Although I toyed with the idea of leaving her against the window, I also promised myself to fuck her on every surface. So, when I carry her over to the tree she adores so much and flick back on the lights, placing her on her hands and knees in front of it, she trembles.
“Again?”
“Forever,” I reply, sliding inside her again.
CHAPTER 15
Sawyer
In the middleof the afternoon on the twenty-sixth, I wake with a sore body smudged with blood and numerous bite marks.
I barely recall coming to bed, after he made it his mission to have sex all over the cabin, the bed being the final location. Here, he skipped drinking to fuck me slowly, with meaning and unnamed emotions. He held my hands as he drove me to new heights by means of the slowest but somehow most intense release.
After that, I passed out from pure exhaustion around five in the morning.
I’m sore, I’m hungry…but I’m happy.
Except, I’m not entirely content because today is my last day. By tomorrow morning, I’m supposed to be checking out and driving back to Manitoba. Both of which, I’ll need his help to get to a town to figure out.
Lucian, probably sensing I’m awake, starts fiddling with my hair, twirling strands around his finger. I remain still, content, my eyes shut.
“I know you’re awake, little mate.”
Mate?
I twist to face him. Black eyes glint playfully as he tugs on my hair again and repeats, “Stay with me, Sawyer.”
He can’t mean…?
Pulling away, I sit up, dragging the blanket over my chest for protection. “What do you mean?”
He follows me up to place an arm on either side of me. Suddenly, the meager distance I put between us—meant to retain control—is stolen by the intensity of his stare as he crouches over me.
“You know exactly what I mean. There’s a reason I didn’t kill you when finding your accident. I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. I’ve spent two centuries wandering without purpose, because it turns out, my purpose hadn’t been born yet.You’rethat purpose, Sawyer. Stay with me, and become mine in every way.”
There isn’t an ounce of that cockiness in his expression. He’s serious.
The guy—the vampire—I’ve known less than a week changed my life in ways no one else ever has. Yet, staying with him feels like something so much more. Something I shouldn’t be allowed to have without earning it.
“When you say, ‘mine in every way’ do you mean…?”
“I mean you’ll become a vampire.”
My heart tightens from either panic or surprise—maybe even fear. Probably all three. Dark eyes flick to my chest and back with a frown, but he can’t be upset by my reaction…not when he’s askingthatof me.
He lets me push him away as I twist off the bed and reach for the nearest article of clothing, which happens to be his shirt—because of course it is. “I loved our time together, Lucian, but I have a life to return to. Jobs and an apartment. Mom, who constantly needs help. I’mhuman.”
He gets off the bed, stalking me towards the railing, which my hands meld around. For the first time in days, true fear—the kind felt when he trapped me against his door that first day—courses through me. He stops when his feet touch mine, his lip curling.
He’s a hunter. A mythical creature with the strength equivalent to an army of men and the speed of a jet. It should be what I run from, so why am I leaning into him? His offer is insane, but not one I’m immediately denying either.
It’d be hard to forget how only a few days with Lucian changed me. My heart, my soul—they’re not wholly mine anymore.
“You’re human because you hadn’t met me yet. Let me fix that. You hate your life. You work too hard for little gain. Your mother uses you. You’re surviving because everyone in your past has let you down. Let me be the one who fixes that. Let me be your future.”
He’s not wrong about any of that. I’ve been surviving because that’s what being human in the twenty-first century means. We wake, eat, burn ourselves out working in order to pay the bills that allow us to eat and rest our heads, and then do it all again until we die.
I’m not wealthy enough to findmeaningin life, like those I’d gone to school with. Having fun in life is a rich person’s advantage.
