Page 77 of Taming His Vampire Mate

He nodded solemnly. “Something occurred to me, and I want to run it past you.”

Something in his tone set off alarm bells. “If you have to ask permission, I’m not sure I want to know.”

“You probably don’t,” he admitted. “But I think I have to put it on the table if I want any sort of fair relationship with you.” And then, horribly, I knew what he was going to say before he did. “I think we need to finish the blood bond.”

I stared at him, waiting for the punch line.

“You want me to…”

He gave me a rueful smile. “I trust you enough to let you bite me.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Which I never thought I would. And definitely not this soon.” He exhaled slowly, then drew another breath. “But I think it’ll make this a lot less terrible for both of us, if you know what I’m thinking and feeling too.”

“Blood bonds are permanent. I’d be in your head. Always. You’d have no secrets from me.”

He shrugged. “It would make things even. And you wouldn’t abuse it. You haven’t used your hypnotic powers to make me go away, even though you could have.”

Indignation flared. “Just because I have standards that don’t include forcing people to do what I want—”

“No, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell.” He nodded like I’d proved his point. “And you’ve got to admit it’s not right that I can get into your head, but you can’t get into mine. If I can see that, you can too. I’m saying this ought to be fair.”

I had started the bond accidentally, to save his life. I couldn’t regret it. Jeremy wasn’t who I’d thought he was at all. But that didn’t mean I should force him to open himself to me for eternity just for fairness’ sake.

“That’s not the only reason you’d do it,” Jeremy said, obviously reading my mind again. “You’d trust me a lot more if you knew what I was thinking. And hell, even if you did want to run, it would put us on even ground if you knew when I was coming. It gives you your power back in this situation.”

I had to admit it was an excellent point. Put like that, I should have jumped at the chance to protect myself.

My gaze dipped to his neck. What would it be like to know Jeremy’s thoughts? His innermost feelings? To know I never had to be alone again?

If someone had asked me a week ago if I’d willingly enter a blood bond with anyone—much less Jeremy, who had hunted James last year—I would have told them they were out of their mind.

Now I wasn’t so sure.

It sounded almost… nice.

What the hell was happening to me?

“So what?” I demanded, aiming for indignation since I couldn’t muster anger. “In your mind, we’ve just skipped right over the first date straight into being bound for all eternity?”

“I told you, wolves move fast.” Jeremy flashed me a grin—but there was a naked longing in his eyes I wasn’t sure I liked. “But we don’t have to do it now. I’m just saying, when you’re ready, so am I. And I think we ought to.”

By the time he finished, his grin was gone. He just looked at me. Not pushing—just saying it, entirely earnest, which was almost worse. If hehadpushed, I could have gotten angry. I rather liked being angry at Jeremy. It was far safer than… whatever this was.

“We should check on Quinn,” Jeremy said after a long pause. “I’m sure the others are worried you’ve been eaten by the big bad wolf.”

With that, he got up and started across the room.

I stood, feeling off-kilter at the abrupt shift. I felt equal parts relieved and annoyed that we weren’t making a mistake here, after all. Either a sexy one or a bound-for-all-eternity one.

Or both.

Jeremy paused at the door and glanced back, unreadable. “When we seal the blood bond, it won’t just be me who wants it. And when we have sex again, it won’t be a mistake. But we’re not doing it until you say we can. I don’t want it unless you’re all in.”

I didn’t have the benefit of getting inside his head. But his heart thumped in his chest like a bloody metronome. Which meant he wasn’t lying to me.

A mix of longing and warning fluttered in my chest. Ridiculous. I barely knew him. And he wasn’t someone I shouldwantto know.

I gave him my nastiest, iciest smile. But that was mostly just a habit. “Do me a favor. Hold your breath until that happens.”

But despite my words, there was no denying it: I was in trouble. I also wasn’t sure I cared about that nearly as much as I should have.