by Ivy Banks
“Nobody fucking move!” The voice rang out loudly over the hypnotic beat of the R&B song accompanying Penelope’s sensual routine. Then, a gun shot was fired.
She recognized the voice she thought, but the surreal feeling of the moment made it impossible to identify. A brief second passed with only bass pounding through the club, the patrons falling eerily silent before pandemonium rang out. Shrieks and screams filled Penelope’s ears.
Her dark brown eyes flew open and she stared, mouth agape at the two masked intruders, wielding machine guns slightly to her left. The kid front and center had dropped below the stage, his hands over his head.
Gasping, she collapsed to the floor of the stage, cowering in fear as one of the two robbers allowed for a spray of bullets to litter the ceiling of the club. Glass shattered to the ground and more cries rang out from the dancers and patrons alike.
“Nobody fucking move!” the second, bigger masked man yelled again.
He pointed the weapon directly at the crowd while his cohort scampered toward the bartender.
Oh shit, not again.
One of her dancer friends at The Kingdom had told her about the robbery there last week and what had been done to the bartender and dancer.
Oh, dear God, please just let them take the money and get the hell out this time. No one needs to get hurt.
“Get in the office,” the smaller one barked at Angel, the beautiful blonde bartender. Angel nodded and turned toward the back, but the robber stopped. On what seemed like a whim, he turned to the stage and Penelope could see his eyes raking over her body through this balaclava.
“You too,” he growled at her. “In the office.”
She froze, unable to cooperate, until he raised the gun aiming it directly at her face.
Nothing is going to happen if you just do what they say. Angel needs you. Don’t panic and no one will get hurt.
Penelope was suddenly unsteady on the heels that had become second nature to her over the years.
Don’t fall, don’t make a scene, just keep it together. If you think, you can find your way out of this safely.
Angel, the petite bartender, hurried toward the back of the club while the thug pushed the butt of his firearm against Penelope, forcing her along.
“Hurry up!” he snarled. “Let’s go!”
She did not argue, but her heart thumped wildly in her chest. She tried to look about for security, but she did not see one bouncer.
Did they kill the guards? Penelope swallowed a scream that threatened to erupt from her throat. They hadn’t killed anyone at The Kingdom, but maybe this time they weren’t taking any chances.
Penelope couldn’t think about that. She needed to remain calm.
They made their way through the small back hallway to the security room door at the end where Angel fumbled for her keys.
“Move faster!” the smaller masked man screamed and Angel whimpered. The man then looked at Penelope. “If you even think of doing anything stupid, I’ll kill her right in front of you.”
“It’s okay,” Penelope called out, hoping to calm the near hysterical woman. “You’re doing great.”
Her compassion was rewarded with a backhanded slap to the face.
“Shut up!”
Penelope gasped and touched her cheek, tasting blood in her mouth.
Angel finally managed to open the locked door and the robber shoved both women inside. He glanced at the security cameras to ensure that his partner still had the front under control and Penelope prayed silently that someone had manage to call the police undetected.
“Open the safe!” he ordered and Angel moaned.
“I don’t know the combination,” she whispered, her grey eyes lit with fear.
“Yes, you do!” he snapped, raising the gun.
Angel shook her head. “No, I don’t!” she cried.
Penelope knew that she was telling the truth. She had worked with the seasoned bartender long enough to know that she would not risk their lives for a few bucks.
“Open the goddamn safe, Angel!”
Both women stopped in shock. He knew Angel’s name. He knew them both, she was sure of it, and Penelope was now trying desperately trying to place his voice.
This one doesn’t sound familiar. The other one definitely did. But do I know this one?
Angel shook her head again. “Mr. Hanover changed the combination after the robbery at The Kingdom and I no longer have access to it. He’s the only one with access to the safe now,” she whispered. “I swear to God! I would do it otherwise.”
The gunmen barraged Angel with curse words, and in his anger, threw several objects within his grasp across the room. He grabbed a chair, and it inadvertently hit Angel, instantly knocking her unconscious.
Penelope gasped aloud and tried to back away as he advanced on her.
“I guess we’ll just have to wait for Hanover to get back, won’t we?” he leered and Penelope felt her heart stop. “Whatever will we do while we’re waiting?”
“Don’t,” she hissed. “Don’t touch me!”
But he was already on her, his free hand reaching for her G-string, pulling her toward him roughly.
“I’m not planning to leave here empty handed, so until we figure out the money thing, I’m going to take something I’ve always wanted,” he leered.
“Who are you?” she gasped, willing herself not to cry.
If this is going to happen, I won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry, she vowed.
Without warning, her attacker was jerked up into the air by a large, strong hand around his neck. The gun was ripped out of his hand, as the attacker clawed desperately to break free from the suffocating grip. Penelope stared in shock. Her attacker’s eyes rolled back in his head as the man who had just saved her choked the life out of him.
Good, die! Penelope screamed in her thoughts, silently cheering on her unexpected savior. She was too scared to make a sound, but her emotions raged. Penelope turned to look at his face and realized it was Lucas Hanover…except he was someone else.
