7. Chance #2
“You keep talking about our children,” she teased. “Like this bond is a foregone conclusion.”
“That’s because it is,” I replied, meeting her eyes. “You can take as long as you want to decide. I’ll deal with the heat and the nausea?—”
“You’ve got the nausea too?”
“Feels like I’m going to shit myself or vomit every time you leave the room.”
Rena laughed and then grimaced.
“I’ll deal with it all until you’re ready to tie the thread,” I continued.
“It’s a big step,” she said softly.
“Biggest one you’ll ever take.”
“Reese keeps pushing.”
“Of course she does,” I replied easily. “She’s immortal now. She’s known since she cemented the bond with Beau that one day she’d outlive you. Now she doesn’t have to.”
Rena’s expression changed as realization set in. “I thought—” She shook her head. “I guess I just thought she liked the idea of marrying brothers.” Her cheeks pinkened, and I grinned.
“Well, that too.”
“After I got over the initial What the fuck did you do reaction,” Rena said, “I was so relieved that she wouldn’t die. That’s always been my biggest fear—that she’d do something stupid and leave me.”
“Makes sense,” I replied, running my finger over her sharp chin. “You lost your family so young.”
“I’m older than my mom was when she died.” She smiled sadly. “It’s a really weird milestone.”
“What was she like?”
“Pretty. Soft-spoken. She worked as a receptionist in the same doctor’s office my whole life.
She always saw the best in people. I don’t know how many times we gave money or food or a warm coat to a homeless person she’d noticed on her way home from work.
She’d pick me up from after-school care, and we’d drive back to wherever she’d seen them.
Sometimes we’d be driving around for a solid twenty minutes, trying to find them. ”
“She sounds great.”
“She was.” She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling.
“I knew she was lonely. It’s exhausting to be the only person responsible for everything, and my dad took off before I was born.
We had my grandparents during the early years, but then we lost them too.
I used to lie in bed and wish that some Vampire would find us.
She’d hyped up my grandpa so much that I assumed no man would compare. ”
“Well, you’re not wrong,” I replied, making her roll her eyes.
“The funny thing is, I never could’ve imagined in a million years that she would leave me too. I should’ve been worried, right? We’d already lost my grandparents. I knew logically that it could happen. I just never would’ve believed it.”
“How did she die?” I asked softly.
“Car accident,” Rena said, sounding baffled. “It wasn’t raining. It wasn’t dark. It was late afternoon. Someone wasn’t paying attention, drunk maybe? Crossed the center line, and my mom was gone.” She snapped her fingers.
“Where were you?”
“Waiting for her to pick me up at after care.” She turned her head to look at me.
“I was the last kid there, which never happened, but I hadn’t even realized how late it had gotten because it was library day and I had a new book.
So I was just sitting in my corner, reading about some girl and her dog. I had no idea that anything was wrong.”
“I think that says something about your mom,” I said, rolling toward her until I was pressed along her side. “She’d made you so secure that you didn’t have any anxiety. That’s pretty fucking great if you ask me. Kids shouldn’t worry about that shit.”
“Yeah.” She reached up and scratched her nails lightly through my beard, and I struggled not to let my eyes roll back, it felt so good. “But it was a pretty rude awakening afterward.”
“If I could change it for you, I would,” I said softly. “I’d go back and tell your grandparents not to get on that plane. They’d listen to me. Irene liked me. She thought I was cheeky.”
“She did?” Rena’s eyes lit up.
“I think that was her way of saying that I was a pain in the ass, but charming, so it evened out.”
“You’re probably right,” she replied with a laugh. “My mom said she had a wicked sense of humor, so she probably liked it when you were an ass.”
“And I would’ve hired your mother a driver,” I said, smiling. “In some big SUV, so when she picked you up from school, you could both sit in the back seat and visit on the way home.”
“That would’ve been awesome,” Rena said with a watery smile. “We would’ve felt very fancy.”
“Only the best.”
“I’m glad we didn’t meet when I was a kid,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “Because that would make things super fucking creepy now.”
“Uh…yeah,” I said, scowling. “I’ve never heard about mates meeting before both were adults. Thankfully, that’s not a thing. Disgusting.”
“Do you think mates meet when they’re supposed to, or it’s all just a crapshoot?”
“Originally, I thought it was all planned out,” I replied. “But after watching Beau lose his first mate, I can’t see how that’s the case.”
“But he walked away from her,” she argued.
