He couldn’t keep the truth from her anymore.“Because you are my mate.”
“I’m your what?”
“Some vampires have mates, and you are mine.I didn’t think I would ever find you. I believed I would losecontrol long before I discovered you and that I would have to bedestroyed. However, the second I tasted your blood, I knew what youwere to me. For the first time in years, maybe the first time in mylife, I experienced peace.”
His words robbed her of her breath as shegazed at him.
“I’m not saying you have to feel it too. I’mnot saying you have to stay with me; I’m simply informing you thatyou are it for me, Magdalene Doe. There will never be another,” hemurmured as he rested his forehead against hers.
He couldn’t tell her he wanted her foreternity, not yet, she’d had so much thrown at her these past fewdays. He’d let her adjust to everything else before piling onmore.
“But Ican’tdo for you what Carhadid. And I can’t feed you multiple times a day, and if you’re usedto numerous partners—”
“I’d never ask you to beat me or to nourishme so often,” he interjected. “I may still have to feed on others,but I can also use blood bags. Now that you’ve calmed me, I won’thave to feed as often, I won’t need pain and death, and I willneverhave sex with anyone else, ever again.”
“Aiden—”
“You’re the first one I’ve allowed to touchme during sex in years, Maggie.”
“It’s impossible not to touch someone whenyou’re having sex with them.”
“Perhaps, but it’s not impossible tominimize that contact.”
Maggie recalled the way he’d grabbed herhands and pinned them to the mirror before releasing her. Recalledthe way he’d turned into her hand as if he were a beaten dogabsorbing its first kind caress. The way he’d asked her for more ofher touch. A sob lodged in her throat when she realized how starvedhe’d been for affection. Releasing the sheet, she tugged her wristfree of his hold and slid her arms around his neck.
He was so much more messed up than she’drealized, but she understood the vulnerability she’d sensed in himlast night. He’d seemed vulnerable because hehadbeenvulnerable.
“Aiden.”
She kissed the corner of his mouth beforesitting back to run her hands over his chest. He closed his eyes asshe explored his body, tenderly touching him everywhere. She had noidea what all of this meant for them or where it would lead, butshe didn’t care as she pushed him back on the bed and climbed ontop of him.
CHAPTER 34
“I’ll take a jelly, a Boston crème, a coffeeroll, and two of the brown sugar muffins,” Maggie said as shehungrily examined the contents lining the shelves behind thecounter. The sweet scent of baking pastries and coffee entangledher in a ravenous trap that had her licking her lips inanticipation of stuffing herself.
Tapping her foot, she was debating a bageland cream cheese when Aiden placed his hands on the counter oneither side of her. He pinned her in as he rested his chin on hershoulder. “Hungry?” he inquired, the amusement evident in hisvoice.
“Starved!” Not only had they spent anotherhour in bed, but she’d insisted on getting a five-mile run inafterward. She was fairly certain she could eat every one of thedonuts and muffins remaining after the morning rush.
He chuckled as he kissed her neck. Behindthe counter, the young woman making her coffee almost dropped itwhen she saw Aiden. Someone behind them muttered something aboutgetting a room, and Maggie laughed. She wasn’t walking on cloudsanymore; she was too famished for that. Besides, it was a long fallfrom the clouds, and she enjoyed her view from Earth.
Nope, she wasn’t walking on clouds, but shefelt deliriously happy as she took the box of goodies from theyoung man who handed them over. Aiden stepped back and claimed hercoffee before walking with her to the register. He dipped into hispocket and paid the woman behind the cash register.
Unwilling to take the time to walk back tothe hotel before eating, Maggie settled at a corner table and duginto her box of treats. Aiden sat with his back to the wall, hiseyes surveying everyone who entered.
“I called Roger earlier,” she said in thehopes of getting Aiden to relax a little. He’d been tense eversince they’d left the hotel room, and he studied every person theycame across like a possible enemy. He was giving her a complex.
“How is he?” Aiden asked without looking ather.
“They’re sending him home today, and someonetold him about Walt and Glenn. He said he was okay, but he waslying.”
“And how do you know that?”
She shrugged as she pulled the top off oneof the muffins and started eating it. “He gets all impatient andmanly when he’s emotional.”
“Manly?”
“You know what I mean.”
