Marcus appeared to sense the cold wave of hate that flooded through her and he grinned. “Yes. It is all you want, isn’t it? To let me drink so you can be free.”
Wynter simply nodded. Damn him and his tricks. “Then fight me. Tell me no. Make me force you.”
“I can’t,” she groaned, and it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Wynter’s instincts were telling her to run, but the spell he’d put her under was working to override those reflexes and she could do nothing but sit there, vulnerable and at his utter mercy.
“Then I shall take my time. Make it excruciatingly slow for you until you can endure it no longer, Wynter. You think you can wind me up and there won’t be consequences?” he growled, and there it was. She’d known he’d punish her somehow, and cursed herself for having been so reckless. But at the same time, she knew she’d do it again if given the chance.
“I knew there would be consequences, but I also knew they’d be worth it. I might be your slave, Marcus, but I’m not your puppet.”
“We’ll see about that,” he replied before pressing that razor-sharp tongue of his against the artery inside her inner thigh.
Marcus caught the initial gush of blood as it began to flow and then stemmed it, taking just a trickle into his mouth rather than the deep gulps like he had before. He was indeed teasing it from her, taking just a few drops at a time, and Wynter felt wonderful and horrible both at once. But then, with every drop her burdens lessened and she fell further into her ecstasy. Punishment or not, her body still roared with pleasure at his bite, and before she knew it her instincts to run and fight were quietened and all she had left was her need to serve him.
It was dawn before Marcus closed the cut to her thigh. Wynter was writhing and arching up and down on the sofa before him, her body seeking comfort in arms that simply weren’t there. Release in the lover that wouldn’t give her it. And when he finally closed the wound and moved away from her, she shoved the dress back down and curled into a ball on the sofa.
Reality set back in and brought with it that same sense of shame she continually fought when she was with her vampire boss. Tears sprung from her eyes and she hugged herself tighter as they began to fall. When she had finished her mini-meltdown, Wynter unfurled and pulled the throw down over herself, willing for him to just leave her alone.
Sleep took her in an instant and while she needed it, her body also continued to cry out for its gratification. Her dreams were full of dark, sensual things. Of sex and desire, and of eyes that watched her, burning her soul as her body roared with heat.
She woke to find her hands between her legs. Her fingers swirling the aching bead atop her thighs. She worked it harder and harder, getting closer to her release, and then screwed her eyes shut when her orgasm took hold and she began to shudder and spasm in the wonderful rhythm her body had so desperately needed.
During her high, she saw one man’s face. Warren’s. She remembered his dark, brooding expression, and also the words he’d spoken that morning.
He was going to look after her. Take care of her. Make sure she wasn’t manipulated or taken advantage of. He was her knight in shining armour and Wynter quickly realised how what he’d promised was the hottest thing anyone had ever offered her before. No matter how hard she’d tried not to notice him, he’d gotten under her skin, and she knew she wanted more. “Finally. I thought you’d be there forever,” Marcus’s voice pierced her post-orgasmic haze and she cringed at him having watched her in the throes of her self-pleasure.
Wynter jumped up off the sofa and found him sitting in the chair opposite. She glared across at him, but found he didn’t seem to care one little bit. He was just watching her inquisitively but then held out his hand. “Come to me,” he said, but she’d already been up on her feet and was moving toward him anyway. His magnetism had drawn her closer, not his words.
She climbed into his lap and let Marcus hold her close. He pulled her against him and she inhaled his scent and moaned dreamily.
“I feel so confused,” Wynter told him with a sigh, “I don’t know what to think or feel.”
“We all tried to warn you,” he answered, as if she was just being too foolish for her own good. “You will love me, but that doesn’t mean you will always like me. No one else here has ever had the guts to express it, but I understand the way the hex works.” Marcus shifted her so that Wynter could look up into his face. “What you feel isn’t real. How you act and what you give me is by force. But, I don’t care. Trust me when I say so. All I give any kind of a shit about is fulfilling my needs and taking care of my business. The rest is just coincidental.”
“I don’t believe you,” she countered. “I can’t. If I did, I don’t think I could bear being here for another second.”
Marcus answered with a grin that told her he’d actually like that. To have to come and get her from her home and drag her to the club. To punish her for defying him.
“And yet, I can taste how broken you are. I can smell the misery on you, even still. I know there’s nothing out there in the real world for you, just like there’s nothing out there for me either.”
“And what if I chose to burn this place to the ground? Where would you turn then?” Wynter groaned, not meaning it as a threat or any kind of promise, just a last ditch effort to get her life back again, even as crappy as it might’ve been.
“I’ve always got other options, but you don’t. Plus, I’d make sure you burned along with the club and all the other humans in it, Wynter,” Marcus answered with a sneer.
He then plucked her hand up and pressed his lips against her wrist, where he began to drink again.
