Page 74 of Bad Luck Vampire

“I’m not insane!” Sophie snapped, and he realized that she was afraid that he thought she might be because of her short stint in the hospital after her parents’ death.

“I know you’re not, love,” Alasdair assured her solemnly. “I’m just listing off the mortals that immortals can’t read.”

Crossing her arms, she glared at him and waited.

“We also sometimes can’t read people with brain tumors,” he told her. “It depends where the tumor is.”

“All right,” Sophie growled when he paused.

Alasdair nodded, and then licked his lips and finished, “And immortals cannot read their life mates.”

“Which are?” she asked grimly.

“Life mates are mortals or even immortals who can’t be read because—well, we think the nanos recognize, or decide, the individual would be a perfect mate for the immortal to live happily with for the duration, and so make it impossible for each to read or control the other.”

“For the duration of what?” Sophie asked at once, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

Alasdair shrugged. “Life? Existence. As long as you both shall live.”

“So, the nanos make it so that you can’t read life mates? And that’s what makes them life mates?” she asked with a small frown.

“That’s the conclusion we’ve all come to,” he admitted.

“And I’m that, this life mate business, to you?” she asked warily.

He met her gaze solemnly. “I can’t read or control you, Sophie. I know you’re not insane, and the fact that everyone else can read you means you don’t have a brain tumor. That means you’re my life mate.”

When she just stared at him, looking uncertain and somewhat dissatisfied, Alasdair added, “And since meeting you, all of my appetites have returned, which is another sign of meeting a life mate.”

“Appetites?” Sophie queried dryly. “Are we talking sex here?”

“Yes. Sex... and my appetite for food. Before yesterday, I hadn’t had sex since 1820. I lost my appetite for food around the same time. Colle and I still ate, but it was purely to keep up body mass without having to drink tons of blood. And we only ate once every week or so, and not for pleasure,” he told her, and then emphasized, “But I had no interest at all in sex from the last time I indulged in it in 1820, until the night I met you.”

Sophie’s expression softened, but then she closed her eyes and lowered her head unhappily. “How can I be sure that’s true? You could be controlling me right now.”

“Sweetheart, if I were controlling you, we wouldn’t be standing here talking,” Alasdair said, and eased closer to slide a hand up her arm. He almost sighed with relief when he felt the shiver it sent through her, echoing through his own body. She wasn’t so angry or scared she was shutting him out. “This is another sign of life mates.”

Sophie lifted her head in question. “Great sex?”

“Great sex that makes you both pass out at the end,” he told her, and her eyes widened incredulously.

“You’ve been fainting too?” she asked with surprise.

Alasdair nodded. “Life mates share their passion. Every time I touch you, I feel your pleasure like an echo in my own body.”

He let his knuckles brush over one breast through her clothes and shuddered a heartbeat after she did as her nipple hardened. “That pleasure mounts in growing and repeating waves, bouncing between us until we orgasm and it overwhelms the mind, causing us to pass out.”

He took her hand then and placed it on his bare chest where his shirt still gaped open. He then urged it down his own body. Alasdair stopped at his waistband, but her hand continued under its own power to cup him through his black jeans and he sucked in a breath at the excitement and pleasure it sent through him.

Sophie’s eyes widened and she moaned as it echoed through her as well.

Alasdair smiled. “That’s why—despite your complaints—I wouldn’t let you touch me. I could never explain how touching me would cause pleasure inside you. I—” His words died abruptly as she squeezed again. When she then ran her hand up and down his quickly growing shaft through his jeans, he closed his eyes and nearly snapped his own teeth he was grinding them together so hard. He hadn’t forgotten that his uncles, brother, and Tybo were behind them, privy to all this.

Sophie apparently had, though, he realized when she moved closer and began to work on the button of his jeans.

Eyes blinking open, Alasdair caught her hands at once to stop her.

When Sophie’s head immediately jerked up, he nodded over his shoulder. She tilted to the side to look around his arm, and scowled when she saw their audience.

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