Midnight Bite
Page 1
Midnight Bite
Sharon Hamilton
Sharon Hamilton’s Book List
SEAL BROTHERHOOD BOOKS
SEAL BROTHERHOOD SERIES
Accidental SEAL Book 1
Fallen SEAL Legacy Book 2
SEAL Under Covers Book 3
SEAL The Deal Book 4
Cruisin’ For A SEAL Book 5
SEAL My Destiny Book 6
SEAL of My Heart Book 7
Fredo’s Dream Book 8
SEAL My Love Book 9
SEAL Encounter Prequel to Book 1
SEAL Endeavor Prequel to Book 2
Ultimate SEAL Collection Vol. 1 Books 1-4 /2 Prequels
Ultimate SEAL Collection Vol. 2 Books 5-7
BAD BOYS OF SEAL TEAM 3 SERIES
SEAL’s Promise Book 1
SEAL My Home Book 2
SEAL’s Code Book 3
Big Bad Boys Bundle Books 1-3
BAND OF BACHELORS SERIES
Lucas Book 1
Alex Book 2
Jake Book 3
Jake 2 Book 4
Big Band of Bachelors Bundle
BONE FROG BROTHERHOOD SERIES
New Year’s SEAL Dream Book 1
SEALed At The Altar Book 2
SEALed Forever Book 3
SEAL’s Rescue Book 4
SEALed Protection Book 5
SILVER SEALS SERIES
SEAL Love’s Legacy
SLEEPER SEALS SERIES
Bachelor SEAL
STAND ALONE BOOKS & SERIES
SEAL’s Goal: The Beautiful Game
Nashville SEAL: Jameson
True Blue SEALS Zak
Paradise: In Search of Love
Love Me Tender, Love You Hard
NOVELLAS
SEAL You In My Dreams Magnolias and Moonshine
PARANORMALS
GOLDEN VAMPIRES OF TUSCANY SERIES
Honeymoon Bite Book 1
Mortal Bite Book 2
Christmas Bite Book 3
Midnight Bite Book 4
THE GUARDIANS
Heavenly Lover Book 1
Underworld Lover Book 2
Underworld Queen Book 3
FALL FROM GRACE SERIES
Gideon: Heavenly Fall
NOVELLAS
SEAL Of Time Trident Legacy
All of Sharon’s books are available on Audible, narrated by the talented J.D. Hart.
About the Book
He’s her husband by convenience…
But their love is real.
They’re of two different species in a union they’re not allowed to consummate…
But somehow, they’ll find their way to a Happily Ever After…
Is being together worth giving up immortality?
Or their very souls?
Under the skies of California Wine Country comes this vampiric tale of a three-hundred-year-old love story like Romeo and Juliet, as two star-crossed lovers break all the rules, while the Dark and Golden Vampire wars loom. Under the burden of a centuries-old prophecy in the newly discovered Book of Spawn, either a miracle or a tragedy will be born.
For Lionel must sacrifice himself to protect her to the bitter end and Phoebe will have her Romeo, no matter the cost.
Begin Reading
About the Author
Table of Contents
Copyright © 2019 by Sharon Hamilton
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
License Notes
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Sharon Hamilton’s Book List
About the Book
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
About the Author
Reviews
Chapter 1
Lionel awoke to the gentle breathing of his new bride, smelling of roses and lavender. His internal clock had roused him. It was dusk and all light from the sun had probably dissipated by now. His world of night, the beginning of his new day, was upon him.
He savored this part of his dark morning. Phoebe’s nude body had been restless due to her trying to adjust to his nighttime schedule.
Bless her beautiful mortal heart.
She was trying to be a dutiful, good wife. She’d told him she wanted to live in his world. He wished he could live in hers. He’d give up immortality to stay with her, protect and be a regular husband to her if he could, but the laws of nature wouldn’t allow that.
Lionel made the commitment to the Monteleone family centuries ago. He’d also recently made the promise to her parents that he’d not violate her and that he’d use his awesome dark powers to keep their daughter safe from the other dark coven vamps that preyed on the fragile mortal offspring of the Golden Clan. And he also promised to deliver her still a virgin if and when her Golden Vampire fated mate should arrive.
It was an impossible place to be, he thought. Totally impossible. On one hand he had his honor and promise as a dedicated warrior, and on the other, he had his heart. But not only that, he had her heart to think of. And he knew she loved him. She loved him as a mortal, like Maria Monteleone, Marcus’ mother, had loved him.
Now he was in between making the same mistake again, to go on loving someone for centuries perhaps, a person he would be happy with for eternity, but someone who was forbidden to him. He’d not experienced a blood mating, but he knew there was that bond there, as sure as he knew that if he stood in the sun, he’d burn up in flames until his life would travel across the land like a delicate piece of black ash. He’d be reduced to that. That same sun that could cause his death was the same sun Phoebe loved and which gave her inspiration. The same sun she was trying to live without.
