I wanted to see what they looked like. I fiddled with the clasp on the bra. When I took too long, Emma growled in frustration and hooked her arms behind her back, to help me take the bra off.
Just as I had unfastened the hooks, the tent flap rustled and an alarmed scream made both of us jump.
“Odette!” Emma screeched. She had an arm across her chest, to pin her bra there.
Odette had her hands over her eyes. “I didn’t see anything! Honest!”
Emma and I looked at each other. Both of us were blushing red. A nervous laugh escaped Emma’s mouth, and I joined her. It would be just like Odette to walk in during such a moment.
Odette kept her hands firmly on her face. “I just came in to say everyone’s waiting for you. But if you want to have sex first, I’m sure no one will mind.”
“Nooo,” Emma said. She hopped off me so quickly it made my dick cry. “Don’t tell anyone we’re having sex. We’ll be right out.”
Odette turned on her heel and immediately stalked out of the tent without uncovering her eyes. I slid to a sitting position on the bed, and Emma turned her back to me. “Hook me back up?”
If I thought her sliding off me was torture, this was the real thing. I fastened Emma’s bra, and she pulled her dress back on, concealing everything from view. “Odette’s going to think we’re some kind of sex hounds. We didn’t even get that far,” I told Emma.
She wasn’t looking at me. “I know. But I want to keep what’s between us, between us.”
I could understand that. I mean, peopleexpectedus to have sex, because we had proclaimed each other as mates. That didn’t mean we wanted Odette singing it for the entire kingdom to hear.
“Anyway.” Emma shook her hair around her shoulders, and I nearly died. “Should we get going?”
The wolf in me growled with displeasure, and demanded that I rip Emma’s dress off right now and get back to what we were doing.
But diplomacy had another way, so I extended my arm to Emma and said, “Very well. Let us leave.”
We walked in silence among the tents on our way to the celebration. It was like the two of us only knew one way or the other— distance, or incredible closeness. We were always bouncing between them. I wanted to find a happy medium that would satisfy us both. Emma was acting like I was a complete stranger again, and I didn’t know why.
“Is there something on your mind?” I asked her. “You seem troubled.”
Emma didn’t answer for a long moment. “I’m not ready for sex, Ethan,” she began. “I don’t know if I’m ready for any of this.”
My heart dropped. That wasn’t something I wanted to hear. I didn’t care about the sex part— I cared she was telling me this was moving too fast for her. It was hard to understand why she was pushing me away.
I wanted to dive right into a relationship with Emma, and everything that came with it. I wanted the kissing, the touching, the being there for everything and the bad stuff that came along with it, too.
But we’d only become engaged a few weeks ago. Prior to that, our relationship had been purely platonic. We’d been thrown into this without any kind of lead-up. We’d only kissed twice. And I had asked the world from her beforehand.
I brought her to a stop. She faced me. “Emma, I will never force you into anything,” I vowed. “What’s between us is purely your choice. No matter what we do.”
She bit her lip anxiously. “I enjoyed fooling around with you. It felt good. It felt right.”
She shook her head. “I just… I’m worried about getting too close.”
I knew how she felt. To be too close was dangerous. It made you vulnerable. And love was enough to make an Arcanea lose their minds.
Look what had happened to Albin.
Emma didn’t want to lose herself in me. Because she wasn’t ready to go that far. The passion between mates could save you. But it could just as often destroy you.
“I was just following your lead. But if you had asked to stop, I would’ve,” I said.
“I don’t know what came over me back there,” she confessed. “I care about you, Ethan, but in that moment… it was like I lost control.”
“You shouldn’t blame yourself. The mating bond can be a powerful thing.”
Shit. I had slipped up, and she caught it. Emma raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you didn’t believe we were bonded?”
