Blood Mate Read Online Free PDF Page A

from
her eyes so she could see Dominic for who he was.
    But that didn’t
make sense. She knew she hadn’t imagined the easy way between her
and her husband, the caring, the jokes, the playful teasing, all the
sex that wasn’t just two bodies joining, but two souls as well. All
of that had stopped on a dime, as if when she’d come from the
bathroom that night at Au Soleil, she’d stepped into a
parallel universe where Dominic didn’t love her, and the only true
evidence that he ever had, that he’d seen her as his soul mate, was
an inscription underneath the bracelet she couldn’t bring herself
to take off. It was all she had left from the other world before
she’d entered this harsh, cold new one.
    She guarded it as
if it were an enchanted talisman that would somehow unlock a door in
reality to take her back to the real world, the one where her husband
still loved her. Sometimes she thought about going back to that
bathroom, of wearing the same dress, of standing in front of the same
mirror, washing her hands, and then walking back out to the table
beside the fountain, and being back in the right world with her
husband smiling up at her, the adoration lighting his face like
sunrise. Maybe this was all some terrible dream.
    “Nicolette,
you’re worlds away.”
    She blinked and
shifted her attention back to the man sitting across from her. “We
were happy, and then… we weren’t happy. And I don’t know what
happened, what I did. It was so sudden, like a switch flipped in
him.”
    “Come to dinner
with me.”
    Her eyes snapped
up to his. “I can’t do that. I’m married.”
    Any man who would
pursue a married woman this doggedly was not a man she wanted to get
involved with. But she didn’t say that out loud. She could never
say it out loud. He was so sad and alone. Like her. It would be cruel
to say something nasty to someone who was suffering. Had he been this
sad when she’d met him? She couldn’t remember. She’d just
needed to get away.
    “How long will
you hold onto a man who neglects you?”
    She focused on the
bracelet, willing it to transport her through time and space to where
the world was right again. “I don’t know. Forever, maybe. He’s
my soul mate.”
    His hand on hers
tightened. “Forever is so much longer than you could ever imagine.
It’s far too long to suffer. Perhaps he’s not your soul mate.
What if someone else is?”
    “And that
someone would be you?” She was sure the skepticism dripped out of
her voice. He may have thought he’d fallen in love at first sight,
but the concept was too esoteric and unreal to her.
    “Sometimes souls
wander centuries before finding one another, then when they do, it’s
in the most mundane way. Give me a chance to put a smile back on your
face. I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
    He talked like
Dominic. Of destiny and soul mates, and the kind of love that spanned
eternities. The kind of love she’d almost believed in, but now no
longer could. Her husband had created the dream and then snuffed it
out, all in the brief span of a decade. So much for forever.
    “I can’t. I’m
not going to cheat on him. I’m not that kind of woman. Thank you
for the coffee, but please don’t bother me again.” She stood and
made a hasty retreat to her car. She’d grocery shop in another part
of town. It wasn’t worth it to return to her cart and risk August
following. There was no part of her that believed he’d just
happened to bump into her today.
     
     

Chapter Four
     
    Another month
passed. August stood among the bushes next to Dominic and Nicolette’s
kitchen window. The husband had just gotten home. He’d been
arriving later each night for weeks now.
    “I made your
favorite.” Nicolette’s voice was hopeful.
    She’d tried
everything to reignite her husband’s interest. Lingerie. Fancy
meals. Theater tickets. But nothing would sway the command the
vampire had embedded in his mind.
    “I ate at the
office,” Dominic said. His voice