Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

“And these genfins have become important to me. Like, super important, if you catch what I’m throwing,” I explain.

Okot’s fingers go still on my head. I turn around to look at him to gauge his expression. He looks like I just took the last cookie out of the jar and stomped on it.

“Oh, don’t look like that. I’m sorry. I didn’t know about the mate smelly thing. Maybe it’s just a coincidence? Maybe you just think I’m your mate because cupids smell differently?”

He shakes his head. “No.” He leans in and inhales me from the tip of my head to the edge of my shoulder. “No. This smell. It’s calling to me. You are my mate.”

I clear my throat because this sniffing thing is really getting to me. Like, in a good, sexy way. It doesn’t seem like sniffing would be intimate but somehow, with him, it is.

I want to lie down in a pile of pillows while he runs his stubbly jaw all over my skin and let his nose go to town.

He clears his throat. “These genfins…they are the ones in the prison?”

“Yeah.”

The last thing I want to do is hurt him. Goddess knows how long I’ve waited for someone to declare his heart to me. But it wouldn’t be fair to him if I didn’t tell him the truth. He’s too endearing and completely unaffected, unlike any other fae in this whole damn palace. There are no pretenses with him, and I like that. He wears his heart on his sleeve and says what he means, just like me.

And the fact that he looks at me like he wants to keep me forever makes me want to keep him, too. Questioning insta-love? Psh. I invented that shit. I once made two people fall in love in only four minutes. At a gas station. While they were eating chilidogs. Yeah. I’m badass like that.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him. ‘But I don’t know how this can work if—”

My words cut off as Okot leans in so his face is in the crook of my neck and he inhales deeply again. Big guy just can’t get enough.

When he leans back to look at me, his voice is even raspier than before. “Now you.”

My heart is going about a million beats a minute. “What?”

When did my voice get so breathy?

He cocks his head to the side and bares his neck to me. “Now you.”

I suddenly feel shy, but the look on his heated face draws me in anyway, and before I know it, I’m inhaling his scent.

And…holy mother of mate sniffs. Did I just moan?

“You smell…you smell…” I can’t even get the words out before I’m sniffing him again. “You smell warm. Like sunshine on trees. Or a fire in wintertime. Spicy. But like the sweetest spice ever. Ohmygods.”

I feel his huge paw of a hand cup the back of my head again, and then we’re both inhaling each other at the same time.

“I thought about it,” he says, nuzzling his nose against my cheek.

I can feel the cold metal of his piercing against my flushed skin. “Hmm?” My voice is husky and my nose is still buried in his neck like I’m a horny vampire. “Thought about what?”

“About me leaving you to your genfins.”

My eyes snap open, and I pull back. Disappointment floods me. Yeah, I just met him. So what? I want to keep him, dammit.

“Oh.”

“I thought about it, and I decided that it’s not going to happen.”

Hope flares. “Which part?”

“Me leaving. You’re my mate. I’m yours. If your heart has love for others, I will accept them,’ he says all romantic-like. “Unless they hurt you. If they hurt you, I will end them.” He says this the last part with such macho-intensity that I know it’s not just an idle threat. And by his sheer size, I know even Ronak would have a hard time going head-to-head with him. I pat him on his huge bicep just to drive the thought home.

I’m grinning again. I can’t help it. This burly, handsome teddy bear fae guy just declared me as his mate. He smells super yummy, and he played with my hair. Plus he kisses like a god.

Like I’m going to fight this? Puhlease.

“Well, alright then. Sounds good to me.”

He seems surprised at my acceptance. “Sounds good?”

“Yep. We’re mates. Is there, like, a special mate thing we’re supposed to do?”

“Our mating will be confirmed when we are intimate.”

Well mating sex sounds great. Except, we really did just meet, and… “Could we possibly, like, table that?”

His face falls. “You don’t wish to be my mate? You are rejecting the mate match?”

At his disappointed look, I rush to explain. “No! I mean, yes. I mean…gods,” I huff out a frustrated breath.

Stellar vocabulary skills, Emelle. Really top notch stuff I’m spewing.

“What I’m trying to say is that I’d love for us to get to know each other. I’m not rejecting the mate match. Not at all. Anyone who rejected you would be the biggest idiot in every realm that ever existed. And I’m not just saying that because you’re super hot, either. Although, if I’m honest, it’s a real plus. The mohawk and piercing is doing it for me.”

He grins.

“And based on your kissing skills, I’m sure sex with you would be awesome. Believe me, I have spent decades wanting some awesome sex. But besides the fact that we just met fifteen minutes ago, I’m sort of going invisible right now, and my genfins are facing the culling and I just—”

He stops me with a hand around my neck. His thumb caresses my throat gently. The touch is possessive yet sweet, and I find my anxiety draining out of me. “You do not need to explain more. I have waited for you for a long time. I will cherish our time together. When you are ready, then we will confirm our mate match. There is no rush. As long as you are not rejecting me, I am happy. Okay?”

