Fighting his stomach again, Soren stretched out on the platform. Treasure was worth it. He just had to keep reminding himself of that.
The sound of her cell phone ringing caused Treasure to jump. She’d been sitting on the couch for who knows how long, lost in her thoughts. Of course they all centered on Soren and what he’d revealed to her.
Thinking it could be him calling, she fished her cell out of her purse and looked at the call display. She breathed a silent sigh of relief when she saw it wasn’t Soren, but she did recognize the number.
“Hi, Rach.” Rachel owned one of the other yachts nearby. They’d struck up a friendship shortly after Treasure had moved to the marina, even though Rachel only came during the weekends.
“Hi, Treasure. Are you on the yacht?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Bill and I are just leaving the marina to take a cruise on the lake. We just went past you. Did you know you have a man on the very back of the yacht who is sick as a dog?”
Treasure stiffened. “You mean he’s there right now?”
“Yes, we just cruised by. Do you know him? Because if you don’t, I’d call the cops to get rid of him.”
“That won’t be necessary. I know him. Thanks for calling.”
“No problem. Since he’s a friend of yours, I suggest you get him back on dry land.
Obviously, the yacht doesn’t agree with him.”
“I will.”
She ended the call. The man had to be Soren. He must have followed her back here.
Did she really want to go out and confront him? Now that she’d had time away from him to sort things out, her initial fear had subsided. She could look at things from a proper perspective. Had Soren ever tried to harm her in any way since she’d met him?
No, he hadn’t. If anything, he made her feel protected, safe. As if nothing would get through him to her. Maybe that had to be his being a werewolf, she didn’t know. In hindsight, in his wolf form, he really hadn’t been all that scary. He could almost pass for a dog, if you didn’t look too closely at him.
Treasure blew out a breath. She thought of what Soren had said about them becoming bonded the first time they’d made love. She’d felt it, and the thought of never seeing him again actually didn’t sit well with her. If she were honest with herself, she’d admit she had fallen in love with a werewolf. And he’d already told her he loved her.
Knowing perfectly well she couldn’t leave things how they were, Treasure pushed to her feet. She couldn’t have Soren getting sick outside for everyone to see. But before she took him off the yacht, she wanted to get some answers to her questions.
She climbed the stairs to the deck above and headed straight for the back. She looked down at the platform and saw Soren stretched out on his belly, his head over the edge as he threw up. A wave of pity washed over her. So much for the big, bad werewolf. Right now he was probably as weak as a kitten.
Once she stood beside him, Treasure squatted and rubbed his back. “Let’s get you below deck. You can wash up there.”
Soren lifted his head and looked up at her. “Treasure? How did you know I was here?”
She smiled. “A friend of mine who has a yacht here as well cruised by and saw you.
She called to let me know I had a strange man on mine getting sick.”
He groaned. “Great.”
With a hand around his arm, she helped him to stand. “Come on. We’re going to have a talk before we get you off the yacht.”
“You’re going to put me through the third degree while I’m down?”
“It won’t be that bad.”
Soren managed to get himself to the main cabin without her help, but the paleness of his face told her he still wasn’t feeling well. She led him to the bedroom and waited while he went inside the bathroom and rinsed his mouth. Treasure sat on the bed and patted the spot next to her when he came back out.
“Sit,” she said. Once Soren sat beside her, she continued, “I overreacted when you first told me about you being a werewolf, but it’s not something I ever expected to have to handle.”
“I know. It’s a big shock to learn a creature out of myth and legend is actually real. I tried to break it to you the easiest way I knew how. I’ve never told a mortal before.”
“Mortal? You must mean everyone else who isn’t a werewolf, right?”
“Yes. To set the record straight, my kind really isn’t immortal. We’re just really long-lived. The oldest we get is around three thousand years old.”
Treasure swallowed. “Then how old are you, Soren?”
“Nine hundred.”
She tried to not let on how shocking she found that. Soren might be that old, but he definitely didn’t look it. He appeared to be her age.
“Okay. I can handle that, I think. Now you said I’m your mate and that we’re bonded. Is it because of this separation anxiety you spoke of that you followed me home?”
Soren swallowed a few times, as if he fought not to get sick. “Yes. Mates can’t stand to be apart from each other, or it plays nasty tricks on their minds. It’s not something either one of us should go through if it can be prevented. I’d rather suffer through a bout of seasickness than be apart from you for any length of time. Though after a couple of years it does get better, allowing us more time to be away from each other.”
This separation anxiety had to be pretty bad if Soren was willing to purposely suffer through seasickness. Right now, he looked like death warmed over. And being with him again, all the reasons why she’d fallen for him in the first place came to the forefront of her mind.
Soren groaned, then shot to his feet, making a hasty retreat to the bathroom. She followed more slowly. She grimaced when she saw he had nothing left in his stomach to get rid of and only had the dry heaves.
“All right,” she said once he finished. “Time to get you out of here. I think you’ve suffered enough. We’ll continue our chat at the penthouse.”
He took a step toward her and tentatively took her in his arms. “Does that mean you’re willing to stay with me? Be my Treasure?” He grinned. “Pun intended.”
She couldn’t help but smile back. “As if I haven’t heard that one before.” Treasure grew serious. “I do love you, Soren. Just take things slow with me, okay?”
Soren kissed her forehead. “I will. I’m sorry we became mated before I had a chance to tell you about this. That had been my intention. Until somebody decided she couldn’t wait to have me.”
Treasure smiled. “Yeah, I guess you can blame me for that one.” She hugged him before she pulled back to look him in the face. “It’s going to take some work, but I think we’ll make it.”
“We’ll get it figured out. Now can we go, because if I stay here much longer I’ll be praying to the porcelain god again.”
“We can’t have that.”
With an arm around Soren’s waist, Treasure helped her mate off the yacht. She also decided she liked being the werewolf’s treasure.
The End
About the Author
Marisa Chenery was always a lover of books, but after reading her first historical romance novel she found herself hooked. Having inherited a love for the written word, she soon started writing her own novels.
After trying her hand at writing historicals, she now writes paranormals.
Marisa lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and four children. She would love to hear from you, so drop her an email.
Marisa welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.