Page 60 of Protecting His Vampire Mate

“It’s as simple as that?”

“It’s as simple as that,” I agreed.

Can you hear me now?

“Yes,” I replied. “It takes a bit of practice, babe.”

He went silent for a long moment and his frustration filtered through our connection. It was tinged with a deep sense of dread.

Was Bryan really so averse to our connection?

Did it really frighten him so much?

Not the point, I reminded myself. Bryan had been through something that I couldn’t even comprehend. His will—his entire life—had been stolen from him for months. He had been forced to do awful things. Of course he’d be skittish about the mate bond, about making himself vulnerable to me. No matter how else he felt.

“What about now?” he asked aloud.

I felt for the connection of our blood bond and found that there was now a wall standing between us. Something flipped in the pit of my stomach as I realized that I couldn’t hear him anymore. I couldn’t even sense the general nature of his thoughts. It was much, much worse than if the bond had never been there in the first place. Now, it was like abruptly losing access to a part of myself. The desolation it brought was enough to close up my throat for a moment.

I had just taught my mate how to keep me out of his head.

I let out a breath that was much more ragged than I liked.

“Yeah, that’s better,” I told him.

“Good,” he replied, pleased and totally oblivious to my inner turmoil. He seemed to notice my body responding to him, growing hard against him. He flashed me a mischievous smile over his shoulder. “Already?”

I drew in a shaky breath and flashed him a smile that probably didn’t quite reach my eyes. “I can’t help it. Not when you’re so damn sexy.”

He moved his ass against me, causing me to become completely hard. “I’m down for round two. And three. And four.”

I grinned back, some of the instinctive pain at being shut out beginning to subside. Bryan was right here, in my arms. And he was asking me to make love to him again. The blood bond would take time. It could wait. My mate couldn’t.

“Happy to oblige,” I said, already reaching for the lube.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN || BRYAN

Tobias and I stayed in bed together for the entire night. We slept in each other’s arms. We made love. We talked about trivial things—our favorite movies, our favorite foods. Places we’d visited. Places we still wanted to go. The books we loved and hated. It was surprisingly natural, comfortable, and easy.

“Seriously, Dune has got to be one of my favorite books.”

“More sci-fi,” I remarked, smiling. “I’m noticing a big nerdy theme here. It’s kind of a turn-on. I’ve always been into nerds.”

“Good,” he replied, grinning. “Because there’s more where that came from.”

“I’m not sure I agree with Dune though. As the epitome of sci-fi, I mean.”

He rolled his eyes, flashing me the grin I was coming to love more than anything. “Dune was one of the first books in the genre to really incorporate themes of planetary ecology into the narrative. It’s just so complex, and I get something new out of it every time I read it. It feels like I’m really stepping into this whole other world. It’s brand new, every time.”

“Are you sure you didn’t go to college?”

“Not a human one, that’s for sure.” He kissed the side of my neck. “While you were writing papers and going to frat parties, I was learning how to cast spells and banish demons. Though I’ve got a college boy in my arms, so I feel like I’m starting to understand the appeal of the whole university experience.” He paused, then his tone turned more serious. “Do you think you’ll go back?”

“To college?”

“Yeah. I mean, you were almost done with your degree, right? When everything happened.”

“I only had a couple months left, yeah.” I pushed myself closer to him, reveling in the warmth of his bare skin next to mine. With him so close to me, memories of what I had done couldn’t touch me. And with his arms around me and the blankets pulled up tight around us, with nowhere else to be, I finally felt safe enough to contemplate the life I had left behind.

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