Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
A touch of heat on his cheeks, he released her hand. He wanted to smile at her because what he felt inside, this deep warmth, it was a thing of smiles and laughter. But he didn’t know how to smile, had never done it in his life.
His Lei could teach him, he thought. As long as they were together, anything was possible. Ask him only a month earlier and he could’ve never imagined this day where he lay sexually sated in bed while a beautiful naked woman padded around their residence.
Pushing up into a seated position as he waited for her to return, he found his mind ricocheting back to their conversation in the car, a conversation that had turned his world on its axis.
People have been making decisions for me my whole life.
Don’t you dare do it with the idea that you’re saving me.
I would rather have a single perfect day with you than a lifetime without you.
“One perfect day,” he whispered, and thought that he wouldn’t trade this day he’d had with Soleil for anything, not even a lifetime.
That was when she walked back into the room, a glass of water for him in hand. Tilting her head to the side in that way she had of doing, she said, “What is it?”
He took the glass she held out but put it beside the bed rather than drinking it. “I understand.”
“What, mi vida?” Seated on her knees beside him, her hair a dark rain over her shoulders, she ran her fingers through his own with an affection he’d never known he needed and now craved.
“That if I balanced this day with you against a lifetime without you, this day would win by such a large margin that it’s not a competition at all.” The man he was with her, it was an Ivan that was the very best of him. He’d be hollow without her. As she’d be without him.
It was a cataclysmic thing to accept, that he was so very important to her. But it was the truth. He felt it in her every touch, every look, in how her cat prowled inside his skin, and in her sheer delight at being with him. It was a thing as bright as the stars, as full of sunshine as his Lei.
Pupils huge and dark against the wild tawny-gold of her irises, Soleil lifted trembling fingers to his cheek. “Yes?” she whispered.
Turning his head, he kissed her palm. “Yes.”
And his entire world … shivered, things that had been subtly out of alignment falling into perfect lines.
“Oh,” Soleil whispered, her eyes wet. “Oh, there you are.”
He enfolded her into his arms. “For always.” For however long that always was for the two of them. Because they would fall together now, the mating bond complete in every way.
SOLEIL was still a touch shaky from the impact of knowing Ivan was now hers without conditions, without shields of any kind, but it was a happy kind of shaky—that was about to get even happier.
Salvador was bringing the cubs over to her. When she’d called Tamsyn to ask where Natal and Razi were so she could visit, she’d learned that they’d gone home with Salvador—and that they were awfully excited to see her new aerie after Tamsyn had mentioned it.
So Soleil invited Salvador to bring them over. After she and Sal cried on the phone at being reunited, she said, “Some kind packmate stocked up the pantry with supplies—I have countless people I need to find and thank—so I have everything I need to make cookies. They should be ready by the time you arrive.”
After she and Ivan’d had a quick shower together, full of tender touches and wonder at the bond that sang through them both, she’d retrieved her clothing and got to baking, while Ivan made a trip to the car to get their gear.
To protect the native vegetation, the pack had rules about where vehicles were permitted, so it was a twenty-minute round trip for him. Or it should’ve been—he’d apparently decided to run part of it, because he was back in under fifteen, hitting the verandah with the bags just as she popped the cookies in the solar-powered eco-oven set into the wall.
“You sure you’re not a cat?” she said with a laugh when he prowled back in, her shopping bag in one hand and his duffel in the other, with her daypack slung easily over one shoulder.
“Cat or Mercant, not much difference that I can see. Sneaky runs in the bloodline.” No smile on his face, but she could feel it in the mating bond and it was a little bubble of happiness inside her. Happiness she clung to, refusing to look at the grim cloud that hovered on the horizon.
Last time she’d asked, Ivan had said he’d hit full psychic strength early morning the next day. At which point, he’d walk back into the ChaosNet and be forced to use his ability, further eroding his control on it.