Page 64 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck
He withdrew but stayed over me, kissing me more as the sparks and purple glowing died out. He slid onto the bed next to me and dragged me against him, holding me in his arms snugly. He let out a manly chuckle. “Everything makes a lot more sense now.”
I touched his sweat-slicked chest. “What do you mean?”
He kissed my forehead, chuckling again. “The way I felt the second I saw you. How I couldn’t look away from you and how I wanted to grab you and make love to you then and there.”
I snorted. “Glad you didn’t. That would have been awkward in the dining room with my brother and his wife watching. Very, very awkward.”
He grinned as he squeezed me tighter. “I couldn’t understand the pull to you. I mean, yes, you’re drop-dead gorgeous, but it was more than that. I wanted to make contact with you nonstop. Had everything not happened with Nile that night, I think I’d have realized what it all meant.”
I lay there, happy and content to let him say whatever he felt he needed to say to me.
“No, I know I would have understood it had we been together that night—sexually,” he said. “The second the mating frenzy energy came over me I’d have put it all together. I’d have claimed you then and there in the wine cellar.”
“Explain what you mean by claiming me, because from my understanding that only happens between supernaturals,” I said. “That each of you have someone special out there.”
I didn’t exactly want to think about him with his special person, but I was curious as to what he was talking about. A pang of jealousy moved through me.
“There isn’t anyone else,” he said fast as if he’d read my mind. “There hasn’t been anyone since I met you. There won’t ever be anyone else but you, Rachael.”
Those were pretty words but just words. He’d already freaked on me after the Nile thing and had gone months without having any real kind of conversation with me. He’d also treated me like crap at the courthouse in front of his Fae buddies.
He touched my chin, directing my gaze up to his. “Hon, the Nightshade are going to need to drag my cold dead body from you to get me to leave you.”
Gasping, I twisted partially, looking at him. “Don’t say something like that.”
“Why not?” he asked. “I mean it. I’m not leaving my wife.”
I opened my mouth to scold him more for daring to tempt Fate only to register what he’d said. “Your what?”
He bit at his lower lip and adjusted the strap of my chemise.
“Drest,” I said sternly. “Explain your comment.”
He took my hand and kissed it. He then tapped the tip of my nose. “I might have done something that can’t be taken back—not that I want to take it back or anything.”
“We had sex,” I said with a nod. “I understand there is no going back from that.”
“Hon, let me finish saying this, please,” he said with a slight smile.
“Well, I would if you’d get to the point,” I returned.
“I claimed you,” he blurted.
“Right. You said that already. But you’re acting like it stuck or something,” I said with a snort. “It couldn’t have.”
He cleared his throat. “Rachael.You’remy mate.”
A long stretch of silence occurred between us before I finally regained the ability to think.
“I don’t understand,” I confessed. “How can that be? I’m not a supernatural.”
“Yes, you are,” he said. “You’ve got Fae in you.”
“Just a little,” I countered. “Not enough to make me mate material.”
He simply stared at me.
I sat up fast. “You’re serious?”
