“Wait.” She glanced up at him. “Gabriel is rich?”
“Not Lennox rich,” he said. “But, yeah.”
“Huh.” She pondered on that. Now some things about the lion shifter did make sense. “He’s a great friend then.”
“He is.” A wistful smile crossed his face. “Anyway, that’s how I ended up with the rangers. Also, I cashed out my army pension, my parents gave me some of the profits from the sale of their house, and then I got this place.”
“It really is beautiful,” she said, taking a deep whiff of the clean air.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said.
“Really?”
He nodded. “Because I want you to spend more of your time up here with me … if you want to, that is.”
“I do want to,” she said before thinking. There was a giddy feeling that rose up in her, but then she realized that everything seemed so sudden. “As long as you don’t feel like I’m smothering you or this is all moving too fast.” She knew guys could be sensitive when it came to women taking over their space. The last guy she had dated wouldn’t even let her keep a toothbrush at his place.
A chuckle made his chest rumble. “Fast? Oh, sweetheart, these last two weeks have been torture. I told you, I wanted you from the beginning.”
She worried at her lip and drew her brows together as she recalled his words last night, about being his mate. Was it true? What did being mates even mean? The whole concept was still strange to her.
“What’s the matter?” His mood shifted, and his eyes turned dark. “Tell me. Please. You’re not regretting this, are you?”
“What?”
“The things I told you last night … not a lot of people know because they wouldn’t understand.” His entire body stiffened, and his hold on her loosened. “I’ve done things … caused so much pain.”
“Damon, no. Oh no.” She cupped his face. “Look at me. I may not understand what it’s like, but you can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened to the men under your command. They knew the risks, and you had bad information.”
“But—”
“Damon, you know sometimes guilt can eat you up from the inside, and the thing about it is, you don’t even know it’s happening.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “You have to learn to forgive yourself, too, before you’re consumed by that darkness.” Her chest ached for him so bad.
His body relaxed, and his hand soothed her back. “I don’t know about that …” He sighed. “Can we talk about something else? Like what’s bothering you?”
His questions caught her off guard. “I just … I …”
He had told her everything about himself last night, about his past, and yet, he knew nothing about her. About her past and what exactly brought her here. That bag of cash still sitting in the trunk of her car was only the tip of the iceberg.
“Anna Victoria?”
“Sorry … woolgathering.” She shifted uncomfortably. “Damon, don’t you want to know more about me … you know, before deciding that I’m your mate?”
“I can’t ‘decide’ you’re my mate,” he began. “You just are.”
“Yes, but there’s so much about me you don’t know. Like, about my past.”
“That doesn’t matter to me, none of that does.”
Oh Lord, why was he making this harder by being so nice about it? “But you should probably know more about me. Like, about how I got here and my … my fiancé.”
“Ex-fiancé,” he reminded her not-so-gently.
There was a fierceness in his eyes that made her pull back from him.
He must have realized she was frightened, as his voice turned soft. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry …” He brushed her cheek. “It’s just that … us shifters, males especially, we get very possessive about our mates. Even thinking of another man with you is driving my bear crazy.”
“It does?”
“Yeah. Remember all those times at HQ? When Gabriel or any other man was around you? I was so jealous I couldn’t think straight.”
“But Gabriel is your friend,” she said. “And those other men are your rangers.”
“It doesn’t matter. To my animal, they’re all rivals.” His jaw hardened. “That’s why I acted like an ass to you since you came to work for me. And if I haven’t yet, I need to apologize for my actions. For chewing you out for no goddamned reason and saying all those mean things to you, all because I was jealous. I didn’t mean any of them.”
She tried to put herself in his situation, and the truth was, when she thought of him with any other woman, she too felt that hot stab of jealousy. “I think I understand.”
“Then you know why I don’t wanna hear about this other asshole who loved you enough to ask you to marry him.”
Her chest ached at the truth she was hiding from him. “Damon, it’s not what you—”
“Don’t,” his voice was raspy and low. “It doesn’t matter. None of it does. Stay here in Blackstone with me. Live your life here, not in the past.”
Could she really do that? Leave everything behind her, forget it all, and just start a new life? People do it every day, she told herself. She hated that there was this thing between them, not quite a lie, but not quite the truth either. But if he seemed happy not to know … “All right.”
His shoulders relaxed, and he pulled her close, pressing his forehead to hers. “I don’t deserve you, but the truth is, I can’t let anyone else have you.”
A shiver went through her at the possessive, primal words. And darn if it didn’t make her hot.
“You getting wet, sweetheart?”
She gasped. “How did you—”
“I can smell you,” he growled. “And you smell incredible.”
“No way—oh!” He scooped her up and planted her on his lap. “Damon …”
Shoving a hand into her hair, he pulled her face down to his so it was centimeters away. “Do you like that? Like it when I get all possessive?”
“N-no,” she