Ten
After the day spent feeding from his new prize and then rewarding her with just a small amount of sleep each time, Marcus decided it was finally time to let her get some proper rest. He blocked out the afternoon sunshine using the fully blackout blinds he’d installed and then left her to sleep while he got some work done. He needed the time to catch up on the bits and pieces he’d neglected the night before anyway, thanks to him having been too wrapped up in his newest obsession to dedicate the time he had needed to them. What was it about her that had him so worked up? Even now, after languishing at her various veins for hours, he still wanted more, and had to stop himself going to wake her up again.
Instead, Marcus forced himself to focus on the reports on his desk. Or on the budget for the upcoming quarter. On anything at all that didn’t involve that damn girl, but his mind kept on going back to her. To how he wanted more than just her blood.
No. They weren’t going there. She was just exciting and new. The novelty would wear off soon. Yes, that was it. Wynter was his first new manager in twenty years, so it stood to reason that she was exciting him more than any other new acquisition. The other new employees had gone straight into the pool of blood letters ready for the taking by his many clients. But not her. She was his and her blood was fresh. New. Delectable and delicious.
Wynter was like the young summer lamb, while his other managers were mutton. She’d soon lose her appeal, of course.
Yes, Marcus thought. He would indulge in the newness to the fullest because it surely wouldn’t be long until it was nothing more than business as usual between them. Just another professional arrangement like any other, and so he endeavoured to enjoy her while the high lasted.
***
Wynter stirred and let the sounds of the world around her creep into the void between asleep and awake. Her head hurt, but she felt rested enough, and it was a relief when she looked at the clock on the wall and realised she still had an hour before her working evening began. It would be nice having some time to actually get ready without the rush this time.
She sat up and looked around for Marcus. He was nowhere to be seen, and so she headed for the shower again, but thankfully in private this time, and then brushed her teeth. She also found makeup and hair products in there ready for her to use, and every item was her usual brand and shade. She had to wonder if this was
thanks to Warren’s scrupulous background checks on her. Did they go as far as knowing the purchases she regularly made? Quite possibly. He undoubtedly had dug into every inch of her life and knew things no one else did. In some ways though, that made her even more attracted to him. If he could look at her warts and all and not run away, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad here after all?
After she was clean and made up, Wynter then found her clothes also hanging neatly in a dry-cleaning bag that told her they had been sent to get washed and prepped, just like Marcus had promised. She slipped the clothes back on, finding it odd to think how some poor laundry worker had just dry-cleaned her knickers and bra too, but figured she was at least spared the embarrassment of collecting them and nodded to herself as she took one final look in the mirror.
She looked like her usual self. Back to normal, or as normal as she could be under the circumstances of her new role. And of course, after all that Marcus had taken from her during the past thirty hours. Her freedom, her life, and her blood. How the hell was that suddenly normal?
Her two days of extracurricular obligations were almost over with and come two-am the following morning she would be free at last to head home. Back to her own bed and free from the advances of her three thousand year old boss. Yeah, in what other world would that actually make sense? She wondered if her friend Cossette would even believe her when she told her about the new job. But then again, was she even allowed to? Wynter hadn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement and hadn’t been issued any warnings about revealing her boss’s true identity to anyone on the outside, but of course nothing here was as it seemed, so she decided to ask Warren when she headed down to his office a short while later.
It was strange, Warren seemed to be on her mind a hell of a lot. Now there was a conundrum. Someone she’d actively not pursued or flirted with in a bid to remain professional. She hadn’t even fantasised about him after meeting him, but then he had turned up in her thoughts at that pinnacle moment of her climax and completely thrown a spanner in the works. Was it because he had been so chivalrous? So outspoken and ready to take on the ‘bloodsuckers’ as he had called them? He was strong and seemed to be fighting the curse as best he could, and Wynter liked that about him. In fact, there seemed to be rather a lot she liked there.
She checked the clock again as she emerged. There was fifteen minutes to go. Fifteen minutes and she would be heading back down to work for a normal night of meetings, arts and design work. No biting. No games.
She could hardly wait.
Wynter sensed Marcus before she saw him. He was sitting at his desk and wasn’t even looking at her as she crept out from behind the glass partition, but she felt him pulling her to his side, compelling her forward. Her body obeyed his call and within a few moments she was on his lap and completely at his mercy, just like before.
She was under his alluring spell again and kissed him the moment he peered down into her face, and was surprised when Marcus actually kissed her back rather than push her away. He then began opening the buttons on her blouse and she gasped when she felt him dive inside and capture one of her breasts in his warm palm.
After all the times he’d told her no, she was finally gaining the strength of will not to throw herself at his sexual mercy, and then here he was making all the moves? He truly did love playing his games, and she was powerless to refuse him—not that she wanted to.
After a few seconds spent fondling her, he pushed her bra aside and started massaging her nipple into a peak.
“Marcus,” she groaned, his name a question as well as a pleading cry for more. She needed him to take what he wanted, desperate to please him, and having his hands suddenly on her was intoxicating beyond anything she had ever imagined.
