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I shake my head in immediate denial, trying to assuage her worries. “If you’re asking me whether I’d live a thousand years without you, or take a couple hundred less and get to spend them with you by my side? That’s not even remotely a choice for me, little siren.”

Her concern doesn’t leave her eyes. “I still don’t see how that would be worth it.”

I still don’t see howIwould be worth it.

The implication in her words is clear enough, and it makes me ache on her behalf as I take her hand in mine and raise it to my lips.

“I would be more concerned with how it might affect you.” When she gives me a questioning look, I explain. “I’ve lived centuries, Nora. And with that comes more and different types of heartbreak than you might expect. It’s not a small thing for me to ask of you, taking on a life like that.”

Nora is quiet, but she puts her hand over my hearts and presses lightly. Her cheek follows, resting on my chest as she listens to the beat there. The beat that’s now only for her.

“It’s not something you have to think about tonight,” I tell her gently. “Like I said, we have time.”

“All the time in the world,” she murmurs.

She’s quiet for a little while after that, and when the sound of her breathing grows slow and even, I can’t stop the pulse of painful tenderness in my chest. So much, I’ve asked of her, and so much she still has to decide.

Still, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be tonight than here, right here with Nora. And as sleep pulls me under a little while later, I drift off feeling more peaceful and content than I have in any of my three hundred years.

26

Elias

On Nora’s next day off from the bookstore the following Wednesday, I indulge in some time off as well. It’s a rare occurrence for me to take time away from the office that doesn’t involve business travel of some sort, but the idea of spending an entire day uninterrupted with Nora is too great a temptation to pass up.

In the back of my mind, I’m aware this time is temporary. It would be insane to assume she’d want to continue living here after the threat from Sorenson is dealt with, and even more insane to ask her if she wants to.

Not that I’m thinking about it. Not at all.

I’m absolutely not imagining what it would be like to have Nora here permanently when we curl up together in the living room in front of a fire to spend an evening reading and cuddling. I’m not imagining it when I wake each morning and have her nestled against my side. It’s not right at the forefront of my mind when I pull her into the pool or the shower and have her moaning and writhing against my tentacles, making it all too easy to picture keeping my treasure here forever.

No, I’m not imagining it at all.

We haven’t talked about being mated or taking any next steps since that first night together in the pool. It’s not unreasonable for her to need some time to process the information, and at the very least it hasn’t sent her running in the opposite direction, so I suppose that’s something.

And, all of that aside, we have today. A normal, glorious day to spend with my mate.

We sleep late, and I wake my treasure up with a trail of warm, wet, biting kisses down her neck. She moans herself awake, and it’s not long before she’s got her hands tangled in my hair, pushing me down even further so I can bring her to bliss.

That particularly pleasant interlude is followed by a shower that involves very little actual washing up, breakfast back in bed, and a slow, simple morning of kissing and touching, laughing and talking and lounging in bed together.

After lunch, we walk down to explore the shorefront at the edge of my property. It’s a gray and chilly day, but we’re bundled up and Nora’s cheeks are glowing pink with the cold. Her whole face lights up when she sees the beach and the views, and it’s just one more thing I hope might convince her to move here one day.

She grabs for my hand as we walk, smiling up at me with trust and affection and a relaxed joy that seems to glow from the inside out.

Late in the afternoon, we walk back to the house. There’s an unfamiliar vehicle parked in the driveway, and I instinctively step in front of Nora. That instinct only lasts a second, though, before I pick up on the scent trail leading from the car to the house and groan out loud.

“What is it?” Nora asks.

“An unexpected guest.”

Her entire body tenses, and I kick myself for not explaining better and frightening her.

“A friend,” I assure her. “I didn’t know he was planning to drop by.”

She still looks a little wary, but takes my hand as we walk up the front steps and into the house. As soon as we’re inside, a male voice carries from the direction of the kitchen.

I know that deep, smooth laugh and the elegant cadence of that voice, just as surely as I know the vampire it belongs to will be charming the tail off Marta like he always does when he comes to my home. At almost sixty, already partnered, and with a no-nonsense attitude I’ve always admired, Marta’s perfectly capable of putting the centuries-old denizen of darkness in his place when she needs to, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.