A sharp wrench took place in her stomach. “Why?”
“Why?” He sounded incredulous. “Everything you’ve been dreaming about lies in the other direction. With someone else. I’m not going to be selfish with your future. That’s the thing about having a mate. Their happiness is the most important thing.”
“No. That’s the thing about having Tucker for a mate. Don’t talk as if everyone out there is just like you. Or like you’re operating under some universal code. It’s who you are.”
He said nothing, but the swell of his concentrated longing for her hung in the air.
It had been there all along. But it had a name now.
Mate.
I’m his mate.
And she was going to seduce him.
It was the only way he would accept the once-in-a-lifetime pleasure she represented.
Anticipation crackled in her nerve endings as she scooted to the edge of the bed, letting the dress ride up high on her thighs. “Will you tell me what your old room looks like?”
His voice came out sounding like a painted-over window being pried open. “Of course.” Floorboards groaned, but he moved farther away, not closer. “Well I told you before I look like a linebacker and once upon a time, I’ll have you know, all this cushioning wasn’t just for show. There are a couple of football trophies sitting on my dresser by the window. Regional champions 1999. On your left. There’s some Entourage DVDs stacked on a shelf to your right. Not too proud of that. Lot of muscle car posters.” He chuckled under his breath, but it faded away quickly. “There’s a ukulele in the corner that belonged to my mother.”
“Do you play it?”
“She taught me one song when I was eleven. There’s no way I remember it.” Mary was going to let him get away with that, but a twang of strings told her he’d picked up the instrument. A second later, he strummed it, releasing a series of dull notes into the room. “It’s old and out of tune, but, uh…”
It was during the second chorus of You Are My Sunshine that Mary realized she was in love with Tucker. His voice was deep and almost conversational, the way he spoke the lyrics, reminding her a little of the Johnny Cash she’d occasionally hear drifting up the stairs from Enders. Smoky and warm and Tucker, through and through. And she loved him. God, she did.
That compelling initial connection between them had turned to a bond that couldn’t be severed. Not by time or distance or marriage to another. But this love? It was separate from that. Perhaps it ran parallel, but it was based entirely on a deep, breathless appreciation for every single trait that comprised this vampire. His humble attitude, his loyalty, his heart. His voice, his guardian’s energy and the fact that he could admit when he was wrong.
I love you.
She ached to say those words out loud. Did she dare?
Yes, she’d started thinking in terms of if. If she married Hadrian. What if she chose her family, her sight over Tucker? Then she would leave him without a mate and with the knowledge that his mate had fallen in love with him? Could he survive that pain?
Mary made a rough sound in her throat and Tucker stopped playing abruptly. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she managed, swallowing hard. “How long until sunrise?”
“Just under three hours. Then I guess I’ll be spending the day in the storm cellar until we leave for the final stretch of the trip.”
“I’ll spend it with you.” Loath to think about the final anything with Tucker, she held out her hand to be helped off the bed, giving him no choice but to touch her, though she could sense his hesitation. As if he sensed her determined mood, but didn’t quite know the cause. “Will you take me for a walk?”
His big fingers jolted slightly against hers, before firming, holding her hand in a protective grip. “Of course,” he said dryly, guiding her to the door.
“You sound…funny.”
They walked side by side down the hallway, but it must have been narrow, because her hip kept brushing his upper thigh. “It’s just that on the way here, I was thinking…this felt kind of normal. Bringing home a girl to meet your father. Spending the night in separate rooms—”
“Why?”
“Ah, it’s just a tradition, I guess. A sign of respect. When you’re an unmarried couple, you sleep apart under your parents’ roof. Especially if the girl’s father is in residence. Then you sleep your ass on the couch or wake up to a shotgun in the face. Come to think of it, I think most of this knowledge is coming from romantic comedies I watched in the nineties. Watch your step. There’s two of them.”
Mary smiled. “I still like it. Especially that you felt normal.”
A breeze coasted over her face, telling her they were outside. Before she could even shiver, Tucker had draped his jacket around her shoulders, taking her hand again. “Then I thought, if this was normal and we were a human couple, we’d probably sneak out in the middle of the night to be together.”