Page 34 of Blade

D

O

M

As I nodded, letting out an admittedly shaky breath, he licked my cheek before shifting his focus back to the words.

T

O

I found myself fighting to sit still as I watched him slowly work through the letters.

To love my mate

To live my life

Then he’d grinned and licked me again.

To talk about movies

“You’re such a dork.” Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed my face into his strong muscles and tried to sound relaxed. “I think movies are a good reason. Burgers too.”

The laughing sound he made had me trying not to snicker. “And there are desserts and steaks and caffeine…we’ve got amazing coffee now.”

That got another chuffing laugh out of him as he let me ignore the rest. We’d come back to it eventually but I just couldn’t do it at that moment. My brain kept trying to wonder what would happen to that tenuous bond if something went wrong.

“How about we watch another episode and just snuggle for a while?” Sitting up, I tried to look calm but the way he was studying me said I’d gotten it wrong. “Then we’ll work out the plan.”

At that point there didn’t seem to be a rush to change anything. We had dinner cooking, shows to watch, and a bed to snuggle on…the rest could wait.

CHAPTER 12

BLADE

“I knowyou don’t need to hear it again, but I’m going to say it anyway. If something goes wrong, I’m not going to blame you forever. I might be frustrated for a while but I’ll get over it.” Henley had repeated it enough times that I thought he believed it even if I didn’t.

He would be the type to carry a grudge and tell me about it at least once a week until he died of old age…and then he’d come back and haunt me over it.

So the goal was definitely for nothing to go wrong.

Running one hand over my head as I stuck it between the seats of the truck, he sighed as he turned into Singletary State Park. “This area is growing on me even if the whole sand instead of dirt thing is weird.”

He thought a lot of things about the area were weird, so I wasn’t worried about the sand. I’d actually never noticed it as a kid. I’d always lived close to the beach, so the sandy soil had been normal to me. The dark dirt or clay other areas had were the weird ones.

“You’re going to have to tell me at some point how you ended up in this area. If I’m remembering correctly the ranger made it sound like you were from here, but if he said any specifics, Imissed it.” Sitting straighter as we made our way down the long road that led deeper into the park, he forced himself to look confident even though I could sense his anxiety.

“I think I need to start making a list of questions in a notebook because I’m positive I’m starting to forget them.” He was not, however, forgetting how to worry because he’d gotten a lot of practice over the past few days. “I’ve run into a few people who talked about the importance of keeping a journal to pass down important stories but I can’t decide if writing about this would be a good idea or not. You’re going to have to think about that and tell me what you think later.”

He was right. I’d have to think about that one.

“Later could mean tonight if we have to go back to using the tablet or as in when you get another form again.” Glancing down at me, he forced his smile wider. “I’m getting used to this one.”

Ugh.

I was not.

I looked like the monster the newspapers had called me.