Page 6 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

I looked back at Liam.

He wasn’t seriously talking tome, was he?

But his gazewason my face.

“I really hope you’re joking,” I finally said.

“I don’t joke.”

I looked back at the vampire woman.

“He doesn’t,” she admitted.

“You can seal a mate bond with me and stay, or you can leave and deal with your coven on your own,” Liam said.

Given what we’d already discussed, he was well aware that my coven wasn’t an option.

“I have nowhere else to go. Am I allowed to know why you want to mate with me?” I finally asked.

My entire body was tense.

I had never evenconsideredtaking a mate. It usually wasn’t an option for witches. Sealing a bond with someone would cost us everything. It wasn’t a punishable offense, but the coven was our entire world, and mated witches weren’t allowed to live with their coven.

Neither were blood witches, of course.

But we just flat out weren’t allowed tolive.

“I need your magic to keep my resort running, and I need you alive to use it. Your coven won’t give up hunting you until you’re dead, and unless you mate with me, I have no way to keep you alive.” Liam’s voice was blunt.

“I don’t see how a mate bond will protect me,” I said weakly.

“I’m a phoenix. My mate will have access to my magic. She couldn’t die if she tried.”

“You’re not waiting for a fated mate or anything?”

Please let him say he was.

“I make my own fate.”

I looked back at the vampire woman. She had stood up for me, at least a little. She seemed like my best chance at backup.

And I knew women a hell of a lot more than I did men. Only women were allowed on coven land.

“You could wait until the coven finds her to mate with her,” the vampire woman suggested. “Or you could ask someone else to do it.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have assumed she was on my side.

“No. Show her to my room and help her get settled. I need to deal with the wards.” Liam ended the conversation just like that.

I expected him to leave—but he didn’t.

He strode toward me instead, ignoring the way my body stiffened when he neared. He took my chin in his hand much like Cecil had, but his grip was much gentler.

A sharp pulse of heat rolled through my skin where he touched me, and I had to close my eyes as I felt the warmth of his magic swell around us.

I didn’t know what he was doing or why he was doing it, but it feltamazing. My muscles loosened, and my entire body heated.

Liam lowered his lips to my ear. They brushed my skin as he spoke.