Page 69 of The Enforcers: NOAH

Chapter 27

Mina was very quiet after that. Noah sat in the big chair, watching her dry her hair, feeling the despair sinking into him.

If she couldn’t make up her mind whether she wanted him, then they weren’t true mates. That meant what he thought he felt wasn’t real—at least, not the fated bond part of it.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t commit to her. He did feel something, and it was more than the feverish, obsessive feelings he’d had about the other women.

It was powerful and good, and it made him a better person.

She’d told him he made her feel like the sun was coming out inside her. That had to count for something.

He opened his mouth to try to persuade her, when she turned and leaned her hips against the edge of the dresser.

“I want to do it,” she said, looking down at her fingers worrying the edge of the towel. “I want to do the claimed mating thing.”

Noah looked up, shocked. “You do?”

She nodded. “Partly for Brock,” she said. “And also…”

He waited, feeling like something was crushing his chest and he couldn’t breathe.

“I fell for you that first day we met in the coffee shop, Angus McHottie,” she said softly. “When you told me you’d been in a psych facility too, and I could see the honesty in your eyes. When you didn’t let Robbie scare you. When you sat on the floor and played wolves with my son.”

She raised her eyes to his. “I fell for you all over again on our first date, when you brought me a ridiculous number of flowers and bribed the bull operator to let me ride a gazillion times and showed up with tissues in your pocket because you remembered everything I said the first day we met.

“And I fell for you again last night, when you raced into the woods to save my son, and today when you held me and comforted me when I talked about Justin, even though it killed you inside.”

She held his eyes with hers. “I wish we had more time, so we could be sure. But we don’t. What I do know is that you’re a good man and a good woof.”

That drew a little huff of laughter from him. He wanted to get up and crush her to him, but he was afraid to move, afraid to shatter this moment and have it slip out of his grasp.

“I know you want this true mate destiny thing,” she added. “And if what we have turns out not to be it, maybe we’re missing out. I don’t know.”

She bit her lip. “But I don’t have a lot of choices here, and I hate that. A fated mating would be another thing that was chosen for me. A claimed mating can be something I choose. And I do.”

This time he couldn’t stop himself—he was off his feet and crushing her to him. Relief poured through him, and happiness, and a tinge of fear that he wasn’t going to be good enough.

But he had to be. For her.

“Can we—I mean, do we do it now?” she asked.

He looked down at her. Her eyes were wide and scared, but he knew now how much strength lay beneath that.

His body yearned for her, and his wolf was panting, eager.

“We can’t,” he said regretfully. “I want to, but I promised Jace I wouldn’t do anything until he’d talked to you. He’s determined to make sure you don’t agree to something you don’t really want out of fear and desperation.”

Mina gave a little eye roll. “Well, that makes me like Jace a little better, but right now it sucks. Plus, it still takes the choice out of my hands, and I hate that.”

“Me too,” Noah said. “Everything in me wants this, both for myself, and to make you happy. But if we want Jace to agree to take me into the pack, I can’t start out by breaking my word to him and defying a direct order.”

Mina nodded. Then she said shyly, “Is it just the claiming part you said we wouldn’t do? Or also, the, you know.” She got that adorable sexy blush going on. “The other part.”

Noah got that warm, happy feeling in his chest again. He let his hand slide down to cup her ass beneath the towel. “You mean this part?” he said.

She gave a soft sexy murmur and pressed against him, stoking up the Washington Monument to epic proportions. “We didn’t specifically talk about the other part,” he said. “So, I think that’s up to our discretion.”

“Really,” she said, getting a wicked look in her eyes. She wrapped another towel around her waist, and then she padded out to the living room, Noah trailing behind her.