Page 101 of Reluctant Rebel

“But now you don’t feel that way because you went into beast mode, and your wang took control?”

My wang?!“Beast mode? Jinx, if I hadn’t lost my shit with Carrick, I promise you we would have been in the same position anyway. I was coming to tell you I wanted to be yours.” He felt the way she stiffened and pulled back to look at her face. “You don’t believe me.”

“I think …” Jinx began slowly, choosing her words carefully. “I think that is very convenient now that we’re bound together.”

“It’s a little late to be having second thoughts, Jinx,” Mikhail warned, dread sparking to life like a struck match.

“I’m not having second thoughts. I just …” Jinx groaned, hiding her face behind her hands. “I’m screwing this up, aren’t I? We were both happily post-coital, and I’m ruining it.”

Mikhail reminded himself that they both had deep-seated issues regarding commitment to a lover. He couldn’t expect it to disappear just because they were mated. He took a deep breath and reached out to gently pull her hands away from her face. “Nothing could ruin what we just experienced. And nothing can ruin what we have. This is new. Nerves and insecurities are normal. I promise you, the choice to be your mate was made with my upstairs brain. Sabre slapped me with some logic earlier. Listen …”

Jinx’s response to his recounting of Sabre’s reasoning was a head tilt followed by, “Huh.”

He laughed. “That was pretty much my reaction, too.”

“I mean, she has a point,” Jinx allowed, relaxing back against Mikhail’s chest.

He wiggled his toes happily when he felt Jinx melt against him. “A very good point. And that’s why I came to your room only to find you about to kill a fae. Besides, I could say the same about you—that my manly display riled up your inner animal, and that’s why you got all bitey with me.”

“It certainly helped,” Jinx murmured lazily.

He pinched her butt, making her squeak and wiggle. She tossed her head back, an adorable pout on her face. He merely raised an eyebrow in challenge.

Jinx huffed. “Fine. If you must know, my mind was already resolute this morning. Thanks to some girl-talk with Eric.”

“Eric convinced you?”

“He helped me see a different perspective,” Jinx corrected. “Truthfully, it didn’t take much. I’ve been looking for any reason to give myself permission to keep you. Eric just facilitated. He’s a good friend.”

“Hmm,” Mikhail grumbled. “And he better stay that way—just a friend.”

“I couldn’t be with anyone else now even if I wanted to,” Jinx pointed out. “Once claimed, it’s painful to have sex with anyone but your mate.”

“Which you don’t,” Mikhail said firmly.

She peered up at him. “Pardon?”

“Which you don’t,” Mikhail repeated slower this time. “You don’t want to have sex with anyone else.”

“Sure, honey,” Jinx said with a smile, patting his chest in a placating manner.

He growled, tumbling her backwards on the bed and launching a tickle war. Only when she claimed she was about to pee if he didn’t stop did he back off. He smiled down at her flushed face, alight with laughter and joy, and wondered how he managed to deny her for so long. It seemed incomprehensible now.

He placed one hand on his chest and the other over Jinx’s heart, counting off the beats. “They really do match.”

Jinx covered his hand with her own. “Yes. Does it bother you?”

“I thought it would. It was one of my biggest concerns,” he answered honestly. “But, no, it doesn’t. In fact, it feelsright,like this is how it was always supposed to beat. Do you think …”

Jinx settled back on the pillows, linking their fingers together. “Do I think what?”

“That our hearts knew each other before our brains did?” He smiled crookedly, scratching the back of his head, trying to dislodge his discomfort. It was ridiculous. Their hearts were beating in perfect tandem, but words were still hard for him to muster. “I mean, I know ourbodieswanted each other—biology and all that. But my heartknowsyours. It feels familiar.”

Jinx's eyes searched his face, her expression unreadable. He held his breath, waiting for her to say something, anything, but she remained silent. He pushed on, feeling the need to fill the growing void. “I just thought, maybe, we've been in sync from the start, even when we were fighting it. Like a song that was already playing, and we just had to tune in to hear it.”

Jinx squeezed his hand, her eyes never leaving his. “It’s almost as if this was fate or something,” she said lightly.

Mikhail snapped his mouth closed before forcing a chuckle past his clenched teeth. “Right. Of course.” He felt like an idiot.

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