As in the shower, he couldn’t move as much in this position, but he was inside her, holding her so tightly against him. The mate bond surged, its warmth starting in the place they joined and entwining her heart.

“Diego.”

He opened his eyes. They were dark, like starless night, and yet warmer than anything she’d ever seen in her life. Cassidy could see all the way inside him, she thought, and he was letting her.

Diego, I’m falling in love with you.

Diego’s head went back as he felt his pleasure, and his eyes closed, but that didn’t shut him off from her. He was giving her everything, all of him. She barely noticed the harsh wall at her back with Diego’s arms around her and his wild heat inside her.

His seed scalded her even as she hit her own climax. Diego opened his eyes again, cupping her face, the liquid sound of his voice pouring over her. He stared right into her heart, and Cassidy, much to her anguish, let him.

Damn, she was so beautiful. Diego eased off his climax by kissing Cassidy’s face, every inch of it. He could have lost her today.

He kissed her again, her lips and chin, while he slowly and reluctantly withdrew. “If this is the mate bond, I like it.”

“It’s more than that.” Cassidy sounded worried about it.

Diego stayed pressed against her, loving the heat of her against his groin. “No problem. We can go out to dinner sometimes too.”

“Diego.” The word ended on a sob.

Diego smoothed her hair, kissed it. He thought he understood what was up with her. Cassidy had lost her mate—her true love. She feared that falling in love again meant she’d not really loved Donovan.

Not true. The heart, the human one at least, could form strong bonds with many people. Diego loved his mother and his brother, and what he’d had with Jobe could be called love—not in a g*y way, the macho side of his brain quickly added, but in a best-friend-a-guy-could-ever-have kind of way.

Affection and love. Diego would die for these people. He’d have preferred to die for Jobe instead of the other way around.

“Cass,” he said. “I’ve fixed on you. I don’t know if that’s the same as your mate bond, but I’m willing to believe it is.”

“I don’t know what it is.”

Cassidy had stopped crying, but she sounded confused.

“I’m willing to wait until you figure it out,” Diego said. “Hell, I’ll try to help you figure it out. And if we have to enjoy screwing each other every day until then, fine with me. I’ve got the strength.”

There it was, Cassidy’s smile, the spirit returning to her eyes. “You’re full of yourself, human.”

“You think I don’t have the stamina for a Shifter?”

She pretended to consider. “You’re not bad so far.”

“Not bad so far. Evil woman.” Diego moved his hips, enjoying the hot feel of her. “My life has been crazy since I met you, chiquita. I think I needed waking up.”

“You know your pants are down around your ankles, right?”

Diego grinned. “Yours flew off in the bushes somewhere.”

“Pants around your ankles looks funnier. Especially since you’re wearing socks.”

Diego let his gaze rove Cassidy in only a sweat jacket, her strong, slim legs bare. “You look better.” He let go of her long enough to pull up his jeans and fasten them. “Want to come home with me?”

She smiled, making his heart warm, then her smile faded. “Only if Reid is contained.”

Real-life problems came rushing back. “There’s still a lot of things I don’t get about him. Like what is so special about that rock cave? It’s not very big, it’s in the middle of nowhere, but he keeps going back to it.”

Cassidy broke from him to fetch her pants. Diego’s thoughts stumbled to a halt. Her hips moved in the most delectable way as she bent to slide the sweatpants over the sweetest ass he’d ever seen in his life.

“I can tell you’re a good detective,” Cassidy said, tugging the ties together. “You don’t close the case once you’ve beaten the suspect into submission.”

He forced his brain to start working again. “We shouldn’t let him go, Cass. Like I said, what’s to say he won’t get over his remorse and try to kill another Shifter?”

“I know, but…” Cassidy stopped, still holding on to the ties of her sweatpants. “I’ve wanted to kill him for a long time. But all of a sudden, it seems like the wrong solution.”

Diego’s thoughts switched to the dingy living room with Enrique, his state-of-the-art electronics surrounding a sofa that held thirty years of soil. Diego had wanted to kill Enrique so many times when Enrique had been a dangerous and deadly gang leader. Last night, Diego had held the power and strength, and Enrique had seemed pathetic, a waste of time.

Maybe Cassidy felt the same way about Reid. However, Diego still didn’t trust him. All this talk about hoch alfar and dokk alfar and gates to Faerie seemed like so much fanciful bullshit. Diego liked to deal in the concrete.

And he would, he thought as he slid his arms around Cassidy’s waist. Just as soon as he got done kissing Cassidy.

Reid was still in the living room when they got back. The man sat on the floor with his back to the wall, his runner’s legs drawn up under him. He looked at the carpet, as though not very interested in anything around him.

“He asked for my protection,” Eric said.