A frown marked his smooth brow. “I thought training only started at adolescence.”
“Well, yes, it does, but most of us are taken before then. We’re raised by the people who took us, and when we hit twelve, we’re moved to the training center.” I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be saying all these things. We’d been warned by Mother not to divulge any of the secrets of our training, but did what had happened to us before then count?
I thought back to my time before I’d been taken to the training camp. The memories were fuzzy—more like little glimpse of time or dreams that I wasn’t even completely sure belonged to me. I had the memories of my real mother, the shouting, and the hiding, the feeling of fear. Then, after that, I remembered being at a house in the middle of nowhere. The house was a wooden structure, half falling down. Two adults took care of me there, a man and a woman. They told me to call them Mom and Dad, but I didn’t want to. I wasn’t the only child there. There were two others, a boy and a girl, both a little older than I was. They called the man and woman Mom and Dad, but I had no idea if they actually were the adults’ children, or if they’d been stolen, like me. We didn’t talk about it. We just played, and did our chores, and ate and slept. If anything was mentioned about our earlier families, I couldn’t remember that now. Then, just before my twelfth birthday, Mother had arrived to take me to the training center. I remembered that part more clearly, how I’d cried and pulled back on her arm, saying I didn’t want to go. While the house and adults I’d mostly grown up with had never been particularly loving or affectionate toward me, I hadn’t wanted to go to a strange place with a strange woman. I’d been just like all the other girls when they first arrived—frightened and crying a lot. But, after time, the older girls who were already there, and sold on now, took me under their wing and made me feel better. Soon enough, the place had felt like home.
For some reason, I didn’t want to tell any of this to Roman, not yet anyway. It felt too personal, and I didn’t want him to look at me and feel sorry for me.
Roman’s words brought me back to the present. “What about the training center? Do you know where it is?”
“New York,” I answered, my tone rising hopefully. At least I knew the answer to something.
“Where in New York?”
My shoulders deflated again. “I don’t know.” Then I thought of something. “You must know, though. You had your car come for me. One of your men met me there.”
But Roman shook his head. “Those were the Madam’s men, and her car. She keeps the location of the training center a complete secret.”
“The Madam?” I asked.
“That’s what the woman who sold you to me is known as in the vampire world.”
“Oh, I see.” The topic of conversation was making me uncomfortable. I didn’t want to think of her as ‘Madam.’ “What about you?” I asked him. “Tell me a bit about your past. Where are you from originally.”
“Croatia,” he said. “I’ve been a vampire for more than a century.”
I stared at him. I couldn’t even contemplate being alive for so long. “And what about your maker?” I asked. “Is he or she still around?”
He shrugged. “My maker was a transient vampire. She didn’t like to stay in one place for too long. Soon after she turned me, she left, and I never bothered to try to seek her out. I have no idea if she’s still of this world or not.”
It appeared we were both without the ones who had created us.
My food arrived, the plates positioned around each other, and I forgot the questions in order to eat. Though I’d missed meals as a punishment back at the center, I’d never been more than twenty-four hours without eating. All of my training about being lady-like and composed went out of the window as I alternated bites of the sandwich with the steak and fries, and then moved onto the waffle for dessert. I was glad I was wearing comfortable clothes. I definitely looked like I was nurturing a food baby under my shirt.
Roman’s eyebrows lifted. “Finished?”
I nodded.
“Good,” he replied. “Now I will take you back to the apartment. I need to go and feed myself.”
I frowned. “Isn’t that what I’m here for?”
“Don’t question me, Dakota. Just do as you’re told.”
Chapter Seven
After I’d eaten, Roman took me back to the apartment.
“I have to go out,” he told me. “I’ll be back before it gets light.”
“What am I supposed to do with myself until then?” I’d hoped we’d made some kind of connection over dinner, but it appeared I was wrong.
“Sleep. You’re human, after all. That’s what you’re supposed to do during the night.”
“I’ve been sleeping all day, thanks to your incarceration of me, and anyway, we’re trained to be companions for vampires, remember. I’ve always been more of a night owl. Can’t I come with you?”
“No, you can’t,” he snapped. “Entertain yourself. I won’t be long.”
I opened my mouth to protest again, but his body became a blur in front of my eyes, and the next thing I knew, the elevator doors were sliding shut.
I might have had a full stomach, but I was bored and lonely. Was this to be my life now, wandering around this apartment alone, while the vampire who was supposed to be cherishing me ran around the city, feasting on others? I paced the apartment, trying to figure out what I’d done wrong with Roman. Mother must have shown him photographs of me before he’d purchased me, so he’d already known what I looked like. What was it about me in person that put him off so much?
I tried not to think about what he was doing now. Was he in an expensive hotel, feasting on other blood courtesans, reveling in their blood, pushing them back on plush hotel beds and fucking them senseless?
When I’d imagined my future as an owned blood courtesan, I’d never thought my own feelings of jealously would be attached to the vampire who owned me. But I was. Jealous, that was. So jealous it tore me up inside, and made me feel like I was going crazy. I wanted him, and I was sure he wanted me. He was just fighting it.
