The Vampire's Consort

by Caridad Piñeiro

  The Vampire’s Consort

  Vampire Adrian offered Eliza a choice: die of a fatal illness, or become his consort and attend to his every need. Eliza chose life, but she did not expect to fall in love—and lust—with him….

  Nothing compares to the erotic excitement of watching Adrian pleasure one of his many willing companions, but she’s tired of waiting for Adrian to see her as more than his consort. She thinks she’s ready to move on with her human lover, John—until Adrian surprises all three of them with a sensual encounter that changes everything… .

  THE VAMPIRE'S CONSORT

  CARIDAD PIÑEIRO

  Harlequin®

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter One

  The first time Eliza had realized the moan was one of pleasure and not pain, she should have walked away from the peephole.

  But she hadn’t.

  The peephole had been placed in the wall after a so-called Slayer had tried to stake Eliza’s master. Adrian had subdued the overly eager and decidedly naive young woman. In time, the Slayer had come to realize that Adrian was not only one of the white hats, but an excellent lay.

  Despite the truce struck with the Slayer, Adrian had decided that the peephole was necessary for safety’s sake, along with the loaded tranquilizer gun in Eliza’s nightstand.

  Luckily she’d not had a reason to use the gun, but the peephole had been another thing. Peering through it had almost become an obsession.

  She used it way too often, drawn by the sight of Adrian and his lovers. Unable to yank herself away from her gorgeous master as he pleasured yet another willing woman before taking his sip of their blood as compensation for the wicked satisfaction they found in his arms.

  Eliza imagined herself in those arms more than she should.

  It was wrong, she knew. She was here to serve Adrian and keep his home, not to love him. But after nearly two hundred years of being his consort, it was hard to deny that was exactly what had happened.

  Eliza had fallen in love with Adrian.

  She loved him and lusted for him, she thought as she peered through the peephole once again and watched him move over the body of his latest companion.

  The young woman was a lithe strawberry-blonde with surgically amplified breasts that barely moved as she lay on the bed with Adrian’s big body snuggled between her long, thin legs. Tanned skin which would one day be leathery contrasted sharply with Adrian’s pale alabaster perfection.

  As Adrian lowered his head to suckle her breasts, Eliza’s nipples tightened in response and her sex grew heavy and damp with need.

  Bracing one hand on the wall, she tugged at the belt for her robe. The silk fabric fell open, and even that subtle movement of smoothness against her body dragged a breathy sigh from her as she imagined it was Adrian’s skin along hers.

  She reached up, stroking the hard nub of her nipple in time to Adrian’s movements. Mimicking his actions as he loved the woman, who was now wrapping her legs around him and urging him on with loud, almost theatrical, moans.

  Sucking in a rough breath of her own, Eliza plucked at her nipples until the empty throb between her legs became nearly unbearable.

  She shifted her hand downward just as Adrian likewise moved, placing a line of kisses along the woman’s midsection as he headed to her center, his ebony head of hair dark against the nest of reddish curls at the juncture of the woman’s thighs.

  Black and red. Midnight and blood, the milieu of her vampire master.

  Eliza could watch no longer as the scene grew too intimate to bear. Too painful.

  She stumbled back toward her bed and sat on its edge, her body quivering with unfulfilled passion. With a shaky hand she fumbled with the handle of her nightstand drawer and removed not the tranquilizer gun, but a delicately carved phallus of peach-colored marble.

  Closing her hand around the cool handle of the dildo, she spread her legs wide and brought its thick tip to her nether lips. With her free hand she caressed her swollen clitoris, bringing a rush of heat along her cleft. Quickly she dipped a finger down, spreading the moisture all along her lips and the cold marble. Pretended that it was Adrian’s skilled fingers doing so. That it was his cock growing warmer and thicker as the head of it breached the tight sheath of her vagina.

  Moaning, she slowly pressed the dildo forward, allowing her canal to adjust to the fullness. Pausing as the hilt of the handle warned that it was time to retreat and begin the slow, steady dance that would take her to completion.

  As she continued to rub and play with her clitoris, drawing the dildo in and out, she sighed, painfully aware that her actions would bring only physical release and emotional emptiness without Adrian.

  No matter that she yearned for more, she was his consort, and Adrian would never see her as anything else.

  * * *

  Adrian jerked his head up at the whimpered hint of pain.

  Eliza.

  His heart tripped in his chest at the thought that she needed him, but then the faint smell of her arousal wafted to his ultrasensitive senses.

  Not pain, but satisfaction. The heat of his passion was replaced by anger when it occurred to him that she was making love with the human again. That her longtime boyfriend was with her in the room just beyond his bedroom.

  “Adrian? Is something wrong?” questioned the comely strawberry-blonde beneath him.

  He forced a smile and his attention back to the very willing woman in his bed. By all standards she would be considered beautiful, and yet she barely managed to stir his interest. It was all he could do to maintain his erection, but he would not break from the unspoken rules of the game.

  Sexual satisfaction in exchange for blood.

  “Nothing, my love. I just wish to please you,” he lied, and to prove his point, bent his head and licked the hard points of her nipples before biting one gently.

