Mia’s breath caught at the promise of his words. “Brilliant idea.”
“And we’ll put an observatory at the top, for you.”
She flung her arms around his neck. He inhaled her rose scent as well as the potent aroma of his blood coursing within her while he held her close. The bond between them was complete. Being mated wasn’t something he’d really considered for himself. It wasn’t something he’d dreaded happening to him either, like Jack, but he’d also known it was something that might never happen to him.
It had happened though, and there wasn’t a thing he would do to change it.
“My present for you is nowhere near as lavish as these telescopes and a house,” she whispered in his ear, sounding almost ashamed. “I wanted to buy you something for your boat, but….”
But she hadn’t had the money, and despite their bond she still felt as if she had nothing, he realized. He’d been so focused on finding spare time to help Jack, Mike, and Doug get everything for this place set up that he hadn’t stopped to think she would want to buy presents for others too, and that she wouldn’t have the money to do so. It was something he would soon remedy.
“Everything that’s mine is yours too, Mia.”
“David—”
“I’ve done well over the years. We all have. Between buying and selling real estate, stocks, bonds, funding tech companies and medical companies, I’ve made a lot of money, and it’s yours. I was so busy concentrating on getting this ready for you in time for Christmas that I forgot to think about you. I’ll give you the information for my checking accounts. You’ll have access to those funds today, and sometime soon we’ll sit down and go over everything else together.”
“I can take care of myself,” she replied and cringed when pain slashed across his face. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that. You have to understand that I’ve only had myself to rely on for years now. It’s difficult for me to learn and accept something different. I’m not used to having another to rely on and I don’t want charity. I want to earn things for myself.”
“I do understand that,” he said quietly. “But now it’s time for you to experience something different. This isn’t charity, this is us building a life and a future together. I’m inside you, and you’re inside me for as long as we live. You’re my mate, Mia.”
“Yes, I am,” she whispered as she tenderly kissed his lips. “It’s going to take me some time to adjust to having someone to count on again, and to not have to worry about how I’m going to make it through every day, but I will.”
“I know.” He pulled back to look at her. “Besides, a Christmas present doesn’t matter. You’re the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”
“I believe you, but everyone should have something to unwrap on Christmas.”
“You can put on every piece of lingerie you own throughout today and I will gladly unwrap you over and over again.”
She laughed as she gripped his shoulders. “I can do that, but I think we should get back to the others now. Those kids have to be dying to open their presents.”
Sera had told her the day before that they would wait until all the family was gathered together before opening the presents. She knew that included David, and now her.
David eased his grip on her and set her down on the mattress. “Damn kids,” he muttered.
“You wouldn’t know what to do without them.”
“I wouldn’t,” he admitted as he slid to the end of the bed and rose.
Mia bit her lip as she watched him stalk over and snag his jeans off the floor. Every muscle in his body flowed with supple grace as he moved. His ass was so firm she could bounce a quarter off it, and she decided to give it a try tonight. Her hands itched to hold him again, to feel him moving over her as he had early this morning, but if she did that they would never leave here.
Mia tore her gaze away from him and climbed out of bed to retrieve her clothes. “There’s somewhere I’d like to go tomorrow,” she said as she slid her bra on.
“Where?” David asked.
Mia stared at the slats of the wooden floor before lifting her head to look at him. “You’ll see.”
David frowned, but he didn’t push her on it. She would let him know when she was ready. “Then we will go.”
CHAPTER 16
Mia took the mugs of steaming hot chocolate from Sera and set them on the tray next to other mugs Sera had made.
“This is a habit left over from my human days,” Sera said to her. “It never seems like Christmas until I’ve had some hot cocoa. David and I may be the only ones who still drink it, but I always make enough for everyone.”
Sera’s eyes twinkled as she handed Mia another mug. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever tried it?”
“I haven’t,” Mia admitted. “But it does smell better than a lot of other human foods I’ve encountered.”
“That’s the chocolate, and the marshmallows. You should try a sip. If you’ve never had chocolate, you’re missing out.”
Mia stared at the mug in her hand and sniffed cautiously at the thick brown liquid inside. Sera wouldn’t steer her wrong, but she’d never eaten human food before. Though she supposed technically it was a liquid, and she’d tried alcohol before. The alcohol hadn’t been too bad, but this brown stuff with the white puffs floating in it made her a little uncertain.
She glanced up as Sera turned away and removed a tray of cookies from the oven. The cookies smelled good, but Mia wanted nothing to do with the Santa shapes on the cookie sheet. The smoky scent of the crackling fire drifted into the kitchen to mingle with the aromas of the sugar cookies and chocolate.
“Does anyone eat those?” she inquired.
“No,” Sera sighed. “Not even me anymore, but it wouldn’t be Christmas without the smell of them. I started baking them with oats a while ago. The kids throw them outside for the deer at the end of the day.”
