“That’s enough.”
Eric’s voice lashed over me, breaking the train of memories I’d followed into the core of Nathaniel’s soul. I touched my tongue to each of the holes I’d created, closing them, and swallowed the last of the blood he’d so generously offered. Nathaniel’s hand slid out from under my skirt, away from my pussy.
I hadn’t even noticed his hand there, so lost in memory had I been.
I cupped his face and turned his gaze to mine. Who was she?
A faint smile replaced the aching loss that flashed briefly over his expression. Someone I loved very much.
Is she at peace?
For a long time now. He hesitated, his light eyes searching mine. How did you know?
I pressed my fingers to his heart, covered by the stiff formality of his shirt. She was here, waiting for me to find her.
“Let her go now, Nathaniel.” The softness of Eric’s voice held a thin thread of steel. “You and I have some business to discuss.”
“He’s not holding me, husband.” I touched my lips briefly to Nathaniel’s. “Thank you for the gifts of blood and memory. I won’t forget.”
He nodded and released me into Jason’s firm grip. As soon as my gaze met the cornflower blue of my lover’s, a fine tremor ran through me and the image that had chased me into Nathaniel’s arms returned, bright and bold and ugly. “Selena,” I said.
Jason embraced me, holding me so tightly, I lost my breath. “She’s dead, Gigi. I swear it to you.”
I nodded, rubbing my cheek over the supple shirt he wore. Jason’s hold loosened and Eric’s slender body pressed against mine, sandwiching me between his warmth and Jason’s much larger form.
“We took care of it, baby.” Eric kissed my cheek. “Stay with Jason. I need to have a little talk with Nathaniel.”
“Don’t punish him,” I said, and Eric laughed. I huffed out a breath. “I’m serious, Eric. He was very kind to me.”
“I know, love.” He kissed me again. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I turned in Jason’s embrace. Eric took Nathaniel by the elbow and led him out of the alcove, stopping just outside its entrance in full view of the curious stares of the ball’s guests. He straightened Nathaniel’s collar, retied the bow tie with quick, efficient movements, then kissed Nathaniel full on the mouth.
I exhaled my relief. Whatever kind of man Nathaniel might be, and I still had my reservations there, Eric trusted him, at least enough to signal a tentative alliance.
For me.
I smiled and cuddled close to Jason. “So, how about a dance?”
His soft laugh shivered over me, and in it I heard the familiar call of desire. “How about we take advantage of this alcove while Eric’s distracted?”
I laughed and let him settle me on the seat curving around the wall where we spent a very pleasant half hour ignoring the revelers passing by the alcove’s entrance.
Chapter Three
The evening passed quickly. I danced with everyone. Marco, who held me gently and was surprisingly graceful. Jason, who threw in a few modern moves, drawing disapproving tuts from some and indulgent smiles from others. I partnered with Nathaniel twice more, enough to cement his and Eric’s seeming alliance, not enough to raise anyone’s suspicions that the dances might be something other than politics at work.
Lanu’s favorite, Blake, claimed me for a simple waltz. He was, measured by any standard other than Jason, Marco, or Gregory, a good-sized man, several inches taller than me with an athletic build. His face was too rugged to be handsome, the nose slightly hooked, his cheekbones too sharp. His skin was smooth, though, and nut brown, as if he spent a lot of time in the sun. Which, of course, he couldn’t. Only the newest pets could handle the sun for any length of time, and sometimes not even then.
Blake’s most striking feature was his eyes. They were an odd shade of green, brilliant and piercing, with a thin line of black around the irises. His eyes saved his face from taking on a menace I didn’t sense within him, though I had no doubt he could be menacing. The queen’s favorite couldn’t afford to be seen as anything less than dangerous.
And I would spend the night with him as my lover while Eric and Jason pleased the queen.
Blake smiled down at me, his sensual mouth curved into a faint smile. “I won’t hurt you.”
Heat crept into my cheeks and I winced. “I swear, I’m getting better at not projecting my thoughts willy-nilly.”
