Honeymoon Bite (Golden Vampires of Tuscany)

by Sharon Hamilton

  “Tried?” Maya’s face went white.

  “She practically drained her,” Marcus said, his voice cracking from the emotion.

  “Maya fed on your fated female? How did this occur?” Praetor Artemis looked back and forth between the couple.

  “You thought you ended her life. But she lives.” Marcus was not happy to reveal this obvious surprise to her. But it had to be done.

  “You turned that little trollop? You did it just to avoid your responsibility. Does she now bleed? Were you going to tell the Praetor and me that you made two women bleed for you, Marcus?”

  “No. She has not adjusted. She is married to a mortal and I will not interfere with her vow of marriage.”

  “This complicates things. How was it, Maya, you fed from her?”

  “Tell her, Maya.” Marcus smiled for the first time. “Tell her what you saw.”

  “She came into the chapel while we were talking with Jacobi. She must have been lost, and so stupid to go out alone, unprotected.” She flashed a hard look at Marcus. “I followed her. I took her in an alleyway. I was hungry.” She sent her chin out in a huff.

  “Ask Jacobi,” Marcus responded. “I saw this woman and I immediately told both of them I felt the fate come over me. I declared it. Maya tried to destroy her. She tried to come between her and me. That carries with it punishment. I ask that I be released from this obligation to Maya and the boy in exchange for this violation. I need to sort out my true feelings for this woman, and her for me.”

  Praetor Artemis nodded his head and scratched his chin.

  “You cannot be serious, Praetor Artemis. This is blasphemy!” Maya spat out.

  Marcus tried one more time. “You have my word. If it is not meant to be, I will return to Maya, and, if she will have me, I will accept the oath.”

  It had been decided after a meeting of the Council that Marcus would have to wait one month after Anne’s turning before making himself visible to her. And he would have to verify she intended to be divorced. Affairs of the heart were always given a cooling off period, and one month was a mere flick of the eye to the immortal golden vampires.

  Marcus agreed to allow the child to live in his home in a shared custody arrangement but refused to live with Maya. He would begin to father him, train him, as a proper father should. This part would not be difficult to do. He had genuine feelings for the boy.

  But more importantly, Maya was permanently bridled, enjoined from doing any harm to Anne on pain of death. She was furious with this decision and Marcus knew she would do everything in her power to bend the rules to suit her liberal interpretation of them. Although not accepted into her new family, Anne was a now a golden vampire, one of the rarest breeds in the universe, and had to be protected at all costs since Marcus could not interfere with her life.

  He could not wait until he could get back to Anne and make sure her habits weren’t getting her into trouble. Although vampire, she was still an innocent, and it would be days before he could begin to properly train her. He traced to the Island of Majorca, where Anne had rented a room in a converted monastery, which was now a hotel.

  Yet, he still wondered about the boy and Maya’s bleeding. No, blood was never wrong. There was no precedent anywhere that Marcus could remember where one man had been fated to two females. Try as he could, he just didn’t feel anything for Maya.

  He put the worry aside as he anticipated finding his female again. He was counting the minutes until he could appear to her in the flesh. Would she recognize the fating as he had?

  So much to look forward to.

  Just twenty-one days to go.

  Chapter 5

  Robert bolted up in bed. Something was wrong. Sun streamed in through the windows of the dingy motel room like an unkind nurse had switched the light on for an unwelcomed evaluation. He had no idea where he was. Didn’t remember checking into the place. He waited for a minute, listening, waiting for who knows what, and then he realized it. His neck hurt like a son of a bitch.

  He rolled out of bed and felt the back of his throbbing neck. His fingers came back bloody.

  Now what the fuck happened?

  With his left hand, he rubbed just under the hairline and found that area swollen, tender, and probably black and blue. The front of his neck was bulging with little bumps too.

  I don’t remember a goddamned thing about this.

  It was a week after the disastrous wedding. He was beginning to get tired of Monika’s constant begging for his time, although at first he’d been thrilled. They’d had a little row, so he and Gary had gone to the topless bar and picked up a couple of girls. He’d spent the night with the dark-haired one. At least, he thought he had. Surprised to see the bed sheets stained with spatters of blood, he mumbled to himself, “Whose blood is that? Mine?”

  The girl’s side of the bed wasn’t even warm. She’d ditched him. He didn’t even remember falling asleep. Could he have hurt her? Could the blood be partially hers?

  This was way over the top. Things were getting stranger by the minute.

  He heard a sound from the bathroom and wondered if perhaps she was still there. He walked on tiptoes, naked, to the bathroom, then stood still. Christ. Even his pecker was sore.

  Overuse.

  He couldn’t remember how many times he came. It was like he’d gone going in and out of a drunken stupor. The girl was insatiable, he remembered that. He couldn’t remember her name or even what she looked like, except for those red lips and a funny smile. And she liked to lick him . . . in places. If she was in the bathroom, would she look like some of the girls he used to pick up in a dark bar who were uglier than sin the next morning in the light of day?

  Robert, you need help.

