will think I'm some inexperienced, randy teenager."
Waiting until he could once again move without being lightheaded, Ranger finished his shower, feeling better than he had in ages. He was also hungrier than the Bear Shifter, Beau, he’d met while searching for the Chimera with Banning, one of the Dragon Guard Berserkers recently returned from the dead.
Foregoing a shave, deciding that part of relaxing and being on vacation was ignoring the stubble on his chin, he scratched at the coarse hair covering his jaw and snickered, “Momma Barbara said it adds to my mystique." Leaning closer to the mirror, he barked out a laugh, "Hope she didn't mean that I look like a mysterious homeless guy.”
Finishing up by brushing his teeth and taming his hair the best he could, the Guardsman grabbed a pair of jeans and the light green T-shirt Momma Barbara said brought out his eyes. Shoving his feet into his favorite, well-worn boots, he took one final look in the mirror, shoved the keycard for the door to his room in his back pocket, and headed for breakfast.
Out in the hall, that aroma, Ellie's scent, was stronger still. Ignoring the urge to knock on the door across the hall just to see who had checked in after him and if they knew his Mate, Ranger forced himself to turn around and head for the elevators.
Exactly two steps, and he was spinning like a top back the way he'd just come. Every last breath exited his body in a sharp exhale that ended in a loud, "What?" He couldn't move. Hell, he wasn't breathing, and his heart wasn't beating, how in all the world did he think he was going anywhere.
How could it be? Was he dreaming? Had the whole morning been some illusion or delusion concocted by his crazy brain?
Then she turned. Their eyes met. Her gasp, the way her pupils got so big he could barely see the gorgeous emerald of her eyes, the pounding of her heart – it was all too good to be true.
“Ellie,” he whispered. “How are you he…”
Throwing back her shoulders, brows furrowing, her growl of frustration froze the next words on his tongue. She was breathtaking. Even more beautiful than even he remembered. Although caused by anger, or embarrassment, or hurt feelings, or everything all rolled into one, the blush on her cheeks only made his Mate more beautiful.
“Damn, she’s gorgeous,” both man and Dragon breathed in unison.
Marching towards him, her head held high and her eyes looking past him like he wasn't there, Ranger almost let her get away, before reaching out and gently grabbing her wrist. Feeling the flutter of her pulse under his fingertips, his heart instantly fell into sync with hers, but it was her gasp and the way her scent kicked up to a twenty on a scale of one to ten that had him blurting out, "Please don't go. I need you."
Stopping midstride, the woman that held his heart and soul in the palm of her hand didn't turn around. Her eyes stayed front. For precisely three heartbeats, she didn't move, didn't breathe, didn't blink.
Then, so slowly that he tracked every single movement of every single strand of her lovely red hair as it flew over her shoulder, Ellie turned the full force of her emerald glare on him and sneered, "And when did you come to this miraculous realization? When did it dawn on you that you needed me? As you were driving away and leaving me? Or all the days, weeks, and months that you didn't call?"
Moving so quickly that he shocked even himself, Ranger stood right in front of his Mate, so close, the heat of her body had his cock rising all over again. "I have regretted what I had to do every damned second of every damned day." Leaning just the tiniest bit closer, wishing he could kiss her right that very moment but knowing she would punch him in the nose, or worse yet, kick him in the balls, he smiled, letting everything that he felt for her shine in his eyes as he asked, "Please have breakfast with me. Please give me the chance to explain."
When she started to turn him down, her lips parting as her head began to shake, he hurried on. "Please, Ellie. I know I don't deserve it but give me a chance. If after I explain, you still want to tell me to go to hell, then I will."
Head falling forward, her shoulders