Page 70 of Mating of Convenience
“Okay.” Raph’s doubt was plain in his features, but he did as he was told anyway, pressing his eye to the telescope. “What am I looking at?”
“Focus on that star in the center. Can you see it?”
“Yeah.” Raph threw me a glance. “Why are you making me look at that?”
I got another piece of paper from my bag, this one a bit shinier than the note with the coordinates. It was a certificate, after all. I showed it to Raph.
He shone the light of his phone on it and eyed it critically. “You… Is this…? What is this?”
I smiled as my mate stared at the certificate in disbelief. “It’s a naming certificate,” I explained. “I named a star after our baby, so we can remember him every time we look up at the night sky.”
“We never named the baby,” Raph protested.
“Take a closer look at the paper. Where it states the name.”
My mate squinted at the certificate. “You…” Raph gazed at me, then down at the paper again. “I can’t believe you named itthat.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Of course I did. You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s perfect.” Raph stepped away from the telescope to give me a kiss. I pulled him closer, his omega scent so sweet in my nose.
“I’m glad you like it,” I said as Raph handed the certificate back to me. Where it said ‘Name,’ I’d putLittle Angel.It might have been a bit cheesy, but I couldn’t think of anything better--and really, my mate should know by now what a hopeless romantic he’d married. “I want a star tattoo for our child, and I want you to be the one to do it.”
“Me?” Raph took a step back at that, his hand going to his chest. “After how badly our last session went?”
“I know you can do better now, and I can be braver.” I had to be, didn’t I? If I was going after my dreams.
“If that’s really what you want…”
“It’s absolutely what I want. I want you to tattoo me and I want you to tattoo other people too.”
“Other people?” My mate seemed utterly lost now. Lost, but interested.
“We’ve almost got the down payment for the store. You should take it. Open that tattoo studio you’ve been dreaming of.”
“I couldn’t,” Raph refused. “That was your reward for marrying me.”
I stared at him. Was he being serious right now? An amused huff escaped my lips. He thought I did all this for an empty building. That was hilarious. “I already got my reward,” I told him. “I’m married to you.”
My words stunned Raph into silence for a moment. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“But I mean it.” I gave him another kiss, one that lasted a little longer as we both got caught up in the emotion of the moment. I knew I needed to withdraw soon if I didn’t want to end up fucking my mate against the hood of the car. Having Raph this close did things to me that entirely destroyed the rational part of my brain—which told me that it was way too cold to undress even partially. “I don’t need that store anyway,” I said when I could finally rip my mouth away from Raph. “There’s something else I want to do.”
“Something else?” Raph looked at me with curiosity etched so clearly into his features I could see it even in the pale moonlight shining on the hill.
“I want to go back to school,” I admitted. The idea had been ruminating in my brain for a while, but it took seeing Raph go after his dreams to make me come out with it.
“School? Really?”
“I’ve never stopped wanting to be a veterinarian,” I confessed. Putting that thought out in the open felt weird. I’d always denied my ambitions when anyone asked because I didn’t want to look like the failure I felt I was, but if I couldn’t be honest with myhusband, who would I ever talk to? “I need to get over my fears and man up, but I know I can do it. I just need to believe in myself.”
Raph slung his arms around my neck and kissed me. “I believe in you!”
“I’ll try not to let you down.”
“You never could. I love you,” Raph said, his words warming my skin as well as my heart as his breath puffed against my neck where he nuzzled his nose.
“I love you too,” I gave back.
