They were already soaring in the air, so they didn’t have to be strapped into their seats. The sky was a flawless, bright blue surrounding them.
Rux sat on the couch, lifted her legs, and planted them on his lap. Her feet were bare, and she was wearing another sundress that revealed a plentiful amount of her flesh.
“Dana,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I pulled the silent treatment on you. That was some sorely immature shit.”
Dana was still smiling and looking relaxed as she lounged on the leather couch.
“I know, Rux,” she said confidently. “That is over now. You don’t have to worry about it.”
Rux averted his eyes from hers, feeling them boring down on him like heavyweights. He reached out to touch her ankles, tracing his palms along with her smooth calves.
“There is something else we should talk about before it turns into anything argumentative,” he said.
Dana adjusted her body, leaning into his touch as she nodded in agreement.
“I want you in my life,” he said, stroking her leg. “I know that’s pretty obvious. And I want that to be in whatever capacity you feel comfortable with. I know how strange this shifter thing must be for you.”
Dana nodded, then lifted an arm over her head. She stared up at the ceiling as she continued to breathe deeply.
“I will be honest with you, Rux, because it's pointless not to be,” she said. “I have been thinking a lot about this mating thing that you told me about. It scared me initially, but now I realize that it is your nature, and it's kind of romantic.”
Rux smiled, continuing to move his hand along her calves. He wanted to reach up to her thighs, but he didn’t want to distract her from her point.
“And although I wish that I, as a human, had something similar to relate to,” she continued. “I don’t. I wish I could have that certainty that you have, but I don’t. I’m sorry.”
Rux felt the splitting of his heart beginning, but his mind told him to calm down, to wait, to listen.
Dana turned her eyes from the ceiling and then sat up on her forearms. She was smiling, which was a good sign to Rux.
“I want you in my life, too, Rux. You came in at the strangest time, but I have had so much fun, and you’ve made me feel so powerful, so damn sexy.”
She sat up on the couch and leaned forward to touch the hand that was stroking her leg. Rux slowly raised his eyes to hers, and her scent caught in his throat, devastatingly flavorsome.
“Rux,” she said softly. “My life has been so messed up ever since I was a kid. And I thought by now I’d be used to it. But I’m not, and I’ve had to compartmentalize to make any of it work for me.”
Rux felt his heart reform in his chest, no longer splitting, trying to trust the words that his fated mate was saying. He wanted her, he wanted all of her, but he couldn’t force her to feel how he was feeling.
“I’ve worked so fucking hard on my music to get where I want to be,” Dana said, her eyes drifting away from him. “And that doesn’t mean that you are taking me away from it, you aren’t, but I can’t jump into this headfirst until I achieve my musical dreams first.”
Rux nodded. He was going to wait forever for this woman. She had come out of his dreams that he hadn’t even realized he was having.
“I hope that you can understand that,” Dana said. “But I can also get that if you can’t wait. I know you say I’m your fated mate, but I don’t know, maybe you can find a suitable replacement.”
Rux realized that she was crying, laughing through her tears. He lifted a hand and brought it to her chin, then turned it slowly to face him. Her smile lit up the entire room.
“Dana,” Rux’s smooth voice whispered, “there is no one on Earth or beyond who could replace you, honey. Not even close.”
Tears streamed down Dana’s face as she giggled, wiping them away intermittently. He helped her with his thumb, then proceeded to kiss each eyelid individually.
Rux’s heart was glowing, as was his soul. He would never feel this way again, not without Dana.
When they settled into the couch, Dana leaned against his shoulder, and, while he stroked her head, he whispered into her ear, watching the little hairs stand at attention.
“I will wait for you forever, Dana,” he said. “I don’t care how long it takes. You follow your dreams, and I will be there right by your side.”
Dana didn’t say a word more. They dozed on the couch, holding each other close as the hum from the plane’s engine lulled them to sleep.
Rux meant every word he had said to her. He never thought he would ever possess the capacity to be vulnerable, to be patient, to love ever again.
She had strummed something inside his very cosmic being, and it was a path that he would have been disastrously foolish not to follow.
He smiled to himself as her breath became lighter against his skin, knocked out like a baby in his arms.