Page 8

“Yes and yes,” Silver said after a moment.

I’d of course asked just as he’d put another bite of food into his mouth.

“My brothers can be headache inducing at times, but I love them all. Sometimes they have to be growled at to keep in line, but they’re good at what they do.

We have others that work for us, but I spend most of my time working with my brothers.

It’s rare that I’m actually out on assignments anymore.

I spend most of my time in the office networking and talking to clients. ”

I nodded. So, the boss man. I could see it. He definitely had a commanding presence about him.

“What about you? Siblings?”

I nodded. “Just a sister, Samantha. We all call her Sam though. She’s a little older, and we’re close.

We lost our parents when I was sixteen and she was nineteen.

They were killed in a plane crash. Their plane went down in the mountains.

They found the wreck the next spring, and no survivors were found.

Not that we expected them to be. We’d been expecting that, and we’d already spent months grieving. ”

Silver’s jaw clenched. “The tourist charter that they said was caught in a storm?”

I nodded. It had made news. They weren’t supposed to be where they were, but the pilot went off route anyway. It had cost everyone on board their lives that day and had changed the lives of those of us left behind.

“Yeah. I was finally old enough to where they felt they could go away for a week. Sam was in college and checked in with me daily, so they felt comfortable going. We had no way of knowing it would turn out how it did.”

“I’m so sorry, Charlie. It has to be incredibly difficult to lose your parents, especially at that age.”

I felt terrible bringing it up. But he had asked.

“Thanks. It was a long time ago, and yeah, I still miss them. But they’ve been gone almost half of my life.

I will always miss my parents, but I can’t let them being gone be a reason for me to not live my life.

” We’d grieved, both together and in our own ways.

I always had to wonder if losing them was why Sam pushed so hard for me to find someone.

She was making her own life, and I knew she felt a bit guilty about her attention being pulled away from me.

“Good for you. I am still sorry though. The teenage years are difficult enough, and then to have that happen.”

I shrugged. It did suck, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I wasn’t trying to be nonchalant, but there honestly was nothing I could do to bring my parents back.

“Let’s talk about something more uplifting.

Tell me about your parents. Or your brothers.

Unless you want to hear about Sam and Justin.

She’s pregnant and due in a couple of months but is driving me crazy with her needing everyone around her to be happily mated and having families. ”

Silver started laughing at that, and I joined.

After a moment, he cleared his throat and looked like he didn’t want to say what he was about to.

“Pretty much the same thing. Ma signed me up. None of us seem to be making finding mates a priority, and she’s ready for grandbabies.

She’s normally amazing, but yeah, she can be a bit pushy when she feels her boys aren’t doing what she feels we need to be. ”

I smiled. That sounded wonderful, but probably only because I wasn’t directly involved in it. Well, not really. It was true that I was out on the date with Silver because of her, but I’d not had her meddling in my life personally.

“How did your sister meet her mate? Justin, you said? They’re mates and not just bonded?”

I snorted, and Silver raised an eyebrow in question.

“It’s funny, actually.” I took a drink to wash down the olive and cheese I’d just swallowed.

“He pulled her over. Justin is human and a cop, and Sam was speeding. He pulled her over, and of course, she felt the mate pull, and he seemed to as well and let her go with a warning. It took her two weeks of moping and being miserable to finally track him down at the station. She asked him out; he was picked on by the other officers at his station, but he said yes, and, well, magic happened, I guess you could say.”

Inwardly, I sighed. It truly was a beautiful story.

One for fairy tales and happily ever afters.

I did want that someday, and although I was incredibly attracted to Silver, I didn’t know for sure what I was feeling was the pull of a mate or just the fact that it had been a long time since I’d been on a date and even longer since I’d gotten some.

Silver was smiling as I told the story though, and I needed to not have such thoughts while he was looking at me like that. “That’s really awesome. How long have they been mated?”

“Two years. They’re finally starting a family, and now her hormones are in overdrive, and she’s been pushing me to date.

They’ve tried to set me up with at least a dozen different cops at Justin’s precinct, but I keep telling her no.

She finally agreed to leave me alone if I’d do this Mate Match thing, so here I am.

She’s insisting I call her the second I get home, which I’ve already told her wasn’t going to happen.

Which means she’s probably going to show up at my place before the sun tomorrow and wake me to spill the deets. ”

“Hmm, we’ll have to see how things go. Maybe you won’t even be at your place in the morning for her to wake up.

” Silver said. When my eyebrows rose, he winked at me before he took another bite of his antipasto.

Was he implying what I thought he was? Did I want that?

This was our first date, and it was a blind date at that.

I’d not known anything about him until now.

Normally, there was no way I’d ever sleep with someone on the first date.

Would I? Immediately, my mind went places that it had been going earlier.

Places like…how good was Silver in bed? How long could he last?

Would he be able to do me against the wall?

At that thought, my entire face heated, and I grabbed my iced tea and took a drink before he noticed. Hopefully.

I covertly looked at Silver as I took a slow drink of tea.

Yeah, he could definitely do me against the wall without any issues.

And I had no doubt it would be incredibly hot and dirty.

Did I want that? Honestly, yeah. He’d made it very clear that he didn’t want to be here, and he’d not signed up for Mate Match.

But if I could at least get a certain itch scratched…

err…my ass pounded for a night, I’d take it.

Who was this person inside my head? I grumbled to my koala to knock it off.

I was practical, levelheaded, and this was so unlike me.

He was acting like he was in heat and Silver was the only alpha that could satisfy him.

I knew that wasn’t possible because even as an omega, I wouldn’t go into heat until I was claimed by my fated mate.

It was only with a fated mate that I’d be able to have children.

Sure, I wanted that. I didn’t know a shifter that didn’t wish to meet their fated mate.

Silver had made it clear that he didn’t want to be here, nor was he looking for a mate. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t accept some sweaty sex if he offered, did it? No, it didn’t. Maybe that was exactly what I needed at the moment. Because who was I to turn down what he’d hinted at?