Page 61 of B Positive
I caught him with a savage glare. “Youcannotkeep your priceless family heirloom in my shitty-ass apartment, Julian. Do you know how many break-ins we get a month?”
“From what I understand, not that many after you moved in.”
Well, he had a point there. “Okay, but what about the rules? Doesn’t the diamond have to be somewhere the other clan is allowed to go? And doesn’t the clan only have permission to be in the compound? They can’t just roam the cove freely, can they?”
“No, they cannot. But the building belongs to me and I filed necessary paperwork to name it as one of my satellite offices. If Titus’s people figure out the diamond isn’t here, they aren’t going to know which of my other buildings it’s in. And if they happen to know I just purchased your building, they’d never think I’d keep something so precious in a place so outwardly unfit.”
I stared at him as his words smashed into me like two frat brothers chest-bumping after a winning round of corn hole. Someone always ended up on the ground or had to reorder their beer. Always.
I mean, props for out-of-the-box problem solving. I wouldn’t have thought to keep my loot off the premises to keep it safe from a rival, but hey, I guess that’s why he was the king. I stared at him, the new information putting a bad taste in my mouth.
Even though I was unsure about this whole mate bond thing, the fact that he hadn’t let me have the diamond as some secret symbol of our “meant-to-be-ness” or because he’d accepted the mate bond and was willingly sharing his fortune really pissed me the fuck off.
Did I have a right to feel that way? Absolutely not.
In fact, I hadn’t even known I’d harbored those ridiculous delusions until Julian stated his true motivations.
Didn’t stop me from feeling it, though.
I let out a huff of a sigh. He just wanted a nice place to hide it.
“Are you feeling poorly again? You look—” Julian didn’t finish his sentence.
“You know I can only read your, shall we say, more lascivious thoughts. If something is wrong, Eden, you need to tell me. I cannot pry it from your mind.”
Hmrph. Not yet, at least. Who knew how deep the mate bond thing went? Maybe after we’d completed all the stages, he’d know every passing thought I had.
I didn’t get the option to linger on it further because Julian stood abruptly as the healer, who didn’t bother addressing him properly or fully, entered. He didn’t even bow. Instead, he gave Julian a single head nod and got right to business.
I might like this guy.
“Hello, Ms. Vaughn. I’m Wes. How are you feeling today?”
“No fucking way! Your name’s Wesley?”
Wes was a tall, older vampire who looked like he could have walked right off the set ofGrey’s Anatomy.
He wasn’t my cup of tea at all, but he was hot in a dirty, dad-bod kind of way.
“Er…it is.” He gave me a quick smile and then dutifully cast a glance at Julian.
“Sorry, I’ve just run into a lot of Wesleys lately.”
Again, his gaze darted behind me to Julian’s. So I stood, putting myself between him and the king of vampires. And when I’d drawn his attention fully, I started talking. “I’ve been getting the spins lately.”
He nodded. “I see. And when does it normally seem to happen?”
That, I couldn’t answer. There wasn’t a particular situation that coincided with the spinny head. “I’m not sure. It seems random.”
He nodded again and fiddled around in the brown leather satchel he carried. “And how much blood are you drinking on average?”
“Um, a lot.”
“What is a lot to you, Ms. Vaughn?”
I did some quick Starbucks math—venti cups, three times a day… “Uh, about sixty ounces.”
His gray eyes shot up to stare at me. “A day?” he asked, not bothering to conceal his surprise.