so damn out of control because of this Little girl who had wandered onto Institute property then asked for asylum of sorts.
It had taken everything in him to back away after they’d worked together to settle into the apartment. For the last two days, it had taken all his control to keep from ripping off her clothes, throwing her across the bed, and fucking her until they were both boneless piles of goo. But something was holding him back. He continued to question why she was here, and until he heard back from Lonergan about what he’d found out about her, he did not want to finish building their mating bond.
For two days he’d fought to maintain a wall between them, barely keeping his beast under control as he kept them locked in the apartment, well away from everyone else.
Her temper tantrum proved to him that she was feeling the pull every bit as strongly as he was. Feeling her heart thump against his chest when he first hugged her, he waited as it slowed to beat at the same pace as his own. That proved, more than anything else, that it was time to take the next steps in the mating process. He just hoped she did not reject him when he asked for her agreement to the mating.
Pulling his head back, Sailor looked down at his mate and said the only thing that came to mind. “I’m sorry.”
CHAPTER 7
Though standing in Sailor’s embrace made her body come to life in a way it never had before, Lily was still pissed about being ignored for the last two days and needed answers.
Rearing back, she scowled up at him. “What the fuck do you mean, you’re sorry? For what, exactly? Ignoring me? Treating me like a prisoner? Being an assface meanie-head?”
She yelped when a large, hard hand smacked her ass three times. It was so big it covered nearly the whole cheek.
“No swearing. And watch your tone,” he said as his hand then began to massage her abused cheek, rubbing the heat and pain into the tissues.
She struggled to pull out of his embrace, needing to put some distance between them. The only problem was he would not let her go. It wasn’t until she stilled that he moved his hand from her ass up her body to stroke a warm path up and down her spine.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so distant the past two days,” he said, his voice a deep but gentle rumble. “I’ve been trying to protect myself and you, but I have a feeling you can take care of yourself just fine.”
With her head resting against his chest, Lily nodded. “I can, but is there someone here I need to protect myself from? I thought this was a safe place for women.”
Sailor’s chest rose under her cheek as he took a deep breath and slowly blew it out again. “It is a safe place, but sometimes the trainees are mean to one another. Which is one reason I’m not sure I want you to go through the program. I don’t want a quiet, refined, retrained lady who is worried about what fork to use or what is considered polite conversation.”
Lily considered his words before asking, “What kind of woman do you want?”
“My mate needs to be strong and fairly independent when I’m working but also be a Little who is willing to turn all decisions, challenges, and worries over to me when I’m not on shift. I know you are my mate, but I’ve been holding off finalizing the mating so you could have a chance to come to the same conclusions. Unfortunately not taking you as my mate has made me a bit, um, grumpy.”
Lily was stunned by his explanation and reasons behind his distance the last two days. No human male had ever put her first before. Usually they took what they wanted, and when she refused to give in to their demands, they left, moving on to a woman who would. But this man, who was more than just a man, had given her time to become accustomed to the news that she was his mate.
In that moment, Lily felt the wall she’d built around her heart to keep it safe crumble into dust. Despite the assignment that brought her to Bratburg, she knew there was nowhere else she would rather be.
Lifting her head from his chest, she dropped it back and looked up into those dark chocolate eyes. Sailor met her gaze with a warmth in his expression that wrapped around her and pulled her under his spell.
“We don’t know anything about one another, but I really think I do want to be your mate,” she whispered.
For the first time since she’d met him on the road to Bratburg, Sailor smiled at her. The shift in expression turned his rugged face into one that was heartstoppingly gorgeous.
Lily’s breathing stopped for a second and her entire body heated up, needing to connect with him. In the next three heartbeats the reason she’d come to Bratburg evaporated from her brain, and all she could think about was how she wanted this man.
Sliding a hand behind his neck, she pulled his head down so she could kiss him, which was another first for her. Usually she was the passive one, not making advances but following the man’s lead, up to a point. But now, with Sailor, she wanted, no needed, to feel his lips on hers. And not just her lips, but her tits, her clit, her entire body.
