by Tina Folsom
The cold blast suddenly blowing against her neck did nothing to assuage her sudden fear of him. Trying to stamp out the uncomfortable silence between them, she added hastily, “It was my late husband’s. I inherited it.”
He appeared to relax at her words. “May I look at it?”
She nodded and watched him take the ring out of the box and examine it. “It’s unusual. Is this the family seal?”
“No. I don’t think it was his favorite ring either. He rarely wore it. And then he stopped wearing it completely.” She’d always wondered what Giovanni had liked about the odd piece of jewelry. She’d certainly never liked the ugly thing. But what intrigued her more was why Raphael seemed so interested in it. Did it have anything to do with his interest in Massimo and her husband’s family? “Why are you asking?”
“Just curious since it seems to be such a gaudy piece. So you said he stopped wearing it. When was that?”
“The month before his death. He was different then.” Isabella remembered how her husband had suddenly seemed changed. He’d been distant and unapproachable. And he’d started avoiding her. She’d wondered at the time whether he’d taken a mistress. He’d stayed away most nights.
“... Isabella?”
Raphael’s voice pulled her out of the depressing thoughts. “I’m sorry, what were you asking?” She met his gaze in the mirror and noticed how intense it was. It reminded her again of how he wanted to use her. His questions about her late husband only cemented the suspicion that not everything was as it seemed with her new husband.
How she could have allowed him to take her so fiercely in the study only a short hour earlier and to explore her in the most debauched way, was unfathomable to her. But her body had reacted to him in the only way it seemed to know: with unquenchable lust. She felt her face flush with embarrassment as she relived the memory of his possession. Her nipples beaded, and she felt her skin turn into gooseflesh.
When Raphael’s fingers suddenly grazed her nape, she flinched. He pulled away and met her with a surprised look in the mirror. Then he cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you could tell me more about him, about your late husband.”
“Why?” Her spine tingled with the unpleasant feeling of being interrogated.
He smiled at her now. “Because I don’t want to make the same mistakes in our marriage as he did.”
Isabella turned her head to him. She hadn’t expected his answer. “Mistakes? What makes you think he made mistakes? We had a perfectly agreeable marriage.”
“Agreeable,” he snorted. “I don’t want an agreeable marriage. I want a happy one.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No, my angel. Now tell me, what was he like?” He took the hairbrush out of her hand and started brushing her hair with it. She was startled by the intimate action.
“Well, if you must.” Then she sighed. “He never brushed my hair.”
Raphael’s smile was warm, and it extended to his eyes. The almost predatory, tense way with which he’d questioned her about Giovanni’s ring was gone. Maybe she had just imagined it.
“He was a good man. He provided for me, taught me how to help him run the business. I learned much from him. He was kind.” She paused, not knowing what else to say about him.
“Yet he never licked your pussy,” Raphael whispered close to her ear.
She dropped her lids. “He wasn’t that type of man.”
“What type, Isabella?” His breath ghosted over her shoulder.
“That … that,” she stammered, unable to concentrate when he was deliberately trying to make her body react to him.
“Passionate?” he helped.
“He was a measured man. Everything had its time and place. That’s why it was so strange …” So strange when he changed.
“What was strange?” Raphael continued brushing her hair with long and gentle strokes.
“Before his death. He was not the same man anymore.”
“In what way?”
“I’m not sure, but he was different. He avoided being alone with me. He had terrible mood swings, outbursts of temper. And he would stay away all night, then shut himself away all day. It wasn’t normal. He even shunned Massimo, and they’d always been as close as brothers. One day he tossed the onyx ring in the corner as if it was worth nothing. It was his temper.”
The smooth strokes with which Raphael brushed her hair soothed her memories. But something else still bothered her. “I think he took a mistress. He wouldn’t bed me anymore. Maybe that’s what happens to men when they are married for a few years. They lose interest in their wives.”
Raphael set the brush on the table and turned her body to him. “Is that what you’re afraid of? That I’ll lose interest in you?”
She didn’t want to answer him. What would it serve? Only to expose her heart. He would break it one day—one day soon when she discovered his true motives for marrying her. She didn’t want to meet his eye, but he shelved her chin on his hand and tilted her face up.
“I’ll never lose interest in you. How could I? You’re the most engaging and passionate woman I’ve ever met.”
His kiss was tender, but within seconds it turned heated and consuming. Despite her reservations about him, her uncertainty of what he wanted from her, and from this marriage, she melted into him.
Raphael lifted her into his arms and carried her to their bed, where he covered her with his own body. “Now, my sweet wife, let me show you how much you interest me.”
Chapter Sixteen
This was the third night that Isabella had awakened and found herself alone. Raphael was nowhere to be found. Just as the two nights before: he’d come to bed and made love to her, only to disappear sometime while she slept. At first she’d thought she would find him downstairs in the study or the parlor having a glass of grappa or reading a book, but the house was empty, save for the servants.
Yet, every morning he was by her side again, sleeping, his body pressed closely to hers as if he’d never been away. Despite his assurances that he wouldn’t lose interest in her as Giovanni had, she couldn’t help but speculate where he went in the middle of the night.
