Page 27 of Targeted By Love
There was no answer to that. Yeah, maybe I was, but before I laid eyes on Rhodes, I was at the top of my game.
“Are you going to tell me?” He gripped the comforter as it slid over his hips, exposing the dark curly hair at his crotch.
“If I’m shit? Never used to be.”
A trace of a grin drifted over his lips. “No, not that.” But the smile vanished almost as if he remembered he shouldn’t be amused about me killing or not killing someone. “Who was the hit?” He wobbled his head from side to side. “Pretty sure I know ‘cause he’s brought some bad juju on himself and his family.
“I doubt that.”
“We’re talking about my brother, right? He’s done a lotta sketchy stuff and caused my mom so much grief. And someone tried to blow him up.”
I was struck by the notion that the hit may have been ordered to send a message to Rhodes’s brother and his cronies.
“Not exactly.” Gods damn it. It would be easier to explain the history of shifters to a toddler than this, though a toddler wouldn’t be armed with an adult’s preconceived ideas about fantasy.
“Then who?”
He leaned over the bed, his eyes locked on mine. My belly roiled, and I begged my last meal to stay where it was. I winced at the pain in my stomach as it cramped and the pain abated, rinsed, and repeated.
My mouth was dry, and I longed to chug some water, though I’d only be postponing the agony. But Rhodes picked up on my reluctance—it wasn’t difficult—and he backed off, a hand over his mouth as the comforter puddled around his ankles. I leaped up, wanting to hold him and say how much I loved him, how I couldn’t go through with it because he was my mate.
“Me. You were there for me.”
“And as soon as I saw your face, your scent told me you were my mate. I couldn’t go through with it.”
He slumped to the floor and brought the comforter to his lips. “Did you plant the bomb? Were you hoping I’d be in the car?”
“Gods, no, that had nothing to do with me.”
“Okay.” He pressed a fist into his eye socket. “And mate? What is that? A good friend? You didn’t explain it properly before.”
He sat cross-legged opposite me, though he wouldn’t let me get any closer.
“My kind, the ones with an animal inside them… as I’ve mentioned… we’re called shifters.” This carpet was making my bare butt itch. If Rhodes and I did mate, we would live in my apartment if I could convince him to relocate. “Many of us have a fated mate somewhere on earth, and if we’re lucky enough to meet them, we recognize them instantly by their scent.” Or our beast did and told us.
“You are my one and only. There can never be anyone else for me.” I could have stopped there but had to let him know he had options. “But you can walk away and tell me to piss off. You’re free to do whatever you choose.”
He fiddled with the comforter as it surrounded him, as though he were sitting on a nest, or maybe a throne.
“It’s a lot to take in. The contract, the hit, my brother, a bomb, me, you, a wolf, your batshit-bonkers family.” He rubbed his eyes. “I can’t deal with it all now. So let’s start with the mating.”
I understood why he hadn’t asked for more details about the hit. Out of all the confusing things that had happened, mating was the least problematic.
“You want to mate with me, someone not like you, who has a regular job and an ordinary life.”
“Yes. Very much so.” There was one detail I’d forgotten to add. “Mating is for life. Once I mark you, we are bonded until our last breath.”
He shrugged. “Call me crazy, but I kinda like that idea.”
“But you need to reflect on what being mated to me would mean.” There were other considerations such as how Alpha would react but he’d find out after the fact.
He shoved his bare feet out from the comforter, and I uncrossed my legs. We were sole to sole, and I was begging the universe to make us soul to soul too.
“That I’d be mated to a guy who has a wolf inside him, who can change into said wolf, and who offs people for a living.”
“I have another job. I’m a money person.”
Rhodes rolled his eyes. “Goodie. That makes it so much better that you only kill people part-time.”