“It’s ok. You’re right to be worried.” His smile tilted into a rakish grin. “I’m looking forward to feeding you.”
The heat spread along my skin. That’s not all he was looking forward to.
“Relax, Gianna. I promise to pleasure you exactly the way you want me to.” His voice dropped to a low rumble, raking across my heated skin. “Long and slow and very, very thoroughly.”
“Is that what you tell the queen?”
“The queen has different tastes. You’ll see.”
Of course, I would, since I’d be sharing a bed with her and three men. “This will be my first blood exchange with a woman, except for my grandmother.”
Selena didn’t count. As far as I was concerned, she’d lost the right to be called my maker the night she’d killed my family, and because of that, I never gave her the consideration.
“Lanu will only take enough to seal a bond with you and ensure your loyalty.” He brushed his lips across my forehead. “Don’t worry, Gianna. We’ll take good care of you.”
I hoped so. God knew I wasn’t strong enough yet to take care of myself. On the other hand, Blake’s blood would go a long way toward that goal, as Nathaniel’s had, and as my husbands’ and Marco’s did. Not many fledgling vampires were fortunate enough to have such rich blood sources.
Halfway through the ball, my head began to whirl with names and faces and, in some cases, species. I knew I’d never remember them all, but I did the best I could.
The icy-eyed man I’d noticed moments before seeing Selena turned out to be Darien, the Alpha of the Greater Atlanta area werewolf pack.
Werewolves, in Georgia. It boggled the mind, or would’ve if he hadn’t been the tamest of the beings I’d met that night or, at least, one of the more humanoid ones.
He led me onto the dance floor with a courtesy I’d noticed in the older guests and held me with the possessiveness of a man who was used to getting what he wanted.
I had two husbands exactly like that, though Eric didn’t show it as often as Jason did.
Unlike the other men who’d partnered me that night, Darien barely moved once we were on the floor. Instead, he stared down at me, his starkly handsome face expressionless. “I apologize for the harm caused by the slave Zane’s presence.”
I blinked at him. “Who’s Zane?”
“A former pet of Selena. Lanu gave him to the unmated females of my pack when his role in your family’s deaths came to light.”
His words were so blunt, I wasn’t sure how to react. “Oh.”
“It’s customary for a slave given by the Vampyr to be brought into their company from time to time, to demonstrate their well-being.” Darien’s thin lips twisted into a cruel smile. “Or in this case, to prove that he’s still in one piece.”
I turned the idea over in my head and tried to pinpoint the cause of my discomfort, the idea that the Vampyr kept slaves or the idea that one would be deliberately put into harm’s way. “He’s a slave?”
“As good as.” Darien lifted one well-formed shoulder in a negligent shrug. “If he survives four or five years with my pack, I’ll cut him loose, let him return to Elizabet, though chances are good she won’t have him back.”
I fixed my eyes on the pearlescent button of his shirt. I’d examined a lot of them that night, from the starched rigidity of Nathaniel’s to the robin’s egg blue of Darien’s. He wore it with no tie and the top two buttons undone, revealing a hint of firm, tanned skin.
“Don’t feel sorry for him, Gianna.” Though Darien’s words were
softly spoken, there was a hint of pitiless anger there that rippled through me, leaving the first rumblings of fright in its wake. “Never forget what he did to your family. Never forget that without him, Selena wouldn’t have been able to act.”
“I’ll try,” I said in a voice so reedy thin, I wasn’t sure he heard it.
“Good.” His expression transformed from the hard mask of an Alpha into the boyish grin of a rogue. “Now, let’s talk about sex. What night do you have free in your rotation schedule? I’d like to donate to the cause.”
I sputtered out a laugh. “You’re the seventh man to hit on me tonight. Geez. I know I’m not that attractive.”
“Fresh blood, literally.” He lowered his voice and leaned close, brushing his lips across my ear. “Werewolves make good partners. Endless blood, rough and ready sex, and at the end of the night, we transform into cuddly little puppies and lay across your feet while you sleep.”
