Page 22 of Vex (Dragon Brides #12)

Luisa was waiting for any of this to make sense.

The events of the last few hours felt like fragments of someone else's life. Her mind kept trying to process it all in logical sequence, but every time she reached the part where he'd called her his mate, her thoughts scattered.

Apparently, their suite was a disaster of broken glass and blood, so she and Vex had been given a different suite on a different floor. Smaller, but perfectly functional.

The new accommodations were elegant, cream-colored walls, expensive furniture that managed to look both luxurious and understated, and floor-to-ceiling windows that offered a breathtaking view of the mountain peaks. But Luisa barely noticed the decor.

Her entire focus had narrowed to the man who couldn't seem to stay still, who kept looking at her like she might disappear if he blinked.

Vex had draped his jacket over her shoulders, and every time she even thought about shrugging it off, she heard a growl in the back of his throat and pulled the lapels tighter.

The fabric still held his warmth, along with his scent—something clean and masculine with an underlying hint of smoke that reminded her exactly what he was.

The weight of it around her shoulders felt like a claim, protective and possessive in equal measure.

She should have found it annoying, this casual assumption of ownership, but instead, it made something deep in her chest flutter.

He'd lit the fire with a negligent flick of his fingers, sending a ball of flame into the massive fireplace.

Okay, that was impressive.

The casual display of power should have been terrifying.

But she found herself fascinated by the fluid grace of the gesture, the way fire responded to his will like an extension of his body.

This was what he really was beneath the expensive clothes and aristocratic manners, something powerful that could reduce the casino to ash without breaking a sweat. And he'd used that power to save her.

There hadn't been a room attendant when they got to the room, thankfully. Apparently, the Mountain was done spying on them.

The absence felt strange after days of constant surveillance, like a weight had been lifted. No more careful performances, no more coded conversations designed to mislead eavesdropping ears. Just the two of them and the truth hanging between them like a sword.

Or she was fooling herself and the room was chalk full of bugs.

Luisa's hands were still shaking with the adrenaline come-down, and she didn't have it in her to find her scanner and sweep the room.

Her fingers trembled as she pulled his jacket tighter, the fine tremor a reminder of how close she'd come to dying out there. Death had been minutes away, maybe less, and only Vex's intervention had saved her.

What did it matter? Their covers were blown. They'd won the day.

And Vex said she was his mate.

The word echoed in her mind with the weight of absolute certainty, as if something fundamental about the universe had shifted and she was still trying to catch up.

Mate.

Not girlfriend, not lover, not partner.

Mate.

Like they were two halves of something that had been split apart and was finally whole again.

That still didn't make sense.

"How?" Her voice was almost swallowed by the crackling of the fire.

Vex moved through the sitting area like a caged predator, his usual composed control replaced by restless energy that made the air itself feel charged. He kept glancing at her, his eyes tracking her every movement, and she could see the tension in the rigid line of his shoulders.

Everything about his posture suggested a man who wanted nothing more than to cross the room and gather her into his arms, but something was holding him back.

The space between them felt impossible to bridge, charged with too much emotion and too many unspoken truths. Luisa drew her legs up onto the sofa, making herself smaller. She felt fragile, like the wrong word or gesture might shatter her completely.

"I thought you were going to kill me," she said, "when you found me outside. I saw your fire coming, and I was sure that was the end."

"I knew it wouldn't harm you." The certainty in his voice was absolute, unshakeable, like he was stating a fundamental law of physics.

"But how?" She pushed herself up from the sofa, driven by nervous energy, then immediately sank back down as her legs proved too unsteady to support her.

"I could hear your thoughts in my mind. There is only one human in the universe that could be true for. And my fire cannot harm my mate."

My mate.

How could he say it so simply?

"So just like that, everything's forgiven?

Fate points the finger at me, and you're not pissed anymore that I lied to you?

" The words came out sharper than she'd intended, edged with fury.

The memory of his cold dismissal in their original suite burned in her chest, the way he'd looked at her like she was something distasteful he needed to scrape off his boot.

How dare he stand there looking at her with warm eyes when just hours ago he'd been ready to ship her off Aetis like trash?

"You were in an impossible situation, and I regretted my reaction almost as soon as you left.

If I hadn't been an idiot, you wouldn't have almost died out there.

" His voice carried the weight of genuine remorse, and for the first time since he'd started pacing, he went completely still.

"And that has nothing to do with you being my mate," he added. "I was a lousy partner there."

The admission hung in the air, exposed and honest in a way that caught her completely off guard. She'd expected him to fall back on destiny and fate, to use the mate bond as an excuse for his change of heart. Instead, he was taking responsibility.

But she couldn’t quite let go. "I'm playing the part of your mistress here, but that's not who I am. You said it yourself, your uncle is a godsdamned king. You can't just bring some former thief home and call it good. We can't—"

Strangely, Vex smiled. "You actually wouldn't be the first."

"What? You have other mates? I don't share." The vehemence in the words surprised her. But she'd had one taste of Vex, and she wasn't about to join some lord's harem just because he spoke prettily.

The thought of him with other women sent a spike of possessive fury through her that was completely irrational and absolutely undeniable. He’s mine, something in her brain insisted, and the intensity of the feeling made her hands clench into fists.

He coughed and shook his head. "I mean that one of my cousins is mated to a former thief. She's human. They actually met when she tried to steal from him."

"You don't know me." The words came out smaller than she'd intended, carrying more vulnerability than she wanted to reveal.

He wouldn’t be deterred. "And leaving you behind on Aetis won't exactly fix that. I'm not asking for vows of devotion on a week's acquaintance."

"It hasn't even been a week," she muttered.

Vex pointedly ignored that. "Come home to Vemion with me. Get to know me, the real me. Let's see what fate saw in the two of us. Give it a chance."

The offer was loaded with possibilities that thrilled and terrified her. Home to Vemion. Home with him.

She wanted to say yes down to the tips of her toes. But Luisa had spent her life protecting herself, and she couldn't just give everything up for one rich man's promises.

Those were always fleeting.

"I have a job," she said. "The IDA hired me for a reason. I can't just take off and be your … your … yours. I'm not the kind of woman to sit around and do nothing, or whatever it is ladies do on your planet."

"They do whatever they want," he said dryly.

Then he continued. "There's work for you on Vemion," he said.

"I thought we worked well together, before it all went bad.

And if you want to take your own jobs, I would never stop you.

" His voice carried absolute conviction, like the idea of controlling her choices was genuinely abhorrent to him.

"A month." The offer escaped before she could fully think it through, driven by hope and terror.

"What?" He went completely still.

"I'll give you a month. As a test run." She could use a vacation. And a dragon lord was practically kneeling at her feet, begging her to let him … love? … her.

When had anyone ever wanted her that desperately? When had anyone ever looked at her like she was something precious, something worth fighting for? The intensity in his gaze made her feel exposed and cherished.

She wasn't sure she could wrap her head around that.

But she could give him—and herself—a month.

The decision felt momentous and utterly terrifying, like stepping off the edge of a cliff with nothing but his promise to catch her.

It was the scariest thing she'd ever done in her life.