Page 39 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
I couldn’t help it. I giggled. He was just soearnestabout it. As if this opulence could somehownotbe enough.
“Dirk,” I said, patting his arm. “It was a very short time ago that I was living in the wilds, scrounging for every meal, using the two spare items of clothing I possessed as a pillow. This is more than adequate. It’s a lot.”
“Is it too much?” he asked, something flickering in those damnably blue eyes of his.
I’d thought he wore himself on his sleeve, but the more I talked to Dirk, the more I wondered if the side he presented was an act. Because the way he’d asked that question, the tone of his voice, spoke to someone who knew what I meant. Who understood.
“It’s the beds,” he said in response to my look. “Isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“They’re too soft.”
“It feels wrong sometimes. Unsafe, as if I’ll sleep too deeply,” I said in a whisper.
He nodded.
“How do you know?” I asked, curious how someone who grew up among such ostentatiousness could understand the feeling of a bed being too soft.
Dirk was silent, looking over my shoulder at something only he could see. “Another time, maybe,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Okay.” What else could I say? I had my own secrets. I couldn’t get angry at him for keeping something to himself when I was no open book.
He nodded but didn’t leave.
“Is there something else you need from me?” I asked.
“Need?” He shook his head firmly, tossing the long strands of silver-blond hair from side to side. “Want? Yes.”
“Oh?” I licked my lips, certain he wanted to talk about the kiss we had shared and just as certain that I had no interest in going back there at the moment.
“I was wondering if … if maybe I could see my mate marks.” His shoulders lifted in a jerky, uneasy motion. “I know I have no right to ask since I put them there without asking you, but I’d like to see them when I’m not falling toward potential doom.”
His mate marks? I hesitated, the question catching me completely off guard.
Dirk immediately shook his head, his lips compressing into a line. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have asked anyway.”
He started to go.
“Dirk.”
I met his eyes, wondering if I was crazy for what I was about to say. Was I making a mistake, or was this the right way forward? Or maybe I was still worked up about being pressed against him, sharing the energy of our bond for hours on end.
That in itself seemed to point the way. The mate marks were there, a marker of truth that I couldn’t object to, unless I wanted to go on just denying fate and Dirk.
Could I give him a chance? Anna was happy with Caz. Could I find the same?
Maybe I’m not as broken as I think, if fate is pushing me toward him.
“You can tell me when you’re ready, Ella,” Dirk said as the silence between us grew heavier.
I made up my mind.
Steeling myself, I nodded at him. “I know. But I want to say it now. Because you need to know.”
“Know what?”
“That I,” I faltered and tried again. “That I can’t deny that fate has linked us.”
