Page 23 of Remy & the Wildcat

“You know, regardless of how they actually appear on the surface, they’re really sweet and gracious, go the extra mile. They’re safe heroes, you know? You can trust them.”

His brows rose. “I’ve…never heard of such a thing.”

“You’re not a cinnamon roll.”

“Wait, you don’t trust me?”

“What? No! Of course, I do! I just mean you’re an alpha. Cinnamon roll heroes are betas. Or I guess in the terms of wolf packs, they’d be omegas. They’re not the ruthless do-anything-guys, they’re the sweethearts who scour antique stores for candlesticks to set a table for a romantic dinner that they cooked.”

“Uh, yeah,” he said with a chuckle as he put the book away. “I’m not the guy to cook for you unless you like toast.”

She smiled and her eyes crinkled at the corners. “You’re real. What I like in the fantasy stuff isn’t what I like in real life. In real life… I like you.”

He hooked his arm around her waist and drew her close. Her breath gusted from between her parted lips and her eyes got darker. “You are so beautiful. I’m…spellbound by you already. I feel like I’ve known you a long time, and we haven’t even been together for twenty-four hours yet.”

“Because we’re meant to be together.”

He nodded and leaned in for a kiss. She melted against him with a soft sigh as the kiss deepened. It was tempting to keep kissing her, to take her to the bedroom and find out how many more sweet sounds she’d make while they were doing other things, but he really did want to get to know her better. Not that he couldn’t get to know her with their clothes off too, but down boy, he wanted to treat her special.

Because she was.

Easing from her sweet lips, he said, “Let’s go out. You can tell me all about your pointy eared fantasy guys.”

“I feel like you’re never going to forget that I said all that.”

“I definitely won’t.”

They linked hands and walked out of the house to his truck.

“Tomorrow you can meet Dana and we can discuss the living situation,” she said. “I think the best-case scenario is that you and I find a new town soon and we’re able to get the pride moved there before the full moon, so we can have a big celebration not only for us taking over but our new place.”

“Do you think we can get things moving that quickly?”

“Maybe. Hope springs eternal, right?”

He laughed. “It sure does.”

“Confession time,” Thyme said as they sat at an intimate table in a restaurant that claimed to serve the best steaks and seafood in the state. The smell of grilling meat was heavy in the air, and her stomach was growling like she hadn’t eaten in days.

“Do tell, I’m all ears.”

She stared at Remy for a quiet moment, drinking in everything about him. There was a single candle flickering in the center of the table that cast a golden glow to his face, highlighting the smooth curve of his jaw and the bow of his lips, and there in the sapphire depths, was the sweet connection between them, glittering with promise.

“I’ve never been on a date before.”

He hummed. “I think that’s really cool.”

“Dana has dated a lot. She says that if she gets tired of waiting for her truemate, then she at least wants to pick a mate that she gets along with. ‘Test driving’ them, is what she calls it.”

Remy chuckled. “I never went on a solo date, but I did do the group date thing in high school, like for prom or a movie night. I think when we plan to wait for our truemate, that it makes the casual dating thing seem pointless.”

“Definitely. Plus, most of the males in the pride either didn’t like me because they were friends with Leif, or they were scared of my dad.”

His smile made her feel warm inside. “I think my sisters feel the same. I threatened a lot of males to keep their distance, but the girls weren’t ever really interested in dating casually anyway.”

He’d explained about their Angel Mate nature that kicked in when they were twenty-one. His mom had been hot and heavy with a male in her pack before she turned twenty-one, and then he’d stalked and abducted her after she’d mated her truemate, because he hadn’t been able to let go.

“Geez,” Thyme said.

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