Page 56 of Choosing the Rejected Mate

I search his face, expecting pressure, hunger, frustration.But I see none of it.Only concern.

“No,” I say slowly.“Not too fast.Just ...big.”

“Big things can wait.”

“What if I don’t want it to wait forever?”

His eyes darken, his wolf rising fast and hungry, but he controls it, because Daniel Reed is apparently determined to ruin every bad expectation I have ever had.

“Then you tell me when forever is over,” he says.

My heart hurts at his words.Stupid man.Stupid perfect answer.

I push at his chest.“Out of my bed.”

He blinks.“That was not the response I expected.”

“You were being emotionally competent.It made me uncomfortable.”

“I apologize.”He doesn’t look sorry in the least.

“You should.”

He catches my hand and presses a kiss to my knuckles.“Later?”

The word is soft and hopeful but not at all demanding.

I swallow.“Later.”

His smile is slow and dangerous.“Good.”

We get dressed separately, mostly because if I watch Daniel pull on jeans again, the bakery will open at noon and Maisie will make a shirt about it.He leaves through the back door with one last kiss that is supposed to be brief and somehow ends with me pressed against the wall, his hand in my hair, and both of us breathing like we ran ten miles.

“No claiming,” he rasps.

“I know.”

“No sex this morning.”He sounds disappointed, and I fight not to smile.

“I know.”

“No biting.”

I narrow my eyes.“Who said anything about biting?”

His mouth twitches.“I’m reminding myself.”

“That sounds like a you problem.”

“It’s very much a me problem.”

I laugh, and he kisses my forehead like the sound is worth something, and then he leaves.

And I stand in my kitchen like an idiot, fingers pressed to my lips, while my wolf stretches inside me with all the smug satisfaction of a creature who got exactly what she wanted.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I tell her.

She’s inside my head and has no face, but I still know she’s looking.