Danny frowned. “Don’t call them minions. They want to help because we’re family and they respect the hell out of me, not because I’m some tyrant. I’ve met alphas like that. My father was an alpha like that. Every thing I do, it’s to walk a different path from him.”
“I know,” Sarah said. She hadn’t met his father, but his mother had tried to get her executed for sleeping with Danny, so she had a pretty good idea what he’d be like. She needed to change the subject, to chase the frown off his face. “Moving in seems like a great idea, but what if this thing between us doesn’t work out?” But even saying the words out loud felt ridiculous. How could it not work out? They were fated mates. Destined to be together and to love every second of it.
“It’s going to work out. It’s working out. I’m pretty sure the last week showed us that.” His big grin grew even bigger. Sarah could see him reliving their Sex Week in his mind.
His fingers slid higher up her thighs.
“What if our friends think this is ridiculous?” The fear had been percolating in the back of her mind all week. What if, when they got home, they fell into old patterns. What if they just dated and stayed remote and drifted away from each other? Had they gotten together too fast? Were they going to blaze bright and explode like a shooting star? When she was with Danny, kissing him and squeezing him and feeling his skin on hers, all her doubts melted away. But when left alone to her own thoughts the what ifs came calling.
“What if they look at us together and roll their eyes, because they knew all along that we should be together and neither of us could see it?” Danny countered.
“What if your guy friends hate me?” Sarah asked. She slid a little lower in her seat to get closer to Danny’s fingers.
“They won’t. Most of them already know you and think you’re great. And any of them who have a problem with you—I’ll talk to them. If they can’t see how amazing you are, they’re dead to me.”
“That’s pretty extreme, don’t you think?”
Danny glanced at her, a shocked expression on his face. “Sarah, you’re my mate. You are the most important thing in the world to me, and you always will be. Forever.”
A shiver ran up her thighs. He meant it. He absolutely meant it. He saw her ample curves, smelled her morning breath, knew every one of her flaws and cherished them. It was terrifying and beautiful.
“We should have a party,” he said. “Bring all our friends and colleagues together. Announce to the world this thing we have. We can write our names in starlight on the sky. We could do it tonight, even.”
Sarah’s chest tightened. The idea was deeply appealing. It would be a new start for them, a definitive beginning to their life in the city. But also terrifying—what would she wear? What would she say? Crowds always freaked her out. “I love the idea,” she said. “But what do we call the party? I can’t exactly tell my friends that you’re secretly a bear and we were fated to be together. Well, I mean, we could, but that’s rather more of a coming out party than I’d intended.”
Danny laughed. His fingers brushed against the fabric of her panties and Sarah gasped. Ever since that first night together in the little cabin in Bearfield it was like her erogenous zones were turned up to eleven. She was horny from the second she woke up until the second she went to bed. All Danny had to do was be in the same room with her and her body would burn for him. The heat grew stronger all day, until she had him inside her. And for a while afterwards, reeling from another world-obliterating orgasm, the heat would be sated. But not for long. How long could she continue like this? Was this some mating magic that would pass? Or would she spend the rest of her life craving Danny every second of the day?
“I thought we could tell them,” Danny said with a sly tone, “that we were engaged.”
“En-what now?”
Danny pushed her panties aside expertly and slid one finger into her burning heat. “Sarah Honeywell, will you marry me?”
“Fuck yes,” she groaned.
* * *
CHAPTER TWO
When they arrived at Danny’s flat, much later than anticipated, reeking of sex and with big grins on their faces, Sarah was shocked to realize she’d never been inside his home before. If you would have asked her, she would have said of course she had. If pressed on details she would have described your basic minimalist modern apartment appropriate for an architect like Danny.
The reality was far better.
He had a converted warehouse in the Dogpatch neighborhood all to himself. He’d done right by it, too. Four stories tall on the outside, on the inside it was all expansive views of the bay and elegantly assembled rooms with just the right amount of vintage wooden furniture. It was as if he’d built a massive-yet-cozy Victorian hidden within the rough exterior of the warehouse. On the outside, it even still bore a sign that read “Murphy & Sons, Shipbuilders.”
“Your home is incredible,” Sarah gasped when she entered. “Did you decorate it by yourself?”