“Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall,” I replied and tightened my grip on her.
She tilted her head back and looked me directly in the eyes. Her eyes were so gorgeous and bottomless, almost like I could dive into them and never come back. A smile twitched at her lips, adding extra sparkle to her eyes. Her hand drifted from my shoulder to my neck. Her fingertip trailed along the edge of my jawbone in the short scruff that grew there.
Goosebumps broke out under her fingers, which was an impossible reaction in vampires. We didn’t get cold, so we lacked the ability to respond in that manner—or so I thought. Before I could process that any further, she responded, “I know you won’t let me fall. I trust you.”
It was then I realized that against my earlier advice, she was staring straight into my eyes. I made a conscious effort to not allow charm to churn. I gave her a brief smile then playfully scolded her, “I thought I told you to never look directly into a vampire’s eyes. It isn’t safe.”
She smirked. “I just told you I trust you.”
Her complete trust in me stunned me. And it created a bigger shift inside. “Trusting me doesn’t make it safe for you.”
Or for me.
To break the hold her eyes had on mine, I pulled her close, so her head rested against me. Her fingers absentmindedly traced designs on the skin of my neck. It incited more shifting in my heart. If she kept it up, it might create a need for some physical shifting in my pants as well. I was already beginning to grow a little uncomfortable, and I knew I needed a distraction.
Before I could think of something to say, thankfully she spoke, “It looks as if my friend, Lucy, finally got some time with Mr. Victor.”
“Oh, she was seeking Victor?”
“Yes. She’s in interior design and is hoping Victor can help her with that.”
“Perhaps he could. What is it you hope to get out of this . . . experience, Celesta?” I asked.
A look flickered through her eyes, and her body stiffened slightly. A second later it seemed as if she forced herself to relax. A smile danced across her face again but didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Well, I’ll be finishing up my marketing degree next year, so I’m hoping to network and make some contacts who can help me land a good job.”
“I see. There are a lot of good contacts to be made here tonight.” I peered around the room, taking in all the men who could possibly help her.
“I’m seeing that. So, Toven, what do you do?”
I dipped her low in my arms then answered, “I dabble in a lot of areas with my corporation, but my passion is writing music.”
“Anything I might know?” One eyebrow lifted in question.
“Perhaps I’ll show you some of my work someday.”
She shook her head with a laugh. “So mysterious.”
She rested her head back against me as the current song flowed into another. I changed up our dance steps to better fit the notes flooding the room. I felt her smile against me as she took the dance change in stride.
We continued to dance for a few more songs. I knew I should let her go, but I just couldn’t get my body to move away from her. And why was it that before now, all those songs about love made me nauseous? Yet the song playing now spoke of how love was the sweetest thing, and I was smiling and humming along? Perhaps Bono had been on to something after all.
♪ Sweetest Thing by U2
“I’m sorry that I’m monopolizing your time,” I murmured in her ear.
“Nonsense, I’m enjoying dancing with you.”
“I don’t want to keep you from getting whatever proposal you’re hoping for.”
“Dancing with you is the only time I’ve felt relaxed all evening. As for the proposals, they will be what they will be.”
Silver tinkling against crystal interrupted us. We stepped apart and turned to the front.
Circe surveyed the room. “It’s now ten o’clock. Gentlemen, please step out into the conference area to draw up your proposals. Once you submit them, go wait on the tenth floor in meeting room number two. If fortune smiles on you, you’ll be leaving with your selection by midnight.”
“I must go now, my shining star.” I grinned down at her.
“Goodbye, Toven. Thank you for making the evening enjoyable.”
“Till we meet again.” I kissed her cheek and walked away, my lips tingling at the brief contact and my body yearning for more.
6
Celesta
I brought my hand to my cheek, feeling the lingering softness of his lips pressed to my skin as I watched him walk away. In my mind, I was never going to see him again. He was just supposed to live in my fantasies. What were the odds he’d be a client of B.I.T.-10?
I had no idea he was a vampire when I met him yesterday. His hands were warm when they steadied me. He didn’t look me over like he wanted to eat me. And it was the middle of the afternoon when I bumped into him. I thought vampires couldn’t go out in the sun. What other misconceptions did I have about them?
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I needed to focus on what I’d do if things worked out with Victor. I’d spoken with him, and he seemed very interested in me. He didn’t really speak of a proposal which would utilize my skill set, so I wasn’t sure what sort of proposal he might come up with. But I was certain he was attracted to me, or at least my blood.
When we chatted earlier, he’d stood uncomfortably close to me, touching me at every opportunity—brushing my arm, touching my hand, clasping my shoulder, tucking loose strands of hair behind my ear. Every few moments he’d lean over and inhale deeply as if sniffing a fine wine. It took everything in me not to shudder during the time I spent with him. The way he stared at me made me feel like I needed a shower to wash away the dirt left by his leering.
I wasn’t sure how I’d survive any significant time alone with him under contract. Before I could think about it anymore, Lucy came up to me. “You survived,” she said with a grin.
