Had he failed that endeavor, or was there something else he was missing?
If it’s because of that damn shifter, I’m going to hunt him down and turn him into a rug.
Paloma stared at his chin, her expression tense. “No,” she whispered, “I just…”
“What, treat?” He rubbed the pads of his thumbs into her temples, aching to soothe. “Tell me.”
“I just started to get a little freaked out about how nice it is to have you here.” He watched her lower lip tremble when she paused. “I’ve been alone a really long time, and it just— it’s been nice, but I started to think about what it’ll be like when you are back to normal and how you’ll either want to go or won’t want me like this anymore and I…”
She sucked in a shuddering breath. “And I know it’s crazy to want you to stay with me, like this, when I have nothing to offer you but a nice cliff. I shouldn’t even consider it, since we’ve only known each other for less than a week, but I have been.” He felt the bite of her nails in his thick skin when she curled her fingers into his shoulders. “I also know that this is going to end, and it’ll hurt.”
Artem dropped his hands to curl his arms around her back, dragging her close. He buried his face in her damp, windswept hair and cursed himself up and down. “Oh, treat.”
This was his fault. Because he’d been nest-ridden since they met, he wasn’t able to do the things a mate should. He hadn’t secured their boundaries. He hadn’t insisted on her sleeping in their nest. He hadn’t spent more than snatches of time with her.
He hadn’t made her feel like he intended to stay. It was no wonder she had her doubts about him.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed into her hair.
She stiffened. “I don’t want an apology. It’s fine that we’re not compatible. I shouldn’t have let my daydreams get the best of—”
Artem dropped his head to scrape his teeth against the corner of her jaw, silencing her. “Stop that. We’re plenty fucking compatible, treat, but I’ve neglected you. No wonder you ran. An overlooked mate always acts out.”
She let out a gusty breath. “Artem, that’s not what I meant!”
“No, but it’s the truth.” Leaning back so he could look into her exasperated face, he told her, “This is because I haven’t had the chance to follow through on my promises, Paloma. You don’t feel secure. If you felt like I wouldn’t leave you, would you have disappeared on me today?”
She chewed her lip before answering, “I don’t… Maybe? But it’s too soon to know that sort of thing. Humans don’t just jump into marriages or matings like this. We take our time to figure the other person out first.”
“Have you ever been married before?” He nudged her forehead with the tip of his nose. “I see no marriage sigil there, so I assume the answer is no. And I don’t think you’ve ever been mated before, or else that cat wouldn’t have been trying so hard to convince you to be his.”
“His name’s Jack Jr. and he’s not my type anyway.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “What’s your point?”
Ugh, Jack Jr. Even his name was atrocious. No junior anything belonged within ten feet of his mate.
“My point is that just because you think you know the proper order of things, you haven’t actually experienced it.” Cupping her jaw, he softened his voice and continued, “There is no reason to believe our ways are incompatible. I can Choose you and make you feel secure in this mating, while you can get to know me in the human way. These things are not mutually exclusive. We are not the first dragon/human coupling, I can assure you.”
A cautious hope lit her dark eyes. “You really mean that?”
“I do.”
“How can you have already decided on me? You don’t know me. I’m not glamorous or powerful.” She swallowed. “I’m just an arrant. Shouldn’t a dragon Choose someone… more?”
“I don’t understand why you seem to think that being arrant makes you less.” He pressed a firm kiss to her brow, as if he could burn his confidence in her into the skin there. “You’re a genius, treat. I’ve watched you at your computers and with your codes. When you talk about your work, I barely understand it and love that. What you do is so far over my head, you might as well have wings of your own.”
She flushed. “You don’t mean that.”
Artem shook his head, amazed. Drawing her away from the door and into the warmth of the dwelling, he promised, “I do mean it, and if I have to spend every day of our lives convincing you that I’m really fucking proud to be mated to a genius, then it’s no hardship.”
When they were standing by the edge of the much improved nest, Artem began the process of helping her out of her boots and her sodden jacket. Paloma let him do it, though she wore a befuddled look on her face the entire time. “What are you doing?”
Plucking the phone out of the pocket of her jeans, he answered, “I’m getting you naked. I don’t have energy for much more than that. I need to make the most of it.”
Paloma lifted her arms, helping him raise her long sleeved flannel shirt over her head. “What about the groceries?”
He considered the shirt for a moment before tossing it into the nest. It smelled like her and it was soft enough to stay amongst his carefully curated selection of blankets and pillows. Her jeans, on the other hand… “The truck is cold. They can wait until we’re done.”
“Done with what?”
Artem paused his fiddling with the brass button of her jeans just long enough to send her a slow smile. “Mating, of course.”