Page 28 of Love Bites

A date from a few weeks ago.

I went back mentally, and frowned a little when I realized it was the day we’d met in the nightclub.

Why had he picked that?

We weren’t close enough to ask, but maybe at some point I would.

“Why does what I call you matter that much?” I asked.

“I started going by Hale to distance myself from the guy I was before I took over the vampire wing of the Manor. You’re my mate. I don’t want to be that version of myself with you.”

The admission—and the vulnerability—made my stomach tighten. “You can’t tell me things like that after forcing me to wear your mate mark and threatening to put me in a wetsuit,” I finally said.

“Sure I can.”

“What am I supposed to think in this situation?” I asked him, frustration swelling within me. “I don’t want a mate, okay? I never have. My mom’s mate loved her so much that he killed the women that were her family, and accidentally killed her too. Mate bonds are bullshit.Loveis bullshit. I don’t want anything to do with any of it.”

“That sounds like psychosis, not love.” The elevator dinged on our floor. “And I didn’t propose love. I proposed a mate bond that will mutually benefit both of us. I need your blood to sate my bloodlust. You need my emotions so you don’t have to starve or kiss strangers anymore. It’s a win-win situation.”

“One you forced me into,” I reminded him.

“I gave you a choice. You picked the most reasonable option.”

“Oh, fuck off,” I growled, trying to see his room.

There were few things the myths got right about vampires, but I knew the coffin thing was one of them. Vampires usually slept in coffins. They weren’t your typical horror-movie coffin, but a mattress with a lid of sorts that just went over the top when you were ready to sleep.

I knew that, because…

Well, because sirens are basically emotional vampires.

We’re closely related enough to them that we also sleep in coffins.

It sounds weird, but it’s cozy as fuck.

And we don’t call them coffins—we just call them canopy beds. With canopies that move down and become snuggly forts.

He draped me over the edge of the mattress, then leaned over me with a gleam in his eyes. “Agree to wear a coat and snow pants to dinner, and I’ll agree to fuck off.”

I scowled. “I’m not doing that.”

“Then neither am I. Now, are you going to change before you kiss me, or after?”

“I don’t have any clothes here.”

“You’ll wear mine. We can get yours tomorrow.”

“I don’t want your security team knowing where my house is,” I countered.

“I wasn’t going tobringmy security team. Just you, and me. And any of your sisters who want to come, minus Clementine.”

“Has Curtis tried to take her from you yet?” I asked, momentarily distracted from how much I disliked him.

“No. Breaking into my wing of the Manor would be an act of war, and even Curtis is smart enough not to risk that. No one likes him enough to fight with him.”

“No one, meaning…”

“None of the other guys.”

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