But why?
Restless, I poked around the apartment.
I found one of the rooms at the back of the apartment to be a library, so I settled myself in there for a couple of hours, curled up on a cozy chair with a book on my knees. I wished Roman had taken the time to get some supplies in before he’d vanished again. I’d have happily nursed a mug of hot chocolate while I read, even though my stomach was still full. Mother had controlled every item of food we’d been allowed in the training center, and now I had the ability to eat what I wanted—when available—I wanted to enjoy it. I would become fat as a house at this rate, but as my vampire didn’t seem to care, what did it matter?
I must have dozed, the book cradled in my lap, but I woke to the sound of feminine giggling.
I stiffened and sat up straight in the chair. Who was that? The giggle was followed by a male voice, the low resonance vibrating through the rooms.
Blind anger descended on me, and I flew from the library to go back to Roman’s bedroom.
With a shove, I slammed open the bedroom door. A woman lay on the bed on her back. She resembled me, with her curvy build, dark hair and eyes. Roman held himself above her. He wasn’t wearing a shirt again, though the woman was fully clothed. I could smell a tang of metal in the room, and noticed a smear of something across Roman’s full lips, and on the woman’s throat.
He was feeding on her.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
Roman sat up and looked over at me. His dark eyes were almost black in the dim light, and he somehow managed to appear both sexy and scary all at the same time. I should have been frightened of him, but I was more angry than anything else.
“Dakota. Go back to your room.”
I put my hands on my hips. “What? You think I’m just going to hide in my room while you make out with this… this… tramp right next door?”
“Hey!”
the woman objected.
I flashed her a cold smile. “No offense.”
“It’s none of your business what I do,” Roman said. “I need to feed.”
“Yes, that’s what I’m here for, remember? I could be having the time of my life right now with some hot vampire who is taking me to the best parties in the city, and then screwing me senseless all night, and instead I’m stuck with you!”
Roman exhaled a sigh, and climbed off the woman and the bed. “I think you’d better go,” he told the brunette.
She gave an awkward glance between us and then scurried off the bed. She grabbed her shoes from the floor and hurried past me. There was a blur in front of my eyes, as Roman moved with his vampire’s speed and called the elevator for her.
I waited, my fury simmering, until she was gone.
He whisked across the room to come to a halt in front of me, his dark eyes burning. “What the hell was that little scene about?” he snapped.
“I thought I made that quite clear.”
“Why would you want me to feed on you, Dakota? You actually want me to fuck you? Do you have any idea what it’s like to fuck a vampire? I’m not a gentle creature. Don’t expect me to take things soft and gentle just because it’s your first time.”
“I know that. I’ve been trained my whole life, remember? I’ve been told exactly what to expect.”
But still he didn’t touch me, didn’t even take a step toward me. He just continued to stare.
What was wrong with me? Did he not think I was attractive enough? Did he think he wouldn’t like my blood? Why bother paying so much money for me if he wasn’t going to use me for what I’d been trained for my whole life? But no, I felt sure he was attracted to me. I could see it in the smolder of his eyes, in the way his gaze hovered over my breasts, when he licked his lower lip and dug his fangs into the plump flesh.
Feeling reckless, which probably wasn’t the best way to be in the face of a vampire, I took a step forward, closing the gap between us. I reached out to touch his naked chest, marveling in the smooth, cool feel of his skin. Keeping my eyes on his to judge his reaction, I trailed my fingers down, lower and lower, across his abs and then past his navel to the crotch of his pants. He stared at me, as though daring me to continue. And so I did. Only half prepared for what I would find, I curled my palm around the area and squeezed. His cock was already hard when my hand found it, but as soon as my fingers tightened around him, it grew to twice its size, lengthening and becoming as hard as iron.
“Oh,” I exclaimed, but didn’t let go.
“Dakota,” he growled at me in a warning.
“What? Isn’t this what you want? Isn’t this what you bought me for? You haven’t even tasted me yet.”
“You’re playing a dangerous game,” he warned me, though he’d made no move to dislodge my hand from his cock, tilting his hips and pressing into my hold instead.
“This isn’t a game,” I replied. “This is my life.”
With a roar of frustration, he knocked my hand away and then spun away from me with such speed, he was like a smear on the light, only reappearing when he stopped beside the floor to ceiling windows which looked out over the New York skyline.
To my surprise, I discovered tears of anger and confusion blurring my vision. “What is it?” I cried. “What’s wrong with me? Why don’t you want me?”
He leveled his dark gaze to mine, though the whole apartment separated us. “I do want you, Dakota. Can’t you see that?”
“So take me. I’m standing right here. You own me, so take me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. It’s not right.”
“Why not?”
“You’re eighteen years old, Dakota. I am one hundred and twenty-six. Do you have any idea how young eighteen seems to me? You’re barely more than a child, even if you do look like more of a woman.”