I tried to imagine the man in front of me, with his broad shoulders and hungry eyes, transforming into anything less dangerous than a wild wolf. “Cuddly little puppy, huh?”
“Very cuddly,” he said, and I laughed, just as he’d meant me to.
Half an hour before the meeting with Lanu, I finally had a moment to spare for Alice, who’d spent as much time on the dance floor as I had. We drifted together into an alcove and plopped down on the cushioned seat.
“Whew.” She leaned her beautiful blonde head against the wall and closed her eyes. “What a night. If I have to dance one more waltz, my shoes might fall apart.”
I mirrored her position. “At least you didn’t have to rumba.”
Alice snickered. “Sorry I missed that.”
“I wish I could’ve. Where’s Gregory?”
“Getting punch, I think. Or maybe talking to Blake.”
I turned my head, peeked at her. She had a faint smile on her face, as if her mind had drifted to a particularly pleasant thought. “I’m so glad you and Gregory found each other.”
Alice’s eyes opened and fixed on the alcove’s ceiling. “I think it was less a matter of finding than it was of fate.”
“You’ve been listening to Eric again.”
“No. Well yes, but not exactly.” She sighed and touched her fingers to mine. “Eric pointed me to the path I should’ve taken long ago, and now that I’m on it, I see how incredibly inevitable it all was.”
I scooted closer and brushed her bare shoulder with my cheek. “Nothing’s that inevitable, Alice. If it were, I would’ve died the day Selena attacked me.”
Alice’s fingers tightened on my hand. “We would never have allowed that to happen, Eric especially. You know how determined he is.”
“Single-minded,” I murmured.
“Exactly, which is what got me into my current mess with Gregory.”
“You think Gregory’s a mess?”
“Gregory’s great. I’m the mess.”
I twisted around and peered up at her. “You love him.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Have you been peeking into my memories again?”
“Nope. I can hear it when you say his name. Pretty sure everybody else can, too.”
She focused on the ceiling again. After a long moment, she said quietly, “I’ve loved him for a long time, Gigi, since way before your birthday party, but it’s so complicated. I keep wondering what I’m doing by encouraging him to visit and creating a blood bond with him. He’s falling in love with me and I’m letting him, knowing what his heritage is, knowing what he’s capable of, knowing how dangerous he is and how very wrong we are for one another.”
“Are we talking about the same Gregory?” The one I knew was so kind-hearted, he could barely stand to bruise the air around someone. I turned my hand over and threaded my fingers through hers. “And all this other stuff, the doom and gloom someone’s going to get hurt stuff? I don’t see that happening. The two of you are so good together.”
“No, we’re…” Her sigh held enough hopelessness for the both of us and then some. “It’s complicated.”
“You keep saying that,” I said mildly. “I can’t help you if you won’t explain.”
Gregory stepped into the alcove carrying two lead crystal cups filled with punch. “Explain what?”
Alice beat me to a reply. “What possesses women to wear such impractical shoes.”
He grinned and handed Alice one of the cups. “To drive men wild.”
“Of course,” she said, and the smile returned to her beautiful features. “I suppose you want to dance again.”
A flicker of heat and need entered Gregory’s dark eyes. “If it means another minute holding you, then yes.”
She held a hand out to him, and I slipped away as he took it, leaving them to the love building slowly between them.
Chapter Four
Eric was waiting for me at the entrance of the ballroom. I rushed toward him, my heart clamoring and my breath panting out in ungraceful spurts. “Sorry,” I said. “I was talking to Alice.”
He threaded my arm through his. “We have plenty of time.”
“Where’s Jason?”
“I sent him ahead. He and Blake have similar tastes.”
The way he said it, with one corner of his mouth curled into a knowing smile, led me to believe he was talking about something other than sex, or maybe sex beyond what I’d known with him and Jason.
With Eric, though, you could never tell. I kind of liked that about him.
We strolled together through Elizabet’s house, up the wide stairs from the first floor to the second, down twisting carpeted hallways past dozens of closed doors. Eric paused outside of Lanu’s room and grasped both of my hands in his. “I wish we’d had more time together tonight, just me and you.”