“Yeah, but weren’t there strict rules in place tonight to keep us safe?”
“True. But you didn’t run away screaming.” She giggled.
“Very true.” I laughed. “I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but it wasn’t this. This wasn’t too bad. Speaking of not too bad, I saw you dancing with Victor earlier.”
She blushed. “Yeah. He seemed really interested in me. I think he’ll submit a proposal for me to consider.”
“What happens if a client’s proposal is rejected? Does he get to submit a proposal for someone else? And what if one of the girls doesn’t get any offers?”
“Not that you have anything to worry about, but the clients can submit several proposals. Sometimes proposals can be for multiple girls or a couple of girls for different jobs. They can word their offers any way they want, and we can accept or reject them. Typically, Ms. Thomas won’t allow us to accept multiple offers at once,” she explained.
“Why not?” I frowned.
“It could put us in a dangerous situation. Vampires don’t generally form long-term attachments, especially to humans. But they are territorial over what’s theirs while it’s theirs.”
“So, they don’t share well?”
“Exactly. If a client doesn’t get any offers accepted and there are girls who didn’t get or accept any offers, Ms. Thomas will try to foster an agreement, so everyone gets something out of this.”
“Including B.I.T.-10.”
“You know it. So, I saw you dancing with tall, dark, and handsome.” She waggled her eyebrows at me.
I blushed deeply as I went back a few moments in my mind to when I was embraced within Toven’s arms. It was completely unexpected how safe I felt dancing with a predator. Would a gazelle enjoy a dance with a lion?
It didn’t have to make sense. I only knew I didn’t want the music to stop. I’d dance with the lion any day, as long as the lion was Toven.
“You must mean Toven.”
“He is a very skilled dancer. You two looked amazing moving across the dan
ce floor. You both seemed completely unaware of anything except the music and each other,” Lucy gushed.
“Sounds about right. Dancing with him seemed to erase all other thoughts from my mind. I only focused on my feet and how it felt to be twirled around like a beautiful princess.” I giggled.
“I think he might submit a proposal for you.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you know about him?” I couldn’t hide my curiosity.
“Nothing really. Though he’s been asked to join B.I.T.-10’s client list for years, he’s always said no until now. He’s very wealthy and sexy in a way there aren’t even words for.” She fanned herself.
“The only things I know about him is that his mother taught him to dance and he writes music.”
“Maybe you’ll get a chance to solve the mystery that is him.” She bumped my shoulder with hers as we moved closer to the door.
“Perhaps. What will you do if you get multiple offers?”
“I’ll look at them closely and weigh the money and experience. And I’ll try to make sure I’d be comfortable with their expectations.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d try to examine their kinks and make sure I could deal with what they’d ask of me.”
I hadn’t even considered kinks. I’d seen Fifty Shades of Grey. I was not into those sorts of things, I didn’t think. “Do all of them have kinks?”
“Well, I haven’t been with many clients yet. But most of them seem to have kinks and preferences beyond vanilla.”
“I see.” I swallowed nervously. Not only would I potentially have to have sex with a vampire, I might have to have kinky sex with a vampire. This was so beyond what I had imagined.
“I guess when you’ve lived hundreds of years, vanilla gets boring and you have to be inventive,” she said nonchalantly.
“I guess.” Even if it made sense, I was still nervous. I didn’t know much, but I was pretty sure I’d like the taste of vanilla.
Before I could ask for more explicit details, Circe’s assistant walked in.
“Ladies, please take the elevators down to the tenth floor and wait in meeting room one. Ms. Thomas will call each of you in individually to go over your proposals with you.”
We quietly filed out of the beautiful room and into the elevators. The trip down was oddly quiet, but the air buzzed with anticipation. Each girl seemed to be looking forward to finding out her offers. In contrast, I felt sick to my stomach. I wasn’t sure how I was going to follow through with this. No matter what the offers, I didn’t know if I could give myself to anyone in the way that’d be required as a caveat of the contract.
We arrived at the tenth floor and followed the assistant to a large meeting room. Circe waited for us in there.
“Great job tonight, ladies. Everyone received propositions. The clients were enthralled by each of you. I’ll call you into my office one at a time and present all offers made to you. Then I’ll answer any questions you may have. A few clients put in offers on multiple girls. In those instances, the offers with the shortest time frames will be fulfilled first, so it’s possible you won’t start work right away. B.I.T.-10 is prepared to advance you a portion of your payment should there be a delay in starting your contracted work due to scheduling. Once you accept an offer, the winning client will meet you outside my office and escort you out the back way. See you soon.”
With that, she turned and walked out. So, I definitely had an offer to consider. Even if it wasn’t an offer that got me information on my dad, it would hopefully help me fund my education for the next year. Every little bit would help. I was tired of living in my car.
Allison was called first. She smirked at us when she left the room. After a few minutes, another girl was summoned. This continued through several more girls. Then my name was called. I stood on shaky legs. Lucy gave me a quick hug and whispered some encouragement in my ear. I tried not to tremble with nerves as I walked to Circe’s office.
