Page 25 of Blood & Bond (The Bouchers #2)

Lucy

“ W hy aren’t you nervous?” I asked Charlie as my knee began to bounce.

Ambrose had left us only a few minutes earlier, and I was already having a hard time focusing on my brother.

I’d been adamant that Charlie hang out with me until dinner, but my body’s response to the distance between me and the Vampire was already beginning to annoy me.

“There isn’t anything they could do to me that would be more painful than losing Zeke,” Charlie replied, his fingers drumming on the arm of the couch.

“Don’t underestimate these people, Charles,” I ordered.

“I’m not,” he assured me. “But I’ll have the Bouchers watching the whole time. They’d never let anything happen to me.”

The words coming out of his mouth should’ve been comforting to some degree, but something in his tone was wrong.

“What was that earlier?” he asked before I could grill him. “The mating heat?”

“On steroids,” I confirmed.

“It never happened like that for me,” he mused.

“Ambrose tells me it’s different for everyone,” I mumbled. “I think it’s getting worse because we didn’t immediately fall into bed.”

“You haven’t?—”

“Don’t ask, and I won’t answer that question, you weirdo,” I warned.

Charlie smiled. “Probably for the best. So what are you waiting for?”

“I barely know him.”

“You know him better than I knew Zeke.”

“That’s not saying much. Zeke smiled at you, and you were like, lead me anywhere, and let me adore you. ”

“You’re not far off,” Charlie agreed. “Best thing I ever did.”

“Still?” I asked curiously. “Even now?”

“I’d feel this a thousand times, a million times, if it meant that I had Zeke for even a day. It was worth it.”

“See, I don’t know if I feel that way,” I replied, leaning back on the couch. “I like Ambrose, and he’s hot as hell.”

Charlie laughed.

“But tying myself to him for all eternity seems like a big step.”

“Do you think you’d ever leave him?” Charlie asked softly, watching me intently. “Not a knee jerk reaction because he pissed you off, but actually leave him? Can you imagine ever being without him again?”

I tried to picture it, going back to my life in Baltimore, doodling in my notebook in the mornings, going to some boring corporate job that paid well enough that I could save up for another trip, eating takeout in front of the TV alone.

The thought was depressing. Somehow, in the past couple of days, I’d grown used to having Ambrose near.

Of course, I wouldn’t be totally alone. Charlie would probably come with me when it was safe to go home, but for the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure if his company would be enough. It was a sobering thought.

“I don’t have to make the decision now,” I said, waving him off.

“Alice said it will only get harder to leave. She’s only known two Vampires who didn’t cement the bond with their mates, but neither of them had formed relationships before they were separated.”

“Alice is just full of information,” I grumbled.

“Luce, I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“You’re both safer once the bond has been cemented,” Charlie huffed, glowering at me in exasperation. “Stop stalling. You know you’ll do it, eventually.”

“It’s very strange having your brother pushing you to have sex with someone.” I shot back. “You know that, right?”

“It doesn’t have anything to do with sex,” Charlie argued.

“Oh, I beg to differ.”

“You’re such a child.”

“And you’re a busybody,” I replied, getting to my feet. “When did that happen?”

“Go find your mate,” he grumbled, waving me off.

“Don’t leave without saying goodbye first, okay?”

“I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Promise.”

“I promise I won’t leave without saying goodbye,” he said, making a face. “Go.”

I wandered out of his room and down the stairs slowly, thinking about what he’d said.

He’d made some good points. I was pretty convinced that Ambrose and I would complete the bond or cement the bond or whatever it was called—eventually.

Even though rationally I thought it was too soon, I couldn’t ignore that down deep, I knew that I’d never want anything else.

Even if I walked away, even if it was possible, I knew with absolute certainty that I’d never find another partner that came anywhere close to making me feel the way Ambrose did.

I’d never find another smile more attractive.

I’d never be drawn so strongly to someone else’s body.

I’d never feel as comfortable as when he listened to me talk.

I’d never find anyone else who understood my bond with Charlie and respected it.

He’d never once questioned when I was a mother hen. He’d never seemed exasperated or annoyed by the way I babied my older brother or made decisions based on how they would affect him. He just rolled with it, accepted it as fact, and made accommodations if needed.

If I’d found him on the street and built a relationship with him over time, I didn’t honestly believe that I’d ever have reason to question whether or not we fit.