  The bathroom door squeaked open from a gentle touch of his palm and he found the source of the noise. A cotton curtain flapped in the breeze of an open window.

  His shoulders dropped as he sighed, scratched his scalp at the back of his head, and endured the dull pain.

  If any of the boys heard about this, they’d have thought he had a guardian angel. What any one of them wouldn’t give for a woman like his date last night, what’s-her-name hot pants. Totally horny, easily turned on by the slightest little thing he did. It really was too much, he thought as he stepped into the bathroom.

  And then he looked in the mirror.

  The front of his neck was red, scarred with little red bumps. Then he turned to the right and was horrified to see large purple hickies the size of his thumb all around the backside of his neck, extending well down to his shoulders. He knew she’d been extra frisky, but he hadn’t felt the pain. She had sucked and almost bit him.

  Fuck me! There was something not right about this. And then he wondered, what would Monika say? What about Anne?

  But of course, it was too late for Anne.

  He’d have to get some Neosporin. The wounds on his neck were getting uglier as the minutes drew by.

  I’m in some kind of time warp. So much has changed . . .

  Just a week ago, on the night before their wedding, the night of Robert’s now-infamous bachelor party, he felt lucky to have gotten Anne to marry him. He’d nailed her on their first date two years before, something of a ritual for him with his sexual partners. But Anne was a keeper. He always knew he would treat his keeper different from his other, former girlfriends. She had a healthy sexual appetite, although still not his equal. But she was innovative, and although inexperienced, willing to learn. He liked that in a woman. In time, she would make a real honest-to-goodness sexual siren, and probably would stay that way even after they had kids. The thought thrilled him.

  The years during their courtship and engagement were some of the best of his life. He was halfway convinced he would be able to be faithful to her. This was something that had eluded him before in all his other relationships. But Anne was a better person. He hoped some of her goodness would rub off on him.

  Not that he was completely faithful to her during their engagemen
t, which was something he saw as a warm-up to marriage, not necessarily a commitment. He’d tried, he told himself. He really had tried. But he seriously thought it would be impossible to be a one-woman man until his marriage. And then, well, he would see.

  He looked in the mirror and was embarrassed to admit his faithfulness had not lasted more than a blink of an eye.

  “Too much excess. Got to stop drinking. Need some new friends,” he said to his reflection. Gary was pulling him down. Monika too.

  Making me do stuff I think twice about later. It was like he was an unruly teenager all over again, now in his late twenties.

  Why?

  Robert opened a plastic bottle of water on the cheap dresser and took stock of his situation as he swirled down the cool liquid, satisfying his parched throat. He had a strange metallic taste in his mouth for some reason. Images of his bachelor party surfaced. He chuckled and let them flood over him.

  He had been showing the guys brochures about their trip planned along the Mediterranean. It had been Anne’s lifelong dream. They would pick up a car in Genoa and drive all the way to Spain. They would spend the last week in Majorca at a converted monastery, once owned by a Hollywood couple.

  His old girlfriend, Monika, had dropped by the house. Well, she wasn’t really his “old” girlfriend, since he’d fucked her the week before and just about every week before that.

  The party was just beginning and Monika was game, so she went along with the eight of them. Not before everyone was sworn to secrecy, of course. In exchange, Monika promised to do them all—so everyone would be in trouble together.

  Only thing Robert insisted on was that they all wear condoms. No telling where some of his friends had been. No need to tempt fate. That would be just stupid. He was pretty sure Monika was a very bad girl as well. He did not want to bring an unnecessary wrinkle to his new bride’s beautiful forehead.

  His best man and the other friends at the party were happy for him. He knew they all doubted this marriage would work out. But Anne trusted him. And as long as she didn’t find out about his activities, and so far Robert didn’t think she did, she would continue to trust him.

  After all, he did love her.

  Robert was notorious for his dumping scenes, and the makeup sex that could go on sometimes for weeks before the final straw. And that usually happened when the girl found out there had been someone else all along. His friends had warned him about Anne, that she wouldn’t be so easy to fool. He was convinced this was “it” and committed to making the rest of his life more meaningful than the first part.

  But he didn’t see why that night he couldn’t have a little fun. After all, he was not yet a married man. Almost, but not quite.

  The black limo pulled up and one of his groomsmen shouted out they were ready to leave. Robert had just taken his prearranged place with Monika, which was first. His cock fully sheathed and ready to pump into her. No way he would be denied. He wasn’t going to waste a perfectly good cherry flavored condom just because the driver was five minutes early.

  When Gary opened the door to make sure Robert heard the call, he found the groom riding her hard. Gary got the finger for his efforts.

  “Unless you want to jump in, get the fuck out. Have him drive around the block, twice,” was Robert’s response. Monika’s breasts were bouncing as he pumped her. He loved the way her little soft pillows of flesh rippled with each thrust.

  Gary gave the instruction and the room was cleared with a clamoring of hoots and hollers and heavy footsteps down the stairs. Then Gary came back to the room and stripped off his shirt.

