Page 84 of My Summer Girl

“Everything that’s mine is yours.” The words are direct. Sweat lines my palms, making them sticky as it sinks in. “She’s mine, mi media naranja. Which means she’s yours too. I want her for us.”

“Us?” I emphasize. This time the word comes out vocally and not just a rampant thought roaring in my lost mind. By now, his hands cup my shoulders, each thumb rubbing familiar circles. Tingles rest in my belly, a warmth pooling between my thighs, confusing me.

What is this?

I’ve never—

“She’s not the only one I want,” he boldly reveals, his eyes penetrating mine like he’s been waiting for this moment his whole life. Has he?

“Raev—” I argue, but am quickly stopped by one of his hands resting over my lips. It should anger me, feel rude to be interrupted, but the softness in his expression, like he needs me to be quiet so he can get it all out—keeps me from reacting.

“You’ve been mine since we were kids,” he states matter-of-factly. His hand resting above my mouth moves to my jaw, holding it as if it’s the most special part of any being. His other roams over my chest to where my heart resides. “I’ve loved you our entire lives,” he raggedly releases, the words holding him hostage somehow. “It didn’t start that way at first. If anything, it was just knowing you were my person. Everything about you made sense. We made sense.”

Tears well in my eyes. This isn’t how I imagined this going. I was supposed to yell and berate, and force him to beg for forgiveness.

This is too much.

“Dulce is ours,” he carries on, standing and forcing me back a step. His tall frame towers over me, yet I know out of us two, he’s the one who would be on his knees while I stand above. Dulce. The sweet summer girl I’ve never begged harder for than this last solstice. And Solera delivered.

Delivered me a mated girl.

Someone who isn’t mine.

“She’s Vex’s,” I argue, and he smiles like it’s a joke.

“Somehow, she’s theirs too. But she’s ours,” he growls, leaning down to my throat. “Can’t you feel it, mi media naranja? Can’t you taste the connection? She’s summer. She’s light. She’s our mate.”

“How?”

He nips at the flesh of my throat, causing me to shiver and jump away. Part of me enjoys the heat that emanates from him, but the other part that has spent the last two decades as his friend and confidant is scared of what would be ruined if my thoughts wandered there.

Then a thought occurs. Vex said Orukna males get markings... on their cocks. “Do you have markings?”

He tilts my head back and stares down at me with the darkest expression. “Want to see?” The tease is said so confidently that I can’t even hold in my laughter.

It’s quick and silly, but I giggle. “You did not just flirt with me.”

His forehead rests against my own, and the happiest of purrs rumbles through us. “I definitely did. Especially if you liked it.”

Slapping at his broad chest, I make an indignant sound, but don’t move away from our embrace. We’ve been apart for two weeks and it feels like so long.

“I do have markings,” he admits. His chest rises and falls against my palms, rapid and big as I peer up at him. “They came yesterday, and I did everything to avoid Dulce. Because if you wish it, I’ll let you have her. I’ll walk away. It might kill me to do so, but a sacrifice for mi reina is a sacrifice well given.”

My jaw drops at his words. How could anyone—let alone a mate—give up their other half? Unless... I shake my head, not allowing it to wander.

“Are they colored? The markings?” I almost wonder if they transform per bond, is that really where my mind is going?

His eyes narrow. “How did you—”

“What color?”

“Peach.”

I let out a sigh, thinking of her. There’s no part of me confused on what it means to have a soulmate. They’re rare. Almost unthinkable, but now I’m certain.

“When did they show up?”

“After we—” he starts and stops immediately, a redness darkens his cheeks and I’ve never quite seen him take on this shade before.

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