Mate (Bride, #2)

by Ali Hazelwood

After weeks of truancy, my appetite returns at the worst possible time. I decide to give it the cold shoulder and focus on what’s rapidly becoming my favorite thing in the world: thrashing around and begging Koen to do something, anything, everything to me. Unfortunately, he really did educate himself about Heats. Not only did he memorize some doctor’s office pamphlet, but he’s also extremely literal about it. We can start again after you have a strawberry, he tells me. One more sip of juice. Like that. Be good. Give me one more. Open up. No, not later—now. You have to drink. A kiss against the flushed skin of my throat. Girls in Heat only get what they ask for if they finish their water. “You know you’re not going to get a surprise visit from the Heat inspector, right?” I ask between shallow gulps of electrolytes. “There are no thumbs-up stickers for doing exactly what the textbook—” He grasps my chin and taps the pad of his thumb against my lips, pushing against them until I have no choice but to open. “Since it’s obvious that your mouth is not nearly busy enough, you’re having another glass before we continue.”