  She murmured her pleasure, dragging her fingers into his thick hair to hold him close as he continued his ministrations. Her nipples were tight little nubs against his lips, her breasts full and lush.

  Too full, he thought, imagining instead the perfect mouthful of Eliza’s pert breasts. Wishing he could taste them and wondering if they would be sweetly tart like the wild strawberries of his and Eliza’s native Ireland.

  He groaned at that thought and his partner mistook it, reaching down to encircle the head of his cock and guide it to her moist center.

  Trembling, he tempered his need as the vampire inside came awake, responding to the musky smells of their sex and the heat of the woman’s body.

  His own body warmed, the arousal of the vampire spreading beneath the surface of his skin.

  His companion wrapped her legs around his thighs and brazenly urged him closer, possibly unaware that as his passion grew, it would unleash the animal that lived beneath his too-human looking shell. An animal that would want its taste of her lifeblood in exchange for the desire she would savor.

  Adrian answered her plea, burying himself in her depths until he was pressed tight to her center. Grinding his hips, he shifted ever deeper, the action rubbing the crisp curls at his center along her clitoris.

  She grunted her approval and he pulled back sharply before plunging forward, his actions almost violent as the vampire asserted ever greater control. A long, guttural moan erupted from his playmate. A moan of deep pleasure.

  “More,” she urged and dug her fingers deep into his hips, her nails cutting into him from the force of her grasp.

  With that pleasure/pain, he re
leased the animal, which reared back and slammed into her so forcefully it drove her upward on the bed. But she didn’t complain, if anything, she welcomed it, begging him to continue. Her eyes were almost wild as they met his and his gaze grew bright, almost neon green, as the vampire emerged and assumed control.

  “I knew when I saw you. I knew,” she rasped breathlessly and sat up to trail a series of bites long his collarbone before she whispered against the shell of his ear. “Bite me, Adrian. Mark me.”

  With an angry roar, he released his fangs, exposing his true face to her, but there was no fear in her eyes. Only a feral and satisfied kind of gleam. Not totally unexpected. After all, he had picked her up in the Blood Bank, one of the downtown bars where humans came in the hopes of soliciting an encounter with one of his kind.

  Little did she know that he was not only physically dead, but emotionally lifeless as well. Her young and vibrant body might be experiencing pleasure, but the satisfaction he took and gave was empty.

  Meaningless.

  Bending his head, he dragged the edges of his fangs along the pronounced line of her collarbone. She was rail thin, her body lacking the comforting curves he preferred. She sighed and dropped her head to the side. Slipped her fingers through his hair to hold him close as he continued his travels, shifting to where her pulse beat rapidly, powerfully, beneath the sensitive points of his fangs.

  “Bite me, Adrian. Please,” she keened, and he could no longer keep the animal in check.

  He sank his fangs deep and the rich metallic taste of her blood, spiced with her passion and redolent with life, filled his senses. He drank deeply, pulling at her skin with his mouth until her body shivered beneath his and a hesitant breath escaped her.

  Ripping himself away before he took too much, he gently urged her down against the mattress. Her eyes were dilated and slightly unfocused, but the passion of the bite was there in the flush of color along her skin. Although she seemed slightly dazed, it didn’t stop her from reaching up and grasping her nipples with her fingers. Tweaking them and shifting her hips to admonish him to finish what he had started.

  He rocked his hips back and then drove forward, dragging a gasp of pleasure from her. Closing his eyes, he began that ancient rhythm, spurred on by her soft cries and the energy racing through his body from his feeding.

  Over and over he moved, but as he did so, another face filled his vision. Another woman’s name slipped from his lips as his companion’s climax pulled him to his own.

  “Eliza,” he called out and dropped down onto the woman beneath him. Thankful that between the bite and her release his companion had passed out. He had no desire for after-sex chit-chat or explaining why someone else had been in his mind and heart as he had been fucking.

  If he was lucky, the combination of the bite and her satisfaction would erase the woman’s memory of these last moments. If he was lucky, he thought as he ripped himself away from her limp body and hurried from the room.

  A warm bath and another feeding from one of the blood bags in his refrigerator would bring control to the vampire. Hopefully by then his companion would be gone.

  Chapter Two

  “Your boss is a major dick,” the woman said as she sat on the edge of the bed while she slipped on wickedly dangerous stilettos.

  Eliza bit back what she wanted to say, aware that Adrian would not approve. Plastering what she hoped was at least a neutral smile to her face, she said, “Can I get you anything?”

  The woman rose from the bed and came to stand before Eliza. Between her natural height and the four- inch heels she wore, she towered over Eliza, who was just inches over five feet. Glaring down at her, she said, “I guess you’re his lap dog? Or should I say his bitch?”

  Eliza clenched her fists so tightly, her nails dug tiny crescents into her palms. She wanted nothing more than to punch the vicious and slightly smug look off the other woman’s face, but somehow managed to rein herself in. It was important for Adrian’s guests to leave hale and hearty to avoid any kind of repercussions for his little trysts.

