[1] Little Miss Luna. | ✔️

1.20

"I'm sorry about last night." Sophie finally blurted.

Cortez turned to Sophie, who was sat sideways on the porch swing. Her legs were curled up and rested partly over his as he rubbed his hand comfortingly up and down her bare thigh. Every time his hand moved, her skin ignited in flames and as much as it made her unsettled, she tried to get used to it. She had become more and more comfortable with Cortez as the days passed, but something was holding her back.

She felt guilty for forcing herself on him like she did.

"I didn't meant to be so aggressive. Like I said before, I haven't been myself lately. It's all been a lot." Sophie's graze dropped. "Not that I should use any of that as an excuse. It was totally irrational of me to jump on you like that."

Cortez fought a smile as he leaned towards Sophie and planted a kiss on her shoulder. "You don't have to apologize. You never have to apologize to me. I understand that you're stressed beyond your control. That's why I'm here. To comfort you."

Sophie flashed Cortez a pout, her eyes found and glistening like an abandoned puppy. "You're not disappointed in me?"

"Disappointed? Never." Cortez softly chuckled and squeezed Sophie's small knee gently in his big hand. "You could do no wrong in my eyes, Angel."

Sophie let her head fall back against the porch swing. They were silent again as Cortez gently kicked the porch with the toe of his shoe to keep the swing rocking back and forth. Sophie stared at the side of Cortez's head, admiring his dark scruffy jawline and his dark puffy eyebrows. His eyes were narrowed as he stared into the open fields in front of Sophie's house, as if he had sun in his eyes despite the roof above the porch they were sat on.

"Is this how our relationship is always going to be?" Sophie asked as she reached for Cortez's scruffy hint of a beard. She gently pulled and combed the rough hair as Cortez looked to her with a curious gaze.

"What do you mean?" He asked simply.

Sophie dropped her hand from his scruff to his hard chest. She just liked touching him. "We're blindly in love with each other, against our will. Will we never fight? Never bicker like an old married couple? Always be happy and forgiving without a purpose?"

"We're in love with each other?" Cortez smirked, ignoring all the rest of Sophie's mini rant. "I haven't heard you say it yet."

Sophie rolled her eyes and pulled her hand off Cortez's chest just to slap directly where she had removed it. Cortez flinched and chuckled and he curled his fingers around the hand she slapped him with.

"Come on, I'm serious."

Cortez pulled himself together and slowly began to shake his head. "We'll fight and bicker. My parents always have, Jeremiah and Delilah do, I know there has been some tension between some couples in the pack but I don't usually get between their personal problems. We've fought before, haven't we?"

"When?" Sophie's eyebrows tightened in the middle.

"When you woke up after the bite and ran off."

"That wasn't a fight. I got mad while you were pleading for me to listen. That's on me, I guess."

"It's not on you." Cortez frowned. "But you were mad at me. And you were mad when I showed up at your school, twice, actually. Just because we're mates doesn't mean we're incapable of having a normal relationship."

Cortez had seen right through her question. The fact that she was automatically in love with someone she barely knew, against her will, was baffling in all directions. To think that she only liked Cortez because she was brainwashed to scared her. And even when she asked him to give her some space during finals, they had completely failed to do so. That made her worry even more. They were fully incapable of being apart, which normal couples could do.