Page 24 of A Queen and Her Knight

“Huh?” Zoe frowned, well-fed and semi-caffeinated, but still needing sleep and a shower and another visit from her mate to wake her up.

Clearly enjoying himself, Tim swung a hand dramatically toward the rack of touristy souvenir t-shirts, which had a small mirror at the top. Zoe twisted around to see what he was gesturing to and caught sight of her reflection.

The hickeys at her neck had healed, but Cleo must have remembered Zoe asking for them, just like she’d noticed Zoe drooling over how she put on lipstick. Zoe had been so happy to be kissed outside the hotel she hadn’t thought about what that might mean. No one she’d been with had ever really worn make up or lipstick like Cleo did.

The shape of Cleo’s mouth decorated Zoe’s throat. Pink lips, pink smears, wet and shiny where she’d put each kiss on Zoe, deliberately marked Zoe, in a way even a human would understand. She wanted everyone to know she was allowed to kiss Zoe, maybe because Zoe had told her about claiming, told her it went both ways, and promised to be faithful.

“Oh,” Zoe said breathlessly, studying the line of kisses along her neck, the stain of pink at her collar, the filthy smudge of it at her mouth. “Oh, she claimed me. She….” She’d asked Zoe about claiming. She’d hinted this morning about what she wanted. “My mate is braveandmagic.” Zoe exhaled shakily. She wanted to touch the marks, but wouldn’t risk smearing them for anything.

Cleo had stopped Zoe by the side of her truck and turned to her in the full light of day and painted a mark on her to show the world Zoe was taken. “Nathaniel, she’s wonderful.”

“Of course she is, Zo’.” Nathaniel was wonderful too. “She’s your mate.”

“I am?”

In that moment, Cleo’s soft voice was not soothing.

Zoe had been tricked by the vanilla coffee in her hand and too distracted by the bright marks at her throat to notice her mate’s presence behind her.

She went still and stared at Nathaniel in betrayal before she understood what he’d done for her. Then she turned.

Cleo was dressed for work, black pants, black shirt, white and pastel green scarf in her hair. She had reapplied her lipstick, but her gaze went right to Zoe’s neck.

“What are you doing here?” Zoe didn’t know why she bothered asking. “I thought you were at work.”

“I don’t work the mid-shift today. I go in a little later, which I forgot this morning. I suppose I was distracted.” Cleo wet the corner of her mouth and reached up, maybe to fiddle with an earring that she wasn’t wearing. “What were you saying as I walked in? What was that?” She looked Zoe in the eye, but only briefly, and then her attention was back on the lipstick marks on Zoe’s skin.

“You claimed me.” Zoe wasn’t sure if she was complaining, or asking a question.

“I’m your mate?” Cleo responded. She brought her gaze up to Zoe’s face and kept it there. “Your mate?” she repeated, in a high voice.

“If you want to be.” That wasn’t exactly right. Zoe looked down at the latte she probably shouldn’t have ordered. “Youare,” she corrected. “But you don’t have to be, if you don’t want to. People don’t usually want me. I’d understand.”

Cleo didn’t move away. Zoe lifted her head in time to watch her glance from Carl to Tim to Nathaniel and then back to Carl. Carl smiled warmly at her.

“Okay,” she agreed cautiously, as if that had reassured her. She sounded calmer than her heartbeat said she was. Zoe peered up again. Cleo was watching her now. “I’ve seen the movies…”

Nathaniel made that scornful noise he made whenever someone mentioned the human pop culture depictions of mating.

“But I don’t think I really grasp—were you trying to tell me this last night?” Cleo studied Zoe intently.

“Yes.” Zoe stared back. “You marked me.” Her voice was embarrassingly quiet.

“I” –Cleo swallowed— “thought you wanted to be girlfriends.”

“You said that was fast.” Zoe was practically whispering. She didn’t know why. Cleo wasn’t.

“Because it is!” Cleo raised her voice, then glanced toward Nathaniel again before refocusing on Zoe. “But also, it isn’t.” She went quiet too. “I marked you. You asked me to last night, and you’re so incredible, Zoe. I didn’t want anyone else moving in on you.”

Mate. Zoe felt her lips part. “We can be girlfriends.”

“I thought we were mates.” Cleo shook her head. Her entire posture screamed confused and embarrassed. Zoe didn’t have to smell her, although she did anyway. The rightness of her was breathtaking.

“We can be girlfriends first,” Zoe assured her. “I didn’t shower so that every were in town would know you’d touched me.”

Somewhere where she didn’t care to look, Tim was making eager gestures, the kind he did when his soap opera was on and he couldn’t contain his excitement.

Cleo’s mouth, shiny and pink again, formed a small ‘O’. “You marked yourself before I could. What if I… what if I hadn’t? Isthis like this morning when you thought I wasn’t serious about you, but came up to lick my hand anyway? Is that what it means, mates? I meant to ask you last night, when you asked if I had questions. Oh God, at dinner you asked if I had questions.Zoe.” Her eyebrows came together. “And you were going to leave?” She stopped, then swallowed. “Girlfriends?” She hesitated. “Really?”

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