Page 83 of The Alpha's Stolen Mate

We came to a stop near his office, and I leaned against the door.

He grinned and casually placed his hand above my head. He was close enough to touch.

My mouth became dry, and my eyes shot to his lips.

“When did you get so wise?” he murmured.

“I’ve always been wise,” I countered.

The sensual look he was giving me made my knees shake.

“You have,” he admitted.

Then, we leaned in at the same time…

But at the last second, Gabriel hesitated and leaned his forehead against mine.

“As much as I’m going to kick myself later for stopping this, we need to talk…about us,” he said, his voice thick with desire.

I bit my lip. I wanted to throw caution to the windand allow myself to lose myself in him until I didn’t know my own name.

But he was right.

We walked into his office, and I stood beside his bookshelves. My legs were shaking for an entirely different reason than they were a moment ago.

Gabriel seemed nervous, too. He was pacing in front of me, his hands behind his back.

After a minute, he stopped and faced me. The serious look on his face made my stomach clench with anxiety.

“I am so incredibly sorry for keeping my father’s plan for me to marry Olivia a secret from you,” Gabriel said, his eyes burning with intensity. “That wasn’t right of me. The second I learned of my father’s plans, I should have confided in you, and we could have worked through the problem together. As a team. It was the same mistake I’d made when I broke our bond under the guise of protecting you.”

He took a deep breath and reached for my hand. His thumb traced circles over the back of my hand as he continued.

“From now on, I swear to you that I won’t keep any more secrets. I’ll tell you everything, and we can decide how to move forward. Together. If you just give me a chance to show you that you can trust me, I promise to be worthy of that trust.”

Gabriel held my other hand and stepped closer to me.

I looked up at him, my heart rate spiking.

“I love you, Summer Golding. You’re the brightest part of my life. You’re my sun. I want you to be my Mate, my Luna, my wife. Hell, I just want you to be mine,” Gabriel said and squeezed my hands. “I want to make a home with Grayson and you and introduce you back into the pack as my partner, as my Luna. I want to spend the rest of my life protecting you and Grayson and making sure that you guys have the best life possible.”

It took me a moment to process everything that he had just said.

When I didn’t immediately respond, Gabriel’s cheeks turned a cute shade of red.

“Of course, I know that you will need some time to trust me again, I just wanted you to know—“

I interrupted him by putting my right pointer finger against his lips.

“No,” I said.

His face fell.

“No…?”

“No more time,” I said and then grinned, using his hand in mine to pull him toward me until our chests were pressing against each other’s. “I want you now. All of it. I’ve been waiting my entire life to be with you, Gabriel. I don’t want to wait a minute longer. As long as you promise to never keep anything else from me and that this,” I gestured between us, “will be a partnership where we make decisions together,” I warned him.

“I promise, Summer. I swear it.”

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