When Cinda opened her eyes, Jarvis was there. He was leaning on his side, hand propping up his head as he rested on his elbow.

“How long have you been watching me, pervert?” she teased in a husky voice.

He grinned. “The only time I get any peace and quiet is when you’re asleep, babe. I try to savor the moment.”

She narrowed her eyes at him then whacked him on the belly. “I can do that now we’re mated.”

“What? You can abuse me now I Claimed you?” He snorted. “What kind of back to front logic is that?” He held up his free hand. “In fact, don’t bother answering that. I know what kind of logic.” He waited a beat. “She Bear logic.”

She pulled a face. “Ordinarily, I’d hit you again for that but after that stunt she pulled, I’m pissed with her too.”

“No more than I am. You scared the shit out of me when you did that.” He let out a shuddery breath. “Don’t do it again.”

“Wasn’t like I had much of a choice. I sure as hell didn’t want to be ripped in two.” She glared at him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hung like an elephant?”

He pursed his lips, but she could see from his flared nostrils that he was trying not to laugh. Which prompted the memory of what had happened earlier—before Jane had called, she’d been on the hunt to figure out why he’d been flaring his nostrils at her then.

It was one of his tells, she was coming to learn. The more she knew, the better. The man was sneaky, and he thought she was! Ha!

“Don’t you dare laugh,” she gritted out. “You’re huge.”

“You do realize this is music to any male’s ears?”

“I don’t care. You try being a virgin and accommodating that monster for the first time.”

He winced. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Genuinely. I didn’t want you to panic, because I knew you were nervous anyway.”

“So you thought my panicking during the act would be better than beforehand?”

“Would you have let me come anywhere near you if you’d known the truth?”

She eyed him warily, then peered down at his body. “Grower not a shower,” she grumbled as she thought back to all the times she’d checked him out down there; never had she felt like he was porn star hung.

He cleared his throat. “If you don’t want it to grow, then don’t look at it.”

She peered at him. “Why? Does it have a mind of its own?”

He hooted at that. “Babe, you’re a virgin, you’re not a nun. You know that without having to ask me.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t had my own personal dick around to pepper with questions.”

“I think you just offended me.”

She waved a hand. “Nah. I was talking about your actual dick, not calling you a dick. Which, on second thoughts, I should because that was such a dickish move. Wait until I tell Jessie what you did.”

Jarvis gawked at her. “You’re going to tell your niece about our sex life?”

She grinned. Evilly. “She’s one of my best friends. She’s more than a niece.”

He didn’t stop gawking. “I changed that girl’s diapers. You can’t tell her shit about me.”

She couldn’t help it; she burst out laughing. “You genuinely thought…” She broke off to laugh some more. When her belly started to ache, she patted the bed, trying to work off some of the amusement. Not that it was working. When he just glowered at her, she chuckled harder.

“Not funny, Cinda.”

“It is from where I’m lying,” she retorted, then with a deep breath she began to rub her aching stomach. “Your face was hilarious.”

“It really felt like it,” he retorted with a huff, falling backwards until he was laying supine and not lurching over her.

Her lips twitched. “I thought it was women who were supposed to sulk.”

“I’m not sulking. I’m traumatized. I have to come to terms with the fact my mate is a bitch.”

She snorted. “You knew that already.”

“Yeah, but I still need a moment to get used to the fact. Why do you think I was looking at you as you slept? It’s hard to think that the angel you present when you’re asleep, turns into a wicked witch when you’re awake.”

Rather than be offended, she was rather charmed by that. She clambered onto her knees, not stopping until she was straddling him. He rested his head on his crossed arms, and tilted his chin so he could see her better.

“You’re mean,” he complained.

“Am I?” she murmured softly as she reached down and grabbed a hold of his shaft.

His lower lip popped out but she saw the wicked glint in his eye. “Yeah. You are.”

She grinned. “But you love it, really, don’t you? No boring bitch for you.”

“No, just the Wicked Witch of the West Coast.”

She laughed. “I didn’t realize you were so funny.”

“It’s a side of me you bring out,” he retorted, deadpan.

Another chuckle escaped her and she sighed with pleasure as his cock began to ‘grow’ under her ministrations. “They’re quite clever, aren’t they?”

“What?”

“Penises.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Yeah, they’re geniuses.” Then, shaking his head, he grumbled, “You’re batshit, Cinda. What did I do to deserve a batshit female?” The latter came out as a wail he aimed at the ceiling.

“The Goddesses can’t hear you,” she retorted. “They’ve turned deaf because they know you’re in safe hands now you’re with me.”

“You’re the one in safe hands, Mrs. Investigative Journalist.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Are you going to be all annoying and shit by trying to stop me from doing my job?”