But she wouldn’t make the same mistake she’d made with Giovanni. She wouldn’t allow him to treat her like this. If he disappeared again, she would follow him and find out what he was hiding from her.
***
Raphael entered the parlor in his own home and noticed that he had a visitor. Lorenzo, one of his closest friends, was sprawled in one corner of the sofa.
“Lorenzo, it’s good to see you.”
Lorenzo gave him a crooked grin, mischief twinkling in his blue eyes. His loose, shoulder-length hair and open shirt attested to the fact that he’d been waiting for a while, and the drops of blood on his chest indicated he’d fed recently. Very recently.
“Likewise. I hear congratulations are in order.”
Raphael’s nostril’s flared as he scented the fresh blood. In fact, it was very intense. He glanced around the room and found Dante in his favorite chair in front of the fireplace, a young woman in his lap. Her gown was open in the front, exposing her small but firm breasts, which Dante fondled while he suckled from her neck.
Drops of blood ran down Dante’s cheek, evidence of how greedily he drank from the woman. Her soft moans drifted to his ears. She was under Dante’s thrall. Raphael knew that she wouldn’t remember anything his brother did to her. The persuasion skill his brother used was what had helped him and his fellow vampires avoid detection over centuries. Every vampire used it when feeding.
He felt his trousers tightening at the thought of feeding from a woman. Not any woman. Isabella. With a grunt, he pulled himself away from the sight and embraced Lorenzo who’d risen from the sofa.
“Thank you, my friend.”
Lorenzo made a sideway’s glance at Dante. “Would you like some? I brought her for Dante, but as we both know, he doesn’t mind sharing. Do you, Dante?”
As much as he wo
uld have liked to accept the offer, he’d decided to only feed from men now that he was married to Isabella. He didn’t feel that it was right to touch another woman.
“No, thank you.”
“My brother is smitten with his wife, you must understand, Lorenzo,” Dante drawled, having dislodged his fangs from the woman’s neck. “It appears he doesn’t want to give into temptation by touching another woman.”
“And Dante seems to stick his nose into things that don’t concern him. Who I feed from is entirely my business,” Raphael shot back. “Now, if you’re quite done with feeding, can we get down to business? What did you find out about Giovanni Tenderini?”
Dante licked the puncture wounds on the woman’s neck, got up and carried her to the sofa where he laid her down. Then he wiped his mouth and looked back at Raphael, his face serious now. “He was a Guardian all right. But I’ll let Lorenzo tell you the story. It’s quite interesting, by the way.”
“Yes,” Lorenzo confirmed. “A Guardian turned Vampire.”
Surprise registered with Raphael. “What?”
“You heard right. He was chasing a group of us together with a couple of other Guardians, but we managed to separate him from his brethren. We cornered him in a dead end. There was no way out for him. Nico had the brilliant idea of handing out the ultimate punishment.”
Raphael held his breath, guessing what was coming.
“And what fitting punishment it was for a Guardian to become the very creature he hunts, don’t you think? Nico turned him. He struggled, he fought—a very brave man, if I may add. But to no avail. In the end, the deed was done. He’d made him one of us. We heard of his death a month later. I wonder whether he took his own life. He must have known he would drown.”
“It all makes sense now.” Raphael ran his hand through his hair.
“What makes sense?” Dante asked.
“Isabella noticed a change in him in the month before his death. And he never wore his Guardian ring again. But I don’t believe that he committed suicide. More like somebody close to him hastened his end.”
“His wife?” Lorenzo asked.
Raphael gave his friend a scolding look. Isabella wouldn’t harm a fly. “No. Isabella would never hurt a soul.”
“You seem so sure, my brother. Didn’t I tell you not to trust your wife? Watch out or you might end up like her first husband.”
Raphael glared at his brother. “Isabella has nothing to do with this. I rather suspect that his cousin Massimo is involved in his demise. Have you had somebody follow him?”
Dante nodded. “He’s careful. No suspicious meetings with anybody so far. And we haven’t spotted the ring on anybody else. I suspect the Guardians only wear it in private or when they meet with each other.”
Which could mean that Massimo considered Isabella’s house his private domain. “We’ll just have to be patient.” Raphael glanced at the clock over the mantle. “I have to get back before she wakes.”
Dante tsked. “I think you should leave her. We don’t need her to get to Massimo. Now that we know his name and whereabouts, you shackling yourself to her isn’t necessary. She’ll only become a liability and put you in danger.”
Raphael snarled. “She’s mine. And she’ll remain mine.”
Chapter Seventeen
Knowing he had to feed again, Raphael peeled himself out of the arms of his sleeping wife and slid out of bed. Maybe he should have accepted her offer to take Giovanni’s bedchamber, but he couldn’t bring himself to sleep without her and only visit her to make love. He liked having her in his arms at night when she slept. It soothed him.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, he snatched his clothes from the chair and left the chamber, closing the door behind him without a sound. He felt like a thief as he got dressed in the corridor, but he knew if he didn’t leave now, he was liable to attack his wife.
