7

~Rosie 

I stare at him, dumbfounded. 

On one hand, I almost seems to make sense. On the other, I see right through his manipulation technique. Clearly, he is finding a painless way to make me want to comply and stay here. The moment he leaves me alone, I’m going to make a run for it, and he knows it. That means, he’s going to do what he can to make me stay. 

“I don’t believe you,” I say flatley. Time finally steps into the room, so instinctively, I step back to match him. I’m not sure what he is planning to do, and I don’t plan on finding out like this, so I walk until my back bumps a wooden dresser behind me. 

“I’m not lying. Why don’t you let me show you?” he questions. Trapped against the dresser, I look for another escape. The last thing I want is for him to touch me. 

Especially pressed up and trapped within this room. 

“Don’t even consider touching me,” I growl, making him stop in his tracks. He seems to assess my face with a sharp gaze, considering how to approach me. Thankfully, he isn’t making another grab for me, as I cower away from him, wondering if I could make a dash for the door in time to escape. 

“You don’t want to know?” he asks, looking genuinely surprised that I’m rejecting his touch. I stare at his hand. Previously, he wore dark leather gloves, which he must have slipped off without me realising. 

For a moment, I think to myself. I don’t want to know, because my entire life has been flipped around and I can’t admit I’m mated to an Immortal. 

I can’t be. 

When I don’t answer right away, he takes a step closer. Now, there’s no space between us as he leans in, his face so close I can feel his breath against my lips. He’s going to touch me, I can just feel it. Instead of getting trapped in that golden gaze of his, I close my eyes, waiting for it, dread thick within my veins. 

“I’m not going to touch you until you ask me to,” he murmurs. Both his hands come out, leaning against the dresser, keeping me pressed against the back of the furniture and his body. “Actually, I’ll wait until you beg for it.”

His words spark up a fire within me, anger bubbling up unexpectedly. I swore I would face this issue being calm, but I can’t control my feelings. 

“Why don’t I be the one to touch you.”

Letting my anger control me for a fleeting moment, I lash out, slapping him right across the face. His face moves with the hit, jerking to the side. I’m sure it means nothing to him, considering he’s a powerful immortal where a knife in the stomach wouldn’t bother him let alone a slap to the face. His flinch is for my ego. 

My hand tingles, but not from the impact of hitting his face with my hand. In fact, that part didn’t even cross my mind, as I’m too focused on the betraying feeling that lingers for a moment on my skin, before vanishing. 

Looking up, Time has turned back to look at me. He knows I feel it. He knows I’m trying to come up with an excuse within my head to explain this.

But there is only one explanation for sparks. 

“Lord, take me now,” I growl, turning around on my heels. Without looking at Time - who has been confirmed as my mate in the most ungraceful way possible - I pace across the room. I’m trying not to look at him. Right now, wrapping my head around an Immortal being my mate isn’t particularly easy. 

“Rosie,” he breathes. Finally, I turn around. He looks at me for only a fleeting moment before he strides across the room, grabbing my face between his hands, kissing me before I even have the chance to react. 

For a moment all I can do is feel the softness of those graceful lips against mine. Then, my sense returns and I push as hard as I can against his chest until he steps away from me. 

He has the audacity to look dumbfounded. 

“Do you think it’s that easy? You can kiss me and everything will go away?” I snap. Even still, as I excuse him, there is still no ounce of normality about him. He is still an immortal who doesn’t understand how normal people work. He looks at me with those golden eyes as if I’m crazy. As if my emotions are a foolish symptom of being a weak mortal. 

“But we’re mates,” he says blankly. I grit my teeth, steeping away. Turning around, I walk briskly out the room, down the hallway and down the stairs. It doesn’t seem like Time is following me, as I walk out and into the open, the formal lawn outside greeting me. 

Before I could get far down the driveway, Time suddenly appears right in front of me in a burst of what I assume was magic. I gasp. 

“Going somewhere?”

“Yes, I’m finding my way back, no matter how far I have to walk,” I growl at him. He stands in my way, and when I go to walk back past him, he steps in front of me again. I’m not sure how one person manages to be so infuriating. He may think we are mates, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. Not yet at least. Not until it sets in. 

“Well, you’ll be walking quite far. This place is between time. It is unreachable by almost everyone, aside from a few pesky immortals. I’ll have to take you back,” Time tells me, as I stubbornly fold my arms over my chest. 

Hearing that makes my blood run cold, but I don’t react. I don’t want Time to know I’m frightened of spending eternity trapped here, as beautiful as it might seem. 

“You’re not going to take me home, are you?”

“Here, you are safe, away from people who can hurt you. I can keep an eye on you here,” he explains to me. Sighing deeply, my legs collapse underneath me, my body hitting the grass underneath me. I want to come home, I want to see my brothers, my family. The last thing I want is to be trapped here with a crazed Immortal who happens to be my mate.

“I was safe before. You’re the one I should be hiding from,” I snap, plucking at the blades of grass beside me. Time kneels down, looking at me. Within the sun, his hair glistens and his eyes blaze wildly. He’s less intimidating out here. 

I would be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t attracted to him on a surface level. How could I not be? He has that typical Immortal perfection everyone gossips about. 

However, that doesn’t make me feel any other way about him. 

“There are a lot of people out there who don’t like me. Assume everyone doesn’t. That means, there are a lot of people who will hurt you to get to me, and I can’t allow that. Here, that won’t happen,” he comments. He looks sincere, but his classic amusement will return soon, I guarantee it. 

“That shouldn’t mean you take it out on me. What am I meant to do here?” I question. There is nothing here but this estate, with nothing in it. How could anyone live here without going insane? Maybe that’s why he brought me here…

Time stands, holding his hand out to me. I make an effort to stand on my own, making sure he understands I don’t need his help. 

“Well, here, you can be with me.”

Turning around, I walk back into the house. He is truly ruined in the head after all these years of existing to think he even has a chance with me. I don’t care I’m his mate. None of that matters unless I’m mated to someone who I can trust not to kill me whenever he pleases, or to trap me within his estate between time. 

“Rosie...I’m sorry okay. I’ll make your stay here incredible until you want to be here. Until you never want to leave,” I hear him say from behind me. It’s a sign of desperation. In his perfect world, I would admit my attraction to him, and just be with him. 

When I turn around, standing inside the middle of the foyer, Time is standing there again, right in front of me. I flinch. 

“You can’t make me want to be here. You can’t manipulate me,” I growl. 

Time’s jaw clenches. He doesn’t try touch me, he doesn’t step any closer, he just looks at me, his gaze alone enough to hush me into silence. His entire being demands respect, and he knows that. It must bother him that I refuse to adhere to his agenda. I bet he didn’t expect me to cause this many problems. 

“I’ve been waiting millions of years for you Rosie. I will do everything for you to want me,” he breathes.