A real one.
“I, um...well, you were my first. After you left, I was hurt, and then I found out about Orlando, and then I guess I just got busy.”
“Didn’t you get lonely?” He asks gently, but his voice holds no judgment.
“Yes,” I whisper. “But I didn’t want to bring anyone around that might not love him the way I loved him, or that might hurt him, or that might leave and then hurt him,” I tell Cage. “Orlando is my whole world, and I guess I’ve just been trying to protect him as much as I can. You know, from everything.”
“You’re a wonderful mom.”
“Thank you.”
“He’s lucky to have you.”
“Thank you.”
Cage sits down beside me and places a hand on my thigh. He strokes my skin softly, gently, touching me.
“It was my first time, too,” he says.
“What?” I look up at him sharply, and he laughs.
“You don’t have to look so surprised.”
“I am, though.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re...well, just look at you,” I gesture to his body. Cage is handsome as hell. He’s always been attractive, but in the time he’s been gone, I think he’s gotten even more good looking.
Somehow.
It doesn’t really seem fair, if you ask me.
How has someone like him managed to become so absolutely fucking beautiful?
He’s like something from a magazine or a clothing advertisement. Cage has always been confident, but never too cocky, and he just laughs and reaches for me. He kisses me softly on the lips, and then he pulls back and looks at me.
“I dated a little,” he says. “But I never sealed the deal. My bear would never let me.”
“Your bear?”
“Do you know what mates are?”
“Yes. Betty explained all of that. Some shifters believe that each person has someone they are destined to be with: a fated mate.”
“I believe it.”
“You do?”
I don’t dare to hope that he’s going to say I’m his mate. Oh, I would really, really love for him to say that I’m his mate. Is there even the smallest, tiniest chance that he’ll say that?
Because I would really, really love for him to say that.
“Alicia, I knew that night. The night we spent together, I knew. I was scared, and I was young, and I screwed it all up, but it’s you. It’s always been you.”
Then Cage kisses me, and finally, we stop talking.
Finally, we let our bodies do what they want to do.