Page 120 of Blood Bound

Smiling right through my anxiety, I walk over to him and sit on the spot he gestured to, getting under the fluffy blanket and letting out a sigh.

“Thank you for this,” I say when he hands me the takeout back. “Thank you for all of this. I have no idea how to repay you.”

He shakes his head. “Just eat and rest up; there’ll be no paying back since I’m merely returning your kindness.”

I take a bite of the burger and smile. “So, when you call me angel, is that just you returning my kindness, too?”

Yes, I do know how to fish!

He chuckles. “No, that’s just me calling you the personification of what you are; an angel,” he says, shrugging as if he didn’t just hear my heartbeat spike. “I see you as this pure, kind being who puts others before herself and ends up being harmed in the end. So I’m here to stop all that; I want to see you grow.”

I take another bite to hide my smile while pondering his words; calling me an angel and caring about my wellbeing… why is he still single?

“So, I have a question; is there a Mrs. Valentine out there that I need to know about before I allow myself to swoon?” I ask, watching as his smile wavers a bit.

He seems to gain his composure, breathing out a sigh and finally shaking his head. “Nope, not at all,” he says and my heart screams that I might have a chance.

“Hm, how come? Don’t vampires meet their soulmates as wolves do?” I ask, knowing about mates and the like. Valentine nods, then he leans back and folds his arm behind his neck, flexing his already huge muscles.

“I met my Fated a few years ago,” he says, stomping on my fragile heart. “But things were too complicated for us to be together since she was married to a ruthless hunter, so I severed our Bond. The worst thing is he killed her after I took the potion to sever our Bond - right after I erased our shared memories. She was free of me and yet he still killed her.”

Okay, my stomped heart now feels majorly guilty and I lose my appetite after nearly finishing the burger. That must have been awful for him, choosing to set his soul mate free like that.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I say, packing the food away and putting it on the nightstand. “That was extremely selfless of you to let her go.”

He shrugs and sits up on the bed. “I guess so, but the guilt doesn’t get any less knowing I could have saved her life. But it’s in the past now and I have started moving on.”

I take his hand and give it a light squeeze. An odd static shock feeling runs through my fingers where they connect with his.

“I’m sure you’ll find another love one day…” I trail off when he moves his face closer to mine and cups my cheek in his hand.

“Who says I haven’t met them yet?” he says, his silken voice just above a whisper, and he runs the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. “Fuck, do you have any idea how much I’m holding back from kissing you right now?”

My breath hitches in my throat and my heart beats so fast that I’m sure I’m close to an aneurysm, but what I say next should not have been said at all.

“Why are you holding back?”

Valentine’s green eyes shimmer to red before he crashes his mouth to mine; his tongue dancing with mine in reckless abandon while his fingers grip the hair at the back of my head. I sigh into the kiss, molding into his hard body and wrapping my arms around his neck.

My body grows hot, right to the point of feverishness, and there’s an odd, tingling sensation pulling at my core when his hands start exploring the sides of my body.

I slip my hands inside his shirt, feeling the rippling of his muscles relax under my touch.

His grip on my hair becomes more intense as he deepens the kiss with a growl rumbling in his chest, and I am already gasping for air.

There’s a dull ache between my legs that spreads throughout my body, a hunger that only Valentine can sate; but the moment I moan into his mouth, he pulls away from me and breaks off the kiss.

He looks down at me with those gorgeous green eyes filled with desire, then he tilts his head and kisses my forehead.

“That kiss was all I needed. Now I’m not letting go,” he says as if staking his claim on me with that kiss.

I struggle to catch my breath, my face hot and burning from embarrassment when I realize my hands were still inside his shirt. When I try to remove them, he makes a disapproving sound at the back of his throat.

“I like it when you touch me… your touch is warm, unlike others,” he says, drawing his forehead to mine.

All of this seems a bit too overwhelming for me right now and my heart can only beat so fast. I push him from me and sit up before turning to face him.

“As mindblowin’ as that kiss was, I think I need a lil time to digest all this,” I say as my accent slips through, but this time I let it.

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