• 𝓝𝓸𝓪𝓱 •

When Mae's breathing became deep and even, I forced myself to pull my hand away from her hair. I wanted nothing more than to continue touching her, even though I knew I didn't really have the right.

My twenty four hours to make a move was almost up, and I'd originally been coming to her room to tell her about the ultimatum Luca gave me last night. But when I saw the obvious exhaustion in her eyes, I decided it would be best to wait. When she was tired, it was the equivalent of her being high or drunk. She wouldn't have remembered half of what I said anyway. I wondered if she even remembered what she'd been reading.

I glanced down at the book again. It was marked close to the end. I grabbed it and opened it to the page she'd been reading.

I raised my eyebrows.

His featherlight touches were so at odds with Solomon's rough hands on my hips. He rolled my nipples between two fingers, watching my reaction as his best friend's cock slammed deep within me.

Lord. If that wasn't Luca's idea of sending subliminal messages, I didn't know what was. And it wasn't all that subtle either.

Also why did she stop in the middle of a sex scene? I feel like she would be one to continue until it ended. Unless she was too tired to finish.

I set the book back down, not worrying about putting it back exactly how she had it. She had no issues telling people what kinds of books she read, and I was no stranger to her rants. Hell, she read me a passage once and I couldn't stand up for about ten minutes after because it gave me a raging hard on. Not only because it was her voice reading the words to me, but because I could picture it. I didn't know what the main characters looked like, so I ended up just filling it in.

With us.

Over and over again.

I sighed. I'd kept my feelings from her for too long, and now that I was the one thing she hated, I wondered if she'd ever reciprocate. Luca could give me twenty four hours or twenty four years. If Mae didn't want to be with me - whether that be purely physical or whether it would run deeper - I wouldn't force it. That wasn't the type of person I was. If I was that type of person, I would have done that long ago, before she lost her virginity.

My eyes trailed down her sleeping form. How her hands were curled into light fists, and the way her eyebrows drew together every so often as she dreamt. Even in sleep she couldn't really relax.

She'd asked how to kill a vampire. And while what I said was true, the material of what was used when doing those things mattered. With decapitation, if someone used the wrong material to cut through the throat, the vampire could walk over, grab their head, and hold it in place until the muscle and tissue reattached and healed. To obliterate the heart, it had to be removed from the body whole and burned.

I didn't think she'd kill me. But until I knew that for sure, I couldn't tell her. I'd just have to do my best to protect her. I'd never been a fighter, but I knew that Luca would help me. Kite, however, needed a come to Jesus moment.

His protection was one thing. It was just words and a promise of retribution if anything happened to her. But retribution usually only occured after something happened. If Zero killed her and Luca and I weren't able to stop him...

He needed to step up and actually protect her.

'Luca,' I thought to him.

'That was definitely not long enough for you to get laid,' he thought back. 'Did you bust a nut that early? That's embarrassing for you.'

I bit back a laugh and shook my head as if he could see me. 'No. She's asleep.'

He was silent for a while. 'Yeah okay, continue sometime today, please?'

I pursed my lips. 'She was exhausted because she stayed up all night. Zero scared her yesterday. She doesn't feel safe.'

'Honestly, dude?' I could practically see his shrug. 'I wouldn't either. The prick has been harassing her for years and now he's attacking her.'

Her eyebrows drew together and her lips turned down.

'What can we do,' I asked.

We couldn't kill Zero. Well, Kite could with good cause. But Luca and I were low level vampires, me more so than him.

That was the thing about a vampire's protection. Kite could kill Zero...

But only after Zero killed Mae.

And I hated to say it, but Mae didn't have the ability to kill Zero on her own. She had cause. He killed her kids. He killed me. And the worst part about it was the fact that he knew all of this.

'For some reason, I feel you already have an answer,' he responded. 'Does it involve Kite?'

'It has to involve Kite.' If she was going to trust anyone, besides me and Luca, it had to be Kite. But for that to happen, he had to stop being a dick to her.

'Well, then,' I could hear the amusement as he responded, 'I guess we'll have to talk to the piece of shit, won't we?'