Passion Bites: Biting Love, Book 9 (27 page)

“What does that have to do with food?”

“Planning is learning, understanding the goal.
A plan
is only
one
way to achieve that goal.

“For example, I made
a
plan—the Grand Plan—to give Lizelle a better life. That plan’s gone, but you made me see I can find other ways to help her. Better yet, I’ll find a way to help her help herself.” Something freed inside me at that. I knew all along that Lizelle wasn’t weak, but she
had
been vulnerable to Umbras, and he’d taken all her resources from her. I’d tried to make up for that, to be the resources Lizelle needed. But that wasn’t healthy for either of us, not in the long run. So now I’d help her, but I’d also have to learn to trust her, that she could be some of her own resources—she’d do it for her daughter. Like Luke, I didn’t have to be a superhero.

“
A
way? That still sounds like one plan.”

“One plan, or two plans or whatever she needs.”

His gaze was on the far wall. “And if all your plans fail?” He said it so softly I knew this was the crux.

“That’s part of a person’s history, isn’t it? Part of your growth. Part of working toward whatever objectives you can, as you can, and trying to be happy along the way.” I took his hands. Here was
my
crux. “Luke, I had a plan, to help Lizelle and Una and others like them, by buying those townhouses next to a master vampire. But frankly, it makes more sense for Julian to have them.”

“So you’ve changed your goal.”

“Not completely. I still want to open a shelter, and I still want it near a master vampire. But wouldn’t it be better, instead of living
next
to a master vampire, if we could live
with
one?”

A beat. “What do you mean?” He searched my eyes. He knew.

But saying the words were important. “I want
you
to be that master vampire. Marry me. Found a household with me. Your household won’t be part of the shelter but annexed to it—”

“Alexis, no.” He looked away. “I’m not ready to establish a household. I don’t know if I ever will be.”

I sat there, his hands in mine, as his words hollowed out my chest.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Luke couldn’t look into Alexis’s beautiful, pleading eyes, as he said
no.

Him, found a household? He not only wasn’t ready, he’d
never
be ready. He could never be certain he could protect his humans…

Except he had with Alexis, only last night. He could protect his humans when they helped protect themselves.

Marry me. Found a household with me.

Brave words. Because with them, she’d bared her heart to him.

He knew. He just didn’t want to be responsible for breaking it.

He’d never understood Liese and Nixie and Elena’s need to remain independent, but he’d finally seen in Alexis’s eyes that it was important to her, as important as blood was to him.

And now, as her honesty and bravery took his breath away, he understood why.

She’d taken a huge risk in baring her heart. But she’d done it because it was her heart to bare.
Hers
to risk.

Her life was hers to risk.

If she were his wife, it would be his privilege to protect her—but it was her own life. Coddling said it was his. It would take away her rights, erode her bravery, her fierce independence.

He could defend her if she wanted it, but only if she wanted it. Because it was her life, not his.

But she deserved more than half a partner. “If it weren’t for Adelaide’s being my mate—”

“Adelaide wasn’t your mate,” she said. “Not according to Elias.”

He stopped breathing. “What do you mean?”

“When he wanted to speak with me alone, he told me vampires mate for life. If your mate is dead, so are you. Adelaide is dead, you aren’t, ergo…”

His breath came back, rapid and shallow. “I…I’m not mated?”

“Elias said the mating lock has to be on both sides.”

“But I
felt
mated.” He stood on the edge of a whole canyon of doubt, on crumbling footing. Down was a long fall with a harsh ending. But if he leaped off in hope, it might also be just possible to fly…

“Well, if I’m getting this right, you might have locked on her, but apparently she didn’t lock on you.”

He sat a moment in thunderstruck silence. Then he whispered, “She never looked at me, after lovemaking. I’d wondered…” He shook his head, awe and joy and fear crashing inside him. “I can’t take it in. If I wasn’t mated to Adelaide, I could marry…have a family…fall in love…”

His privilege to live with Alexis forever,
if he were her mate.
His heart beat harder with the thought.

Could he? He took a shaking breath, mentally tensing to push off on that flight of hope…

I can do it.
He could found his own household, as Elias had been urging him to do. Found it with Alexis, his love, his
mate…

Like Adelaide?

Hope died, crushed by the past. He’d forgotten her again. Forgotten Adelaide. He shook his head. “I still can’t.”

He’d whispered it, barely above silence, more as if his heart cried it softly.

“Can’t?” Alexis said, her voice sounding far away. “Why not?”

“I can’t fail her.”

His gaze came back to Alexis, expecting to see a very natural anger or jealousy or hurt at his rejection.

Instead he fell into a blue sea of understanding.

“Luke. My love, listen to me very carefully. I’m not trying to take Adelaide’s place. Not anymore.” She put her slender, warm palm against his chest. “I’m not even trying to heal you into forgetting her.”

He gazed down at her hand, the one she’d injured to save his life. His heart beat a little harder against it. “You’re not?”

