Page 14 of Captured By the Dragon Warrior
I stopped outside my door and decided to be honest with him. “Yes. They were probably quite close by the time you found me.”
He huffed a laugh and rubbed at his eyes for a moment. “Why the hell did you come withmethen?”
“I wanted to be with you.”
Looking up at me, Quincy’s eyes did something that made my heart thump a little harder and arousal simmer through me. His soft smile had me pressing my hand to the panel beside the door, opening it for us. It was time for me to tell him how I truly felt.
CHAPTER 8
QUINCY
He’d wanted to be with me. Could he get any sweeter? Sure, if Ram had just told me that we should stay put and his guys would be along shortly, I wouldn’t have stolen that van and headed for Cleveland. We wouldn’t have crashed. He wouldn’t have lost his arm. But I was still flattered that he’d wanted more time with me.
And as much as that warmed my heart, it also shot straight to my cock. “Holy hell,” I said as I yanked my shirt off, “you gotta fuck me again.”
Ram was nodding, watching me undress. “Yes, but first— Quincy, you must—” He cleared his throat as I dropped my pants. “I need you tobathe.”
I caught a whiff of myself and agreed. “Oof. Yeah, no problem. I am pretty gross, huh?” I looked around for a bathroom, and then headed for the only door in the room. It was pretty sparse with only a big bed, comfy chair, and a desk, but there were a lot of exotic-looking plants, too. “But then afterward, okay? One last glorious fuck before you send me back.” I grinned and smacked my own ass.
“Back?”
“To Earth.”
He followed me, standing in the doorway as he said a very firm, “No.”
“No?” I stopped looking for a way to turn on what seemed to be a shower and faced him.
Ram was clearly uncomfortable as he glanced everywhere but at me. “Quincy, I…”
“What? I can’t go back?”
He sighed. “I would have to go with you.”
“Why? Is this the prisoner thing? Can’t we get that straightened out? I’m sure if we just talk to your commanding officer, we can explain everything. They kind of debriefed me, but not?—”
“You are my mate.”
I blinked at him. “Pardon?”
“I understand that these are not ideal circumstances for our courtship and I will do my best to accommodate all of your needs.”
“Courtship?” I gasped as I realized what he meant. “Hold on. Are you saying what’s between us is like the thing that happened to the wolf prince, the captain of this ship, and that tiger guy with the humans they met? I read about that. Oh, my fuck…”
I leaned against the tiniest sink I’d ever seen as my mind replayed the articles I’d read and news bites I’d seen where those guys—a former cop, a politician’s son, and a kid who’d signed up to be a hooker—had talked about Norlons finding their fated mates by scent. One sniff of a person’s good old-fashioned pheromones and they were hooked—nobody else would do. And those three men seemed blissfully happy about their alien fellas.
“Quincy? Are you upset?”
I blinked a few times and straightened up because I’d never heard Ram sound so vulnerable before. He looked like he’d be twining his fingers if he had another hand. As it was, he was hunched over and chewing on his bottom lip.
“No, I’m not upset. Just…” I chuckled. “I’m surprised. Likereallysurprised. Like why would you ever want…me?” Oh, that sounded bad. I was an okay catch, not perfect but not hideous either. Had my issues, of course, but I was pretty chill and not ugly.
Rampon straightened up and nodded like I was testing him. “I admit that my initial attraction to you was entirely physical. However, I have grown to admire your determination, protectiveness, and jovial nature. You are an excellent mate, and I hope you will allow me the chance to woo you.”
To woo me. I had to smile—he was so adorable. Giant, brutal, and dangerous, he also had a melty, gooey center. Honestly, it made sense to me to grab onto the guy who claimed to want me above all others; I was a big fan of happily ever afters. I stepped over to him and reached up to bring him down for a sweet little kiss.
“I don’t know how being mates works exactly,” I said to him, “but I was only going to leave if that was what I had to do. If I can stay, then I want to do that and see what happens with us.”
As much as I wanted to jump into forever with someone for whom that was totally normal, I also wanted to be realistic. Maybe we’d spend a month together and realize we didn’t work so great. Maybe we were only awesome when we had a common enemy. I’d give us a chance and be completely thrilled if we worked, but I needed to rememberthat I was human and he wasn’t. Fated mates sounded like he was ready for marriage, while I was on our first date.
