Page 59 of Lucien

But Luc hoped not. He needed to know. About Danny and Gabe. How they’d managed the transition. His encounter with Soren had been so brief, and Luc had been so shocked hearing of the mate bond that he hadn’t asked any of the important questions.

Luc had been afraid in that kitchen earlier, truly terrified he’d turn Jamie just to lay his claim. His monster had wanted that. It had wanted to provide proof to every other vampire out there that Jamie was theirs.

It had taken every ounce of Luc’s resistance to keep himself from doing so.

Perhaps a year ago, he would have just let the monster turn their mate.

But Luc didn’t want to act without thinking anymore. He’d been mindless and vengeful for over half a century, and it had earned him nothing but hatred and disdain. He couldn’t bear for Jamie to hate him. To regret his choice to be with Luc.

He couldn’t bear for Jamie to leave him. He wouldn’tletJamie leave him.

Luc thought of Jamie’s family. His mother, all sweetness and generosity. If Jamie accidentally hurt her…

Luc startled when he realized Jamie had crawled closer to him without his noticing. His human was peering into Luc’s eyes, his head cocked. “What are you doing?” Luc asked.

“I thought— They were green earlier, for just a second.”

Luc’s heart stuttered in his chest. He hadn’t seen his own face—his real, human eyes—since the day Victoria had died. The day Roman had left.

Had Jamie really seen a glimpse of them? What was this boy doing to him? And why didn’t the monster mind? Its control over Luc was being threatened, and it was just rolling over and showing its belly to the boy. And it was doing it so…happily.

Luc could feel it inside himself, content, sated, docile. And Luc hadn’t even needed to maim someone to get it that way. “You’re extraordinary,” he whispered, brushing a lock of Jamie’s hair behind his ear.

Jamie flushed, biting at his lip. “All I did was dick you down a bit. Nothing special.”

“No, my sweet. You are—you aremagical. Perfection.”

Jamie smiled that pretty smile of his, clearly pleased at the praise. “Do I get a reward, then?”

“What did you have in mind?”

As they walked back from Jamie’s mother’s house, the air felt heavy and full, an unusual moisture in the air. The heat from the day hadn’t begun to fully dissipate yet, although the sun was beginning to set.

Jamie had Luc’s hand in his, humming an off-key tune and swinging their arms together as they walked. Luc was tempted to tease his human for holding on to him like a little kid, but he didn’t actually want him to stop. Luc’s monster was still surprisingly calm—content, even. A man had cut them off with his car in a crosswalk, and his monster hadn’t so much as pressed Luc to rip his head off. It was a goddamn pussycat at this point, even up to allowing him to yet again eat human food, taking a few bites of chicken and rice at Jamie’s family home.

Luc had expected Jamie’s demand for a reward to be sexual in nature, given his human’s apparently insatiable desire for him, but Jamie had asked for a family dinner instead.

Luc hadn’t known what to feel about the fact that, mere hours after he’d been an uncontrollable beast, lusting for blood and violence, Jamie still felt comfortable having him around his family. It was mind-boggling, the trust this human had in him.

And Luc wondered, not for the first time, just how much Jamie’s mom had picked up. The fact that Luc didn’t easily eat. His odd fucking face. Did she know her son was cavorting around with someone less than human?

Would she be horrified if she did?

Luc pulled his phone from his pocket with his free hand. No answer still.

“Ohyes.” Luc grunted as Jamie tugged at his hand with sudden purpose, pulling him off the sidewalk over to a fenced area at the end of the block. Luc could smell the overwhelming scent of chlorine, the chemicals almost enough to drown out his mate’s much more preferable cinnamon scent.

As Jamie stopped at the chain-link fence, Luc ducked closer to run his nose along the crook of his mate’s neck, trying to rectify the offensive change. Jamie tilted his head to bare himself more easily to Luc’s touch but kept his eyes on what lay inside the fence in front of them. Luc barely glanced at it, his attention focused on the softness of Jamie’s skin, but he recognized what had caught his mate’s attention.

A neighborhood pool. How quaint.

Luc’s pleased rumble at Jamie’s closeness was cut off as his mate started clambering up the fence with no notice whatsoever. One second, his mate’s head was in front of him, and the next moment, his bitable ass was suddenly at eye level.

Luc couldn’t help it this time. He grabbed it with both hands.

“Hey!”

Luc glanced up to find Jamie attempting to glare down at him, the effect slightly ruined by the amusement twinkling in his eyes.

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