Her struggle to live in his timetable, his world, was keeping her from her family. It was every bit as hard on her as it was on him.
He’d spent centuries sleeping alone in the middle of the day or sleeping with another hot witch or other dark coven vamp, one of his many paramours. As a newly made dark, he’d enjoyed getting drunk and filled with lust with those of his own kind, seeing most mortal women as if they were a piece of wilted lettuce. None of them, until Maria, appealed to him in any shape or form. He’d always viewed this as a safety feature built into his breed by his maker.
But his unsatisfied experimentation with his new bride he could pleasure, but never mate fully with, and her desire to match his ministrations with those of her own, tendered his heart. The desire to not only lov
e, but protect this fragile creature was overwhelming. If this was some form of fating, well, so be it. If not, he had enough within him forged out of three centuries of control, to be able to stop them both before her hands, her lips and her soft body drove him crazy.
He watched her nestle beside him, cleave to him already in her sleep. Phoebe knew so little about it, yet she was very clearly blooming under the proximity he had to her. His flesh ignited hers. His touch made her shudder in pleasure. His kiss made her lose all sense of who she was or what time she was living in. His vampiric pride took stock of this. His chest grew and his groin came to life. Again.
“Husband, I awaken to the hardness of your member. May I pleasure you?” she whispered.
Lionel had hoped to remain in the middle of this new day erotic fantasy—perhaps for a few minutes longer until she awoke, but that was not to be. Now he had to keep his wits about him, for both of their sakes.
“Phoebe, you wear me out.” But as he was waking, she was moving her nude body over him, climbing his hips and purring her sex against his in a dangerous dance. Her nipples were bruised where he’d kissed them so roughly before they’d retired.
“But—” she pulled her hair up to the top of her head. “What can I do? I am drunk with the smell of your body, husband. I feel everything.”
Her hand drifted to between them as she wrapped her fingers around his shaft.
He gently pulled her to the side. She turned her back to him and curled in a ball, beginning to cry. His heart broke. He wanted to spoon to her backside but knew that this was only a temporary cruel pleasure and not fair to her.
There were two sides to this situation. As a male vampire he took pride in how overcome she was with the touch and smell of him. As her protector, he was tormented that his desire could send her straight into a fiery early grave. Again, he paused, allowing both sensations to wash over him, stuck in the inaction of indecision, both loving and hating the position they were suffering under. The suffering that was their pleasure.
He lay his palm against the top of her shoulders, extending his fingers into her hair. He clutched her head, demonstrating his strength, while she moaned, attempted to turn to him, yet he held her still.
“If I were to jam your mouth over my cock you would be repulsed. But yes, I desire it.”
“I want you to be rough with me, Lionel. Do it. Force me. Please, I want to bring you pleasure.”
He allowed his fingers to massage her scalp as he watched her undulating on herself, her hands busy between her legs. He could pretend, yes, he could even smell what it would be like to ram himself into her core and be the only man to taste her virgin blood.
She broke free, her lips wet and plump, wanting him.
“Lionel, I want to taste you again.”
He sighed as she attempted to mount him for the second time. He held her above his body, her hair falling down between them. “By all the vampire gods, if there are any, I will bed you, sweet Phoebe, if only in our dreams.”
“Take me, husband,” she whispered again.
It was so unfair and yet it was so exquisite, her struggle in his arms, this yearning between them.
“Patience, little one,” he whispered, kissing her hard.
She moaned and pulled away after he presented her a tiny taste of his blood. “I don’t want your patience. I want your cock.”
He chuckled. It was everything he’d ever wanted, this fantasy playing out in real time. But it was still a nightmare.
As Phoebe resigned herself and settled back into a deep sleep, he pondered about the days that had recently passed. They’d managed to have some privacy in the locked guest bedroom of her parent’s house, but Lionel knew this could not be a permanent solution. Phoebe was not to leave the house, so it meant that all their intimate interactions happened when the family was asleep, and the house was quiet. They had limited communication with her mother, father and brothers, usually during the dinner hour, after dark.
Before the wedding, he’d convinced her to move to California, where they could stay in the Monteleone estate with Marcus and Anne and their toddler, Ian. But Phoebe had been hesitant to just up and leave Tuscany, and her loved ones. She’d never lived anywhere else.
Until now.
He knew that without the added burden of her parents perhaps listening through walls that it might be easier for them to bend or blend the rules between them. This excited as well as worried Lionel. Phoebe’s quest for his body had turned into nighttime forages into the war zone of their growing fate. He knew they needed distance, and true privacy. He had the family’s trust, but for how much longer, he wasn’t certain. Phoebe was growing less and less shy about demonstrating her affection for him in public, and he could feel the eyes on his back.
