She shook her head. “No. It’s not that I don’t want us to be mates. I just can’t sense the bond.”
“I suspect the mental door your devil closed is partly responsible for that. You must have a few issues of your own or you might have sensed the bond before she closed that door. We’ll work out whatever’s blocking the frequency in time. For now, we build on what we have. I’ll do my best to win over your devil.”
His latter comment made her devil narrow her eyes, but she didn’t bark or chuff or put up a protest. Still, she clearly wouldn’t make it easy for him. She’d make him work for it. Which she surely wouldn’t bother to do if she didn’t recognize him as hers.
“At least admit it’s possible that we’re mates, Havana.”
She pulled in a deep breath. “It’s possible.” Why else would his assertion feel right? Why else would it settle and satisfy some elemental part of her?
Plenty of other things pointed to it being true—their elemental attraction, how hard it had been for her to walk away from him, how he had a way of making her feel safe, how strongly her devil had reacted to his failure to offer her more. And then there was the sense of betrayal that sat in the pit of her stomach at the knowledge that he’d almost mated with another.
“More than possible,” she added. “Probable, even.”
“Probable?” he echoed, a note of hope in his voice.
“Yes. I mean, I found it hard to believe initially—you threw me off-guard, and I already had so much going on in my head. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. And when I hear you say it, it … I don’t know, it just calms me in some way. Plus, my devil isn’t protesting, which is a telling point. I just can’t say it with all certainty, because I don’t feel the presence of the bond.”
“Yet,” he said. “You will in time. For now, it’s enough that you’re fully open to the idea.” He paused. “You’ll give me the chance to earn your devil’s trust? You’ll let us build on what we have?”
Havana sank her teeth into her lower lip. It was hard to reach for something you wanted so much when you didn’t feel sure to your bones that it was yours to reach for. But every instinct she had insisted he was hers, and her gut had never led her wrong before. She didn’t think it was leading her wrong now either. “I can agree to that.”
Tate studied her face for a long moment. One corner of his mouth lifted, and he hugged her tight. “If we hadn’t been true mates, I still would have come to you at some point and offered you more. I couldn’t have made you any promises, but I’d have agreed to try ‘more’ and see where it went. You probably would have decided not to take a chance on my cat, given his history of withdrawing from women. But I’d have asked anyway.”
“I would have taken the chance.” If for no other reason than that she’d have always wondered what could have been if she hadn’t.
His inky blue eyes warmed. “Yeah?”
She gave a slow nod. “Yeah.”
“Even knowing we could have crashed and burned?”
“You and your cat are worth the risk.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
You and your cat are worth the risk.
Framing her face with his hands, Tate pulled her closer and pressed his forehead to hers. “Baby.” Fuck, she was killing him. Killing him.
He lowered his mouth to hers, intending to only feather his lips against her own in a soft, barely-there kiss. But the moment their lips met, his entire system seemed to jolt. A shudder went through him, and there was no way to stop himself from taking that mouth he’d missed.
He swept his tongue inside and groaned. God, that fucking taste. It had always acted as his own personal aphrodisiac, just like her scent … and now he knew why.
Tate growled low in his throat and kissed her harder. They both caught fire in an instant. Greedy and frantic, they moaned, clutched, squeezed, grinded.
The drugging scent of her need fueled the fire that blazed within him and all but inebriated his cat. Naked. Tate needed her naked. Needed her wet and ready to take him, because he had to be inside her.
He whipped off her tank with a snarl. “The bra. Take it off.” Fisting the back of his tee, he yanked it over his head and tossed it on the floor. He let her stand long enough to shove down her panties and yoga pants. Then he yanked her back on his lap and once again ravaged her mouth.
This wasn’t about battling for dominance. This wasn’t a pitting of wills. This was about sealing a deal while reconnecting on the most basic level.