I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Okay. Thanks for understanding.”

“Can I kiss you again?” he asks.

I thought he’d never ask.

I crash my lips against his. Before I know it, I’m on my back on the bed, my hand is tangled in his red mohawk, and both of his hands are holding the sides of my face. Gods, this guy. He may look intimidating, but he is seriously a sweetheart.

Before things can go any further, another knock sounds on my door and then Duru is suddenly storming in and frowning down at us.

She leans over and smacks Okot on the back of the head, making him grunt and stand up. Even though he’s a good three feet taller than her, he looks thoroughly chastised under her glare.

Hands on hips, she looks at us as we smooth out our clothes and hair like we’re a couple of horny teenagers she just caught behind the bleachers. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Sorry, Lady Duru, but Emelle Cupid is my mate.”

He says cupid like it’s my last name, and he claimed me as his mate like it’s the end-all to any question she could possibly ask. I like his style.

Duru sighs in exasperation and then starts picking up the dirty clothes that are on my floor. She can’t help herself from tidying up. “Mate or not, Princess Soora did not send you here so you could have your way with Miss Emelle.”

Okot straightens. “Yes, Lady.”

I stand up and try to cross my arms but end up just flopping my left arm against my stomach awkwardly. Ugh. Having one arm sucks. “Hey, don’t yell at him. Maybe it was me who was having my way with him.”

Duru snorts at my pathetic display of protectiveness to a guy I just met. She moves on to dusting my windowsill using the corner of her apron. “No matter who the irresponsible party is, we don’t have time for those shenanigans. The princess just sent me with news.”

“What news?”

“The culling. They’re starting today.”

My heart gets stuck in my throat. “Today?”

She gets down on all fours and starts scrubbing at a spot on the floor that I’m pretty sure is just part of the stone. She frowns at it when it doesn’t come off. “Yes. Get dressed and hide your wings. Okot and I can take you to the portal. The prisoners will be leaving within the hour.”

Crap. We need to time this just right, or I’m a goner.

Okot must see my panic, because he forces me to look at him with a hand on my cheek. “What’s wrong?”

“I can’t be that far away from them. If I do, it’s bye-bye Emelle. They can’t pass through the portal without me.”

A line appears between his thick red brows as he frowns. “I will not allow you to disappear.”

He turns to Duru, who’s still scrubbing at that spot on the floor. “We need to know precisely how and when they’re being transported.”

Duru gets back to her feet, but she’s still glowering at the floor like she can’t believe that spot is defying her. “All the prisoners competing in the culling are being transported through a portal near the towers.”

“When?”

“Like I said, within the hour.”

“Not good enough,” he says. “We need to know exact timing.”

“Do I look like a prison guard to you?” she snaps.

They glare at each other, and I carefully step between them. “Alrighty you two. Let’s just focus on the problem at hand.” I look down at my invisible limb. “Or the problem at arm.”

No one laughs at my terrible joke. I shoot a look at Okot. Some mate he is. He tries to smile, but we both know it’s too late.

“Is there any way I could I go through the prisoner’s portal with them?” I ask hopefully.

Duru shakes her head and rubs her curly eyebrows. I really want to poke them to see how fast they spring back up. “No, definitely not. You’d be caught immediately for going anywhere near there.”

“Okay…then can we somehow time it so that I’m going through my portal at the same time as the guys through theirs?”

Duru and Okot both go quiet in thought.

After a moment, Duru snaps her fingers and blurts, “Twiddlefairies.”

“Bless you.”

She shoots me a frown. “What?”

“Nothing.”

She sighs at me. “We can use twiddlefairies. They can communicate with each other no matter the distance. We can have one go where the prisoners are and one with us.”

“They won’t be seen?”

“No. They’re very small, no bigger than a butterfly.”

“Okay, perfect. How can we get them?”

She licks the corner of her apron and uses it to start polishing my doorknob.

And I mean that literally. Not in a weird, sexual innuendo kind of way.

“They like brussel sprouts,’ she muses.

Behind me, Okot scoffs, “Impossible. Nobody likes brussel sprouts.”

Duru shrugs. “It’s what I’ve heard.”

I’ve never tasted brussel sprouts or seen a twiddlefairy, so who the heck am I to have an opinion on the matter?

“Okay…can we get some of these gross sprout thingies to try and lure the twiddles with?”

Duru nods and drops her hands. My knob is practically gleaming now. My doorknob. Geez.

“Emelle, get ready to leave. Wear something to hide your…disappearing predisposition.”

That’s a fancy way of putting it.

“And no trading tongues while I’m gone,” she says, pointing between Okot and I.

“Yes ma’am,” I tell her.

She huffs and leaves. The second the door shuts after her, Okot grabs my face and starts kissing me again.

I pull away and give him a pointed look. “If you’re my mate, you have to laugh at all my jokes,” I admonish.

His face sobers, and he nods seriously. “Of course, my beloved. I won’t fail you again.”

I smile. This mate stuff is fun.