“Me, too.” I’d spent the entire night with everyone but my sweet husband. “Maybe tomorrow?”
He cupped my face and touched his lips to mine. “Definitely, for as long as you want.”
“Oh, I want, Eric. I want very much.” I pulled him closer, determined to have at least this moment with him. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, baby. So much.” His voice was soft and low and rough. “Jason’s had you for too long. I need a turn soon.”
“You can have me anytime, if you’ll just come see me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. If I could get away more, I would, but I can’t. There are things you don’t know yet, things you’re not ready to hear.” He touched his forehead to mine, and his breath panted softly over my mouth. “God, it’s killing me, not being with you, having to pretend it doesn’t matter when it hurts so much to be apart.”
He kissed me then, hard and desperate, like a man who’d been wandering the desert for years without a drop of water and I was his only source. His hunger pressed against me, demanding my utter surrender, and I yielded, returning his kiss the way he needed me to. I comforted him the only way I knew how, with my mouth under his and my hands holding him close, and through our bond, so precious and new. I poured myself into him, filling him with the goodness of everything I was, and he absorbed it all, bringing me into him, combining his essence with mine and pouring it back into me again.
We would’ve slipped into the ecstasy of we if a polite, feminine cough hadn’t yanked us apart. Eric turned black eyes on our intruder, his chest heaving with the force of his panted breaths. He sucked in one last breath, expelling it in a short burst, and bowed. “My queen.”
Lanu’s smile was caught somewhere between the coldly formal one she normally wore and the indulgent smile Elizabet tended to favor Eric with. “Young love. So touching.”
Eric straightened and schooled his features into an expression so bland I had to bite back a laugh.
“We have a few moments before the clock strikes midnight and our time begins, pet.” Lanu smoothed the skirt of her gown, twitching it into a straight cascade of fabric. “Should you wish to shower your affections upon your lovely bride.”
Eric inclined his head once. �
��You are ever gracious, my queen.”
“See that your memory holds that sentiment.” She tapped his arm as she passed and entered the room. “The first stroke of midnight, dear. One moment after and I shall have Blake punish you.”
As soon as the door closed behind the queen, Eric gathered my skirt in his hands, bunching it around my waist. “Undo my pants.”
I glanced around the hallway. “Here?”
He grinned. “Oh, yeah. Promise I’ll make it good for you.”
My laugh was as shaky as my knees. “The queen…”
“You’re wasting time talking when we could be making love.”
I fumbled with the fly of his slacks, yanked his underwear down. He was hard and ready, and I couldn’t resist stroking him. His fingers slid under the lacy hem of my panties and circled around my clitoris, stoking a need he’d kindled with his kiss.
“You’re so wet,” he murmured, and buried his face in my throat, closing his mouth over the thready beat of my pulse. A small pinch startled me, and a moment later, he moaned. Blood. He was taking my blood. I rolled my head to the side and clung to him as the steady rhythm of his mouth on my throat and his fingers on my pussy pushed me into a yearning as desperate as his.
His tongue licked over my skin what felt like seconds later and he eased his hand away from the heat he’d coaxed from me.
“Eric,” I whispered.
Hold on, baby. He lifted me up with both hands under my thighs and pressed my back into the wall. Two minutes left.
“What…?”
He pushed into me then, easing his dick into the slick folds of my pussy, in, in, until he was as far in as he could get. He held us there like that for a moment, joined so closely, and gradually I felt the pull of his mind. I slid into we as he drew back and pushed into me again, and the pleasure of it, of him inside me, body and soul and heart, lifted me up. The hallway filled with our soft moans, with our panted breaths and the gentle slap of flesh on flesh, and we loved, edging higher and higher in an ever greater rush of want and need. It coiled in me, hot and eager. Eric’s mouth took mine and his thrusts sharpened, pounding into me, stroking me exactly where I needed him, and I came, moaning the pleasure of it into his mouth as he came with me, spilling his release into my womb.
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