Page 44 of Remington’s Mate

Jaeda stared at him. “Wait, what? You mean a date with you-you? Not pretend-Colt?”

“Yeah. Me. Date. Where you actually know my name, and nobody’s tapping me on the shoulder with a gun if we decide to make out.”

She seemed totally at a loss for words, so he asked, “Where are your sheath knives?”

She said automatically, “On the front table. And in the bedside drawer. And some on the…” She broke off, frowning. “Why?”

“I’m hoping not to get stabbed.” Very slowly, he leaned in and kissed her.

It was as hot and electrifying as he remembered. And she didn’t stab him, so that had to be a good sign.

He ended the kiss and looked down at her.

“I don’t want to be one of your meaningless flings,” she said.

Don’t be too intense. Don’t scare her. He said lightly, “Afraid I’ll ruin you for human guys?”

She bit her lip. “Kind of, yeah.”

That startled him. She had to like him—a lot—if she was afraid he’d ruin her. She does like us, his leopard said. Let’s ruin her. For everyone but us. Let’s do it now.

Remy squashed him. They couldn’t rush this.

Instead, he said seriously, “You shouldn’t settle, Jaeda. You’re amazing, and you deserve more than a lukewarm human life.”

That got a little half-smile. “You know that humans also have love and adventure and crazy wild passion, right? It’s not just shifters?”

He smiled back. “I heard that somewhere, but I don’t believe it. Anyway, sometimes you can’t plan who you have that with.”

Now her mouth dropped open. “Remy McCall, are you telling me you want more than a fling?”

He took a deep breath. “Maybe. What if I did? Would you go out with me?”

She stepped back, and he let her go so as not to crowd her. She paced back and forth across the kitchen. “Shit,” she said finally. “This is all falling apart, you know? I had it all planned. The job. The normal life. The normal human family. And now it’s all in pieces.”

Wait until she found out she might be his mate. “I know. Will you go out with me?”

She huffed. “How many times are you going to ask?”

His owl said, Four more, and then—dragon invasion. Don’t forget to warn her.

Giving the owl a mental middle finger, he asked, “How many times is it going to take?”

Jaeda folded her arms. “What if I want a real date, not a hookup? Or more than one date, and then before we even have sex I make you have the ‘Where is this relationship going’ talk?”

He was pretty sure that if she was willing to start dating him, he’d let her have as many ‘where is this relationship going’ talks as she wanted.

“It depends,” he said. “Do I get a list of topics for The Talk? With bullet points? Because if there’s no bullet points I’m not doing it.”

“Fuck yeah, there’s going to be bullet points.”

“Okay. Let’s eat before it gets cold.”

They dished out the food, Jaeda watching him from under her lashes. She really didn’t know what to make of this, he realized.

Neither did he.

They ate in silence for a while, and then she said, “Okay. Yes. I’ll go out with you. But we’re taking it slow.”