Her head tilted to the side, brows knitted in confusion. “Stop what?”
“Your bottom lip. Nibbling on it. You do it when you’re nervous or thinking pretty damn hard about something.”
“Oh.” She let go, licking the offended spot.
“Yeah, oh,” he breathed out. He brushed his thumb along her lower lip, the silky smooth texture gliding beneath the rough pad. Keeping his eyes locked on hers, he slowly leaned in, giving her time to say no, to push him away. He brushed his lips lightly against hers. Enough pressure to get a feel of the connection, to see if she felt the kinship and the tug as much as he did. Her eyes closed the second their lips made contact, a breathy sigh escaping her. When he pulled away, she followed.
Hell, yeah! Declan quit his retreat and, instead, charged forward again, capturing her lips. He ran his tongue along the seam, coaxing her to play. She whimpered and opened her mouth to his impending assault.
He could do nothing less than devour her. Plunge his tongue in and out. Letting it tangle with hers when she joined in. Her arms wound around his neck, fingers digging into his scalp. The bite of pain when her nails dug in, aroused him even more. He pulled her across his lap to straddle his thighs, grinding his erection against her heated core.
Something snapped and crackled in the air surrounding them. He pulled back expecting to see a darkened sky and lightning. The sun shone through the front windows of the townhouse, confusing the hell out of him. “What the hell just happened?”
“Mates,” she murmured.
He gazed down into her dilated and glazed eyes. “What?” He had never heard of electricity crackling when mates kissed.
Avery pulled from his embrace, moving off his lap against his wishes.
“It means we’re mates,” she stated blandly. She searched his face for who knew what. A tinge of sadness reflected back at him. “Don’t you know the signs?”
“Of course, I do,” he couldn’t help biting out.
She raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Shaking her head, she stood up and walked away, taking a seat on the chair, leaving him to sit by himself on the couch.
Guess we won’t be kissing again anytime soon.
“I’m not a complete idiot. I know the signs of a mate. I’ve just never heard of”—he waved his hands in the air—“that happening.”
“Could have fooled me.” Avery’s face sobered. “Do you not want me?”
They were back to that, then. Guess they were getting right down to the nitty-gritty. No wading in the shallow end for them, testing to see if they wanted to dive in. “I think I already proved I do. I want you more than my next breath.” He couldn’t help looking her over. Kiss-swollen lips, flushed cheeks. Damn, she was beautiful. He cleared his throat. “We need, no I need to straighten a few things out. I never meant to hurt you, but I know I did. I’m sorry. I’ve had this…plan, and I am so close to completing it. The night I saw you at Chugs, I kind of freaked out. There were things I wanted to accomplish. Things I wanted to do before I thought I would be ready to find my mate.”
Her hand came up in a stopping motion. “Wait. You saw me at Chugs? When?”
“A couple Saturdays ago. I saw you at the bar and was instantly enthralled. I never scented you, but I heard your laugh. It was a Siren’s call to me. I started to go over to you when my partner, Mark, pointed out my glowing eyes. To say I handled finding my mate poorly would be an understatement.”
Declan waited her for get up and start ranting at him. In his experience, women would call what he did a missed opportunity, take it as a personal insult. Instead, Avery sat there, lips pursed in contemplation. She drew one foot up on her chair, wrapping her arms around her bent knee, chin on top. Torn between her pretty pink lips and the prettiest pink painted toenails perched on the edge of the chair, he forced himself to look her in the eyes.
Get your head in the game, Weller, and off getting her in bed.
“I thought I scented my mate in the bar the same night, but I wasn’t sure. There were so many people there, and then I lost the scent altogether. I gave up pretty easily and went to the bar to order food.”
So, they were both to blame for not getting together the first night. It was a relief to know in a way. In his head, it put them on equal footing. No harm, no foul.
“I can understand freaking out about it at the bar. I kind of had the same reaction. But what happened in class? You looked so angry with me. I thought you blamed me for something or found fault in me.”
“Another case of it being me and not you. I gave my card to Nik and told him to give me your name if he felt comfortable with it. I wanted to know who you were. When he called the Thursday before class and gave me your name, he told me not to fuck up and, if I did, he would pound me into the ground. I didn’t take that lightly. He meant what he said. I told you earlier I looked you up. In the case of full disclosure, I did a background check while at work.”
Avery’s mouth dropped open. “You what? A background check! That’s more than looking someone up, and a hell of a lot more intrusive.”
“It could be construed that way.” Declan tried his damndest not to step in it—too much. “Out of curiosity, what did you think I had done?”
Her bottom lip ended up between her teeth as she looked everywhere but at him. She fidgeted in her seat and, finally, after a few more seconds, looked at him. “Asked Nik about me. Not that he would know much. He only dated my best friend, Reese. So, he’s pretty much attuned to her and not me. I guess maybe try to find me online through social media or something.”
“Social media wouldn’t give me the facts, and Nik didn’t give me any info on you other than your name. Can I remind you he did some checking into me? Called my superior to ask if I was a decent guy. And no, he didn’t have to say anything nice about me. I’m not even sure he likes me.”
