Page 38 of Shiny Things

“You don’t really mean that.”

I didn’t, but I was still trying to sort out my emotions about everything.

Slowly, he started taking off my clothes and tossing them into a heap on the floor.

I didn’t stop him. I actually encouraged it by reaching out and unbuttoning his shirt.

“I want you,” he said.

“I noticed,” I responded with a giggle.

“You didn’t let me finish. I want you to show me your raven.”

My hands froze on one of his buttons as I looked up into his eyes.

“Don’t freak out. I know how you feel, and I’m telling you, it’s going to be okay. We came out to your family tonight and the world didn’t end, Kim.”

“It’s not my family I’m worried about.”

“Gia’s not an idiot. I promise you she knows about us, or at least that something’s going on.”

I shook my head.

“My family will love you, all of them, because they love me and want me to be happy. And I love you. You are what makes me happy.”

I looked up into his eyes with my heart racing. A tear slipped down my cheek.

“You love me?”

“More than anything else in this entire world.”

His lips crashed down on mine as he kissed me with an intensity that should have terrified me, but it didn’t. It excited me.

I smiled against his lips and pulled back to look at him. When he tried to kiss me again, I held his face in my hands so he would stop and look at me.

“I love you too, Elias.”

He appeared to stop breathing for a moment.

“Does that mean you’ll do it? Let our ravens meet?”

“Yes,” I said in barely a whisper.

He picked me up and twirled me around as I laughed and smacked him to put me down.

Eventually, he set me down and frantically started ripping off my clothes as well as his own.

“What are you doing?” I asked with a laugh.

“Stripping and shifting.”

“Right now?”

“Yes, before you start overthinking it and freaking out on me. I’ve waited a long time for this.”

Nerves made me shiver.

“What if we’re wrong and we aren’t true mates?”

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