Her cheeks turned pink. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I mean, I figured you might not want to wake up to me and my mascara raccoon eyes.” She gave a nervous chuckle. “So, I slipped out before you woke up. But, I’m here because something happened that night.”
“Yes?” Did it? He remembered having his pants on, and there was no indication they’d had sex. Shit! Maybe they did earlier, before they wound up at that motel room.
“And I’ve been looking for you to let you know. I didn’t know where to begin, then you showed up on TV, and I realized who you were.”
“Okay, and now you—” Oh God. They had a one-night stand neither could remember and now she was looking for him. His gaze dropped down to her belly. She was pregnant. With his cub.
“So, I was—hey, what are you looking at?” She sucked in a deep breath and covered her abdomen with her arms. “I am not pregnant, you jerk. We didn’t even have sex!”
“We didn’t?” he asked, disappointment pouring through him.
“No, we didn’t,” she huffed. “I would remember that part at least. And I was wearing my clothes, and you had on most of yours when I woke up.”
“Oh.” Was she really here then because they were mates?
Her hands dropped to her sides. “I can’t explain it … I’m so embarrassed.”
Hope filled his chest. “It’s all right,” he said soothingly. “You can tell me.” I understand. At least, now he could. That emptiness inside him for months. That longing feeling for something he didn’t know. Now he knew. He’d been missing his mate since they parted. And now here they were, together again.
“I can’t say …” She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know why I can’t just say it.”
“Just say it, baby doll.” He resisted the urge to reach out and touch her. There would be time enough for that. “You can say it.” You’re my mate. You need me as much as I need you.
With a long sigh, she lowered her hands. “I need you …”
Yes! “Need me to what?”
“I need you so badly to—”
Mate you. Bond you. Be with you and only you from now on.
“Sign these papers.”
“I do too,” he sighed. “Wait, what?” He blinked as she dug into her purse and pulled out an envelope. “Papers?”
“Yeah, they’re annulment papers.”
“Annulment of what?”
Her nostrils flared as her cheeks flushed. “Of our marriage.”
“Excuse me?”
“Our marriage.”
He heard her the first time, of course, but the information wasn’t connecting in his brain. “We’re married?”
“Check out the last page.” She waved the envelope at him, and he snatched it from her hands. “That’s our … marriage certificate.”
Flipping through the other pages, he reached the last page and began to read aloud. “The Original Chapel of Hearts Las Vegas … this is to certify … Daniel Rogers of Colorado … Sarah Mendez of Nevada … lawful—”
“Wedlock,” she finished as she bit her lip. “That’s a certified copy by the way. And I checked with that chapel myself. They, uh, said they were waiting for us to come back and pick up the rings we had engraved. But anyway, I’m sure you want to be married as much as I do, so let’s just sign these papers and the judge will grant the annulment in a week.”
Married. He had gotten married to his mate. And now she wanted an annulment.
His grizzly did not like that. It growled and raked its claws down his insides in protest. Fuck! Well, he didn’t like it either, but it was obvious they had both been too intoxicated to consent to the marriage, and that just felt wrong. Pops would be terribly disappointed to hear he’d taken advantage of a woman that way.
But still, it would mean that once their marriage was annulled, she would walk away from him forever, and he couldn’t have that.
“Er, listen, can we talk about this?”
Her arms folded under her chest. “What is there to talk about? I have a pen right here, and you can sign it, then I can be on my way.”
No! Every instinct in his body protested.
“What do you mean no?” Her eyes narrowed at him.
Crap, he said that out loud. “I mean …” Shit, shit, shit. Think Rogers! “We can’t talk about it right now. I—” In an act of pure desperation, he dropped his jeans and the towel around his waist to the ground.
Her eyes went wide as they briefly lowered. “What the—” She covered her eyes with her hand and spun around. “What the hell are you doing?”
He couldn’t stop the smile on his face at her reaction. There was definitely interest there. “Oops. Slipped. That’s what happens in men’s locker rooms, you know.”
“Put some clothes on,” she ordered. “Now.”
“I will, but listen, baby doll, why don’t you wait for me outside?” he suggested. “I just need to get dressed. Unless you wanna keep talking here.”
Her spine tensed, and her fingers curled into a fist at her side. “I—fine.”
As she marched off, he couldn’t help watching her generous hips sway gently, making his cock twitch painfully. When the door closed behind her, he let out a groan and knocked his forehead on the locker next to his.
Signing those papers was the right thing to do. He’d been drugged, and she was drunk; neither of them had been in the right mind to consent. But the idea of his mate walking away from him forever didn’t seem right at all. The human, logical part of him said he could always try to win her later on, but she lived all the way in Las Vegas, and his life was here in Blackstone. He couldn’t imagine leaving everything here behind, but at the same time, Sarah was his mate.
Straightening his posture, he began to dress in his everyday clothes. Maybe he could talk her into having dinner and tell her about the mate stuff. Explain it to her, see how she reacts and consider her feelings on the matter. It was the