“Noted, but Nik was looking out for me. I think. We’ve known each other for about six years. Friends look out for friends. I don’t understand why you felt the need to do a background check. Did you not trust me to tell you the truth? Are you suspicious of women? Did some woman jerk you around by playing games and break your heart?” Avery’s teeth clenched, and she all but growled the last question. Nice to know his mate felt some jealousy and protective instincts when it came to him. Now, if he could jump the hurdle of the background check without breaking his neck, things would be good.
Declan shifted closer, reaching out to caress her arm. When she didn’t pull away, he saw that as a sign of progress. “I’m not suspicious of women, no one broke my heart, and I would have believed you. None of those things had anything to do with it. I wanted to know as much about you as I could before we met. Everything I saw said you were just as goal oriented as me, and I made a judgment call—a poor one—but a judgment call nonetheless. I figured you would want to finish school and move home before finding your mate, too. I decided I could wait until I got settled in Mischief before looking you up.”
Avery’s mouth hung open. Declan wondered if he should close it for her but thought better of it.
“I don’t know what to question first: you making decisions about our life together or you settling down in Mischief.”
“I’ll answer them both, first about Mischief. I have a job waiting for me with the sheriff’s department. I’ve had it in the works for the past six months and finally got the acceptance about a month ago. I only need to finish this ethics class before I transfer over.”
Avery nodded. “Okay, that makes sense. Dad mentioned they were hiring. He’s on the town council, so he probably had a hand in your hiring. Strange how things work out, but okay. You didn’t know about me. I didn’t know about you. One thing had nothing to do with the other, so that’ll be taken off the he’s-a-creepy-stalker list.”
Declan grinned and breathed a sigh of relief. They would have met eventually once they were both living in Mischief even if they hadn’t met now. Why the Fates decided to throw this wrench into his plans, he didn’t have a c
lue, but he would go with it—now.
Avery dropped her foot to the floor. “Don’t get too cocky and comfortable over there. You still haven’t explained the background check and how it played into your poor decision-making skills. I’m not sure I want a mate or a man who can’t be a normal guy meeting his mate for the first time.”
“I’m a cop, Avery. I investigate everyone and make decisions based on what I discover.”
“I counter your point by saying, repeating actually, you could have asked me out. Would it have been so bad?”
She had a point, but he wasn’t ready to admit defeat. “It’s too easy to look someone up at work. It happened to be where I was when Nik called. I pulled a double, all quiet on the home front, and I looked you up. Mark told me not to do it, but then, he hasn’t found his mate and doesn’t understand what it’s like to not know what to do.”
“Most people would start out simple. Introduce yourself to your mate then take it from there.”
“But at the time, I had this plan. This thing I had lived my life by for the last eight years, I thought I could control the instinct for my mate until the time was right. It’s the same way at work. As much as I want to go after a suspect as soon as we have one, I do a little homework first. Decide on the best strategy to get what I need. At the time when I first saw you, I thought I needed to finish what I had laid before me and had been working toward for the better part of my life.”
Declan scooted to the edge of the couch, just enough to be able to grab her hand, and pulled her out of her chair onto his lap again. The lion needed her touch almost as much as the man needed to share in soothing her. She didn’t fight him on it and, for that, he was thankful.
“My lioness understands the need, Declan,” she said softly.
He grinned. A very perceptive mate. He would have to be on his toes with her. Wrapping her in his arms, he locked her in place, depositing his hand on her thigh where the marks were. He rubbed small circles with his fingertips over her soft skin. His lion purred within.
He tapped his fingers over the marks. “We’re going to come back to these.”
She nodded in agreement.
He sucked in a huge breath. “The main thing I want you to get is I didn’t know what to do. This path—plan—whatever you want to call it, is something I’ve been on for eight years, everything going as expected. I’m on track. Two years and I would have everything I dreamed of. I would be ready and financially able to find my mate. I would have the perfect house, the perfect job, stability, and a means of supporting my mate and our cubs. The irony is, the night I saw you I reminded myself I wasn’t ready for a mate. I hoped my destiny could wait those two measly years.”
Avery stiffened on his lap. A flash of hurt sparked in her eyes. He had hurt her again, and rushed on to repair the damaged before it worsened.
“The thing is, the Fates had something else in mind for me. A lesson for me to learn and put you in my path. I had become so self-absorbed in what I wanted I forgot there were other things, great things out there. I struggled to understand what I knew would happen and was determined to find a way to stay on my self-appointed path. I never counted on us having a class together. I wasn’t prepared to see you.”
Avery snorted. “It’s a required course. Otherwise, I never would have taken it.”
“Does that mean you understand?”
She shifted off his lap to sit next to him. Though he didn’t like it, he was grateful she hadn’t moved to the chair. This way he could still touch her, keep her close to his side. He pulled her legs across his lap, running his hands up and down their silky smoothness. He couldn’t stop touching her.
