pretty sure I am the one who put myself naked in a bed and chained to it in the English room of the Night Club. You looked pretty shocked when you turned and saw me like that.”
“Yes. I was,” he said, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I was also surprised when your wrists were suddenly loose later.”
“I wanted to touch you,” she admitted simply.
G.G. nodded, but then asked wearily, “What are we going to do about this?”
Ildaria stiffened warily. “About the dreams?”
“About my being a possible life mate for you,” he corrected.
She stared at him briefly, and then turned and grabbed a large plate and started to move the still warm muffins from the muffin pan to the plate before she said, “That is up to you.”
“But what do you want?”
“I would like you to agree to be my life mate,” she said stiffly.
“Even if I refuse to turn?” he asked.
Ildaria let out a slow breath. At least, he hadn’t refused outright to be her life mate, or gone running screaming from the room at the idea, as Marguerite had feared. Turning, she carried the plate of muffins to the island and set it in front of him before meeting his gaze. “Si.”
G.G. considered her briefly, and she could almost see the cogs turning in his head. She had no idea what he was thinking though.
“Okay,” he said finally.
Ildaria stared at him uncertainly. “Okay?”
“Okay, I would like to be your life mate,” he explained gently.
Ildaria beamed at him, feeling like she’d just won the lottery. She had a life mate.
“But,” he added, and her smile faltered. “You need to accept that I won’t agree to the turn. Ever. I’m happy having one life, Ildaria. I don’t want to drink blood to survive.”
Ildaria merely nodded. It was no more than she’d expected, and she could deal with that. It would be hard to watch him age and die, of course, but she wasn’t the first immortal with a life mate who refused to turn and she could deal with it. She’d have him at least for a while, Ildaria told herself and simply said, “I suspected that would be the case. I accept.”
G.G.’s eyebrows rose. “That easily? No trying to convince me? No argument?”
She shrugged. “One piece of cake in your life is better than never having any.”
That surprised a short laugh out of him. “Did you just call me cake?”
“Maybe,” she said with a small smile. “Although it probably should have been beefcake.”
They shared a smile and then he grabbed a muffin off the plate and moved it to his own. As he cut and buttered the muffin, he said, “I think we should go slow for now.”
“Slow?” she asked, moving back to begin putting fresh paper muffin cups in the now empty muffin pan.
“I think we should go on dates, get to know each other better . . . but stick to dream sex for now,” he suggested.
Ildaria continued what she was doing, finishing off with the paper muffin cups and then switching to filling them, but her mind was working. If he thought they could do that, he didn’t know as much about immortals as she’d thought. At least, not about life mates. Resisting each other would be damned near impossible.
“I know it will be hard,” G.G. added, when she didn’t comment. “We’ll have to be careful, but I think if we avoid touching each other—”
“Why?” she interrupted, finally turning to look at him.
He paused with his muffin halfway to his mouth, and lowered it slightly before admitting, “Because I don’t think you’re ready for the real thing yet.”
“But—”
“And I’m mortal. My parts don’t grow back if you have a flashback, panic and bite anything off me.”
G.G. had spoken in a teasing tone, but she didn’t think he was really joking. He was worried about how she would react during real sex. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised since she’d just told him she’d bit off Juan’s penis.
A sigh from G.G. drew her attention as he set his uneaten muffin back on the plate. Meeting her gaze then, he said, “I dated a mortal girl once who had been sexually abused as a child. I didn’t know and she didn’t tell me. We dated for several months and it was nice. We fooled around a lot, but never had sex. She always shied away before getting to that point, and I didn’t push it. I was fine waiting until she was ready. Then Valentine’s