“If you try to do a mind reading thing while we are fighting or something, I might punch you, but as long as you accept the danger, then no, I don’t care. Not the same way I did when we barely knew each other.”
He let out a long-shuddered breath and it hurt to think how much he’d been scared of telling me all this. “Will it make you feel better to know that with our mating, my magic won’t work the same way on you? I doubt I could overtake your mind now. We can share power reserves through the bond too.”
“Even with my mage powers?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. It might be necessary to do some experimentation.”
“What else do I need to know?” I asked, rubbing his arm locked around my waist.
“Fae mate for life, and once the bonding is sealed nothing will break it save death,” he said.
The fae version of death do us part.
Was I ready for it? The thought hit me, without any hesitation.
Yes. Fin is mine.
Chapter Fifteen
IT TOOK ANOTHER TWO days before Fin started feeling better magically. I monitored him through the bond, noting the tension easing more and more as his magic returned to him.
On the third day, I did some training exercises, stretching and working my muscles in a way I’d been neglecting. I was tired of getting my butt kicked by random goons and I wasn’t going to let it happen anymore.
After I finished, and I lay on the living room floor in my leggings and sports bra, Fin entered to tower over me. I started at his bare feet, and trailed my gaze up his jean clad legs, to the t-shirt molding across his chest and shoulders.
When I finally reached his eyes, he gave me a knowing look. “Keep staring like that and I’m going to rip all the clothes from your body and do disreputable things to you.”
I gasped. “Disreputable things. Oh, my. The disreputable things are my favorite kind.”
He hauled me to my feet, my sore muscles screaming. “Let’s get you in the shower and clean up. It’ll help ease the ache.”
He herded me into the shower, helped strip off my bra and pants, then nudged me under the hot spray. I relaxed, letting the hot water pour over me and working out some of the knots and kinks I’d gained between disuse and today’s overuse of my muscles.
Fin stood with his back against the wall on the other side of the glass watching me with a hungry gaze. I turned to face him as I rinsed my hair, daring him to join me. He simply watched every motion I made until I flipped the water off. Then he was there with a towel ready to buff me dry with brisk strokes.
After I sat on the bed naked, and he massaged the water out of my hair, he braided the strands. I found myself a puddle of goo under his attention. He was so thorough, and so gentle, even as every little press of his fingers ignited a firestorm under the tranquility.
I leaned back into him. “A girl could get used to this.”
“I hope you do. I plan to spend a long time pampering you. It’ll be my absolute pleasure to take care of you, if you’ll let me,” he whispered in my ear. “But there’s something we need to talk about.”
“Hmm...?” I let him cradle me into his lap and curled up against his chest.
“We need to talk about cementing the bond and whether or not it’s something you want to.”
I blinked my eyes open to look up at his serious face. “What does it mean, or what do we have to do?”
He hesitated to speak, and I cupped his cheeks in my palms.
“I’m not going anywhere. I told you that. If it’s not something I can do right now, doesn’t mean it won’t be later. Tell me about it and I can make the choice.”
I’d already made my decision, but it helped to know the particulars involved with the actual process. Magic was most certainly involved, and we both knew I wasn’t exactly top of the class.
“It’s intimate,” he said.
I gestured at my naked body draped across his lap. “More than this? I’m not afraid to get intimate with you, Fin. In fact, I hope we do way more once things settle down.”
“You mean once we kill an evil mage and don’t have to keep one eye over our shoulder around every turn?”