Page 13 of Fated Mates and Where to Find Them

“For fuck’s sake.” Max sank to the ground, head hanging. “Zander. At no point—at no single moment in time—did I even wish for a car.”

“Well, but, you wouldn’t use any of mine. You said you weren’t comfortable driving them.”

“How the hell did you interpret that to mean ‘I should buy something else for him,’ huh?”

“But you’re so busy going back and forth between hospital and school. Wouldn’t it be better if you had your own transportation?”

Zander was not going to budge on this point, clearly. “If I promise to take one of your cars from now on, will you give that one back?”

“Can’t, already driven off the lot.”

Of course it was too late. That was how Max’s luck rolled these days. “Zander, be honest with me. Are you trying to buy your way into my good graces?”

“If I thought bribery would have a prayer of working, I’d try it. No, this is just my love language, showering people with gifts. Besides, I feel better knowing you have what you need.”

Max finally understood why he’d not won a single argument yet. Zander’s intentions were pure. He wouldn’t shift his stance. To him, he was in the right and didn’t understand why Max was fighting him so hard.

Of course Max fought, though. This was nowhere near what he’d signed up for. Just what did Zander want from him, anyway? It was clearly not blood. The vampire refused to even consider feeding from him. Max felt utterly lost on where he stood with Zander most of the time, but on this one point he was growing ever more sure: Zander would not hurt him.

In fact, all Zander seemed to want was to spoil him rotten. Max made a last-ditch effort (because even he was sure this wouldn’t work).

“I will only accept the car if you promise to feed from me tonight.”

“Still full from the blood bag,” Zander denied, voice cheerful. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll take you up on it later. Gotta go, I’ll deliver the car to you at school soon, so don’t leave!”

He blew a kiss and hung up.

Max stared up at the clear night sky and blew out a long breath. He needed to install a rheostat in Zander and turn the man down a notch or two. Max suspected it was watching movies while hanging out on the couch the past week that had sent Zander over the edge.

Apparently, the formula went like this: Happy Zander equaled gifts. Lesson learned.

“Chase.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever have issues with your boyfriend spoiling you silly?”

“Eh, not really. I mean he does, in his own way. He’s not over the top like yours.”

Max sighed.

Chase bumped his shoulder into Max’s with a teasing smile. “You like it.”

“I do not. He’s driving me insane. I can’t even get him to slow down. If I wasn’t so busy visiting my dad and juggling classes, I would have taken a clue bat to him already.”

“If you were really mad about all this, you wouldn’t be eating the lunches or using the money he gave you.”

Damn. Chase had a good point there. By doing so, he was encouraging Zander to continue, wasn’t he? Why hadn’t he realized that before now? Maybe, on some level, he was thankful enough for the help that he couldn’t ignore the hand Zander offered. The lunchboxes, as outrageous as they were, meant he didn’t have to worry about finding food during his short break between classes. The car meant he wouldn’t be calling for a taxi or worrying about a storm catching him in transit.

“Did you seriously just realize this?”

Max ran a hand over his face. “Blaaaaaaah.”

“Blah, huh. That bad?” Chase snickered. “Your boyfriend must be really charming to get you to take all these gifts.”

“Charming is not the word. Persistent. Stubborn. He comes at me with these big puppy eyes and good intentions and I feel bad for saying no. Despite knowing on some level he’s manipulating me into taking all this.”

“Is it really manipulating?”

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