10. Henri

"How?"

Cole was now kneeling in front of me, so close that I could feel his breath against my cheek. When he came in holding flowers and what I assumed was food, I was sure that I was imagining things. Those were the things of romance, not rejection.

I wanted him to be right, for this all to be easily fixed. I really did. l couldn't think of how we could fix this. How could we make this less awful? If he didn't want me… there was no turning that into cotton candy and rainbows.

He pulled off his shirt and wiped my tears with it. It was sweet and also distracting. His chest moved with his breath, and I longed to bend over and trace the planes of muscles with my tongue. I closed my eyes for a second, thinking of anything and everything I could that wasn't exploring his body.

And then my body betrayed me, and I sneezed. Being ever the classy guy that I was, I found myself blowing my nose into his shirt. When I opened my eyes again, I expected to see horror across his face. I didn't. He was looking at me with worry, over what I didn't know. My sneeze? Our marriage? My inability to control my emotions? It could've been any of it or something else entirely.

I focused on trying to pull myself together enough to have this conversation, averting my eyes from his bare chest.

"You didn't come back." In hindsight, he hadn't specifically said that he would, but at the time, I'd assumed that was the plan.

"I know. I'm sorry. But I'm back now… and I brought food." He indicated the meal he brought.

"Did your dad make you?"

"No, no, nothing like that." He took a deep breath. "I just… I always knew that I had to do this," he held up his ring finger, "that I had to marry for power and money, and I sort of resigned myself to it."

"I didn't know. Not until I was… older."

His lips formed a perfect O.

"But my dad knew for years. I guess I was his commodity." It was something I doubted I'd ever forgive him for.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Nor could you have, and it's not something you should be sorry for. This is on our parents."

We talked back and forth about how we learned we were going to get married and how that impacted our lives. His story was very different from mine, but it sucked equally hard.

"I hoped that one day I would find my mate and somehow we'd be able to get over the hurdle that was my marriage."

I stared at him, confused by what he was trying to get at.

"Another shifter would have understood—they would've been marrying for the same reason as I was, right? Or so I thought. And then… and then I scented you. We're mates."

"I know." What a fucking relief it was to hear him admit it so freely. "I knew when we married. We're mates. We are in this together." How that looked, I still wasn't sure, but it would. I believed that fully for the first time since this all began.

"My mate, you deserve so much better than to be just forced together with me." He bowed his head.

"You're my mate. Even though this… it's not real." I held up my finger the way he had done to me. "It's a marriage—that's a human piece of paper. That doesn't mean our mating pull isn't."

I meant to stop there. We had already made good strides. But then… I needed to get it off of my chest. "I thought you hated me."

"No. Never. I thought you wanted nothing more than to stay a safe distance from me."

We'd both jumped to so many conclusions. Maybe we were perfect for each other after all.

"My first kiss was for the wedding guests."

"Your first kiss, not our first kiss?" he asked.

"Yeah. It was important to my father that I remain a virgin, and he saw to it that I was. I assumed it was a condition of the marriage."

"No. Maybe. I don't know. But if it was, both of our dads need to be brought into the modern century."

I agreed with him there.

"I'm sorry." I reached for his hand. It was the first time I'd ever held someone's hand that wasn't my family or a very platonic-only relationship. It was different than I thought it would be. Not like when we danced, but equally intimate… possibly more so.

"I'm sorry too. I'm going to try and be better about communicating."

"Same. Thank you for coming back. I didn't like you not being here." My beast was 1000 times happier having him in such close proximity.

Cole reached out and gently cupped my cheeks. "Is this okay?"

I nodded, butterflies going haywire in my belly. Cole leaned in and kissed me sweetly. This kiss was different from our first—it wasn't a show. It was just the two of us, sharing this small, intimate moment. It was what my very first kiss should've been. When the kiss broke, he sat back on his heels and smiled at me, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight beaming in through the window.

"I brought you food and flowers. Do you like flowers?" he asked, offering a smile.

I nodded.

"Sit down and eat, and then afterward, I can show you around this place."

"Maybe I should save the bread to leave breadcrumbs."

He chuckled.

"It's kind of a maze out there." I might need a map.

"I'll show you all the tricks," Cole promised.

"Do you know where my clothes are?" I was wearing yesterday's clothing which wasn't the best impression to make on my first day here.

"Oh yeah, I asked about that. I'll grab them for you." They'd been put into his huge walk-in closet.

As he chatted, I told him a little bit about my family, and he told me a little bit about his. For the first time since all this started, I knew everything was going to work out the way it should. I knew that I was going to get my happy ever after, after all.