“No. It’s
right
that you remember her. You loved her, Luke—a part of you still does, or it wouldn’t have been true love. You gave her a piece of your heart, and when she died, she took it with her. That hole is proof of your love. That piece is with her. That’s good, right.”

He swallowed hard. He’d never thought of it that way. “If you’re not trying to replace her or heal my heart, then what do you want?”

“
Kintsugi.
”

“What?”

“You told me about the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery, not to disguise the fact that it’s broken, but to celebrate it. To show off the fact that it’s survived, adorning the cracks with precious metal to make its broken history even more beautiful.”

“I remember.”

“Luke, you have a hole in your heart. I’m not trying to plug it—but it’s still weeping blood. You’re so sad.” She lifted her hand from his heart to cup his face. “You loved her and still love her. But you never talk about her. You try not to think about her—because your most powerful memories are of her death. What I want to do, what I’m hoping I’ll have a lifetime to do, is help you remember the good times. Help your memories around her be happier. In fact, I’ll help you remember her better.”

“Remember her…better?” He couldn’t speak past the lump in his throat. “Everyone tells me to get over her. Get
past
her.”

She nodded. “That’s sensible. ‘Live in the present, not in the past’—good advice
except for those who matter most
.”

His chest froze. “She mattered.”

“She did.” Alexis’s eyes were full of love and understanding. “What was good about her? Celebrate that. Celebrate your love, Luke. I’m not trying to take her place. I’m trying to be the person who helps you remember her. If I’m ever going to share your life, that includes the part that belongs to her. So I want to heal her memory, learn to love her through you—and maybe help you laugh again.”

The lump in his throat…it was his full heart. He cupped her face in turn. “Whatever happens, I want you to know—I love you, Alexis.”

She smiled into his eyes. “I love you too. Every bit of you, even and especially that hole in your heart, because it makes you, you. Because you loved her so completely you gave her a piece of yourself. I want that, with you. I want that depth of love.”

It had started with passion’s bite, but as he gazed at her, he saw the truth of it reflected in her eyes. That his heart was missing a piece, Adelaide’s piece.

Yet he could offer Alexis his heart, knowing it wasn’t whole. That it never could be. Because she’d accept it anyway.

“Yes. We’ll marry, found a household—if you’ll have me.”

“Together.” She took his face in both hands. Cradling his face and his heart in her hands, those healer’s hands, she kissed him.

And then she spoke the words of a healer, not filling in his heart’s hole, but easing the pain of three hundred years.

“We’ll remember her, together. We’ll found a household and a shelter. And we’ll call the shelter Adelaide’s Heart.”

It was perfect and right. He stared into her beautiful eyes and she into his, and he offered to her his heart—broken, but in her eyes even more beautiful because of it.

She smiled, wordlessly giving him her heart in return.

And forever locked into place at last.

About the Author

As a girl, I spun romantic, happily-ever-after stories to get to sleep. A husband, a family, two degrees and a black belt later, I’m delighted to spin them for readers.

I’ve lived with love and loss, in bright times and dark, and learned we can all use a break from reality every now and then.

So join me for action, sparkling humor and red-hot love. Strong men. Stronger women. Hugs!

~Mary

I’d love to hear from you! Write me at
[email protected]
.

Or visit me online!

Website:
www.maryhughesbooks.com

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Witch plus wolf? They’re allergic. Except no one told their hearts.

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Shifters and witches? Forbidden on pain of death. Might as well stick a fork in a light socket. Yet those are the kind of sparks witch princess Sophia Blue feels when she meets wolf shifter Noah in her aunt’s bookstore.

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Warning: Sinfully sexy alpha thrown together with a hot witch in a small town. Sass, sparkle, a meddling aunt, snafus, growling, fighting, and oh yeah, sex. Might want to get up to date on your shots.

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Biting Love,
Book 8

On her first night as a police officer, Sunny Ruffles takes down three felons…only to be attacked by a gang of vampires who are a whole new level of hurt.

Then a mysterious shadow man intervenes, saving Sunny before he disappears. She runs after him, telling herself her pursuit has nothing to do with his sharp, stubbled jaw, his powerful shoulders, or his sexy-as-hell, kissable lips.

Rescuing the humans makes Aiden Blackthorne late for a critical meeting with the vampire Nosferatu’s daughter. Yet clompy, bumbling Sunny draws him back like wild honey. He kisses her, and he’s almost got her down to her underwear when a bomb meant for him explodes.

The last thing Aiden wants is to drag Sunny into his hellish conflict with Nosferatu. But Aiden’s a loner whose only friend has mysteriously disappeared, and the woman who smells and tastes like his mate is the only backup he has left. He’ll need her, everything he is, everything he was—and everything he might have been—to defeat his evil master and claim the love he never dared hope to have.

Warning: This book contains shadowy assassins shooping off vampire heads, cops bumbling in at the worst of times and opposites attracting, colliding, and exploding in lust—a.k.a., explicit fighting, humor, and sex.