His face was an eerie shade of white and the green of his eyes were glowing a surreal unnatural light. As his fingers continued to press on the robber’s windpipe, incisors grew to long, pointed tips, jabbing into blood red lips. A fine red line trickled down the corners of his mouth and Penelope had never been more aroused or terrified in her life.
In slow motion, Penelope turned her dark eyes back to the dying man, who was almost levitating in Lucas’ single hand. Before she could register what she was seeing, she watched as his almost lifeless fingers curled around the trigger of an extra gun hidden in his waistband, sending a spray of bullets into Lucas Hanover.
Reality pounded at her instantly as Lucas was pushed back against the desk, dropping the man to the ground.
Panicked and almost dead, the masked intruder tore open the office door, screaming for his partner to run in gasping breaths.
To Penelope’s shock, Lucas Hanover stood up, a small, cruel smile on his lips. Moving faster than she had ever seen anything move, he pounced on the fleeing man, pinning the smaller man to the floor.
She stared in horrified fascination as Lucas’ teeth ripped into the man’s throat, a splash of red soaking the clean-cut billionaire’s face.
Unable to witness any more of the gore, Penelope turned her head, bile filling her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the other, bigger man flee out the front door, leaving the crowd to disperse in a hysterical frenzy.
“Penelope, are you hurt?”
Lucas’ voice jarred her back to where she stood. She looked at him, blood dripping from the side of his mouth. At his feet lay the still-warm corpse of the violent offender.
She shook her dark hair and leaned against the wall, and pointed at Angel.
“She’s hurt. He hurt her.”
He nodded and she stared at him, noticing the holes that the bullets had made.
“How… how are you not dead?” she whispered.
>
He turned to her urgently and grasped her shoulders. “You must never tell anyone what you have seen here,” he told her, and Penelope swallowed more thick fear down her throat.
His intensity frightened her, she’d never seen him like this before.
“When the police arrive, you will not tell them that you saw him shoot me. Do you understand, Penelope?”
She nodded and he released her.
“The story is, I came back and overpowered him. Everything else is the same, but do not mention the shooting.”
Again, she bobbed her head in agreement, eyeing the shredded neck of the man on the floor.
“Your secret is safe with me, Mr. Hanover,” she whispered, watching him strip off his shirt.
Police closed in on the building and Lucas quickly dug a new shirt out from the closet. Penelope rushed over to Angel who was beginning to moan quietly. She cradled the other woman’s head in her hands, examining the blow she had taken.
“She needs an ambulance,” Penelope called to her boss.
“Son of a bitch,” Lucas muttered. “I knew this was an inside job.”
She glanced over at him, now leaning over the dead assailant. He had pulled the robber’s ski mask off his face. It was one of the club’s bouncers, Carlos.
They exchanged a look as officers came storming into the back room and Penelope was certain that her emotions were plain as day on her face.
Who is Lucas Hanover?
Chapter 4
When the last officer left, Lucas ground his teeth together, the metallic taste of Carlos’s blood still in his mouth. Lucas locked the front door and did a sweep of the building, ensuring that everyone had left.
This is going to be brutal for business, he thought. Two clubs violently robbed at gunpoint in a two-week span. And one of the guys was an employee.
Lucas believed the second assailant was an employee as well. It would explain the inside knowledge that they seemed to have. But Lucas had a more immediate problem on his hands: Penelope.
The girl had been a dancer at the club for three years and he liked her, but she was his employee…and a mortal. Could she be trusted not to speak of what had happened?
She hadn’t breathed a word to the police, but he had no way of knowing that she would stay quiet forever. He made his way behind the bar and toward the corridor leading to the office. Carlos’ blood still stained the walls, although his body had been taken away to the coroner.
As he pushed open the still ajar door to the office, he took a deep breath. Is it time to move on again? After all the time I spent building this empire, it would be a shame to let it all go, but what choice will I have? I killed a man with my teeth in front of a witness. That is going to raise some eyebrows.
Penelope sat on his desk, her long legs crossed as she stared at him. He felt the same draw to her that he always felt in her vicinity. He wanted her, but had always forced himself to keep the relationship strictly professional.
She liked him too. He could tell by the way she stared at him adoringly.
“What are you doing in here?” he demanded, glancing behind him as if she might not be alone. “I thought you went home.”
She shook her glorious mane of dishevelled hair, her lower lip quivering slightly.
Slowly, she lowered herself from the desk onto her too high heels and stepped toward him.
“I wanted to thank you,” she whispered, her voice cracking slightly. “He was going to—”
“No,” Lucas interrupted, watching as the sultry brunette stopped in front of him. The thought of someone trying to hurt her made his blood boil. Something about her was special, and no man would ever come close to harming her again. He would see to that.
Even with her stilettos, she was four inches shorter than him. She did not meet his gaze, but he felt the unshaken fear still emanating from her.
Without thinking, he reached for her, cupping her chin to pull her face up. “Nothing was going to happen to you,” he told her softly, their eyes meeting. A wave of strong desire to protect her washed over him.