I stared at him in confusion. “So? You knew exactly how old I would be when you bought me. All of us owned courtesans are eighteen years old when we’re sold. Isn’t it part of what makes us attractive to vampires—that we’re so young and fresh and… virginal?”
I blushed hard at the word ‘virginal.’ I certainly hadn’t thought I’d still have my virginity at this point, and the strange thing was that I was so crazily attracted to Roman, I didn’t even want my virginity anymore. Perhaps this was part of the game he was playing, that he figured if he’d launched himself at me the first moment he saw me, I’d be crying and fighting him off. But if he took his time and refused me, then I’d be the one begging him to take me. As it was, he was doing a damn good job of that plan. When I’d thought about my future, I’d thought I would be the one being ravished by the vampire. I’d never considered that I’d be the one who’d want to do the ravishing.
He turned away from me, his hand locked in his thick, black hair. “You don’t get it, do you, Dakota? You have no idea.”
I stared at him. “Clearly, I don’t. So explain it to me, please, ’cause you’re driving me crazy, here.”
He looked over his shoulder at me, drowning me with his intense gaze. “I can’t.”
I wasn’t going to let him intimidate me, even if he was damn intimidating. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t know if I can trust you yet.”
I hadn’t thought it possible for my confusion to deepen any further, but it did. “Trust me about what?”
A small smile quirked the corners of his sculpted lips. “Now, you can’t actually expect me to tell you, especially when I just said I didn’t know if I could trust you.”
I put my hands on my hips and gave a frustrated sigh. “You’re the vampire. Think of something. Can’t you do something to learn how trustworthy I am? I mean, you own me, so why not do something to control me?”
I couldn’t believe I had said that to him. Had I really just suggested that he blood bonded me in order to control me? I’d learned all about the act of blood bonding during my training sessions. A vampire will let a human taste their blood in order to create a kind of psychic connection. It would allow him to feel my emotions as his own, and to give me some idea of where and what he was doing in the world, and vice-versa.
He was staring at me again, his face growing even paler. His eyes were like chunks of granite, his jaw a cut piece of glacial ice. When he spoke again, it was as though his throat had constricted.
“I can’t,” he managed eventually, and I caught the glint of fangs beneath his upper lip.
“Why?” I replied, my own voice quieter now.
“Because if I let you put your mouth on me, I don’t know where it will stop.”
My breath caught, my heart pounding. I wanted that, didn’t I? I wanted the life I’d been raised for.
I wanted him.
Chapter Eight
With daylight not far away, Roman told me he was going to bed.
I couldn’t believe I was going to have to go through another day, basically alone here in Roman’s apartment. I’d lived for the past six years with barely a minute to myself, except for when I’d been locked in my room. The other girls and I had done everything together, from our meals to our training times. Even when we’d been allowed free time to read or practice our instruments or singing, we’d still hang out together. But it wasn’t as though I could argue with him about going to bed at daybreak—it was kind of in a vampire’s job description.
I spent the day alternating between sleeping and reading. I couldn’t go on like this forever, though. I was used to being incarcerated in one place, but I’d at least had company. Even though I wasn’t physically alone—with Roman asleep in the adjoining room—I’d never felt so lonely in my life.
He still hadn’t given me free rein from the apartment and, despite taking me out to eat the previous evening, the place was still distinctly lacking in groceries. I wanted to feel better than I had on my first night, but instead the memory of Roman half naked and leaning over the woman on the bed kept playing through my mind. I knew very little
about him, but yet I wanted to be that woman. I shouldn’t. I should be happy he was leaving me alone, but I wasn’t. I was ridiculously attracted to him—the dark hair, pale skin, and the perfect torso. He’d allowed me to touch him briefly, but I wanted more.
I couldn’t help but wonder, what did he think of me? Did he think I was a little tramp for practically begging him to take my virginity and feed from me? I’d been told for years that this would be the thing I’d get most pleasure from in life, had been built up to it for so long. The reality was like having to wait six years for Christmas and then coming down on Christmas morning to find no presents under the tree.
Eventually, I dozed.
When I woke, I realized I’d slept through sunset, and Roman was already awake. Not only that, he was also no longer in the apartment.
“Shit!”
It was one thing being made to spend time alone while he was sleeping, but it was another to still have to be alone when he was awake. My anger boiled through me, and I clenched my teeth and stormed over to the windows. Looking out onto the city, my eyes scanned the millions of flickering multi-colored lights. He was out there, somewhere, perhaps even with someone else.
Once again, the injustice of this whole thing tore through me. I’d made my peace a long time ago about the fact I was to be sold to a vampire. I knew I’d be owned, but I hadn’t thought I’d be imprisoned on my own, with none of the pleasure that had been promised to me.
The elevator doors slid open and I spun around to find Roman walking through them as casually as though he’d just been out for a stroll.
“Where the hell have you been?”
He lifted a paper bag I hadn’t yet noticed, and the fragrant scent of hot ginger and garlic wafted over to me. “I went out to get you some dinner. I figured you’d be hungry.”
My shoulders dropped, my anger melting away. “Oh, right.”
Stolen: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance Page 4