Page 40 of Unforgivable Fate

“No.” Nova reached out and took his hand, “No, you don’t understand what I’m saying. I don’t blame you for bringing it all back up. I mean, I did, at first, but not anymore. The more time I spend with you, the more I realize that I’d put a band-aid over a lot of the old wounds but I never gave them a chance to heal. You’re helping to heal them, Griffin. You’re healing me and making me better.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.” Nova smiled softly, her face lit by the glow of the lantern. “That’s how you’ll know I mean it when I say that I’m not scared of the bond between us anymore. I believe you when you say you’re nothing like your brother. You’ve proven it in every way you can since the moment you got here. I believe in fate and I believe you’re right when you say that everything that’s happened has led us to this point, right here, together. Because you’re my fated mate, Griffin Clary, and I’m yours.”

His heart felt like it might burst out of his chest and he searched her face in the dim light for any sign of hesitation or concern, “You’re mine?”

“And you’re mine.” Nova nodded, looking up at him from beneath her dark lashes. “Now come over here and kiss me because I’ve been aching to feel your lips on mine again since the moment you…”

He moved so fast she didn’t get to finish her sentence. He pulled her across the space, rattling the dishes left on the blanket. He hauled her into his arms and pressed his mouth to hers. He kissed her, just like she wanted, and just like he’d been dying to kiss her for what felt like an eternity.

This time she didn’t hold back and neither did she. He kissed her and she kissed him back with every ounce of passion that he had known she was keeping locked inside of her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and opened her mouth for him, deepening the kiss and sucking on his tongue.

Heat shot through his veins. His wolf growled. And he knew that there was no going back now. She’d said that she was his and he was going to prove it. He would claim her and if he was lucky she would claim him right back. She would be his mate, his partner, his other half. She was already his everything and would be for the rest of their lives.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Nova moaned as she settled onto Griffin’s lap and he pulled her even closer. In this position, with her straddling him, she had the advantage of being able to move and so she did. She rolled her hips as she licked her tongue into his mouth and was rewarded with a low growl from deep in his chest and his big hands settling on her ass, cupping her and guiding her as she rocked herself against him.

God, this was good. So good. Perfect even. One kiss from him, one touch, and she lost the ability to think straight. She didn’t want to think at all. Not anymore. She’d overthought their situation from every conceivable angle and the truth was, the answer was always the same.

He was her fated mate and it was about damn time she accepted it.

Nova nipped at Griffin’s lip, tugging it between her teeth until he grunted with pain. She released it and immediately kissed the spot, laving it with her tongue. All the while, her wolf was just beneath her skin, begging to be set free, begging to truly sink her teeth into Griffin and mark him as theirs.

“Nova.” Griffin’s hands came up to her face, holding her gently but steadily as he pulled back from the inferno of the kiss. “Nova, wait.”

“I don’t want to wait anymore.” She whispered, shifting her hips against the thick length of him she could feel beneath her.

“Nova.” He groaned her name and kissed the side of her neck, trailing kisses down towards the edge of her dress where her breasts heaved. “If we keep going like this, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop.”

“Don’t stop.” She tilted her head to the sky and moaned as his tongue licked a drop of sweat as it trickled down her chest.

“The heat.” He reminded her but she only grabbed hold of his head and forced him to meet her gaze.

“I know. It’s driving me crazy too. You’re the only thing I think about. Just you. Touching you. Tasting you. Feeling you inside me.” She bit off a moan as her core clenched at the thought. “I just want to do it. Do it and get it over with and then we’ll be able to think straight again.”

Griffin jerked beneath her touch, “What?”

She was so caught up in the heat, in the moment, in the feel of him that it took her a second too long to realize he wasn’t kissing her anymore. She blinked and found him frowning at her. She opened her mouth to tell him to keep going but he pulled even further away from her, as far as he could go considering she was still straddling his lap.

“No. Nova. No.” He looked hurt as he shook his head, “I don’t want it to be like that between us.”

She rubbed her eyes, trying to force her brain to work again, but before she could speak he continued.

“I want you to want me. Just me. The way that I want you.” His voice was soft, distant, as though he’d retreated further away from her than she could reach. He removed his hands from her body with a heavy sigh, “Maybe we should just call it a night and head back.”

“No.” Nova’s heart clenched at the idea of him walking away from her. She met his gaze and softened her own. She did the thing she never did with anyone outside of her family and let her emotions finally bubble to the surface. “No. Please don’t. I’m sorry. You’re right and I’m sorry about what I said before, it was stupid.”

“If that’s how you feel…”

“It’s not.” She insisted. “It might have been, at some point, but it’s not anymore.”

“Then tell me how you really feel after everything we talked about tonight. Tell me what you want out of this mating, Nova. Because if we’re not on the same page, I don’t know what comes next.”

She swallowed hard and she realized it was panic spilling into her veins. This was the first time that Griffin had ever pulled back from her first. She was the one that was usually pushing him away. She was the one who had tried to run and he’d come after her. He’d been chasing her from the moment he got to town and now that he’d made it clear he wouldn’t chase her over this particular ledge she knew that she’d gone too far and the only way back was her bond to him, the lifeline that could keep her from falling, was him.

“I promised to tell you the truth so, here’s the truth.” Nova took a deep breath for courage and met his intense gaze. “I do want you, Griffin. I want to be with you and it would be easier for me to accept if I could blame it all on the heat but the truth is, getting to know you had been fun. I like you and that scared me because I’m not good at letting people in. I haven’t been since I was a kid because the last time I let someone I thought cared about me in, he hurt me and not just me but my entire family.”

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