by Ivy Banks
“My name is Coral,” she told him in a voice barely above a whisper.
Logan sat back on his heels then, smiling.
“See? Was that so hard? Nice to meet you, Coral. I’m Logan.”
She did not meet his eyes again and Logan was seized by an unfamiliar emotion as he stared at her terrified face.
It was shame.
Chapter 4
He has no choice. He has to kill me…I think. Why didn’t he just run when he had the chance? Why doesn’t he run now?
There were a million unanswered questions in the back of Coral’s mind as she watched Logan stroll around the blacktop, obviously trying to devise a way to end the situation.
I should talk to him, she thought, trying to recall any training she may have had in such a situation, but her mind was blank.
Worse yet, Coral found herself enigmatically drawn to the man and studying his every move as if trying to record it for posterity.
And he seems familiar. Do I know him? Have I met him before or am I grasping at something to bond us together?
“What happened to you tonight?” she asked. The question flew out of her mouth unintentionally, but it stopped Logan from pacing in his tracks.
“I… I’m sorry,” he stuttered apologetically. “I didn’t mean to do what I did to you.”
The answer caught her completely off guard, but Coral remained silent, staring at him pensively. She had meant what had occurred before he arrived at the hospital, but Logan seemed to carry a guilt about attacking her.
He seemed ready to talk and Coral was not about to stand in his way.
I know his boisterous type. He likes to talk.
“I was in a panic,” he told her. “I – I didn’t know where I was and when I came to, you were on my wrist and I thought…well I don’t know what I thought except that I was needed sustenance to make me strong again.”
The words made no sense to Coral’s ears but suddenly, she recognized the man.
He is Logan Hanover. Poker player extraordinaire.
“I don’t understand…” she murmured, staring at him quizzically. She wanted to keep him talking and not let him suspect that she knew who he was.
There is still a chance he could let me go…and I can make my trip to Costa Rica.
He stepped toward her slowly.
“I’m sorry,” he told her again. “But it was the only choice I had. What I did was pure instinct.”
Coral shook her head, uncomprehendingly.
“But why did you bite me?” she asked and suddenly he was inches from her face, his light blue eyes twinkling against the late afternoon sun.
The message came through loud and clear when he spoke next.
“Because I need mortal blood to stay alive.”
Chapter 5
Time was running out, but Logan still had not formulated a solid plan.
I am sitting on the roof of a hospital with a bitten woman, one who is looking at me as if I am completely insane. It is only a matter of time before she tries to run or someone finds us up here. I have to move her, but where?
He thought of his brothers and wondered who was closest.
I will have one of them come get us, but then what will I do with her?
He knew what he should do with her. It’s what he should have done in the first place: killed her and hidden the body. That was what his brothers would tell him and that was the smart move.
That was why he could not call one of them. Not yet.
We’ll call that plan C. Now for Plans A and B.
If he let her go, she would eventually find out who he was when she reported him, and his life would be over as he knew it. He would have to create a new identity again and lay low for while so his crimes were forgotten. Logan quite liked his current life and identity as a world-renowned gambler and he didn’t want to give it up.
But there was another reason he would not let her go, something he was having a hard time accepting.
He wanted her there with him.
What it is about this woman? She’s smarmy and sarcastic… and she has the most stunningly beautiful eyes.
He grunted and wondered if Sean and his goon had done more damage to his head than he had initially thought.
Coral had risen and was looking over the edge of the roof.
“What is it?” he asked, coming up behind her.
She sighed deeply. “It’s actually nice up here,” she told him. “I have never had the opportunity to be held hostage up here before, but you can almost see all of Boston from this viewpoint.”
Logan turned to scan the scenery and saw that Coral had a point.
Abruptly, she jumped up on the wall, using her feet to brace herself as her arms clung to edge.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded reaching up to stop her, but she had already wriggled her way onto the narrow ledge, straddling the building wall with her legs like she was saddled on a pony.
“Relax,” she replied laughing. “I’m not jumping. I just wanted to see the view.”
Logan eyed her warily, but suddenly found himself fascinated. He wanted to see what she was seeing and without warning, he scaled the side wall to join her.
She jumped in place and stared at him open-mouthed.
“How did you do that?” she demanded.
He gave her a charming smirk.
“I can do many things,” he told her, and for the first time he saw that she believed him.
“Like what?” she challenged, eying him with interest.
Logan immediately sensed the change in her tone. He was wary but enthralled. Her eyes flashed at him dangerously and before Logan could stop himself, he wound his hand up under her scrubs and cupped her breast, deciding whether he should brush his thumb over her nipple or not.
Coral guffawed and held his stare, shaking her head.
“Oh? Is that supposed to be impressive?” she demanded, cocking her head to the side. She sat forward and cupped his crotch.
“See? I can be just as talented,” she taunted. “What else can you do?”
