Page 114 of Love Bites

He was always the same with me as he had been in the club that night.

Playful. Protective. Charming. Fun.

Sometimes, protecting me meant pressuring me into forming a mate bond with him.

And Damian was the vampire king, but more importantly, he was mine. Forever. The bond made that a certainty.

He released my mouth with one last lingering kiss and finally tucked me against his side, settling on the mattress.

“Why did you stop?” I asked. I enjoyed the snuggling, but I thought he was going to have his way with me.

“I was told we were talking tonight, not screwing.”

“We already talked,” I pointed out.

“There are at least a hundred other things to talk about if you’re finally agreeing to be real mates.”

“Like…”

“Like kids. How much responsibility you want when it comes to the Manor. Whether you want to be involved in every communication with the other leaders or want me to handle it. How involved we want to be in public relations with the other wings of the Manor. If?—”

I sighed. “Maybe we shouldn’t be real mates after all.”

He laughed, pulling me closer. “There’s no getting free now, little siren. You love me too much.” His words were playful, but he was right.

“I know. Alright, let’s figure everything out—and then, we’ll screw.”

“Agreed.”

He grabbed the tablet I’d left on one of our nightstands and opened it up to the notes section, making a list of the first handful of discussion topics.

“Kids?” he asked me.

“We can rediscuss that in like five years,” I said bluntly. “Right now, it’s an immediate no. I’m not bringing more sirens into this world while my sisters still have to hide among the vampires.”

Damian agreed. “Alright, next topic.”

We moved down the list, with a pause to eat dinner in bed again. The further we went, the more I realized that he didn’t particularly care about most of the questions. He just wanted to figure out howIfelt.

“You know you’re allowed to care about this stuff,” I told him, gesturing to the list. “If you passionately want me to take on a certain role, I can handle it.”

“Right now, the only thing I want passionately is your body wrapped around mine every day. Twice a day.” He considered it, then corrected, “Threetimes a day.”

I laughed.

We had a lot of sex, but usually not that much. And we both knew he was joking, but that just made it more fun.

“And a bathing suit. For the love of magic, a bathing suit,” he added.

“I already agreed not to swim in the nude anymore,” I teased.

“Unless we’re alone.”

“Then, all bets are off.”

He kissed me lightly. “Now, back to the list.”

I started driftingoff as we neared the end of the topics he’d written out. I was sure we would come up with more—there was plenty we hadn’t discussed—but we’d covered a lot.

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