Page 56 of Guarded
“Someone’s possessive,” Noah murmured, gripping the back of my neck. “You don’t like the idea of someone else seeing me like this?”
“No.” I cupped his throat lightly, letting heat lick mypalms. Not enough to hurt him—never that—but enough to show him that I wasn’t in control right now.
My demon was.
And he didn’t want any other fucker within a hundred feet of our mate.
“Don’t worry.” His tongue darted over his lips. “No one other than you has seen me in this, and I have no plans to change that.”
“No one?”
He bit his lip shyly. “I may have bought it for you.”
I groaned, my fingers biting into the corset. “Fuck, Noah. This isn’t what I was expecting tonight.”
“It isn’t?”
“No.” I held his waist tight, like what I said next would remind him of why we shouldn’t get too close. “I know we got…flirty over texts, but I still wasn’t expecting this.”
“Flirty?” His left hand wandered up to where my skin peeked out from under my sleeve. “Is that what we call sending dick pics these days?”
“In my defence, it was the first one I’d ever sent. Any poor etiquette on my part can be blamed on my inexperience.”
A shadow crossed his face. “Probably the only thing that can be.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” Noah chuckled, shaking his head. “Forget I said anything.”
“Nope.” Noah tried to nudge my hand away from his throat, but I held firm. “Tell me what you meant.”
He smiled ruefully. “You’re not going to drop this, are you?”
“Stubborn demon, remember?”
“Fine,” Noah sighed. “It’s just me being stupid though.After our first meeting, I did some digging into you. Into what you’ve been up to since you’ve been topside.”
Balls. I winced as Noah’s comment suddenly made sense.“I can explain?—”
“You don’t need to,” Noah said quickly. “We didn’t know each other then, nor what we were to one another. Even now, we’re not mates and?—”
“You better not finish that sentence how I think you’re going to,” I said warningly, raising my hand to clasp his jaw. “I’ve made my feelings about staying faithful to you very clear, Noah. I don’t give a shit if we’re bonded or not. I won’t be with anyone else.”
“I know.” He rested a hand over my heart. “It’s partly why I figured we should move things to the next step. We don’t have to commit or anything, but we may as well get some fun sex out of this.”
A sour taste filled my mouth. Couldn’t Noah see that this would be more than fun sex? Regardless of our intentions, wewerefated mates. It was always going to mean more. Sex was the next natural step, but it sounded like Noah wanted it just to get off. I wasn’t opposed to the idea, but why couldn’t we add some commitment to the discussion too?
He doesn’t know you’re not going to travel after the next trip.
That was true. Before I could tell him, he gently put a finger to my lips.
“I know what you’re going to say,” he whispered, “and I’m not ready. Can we just…take this slowly? One step at a time?”
All my ire faded away. If that was what my mate wanted, we could move at a snail’s pace for all I cared. “Of course.”
“Good.” The relief was evident in his smile. “I’m serious though. I’m open to more…physical activities if you are.”
I slid my hand around to the small of his back and tugged him against me, letting him feel the evidence of the hard-on I’d been rocking since the second I’d spotted him. “I’m very open to it.”
