Chapter 16 #2
His grin told me he saw right through it. No one who valued coziness and comfort the way I did hated cuddling.
“I can shift, if it would make you more comfortable,” he said.
I should say yes. I knew I should.
But I didn’t.
“Want to watch a movie?” he asked, tucking an arm behind his head. It wasn’t even eight. I was exhausted enough that I probably could’ve fallen asleep anyway… if I hadn’t been sharing a bed with the Alpha I’d been trying not to let myself like for the past week.
I’d failed.
Clearly.
“Sure.” A movie sounded safer than another conversation.
Things between us had definitely shifted a little.
I knew he wanted me, even without fate pulling him to. My attraction to him was more than obvious, too.
He knew I’d assumed I would have to take a mate sooner rather than later, and I was now aware that he’d been thinking about taking a mate for a while.
We hadn’t discussed what any of those things might potentially mean for us, but the question was hanging heavily in the air.
I couldn’t really answer it, or even genuinely consider it. Not while I was hiding so much from him. He just didn’t know that.
Maverick grabbed the remote and turned the TV on.
“Is everything okay with your pack?” I hoped the question would ease the tension of our unresolved shit.
“Yeah. We’re too far for the mental link to function, so Rhone was just updating me. No new developments in the case, either.”
“Is anyone else dead yet?”
“Nope. I’m crossing my fingers that Phyllis is next, though.”
“When did you meet Phyllis?”
“On Sunday. The woman is a fucking menace. I’ve never met a human so ballsy before.”
“She’s actually my best friend now. She told me I have a great figure.”
“Well, she’s right about that,” Maverick said.
“What did she say to you?”
“She told me my tattoos were trashy, and that I’d do a better job of winning your heart without them.”
I laughed. Hard. “She didn’t.”
“She did. I believe her exact words were, ‘If you didn’t have so many disgusting tattoos, maybe you wouldn’t be having such a hard time seducing Bloom. It’s not like a vampire could do better than a werewolf.’.”
“You have to be kidding.”
“Wish I could say I was.” Despite his words, he was grinning.
“What did you say?”
“I told her it was a little late, and I’d just have to buy you more sweaters to make up for it. She recommended a coffee bar instead. She was right, so I’ve been going to her for advice ever since.”
My smile was so massive, it hurt. “You’re lying.”
“Alright, I didn’t go back for advice. The coffee bar really was her idea, though.”
“Well, that’s my favorite one of the gifts, so she was right about that. Wrong about your tattoos, though. I think they’re sexy.”
“At least someone does.”
I swatted his arm. “I’ve never looked at them closely. Can I?”
“Of course. I belong to you, remember?”
“Right.” We were sitting so close that I had to turn and scoot a little to see him better.
He lifted his arm up to rest on one of his knees so I could get a closer look. It was a patchwork tattoo sleeve, with branches of what looked like cherry blossoms winding around his full arm. There were various tattoos on his skin, filling his arm in a way that looked completely intentional.
The branches wrapped over the top of his shoulder and partway over his chest, and stopped there before resuming on the other shoulder and climbing down that arm too.
“Do cherry blossoms mean something to you?” I asked.
The tattoos had obviously been there before he met me, so my scent couldn’t have been behind them.
“I grew up next to a cherry orchard. My parents and I sold the fruit and baked goods we made with them. The pack was so poor that there’s a good chance we all would’ve starved to death in one bad year with those trees. Luckily, they never let us down.”
I bit my lip. “Is it common for your soulmate to smell like something important from your past?”
“It’s one of the ways fate pushes you to stay with them.”
“That’s why your scent hasn’t changed for me, and mine hasn’t changed for you?”
“Yeah. Someone doesn’t stop being your soulmate just because you don’t seal a bond with them. Regardless of what you and I choose to do about it, we will always be fated.”
I nodded slowly, taking in the tattoos on his other arm. They were also covered in branches, mixed with other shapes and images. I had a feeling each of them had a story and memory behind it.
“If my scent hasn’t changed, what happened when the pull faded?”
“My instinct to abduct you is gone for the most part. Some of the obsessiveness eased too, but not much. Turns out I just really fucking want you.”
My lips curved slightly. “Is obsessiveness a typical personality trait for you?”
“It is.” Maverick lifted his hand to my back and took a few strands of my hair, twirling them around his fingers. “You never wear your hair down like this.”
“The internet said I shouldn’t sleep with it in a bun.”
“The internet did me a favor, then.”
My face warmed. “I remember you saying you don’t flirt, Mav.”
“But the faces you make when I do are so fucking cute.”
“You’re supposed to want me, not think I’m cute.”
“Can’t I do both?”
“No.”
“My cock disagrees.”
My eyes lowered to his lap, and I heated when I saw his erection straining against his pants.
Nope, I wasn’t bringing that up.
“Why do you want to meet my family?” I asked instead.
“You’re close with them. I think the words you used were clingy and codependent?”
“That’s not inaccurate.”
“If they’re such a big part of it, meeting them seems like a necessary way to break into your life.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Is that what you’re doing?”
“I thought it was obvious.”
“Why would you want that?”
“You’re sexy. Brilliant. Witty. Kind. Sarcastic. Loyal. Fate wouldn’t pair us if there wasn’t a damn good chance we could work, and the more I get to know you, the more convinced I am that she’s right.”
“You can’t know all of those things about me already.”
“Can’t I?”
I mean… I guess maybe he could.
He had spent the time since we met interviewing people I’d worked with for years, and pushing my buttons. He’d been threatened by both me and my family. He’d had multiple conversations with my best friend, a few of which probably had to do with me.
He obviously didn’t know everything about me, but it wasn’t crazy to think he knew the basic tenants of my personality.
“Well, I think you’re succeeding on the break-in front,” I admitted. “Does it bother you that I’m not trying to break into your life?”
“Nah. We’ve got nothing but time. Especially after I bite you.”
The more I thought about having his teeth in my skin again, the less opposed to it I was.
He lowered his arm to my waist and dragged me closer. “Come here.”
I let out a soft breath as he pulled me onto his lap, wrapping his arms around me. His erection was against my ass, but neither of us commented on that.
My eyes closed.
The feeling of security that flooded me when he held me liked that was unreal. I didn’t think I’d ever felt like that before. Definitely not with Timber.
“Is this what it feels like to have a mate?” I murmured.
“I hope so.” Maverick’s chin brushed my shoulder, his nose in my hair and just off my throat.
We sat just like that for a few minutes before Maverick silently started the movie.
I wasn’t even sure what genre it was.