20

H oly. Fucking. Hell.

Leera drifted off to sleep probably thirty minutes ago, and I'm just laying here staring at her in disbelief.

This still doesn't feel real.

I keep replaying the way her body felt beneath my fingers. The sounds she made. The way she responded to my touch. The way she screamed my name.

Over and over and over again.

I came in my pants. Twice. Like a fucking pup.

But it was worth it. To watch her experience everything for the first time. To be that for her.

Forever.

After allowing myself a few more minutes of watching her dream, I allow my mind to shut down and follow her into sleep.

The sun slipping between the curtain and the wall right against my eyeball wakes me from the deepest sleep I've had in, well…since the last time Leera stayed the night.

I move to pull her closer to me when I realize I've got my arm wrapped around a Leera-sized pillow lump and not the soft skin of my little mate.

Panic consumes me as I fly out of bed and search for her. I follow her scent into the bathroom, but she's not there either.

I barrel out of the room and down the hall, following her scent in an increasingly frenzied state, when I bring myself to a screeching halt.

Her silver hair is tied up in a messy mass on top of her head, and she's standing in the kitchen in nothing but one of my hockey tees.

The worry melts away, and my dick takes notice as I sneak up behind her without making a sound. I notice she's humming as she sways her hips back and forth while she makes something on the stove. I have to bite my knuckles to keep from growling and ruining my surprise appearance.

When I think I've got myself together, I take another step forward. Her body seems to notice my presence before her mind does. Her body visibly melts into me as I grab her hips and pull her towards me, gently kissing her from her shoulder to her ear.

She squeals in surprise; the sound also going straight to my needy member. She twirls around to face me, laying her hands on my bare chest. On instinct, I grab onto the back of her thighs, lifting her against my body. I take a couple of steps towards the counter, gently settling her adorable ass on the cool marble, choosing this moment to capture her mouth with mine. She melts even further into me, clutching my waist, pulling my body closer to hers.

She’s the one who pulls away slowly and rests her forehead on my chest before panting, “I wanted to make us breakfast,” she says in the softest, sweetest voice I've ever heard.

“You scared me,” I admit, and I hold onto her tighter. “When I woke without you, I feared the worst,” I finish, dropping my head to the crook of her neck.

She lightly pushes me away from her, capturing my face in both of her soft hands, and says, “Roman Razboinic, you are stuck with me. I’m not going anywhere,” she scolds while her eyes volley back and forth between mine.

I nod and pull her to me, smothering her in a hug, while I inhale her scent and the smell of something slightly burning—

“Oh, no! The pancakes!” she exclaims as she shoves me backwards, hops back down to the floor, and returns her attention to the stove.

I chuckle and head over to the coffee machine to find a couple of stranded mugs, some water, and the coffee strewn about the counter as if she wanted to make it herself but didn't know how to use the machine. If I'm being honest, I didn't either when Benny brought it home. He had to teach the twins and me how to use it.

I set about making my little miracle some coffee that I know she wants badly, and when it's ready, I bring the steaming and full mug over to her as I sip on mine.

The smile that lights up her face is totally worth her not knowing how to use the coffee machine. I'll have to remember to tell everyone not to teach her so I can make it for her. Hopefully every day…forever.

I set myself on a barstool across from the stove and just watch her work. Bopping around, completely in her element.

“Where's Matilda?” I ask when I realize she's usually always busy with something in the kitchen.

“Oh.” She blushes. “I hope you don't mind. I sent her and her sister to find something fun to do today. I wanted to make us breakfast and spend time together. Maybe try to have a normal day,” she finishes with a laugh and another sip of coffee.

“That sounds perfect. We don't have another game until Thursday, so we have time to figure things out,” I return with a smile.

We finish breakfast and spend the day together. Just Roman and Leera. She stays in my t-shirt. I stay in my joggers. We watch movies and order food. We ask each other questions and talk about our lives.

Now I understand why humans do this. This social convention of doing nothing together. I've learned so much about her today.

We didn't jump into the plans. We'll tackle the hard stuff tomorrow. Today, we were just us.

As the sky begins to darken, the guys come barreling through the front door because Leera demanded I allow them to come back home.

Benny makes a beeline for her, with that stupid shit-eating grin on his face, and pulls her into a hug. “Thank you for letting us come home, Luna. We know it was you. He would have kept us locked out forever.”

With a growl, I pull her from his embrace and back into mine while she giggle-snorts and swats at me, mumbling something about an overbearing alpha before she returns her attention to Benny. “Why did you call me Luna?”

“Oh, sorry,” he starts, rubbing the back of his neck. “Since Roman is our Alpha, his mate is our Luna,” he explains.

I can see the wheels turning in her head already. “It's not something you need to worry about. Being a Luna is as much or as little as you want it to be, and we can add it to our list of tasks to work through,” I finish with a smile.

She nods and turns to the rest of the men. “Sorry, he kicked all of you out because of me.”

Andrei speaks before anyone else can, “We don't mind. Really.”

He's so short and awkward with her; I'll have to figure out what that's all about too.

Slate just nods and claims his barstool at the end of the island and buries his head in his laptop, hopefully still digging into any connections between India and my father, as well as who took Leera.

The twins plop down on the couch and are arguing over what to watch.

I turn back to Leera to find her taking everyone in with that sweet and soft smile, and my heart just continues to soften.

“Roman, do you know what I did with my phone? I want to add everyone’s numbers to my phone so I have them in case of emergencies, or if you end up kicking them out of the house.” The ornery twinkle in her eyes makes me want to kick them out all over again.

“I don’t remember where you left it, but you start looking, and I’ll grab my phone to call it.” I call back to her over my shoulder as I walk towards the kitchen while she dismantled the couch cushions.

While I hit the call button, her phone immediately starts ringing from the other side of the kitchen, and a surprised laugh escapes me, much louder than I would have expected.

Everyone’s attention turns to me when I hold up Leera’s phone for everyone to see, one eyebrow lifted in question to Leera.

She bolts towards me, giggling, when she snatches the phone and holds it to her heart. “I didn’t know what to put for your contact name, so I decided to have some fun with it!”

The men are all laughing with us now, and it takes a solid seven minutes for us to get it out of our system. Leera straightens, having doubled over in laughter, and is now wiping tears from her eyes.

I lean forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. “I love it.”

The blinding smile I’m rewarded with could stop my heart.

“Men, grab your phones and text Leera’s number with your names, so she has them all.”

They all pull out their barely used phones, and her phone slowly starts pinging with all the messages, and she’s furiously typing as she adds them all to her phone.

Now that that’s taken care of, we resume our restful evening, and I'm once again struck with the realization that everything just feels right when she's here with us.