She turned to face him and cringed when she saw he had the several cuts over his face, neck, and arms. They must have been fairly decent cuts to not have healed yet. “Are you okay?” James asked and Lily looked at him confused. He was asking her if she was okay.
“What?” She said confused, the adrenaline leaving her feeling weak and tired in its absence. James gave her a small grin and nodded for them to continue walking.
“Are you okay,” he repeated. “Tony was out of line, he shouldn’t have tried to control you like that,” he explained, falling in step with her and Lily scoffed in disbelief. “No, I’m serious Lily. Okay, in any other person I could see where Tony would think they were rude but you? Hell, that was tame for you,” he told her and she gave him another look of disbelief.
“You didn’t get your fangs out, you didn’t call him stupid or anything get violent. You just asked if he could imagine Silvano living in the woods. It was a valid question and besides I’d say you know more about the leech than any one of us,” James continued and Lily shook her head and let her chin droop towards her chest.
“I punched the table and broke it, hurting everyone sitting there. How is that not violent?” Lily shot back and James laughed.
“Hurt? It’s a few cuts that will be gone in a matter of minutes,” James argued. “And you didn’t get violent until after he decided to try to alpha you into obedience,” he reasoned but Lily wasn’t convinced. “Let’s go check out the sewers,” James suddenly announced then handed a piece of rope to Lily. “Qin Xuan gave me this to give to you. It’s to replace the one you cut. She thinks that Silvano may have been able to get to you as much as he did because you cut the other charm.”
“When did you meet her?” She asked, tying the rope around her neck and noticing that James had one wrapped several times around his right wrist.
“This morning when she came over to give Tony the charms she made for us,” James replied and then grinned. “She is something. Is she that excited all the time?” He asked with a laugh. Lily couldn’t resist a grin, and told him that she was. “I don’t think I’ve seen Chris happier.” Lily continued to smile, thinking of the two.
“She’s been really good for him,” Lily replied. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Chris. They walked in silence, but she noticed that James seemed nervous and was almost fidgeting. She was about to demand what was bothering him when he spoke.
“You know, I’ve uh kind of been thinking,” he started, scratching the back of his head with a somewhat nervous expression on his face. Lily nodded for him to continue and he gave her a brief smile. “Um I’ve been thinking about you know what you said about using the mate bond…” Lily’s head shot up and she looked over at James.
“What about it?” She asked with her own hesitation and he shrugged, glancing over at her then at the ground just before them. “And if you say, “you know” one more time I’m going give you a smack on the back of your head,” she told him, giving him a smile to show that she was only joking. He laughed and shrugged but looked more relaxed.
“I thought that it might be a good idea and I’m willing to give it a shot,” James said and Lily couldn’t believe her ears. “I know what I said,” he jumped in before she could say anything. “The mate bond is something special and should never be used for convenience but…” he paused then looked over at her. “I like you Lily and I want us to be together. I don’t mind waiting for you to be ready for that but if Silvano has his way I won’t ever get that chance.”
“James don’t,” Lily told him, holding her hand up for him to pause. “Don’t make decisions out of fear of what might happen tomorrow. I’ve been down that road and it sucks,” she said, stopping at a manhole, deciding this was a good place to start as any. “I made that suggestion out of fear and I realize I was wrong to even suggest it. You want the mate mark and the one who wears it to mean something and that’s the way it should be.”
Lily walked to the center of the street and kneeled by the manhole cover, worming her finger into the triangular hole and started to lift it. “I’m not making a decision out of fear,” James said, kneeling next to her and she gave a breathy laugh as she gripped the cover from the small gap she had made.
“Yes, you are James. You’re acting on the fear that Silvano might win this and ruining the very slim chance that I may go insane and want you to use me as a chew toy.” Lily gave him another teasing smile and he gave her a glare, but the smile on his face showed his amusement. “I’ve got Qin Xuan’s charm. It should do the trick so need to worry your little head about it,” she told him and grabbed the cover with one hand on each side then tossed it to the side.
Positioning herself with the ladder, Lily started down into the dark sewer tunnel. “It should, but we don’t know that it will,” James started when he joined her in the tunnel. “Wow, it really smells down here!” He waved his hand and Lily couldn’t resist a small shutter. “I don’t think I even want to know what this water is.”
“Anything but water I bet,” she said with a laugh, cringing slightly when it echoed through the tunnel. “I’m not sure I can get a good scent through this, what about you?” James took a couple of sniff with a wrinkled nose.
“If the vampires have been down here I’ll catch their scent. It just may take me a while to adjust to the… other smells,” he replied and Lily took a few steps to the left when James cleared his throat for her attention. “Going back to our conversation. Lily, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do everything I could to help protect you,” he explained.
Lily started to tell him that she didn’t need his protection and he didn’t owe her anything, but he stopped her. “Just know that that I’m willing to mark you and make the mate bond between us again and I know that it wouldn’t mean you’re agreeing to anything but accepting what little protection it could offer,” he explained and she wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she thought about it
“Besides,” James said, breaking her from her thoughts and Lily looked up from the ground and to him. “How could I not take up the chance to sleep with you?” He said with a sly grin and a wink. Lily’s jaw dropped in surprise as she gawked at him causing her to trip over something. He grabbed her forearm and kept her from falling. Just as she regained her footing, he suddenly leaned over till his lips were a mere inch from her ear.
In a heavily suggestive whisper, he told her. “If I’m honest, I really missed the feel of your body against mine.” With that, James stepped away from her with a chuckle and walked ahead but not before she saw the smug and confident grin on his face. Lily actually felt her face flush, her belly tighten, and surprise paralyzed her. Out of all the things she had expected him to say that had never been one of them and what was more concerned her was her reaction to them.
James resisted a gag as he took in a deep breath through his nose. They had been down in the sewers for an hour now and still the stench got to him. He tried to focus on the task at hand, but thoughts of Lily and their conversation as they entered the sewers kept running through his head. He wasn’t sure exactly what effect his words had on her. Her scent hadn’t given away much other than her shock and her body language told him even less.
“He’s been all through here,” Lily said from where she stood beside him, snapping him back to the reason they were walking around these tunnels in the first place.
“Greg was right to think about the sewers,” he replied, trying to separate and organize all the scents, but it was difficult with all the foul smells. His nose and mind wanted to reject any smells that mixed with the stench and that made it hard to catalog the other smells.
“Yeah, it’s too bad my brother wouldn’t listen to him,” she said with a sigh then she took in a deep breath then suddenly started coughing and gagging so hard he was sure she was going to lose her lunch. “Ugh, I can’t stand this any longer and we’re not really getting anywhere since he’s been in almost all of these tunnels at one point or another,” she complained and he gave her a cheeky grin but in all honesty, had to agree with her.