Page 271 of Labor of Love

He stifles a laugh, straightening his stance and quickly pulls me to my feet. “I'm sure.” Sweeping hair from my face, he leans down to kiss my forehead. “There are a lot of tomorrows, remember? Plenty for us to decide on major future plans andplenty for us to stay naked in bed. Right now, I'm more focused on the second option.”

“You feel that way because you're still drunk off all the sex we recently had.”

“No. I said it because I'm truly starting to believe I was meant to find you too. They always say you know when the right person walks into your life, and I didn't understand that statement until I met you. Hearing it out loud sounds as ridiculous as it did in my head but kissing and touching you feels the exact opposite.” His hand wraps around my nape. “Waking up to you does too. And so does talking about future tomorrows. You don't want to leave yet, and I don't want to hear you talking about going. It leaves me with a bad feeling when you do, so I'd rather keep going after the good. Want to chase the good with me?” His hand moves to my chin, tilting my head back as he traces his thumb over my lips.

“Yes.”

“Then let me take you out to dinner and to a movie so we can have a naked night on the couch before enjoying a naked tomorrow morning.”

“What about a naked afternoon?”

“I certainly won't say no to it.” His smile matches the one I feel stretching across my lips and he kisses me softly. When he pulls away, I move forward for more and he chuckles, lips brushing over mine as his tongue lavishly pushes into my mouth taking my next breaths away.

We don't leave for at least another hour, struggling to break away for too long and finding each other's mouth again in the car. He holds my hand, occasionally sneaking glances at me as he drives us to our first destination. The restaurants here are different from ours. So big and full of so many strangers. Where I'm from everyone knows everyone and every place you goyou've been a million times before. There are bikes hanging and other strange items on the ceiling where we are.

We follow a small blonde to a table in the center and we take our seats at the same time, Parker's feet kicking against mine. Butterflies run rampant in my stomach and my sip of water leaves my stomach uneasy.

“You okay?” he asks, peering down at the menu, brows bunched together.

“Yeah. I may have eaten too much at breakfast, or perhaps something that didn't agree with my stomach.”

“Could it be your heat still?”

I sit up taller in my chair, rubbing my belly and my body stiffens as I realize how quickly it ended. Normally that means…no. That's impossible. My parents have said numerous times that a human can't get a shifter pregnant and vice versa. We learned it in school too. I ate something that didn't agree with me. That's all. Or it could be nerves. This is all happening so fast and nothing has gone how I thought it would this week. I'm supposed to be married and on my honeymoon with my new husband. Not on my first date with my fated mate I had convinced myself didn't exist. But here I am, smiling and talking with him. I'm so happy it scares me. Yeah, that's what the queasiness is from.

“It doesn't feel like it but maybe. I've never been in heat before so I'm not sure. I was mostly kept away from alphas who were of no relation to me, only seeing the guy I was supposed to marry within the past two months.”

“We can always grab the food to go if you need to.”

I reach across the table, grabbing his hand. “No. I'm fine. I promise. I'm really enjoying being out of the house with you.”

“Me too.” His face relaxes and we discuss what we want to eat. I order a salad with steamed carrots on the side while he gets the chicken tender basket. Our conversations come so easily aswe wait for our food, and I'm the one who asks all the questions this go around, enjoying learning more about the man fate has chosen for me. He doesn't have to choose me back though, and what if in the end he doesn't? Distracting my mind from overthinking all the answers I don't want to hear, I ask him more about him.

“So what do you do for work?”

He shifts in his seat, looking too proud to answer. “I'm a tenured college English professor. I teach four days a week currently and love my job.”

“That's good. I've never had one before but teaching sounds like something that could be very fulfilling. You get to help people learn. I think if I did something for a living, I'd want to help others in some way too.”

“You've never had a job before?” His mouth hangs open.

“I told you I wasn't allowed to leave the house much. It's not the omega way.”

“You're right. I guess I'm still having a hard time believing someone would willingly hold their child as a prisoner all their life.”

“A prisoner?” I arch a brow. “I was never held in a cell.”

“You were forced to stay in your room so not much different. They kept you away from so much and it wasn't fair. It should have never been your parents' choice to make.”

“It won't be once I'm mated. It'll be my alpha’s,” I say pointedly.

His jaw tenses. “What? That's not how it's supposed to be and I hope you don't accept that with anyone. I'd never expect anyone I'm with to allow me to make all his decisions for him.”

“You wouldn't?” Does this mean he wants to be my mate? I'm jumping too far ahead here. There's a reason we don't mate with humans. We don't do anything the same way. Our courting time is different and we don't move in together before marriage. Wedon't do anything me and Parker have done before exchanging rings. I don't regret what we did either way and never will no matter what the outcome is. An alpha might never want to be with me after Parker tires of me but I'd rather have had all this with him for a short time than not at all.

“Of course not.” Neither of us say anything else about it when the food arrives. We move to other topics and he tells me about the trails he loves to hike on some of his weekends off.

“Eric never wanted to come with me. Nature and walking for long periods of time was never his thing.”

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