He watched in awe as she pulled her shirt over her head, uncertain about this turn of events, yet her gaze never faltered. Slowly, she placed her legs out in front of her kicking off her sneakers. One fell to the sub-ledge hovering above the eight stories to the ground below, the other to the rooftop but Coral was already pulling her pants off.
Logan licked his lips, feeling a tug in his pants while Coral’s fingers slipped underneath her panties to explore herself. Her free hand cupped her small, firm breast over her bra and in a perilous balancing act, she began to pleasure herself.
“It appears as though I have more talent than you,” she jeered.
Logan reached forward, pulling her slender thighs toward him so quickly, her rear slipped along the steel surface of the ledge. Before she knew it, his hands were cupping her bottom to brace her. He pushed her chest down, so her back was against the flat metal surface, exposing her bra-clad breasts to the world. Encircling her thighs around his neck, he ripped her panties aside, pulled her hips toward him and dove his face into her vulnerable womanhood deep and rough.
She groaned at the welcome intensity and Logan’s thumb felt for the damp opening between her legs, quickly honing in on her g-spot as his tongue expertly encircled her clit.
Tongue and thumb, he sucked and teased her center like his own personal playground, enjoying the way she writhed in pleasure and shot intermittent, nervous glances at the ground below as if expecting him to release her any time. Yet she continued to grow more damp with each lash of his tongue and soon the eruption he was waiting for happened with heavenly raindrops all over his face.
“Oh,” he purred. “You’re a squirter.”
“I told you…,” she gasped, struggling to regain her composure, and balance. “I have more talents than you.”
Logan did not allow her to move and scooped his arms around her back, lifting her entire body into his arms. Suddenly he leapt to his f
eet, her legs still wrapped about his neck.
“Oh my God,” she cried as he held them dangerously on the edge. He relished the euphoric fear which consumed her before jumping back down to the tarmac.
Logan reached up and lowered Coral’s legs to the ground. Standing there naked and shaking, he spun her around, leaning her forward and spreading her against the wall with her back to him. Her panties fell to the ground and she stepped one foot out of them as he opened her legs wide.
Slowly, he caressed her body with one hand while pressing his throbbing member against her waiting and wanting rear. He teased her ass with the head of his cock while using his wandering hand to work its way into her bra, freeing her breasts. He pinched her nipples, taking turns on each side until they were perky and hard under his touch. When he worked his way down to her sex, it was slick and wet; wanting him. He dipped his fingers in, lubing them up for his next adventure.
He played with her clit for just a minute before trailing his slippery fingers around to her ass, slipping his index and middle fingers inside her. As her muscles contracted tightly around his fingers then eased back, he knew she was ready.
He pulled her hips back so her arms were outstretched and entered her slowly, deliberately so she could feel every vein in his rock-solid member. She took in a shocked gasp, and he pushed into her all the way to the hilt. He reached around and grabbed one of her breasts while gripping her waist with the other hand.
He worked her slowly, but after reaching down to play with herself, adding to the intense, all-consuming pleasure, she was not having it. Coral bucked back against him, increasing their rhythm, ready to explode against him. He tried to slow her, to tease it out, but she was in control and he wasn’t about to say no.
“Wait!” he gasped, feeling the impending ecstasy overtaking his body, but she only moved harder. Feeling his balls slap against her excited bottom, she rubbed herself faster while he abused her nipples with precision.
“Fuck,” he choked out, knowing that he couldn’t last much longer, or he could, but he didn’t want to.
“Fuck,” she replied, almost crying. “Oh god…” She could hardly swallow as he pounded into her tiny hole.
Suddenly her body seized up, her voice rasping with desperation, “Oh god! Fuuuuck…” Her ass clenched around his unit and he felt another wave of spray cover him.
At that, his resolve was gone and he exploded over and over, filling up her ass, as his streams dripped out mingling with her gushing fountain. He gripped her body tightly as they both tried to recover from the intense eruption, breathing like wild, sweaty animals.
How do you like my talents now? He thought smugly.
He removed himself from her and she tried to right herself, tripping slightly on the stray underwear, causing them both to fall off balance into a heap on the pavement. Logan tried to cradle Coral’s head from the hard tarmac and he knew he was seconds away from the look of adulation he received after each lovemaking encounter.
“Ow,” Coral groaned with anger. “Get off me. You’ve got like seventy pounds on me.”
Logan scrambled to move and sat up to look at her, shock coloring his face.
“Are you always such a bitch?” he asked her, and she began to laugh.
“Are you always so arrogant?” she retorted. “You drink my blood, kidnap me, hold me hostage, make me miss my dream vacation, and you call me a bitch? You’re a bitch, Logan Hanover, you are!”
Logan froze and looked at her, his pupils dilating.
“You know who I am?” he whispered, his head beginning to spin at the revelation. “How do you know my name?”
Coral shook her head and rose to her feet, seeking out her garments.
“See? It’s always about you,” she snapped. “I give you amazing sex and you’re still talking about you.”