He didn’t respond. Not a word passed his lips as Marcus dipped his head and sucked the nipple he’d just been working into his mouth. It felt amazing. “Oh, God,” Wynter croaked when she felt the sting of his tongue press against her flesh. Heat bloomed within her core in reaction to his bite and Wynter grabbed the back of Marcus’s head, pushing him deeper, even as she sensed him begin to drink. It felt amazing and she wasn’t ready to let him stop. Not even when Marcus lifted his head back and licked her cut closed. “No,” she whimpered, “don’t stop.”
“Time for work,” he answered with a teasing smile, and Wynter peered across the room to the clock, watching as the final second ticked by and six-pm arrived.
She wanted to scream!
Marcus laughed when she scowled up at him and pushed herself away in a bid to get up, but then held her back for just a second so that he could button up her blouse and give Wynter one last lingering kiss.
“You’re making me late,” she hissed against him, seducing another gruff laugh.
When she finally pulled away and made for the elevator, Wynter felt the iciness descend between them and knew before she’d even left how he’d broken whatever bond had just blossomed to life between them. She no longer felt the need to go to him. All she wanted to do was get away, and so she didn’t even look back as the elevator doors closed and she descended one floor to her office.
David was lounging by her office door and when she reached him, he raised an eyebrow in questioning.
“Well. How was it?” he asked when she said nothing, bouncing on the points of his feet like he was excited to hear about her first proper day as Marcus’s Blood Slave. Wynter groaned at him and shook her head. She knew exactly what he meant by that and understood Warren’s comment about the vultures who would descend on her and try and claim a notable notch on their belt.
“Exhausting,” she replied as she slid the key into the lock and opened the door. David went to follow her inside the office and she turned back to face him, shaking her head. “Not now, okay? I need some time by myself.” She didn’t mean to be harsh, but just couldn’t play nice. She didn’t have the energy or the patience.
He left, albeit begrudgingly, but Wynter didn’t care. Yes, she was horny as hell and Marcus’s last bite didn’t help matters, but she wasn’t going to be some sure thing David could just swing by and take a ride on. She remembered the warnings Warren had given her and decided she wasn’t going to give into her lustful urges. She wasn’t going to be that girl. And so, she would hide away and distract herself for as long as it took for her to forget those needs and quiet those desires.
Wynter locked the door closed behind her and slumped into her chair. She then took a few deep breaths, stretched and let out a loud yawn before firing up her computer and getting down to some work. She remembered her quick and annoyingly vague run through from the night before and tried her best to answer the emails waiting in her inbox, but knew she needed to get her head in the game if she had any hope of properly getting to grips with everything.
It was slow going thanks to her lack of concentration, and made even harder when she tried to log into the club’s website as an administrator and was denied access, even when she checked and double checked that she was putting in the password that’d been left for her.
Wynter swore at the machine and then shoved herself back in her seat. This was no bloody good.
She was going stir crazy and it wasn’t even an hour into her night’s work, and she started to feel herself growing angry. At the situation she’d found herself in. At Marcus for having lured her into his domain as well as his arms. At herself for having fallen for some of the oldest tricks in the book. And yet, there she was. Locked inside her own office and doing as her vampire master commanded, even though this was meant to be her time to work and fulfil her role as best she could.
Wynter was beginning to understand why the other managers were such solitary creatures. Why Jack and Patrick locked themselves away and remained private. Why Joanna wore her heart on her sleeve, but only for the man who would never love her in return, even if she couldn’t see it herself. But, Wynter failed to understand her own place amidst their odd quadruplet. She was a social animal. A lover of dance and music, and of fu
n and adventure. Wynter was the sort of person who wouldn’t do well being locked away, and so she grew itchy. Desperate to leave the stifling office behind and be with likeminded people. Those who understood her and were on the same page. Those who had made her feel welcome…
It was glaringly obvious where she needed to be, and so she decided a change of scenery would do the trick. Wynter grabbed the brand new laptop Marcus had left her and shoved it under her arm, along with her notebook and pen. She then checked the coast was clear of unsolicited visitors and locked her office door behind her before taking the lift down to the basement and walking the long corridor towards the entrance to the IT department.
The doorway was just within her reach when she heard the buzzer sound that indicated the door had been unlocked from a switch somewhere on the inside. They’d obviously seen her coming and had opened up, ready to receive her.
It suddenly dawned on her that she really was welcome there. Wynter felt like she might cry. Who in the hell were these people, and why had they so quickly accepted her? She needed to know. To understand why they were being so nice.
“Hey,” Warren called to her from his small sectioned off corner of the huge office the second she’d walked through the doors and headed inside. He came to the entrance to his office area and was actually smiling this time, rather than scowling, and his arms weren’t crossed but down by his stomach. He was fiddling with something Wynter couldn’t see, and so she moved closer to find that it was a Rubik’s cube he’d completed.
“Hey,” she said, “I just wanted to come and check in. See what’s going on…”
“Any time. Hey, come and grab a coffee with me,” he added, and she knew exactly what he was getting at. He was doing as he had promised. Keeping her safe in the aftermath of her first couple of overtime days.
The Beginning Page 9