Instead of being happy, he’d been scared. At fourteen years old, it had felt too damn weird to him to be told he had a strong bond to a tiny little baby. It had even made him feel a little ill. The fact that he hadn’t felt the tug of the bond made the whole thing worse, reminding him just how closed off he actually was. So he had stayed away from her and kept totally quiet about it. Her mom had promised to give him time to get used to the idea before telling anyone. But then two months later she’d fell asleep in her cradle and hadn’t woken up.
Unlike Taryn, he’d never had a chance to know his true mate. The only picture he had of her was the one in his mind, and that image was of a little baby with the same baby features that most babies had. He had been disloyal to that little girl from the second he found her. He didn’t have anything at all that had once belonged to her, didn’t even have any memories of her. Taryn, on the other hand…she had kept her true mate’s memory alive as best she could. But for Trey and for the deal she had made with him, she had publically renounced that kid who she’d adored and who had obviously adored her in return.
And Trey had trampled all over her and her feelings, being as neglectful to her as he had been of his true mate.
Well enough of that shit. The mating might be temporary but for as long as this female was here she was his to respect and care for and protect – especially to protect from him and his asshole ways. It was the least she deserved, but more than that, it was what he wanted. He knew that even if – by some miracle – he was to mate someone permanently in the future, this temporary mating he had with Taryn would probably be the closest he would ever get to having a true mate, because she was everything he would have wanted and he doubted he would ever meet anyone like her.
Placing the shoebox on the floor, Trey carefully lay down behind her and locked his arm around her waist as he curled his body around hers. His wolf released a rumbly growl of contentedness, but right now Trey wasn’t doing this to appease his wolf or feed a hunger. He was doing it because Trey the man wanted to hold her.
If it hadn’t been for the hunger pang in her stomach, Taryn probably wouldn’t have woken. Not while she was so comfortable and warm and relaxed. And certainly not while her wolf was so at ease having Trey snuggling up to her. Wait, what? Instantly her eyes shot open and she tensed.
“You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve woke up to find myself curled around you like this.”
She would have told him to fuck off and give her the breathing room she had asked for – no, demanded – but there was something different about his voice. The gruffness she had gotten used to was gone. There was a new softness to his tone, a tenderness she hadn’t heard before. Both of which she had to be imagining along with the hand that was affectionately fondling her hair.
“I’m really sorry about your mom.”
She stiffened even more. “You went through the shoebox.” Through her very personal things. She was just getting ready to snap at him for it when he surprised her by brushing her hair aside so he could kiss along her neck. Damn if her neck wasn’t hypersensitive.
“You look a lot like her.” He kissed his way up the curve of her neck and grazed his teeth over her ear before sucking the lobe into his mouth, eliciting a gasp from her. “I love how responsive you are.”
“Okay this is where you explain to me what the hell you’re doing.” She had meant to sound abrupt and firm but the words had come out kind of breathy. “I asked to be alone.”
“And I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to be around me either.” Wanting her soft and relaxed so that she didn’t bolt before he had a chance to talk to her – and just because he liked to taste and touch her skin – he continue to kiss her neck and ear while at the same time snaking his fingers beneath her sweater to caress her stomach. “You have the softest skin.”
“Now I’m really confused. What is this? Your idea of comforting me?” She didn’t want him touching her because he felt sorry for her. In fact, she didn’t want him touching her at all, or at least that was what she told herself.
“This is me saying I realize I’ve been a prick and it’s going to stop.”
“What?”
As he swiped his tongue over his mark she shuddered, deeply satisfying both him and his wolf. “I shouldn’t have kept my distance from you the way I did. I shouldn’t have frozen you out.”
“No you’ve been doing the right thing by trying to keep a distance. We don’t want to imprint.” It was getting hard to follow the conversation now that his touch was becoming less gentle and more seductive.
“Just because we don’t want to imprint on each other doesn’t mean I should be delegating you to someone else like you’re a duty. There is a halfway measure between keeping a distance and imprinting.”
“And what’s that?”
“Fun.” He slid his hand over her jeans and rubbed against her clit, relishing her moan. “We can have that, can’t we?”
“I take it by fun, you mean sex.” Surprising her, he flipped her around to face him and cupped her face. His expression was serious.
“I’m not just talking about that. I’m talking about us spending time with each other the same way people who are in a casual relationship do.”
“What’s brought all this on?”
Unable to resist those lips, he leaned forward and nipped at them. “When you froze me out earlier, it hurt, but I realized I deserved it. I got to thinking about the way I’ve been acting, and the way I haven’t been acting. Like I told you that first night, I claimed you and you’re my mate whether this is short-term or not. It’s time I started treating you like it.” He licked his tongue along the seam of her mouth, tempting her to open for him. The little witch didn’t. Obviously his explanation wasn’t good enough. “I’m not much good at verbal apologies, baby, but I am good at oral ones.”
“Oral ones?” His meaning became clear as he gently pushed her onto her back and began sliding down her body. She gripped him by the head, keeping him still – which happened to place his mouth level with her breasts and so he grazed one the nipples poking through her sweater with his teeth. “Where do you think you’re going?”