“No, but I intend to keep you well occupied.” 

She wrinkled her nose at him. “That sounds like it could be boring.”

His eyes widened then narrowed down at her as he saw the twitch to her lips that spoke of her attempts to hide a smile. He grabbed a hold of her hips, reared upward, and didn’t stop until he was tasting that smile. Tasting her.

She groaned into his mouth as he explored her, his tongue tangling with hers, battling for dominance, battling for equality. With each moan she made, his cock hardened in her hand and as he pulled away, leaving her breathless, he murmured, “Minx.”

“I’m the minx?” she said with a huff. “And you’re the pussy tease. Who just backed off?”

He grinned. “Have you seen the time?”

“Now I know I’m offended. So close to the Claiming and already you’re watching the clock?” She dramatically gasped and fell off to the side, landing in an explosion of blankets as she glowered at him from her supine position.

“You’re the one who needed to be Claimed right this minute.”

She pouted. “Can you blame me?” Her eyes turned dreamy and her mouth, so soft and succulent, seemed to grow pinker as she gnawed at the fleshy morsel of her bottom lip with her teeth. A shudder rushed through her as she stretched, her arms flying overhead with pure animal delight at what she was thinking about. “And wasn’t it wonderful?” she asked him, but it wasn’t really a question. It was more rhetorical, and he knew that because hell he’d been there.

Wonderful in no way described what they’d just explored together. Wonderful described a nice meal at a fancy restaurant, or a great holiday by the beach. It in no way managed to encompass just how awesome the mating was.

Shit, if he’d known before, he’d have shouted at her a hell of a lot more when she’d told him the truth about her importance to him.

He watched her tits sway and jiggle as she stretched. The taut muscles of her belly flexed too, but the lush curves of her hips and thighs were the best part. She was all roundness down below, which seemed apt considering he was an ass and legs kind of guy.

When she rolled over onto her belly, she presented him with the peachiest ass he’d ever seen.

Dear Goddess, he wanted to bite it. He just knew it would give way with the most delicious wobble. His mouth watered at the prospect, but he hadn’t been fucking around. They really did have to get going.

Before he could groan out his misery, Cinda looked at him. The only way he could describe it was coyly.

It was an odd look on her, and he realized that was because she’d gone out of her way, over the years, to do nothing to attract him. If anything, she’d done her level best to piss him off. To make him glad to see the back of her whenever she went off on another of her missions.

It was hard to see the woman here today and to put her in the position Cinda of before had been in. Hard because they were the same creature, and yet, so completely different too.

“Why, Jarvis, are you looking at my butt?” she asked teasingly, then wiggled her hips.

He glowered at her. “Are you trying to make me hard?”

She snorted. “I’m doing something wrong if I’m making you do anything. It should all be of your own accord, babe.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.” Sitting up, he watched as she studied his abs the same way he’d been glued to her ass and felt no small sense of satisfaction of her attraction for him.

He’d known that it was mutual, but it was always nice to have that reconfirmed.

He was realizing, and he hated it that her actions had made him insecure. As a result, he was putting them both in situations where otherwise he’d have left well alone.

These past ten days had been a learning curve, granted. They’d also been a chance to let her get accustomed to him; he hadn’t been lying when he said that her flinching from him was like a knife to the fucking gut.

But, deep down, had he been punishing her too?

Making her wait to be Claimed even though he knew she was hurting? Hell, even though he was hurting himself?

He couldn’t say, definitively, whether that was the case or not. Which somehow pissed him off more than even a definite yes would have.

This was yet another sign that he was off balance, and for over two hundred years, Jarvis had been anything but unbalanced.

He guessed it made sense that the one person who could do it would be his woman.

She arched her back in some weird pose that he’d seen in a yoga class. Cobra, he thought it was called. It did interesting things to her tits as they were squashed between her arms. He thought she made the maneuver to seduce him once more, but she supported her weight on one hand, and with the other, reached up to trace her fingers over his brow.

He couldn’t stop himself from tilting his head and nestling into her hand. With a sigh, he murmured, “We have to get going.”

“I know. But that frown… it’s my duty to turn it upside down.”

He smiled a little. “You did it.”

“I want a proper one.” When another smile wasn’t forthcoming, when all he did was shoot her a glance, she sighed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m just feeling a little unbalanced, that’s all.”

“I guess that makes sense, right?”

He shrugged. “I guess.”

“Is it my fault?” she asked, her voice suddenly small and free from her strident confidence. He felt the lack of it like he’d feel the lack of her if she wasn’t in the apartment with him.

Cinda was a pain in his ass now, and he knew that as they grew as a couple and lived together, she’d become even more of a pain, but he liked her like that.

He needed her to be that way.

