Mia's Return by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

heterosexual.”
    “Sensuality is a broad subject,”
Alexander returned. “The bonding is making you more sensitive to
its wider aspects. Why worry about definitions? Just enjoy the
pleasure. I learned a long time ago—even before I became a
vampire—that people tend to slap labels on things and categorize in
order to feel better about themselves. So I stopped giving people
the information that allowed them to put the labels on me.” He
grinned. “Oh, some of the information leaked out. Women, men,
ménages, toys. But not enough to confirm anything and what did slip
out just confused things.”
    Mia nodded. “I could never pin anything
down. The rumors I heard were vague. Dark.” She smiled.
“Exciting.”
    Alexander’s smile broadened. “You see,
Wyatt? Don’t trouble yourself with labels. Has anything I’ve done
to you felt bad? Have you objected to any of it?”
    Wyatt licked his lips. “No,” he
croaked.
    “Then what happened—what will
happen—between the three of us is of our concern and no one
else’s.”
    Wyatt nodded. “I can live with
that.”
    “It’s how Zack and Lindál live with it,
I’m sure.”
    “They’re lovers?”
    “Not openly but I believe the bonding
has made them so, yes.” Alexander shrugged. “The signs are there if
you know what to look for but they don’t declare it publicly, so
I’ve never said anything. I doubt Diego, for instance, has
noticed.”
    “Vampires and elves were mortal
enemies,” Wyatt breathed.
    “And you thought all vampires were
worth less than spit,” Alexander reminded him. “I think the forces
that work behind this bonding process turn our weaknesses against
us and make them our strengths.”
    “What’s your weakness then?” Wyatt
asked.
    Alexander shrugged, as if the answer
was self-evident. “Mia. She got me killed once. I’d die for her
again, if I could. Once this bonding process is done, Wyatt, I have
a feeling that you will be part of that equation too.”
    Wyatt drew a deep breath.
    “Too much truth for you?” Mia asked
him.
    He glanced at her. “Yes,” he admitted.
“After being alone for so long, being suddenly included and so
deeply….” He stood, streaming water and reached for a towel. “Let’s
finish this,” he said roughly.
    “Are you sure?” Alexander asked,
sitting up.
    Mia’s heart raced and her pulse leapt.
She stood too. “I’m ready,” she said, although she wasn’t entirely
sure she spoke the truth. But then she looked at Alexander and knew
she was ready to stay with him for as long as fate would let
her, no matter what it took. She took a breath. “Let’s do
this.”
* * * * *
    Mia’s heart began to hammer as she
climbed the stairs to the big loft that was Alexander’s bedroom,
wrapped in Alexander’s bathrobe. The room he used to store clothes
and personal possessions but not for sleeping, for Alexander did
not sleep.
    There was a king-sized bed with a
mussed cover in a deep russet color and tossed pillows. Wyatt had
been there. She was about to ask why Alexander had a bed at all but
realized that the bed was the same as all the other human props—it
allowed him to blend in with humans and go unremarked among
them.
    Alexander was behind her and her pace
must have slowed, for his hands fell on her hips. Then he scooped
her up from behind as she took her second pace into the room.
“Wedding jitters?” he asked.
    “Didn’t we just do the wedding?” she
asked. “This feels more like honeymoon nerves.”
    “Let’s fix that.” He laid her on the
bed and kissed her, then drew the oversized robe open. “I’m buying
you a robe in your size. You look like Orphan Annie in mine and the
closest I’ve ever seen you to looking like a genuine
sixteen-year-old.”
    Wyatt chuckled as he climbed onto the
bed. “All you’re missing is a pout.”
    “I’ve never pouted in my life.” Mia was
already responding to the two men poised on either side of her. Her
breasts were heavy with promise, the tips