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“I’d like to see the house,” Charlie told me as he took my hand, and I helped him to his feet. I grinned, and after I switched off the fire pit and the heaters, I led Charlie into the house.

“As you can see, this is the kitchen,” I told him.

“There is the living room over there. It, of course, has the normal bachelor oversized TV for watching the games. My brothers and I often watch at one of our houses. We take turns.” I’d have to be more considerate with that now though.

With Charlie in my life, and he would be, I had more than just me to consider.

I would have to take in his comfort level and whether or not he even liked sports.

If not, then my days of watching sports with my brothers would be limited.

We continued on, and I pointed out the home gym, the dining room, and the downstairs bathroom.

“The bedrooms are upstairs, then?” Charlie asked.

I had to take a few calming breaths at the mention of bedrooms. Of course, I wanted Charlie in mine. My gorilla and I were both on the same page with that. We wanted to claim our mate.

“Yes,” I told him. “There are four up there. The main bedroom, two spare bedrooms, and one that I use as a home office.”

“What about children?” Charlie asked.

My eyes widened at the mention of kids. I knew it would come up sooner or later though. I just hadn’t expected him to bring it up so soon.

“What about them? I would like one, maybe two, I guess. I’ve not really been in the dating and starting a family mindset though.”

Charlie nodded. “Stairs and small children don’t always mesh.”

I chuckled. “True enough. But there are gates for that.” I glanced at the stairs. “If you really don’t want to live in a two-story house, we can look for something else once we get our relationship and claiming settled.”

Charlie looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded. “It’s good to know that you’re open to that. Will you show me the upstairs, then?”

I stopped Charlie with a hand on his shoulder as he stepped onto the bottom tread. “Hold up for just a sec.”

Charlie looked back at me, and I could tell he was confused. In all honesty, I was as well.

“I’m just curious. Are we doing a tour? Or possibly more? I’m good either way, and my gorilla wants what he wants, but I would never force you. I just need to know what it is you are expecting because you’ve not really said those words out loud.”

Charlie tilted his head before chuckling. “Tour for sure, but the hope is sex. If sex leads to more, say…biting, then I hope we will be able to figure things out later. We’re mates. Shouldn’t we have ideas that will complement and mesh together with each other?”

He was right, in a sense. Sure, there would be things we would have to work out, but all couples had those.

It was part of being in a relationship. No two people could know every aspect of their partner before committing to each other.

Granted, Charlie and I didn’t know much about each other, but we weren’t humans.

We were paranormals, and our connection to each other was different.

Once we claimed one another, we would have a link that was far deeper than that of any two humans who were married.

“If you are absolutely positive, I’ll take you upstairs. But once we do and things progress to biting, we can’t exactly take it back, Charlie. We’ll be mated, and that’s forever. And my gorilla isn’t going to want you living elsewhere once we’ve claimed one another.”

Charlie nodded. “I realize that. If you’re having second thoughts, then we’ll wait.

Otherwise, I’m ready. I’m not quite as old as you are, but I’m less than a year away from thirty.

I’m settled in my life in everything except romantically.

I hope that in time we can fall in love and you’ll show at least a bit of romance toward me.

That is my hope anyway.” Charlie shrugged at saying that, and my heart actually ached for him.

He’d been so mistreated by others in the past that he didn’t expect or feel as if he deserved to be treated with respect and shown love and devotion.

Even from his fated mate? I would certainly change that.

I held out my hand, and once Charlie placed his much smaller one in mine, I slowly started up the stairs.

We stopped at the first door on the left.

It was my home office. I hadn’t really wanted it up here, but putting the home gym equipment up here wasn’t recommended, so downstairs that went, and up here became the office.

I didn’t use it every day, but enough to not want to have to drag out a laptop in the dining room frequently.

I then showed him the hallway bathroom and the other two rooms that were set up as guest rooms.

“Do you have visitors often?”

I nodded. “My brothers, yes. We rotate family get-togethers at each other’s houses. Sometimes they will crash here, but most of the time, they go on home.”

“Cool. I can’t wait to meet them.” He froze. “I will, right? We’re doing this?” Charlie pointed between the two of us.

“Yes, Charlie, we’re doing this,” I told him. I placed my hand on the side of his face. The urge to kiss him was too strong to fight any longer, so I leaned down, and after tipping his face up toward mine, I placed my lips on his.

Charlie immediately grabbed my jacket and held on, and I took that moment to wrap my free hand around his neck and pull him just a bit closer as I swiped my tongue across his lips.

The moan that came from my mate sent tingling desire through my entire body, and I moved my hand from his neck to his ass and grabbed hold of him, lifting him up to my level.

Charlie squeaked as he pulled his mouth from mine, and I took that as the perfect opportunity to do as I’d said I would earlier.

I tossed him over my shoulder and headed to my bedroom.

The giggles that came from Charlie told me he didn’t disapprove of my choice, and I couldn’t help but hope that our relationship going forward would be like this.

I wanted to make him giggle. But the desire to make him feel loved and protected was stronger.

I would certainly do everything I could to make sure he felt loved and that I was proud to have him as my mate.

But first things first. I had a mate to claim.

After that, we’d figure everything else out.

But the first step in everything would be claiming.

That meant getting Charlie into my bedroom and then getting us both naked.

The art of seduction wasn’t something I was unfamiliar with, and I was more than ready to seduce the cute little mate that fate had decided to pair me with.