Page 122 of Blood Bound

But it’s what I like about her so much - so much honest purity.

“I’ll call you with… I don’t know. News?” she chuckles.

“Call me about anything; I’ll always answer, but only if it’s after 5 pm.” This seems to make her laugh and she opens the car door.

“Thank you again for everything, Valentine,”

“Cezar; you can call me Cezar,” I swallow deeply as I mention my birth name, something I didn’t even allow Giselle to call me. “It’s my real name.”

Autumn looks surprised for a second, then she gives me a smile that sends a shiver up my spine.

“Goodnight, Cezar, and thank you for everything,” she says, then closes the door and walks towards her house. I only leave when I hear her locking the doors behind her and make my way back to the estate.

Gabriel is waiting for me in the living room with a bottle of bourbon when I arrive; when he hands me a glass tumbler, he has a smile on his face.

“I’m leaving for Vegas tomorrow,” he announces, finishing his glass. “I’m ready to do what it takes to win my woman back.”

I can’t help but smile at this. “That’s the Gabriel I know. Do you have anything planned?”

He shakes his head. “Katherine doesn’t like elaborate surprises or grand gestures, so I’m not doing either of those. I’m going to win her over like I did the first time around and see where it goes from there. We have a lot to discuss, too, but there is no way I’m losing her.”

The ambition in his voice seems to spur something on in me, so I sit forward on the sofa, playing with the glass tumbler in my hand. “Something is happening between me and Autumn,” I blurt out and watch as his eyes narrow.

“The Asa woman?” I nod. “But isn’t she married? What could be happening?”

I shake my head. “I went to her clinic last night only to find her beaten up inside; her husband had been doing it for years. He wound up dead this morning, apparently drunk driving.”

“Christ, Valentine,” Gabriel scoffs. “Abusive fucker got what came to him. But how is she feeling about this? How do you know it’s mutual?”

“Because I felt it in her kiss last night,” I admit, swiping a hand across my face. “I feel it in her gaze and the way her hands feel warm on my skin. My heart feels like it’s beating again when I look at her and there’s an… odd sensation when I think about her - a warmth in my chest that I’ve never felt before and it feels so… comfortable. Not like with Giselle, where my feelings consumed my rational thinking.”

I look up into Gabriel’s face and note his incredulous look and he scoffs, shaking his head. “Sounds to me like you might be in love, brother,” he chuckles.

But this makes me frown. “In love? Is that even possible with someone who isn’t your Fated?”

Gabriel leans backward with his hand over the back of the sofa and one leg on top of the other, resting above his knee.

“Think of it this way; a Fated is someone the Goddess chose for you and there are no exceptions. You can make it work or choose to break that Bond.” He takes a sip of his bourbon. “But falling in love of your own free will, choosing someone you never planned to love… don’t you think that, in a way, is more beautiful than a predestined Bond?”

His words stun me to my core and it opens up a possibility I never could have imagined; me, falling in love with someone? Falling in love, not because of a Bond but because I feel like they’re my home.

“Could something like that happen to someone like me?” I ask, not feeling worthy of something as pure as ‘love.’

But Gabriel simply chuckles. “You mention that her touch is warm; that was the first giveaway that you’ve already fallen for this woman. This was how I knew Katherine was different even before I found out about our Bond; her touch felt different from anyone else's.”

Something as simple as a touch can indicate that?

He gets to his feet and pours us more bourbon. “My advice would be to give her some time and see where this goes. If she’s willing to spend eternity with you and forgo everything and everyone else, then I will turn her. But she needs to be certain of her choice because there’s no going back after it.”

I nod and take the glass from him. “We’re nowhere close to that, though, so there’s no stress from my side. But I’ll see where it takes us; it’s the only thing we can do because I won’t force this on her.”

She’s been through so much already. I will not ask her to make a decision between human life and immortality.

“Good. I’m happy for you, brother; you seem lighter, as if a weight has been lifted,” Gabriel says, toasting his glass.

“It sure feels that way, I won’t lie. I told her about what happened with Giselle, so there are no lies between us - soon after that we kissed, so I’m sure we’re on the right track.”

Gabriel laughs out loud. “She seems like a woman worthy of you; bring her around when Katherine is back. I’d like to meet her.”

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