Page 15 of Silver
Charlie sighed. “Terrible ones. The kind who were always ashamed to be seen with me. The kind that only wanted to be with me when it involved something that they benefited from. Sex or me cooking or cleaning for them. When we were out and happened to see someone they knew, I was often demoted to friend only and not someone they were in a relationship with. And that was if they even wanted to go out with me.” Charlie sighed again and looked off to the left.
That was probably a good thing because I was upset for my mate. Not that I was disappointed that he was single and was willing to come on the blind date and meet someone. Me specifically. No, I was pissed because of how he’d been treated in the past. A small plan of revenge started to form, but it could wait. For now, my focus was my mate and making sure he knew that I was all in.
“Well, I’m not going to ask that you hide from my friends or family. The hope is that going forward, we’re a team, in all things. I want you to go to family dinners, take you out and have a nice meal with you. Have you join me and my brothers at our favorite bar. I even wish to go out and meet your friends. I’m hoping I can swing by your work and take you to the Under the Sea restaurant for afine-dining experienceagain.” I planned on showing him off every chance I got.
Charlie looked at me for a moment and then shook his head. “Not even three hours ago, you didn’t even want to go on the blind date. What changed?”
I sighed. He had every right to ask that question, and he wasn’t wrong. I’d grumbled about it the entire way home from work and again on my way to the zoo. “I still have every intention of dealing with Ma later. Her signing me up didn’t just involve me. You have been impacted by it as well. But to answer yourquestion, things changed because I met you. There is no denying that you’re my mate now that I’ve been able to scent you and only you. Mates are supposed to be sacred. We get only one. Why would I want to do anything to keep from being with you? You’re supposed to be my other half. I’m a bit on the cranky side, so I hope that means you’re a bit of sunshine that I need in my life.”
Charlie smiled. “I appreciate that. But do you really need to say anything to your mom? It happened to work out for us since we both agree that we’re mates. Hasn’t it?”
I snorted. “Yes to both questions. If I don’t say something to her, she’ll continue on thinking she’s done nothing wrong.” I thought about it for a moment and shook my head. “No. She can’t continue on thinking she’s in the right. Sure, it’s worked out for us. But if I had refused to go, that could have and would have led to being unfair to you. That’s not right, and she needs to understand that.”
Charlie looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. “You’re right. Same with my sister. Although she didn’t just sign me up like your ma did for you. Sam did pester me until I caved and decided that I would go just to get her to leave me alone. I didn’t have any expectations except maybe getting a free meal, to be honest.”
“Well, there we go. Now, how about we talk about us and what we see as a future for the two of us?”
Charlie smiled. “I don’t guess you’ll want to eventually move in with me, huh?”
I winced and shook my head. “I’m sorry, Charlie. I’ve seen those little cottages. Little being the thing that stands out the most. Just the thought of banging my elbows on what I would assume was a tiny shower stall makes me wince. I absolutely want to live with you. Do you think you’d be willing to come live here with me? Why don’t you come inside? I asked as I stood up and held out my hand. “I’ll give you a tour, and you can seemy place? If you don’t want to live here with me, we can look for somewhere else in the very near future.” I would do it but wouldn’t really be happy about it. Charlie didn’t realize it yet, but two of my brothers had houses here in the same neighborhood. The other two lived in houses closer to our parents. It wasn’t that they didn’t like this neighborhood; they just hadn’t found anything available and had decided to go ahead and move elsewhere.
“I’d like to see the house,” Charlie told me as he took my hand, and I helped him to his feet. I grinned, and after I switched off the fire pit and the heaters, I led Charlie into the house.
“As you can see, this is the kitchen,” I told him. “There is the living room over there. It, of course, has the normal bachelor oversized TV for watching the games. My brothers and I often watch at one of our houses. We take turns.” I’d have to be more considerate with that now though. With Charlie in my life, and he would be, I had more than just me to consider. I would have to take in his comfort level and whether or not he even liked sports. If not, then my days of watching sports with my brothers would be limited. We continued on, and I pointed out the home gym, the dining room, and the downstairs bathroom.
“The bedrooms are upstairs, then?” Charlie asked.
I had to take a few calming breaths at the mention of bedrooms. Of course, I wanted Charlie in mine. My gorilla and I were both on the same page with that. We wanted to claim our mate.
“Yes,” I told him. “There are four up there. The main bedroom, two spare bedrooms, and one that I use as a home office.”
“What about children?” Charlie asked.
My eyes widened at the mention of kids. I knew it would come up sooner or later though. I just hadn’t expected him to bring it up so soon.
“What about them? I would like one, maybe two, I guess. I’ve not really been in the dating and starting a family mindset though.”
Charlie nodded. “Stairs and small children don’t always mesh.”
I chuckled. “True enough. But there are gates for that.” I glanced at the stairs. “If you really don’t want to live in a two-story house, we can look for something else once we get our relationship and claiming settled.”
Charlie looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. “It’s good to know that you’re open to that. Will you show me the upstairs, then?”
I stopped Charlie with a hand on his shoulder as he stepped onto the bottom tread. “Hold up for just a sec.”
Charlie looked back at me, and I could tell he was confused. In all honesty, I was as well.
“I’m just curious. Are we doing a tour? Or possibly more? I’m good either way, and my gorilla wants what he wants, but I would never force you. I just need to know what it is you are expecting because you’ve not really said those words out loud.”
Charlie tilted his head before chuckling. “Tour for sure, but the hope is sex. If sex leads to more, say…biting, then I hope we will be able to figure things out later. We’re mates. Shouldn’t we have ideas that will complement and mesh together with each other?”
He was right, in a sense. Sure, there would be things we would have to work out, but all couples had those. It was part of being in a relationship. No two people could know every aspect of their partner before committing to each other. Granted, Charlie and I didn’t know much about each other, but we weren’t humans. We were paranormals, and our connection to each other was different. Once we claimed one another, we wouldhave a link that was far deeper than that of any two humans who were married.
“If you are absolutely positive, I’ll take you upstairs. But once we do and things progress to biting, we can’t exactly take it back, Charlie. We’ll be mated, and that’s forever. And my gorilla isn’t going to want you living elsewhere once we’ve claimed one another.”
Charlie nodded. “I realize that. If you’re having second thoughts, then we’ll wait. Otherwise, I’m ready. I’m not quite as old as you are, but I’m less than a year away from thirty. I’m settled in my life in everything except romantically. I hope that in time we can fall in love and you’ll show at least a bit of romance toward me. That is my hope anyway.” Charlie shrugged at saying that, and my heart actually ached for him. He’d been so mistreated by others in the past that he didn’t expect or feel as if he deserved to be treated with respect and shown love and devotion. Even from his fated mate? I would certainly change that.
I held out my hand, and once Charlie placed his much smaller one in mine, I slowly started up the stairs. We stopped at the first door on the left. It was my home office. I hadn’t really wanted it up here, but putting the home gym equipment up here wasn’t recommended, so downstairs that went, and up here became the office. I didn’t use it every day, but enough to not want to have to drag out a laptop in the dining room frequently.
