Page 66 of Brody
The domesticity of the moment struck me with unexpected force.This simple act of preparing for sleep, in this strange dwelling, felt more intimate than the nakedness we’d shared moments before.
We faced the massive bed, all pretense of professional distance evaporating.
“I’ll take the couch,” I offered, though with less conviction than I might have earlier.
She rolled her eyes.“Don’t be ridiculous, Brody.After what we just shared, I think we can handle sleeping in the same bed.”
The practicality in her voice made me smile.“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” she said, climbing onto the massive bed and settling on one side.“Just try to remember that sleeping is the operative word here.”
I joined her, leaving a respectful distance between us, despite every instinct urging me closer.
We lay side by side beneath twinkling gemstones above, the space between us electric with awareness.Her scent, natural and mineral-rich from the spring, filled my senses with every breath.The mate connection hummed between us, turning simple proximity into raw potential.
“Night, Rozi,” I said.
“Good night,” she replied before turning away and presenting her back to me, not in rejection but in a gesture of trust I hadn’t expected.
I lay awake, marveling at the miracle of her presence, at the fragile trust beginning to form between us.
I’d spend the rest of my life showing with actions, not just words, that I was worthy of her if she gave me a second chance to claim her as my fated mate.
CHAPTER16
ROZI
I lay with my back to Brody, but sleep wouldn’t come.The conversation in the hot spring about dominance and submission kept replaying in my mind, sending unwelcome heat through my body.I’d never admitted my preferences to anyone before, the desire to sometimes take control, to be the one giving commands rather than following them.
The way he’d responded without judgment, without that fragile masculine defensiveness I’d come to expect, had caught me completely off guard.“When you’re ready, you have to make the first move,” he’d said, his eyes dark with promise.The memory of those words made my imagination spin scenarios I had no business entertaining.
I could almost see it, stepping into my power, telling him exactly what I wanted, watching his powerful body respond to my commands.The fantasy was intoxicating: a man with all his strength and alpha energy willingly yielding to my desires, trusting me enough to let me lead our dance.
My cheetah stretched beneath my skin, purring with approval at those thoughts.The primal part of me recognized something my human side was reluctant to admit, that true dominance required trust, and trust required vulnerability.Something I’d denied myself for a long time.
I pushed the thoughts away, mortified by my own imagination.This was dangerous territory, not just physically dangerous, but emotionally treacherous.Every nerve ending in my body remained acutely aware of his presence just inches away, the heat radiating from his powerful frame, the steady rhythm of his breathing, the intoxicating scent of him that filled my lungs with each inhale.
My cheetah paced restlessly beneath my skin, purring with satisfaction at our proximity to our mate while demanding more.Closer, she urged.Touch.Claim.
I firmly pushed her down.Years of independence, of carefully constructed walls, couldn’t be dismantled in a single night, no matter how my body hummed with awareness.Something invisible but undeniable vibrated in the inches between our bodies, like plucking a string and feeling the resonance in your bones rather than hearing it with your ears.It pulled at me with each heartbeat, a persistent tug that seemed to whispercloser, closerwith every breath.
Yet I couldn’t deny what had happened in the pool.The way my skin had tingled under his gaze, the electric current that had seemed to arc through the water between us.The way my nipples had hardened, not from the cool air but from the naked hunger in his eyes.The liquid heat that had pooled between my thighs when he admitted to dreaming of me.
I reached for scientific facts like armor, wrapping formulas and data points around me the way other people clutched blankets during thunderstorms.Numbers didn’t abandon you.Equations didn’t promise forever then disappear.The periodic table remained unchanged, no matter how many times you woke up alone.But science couldn’t explain away the simple truth.My body remembered him on a cellular level, recognized him as mine despite decades of separation.
My palms went clammy at the recognition, heart racing faster than it had facing down fanged predators.I could prepare for physical threats, map escape routes, calculate risks, but this?This left me exposed.My hands trembled as I fought the urge to flee.External threats I could handle, but this internal one, this crumbling of carefully constructed defenses, left me feeling more naked than any physical nudity could.
In the steaming pool, with his eyes devouring every inch of my exposed skin, I felt beautiful.Powerful.Desired in a way that transcended simple physical attraction.The way he’d looked at me, like I was a miracle he’d never expected to witness again, had awakened something I’d thought long dead.
My chest fluttered with something I hadn’t felt in decades.A weightlessness that made me dizzy.My fingertips tingled.Dangerous.Fragile.
The memory of his arousal sent answering heat through my core.Science explained the biology driving our attraction but not the emotion in his eyes when he’d confessed to dreaming of me for years.
That wasn’t just biology.That was something deeper, something uniquely human mingled with something primal and shifter.
Moonstones in the ceiling cast the bed in blue-white light.Night sounds filtered through the window as the Fae dwelling hummed with subtle magic, soothing my heightened senses.
Despite my racing thoughts, exhaustion eventually pulled me under, dragging me into a sleep deeper than I’d intended.