It was who she was, and he didn’t want a photocopy, a diluted replica of his mate. He wanted her. All of her. Even the parts that drove him fucking insane.

Still, he couldn’t and wouldn’t lie to her.

He let out a deep breath. “Not you exactly.”

“What then?” she asked quietly, doing another wriggle until she was sitting on her knees beside him. It was hard to keep his eyes above the line of her tits, but he managed because this was important to him.

It was important to them both.

“I meant what I said. It hurt me when you flinched.”

She frowned. “I know. Of course it did.”

“But I might have made you wait for the Claiming for another reason.”

She pursed her lips. “To punish me. That’s okay. I deserved it.”

He glared at her. “No. You did not. I shouldn’t have done it. I don’t even know why I did it considering I suffered too.”

“Why do we do the things we do?” she asked philosophically, hunching her shoulders as she spoke. “Sometimes our actions make sense, sometimes they’re born from a need deep inside of us.” She bit her bottom lip again, but he reached over, traced his finger along the tender flesh and tugged it free from her teeth. Before he could say anything else, she murmured, “I’ve done you a grave injustice, Jarvis. You and your Bear are still reeling. And the truth is, I expected your reactions to be a thousand times worse than what they have been. I consider myself lucky that you’ve forgiven me as much as you have, because even if you haven’t said the words, actions speaker louder.”

He grunted. “Apparently not. I’ve just admitted to hurting you, Cinda. Dear Goddess, That’s inexcusable.”

“You’re feeling insecure, and you needed to lash out, take control of the situation. Readdress the balance.” She lifted a shoulder. “I get that. And I don’t hold it against you. Just…” She winced. “Try not to do it again, would you? I know that’s a big ask but I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I need you more than you can imagine.”

He blinked at that. “It isn’t a big ask,” he remarked gruffly. “And I’d never deny you me. Not again.”

Her smile was weak, trembly. “Thank you.”

He sucked in a sharp breath, then asked, “Did you really? Need me so much?”

“It’s not like something in the past, Jarvis. It’s an ongoing thing. Yes, I need you. You’ve no idea how much. My She Bear has been difficult to control for a very long time because of our separation. That’s why she took over. Because that’s what she does. And with you so close, everything she wanted so near to hand, then how couldn’t she take action?”

“I’m still mad at her.”

“I know,” she said with a smile, reaching up again to smooth out his frown with the pads of her fingers. “But there’s no need. She’s a little feral,” she confessed, ducking her head. “She’s not dangerous, though. She’s just a lot more active than most She Bears.”

He stared at her. “In what way?”

“I know this from talking to other She Bears, so I know it’s just me and because of the uniquely ridiculous position I’ve forced on both of us.” The breath she released was juddery. “Normally, a She Bear is there. Like a shadow. She influences the human, but she doesn’t have a direct say in what’s happening.”

“But yours does?”

“Yes.” She grimaced. “For example, when you were mad at her, she wasn’t a shadow. Some wispy apparition inside me. She was a proper formed being. She ran off. Curled up in a ball against the cage of my body, and covered her face and head.”

“Shame?” he asked, scowling.

She nodded. “Yes. She angered you. That was never her intention. She’s wanted you for as long as I have, but she didn’t understand my goals the way I did. Every year that passed between us, I could count up my achievements. Make a tally, if you will, of why it was worth being apart from you. She didn’t have that. She’s been mourning you since I was seventeen years old.”

He sank back on the bed, not stopping until he was laying flat out once more. “I don’t think you know how much you break my damn heart”

“I don’t mean to,” she whispered, pressing her hand to his belly.

“I know you don’t. But you’re being so honest and that honesty isn’t something I’m used to with you. It’s disarming and completely unexpected.”

“I told you, I don’t lie.”

“Yeah, yeah. You evade.” He grunted. “That doesn’t help me right now. I want to be angry with you for hurting your She Bear, but what’s done is done. I don’t want to keep on raking up the past when we have so much living to do.”

“It’s inevitable for the first few months. We’re going to come across these struggles. I accept that.”

“Well, I don’t.”

She laughed a little. “So arrogant, Mr. Hayward.” She shook her head, but spread her fingers out on his abdomen. His muscles clenched at her touch, and his cock rose out of nowhere at the idea that her hand was so close and that it might sink lower.

“Down, boy,” he said gruffly, talking to his shaft.

She snorted. “It’s happy to see me.”

Then, she did the damnedest thing. Bending over so he could see the full sway of her breasts, she kissed the tip of his cock like she was kissing his fucking cheek in greeting.

And like that, Jarvis knew what it was to be pussy whipped because no way were his thoughts on his duties and the afternoon ahead.

All he could think about and all he could process was Cinda.

And for a man newly mated, that was exactly how it should be.