Page 82 of Hot in Witch City
After another hot night with my siren, I rolled onto my side, panting hard. “If this is the reward after nearly drowning, I’ll dive headlong into the ocean every day.”
She laughed. “You can skip the near-death experience now that I’ve finally woken up.”
I stroked down the side of her smooth side and down over her hips. It still astonished me to see her appearing like a mermaid under the sea. Then again, she’d seen me as a wolf for the first time, which had to be surprising.
“It took me a while to catch on to what my wolf had been telling me all along.” I shrugged. “And I struggled with it as well at first.”
She gazed into my eyes. “Maybe we both needed something drastic to happen to recognize what was right in front of us, but now we know.” She propped herself onto her forearm. “Is your wolf happy now?”
When I hesitated, she prodded, “Sebastian…”
“Yes,” I replied. “For the most part.”
“Meaning?” Gianna knotted her brows together.
“He’s ecstatic that we’re together, but—” I paused, knowing this might scare her off, but decided truth was the best option. “But he’s pushing for me to mark you.”
“Oh.” She bit her lip. “The mating bite, right?”
“Yes.”
She took in a sharp inhale. “That scares me. It’s so—permanent.”
“I understand,” I assured her, brushing her upper arm. “And I’ll never pressure you to do that.” I kissed her smooth shoulder. “I’m just happy to be here with you.”
Over the next few weeks,we avoided that topic. Although my wolf harped at me about the bite, I told him to be content with what we had. So what if Gianna didn’t want me to mark her? At least, we were together.
Still, that instinct was impossible to ignore, especially during sex. My canines emerged as I longed to sink my teeth into the soft flesh near her shoulder.
One evening, I cooked chicken cacciatore for us at my place. The guys were working, and we had the house to ourselves. After we ate, we sat in the living room with a glass of chardonnay watching the fire blaze in the fireplace.
“How about a board game?” Gianna suggested.
“Hmm.” I gave her a skeptical glance. “I thought you called them bored-to-death games.”
She laughed in agreement. “Yes, but I had fun playing trivia with you guys. Nova told me about your version of Scrabble. Color me intrigued.”
“Okay. How about you set up the game while I make us some Mexican hot chocolate?”
“Deal.”
While she went down to the basement, I prepared the drinks, filling the top of the mugs with whipped cream. I carried them over to the coffee table where she’d set up the game.
“Smells delicious.” She took a sip. “Ooh, it is.”
“Glad you like it.”
She took the bag of letters and filtered through it, searching for tiles.
“You can’t pick your letters,” I scoffed.
“I want to spell something.” She put down letter tiles starting from the star in the center, spelling out M-A-T-E.
She glanced at me with a serious expression. “Tell me what this means to you, Sebastian.”
“Everything,” I admitted. “Your mate is your partner. Your other half. There’s only one.”
She stared at me and nodded. “And you think I’m your mate?”