“He didn’t have a choice,” I said. I’d seen it the same way Rena had for a long time.
Beau had made that decision, and the fallout from it was his responsibility.
But now that I’d met Rena? If I knew that she would be happier without me?
If I knew that I’d shatter her life just by being in it?
I’d walk away too. “She was in love with her human husband. She had a baby on the way. He could’ve stayed near her and eventually completed the bond when it became too hard for her to resist, but what would that have done to her?
She would’ve lived with that choice forever. ”
“Please don’t try to convince me that Beau is altruistic,” she said with a groan. “I like calling him Flu.”
“Why do you call him that?”
“When he and Reese first met, she didn’t know what the mating bond was. I called her, and she told me she thought she had the flu.”
I let out a bark of laughter.
“Yeah, when I caught them getting freaky on the couch in her apartment, I knew she hadn’t had the fucking flu.”
“That’s funny.”
“Why do you think our mating heat isn’t as bad as theirs was?” Rena asked. “It’s there, but mine isn’t nearly as bad as Reese’s.”
“Reese wasn’t recovering from a car accident.”
“But I feel mostly fine now,” Rena argued.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “But there’s no denying that it’s there.
Mating heat is different for everyone. No two couples have ever described it the same way or with the same intensity.
I know mates who mostly do their own thing after they’ve been together for a long time.
Dalton, for instance. He and his mate can be apart for longer periods.
Overnight, even. My parents? No way in hell.
They’ve never gone more than hours apart.
If they’re in different parts of the house, you could set your clock by them.
Every hour, one or both of them will search out the other before going back to what they’re doing. ”
“Don’t they get sick of each other?”
“I think they’re pretty good at not stepping on each other’s toes at this point,” I said reasonably. “But Alice and Sven? They argue all the time. Alice gets all worked up, but Sven never does, so it usually fizzles.”
“What if I do shit that drives you crazy?”
“You won’t.”
“What if you do shit that drives me crazy?”
“I’ll stop?” I asked with a laugh. “As long as you tell me that something is bothering you. Why the hell would I want to continue doing it if I knew it made you unhappy? That doesn’t make sense.”
“You have an answer for everything, huh?”
“Most things, yes,” I replied loftily. “But, darling, why wouldn’t I do my best to make sure that both of us were happy in our lives? There’s no walking away, yeah? If you’re miserable, I’ll be miserable.”
Rena wrinkled her nose. “Okay, I don’t like that one.”
“Darling?”
“It makes you sound like some old-timey lord of the manor. It’s kind of ick.”
My body shook the bed as I chuckled. “Message received. I won’t call you darling. See how easy that was?”
“Are you ever going to kiss me again?” she asked, smiling up at me. “Because we’ve been laying here for a while and?—”
I didn’t let her finish. When our lips met, everything inside my body relaxed, and I let myself fall back into that feeling of free-fall again. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to it.
Her hands came up to my face, one of them cupping my jaw and the other sliding over my ear to tangle in the hair behind it. She held me to her like she was afraid I would pull away.
No risk of that happening.
Bracing myself on my elbow, I used my other hand to trace the line of her neck and the jut of her collarbone through her shirt. I couldn’t get enough of the feel of her.
Mine, mine, mine, rang in my head as I mapped a line down her body, cupping her breast in my hand, running my thumb over the peaked nipple, counting the lines of her ribs, before working my way upward again.
All the while her tongue danced with mine, her teeth pressed against my bottom lip, her hands held us steady.
“I’m trying here,” I breathed against her mouth, her T-shirt fisted in my hand.
“Trying what?” she asked, lightly brushing her lips against mine.
“To keep things from going further than you’re comfortable with,” I replied.
Her eyes opened in surprise. “What?”
“You’re still not sure about the bond,” I said, my chest heaving. “And I don’t want to get to a point where it’s painful for us to stop.”
“Oh.”
“So if you could tell me how far you see this going, I’d know the parameters.”
Planting her foot in the bed, she shoved at me, and I let her roll me onto my back.
If I’d thought that having Rena beneath me was incredible, having her straddle me was infinitely better. I looked up at her face, her long hair falling forward, and thought I could’ve died right then and considered my life complete.
I nearly swallowed my tongue when she pulled the T-shirt off.
“Holy Gods,” I mumbled, my hands tightening on her thighs.
“I’m thinking this is a good boundary,” she said breathlessly. “If that changes, I’ll let you know.”