Page 7 of His Little Garnet

I chuckle. “Not yet. I haven’t done anything yet. That bond you feel is completely organic right now.”

Her gaze slides back to mine. “Until you kiss my fingers.”

“Among other things.” So many other things.

“My arm doesn’t hurt as badly since you arrived,” she points out.

“My touch will always soothe you, physically and emotionally.”

She shivers again.

I inch even closer. My knees straddle hers. I could so easily lift her fingers to my lips, nick the small pad of her fingertip, and put an end to this conversation. But I want her to consent on her own. “You’re mine, Baby girl.”

“I have a life. I just finished nursing school. I have a job,” she protests, though there is no umph behind her words,

“You’re still going to have a full and happy life, Little one. It’s just going to look a bit different than what you expected. You’ll never want for anything. I promise.”

She flinches, her eyes going wide. “I have a lot of student debt.”

“It will disappear as if you’d died, Baby girl.”

Her eyes widen. “Seriously?”

“Yep. That’s how it works. That’s the arrangement we have with your government.”

Her gaze narrows. “What keeps people from disappearing and pretending they got taken by one of your men?”

I chuckle. “We keep records. If someone isn’t on our list, they didn’t go with us.”

“Oh.” She studies me again. She’s so inquisitive. Her mind is racing. “Can I work in one of your hospitals? Is nursing the same there?”

“We have nurses on my planet. Our bodies are very similar. However, our females don’t work.”

She gasps. “What? Are you serious? Why? What would I do?”

“Whatever you want to do, Little one. We’ll figure that out together.” I’m sharing too much. Way too much. I’m saying things we don’t tell our mates until after we’ve claimed them.

“What if I want to be a nurse? I’ve wanted to be a nurse all my life.”

I stroke her elbow, hoping to calm her. “I promise to make you happy, Little one.” That’s all I can say right now. I’m not at all sure how I can incorporate her desire for nursing into our lives, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

“This is crazy. Why am I even entertaining this idea?”

I smile. “Say yes.” I lower her broken arm to her lap, keeping my grip on her elbow but reaching for her good arm with my free hand. I bring her fingers to my lips and kiss them, holding her gaze. “Say yes,” I murmur.

Her breath hitches. She licks those pretty lips again.

So close. I can taste her consent. I can feel it buzzing around us. It sizzles through our connection.

“Yes.”

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