Page 29 of Voyage with the Reclusive Billionaire

“I couldn’t risk it,” I say. “It took me a little while to figure it out myself, Eliza. I had closed myself off from my emotions so well. And you only just learned that I’m a raven-shifter. I couldn’t risk throwing one more thing into the mix yet. I didn’t want to scare you off.”

She stares at me for a long, quiet moment. Then she laughs lightly and says, “Honestly, I don’t even think I’m mad. Not really, anyway. I mean, fuck you for not telling me, but I do also get it. We only just met a week ago. Everything between us is already so fucking unnatural and scary. Not telling me makes sense. But it’s still an asshole move. I still had to find out from Sylvie when I should have found out from you.”

“I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to lose you.”

Eliza stares at me for a long moment before dropping her lips onto mine. The kiss obliterates me, like it always does with her. Then she pulls back. “Sylvie said something else, too.”

“Is it about the rite? Because we don’t have to do that yet. Or at all, if you find you aren’t comfortable with it.”

Her brows furrow. “Cor, I—”

“—Just let me say this, Eliza, okay? I’m afraid I won’t if you stop me.”

Slowly, she nods.

“I just… I need you to know that it’s okay if you don’t want to, ever. Seriously. I’ll never push or ask. But I do want you to know that doing the rite with you would be the deepest fucking honor I could ever imagine. Claiming you for life like that, I just… it would mean the world to me, Eliza, if you said you wanted to.”

She stares at me for a long moment. “I was going to say… that I have no idea what the rite is. And now you’re going to tell me.”

I stare at her expectant expression for a long, quiet moment. “Well, fuck.”

“Come on, mate,” she says, grinning cheekily. “Surely we’re beyond secrecy now.”

Hearing that word on her lips is like a shot of energy to my cock, and I fight the urge to laugh in relief at the sight of her grin. “It’s… a lifelong bond. Unbreakable. When mates decide to do the claiming ritual, it’s them proving that their love and trust in each other is stronger than anything that they could possibly go through. It’s like marriage, but not quite so… fragile. Not interchangeable.”

I pause to see how she’s taking in this information. She looks curious more than anything else, so I continue. “It’s different with every type of shifter, but ravens tend to give their mate one of their feathers and a gift. And if the mating rite is accepted, then that feather is inked onto the mate's skin forever. Marking them. But first… I would take you for a flight. Ravens have the unique ability to be able to shift halfway—which you’ve already seen. It’s customary and helps to secure the bond if the male takes his mate flying before all of that. Sort of like a trust exercise.”

“What else?”

“The rite is… it’s like marriage in that the relationship has to be consummated, for it to be valid. That’s when you’re branded.”

“Branded?” She looks horrified.

“With the feather,” I clarify. “When it’s stamped permanently into your skin.”

Eliza stares at me for a long moment. “That’s all it is? Just proving your love?”

“It’s more about proving yourself. Proving that you are willing to and will love your mate for the rest of your life. Proving that binding yourself to them for the rest of your lives is something you both want, more than anything.”

Unshed tears line Eliza’s eyes with silver. “I would love nothing more, Corvan Thorn, than to bind my life to yours forever with the mating rite.”

“Eliza,” I whisper, unable to keep the pure, unabashed love I have for her out of my voice. “You don’t have to say that to make me happy. You don’t have to do that to make me happy.”

“I mean it,” she insists. “I want you. Forever. Always. I want to love you in every way, every day, for the rest of my life. Will you let me?”

Shakily, I nod. “Yes. Fuck yes.” I crush her body on top of mine in a fierce hug, unable to get her body any closer to mine but trying, anyway. Her lips find mine in a kiss that breaks and then rebuilds me.

When we pull back for air, she whispers, “But there’s probably something you should know about me first. A few things, actually.”

“Okay,” I say slowly, voice cautious. “Tell me.”

“First,” she says, “I don’t want you to think I didn’t tell you on purpose. It just… didn’t occur to me that maybe you should know I was engaged. My fiance dumped me about a month ago. That's why I booked this trip. To escape him for a while… because we work together.”

I can’t help the shock that courses through me, the way my brows shoot up. “Engaged.”

“I feel like I have to say that this was never a rebound, Cor. I’m… I’m sure I never really loved him the way I should have. But he was safe, and steady, and I thought he was my only chance. And when I met you, I realized that wasn’t true. And what I felt for him is like a weak flicker compared to the raging flames of my feelings for you.”

I process her words carefully. Drink it in. And then I nod. “You didn’t love him.”

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