“Don’t lie and say you feel nothing for me. You’ve gone from fearing me to runningtome. You’re as obsessed with me as I am with you. I’ve taken your blood, your body, and your heart. I’ve claimed you, Sawyer, which makes me yours as well. It’s now up to you to decide what to do.”
Immortality would resolve a lot of my issues, but it’d also be a life with Lucian. A life of doing what we’ve been doing.
A lifetime to fall in love and experience that love.
His hands come down on top of mine. “I’ll show you the entire fucking world. Every corner, every country. We’ll travel together, fucking and feeding on one another to our heart’s content.”
His head dips again, sniffing the air between us before a rumble gives away what I’ve been trying to hide.
The desire that idea stoked.
“You definitely can’t lie. You like the idea of being with me forever.”
“Yes,” I find myself admitting in a small voice. “It might be fucked up, but I like you, Lucian.” Maybe even more thanlikeif it’s possible to already. “But how do I know you won’t be bored of me in a few decades?”
“You’re the only one I’ve ever longed to keep around. I knew you were mine the moment I found you. It was an instant obsession, and a vampire’s obsession never ends, Sawyer. One way or the other, I’m yours for eternity. It’s all I want. It’s up to you if you’ll join me.”
He straightens, posing his hand palm up for me to take—a symbolic offer to accept his proposal.
“I’ll still need to go home. I can’t just disappear from life without quitting. Someone will think I was kidnapped or killed.”
He stares for five long seconds before grinning. “So, you’re agreeing.”
“No, I’m thinking about it.”
Because I can’t give up life to be with him…right? It’d be insanity to spend eternity with a man Ijustmet. To become a vampire—something I’ve only recently learned is real.
Besides, maybe my connection to him is all this mountain air; it has less oxygen than back home and could be messing with my head. Only days ago, a moose slammed into my car and then I found myself wrapped up in a whirlwind romance with a vampire who’s become my obsession.
Distance will tell me if Lucian was simply another form of the wanderlust I’ve been chasing. Another form of the ethereal mountains and landscape of this holiday trip that drew me in with its tempting beauty and promise of feeling larger than reality.
Or if he’s the real thing.
“Tomorrow, could you stick to your original deal and bring me to a town, so I can figure out how to get home?”
Red flickers in his eyes before he dips his chin, his jaw tightening with irritation. “If that’s what you wish.”
“It is.” I reach up to brush aside hair, tucking strands behind his ear. “We have today still. I’ll go downstairs to shower and cook, and then I’ll come back.”
He holds my palm against his cheek. “Hurry. I have more plans for you.”
The next evening,Lucian carries me to the edge of Jasper before slipping a credit card into my hand. “Pay whatever you need to, to get home.”
An immortal world wanderer owns a credit card. There’s so much about it that doesn’t line up, like what address he’s using for the account, but asking isn’t really the point.
“How will I get it back to you?”
His arms slide around my hips, and he tugs me against him. “You and I are far from done—a fact you’re aware of, but running from. Once you realize mortality isn’t for you any longer, I’ll be there. For now, since you’re so insistent on playing human for a bit longer, get home safe. I refuse to lose my mate now that I’ve found you.”
He rubs a thumb over one of the numerous bite marks on my neck, most of which remain hidden by my outer layers. “I never agreed. I said I’d think about it.”
“You already thought about it. Your argument was to go home and end your human life on paper so you can disappear with me. You only then decided to process your newfound desires because you feel it’s too soon. But you know it in here.” He lowers his hand to rest over my chest, but then taps my temple. “It’s here that’s the issue.”
He doesn’t know that for certain.Idon’t know it for certain. When I’m home, things may be different. Maybe I won’t have these intense feelings for Lucian. Maybe he’ll never come for me. He’ll wonder why he played house with a human and return to exploring every corner of the world, while I return to my shitty, mortal life.
And I’ll miss him.
As cars pass to enter the small, picturesque town of Jasper, Lucian lowers his head into my neck. His nose drags over the various bite marks, then his teeth. Gently, his fangs prod the marks until I shiver, despite his hoodie warming my body beneath my coat.