Sera closed the oven and wiped her hands on her apron. Mia was closer in age to Sera’s children, and all the kids were friendly and welcoming, but the siblings’ bonds with each other were extremely tight. Sera was their mother, and though she looked the same age as her children, and they were closer than most families Mia had encountered over the years, Sera maintained that motherly role.
Sera had friends there, with the Stooges, but Mia sensed that Sera had also been missing out on having a friend of her own. One who was separate from her husband’s childhood friends, and her children’s mates.
Mia had never really had a friend, but she’d started to consider Sera one. She welcomed Sera’s warmth and openness in her life. She hadn’t realized she’d been craving a friend to talk and laugh with over the years until now.
Mia blew on the steam wafting up from the mug and took a cautious sip of the liquid. Her lips pursed when it filled her mouth. She tried to swallow it down, but her throat closed against it. Leaning over the mug, she discreetly spit it back in.
She lifted her head to find Sera watching her with her lips compressed, her face turning red as she tried not to laugh. “Just like my kids. No taste.” Sera chuckled and took the mug from her to pour it down the sink “Apparently purebred vampires have no appreciation for sweet things.”
“Is that what you consider sweet?”
“Yeah,” Sera said as she lifted another mug, blew on it, and took a sip. “At one time, it was definitely sweet.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m not sure,” Sera admitted with a sigh.
“I’ll take the tray into the other room for you, if you’d like?” Mia offered.
“No, even David didn’t take more than a sip of it last year.” Sera placed her mug on the counter as a burst of laughter erupted from the living room. “But they’ll all still drink the eggnog, if I pour enough rum into it.”
“Rum would make the hot chocolate go down better too.”
“Maybe one day I’ll let the last of these human things go.”
“Don’t,” Mia said. “Traditions are good.”
“They are,” Sera agreed. “And you’ll be a part of them from now on.”
“At least next year, I’ll know not to try the hot chocolate.”
Sera laughed and leaned her hip against the counter. “I’m glad you’ve completed the bond. Liam will let David near me again now.”
“They are possessive,” Mia said, “and protective.”
“Are they ever!” Sera agreed as the haunting melody of a Christmas Carol began to play on the baby grand piano in the living room. Mia didn’t know who was playing the song, and she couldn’t place it, but it was beautiful. “Come on, maybe we can talk Cassidy into singing for us. She may be my devil child, but she sings like an angel. No idea where she got her voice from either. She got the devil spirit from her father though.”
Mia laughed and walked out of the room with Sera. Her eyes instantly found David, standing near the fireplace with Liam, Jack, and Mike. Her heart gave a stuttering beat. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to seeing him and knowing he belonged to her. His mouth quirked in a sexy smile when he spotted her. Her fingers itched to brush away the strand of blond hair falling boyishly across his forehead and into one of his eyes.
Nope, she would never get used to seeing him, or the way he could make her toes curl with a smile.
David stopped speaking mid-sentence when Mia stepped out of the kitchen, and his gaze fixated on her. He’d never seen her look more radiant than she did with the color high on her cheeks and her deep red sweater hugging her body. The scent of his blood flowing through her cut through all the other aromas in the room.
“Ugh, I hate this mating shit,” Jack muttered from beside him, breaking the spell Mia cast over him every time David saw her.
Mike laughed while Liam and David gave Jack dark looks. “I can’t wait for it to happen to you,” Liam said.
“Bite your fucking tongue. I’ll never be some whipped sap who gets led around by a woman,” Jack replied, then walked over to stand beside the piano as Doug continued to play, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
“If Jack finds his mate, I hope she leads him around by his balls,” Liam said.
David nodded his agreement. “His tongue would be preferable.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and she won’t let him talk,” Mike said.
“One can hope,” Liam replied, and the three of them laughed.
“I would love to see it happen to him,” Mike said, taking a sip of his eggnog.
“What about you?” David asked.
Mike shrugged, but a look of longing crossed his face before he quickly composed his expression once more. David suspected being mated was something Mike might enjoy, or want. Over the years, Mike had always seemed content to go from one relationship to the next, but there was something in his eyes now that David had never seen before. Mike lowered his arm off the mantle and straightened away from the fireplace.
“I’m glad it’s been settled between you and Mia,” Mike said to him.
“For the most part,” David said. “There will still be things to deal with, but….”
David’s attention was drawn back to Mia as she made her way toward him. She still avoided bumping into anyone, but her body was nowhere near as rigid around others as it had once been. A smile lit her face when she stopped to speak with Paige and Emma for a minute.
“But?” Liam prodded.
“But she’s mine and nothing will ever change that.” David hadn’t meant the words to come out as a growl, but they did.
“No, it won’t.” Liam clapped him on the shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “You’re in for one hell of a ride.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he replied as Mia continued toward him.
He opened his arms to her, she slid into his embrace and encircled her arms around his waist. She rested her cheek on his chest and hugged him. No one had commented on her touching him so openly, but David knew it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
David rested his chin on her head and gazed around the room as Sera guided Cassidy toward the piano. Cassidy scowled at her mother, but she reluctantly stepped up to the piano and bent to speak into Doug’s ear. Doug finished the song he was playing before beginning “O Holy Night.”
