Page 33 of Guarding the Billionaire

I must have looked surprised because she added, “He and his brothers own a restaurant.”

“I makeVereshchaka,”he said proudly. “Is short ribs and sausage, and also I am makingDraniki, potato pancakes. You will like.”

“I’m sure I will,” I said. “I so rarely have fresh cooked food. How can I help?”

Boris put me to work chopping up root vegetables that he was going to roast as a side dish. While we prepped the food, Teresa did a tour of the house, inside and out, looking for issues.

“All clear,” she said when she returned a full forty-five minutes after she left.

“We eat in one more hour,” Boris told her. “I am here all night. Now I take nap like cat, you wake me in sixty minutes, okay?”

“Will do.”

“Oh, I should show him a bedroom,” I said, starting to follow after Boris.

“Trust me, that guy can sleep anywhere. He’s probably cuddled up under a table right now.”

I didn’t know whether to believe her or not, but when I went back to the library I caught a glimpse of Boris sleeping in my entryway, sitting up with his back against the door. Shaking my head, I got back to work until it was dinner time.

After enjoying a delicious meal of Belarusian food, I headed upstairs. I put on a nightgown and settled in bed, thinking that I’d read for a while until it was time for bed, but I was super restless. That close call with the SUV had freaked me out more than I wanted to admit, and now that I was alone, I couldn’t seem to calm my restless mind.

Finally, around nine o’clock I exited my room and knocked softly on Teresa’s door. I’d heard her come up a while ago and knew she was in there. She opened the door immediately, like she’d been waiting on the other side.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I can’t sleep. I just keep replaying what happened today,” I told her. “I just… I don’t want to be alone.”

“Do you want me to come in with you until you fall asleep?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, I want you to come in with me until morning. Nothing has to happen, but can you do that? Will you stay with me tonight?”

“I’m not sure if I can keep my hands off of you if we spend another night together,” she told me, her expression conflicted.

“I don’t want you to keep your hands off me,” I said softly. “I want you to make me forget.”

Teresa

Icouldn’t resist the pleading look in Flora’s eyes. I didn’t want to resist it. But I also didn’t want her to regret it later.

“Are you sure Flora?” I asked, placing my hands on her shoulders and waiting for her to meet my eyes. “Once we’re intimate, even if I don’t mark you, it’s game over for me. I won’t be able to be with anyone else ever again.”

“Explain.”

“For supernaturals, when we find our fated mate, there’s this bond that forms, drawing us to them. It’s possible to reject the bond, even though it’s painful, when the relationship is new. But once we are intimate, the bond starts to connect us, and with every touch, every kiss, the bond strengthens until it becomes impossible for us to not complete it.”

“How do you complete it?” she asked.

I lifted a finger to touch the juncture of her neck and shoulder. “I would bite you, here.”

Her eyes widened. “You have to drink my blood, like onBuffy the Vampire Slayer? Will I turn into a vampire too?”

I laughed. “No, there’s no turning. Vampires are born not made. As for the blood, technically we can drink human blood, but it’s strictly forbidden unless it’s an emergency, like one of us is dying or something. The mate bond is a different kind of bite. It’s a kind of sealing of the magical bond and blending our essences so other supernaturals know that we’re both taken. There is a little bit of bleeding during the process, but the bite wound heals almost instantly. Then we are the supernatural equivalent of married.”

I expected my mate to be horrified at that idea, but instead she looked almost fascinated.

“And we have to do that tonight if you sleep with me?”

“No.” I shook my head. “But the closer we get, the harder it will be for me to hold my vampire back from fully claiming you. And the harder it will be for me to let you go.”

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