“How do you know all those things about me when you just met me?” she asked.
I pointed to my heart. “Here. I know everything there is to know about you that could possibly be important. As you said before, it is as though we have known each other forever. Maybe not in this world, but definitely in the spiritual world, and likely throughout different lifetimes.”
She nodded. “I guess that was why I knew I didn’t have to be afraid of you when you leaped up on the porch and threw Jason across the yard. You were pretty intense and impressive. Maybe even slightly scary.” She smiled mischievously. “That was also why I knew that I didn’t need to slap your face for kissing me. You didn’t even know my name and hadn’t taken me out on a date yet,” she joked.
“I work backward. Kiss first, then a date,” I joked back. “If there’s no chemistry in a kiss, there’s no point in dating. I would just tip my hat, say ‘thank you, Ma’am,’ and ride away into the sunset.”
“That was a pretty intense kiss. You ought to be happy about that. You have no hat, and you didn’t ride in on anything. The date better blow my mind away, too,” she retorted.
I smiled widely. “The sun is my hat, and I rode in on the wind.”
She closed her eyes, smirked, and shook her head.
“Do you always go around kissing random women without even asking their names first?” she asked, cocking her head and raising her eyebrows.
“Only if they are beautiful women that I have rescued. All men have a thing for the damsel in distress.”
She laughed. It was a beautiful sound. It wasn’t a puny giggle. It was a full-belly laugh, full of humor and happiness. Then, she said, “You must be something special. I’ve never been so relaxed with another person before. I never thought I could sit with a man that I don’t know and joke around with him about a kiss—a kiss that completely turned my world inside and out.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet. There is a lot more where that kiss came from,” I told her.
“Lord, I hope so,” she breathed.
3
Luka
Iknew exactly what he was alluding to when he started talking about soulmates and destiny. When I was a little girl, I used to fantasize about soulmates and what it would be like to have one person that I could automatically connect with. A person who understood me. That was particularly important to me because there were times when I didn’t even understand myself.
While we were bantering back and forth, I happened to look down at my arms and saw the vines that were still wrapped around me. Gage had taken the vines from his arms and laid them carefully on the coffee table that sat in front of us.
“I get the feeling that you owe me more than a date. You said I was your woman. Then, I agreed that I was your woman. A whole flock of birds started chirping, and these vines came from out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around our arms. What was that about?” I asked calmly.
Although I didn’t think that anything could shock me after the events that I had just witnessed, I was wrong.
“By the laws of the forest, which govern my people, when I declare you to be mine and you agree that you are mine, we are united. Married.”
“Married?” I asked unbelievably.
“Yes, married,” he said simply.
I waited for a reaction from myself. Shock, anger, fear, something. However, no such negative reaction came. It seemed as though that was just par for the day. Why not? Sexy man appeared out of nowhere to save me from Jason. Declares that he had heard me calling out to him, telling him that I needed help. Then, here he comes and throws Jason like a toy. He kissed me. Now, we are married.
“I waited to be shocked, surprised, or even in denial. I wasn’t. I guess it’s just part of the soulmate thing.”
He smiled. “Indeed, it is.”
I nodded.
“I suppose that since this is a marriage brought forth by the laws of Mother Earth, this is more binding than any marriage we could have from a Justice of the Peace. It is more powerful than if we were married in a church.”
“It is a union that will last forever—throughout all eternity.”
He leaned over and captured my mouth with his. This time, the kiss was more deliberate. He slowly licked my lips. Then, he parted them with his tongue, which he then slipped into my mouth. His tongue touched the roof of my mouth and tickled it a little bit. He lightly stroked the top of my tongue with his and circled underneath my tongue.
His hand threaded through my hair, while his other hand gently stroked my cheek.
My fingers found their way to his chest. I loved how his hard muscles felt beneath my fingertips as he made love to my mouth. I moaned as he began kissing me behind my ear. His lips and tongue made a trail from behind my ear, down my jawline, to my chin. He bit my chin gently, then trailed kisses to my other ear.