Lorenzo’s offer to feed from his female victim the night before had had a certain appeal, but the thought of putting his hands on another woman had actually disgusted him. It was better to sink his fang into a man. It felt less like a betrayal. The fact that he was thinking in these terms scared him. He’d never been a one-woman man, but it was important to him to be faithful to Isabella. She deserved it. He wanted this marriage to work.
Raphael was quiet when he left the house and pulled the side door shut behind him. He looked up at the full moon, which flooded the narrow alleys with light. Too much light for his liking. He preferred it darker so it was easier for him to hide. But he didn’t have much choice. His hunger dictated his actions.
He’d fed the night after Isabella, and had stayed at his own house. Over the last three days, his hunger had been building. More than usual. The fact that he was making love to his passionate wife several times a day or night was one of the reasons for it. She was draining his energy, but he didn’t mind. He couldn’t stop himself from cornering her whenever the urge overcame him. Throwing her skirts up in the study had been just the beginning.
During the day, he fucked her fast and frantic, but at night, when they were cocooned in her chamber, he took his time and made sweet love to her, with words, caressing hands, and soft kisses. He couldn’t tell what Isabella liked more, the way he ravished her in every conceivable place in her house, or when he worshipped her body at night.
Sometimes she glanced at him with the look of a frightened doe, but the moment he laid his hands on her, that look always vanished and was replaced by a sparkle in her eyes that he’d come to love. Once he’d fed, he’d return home instantly and wake Isabella by making love to her.
Raphael sighed and trained his eyes on a movement ahead of him. It was a man, who staggered along the alley. The scent emanating from him confirmed that he was drunk. That would make it even easier. He wouldn’t even have to enthrall him to approach and feed from him. The drunk would never remember. And the alcohol swimming in the man’s blood wouldn’t make him drunk .
Raphael approached the man. “Good evening, my fellow.”
The man turned his head, his eyes barely focusing, his mouth tilted up in a stupid grin. “Huh?”
The time for conversation being at an end, Raphael put his arm around the drunk’s shoulder, then turned him into his chest before his fangs descended and drove into his neck. There was barely a shudder by the man. His fangs were coated with a substance that dulled all pain, thus making it possible to feed from a human without causing screams of pain.
As the rich, alcohol-infused blood coated his tongue and ran down his throat, Raphael let his senses relax. He closed his eyes and only listened to the demands of his body. He drew on the vein, long and hard, taking the life-sustaining liquid into him. His only thought was how much he wanted this neck to be Isabella’s. To drink from her, nourish himself with her fragrant blood, gorge himself on her essence, while he drove his insatiable cock into—
A scream pierced the silence of the alley.
***
Isabella only realized she’d screamed when she saw Raphael’s head snap in her direction, releasing the neck of the man he’d had his teeth locked into. When his piercing eyes pinned her, she saw the blood drip from his lips and run down his chin. His mouth was open, and she could clearly see the white of his fangs. Paralyzed, she stared at him.
She’d heard stories about creatures like him but never believed any. She’d always thought they were mere fairy tales to frighten children. But what she saw in front of her now was not a fairy tale, not something she could dismiss.
She was married to a vampire. A creature that drank blood and sucked the life out of humans.
The moment Raphael let the man sag against the wall and came toward her, she found her strength again and ran.
“Isabella,” he called behind her, “Stop!” The voice came closer, and she knew he was chasing her. She was glad she wore breeches, making it easier to run. She’d hidden them under the bed, knowing it would take her less time to get dressed in the dark than if she had to step into a dre
ss. The moment Raphael had left her chamber, she’d jumped out of bed and gotten ready to follow him.
But now, she almost wished she’d caught him with a mistress instead. It would be easier to deal with—and safer.
Her thighs burned as she continued to flee even though she knew she could never outrun him. The sound of his boots on the cobblestone street closed in on her. Her lungs stinging, she pushed herself harder and ran faster than she ever had.
“Isabella, please!” Then his hand gripped the collar of her coat and pulled her back.
“No!” She slipped on the wet stone and would have fallen had Raphael not pulled her against his chest and imprisoned her within his arms. Like chains, they closed around her, cutting off any movement of her upper body. But she still had her legs. She kicked them back, trying to make him loosen his grip on her, but to no avail.
“Stop struggling, Isabella. I would never hurt you. Please trust me.”
“No, let me go, you monster!”
His mouth was at her ear, his breath caressing her neck, when he answered her. His voice was low and soothing. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but I’m not a monster. I’m still the man who loves you.”
Tears threatened to burst to the surface, but she forced them back. “No. Let me go. Please let me go.”
She felt him shake his head behind her. “Never, my angel.”
Then Raphael started moving, carrying her in front of him. Renewed panic gripped her. He’d take her to a dark place and then drain her of her blood. She kicked her legs back again, hitting his shins. “No! Where are you taking me?”
“Stop struggling, it’s no use. We’re going home.”
But the direction he took wasn’t where her house lay. “You’re lying. Home is the other way.”
“My home,” he corrected and slid his lips against her cheek. A shiver ran down her body, and she didn’t know whether it was caused by fear or was merely her body’s usual reaction to his touch.