Page 186 of The Case of the Missing Love Stone

“You removed it after three minutes.”

“It was cold.”

I laugh before I can stop myself.

Scarlet turns in his arms and examines the darkening mark above his sternum. Her fingertips move around it without pressing. “I thought I lost you.”

Wes covers her hand. “You didn’t.”

“That’s not the same as not being afraid.”

“No.” His voice loses its defensive edge.

Scarlet looks between us. “I need both of you to hear this without turning it into an argument about protective equipment.”

“That seems targeted,” I say.

“It is.” She shifts until she sits upright in Wes’s lap, one knee on either side of his thighs. The blanket falls to around her waist. Her hair is wild from sleep, her eyes tired but clear. “I don’t want yesterday to be the reason we bite-bond.”

Wes goes still beneath her.

I sit closer.

Scarlet continues before either of us can answer. “I don’t want fear or my heat making my choice. Not this town or the case or Myrtle’s grief. No one gets to decide what forever means for me but me.” She touches Wes’s face, then mine. “And, I want you. For myself.”

The simplicity of it steals my breath.

She looks at Wes first. “You make safety feel like a place I can rest without losing myself inside.”

His eyes close.

She turns toward me. “You see every part I try to hide and never make me feel exposed. You make being understood feel safe.”

My throat tightens.

Scarlet’s hand slides to the back of my neck. “I choose you both. I want the life that begins when you stay.”

Wes’s purr fills the room.

I lean forward until my forehead rests against hers. “You already have us, love.”

“I want the bonds.”

Wes opens his eyes. “Outside heat?”

“Yes.”

“After everything yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“Because you choose it?”

Scarlet takes his hand and places it over her heart. “Because I love you.”

His control breaks. He pulls her against him and buries his face in her neck. The sound he makes belongs to no version of Wes the rest of the world has ever seen.

I wrap around both of them. Our scents rise together, thick and warm, until the cottage feels less like Scarlet’s old refuge and more like the first room in a home we are building.