She nodded sharply. “I don’t like it, but I do understand being on a path and wanting to stick with it. You aren’t the only one, Declan. I had the next couple years of my life figured out, too. I’ve been looking for an apartment at home, so I don’t have to move into the basement of my parents’ place. I’ve been picking out furniture and decorations. Planning my first meal to celebrate the next stage in my life. There are things I want to change at the clinic once I take over. Battles I’m looking forward to waging with my father and uncles and winning. None of this included a mate. I wanted to do these things on my own. Things that I felt required my full attention.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You wouldn’t have. Those things aren’t listed on some sterile information sheet you can pull up at work. The difference between our plans, though, is I allowed for flexibility. I never once thought I should ignore my mate because it didn’t fit into my neatly ordered world at the moment.”
Chapter Ten
A strange, heavy silence descended upon them. Avery didn’t know what to do to break it or if she should even try.
Declan reclined against the couch, her legs still pulled across his lap, but she wasn’t sure he noticed the weight of them. A frown marred his handsome features as he absently rubbed her calves.
At some point, the silence got to be too much. It had gone on far too long eating away her sanity, and she needed up. Maybe telling him he wasn’t the only one with plans and dreams burst some strange bubble in him. Did he really think he was the only one to want to figure out what happened next?
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, breaking him from whatever realm he inhabited. “Need to pee.”
Pushing up off the couch, she made her way to the bathroom. When she came out a few minutes later, Declan still sat in the same spot, the same distressed look on his face. Same dazed, out-of-this-world aura emanating from him. Her words had hit a chord within him, and she feared she’d broken him.
“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” she said, crossing the living room and stopping in the doorway to her room to study him.
He looked at her, studied her much like she studied him. There were some heavy thoughts going on in his head. Worry lines crinkled at the edges of his eyes and mouth. He searched her face She didn’t think she had the answers to whatever questions tumbled through his head. She wanted to go to him, soothe him, reassure him everything would work out okay. Unfortunately, she was 100 percent sure he needed to get there on his own. Figure it out and come to her.
“You didn’t,” he said. “I don’t feel bad. What you said made me think, though. I’ve been caught up in my own tunnel vision for the last couple years. I wonder if there are other things I might have missed.”
That didn’t sound good. Did he think he had passed up on something important—maybe love? Did that mean he didn’t think he would fall in love with her? Her heart broke at the thought. She could envision falling in love with him even though they hadn’t spent much time together. With time, their mating connection—their physical connection—could lead to more. She couldn’t come right out and ask him. She wasn’t that brave yet. But she could ask a blanket question.
“Like what?” Her voice broke, overwhelmed with insecurity about their new relationship. She dropped her head to her chest and cleared her throat. She forced her head up, leveling her gaze on him. The most important thing her parents had taught her was to tackle problems head on, even if you were afraid. Her current actions proved she hadn’t followed their sage advice. She had been running scared ever since she assumed he’d rejected her. Time to pull up her big-girl panties and act like the adult she desperately wanted to be treated like.
Declan shrugged, unaware of Avery’s issues. “I have no idea. Maybe a different career path. Job opportunities. Things I didn’t give a second glance because they didn’t fall into my plan.”
Not quite the answer she’d hoped for. In for a penny, in for a pound. Avery might as well ask what she wanted. Being a cop, he would probably appreciate a direct approach. If she didn’t, it would weigh on their relationship if they were to have one. “What about falling in love? Do you think you might have passed up on the one woman you could fall in love with?”
That seemed to surprise Declan. He got up from the couch and came to her. He cupped his han
ds on either side of her face. “No,” he declared vehemently. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that. I was slow on the uptake with us, nothing more. I know not all mated couples fall in love, but I did hope I would fall in love with mine. I hope one day maybe you and I.…”
His words trailed off, and a little weight lifted off her chest.
“Me too,” she smiled shyly.
Her phone buzzed, pulling their attention. Jesus, he acted like he really cared, as if he really wanted to make things work. It did funny things to her. Her tummy flipped, and she felt too much. Lust, need, and emotions she couldn’t quite put a name on. It balled up in her, and she needed to find a way to let it escape.
The lioness inside nudged her. Take him.
Avery leaned into Declan, placing her hands on his chest. He felt warm and alive beneath her palms. Their gazes collided, and she saw the same warring emotions mixing in his eyes.
They were in this together. This call to mating. Their lions nudging them to become one, to take the next step to claim one another.
Rising on her tiptoes, she kissed him, the barest brushing of her lips against his. It lasted for a second before he pulled her flush against him, groaning when their bodies connected.
He skimmed his lips along her jaw toward her ear. “So good,” he whispered, his tongue tracing the outer shell. Goose bumps skittered along her flesh. His low, sex-filled voice, his body so close to hers, all of it combined to make her want to wrap her body around him, lay claim to him.
They pulled apart, putting much-needed breathing room between them.
She slid her hand into his and tugged him into her bedroom. Her lioness reassured her everything would turn out fine, told her this was the correct path. The way her mating was intended to be. Avery wanted this man more than she had ever wanted anyone else. She needed to let him know in the simplest form she could she was in this relationship completely.
Never had she been so grateful to have a queen-size bed. A king would be better. Maybe they could get one when they found their own home.
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