  “I’ll show you out,” Eliza said calmly, earning a nearly braying laugh from the statuesque woman.

  “What’s the matter? Your boss afraid that I’ll tell him what a lousy fuck he is? I didn’t even come,” the woman whined.

  Something inside of Eliza snapped. Her fist was headed for the other woman’s jaw when it was seized in a rock-hard grip.

  “Adrian,” she breathed in a surprised gasp as she faced her master.

  He smiled at her warmly and dipped his head. “No need to defend my honor, a chuisle.”

  My love, she thought, wishing he’d mutter the Irish endearment at a much more intimate moment. Facing last night’s companion and offering a frigid look, he said, “I’m sorry I disappointed.”

  The woman’s earlier bravado faded in the face of Adrian’s commanding presence. She stammered uncomfortably before finally saying, “I don’t remember you leaving. I don’t remember much of anything toward the end.”

  As Eliza considered the sudden deflation of the woman’s pique and Adrian’s intense stare, it occurred to her that he was using some of his vamp powers to dominate the woman. He had clearly bitten her earlier, creating enough control over the woman to head off this confrontation.

  “I’m sorry for that, but it’s time for you to go.” His tones were smooth and calming, like the waters of a still lake.

  “I have to go,” the woman repeated almost blankly, all earlier bluster and bitchiness erased by Adrian’s mental possession.

  “Let me show you the way,” Eliza said, gently grasping the woman’s forearm and guiding her from Adrian’s bedchamber to the front door of his brownstone. For good measure, she escorted her to the curb, where despite the late night hour, she managed to flag a cab and bundle the woman within.

  Eliza returned inside, knowing what would be expected, but was surprised as she entered Adrian’s bedroom and found him spreading fresh sheets on the bed.

  He was in a robe and just out of the shower, his damp hair even darker from the moisture and falling forward to obscure his gorgeous face as he did one last tuck of the fitted sheet.

  “There, all done.” He straightened and looked at her, stealing her breath away as he always did. Nearly black shoulder-length hair framed a face of sculpted lines, full lips and blue-grey eyes that reminded her of the North Atlantic. That gaze was stormy tonight, matching the tight lines of his body as he placed his hands on his hips.

  * * *

  “Did I do something wrong?” she wondered, apparently sensing the anger shimmering beneath his surface. “No, a chuisle. It’s not anger at you, but myself,” he confessed, aware that he had made a mistake with his choice of tonight’s companion. She had been too brassy and demanding. Almost too eager for the encounter. He should have realized that disappointment coupled with such high expectations might bring problems.

  “Why did you choose her, then?” Eliza asked, clearly well aware of the reason for his pique.

  “She seemed…right,” he lied, but not just to Eliza. To himself as well.

  When he had seen those reddish curls, so much like Eliza’s, he had been drawn to the woman. As she had faced him, her greenish eyes so similar to his consort’s, he had let himself get caught up in the fantasy. A mistake.

  “Maybe just a little bit bossy,” Eliza replied with a trill of laughter, obviously trying to defuse his guilt. Adrian likewise chuckled and added, “You mean bitchy, don’t you?”

  He grabbed the top sheet from a nearby chair and, with a flourish, let it unfurl. Eliza grabbed the far end of it and together they stretched it across the length of the king-size bed.

  “Why is it that men always think that when a woman is assertive, she’s bitchy?” Eliza teased as she bent to tuck in the edges of the sheet.

  The movement caused the edges of her robe to gap, providing Adrian a glimpse of those breasts he had desired earlier. Her nipples were berry-red and tight. His mouth grew damp with
the thought of their sweet taste against his lips and his balls tightened with desire.

  He straightened, but as Eliza’s gaze dipped, he quickly folded his arms before his crotch, trying to hide the jut of his almost painful erection. With an uncomfortable cough, he finally responded to Eliza’s observation.

  “I like women who have steel in their backbone, but there’s no need to be as hard on the outside, a chuisle.”

  “Don’t call me that. I’m not your love. I’m not anyone’s love,” Eliza blurted out, but then quickly lowered her head and murmured an apology.

  Adrian hated seeing her cowed and unhappy.

  He stepped around the edge of the bed until he stood beside her. Tucking his thumb and forefinger against her chin, he applied gentle pressure to urge her face upward.

  “Tell me what’s wrong, Eliza.”

  * * *

  Eliza met his gaze and wanted to drown in the emotion shimmering there. Adrian might not love her that way, but she had never doubted that he cared for her. It had been that caring which had saved her life.

  “How long has it been now, Adrian? I lose track sometimes,” she said sadly. Truthfully. With no one to love, one day came and passed much like the next.

  “Two hundred years, six months and three days,” he answered almost too quickly. With a harsh laugh, she replied, “I didn’t think time mattered to an immortal.”

  Adrian stroked the slight dimple in the center of her chin. Softly he said, “You matter to me, a chuisle. I didn’t save your life so that you could be miserable.”

  “Why, Adrian? Why did it matter to you whether I lived or died?” Eliza pressed, but Adrian didn’t respond.