Page 26 of Alistair

Filled with nerves.

He had to remind himself that this was just sex tonight, maybe the barest edge of making love to his beautiful soulmate. But he wasn’t mating her, because she didn’t know the truth about him.

How could he tell her the truth when he didn’t have her heart yet?

He was half in love with her after just two days.

He’d partly fallen for her at first sight, and then a little more on their date last night, and then tonight? When he’d watched her complete abandon as the carousel had swung in lazy circles?

Hell, he was even crazier about her.

But he had no idea if she felt the same way. He could tell she liked him, but she still seemed a little wary, a little distrusting of everything romance-related.

So tonight, whatever happened, only meant they were spending the night together. He couldn’t claim her as his elephant wanted until she knew the truth.

He used his ID badge to unlock the apartment, then held the door for her.

Once they were inside the apartment, he shut and locked the door, dropped his badge and phone on the coffee table, and swept her into his arms.

She fit perfectly against him.

Which was how it was supposed to be with soulmates.

As he stared down at her, seeing the first bloom of love in her eyes, he was so fucking tempted to tell her everything that he had to clench his teeth together to keep from blurting out his secret.

Soon.

He’d tell her everything soon.

To give himself time to think before he opened his mouth and said something he couldn’t take back, he kissed her, loving how she gripped herself even closer to him and the way the sweet scent of her arousal made his whole body light up.

He carried her to the bedroom and laid her gently on the bed, then climbed up beside her. As he stretched out next to her, she snuggled into his side and cupped his face with one hand.

“I want to tell you that I don’t usually do this,” she said with a low voice. “And we’ve only known each other for two days, so physical things seem too soon. But…” She stopped speaking, her gaze searching.

“It also feels right,” he said. “Too fast or not, it feels like we were meant to meet each other yesterday.”

“Yes,” she said, the word stretching out into a low hiss at the end as he slid his fingers under the hem of her top and touched the soft skin of her belly.

“We don’t have to do anything,” he said.

“I want to, though,” she said. “I need…”

He lowered his head and pushed her shirt up to expose her stomach, then kissed her navel. When she moaned his name, he glanced up at her and saw her teeth were digging into her bottom lip.

“What do you need?” He pushed her shirt up more, over her breasts to expose the lace bra he’d felt when he’d touched her earlier.

“You. Just…you.”

“I’m yours,” he said, his elephant in firm agreement.

If only she knew what he was really saying.

A silent pledge to be her faithful protector, her lover, her friend.

Forever.

He tugged on the center of the bra and realized it had a clasp in the front. With a twist of his finger and thumb, he opened it, spreading it apart. Her nipples pebbled into tight peaks, and he kissed his way up to them, flicking his tongue over first one and then the other before he sucked on them, alternating between them until she writhed under him, her hands twisting in his hair and the scent of her arousal deepening.

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