Everyone within the room froze, and even little Lev stilled in Emma’s arms when Cassidy’s voice filled the air. Mia’s heart leapt into her throat as the lanky, young girl started to sing. She’d never heard a voice so lovely and pure before. Tears pricked at her eyes as Cassidy’s voice rose higher to fill the room with its haunting beauty.
When the last note faded away, everyone remained unmoving and hushed until a log in the fire popped. Then a raucous round of cheers and clapping erupted around the room. Cassidy crossed her legs and gave a sweeping bow before switching her leg position and doing it again. Her pretty face glowed as her blue eyes surveyed the room.
“Sing, “Frosty the Snowman” next!” Hope yelled.
Helpless to do anything but obey, Doug began to play and Cassidy started to sing once more. Mia pressed closer against David as happiness encompassed her. This was her family now. It was time she said good-bye to her past and embraced her future.
***
Mia rose from the bed and walked over to the telescopes facing the wall of glass. Behind her, she heard David shift his weight as he sat up on the bed. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Getting your gift.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve gifted me right into dehydration these past couple hours,” he replied.
Glancing over her shoulder at him, she was unable to stop herself from laughing at the satisfied smirk on his face. “You pounced on me before I could give you your present, and Christmas is over now.”
“I didn’t hear any protests from you when I pounced.”
“That’s because I like it when you pounce.”
“Damn right you do.”
Mia bent to press her eye to the eyepiece of the telescope. She adjusted it to point toward Ursa Major. From there, she searched out a small star to the right of the constellation and focused on it.
“Come here,” she said, then stepped away from the telescope.
Rising to his feet, he stalked toward her. The predatory glint in his eyes had her biting her bottom lip to keep from pouncing on him.
“Aren’t you tired?” she asked as his cock stiffened with every step he took.
“I was, until you bent over in front of me. You have an irresistible ass.”
“You are an irresistible ass,” she retorted.
His teeth flashed as he stopped before her. Mia’s gaze ran over his honed body until she had to tip her head back to look up at him. He was magnificent, and every inch of him was hers.
“I am,” he agreed.
Mia rolled her eyes and waved at the telescope. “Take a look.”
Bending, he placed his eye against the lens. “The Big Dipper.”
“Yes. Do you see the small star in the center of the telescope?”
“I do.”
“That’s yours.”
He stared through the lens for a second longer before rising to peer questioningly down at her. “I have a star?”
“Yes.”
Mia clasped her hands behind her back, her fingers fiddling anxiously as she watched him. The stars were more her thing than his, but she’d wanted to do something for him for Christmas. She had some money in her bank account, but she hadn’t dared to touch it. She had no idea how much the vampires who had taken her prisoner knew about her, and she wasn’t about to risk them finding her somehow. Instead of using her own money, she’d applied for a credit card under a fake name, fibbed about her yearly income, and bought a star for him.
At the time, paying off the card had been a problem for another day, but David had given her access to his bank accounts before they’d come to their secluded spot again. After she’d gotten over the staggering amount of money in those accounts, and the realization that he really did want her to spend that money, she’d paid off th
e credit card and set up a large, monthly donation to the nearest shelter specializing in homeless teens. As soon as she was more settled, she would start volunteering at that shelter as often as she could.
“Yes. I… I had it named after you. I know you’re not really into stargazing,” she blurted out. “And next year—”
Her words were abruptly cut off when he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground. He strode across the room to the bed with her locked against his chest.
“It’s perfect,” he told her. “Every time you look at the stars, you’ll be thinking of me, looking for me. And you look up there pretty often.”
“You really like it?” she asked as she rested her hand against his cheek.
He turned to nuzzle her palm with his lips. His happiness thrummed through the bond connecting them as he lifted his head from her hand and bent to nibble at her bottom lip. “I love it. You gave me a star.”
His tongue swept leisurely over her lips before sliding in to take possession of her mouth.
CHAPTER 17
David didn’t ask where they were going as Mia drove out of Maine and into New York. She hadn’t said their destination, but before they crossed over into Connecticut, he had begun to suspect her intent as her body became increasingly tensed and she stopped speaking with him. Stretching his legs out, he watched as homes and trees passed by in a blur before they entered a small town.
Despite the chill of winter, there were a few people strolling leisurely up and down the street and ducking into stores. The diner on the corner was packed with the lunch crowd. Cars lined the street as people sought to enjoy the rest of their holiday time off. At the rotary in the center of the town, a group of children was busy rolling a giant ball for a snowman. Their laughter filled the air as their breaths plumed around them. Mia drove them by a movie theatre and a fast food place before passing a small strip mall.
“It’s different than it used to be,” Mia murmured as she gazed at the town that was so familiar yet strangely not. “More built up.”
Fractured (Vampire Awakenings, Book 6) Page 15