Page 40 of The Ice Prince's Fated Mate
Dirk stiffened, visibly bracing himself, likely preparing for the worst. I couldn’t blame him. That was all I’d given him. Until now.
“But I can’t just … do this,” I said, still searching for the right set of words.
“I understand,” he said stonily.
“No,” I said gently. “I don’t think you do.”
He smiled. It was empty of anything but a moving of muscles on his face. “You don’t want me, Ella. I get it, and I don’t blame you. You shouldn’t.”
“What I wasgoingto say,” I explained, ignoring him, “is that I can’t do it the way it’s supposed to go when two dragons are fated.”
“Huh?” He didn’t bother hiding his confusion.
“Fate has pushed us together. Marked me. That’s obvious, and I think, I think I’m done pretending that things between us are different. It’s too much work. But I’m not, Ican’t, just jump into your arms.”
“What do you want then?” Dirk asked, the blue in his eyes shining brighter than before, buoyed by the hope I was feeding him.
I just hoped I wasn’t making a mistake.
“If we try moving forward, if this is going to work, you’re going to have to do things, um,” I stumbled, searching for the word I wanted.
“Proper?”
I nodded. “Yes. Proper. I need time. There are things you don’t know about me.”
Dirk’s head whipped from side to side with unhinged vehemence. “I don’t care. Whatever it is, none of it matters to me, Ella. I swear it.”
“Shhh,” I said, putting a finger to his lips as I moved inside his personal space. “It should, Dirk. Because it matters to me.”
“Oh.” He calmed. “That kind of stuff.”
I could only smile at the abrupt male directness. It was kind of endearing, in a way. Cute, almost.
“If we try this, Dirk, it needs to be slow. I need to know you as a person. Trust you on the deepest, most instinctual level there is. No matter what, I have to believe—not be told butbelieve—that you aren’t like the other Elites. And I can’t do it just because I have these.” I lifted my shirt slightly, watching his eyes widen as he stared at the marks on my side.
Hismarks.
“I don’t trust easily or quickly. I’m sorry that you have to deal with that.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” he told me. “At all.”
“Actually, I do.” Now came the hard part. “Because I’m not sure that, even going slow, I’ll be able to do this. There is a large chance this is all just me leading you on. It’s just …”
“Go on,” he urged.
I shook my head. I couldn’t. It was too deep, too personal, and I wasn’t ready for that yet with him.
He stared at me, his eyes flitting here and there across my face. I wasn’t sure what he saw, but it must have been enough.
“Right,” he said at last. “You need to be courted. Wooed. I can do that.”
There was no stopping the smile that spread across my face at the absolute eagerness radiating off him. He was a man, who hadbeen given a problem to solve and a path to the solution. He was ready to get to work.
“Yeah. I can definitely do that,” he said, clapping his hands together before pointing at me. “Just you wait, Ella. You are going to get the best wooing. You’ve never been wooed like this before. It’s gonna be so wooful you’re gonna be, uh, um …”
“Wooed?” I suggested when his brain caught up with the rest of him and he stopped talking.
“Yeah. Exactly.” His face stilled, and he brushed a finger against my cheek, turning serious once more. “I’m going to make this right between us, Ella. Somehow I will fix it. I promise.”
