Sheena stared at him. “What? Why?”
* * *
A few minutes later, they were standing in a warm hotel room. Sheena wriggled her toes happily in the thick carpet. Fleance was still shaking his head.
“I still can’t believe they let us past the front door,” he muttered as he shut the door behind them. “The way you’re dressed—not that you’re not—you’re—I mean, you look like—not that I think you are…”
The intensity that had blazed from him after the fight had faded, leaving him looking as weary and off-footed as Sheena felt. Something inside her softened. Maybe she should have felt worried, that something as simple as New Zealand’s lack of concern for proper dress had thrown him, but instead it made her feel more confident. Finally, something where she was the expert.
He trailed off, his expression stricken. Sheena held his eyes until she couldn’t take it anymore.
“I look like I’m what? Dressed in clothing ten sizes too big for me, with no shoes?” she said, laughter bubbling up. “They must be used to it. Everyone who visits here comes for either the hot pools or outdoor adventure. I bet I’m far from the first person to come in looking like they walked backwards through a hedge.”
“That’s not what I was talking about.” Fleance moved closer to her. Somehow, here inside this room instead of out in the wilderness, the contrast between their heights seemed much greater. His voice roughened. “I meant it was obvious you were wearing my clothes.”
Sheena felt split between two selves. On the one hand they were meant to be together. The roughness in his voice, the way his pupils blew out dark and wanting when he looked at her—it was all normal stuff. Right? They were mates. Of course he found her sexy. Hopefully as devastatingly sexy as she found him. And there was no question of whether this path they were going down was the right one. However brash or tentative they were, it was all going to work out.
On the other hand… It was all so new. Her veins hummed with excitement just being near him, and who the hell cared if they knew how it would end up? They were only at the beginning. There was so much more ahead of them, whether they went for it brashly or tentatively or by going straight for a pash in the middle of a street full of burning houses.
She tipped her head back—and back further—to look up at him. “That can’t be too rare either,” she pointed out. “Once you get past the smell, Rotorua’s a pretty romantic place. It’s easy to see how people might end up losing their clothes even if they weren’t shifters.”
Fleance’s ears were going pink. “I…”
Should I do this? Sheena didn’t wait for her sheep to reply. Like it would have anything useful to say, anyway. Fuck it.
“I could lose my clothes now, for example,” she breathed, leaning closer to him.
He closed the space between them in an instant. Desire darkened his eyes, overwhelming his raw embarrassment. Sheena tipped her head back, anticipation thrumming beneath her skin. Inevitable or not, every look, every touch, was brand new and exciting.
Fleance lowered his face towards hers. His arms went around her, strong and warm. Sheena held back; much as she wanted to climb him like a tree, she wanted this, too, him wanting her, coming to her.
He hesitated, his lips so close to hers she could feel his breath as he said:
“We shouldn’t.”
“What?” Sheena jerked back, confused and clinging to that confusion, because the other major emotion welling up inside her was dread. Did I do something wrong?
“Not because I don’t want to,” Fleance said quickly. He smiled crookedly, and the stumbling passion that Sheena felt through the mate bond made her dread melt away. “Don’t ever think that. But I promised you that I would explain about Parker, and hellhounds, and everything. And…”
His voice halted. She didn’t need the mate bond to see how hard it was for him to continue, but she didn’t know how to convince him to go on, either. She’d spent so much of her life keeping people at a distance. Now that she’d found someone she wanted to come close to, she felt as though she was picking her way through a dark room. She couldn’t see her way forward and she couldn’t see all the obstacles in her way, and she didn’t even know what they were—just that they were there.
But that was what the mate bond was for, wasn’t it? To show them that whatever the obstacles, Happily Ever After was on its way. Fleance had used it to show her that he wasn’t rejecting her, just the moment—could she do the same thing?
She picked up his hand from around her waist and twisted her fingers around his. Her chest felt full to bursting. All she had to do was let it out. Right?
How do I know if it’s working? It had been easy to push through all her own defenses in the heat of the moment. Finding a connection and grabbing onto it when they were both terrified for their lives—no problem. But now?
“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” she said.
Fleance looked down at their joined hands. He closed his eyes and pressed Sheena’s knuckles to his forehead, then kissed them.
The ground disappeared from beneath Sheena’s feet. She’d seen Fleance’s strength and passion already, his halting attempts to slow down, but this tender gentleness almost undid her.
Almost? She let it undo her completely.
She reached out with her heart—and it was easy again, the road ahead as clear and brightly lit as the golden cord that bound them together—and found…
She shuddered.
“I’m sorry,” Fleance said, and Sheena’s eyes widened as she realized what she’d just felt. It was like he’d closed a door in her face. Was that what it felt like to other people when she put her defenses up? “I told you, I have to explain everything.