We belonged together in a way I hadn’t anticipated.

As I crossed the empty living area and made my way up the stairs toward his room, I contemplated what Alice had told us.

Once we’d completed the bond and become true mates, both of us would be immortal.

Even if they weren’t sure when the immortality began, it was possible that it would happen immediately.

He could potentially be as safe as Charlie when he went to rescue Finau’s mate.

And I would never have to leave Charlie behind, another person for him to mourn forever.

By the time I opened the door to his rooms, my decision had been made.

I wasn’t sure what I’d been waiting for, really. I’d never been one to back away from something scary or unknown, but the past couple of months of keeping Charlie safe had made me infinitely more cautious of everyone and everything.

Ambrose wasn’t in the little living room or bedroom, but I could hear the shower running. I followed the sound into the bathroom and paused as I caught sight of my mate.

Mate.

Mate.

I’d never felt any kind of way about the word husband, but the word mate felt like it resonated through my bones.

Ambrose was rinsing his hair, his eyes closed and his head tipped back into the spray. He looked like a frigging shampoo commercial. I let my gaze travel down his body. Scratch that, he looked like a frigging porno.

“Are you going to get in or just watch?” he asked, his eyes still closed.

“How did you know I was here?”

“I heard you open the door,” he replied, tilting his head down to meet my stare.

The bedroom and bathroom doors had been left open. He’d heard when I’d come into the suite.

“I’m enjoying the view,” I replied, toeing off my socks.

“Is that right?” One of his hands dropped to his waist, and my mouth watered as he gave his erection a slow, firm tug.

“I mean, another shower couldn’t hurt,” I mumbled. I had gotten really sweaty after our fight.

Ambrose grinned. He watched intently as I stripped off my clothes, his hand still absentmindedly stroking his erection.

God, he was incredible. I had a hard time looking away long enough to pull my shirt off.

Every inch of his body was muscular and covered in a light dusting of hair a few shades darker than the hair on his head.

I stepped into the shower slowly and closed the few steps that separated us, my skin already tingling.

“Did you need me?” he asked, pulling me into the spray. His mouth immediately went to my shoulder, his tongue swirling over the skin before he let it go with a pop.

“No,” I replied as his hands swept up my sides and back down again. “I just thought I’d see what you were doing.”

He hummed as his hands swept higher, teasing the bottom of my breasts.

“You were hoping to see me in the shower,” he teased as he dragged his lips up my neck.

“I mean, I wasn’t opposed to it.” I let out a squeak as his hands cupped my breasts, his thumbs swiping firmly over my nipples.

“I’m done now. So if you’re still unsure,” he whispered into my ear, pinching my nipples between his fingertips. “I need to get out of here before things go any further.”

My hands had found his biceps at some point, and almost involuntarily they dug in like I could hold him in place. He was still trying to give me the time I’d asked for. Even now, even when I’d stripped and walked into his shower, he was still trying to respect my wishes.

“I’m not unsure,” I replied as his lips slid down my jaw.

He lifted his head to look me in the eyes. His blue irises were so vivid they burned, and his pupils were wide with arousal.

“Are you sure ?”

The anxiety about our connection disappeared like a puff of smoke.

There were plenty of things left to be afraid of—whoever was hunting Vampire mates and what they would do when the Bouchers caught up to them, my brother’s ability to ever be happy again, starting an entirely new life in Oregon—but I wasn’t afraid of this. Of him.

“I’m sure,” I confirmed.

I expected him to sweep me into his arms and fuck me against the wall or something—I’d been kind of counting on it—but he didn’t. Instead, he did something even more diabolical.

He frigging bathed me. His soapy hands traveled every centimeter of my body, from my hair to the spaces between my toes. By the time the water rinsed away the last of the soap, we were both breathing heavily, and the heat beneath my skin pulsed in steady waves.

“Come on,” he ordered softly, leading me out of the shower.

His hands were never still as he toweled me off and then himself, and mine weren’t either.

I traced his trapezius muscles, ran my fingers over the tattoo lines on his torso, wrapped my hand around his erection, and explored his testicles and the space behind them.

I wanted to know his body as intimately as I knew my own, discover every secret.

“Gods,” he sighed, tipping his head back as I ran my finger over the head of his shaft, circling the opening.