Blood Mate Read Online Free

several tables away. He’d
picked a viewing perch where the woman’s back would be to him.
She’d gone stiff in the coffee shop just before she’d turned
around. If she did that now, he wasn’t sure how he’d handle
her—or the witnesses. If she knew he was watching, he’d have to
take her, and that would be a messy event—hard to clean up with so
many people around. And it would do little to convince her to become
his mate.
    August watched the
husband slide a black velvet box across the linen. The vampire
filtered the noise around him to hear their table. It sounded hollow
and tinny, but the content of the conversation was easy enough to
pick up.
    “Happy
anniversary, sweetheart.”
    She opened the box
to reveal a diamond bracelet. Even from such a distance, August knew
the man had good taste. And money. Guilt stabbed at him for what he
was about to do. But it didn’t matter. There was no price too high
to pay, no evil as great as the one he had to do each night to
fulfill the demands of the curse. She would come to understand. She’d
grow to love him so that it would make it all less horrible for her.
Eventually her husband would fade from her mind. Some day it wouldn’t
hurt anymore.
    “Oh, Dominic,
it’s beautiful. Thank you!” She held out her delicate wrist, and
he deftly worked the clasp to put it on her. “I’ll be right back.
I want to see it in a mirror against my dress.” She excused herself
to go to the restroom, and August turned away until she was gone,
then he blazed a path to her vacated seat.
    “Excuse me, but
my wife is… ”
    August took the
man’s hand and captured his gaze, putting the full force of his
power into the thrall. There could be no margin for error. “Listen
to me. You are indifferent to your wife. She annoys you. You wish
she’d go away.”
    Dominic nodded his
agreement, his face taking on that blank stare before clearing, but
August was out the door before he could notice him again.
     
    ***
     
    Nicole admired the
reflection of the bracelet in the mirror. It sparkled so much more
this way. She smiled as she watched the brilliant diamonds dance in
the light. Although it was their tenth anniversary, she hadn’t
expected something so extravagant.
    He’d had it
inscribed. The engraved script on the underside read: So lucky to
have found my soul mate. Many never do. — D
    Dominic’s case
load had been intense these past few months, and she’d assumed
dinner would be it. When had he found time to go to a jewelry store?
She washed her hands, fussed with her hair a second, and swiped a
wand of gloss across her lips. When she was satisfied that everything
was in place, she returned to the table.
    “I ordered for
you,” Dominic said, his eyes trained on his phone.
    “I, uh… okay,
I guess.” She often ordered the same thing at Au Soleil , but
not always. He knew her preferences, but it wasn’t like him to
order for her. It was such an arrogant, controlling, and
condescending thing to do that wasn’t like her husband at all.
Outside of a few light games in the bedroom, he was the most
egalitarian man she’d ever met.
    One of the things
she’d always loved about him was that although he was used to
getting what he wanted, he never treated her like she was a trophy on
his arm. Ordering for her crossed a line where he saw her as a pretty
thing to be seen with rather than a person to be heard.
    She pulled out her
chair and sat, staring at the goblet of water in front of her.
“Dominic… ” she paused, trying to find a way to say it without
sounding like some nagging shrew. She’d never been a nag with him.
Their relationship had hummed along, with both of them being
considerate to the other most of the time. “Dominic, I don’t like
when people order for me.” After a decade together, shouldn’t he
know that?
    He was still
preoccupied with his phone. “Are you kidding, Nicole? You order the
same damn thing everywhere we go. After ten years, I know what