CHAPTER 38
Krusk
It wasn’t hard to see that I’d thrown my mate for a loop. She was looking at me like I’d lost my mind, but I wasn’t going to lie to her. Not anymore. Not about anything.
“We should go ring shopping then,” she laughed and I knew she was trying to joke.
“I have the designer’s number on my phone. He did everyone else’s in the clan,” I told her, bypassing her attempt.
I was serious about her. About us. And I needed her to see that.
She swallowed hard, her lower lip trembling as her gaze dropped to the plate in front of me. “I...” she trailed off, not completing her sentence, but she pulled away, her fingers dropping from mine.
“Too much?” I asked in a low whisper. “I’m sorry. I just want you to know where I stand with you, Zemar.”
“I… That means your heart, right?” she asked, her eyes still on her fingers in front of her where she was twisting at a napkin. “I… you called me that really early on.”
I leaned back in my chair, observing her closely. “I did,” I admitted to her.
Her eyes flipped up to mine now, and the expression on her face was so lost, that I couldn’t do anything but reach for her again.
I moved to sit next to her instead of across from her.
I tipped her chin up until her watery gaze met my determined one.
“I didn’t want to overwhelm you. I thought you weren’t ready,” I tried explaining.
Her small, lopsided smile soothed the ache in my chest. The fear that was welling there.
“Well I wasn’t ready in the beginning. I would have run away from you,” she chuckled, pressing her forehead to my sternum to hide her face. “This is just a lot to take in, Krusk.”
“I know,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, letting her scent surround me, soothing the animal inside of me that was screaming to take her and run to the apartment, locking us in until I could woo her to accept me.
It was moments like this where I realized that coming from Hellplane to a more civilized society had its downfalls.
“But I can wait. I have all the time in the world when it comes to you.”
“You do?” she asked, and she was nuzzling at my throat now, sending blood straight to my cock in public.
The things this female does to me without even knowing it.
“I’ll wait for you until the day I die,” I told her with honesty, sweeping her hair behind her shoulder and leaning down to press a kiss to her skin where I wanted to mark her so badly I had to clamp my fangs together to stop myself.
The rattle of plates next to us had me shooting a glare over my shoulder. The annoying waitress was back and she froze, offering me an apologetic smile without meeting my gaze.
“I’ll be back,” she squeaked, turning to hurry away.
“Oh Gods,” Emma whispered, pulling away to stare with horror after her. “That was so embarrassing.”
“Not really,” I told her with a shrug. “She shouldn’t have been so nosy.”
Emma sent me a little glare that cured me of my worry. Her fire was back in her gaze. That was much better than the way she’d been looking at me before. As though she had no idea what to do.
“Why don’t we go see Grandma?” I asked her, pressing a long kiss to her forehead while she wrapped a hand around my neck as if she couldn’t stop herself.
She wanted me close. She wanted me there. But she wasn’t ready to admit it yet. I was a patient male though. At least when it came to her. I was willing to put in all the time and attention that she needed to feel safe in her choice of accepting me as her mate.
Still, my dedicated mate shook her head. “I’ll go to work. They won’t have anyone who can fill my shift at the last minute.”
Adoring her, I nodded. “I’ll go with you.”
Rolling her eyes, she leaned up for a quick peck of my lips. I followed her down, kissing her with all the love I felt for her.
We were going to get things settled between us. And she was going to let me take care of her. I just had to figure out a way to get her there faster.
The manager had tilted his head at me when I’d entered the mailroom with Emma. He’d sidled closer, whispering,
“You’re not logged in for a shift,” while flipping through his clipboard to double check.
“I know,” I agreed with a shrug. “But I thought I’d just show up and help anyway.”
He looked at me as if I was insane. “You won’t get paid for it, though.”
“That’s okay,” I told him and Emma rolled her eyes before walking away toward the lockers.
I turned back to the manager, my eyebrows high.
“Are we good?” I didn’t care to talk to him any longer when I could be focusing on my mate instead.
He nodded, brow furrowed as he stared at me before going back to flipping through his clipboard.
I sidled up behind where she was putting away her purse. “I can’t believe you bullied me into letting you come.”
“I don’t know that I’d call it bullying,” I said with a grin, tucking my hands in my pockets and sweeping my gaze up and down her back and ass. “I’d say it was more convincing.”
“You told me you’d drop me off at the front and then go home,” she scoffed, turning to glare at me, giving me another spectacular view. Her breasts pressing up against her shirt this time.
“I said I’d drop you off at the front. I did not say I was going home,” I told her, rocking back on my heels, grinning at her.
“You implied it,” she hissed, peeking around me at where our manager was still flipping through his clipboard but sending suspicious looks in my direction.
“He just thinks I’m a really dedicated worker,” I explained, jabbing my thumb in our manager’s direction and she swatted at my hand until I dropped it.
“Don’t point at him,” she gasped, pressing her fingers to her eyes before releasing a long breath. “You’re impossible. We’re supposed to be keeping this a secret at work.”
It was my turn to lose my smile, frowning down at her. “Keep what a secret?”
She looked up at me with wary eyes, as if realizing that my mood had shifted. She nibbled on her lower lip before she said, “Us. We work together. It wouldn’t be right.”
“Then I quit,” I told her with a frown. “I’m not going to hide the fact that I love you.”