Tonight, he was going to broach the subject with her parents, over dinner. A small gathering of the clan had been arranged as a going away celebration since Marcus and Anne were leaving the next day.
But for now, he waited, resting with the sounds of his mortal wife breathing next to him, cloaking his naked body with her own sweet-scented flesh. He pretended to feel like the luckiest man in the world: married to the most beautiful Golden female in all of Tuscany, a lineage he honored and had already devoted his life to. A woman who was growing in her desire for him with every kiss, every passing hour of the day or night. He just couldn’t imagine that the mortal God in their heaven wouldn’t grant him one slice of the happiness he so richly deserved. Hadn’t he been a warrior for good? Wasn’t this his reward for all his decades of faithful service? Wasn’t this what their mortal Bible talked about?
Perhaps Marcus and he could research the Book of Spawn together and find a solution for all of them.
He’d never had hope before. But he knew what love was, and he knew that love was the most healing elixir in the universe. And that held true for all the species.
Inhaling her body-scent one last time, he closed his eyes and willed himself into an erotic dream—something he hoped would be in their future.
Chapter 2
Phoebe took extra time allowing Lionel to dress her. She loved the feel of his fingers on the back of her neck as he buttoned her 27-button bodice top and applied the layers of gold chain jewelry she’d collected over her young lifespan. It was a tradition in her family to give her one gold chain each birthday, as opposed to a silver chain she wouldn’t be able to wear once she turned.
Her mother was slightly irritated with how long it was taking them to dress and had knocked on their bedroom door several times, her displeasure rising.
“Phoebe,” her mother barked through the heavy wooden door, “everyone’s waiting downstairs. Whatever are you two doing in there?”
Phoebe’s willful and happy mood was going to cause an eruption of giggles, but Lionel quickly covered her mouth with his hand, pulling her backwards into his chest. With one arm around her waist and the other clutching her fingers, constraining her from twisting loose, he whispered, “If you wish to be my dessert after dinner then you must behave, young bride.”
She stilled to hear the rest of his message, delivered in that grumbly deliverance only he could produce. It was as if her skin desired to mate with his lips and prevent his speech.
“We do not want to upset your mother now do we?”
The rumble of his words sent a sizzle down her spine and quickened her heartbeat and the veins in her upper thigh.
With her new keen sense of hearing, brought on by all the exposure to her new husband and the small tastes of his blood, Phoebe heard her mother sigh. She’d forgotten the woman was still standing there, waiting for an answer that wasn’t going to come. Then she heard creaking in the oak flooring as the matriarch of the Dominicelli household descended down the stairway. Phoebe knew her mother was near the breaking point.
All that remained was Lionel’s coarse breathing and his muscled frame, warming her from behind, making her ears buzz. Her fingers found his cuff and smoothed over his wrist to touch hi
m flesh on flesh. She felt the thumping of his accelerating pulse.
Lionel’s freehand made it up to her chest where he massaged her breasts one at a time, groaning into her ear as he did so. She undulated her backside into his groin area, then slowly turned to face him. The lines of age barely showed on his face though he was centuries older than she. His eyes had always been bright and mischievous, smiling at her, even showing a bit of his sharp canines. But his lips didn’t. She knew she could coax a kiss from him and wetted her lips, staring up to him in mock defiance. She reveled in a deep inhale, allowing him to feel the shudder overtaking her entire body at the mere proximity to her fated mate.
“But husband,” she whispered. “It is so exciting and reckless to have your hands on me when you dress me. It will be so painful for me to sit there over dinner and talk chitchat about little things—things that don’t mean anything at all to me—all the time dreaming of having you unbutton all those 27 buttons, lift my petticoats and drive me insane with your kisses, your tongue and the incantations you speak to me so sweetly. Dinner is a long foreplay to what I hope will be an even longer and deeper sexual encounter.”
She was delighted she had flustered him again. She confirmed it by placing her right palm against his growing package and staring deep into his warm brown eyes. She did not fear the pulsing power beneath her hand, nor the forever alteration he could cause. On the contrary, she desired his random acts of abandon and surprise.
He stepped back, and held her at arm’s length, growling. Phoebe always thought Lionel was his handsomest when he growled. She felt it all the way to her womb.
“You must stop. This cannot go on,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Is it so wrong that I desire you 24/7?”
“Is it wrong to want you so badly I would go to hell shortly for even attempting it? Is it wrong we would be doomed to a life forever in pain and sadness?” His breathing became ragged.
His eyes searched hers back and forth, his hands still on her shoulders holding her at bay. It last, his grip softened, and he allowed her to lean into him and then against his chest. She twined her arms up, her hands slipped around his neck to pull his face to hers, his lips to her mouth as she hungrily kissed him. Her tongue had already started seeking the sharpness of one canine to show surrender in all ways possible.