“You gave me – are you crazy?” he demanded, suddenly confused. He didn’t know which issue to address first.
Is she trying to confuse me? Or is this how she is?
Logan loathed to admit that she had succeeded in spinning him in circles as she had been all afternoon.
“And Costa Rica is in the middle of hurricane season, so I did you a favor,” Logan heard himself saying.
Coral slipped on the scrubs and stood back, waiting for him to speak, her arms folded across her chest.
“I’ve done my research, but thank you for your concern,” she said. “You know, you’d be pretty cute if you could curb that ego of yours.”
He saw the snarky, playful glint return to her eyes.
She calls me on my shit and keeps me on my toes. She has sex on the ledge of a building where anyone could have seen us and both of us could have fallen. She knows who I am and she listened to my every order. There is only one thing I can do with her, Logan told himself, rising.
“What time is your flight to Costa Rica?” he asked, filling the distance between them.
This time it was Coral who blinked.
He had caught her off guard with his question.
“It’s leaving at eight-thirty from Logan…” she trailed off, not understanding the connection. “From Logan International Airport.”
He smiled then, his mind made up.
“You’ll make your flight,” he told her, his fangs extending.
The only thing you can do with a woman like this is keep her.
THE END
Trouble In Paradise
Sun, sand, secrets and seduction. A vacation worth taking.
Royal Vampire Kingdom Prologue
Many eons ago, the first vampire came into existence when a great warrior named Atticus was given the gift of immortality from an almighty warlock. But with the gift of eternal life came great responsibility. As Atticus developed a thirst for blood, he knew he had to leverage his powers wisely.
Over time, immortality became lonely, and Atticus embarked on a quest to form his own family. Choosing his “children” based on strength of character, fortitude and the ability to navigate an ever changing world for millennia upon millennia, Atticus created a clan that would be able to rule over all other vampires, creating order and hierarchy among them.
The Vampire King gave sixteen worthy humans the gift of everlasting life. The chosen soon became the fifteen princes and sole princess of the vampire world. Together they became the Hanover family.
From these original sixteen individuals, all vampires in the world were created. Though vampires now cover the Earth as rampantly as man and beast, the original Hanover clan remains the most powerful among them.
This is the love story of Erik Hanover.
Chapter 1
“This is a terrible idea,” Lincoln told Pearl again and she sighed, lowering her magazine.
“Yes, yes, I believe you have mentioned that, darling but it’s done and you must let go of it. I could regale you with things I could’ve done without over the years, but Erik and the others are my brothers and they are sworn to protect me.”
The argument was becoming stale and old with Lincoln already and he found himself losing his temper at the rhetoric.
“He tried to kill me, Pearl,” Lincoln exclaimed, and she gave him a scathing look, her cobalt blue eyes flashing with anger.
“Keep your voice down!” she hissed. “We’re in very cramped quarters in case you’ve forgotten.”
Lincoln sighed and glanced nervously out the window at the moon reflecting on the ocean below, and then around at the passengers on the private jet en route to the Bahamas.
Erik Hanover slept peacefully, snoring slightly, although he barely breathed and the two-person cabin crew stood discretely talking amongst themselves in their respective seats near the cockpit door. Lincoln had no way of knowing if they had heard anything but it did not matter. He was annoyed.
“What if he tries to kill me again, Pearl? He has made it clear that I’m not his favorite person in the world,” Lincoln demanded but in a lower tone. Despite his irritation, he did not wish to upset Pearl. It was not
her fault she was caught in the center of whatever demented hold Erik had over her.
Pearl patted his hand affectionately.
“He can’t,” she assured Lincoln. “It goes against our code.”
She says that like it would stop Erik if he ever became enraged. He isn’t exactly rational and thinking in rules of conduct when it comes to her.
Lincoln once more glanced outside, willing the night to remain cloaked in darkness. Unlike Pearl and Erik, sunlight was unbearable for Lincoln now that he’d turned. There were other differences too; an aversion to garlic and an inability to see his reflection.
Lincoln was still adjusting to everything, but Pearl had assured him that it would become second nature over time.
“You must not be so nervous,” Pearl told him. “It won’t be daylight for hours. That is why we traveled this way. You see? Erik cares about your well-being also.”
Lincoln cast yet another sidelong look at Pearl’s “brother” and stifled a sigh. He got the sense that Erik was hearing every word they spoke.
There truly is no escaping this man, Lincoln thought with some ruefulness.
Since becoming a vampire, Lincoln naively believed that their new blood ties would strengthen the bond between them, but he knew that Erik’s possessive nature—when it came to Pearl—could not simply be erased with a blood transfusion.
It is going to take a hell of a lot more than that to convince Erik Hanover and the others that I am worthy of protecting Pearl all alone. The question is what? What is it going to take to get that guy out of our lives – or at least a healthy distance away?
“Why did we have to come on this trip?” Lincoln growled again. “Couldn’t you have used work as an excuse or something?”