Page 29 of Ditching the Dragon (Fated Dates)

“Oh, fuck off,” I mutter as I finally liberate myself from the comforter.

“You’re hoping to tease me with your scent?” he asks.

“Maybe.”

“There’s a reason you know your scent will drive me wild, mate.”

“Stop with the mate business already!”

He growls, and my traitorous libido makes me halt dead in my tracks. Full stop, frozen in time, my body ceases to move in its instinctual response to that rumble from his chest.

He does it again, adding more of a snarl to it, and my face burns bright with hot blood. My skin heats and my breasts tingle in the sense memory.

“Fuck, Annie. Stay where you are. I’m coming to you,” he groans through the phone.

“No, Wick,” I force out.

He grumbles, but the phone beeps again.

Accept video call?

I stare at it while it rings. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that he knows where I am. If anything, answering means I’ll learn where he is and how long I have.

Wick’s handsome face greets me with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. He’s in a familiar beige room with white sheets.

“That was fast,” I comment.

“Don’t talk,” he growls. “Just listen.”

I roll my eyes but wait for him to continue.

“I’m going to find you, Annie, and when I do, I’m going to claim you as my mate. Do you understand me? You’re mine forever.”

He’s glaring at me through the phone so fervently I worry he’ll have figured out how to reach through the screen.

“That’s more a threat than an offer,” I reply.

“The only threat I am to you is your ability to walk when I’m through with you. That’s no threat; it’s a promise.”

“Well, with an offer like that, how can I possibly say no?” I deadpan.

“You can’t, gorgeous. The mate bond ties us both, including you to me. We’re fated. That isn’t going to change. I intend to remind you that you belong with me every morning when we wake up and every night before we go to bed.”

My eyelids droop on their own, and I sigh at that thought, only to remember he can see me. I fix my poker face.

He chuckles, and it’s this dark, rich vibration that I feel in my soul.

“If you come in the sheets, the scent will be stronger,” he informs me.

“I already told younoto phone sex.”

“Look at the screen, Annie.”

There, on the other end, Wick lounges on the bed. He’s sitting up, a few pillows stacked behind him, with his shirt unbuttoned. The line of hair on his lower abdomen leads downward to his exposed, half-hard cock in his hand.

“Stay,” he begs. “Have some fun with me and earn extra time to run. I’ll give you five minutes.”

“Why would you ever do that?”

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