I knocked softly.
“Come in, Celesta.”
I opened the door and stepped inside to meet my fate.
“Celesta, I must say you astonished me a bit. Though in all honesty, I shouldn’t be surprised. You’re quite beautiful. You smell enticing; you’re a rare gem in this boring world. If I swung that way, I’d be tempted to keep you for myself. Even being attracted to men, I still find myself craving a taste of you.” She gave me a broad smile.
I was too shocked to speak. She was a vampire? How didn’t I realize that in all the time I’d spent with her the past couple of days? Did I have defective vamp-dar?
“No worries though, dear. I’ll leave you untasted for whoever’s proposal you accept. Maybe one day we can have some fun, though.”
I still stood frozen in place. She looked up from the papers she was shuffling and ordered, “Sit.”
I complied, sitting in one of the cushioned chairs in front of her desk.
“In addition to receiving several offers, you’ve received the largest offer we’ve ever had placed at once.”
“Really?” I squeaked in disbelief.
“You really underestimate your charms—it’s quite a refreshing trait. Now, your first offer is from Ace. He’s offered you a job promoting his upcoming film for one week in California. You’d be paid $8,000 for the week. Do you have any questions about Ace or his offer?”
“Does . . . Ace have any predilections I should know about in advance, with me being inexperienced and all?”
“Well, Ace is a commanding actor which also translates in his extra-curricular activities. He isn’t into inflicting pain, only pleasure. And he’s very good at inflicting pleasure.”
I swallowed hard. “OK.”
“Your next offer is from Victor. It’s for one night. He’d allow you to create an ad campaign for a new housing development being constructed in San Antonio. He’s offered $1,500 for the one night. He’s into bondage and blood.”
“Aren’t all vampires into blood?” I asked with a frown.
“He’s more into it than others. He likes to watch it run in trickles all over a woman’s body before lapping it up. He gets off more on seeing it than drinking it.”
I tensed at that. Victor already gave me the heebie-jeebies without his blood fetish.
Circe sighed heavily. “Your third offer is one I advise you not to even consider. But I need to present all your offers. It’s from Jamison. He offered $1,000 for six hours. He made a generic promise of letting you create a commercial for one of his business endeavors. His tastes run toward pain. He gets off on hurting his partners before sending them over the edge into pleasure. He has rooms in his home dedicated to different types of torture and rapture. I think he’s offering too little toward your future and will take too much from you.”
“Thank you for your honesty.” My mind was comparing the other offers and stacking them against each other.
“Now, your last offer is the largest offer I’ve ever had slid across my desk. It is a lengthy commitment though. It’s from Toven Adams.”
My heart stopped at his name. I already had an offer from the man who I came here to get close to. And another offer which would help immensely in my career and put a good chunk of money in my bank account. But those offers faded from my mind as soon as she said Toven’s name.
“Before I can even tell you his offer, you must sign this confidentiality agreement.” She slid a sheet of paper across the desk.
I was confused. What would be in the proposal that I couldn’t talk about?
I didn’t really care what the secret was, I had to know what he offered. I hastily scratched my name on the bottom.
“Thank you. So, Toven’s offer is for ten weeks. His needs are twofold. He needs to build his music business by having someone create and manage social media accounts for him. His other necessity is for a pretty companion on his arm for public sightings.”
“So, I’d create a social media presence for hi
m and try to drum up followers for him through interactions on his pages, and he needs me to be his fake girlfriend in public?”
“That pretty much sums it up. If you do a good job with the marketing portion of the job, he’ll extend a more permanent job to you once your degree is complete. And he’ll pay you $10,000 a week for ten weeks.”
“You mean $10,000 in exchange for ten weeks?” There was no way he’d pay that per week. I had to have heard wrong.
“No. He’ll pay you $10,000 per week for a total of $100,000. And he made sure that you’d pocket a full $100,000. He’s actually paying over $150,000 total to make sure B.I.T.-10’s thirty-five percent won’t cut into your payment.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Wow. I can’t believe he’d pay so much for me.”
“Believe it. He did stipulate that if you accepted his offer, you couldn’t accept any other offers and I can’t show your file to other clients during the duration of your employment with him. Now do you want to know about his proclivities?” She stacked my offers up, lining up the edges of the papers before studying my expression.
Did I? Did I want to risk hearing something that would disgust me and make me want to stay away from him? Would strange or violent tendencies keep me from wanting to be with him?
Before I could answer, she stated, “I don’t know about his propensities now, but he always was into giving lots of pleasure.”
That knowledge warmed my blood and my skin and every other part of me. Circe’s eyebrows rose as she took in my response. I could smell the strawberry-vanilla grow thick in the air.
“Do you have any questions about the offers?”
“Would I need to arrange my own housing and transportation?”
“Those are details you’ll work out with the client once you decide.”
Swallowing, I said, “OK. Can I have a moment to think over each offer?”
“Absolutely, I want you to be satisfied with what you select.”
Blood Song: Prelude (Blood Song Series Book 1) Page 10