At his words, she shuddered and began to cry, releasing the terror of the night from her body. Lucas pulled her toward his barrel chest and held her. He would never have forgiven himself if something had happened to her, especially on his watch.
As he held her head, stroking her soft hair, she turned to look up at him with her doe-eyes. She snaked her arms up and around his neck and slowly pulled his face down to hers. Their lips met slowly, her tongue tracing his lower lip before biting it gently with her teeth. Their tongues met again, and Lucas thought he’d never felt such a soft and passionate kiss before.
Her hand slowly ran down his torso, finding its way up under his shirt, exploring the peaks and valleys of his muscular physique. As her fingers played with the edge of his pants, running her finger along the hem, sending a light shock of testosterone through him, he gently reached down and took her hand in his.
“No,” he said softly between kisses. “Tonight has been too much. This wouldn’t be right; you’re still in shock. Besides, I’m your boss.”
“I’ve always wanted to be with you,” she said. “You’re not like other men. You’re kind, sweet, and talk to me like I’m a person—not just a piece of ass. And if you’re worried about me being your employee… I’ll quit.”
“I can’t…” Lucas persisted. “I am not going to take advantage of your vulnerability.”
“You can and you will… I almost died tonight. I have a new outlook on life, and the first thing I want to experience is you!”
Lucas couldn’t hold back. He crushed his lips down on hers, wanting to alleviate the fear in her face, and hungrily, she returned his kiss, her hands encircling his broad back.
“You saved me,” she breathed, her mouth traveling down his chest.
She knows my secret, he thought, watching her dark hair go lower on his body, feeling her small hands undoing his pants patiently. And she is so beautiful, so sexy.
Exposed, he felt himself collapse against the office desk as Penelope took him in her mouth lovingly, her dark eyes, studying his face as she sucked his growing shaft with slow, erotic strokes. His hand reached for her full breast beneath the sequined material, teasing her taut, pierced nipple.
Her tongue grew wetter, her movements faster, as Penelope’s hand cupped his round swaying testicles, massaging them with gentle roughness. Lucas groaned, pushing his hips so she took him entirely into her throat.
This won’t do, he thought, his prismed eyes flying open to stare at the dancer eagerly devouring him. I want her, all of her.
Yanking her to her feet, he lifted her onto the desk, spreading her widely apart. She shook her head pleadingly, given him full permission to take her.
Abruptly, he ripped her red thong from her olive hips and rubbed himself against her. She had a clit piercing to match her nipple rings and Lucas relished the feel of the cool metal against his raging member. Her entry was slick and hot, and he forced himself not to lose control. His eyes traveled to her throat and he wondered what she tasted like as he began to thrust into her.
Kitten mewls filled his ears, but he was unable to look anywhere but at the pulsating in her jugular, calling to him over and over.
You can’t, Lucas told himself, but he was beyond the point of reasoning as Penelope’s cries became impassioned screams. She leaned back on the desk, locking her ankles around his neck, tightening her entry around his already well-fit cock. He could feel the throb of his incisors poking through his gums as his eyes traveled between her nipple rings and her pure, pulsating neck.
It will solve your problems. She can’t say anything if she is an immortal too. And, she’d enjoy it.
He shook those thoughts from his mind. No, I can’t. I can’t turn her… but I can taste her.
She watched him through half-closed eyes as he focused on her neckline, as he thrust into her.
“Bite me,” she breathed. “Do it.”
He was
losing control, his sack grew tight and he tensed, grinding his teeth together until he couldn’t take it any more. He grabbed her ankles and spread them wide, feasting on the full access to her body. He dove forward and buried his face in her throat. Her neck stretched further back, as if she was taunting him.
“Take me Lucas, oh take me,” she yelled, as their bodies moved together in an intense build-up of sexual energy. She clawed at the back of his broad shoulders as he sucked her sweet neck with fervor. His hands caressed her body everywhere, lost in the overwhelming pleasure of her. She grabbed the back of his hair, pulling at the nape as if holding on for life and Lucas felt her muscles clench around his cock as she soaked him with her orgasm.
The intensity of drinking the warm, metallic liquid that poured from her neck while she shattered around him sent him over the edge. Hot juice spurted out of him into her burning center and Lucas’ teeth closed around the sweet vein in her neck.
He sucked her ruthlessly, feeling her grow limper, his climax slowly ending.
I need to stop. I’m taking too much blood.
The haze which had overwhelmed him in his fervent moment of passion suddenly dissipated and Lucas pulled back from her in horror.
It was too late.
Penelope lay dead atop his desk, her smooth olive skin now a glowing ivory.
“No!” he screamed, trying to pick her up. “No! Please, Penelope, wake up!”
Logically he knew that no amount of pleading would bring her back and he closed his eyes as if willing the scene to undo itself.
There was only one thing left to do; he had to turn her.
He gnashed a welt into his wrist and pressed it to her lips, forcing the supply of immortal blood into her system. Soon, he felt himself growing weak from the lack of blood and reluctantly pulled back, staring at the dead girl.