Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Then you had to get to know a person, and that was what you fell for. It was like… a filtering process, kind of. A process of elimination helped by biology.
And the person my biology seemed to favor over everything and everyone before palmed my lower back with his warm hands. “You know damn well that I like you just fine. More than fine.” His eyes searched mine. “Nina… you smell like my mate. Feel like it too….”
“And?” I asked, my voice wobbling, high and stringy.
Henri’s brows furrowed before he dipped down to kiss me again, but this time, it was more than a hard press of a warm mouth. His lips captured mine, parted them too, and his tongue swept into my mouth with an ease and finesse of familiarity. His tongue sliding and meeting mine like they were old friends, and my body wasn’t trying to pretend otherwise. When he pulled away, he only made it a second before he swept back in and did it again. And then again, followed by another one, a million more I would have taken before his breath wafted over my lips. He gulped when he pulled back and pierced me with those incredible eyes. “The more I learn about you, the more I like you, and there’s not many people I can say that about.”
My lips parted as I watched every line on his face.
He kept going too. “Nobody has ever made me as happy as you do, and the idea that somebody else would be spending their free time with you, hearing you laugh… I can’t fucking do it. It’s unbearable to me.”
Someone had a way with words, and I was suddenly grateful that, while he wasn’t quiet, he didn’t drop things like this on me all the time, because I didn’t think I’d be able to survive this Henri in large portions.
“Hmm,” was all my brain could conjure up as a reply.
It made his eyebrows go up. “That’s all you have to say?”
“This wasn’t the conversation I was expecting to have with you today, Fluff,” I breathed. “It’s not every day your childhood crush kisses you, then says they’ll marry you, makes out with you, and finally admits you make them happy. I’m processing.”
I didn’t think he liked that response much.
And there had to be something wrong with me, but I felt like I owed it to myself to do what I was about to do.
Even if it went against every instinct in my body.
“I should probably think about it,” I told him. “I’ve spent the last couple of weeks thinking I needed to move on.”
He reeled back. “You’re going to think about whether or not you’ll mate with me?” Henri asked slowly, surprise in his tone and his eyes.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“What’s there to think about?”
The urge to mess with him ran so strongly in me that I couldn’t even try and have a serious conversation with him, not after he’d had me considering a future where he was just in my peripheral. So, I blinked at him and said, “I’d already been trying to decide whether I could picture my future children having green eyes or blue ones.”
The growl that rumbled in his chest was going to stay with me for the rest of my life. Maybe I’d make it my ringtone.
It took all my self-control to keep my features even as I kept messing with him. “My coloring with those eye colors… I want my kids to be cute.” I raised my eyebrows and shoulders at the same time. “I have options, Fluff.”
Henri’s growl cut off as his eyes searched mine. He almost looked amused. “You can’t even finish that sentence with a straight face, you little brat.”
I couldn’t. I really couldn’t. I was already cracking up. I wiped my eyes and sighed. “Look, two months ago, I would have signed up for this”—I pointed back and forth between the two of us—“in a heartbeat. I was ready to marry anyone to stay here and make this work.”
His nostrils flared at that comment, but I lifted my hand.
“You’re the only man I’ve ever propositioned,” I tried to soothe his ego.
It wasn’t enough. “And I’m the only one you’re ever going to,” he tried to snarl.
I smiled and shrugged. “Probably, but I’ve seen the best relationships with your kind, Henri, and there was never any hesitation in any of them—”
He grunted, ready to argue, but so was I.
“It seems to me like you just made this decision right now because you’re jealous.”
“I’ve been jealous since before we walked into the kitchen and found people I thought were my friends wanting the only thing I’ve wanted for myself in a long time,” he agreed, surprising me again, especially with the emotion in his tone. “I’ve been jealous since Randall tried to get near your neck.”