Where was the nerves? The anguish over finally closing himself off from his freedom and taking on a sole partner again.
“I have a question,” Ana said as he carried her into the full bathroom connected to his office. That was something everyone had in their offices. He didn’t bother asking his cousin why there was a full bathroom in his office. He had used it enough times after a run that he appreciated it being there. Now he liked that he could carry Ana into the tub and sit there with her.
He deposited her on the edge of the tub and filled it with water. “Go ahead. What’s the question?”
“Why have you been avoiding me?”
Fuck. That’s the last thing he wanted to talk about, but he would. He owed it to her. He glanced into her beautiful chocolate-brown eyes and saw the questions swirling in their depths. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel insecure with him. He’d been closed off for long enough. It was time to let the past out and move on with his life.
“I wanted you. I knew I wasn’t going to be the man to mate with you so I stayed away. Or better said, kept you away.”
She blinked and pursed her lips in thoughts. He helped her climb into the warm bath water and went in after her, sitting across to face her. Her breasts bobbed right at the water line, showing him peeks of her nipples with each of her movements.
“But you changed your mind all of a sudden about me?”
“I didn’t want a mate,” he said honestly. “I know how deceitful people can be.”
Her brows rose with interest. “What do you mean? I’ve never been mated. I’ve stayed away from that because I like to travel and do things my way. Most alpha males can’t handle that.”
He gave a sharp nod. “I was mated once.”
She gasped. “You what?”
“It wasn’t like tonight. There was no intense connection of feelings of belonging together. She and I had sex and I let the animal control things. She bit me and that pushed me to bite her back. It set off a chain of events that I didn’t want. In the end we were mated but barely knew each other.”
She bit her lip and frowned. He knew what she was thinking. They hardly knew each other either. But things with them had been different. With Maria his instinct had been to get away from her once he’d bitten her. But he’d ignored it to do his duty. He shouldn’t have.
“What happened?”
“She was apparently mated to a few others.”
She blinked wide eyes at him. “Is that even possible?”
He nodded. “She’d lied to all of us. Told us her previous mate was dead. One of the men she’d strung along didn’t take kindly to her games and killed her.”
“Oh, my God! I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want another mate after that,” he said, pinning her with his gaze. “Sex is all well and good, but I didn’t want to live anything like that again.”
She licked her luscious pink lips and cleared her throat. “What about now?”
He grinned. She was gorgeous with her sexy smiles and mouth-watering curves, but that wasn’t what got him with her. Her big, innocent looks did him in. He knew that was the real her. Her eyes told him all he needed to know about her and it was that she wouldn’t play games.
“Now,” he leaned forward and pulled her to him, until she was straddling him in the wide tub, “we get to know each other better while I kiss every beautiful inch of skin on your body.”
She curled her arms around his neck and stared at him for a moment. “I was afraid to believe we could have something real. We’re so different. Heck, we’re different species. But something tells me this is so right.”
“Trust your instinct, kitten. It will never guide you wrong.” He stared at her lips. Fuck he wanted to kiss her and fuck her all over again. He knew that wouldn’t change for a long time, if ever.
“I will. I do have a request,” she said softly, her breasts brushing his chest.
His mind was solely on sex, but he knew this was important. Then he could take her every way possible again. Before he took her to his home. She was his now.
“What’s that?”
She brushed her lips over his. “Let’s try to make this work, okay?”
He nodded, pulling her head to his for a deeper kiss. “We’ll take it one day at a time.”
That sounded so good. One day at a time with the wolf her cat wanted. Who would’ve known that cats and wolves can play well together?
Six Months Later...
“Wait. What?” Callum asked glancing up from the papers she’d handed him two hours ago.
Ana grinned at the confused expression on her mate. She’d rarely been able to say anything to get that kind of reaction.
“I said you’re going to need to give up your two-seater sports car soon because your plan to get me pregnant has worked.”
He jumped to his feet and came around his desk in a rush, picking her up off her feet in a tight bear hug. “How the hell do you know that? I can’t scent the difference in you yet.”