Page 25 of Property of Mako
I should have lied. I should have told her it was about Lily, about the Covenant, about the lead we’d just lost. Instead, I walked back toward her and spoke the truth. “You.”
Her breath caught.
That was the first crack in the dam.
The second was when she stepped closer instead of backing away. My hand drifted from her wrist to her hip before I realized I’d moved. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t tell me to stop.
If anything, she leaned in.
Though deep down, I knew it was a lie, I told myself I could walk away. That I’d just… get it out of my system. I’d lasted years without actual intimacy.
But when her fingers brushed my jaw, light as a whisper, the decision was made for me.
I leaned down and kissed her.
It wasn’t slow. It wasn’t gentle. It was the kind of kiss that stole the air from your lungs and left no space for reason. She tasted like coffee and rain and the kind of fire I hadn’t felt in a hundred years.
Her hands slid into my hair, pulling me closer, and the sound she made in the back of her throat was enough to unravel every last shred of restraint I had left. I backed her against the counter, lips trailing to her throat, but stopped before my fangs broke skin.
Because I was afraid if I bit her now, I wouldn’t stop.
That was when I realized the truth. The thing I’d been trying not to see since the moment I saved her in that abandoned warehouse lot. That call that was like a whisper and a melody at the same time. The way her blood sang for me. Beckoned me.
Yet the most telling thing of all was the way I couldn’t get in her head. I’d made excuses, but I knew the truth.
She was mine.
Not in the possessive, arrogant way some immortals throw the word around. No—she was my mate. The one the bond had been waiting for, all these long, empty years.
And that made her the most dangerous thing in my world.
Because for someone like me, a mate was a liability. Mates weren’t only yours to protect—they were impossible to let go. And she was human. One day, she would grow old and die. When that happened, I would die. Because I would not want to live without her.
Unless… but no. I’d never ask that of her. This wasn’t a life that was deserving of her goodness and light.
I pulled back, breathing hard, hands braced on either side of her cheeks. “This is a problem,” I muttered.
Her eyes searched mine, lips still parted. “Why?”
“Because I can’t lose you,” I vehemently admitted, and the words burned coming out. “And now I will destroy anyone who tries to hurt you, and I will incinerate this world before I let them take you.”
Her breathing became labored, and her hands fumbled with my clothes. Without pause, she removed my shirt that was stiff with the enforcer’s drying blood. It hit the floor, and she gasped as her fingertips traced the scars on my chest. “What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” I replied.
Like magnets unable to stop the pull, our lips collided again. Within a heartbeat, I had her undressed and carried her to her room.
Gently, I rested her back on the comforter. My hands greedily touched her body as my lips followed close behind. She was all smooth alabaster skin, sprinkled with little freckles on the bridge of her nose and across her shoulders. Using my tongue, I played connect-the-dots with the ones on the slope of her shoulder.
Without meaning to, I found myself nuzzling her neck. Her fingers were tangled in my hair as I licked over her racing pulse. It took everything in me not to let my fangs descend and plunge them into what I knew would be nirvana.
“It’s okay, if you want to,” she whispered, her voice raspy with need. “I trust you.”
Fuck, I didn’t trust myself.
“It’s not a good idea, Lyra,” I insisted as I settled between her parted thighs. The more I tasted her blood, the harder it would be to let her go when the time came. Because I knew that was what I had to do. It would mean a lonely and cold existence for the rest of my days, but I refused to force this life on her.
When a vampire found its mate, with each successive taste of them, the need to drink from them eventually became overwhelming. I’d seen it a few times over the years. If they didn’t complete the bond, it would drive a vampire to madness after a time because mates were rare within our ranks. Which was why I vowed I would practice herculean restraint with her.
