Page 41 of Twice Bitten

“You really mean it?” I asked. I couldn’t quite believe it’d be that easy.

“I really mean it.” His hand buried in my hair again, massaging my scalp, threading his fingers through the tangles and gently straightening them out. If I’d had whatever organ Rodney had that let him purr, I’d have been rumbling like a giant cat. “I want everything too. Everything you are. The good and the bad. And the ugly, except you’re so fucking pretty I don’t think that’ll be an issue.”

No, no, I shouldn’t do it. Fishing for compliments was so tacky.

“I’m not that pretty?” Damn it.

“Fine. You’re not that pretty. You got me.”

I hit him again, this time with a lot more force, and he dug his fingers into my ribs, and I thrashed and flailed and laughed, and he flipped us over again, smiling down at me and swiveling his hips in a way that had me completely at his mercy.

It hadn’t been long enough for me to say it, and I didn’t expect it from him, either.

But the look in his eyes…well, I didn’t know what else to call it but affection, at the very least. Passion. Something that could turn into love with a few more shared moments like this one.

Something that I now had all the time in the world to nurture.

I wound my arms around his neck and pulled him down into another kiss, this one slow and hot and filled with promise.

Jack wouldn’t let me go, I knew that without having to ask. Someday I’d ask him to bite me, and I’d be his mate. Someday.

For now, I had one life. And the prospect of living it with Jack by my side and in my arms had me smiling into his kiss, the nascent bond between us flaring with golden sparks, twining around both of us.

Together.

The End