  “Monika, honey,” Gary began, “this cowboy might get you off, but I’m gonna make you sing. You deserve better.”

  “Oh, that’s right Gary,” she teased. “Give the groom a little competition. I like him all hot and bothered and trying real hard. Ah . . . I feel him rising to the challenge. Oh. That’s nice, baby.”

  Robert grunted as he stroked her, turning her to her side for deeper access, one of her legs over his shoulder. “You bet your sweet ass. You want more of me? Can you handle more of me?”

  “Look what you’ll be missing. I’ll be fucking all your friends, Robbie. Just think about me every day. I’ll be fucking them while you are on your honeymoon. I’ll be so sore I can barely walk. We’ll compare notes when you’re back.” She locked lips with Robert, who kept thrusting. Their private conversation was too soft for Gary to hear, so he stepped closer. Monika held out her hand.

  Gary presented his cock and she grabbed it, squeezing him hard. She leaned over and put him in her mouth.

  “Hey, Robert. Wanna flip her over so I can get a little more action, if you don’t mind?”

  With a big hand under Monika’s belly, Robert flipped her forward and then entered her from behind. He left his hand between her legs to finger her clit. She moaned long and hard.

  “Oh, here it comes, sweet cheeks.” Robert said to her ear as he pulled her onto him. “I used to call you ‘Moana.’” Robert leaned over, “Make that sound for me, baby.”

  She did.

  “Come moan all over me, Moana,” Gary said as he thrust his cock into her mouth. The two friends faced each other and grinned.

  “Hey, this is the best, man.” Gary said.

  “Nothing better. If the girl’s willing,” Robert lowered his face to Monika’s ear again, “and Miss Moana is always willing”—which elicited a shriek—“isn’t she?”

  “Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, God,” Monika mumbled through her sucking lips.

  “Don’t tell me, sweetheart, show me,” Gary whined. His blond hair and big white teeth made him look the part of the lifeguard he was. “Oh, man, you have a nice tongue.” His fingers were clutching her red hair, which fell long and loose over his thighs.

  Robert began to shudder, thrusting to finish.

  “There it goes. Your last fuck as a single guy.” Gary said to Robert’s grimacing face. He lowered the tone of his voice as he addressed her. “Monika, honey, you get off? I want to be sure you got off.”

  She moaned.

  Robert looked at her ass as he pulled out. He would miss that ass. “Yea, I’m pretty sure she got off. She just can’t talk on account she’s got her mouth full.” He went into the bathroom to freshen up.

  Gary was getting close.

  “You want it in the ass?”

  “No!” Monika suddenly rose up to her knees. Gary took the opportunity to grab her breasts.

  “You know, honey, no reason you need to get dressed tonight,” he said as he squeezed and pinched her nipples. “You got eight guys gonna keep you real warm. I might have you twice, if you’re nice. And I think you’re real nice.”

  “Shut up and fuck me.”

  “Never argue with a lady.” Gary muttered. He grabbed the box of condoms and prepared himself. Monika rolled over to her back and he began his vigil. Foreplay wasn’t necessary, as the limo was honking downstairs.

  Robert came back, towel in hand, rubbing his crotch. He stroked himself a few times, watching Gary and Monika, but he couldn’t get hard, so he dropped the towel in the bathroom and got dressed. He watched them the whole time.

  “I’m giving pointers, Monika,” Gary rasped. “Notice what a difference the size makes?”

  “Uh hum,” was all she could say. She watched Robert as he dressed. The groom understood from the look in her eyes that she had wanted to be the bride. He saw a tear or two before she managed to wipe them away without Gary seeing them. This private moment touched something in Robert’s heart, and surprised him.

  “You’re a good girl, Monika, honey. Thank you. That was real nice.” Robert smiled. He meant every word. He walked out to the living room. “Any century now will do, Gary. I’m waiting down at the limo.”

  He was greeted with cheers. There was a triple-X DVD playing and the guys had popped some champagne and beer. He crawled in front by the driver.

  “Hey, Charles. Thanks for taking us out tonight.”

  “No
problem, Mr. B. Are we all here, then?” The driver had been on assignment for several of their parties.

  “No. Gary’s coming, and there’s the girl.”

  “Right.”

  Noise erupted from the back at the sight of Gary, who strode fully clothed from the house but tugging a bare-footed Monika along, who wore only one of Robert’s shirts buttoned halfway up the front. Robert looked at her nice legs and pink toes and sighed. The driver chuckled.

  “Looks like you’re gonna have a little fun too,” Robert said to the driver.

  “Oh, no, I don’t touch the merchandise when I’m on duty.”

  “But you can look, right? She likes it when you look.”

  The driver laughed again. “Yeah, I can look. That’s my favorite part nowadays. I’m happily married.”

  “Yup. That’ll be me tomorrow. But not tonight.” Robert punched the driver in the arm and went to join his friends in the back.

  Monika was already on another lap. The sound of a belt buckle clanged as they sped off to the topless bar.

  When they pulled back to the house at five AM, Monika was asleep in the back, curled up into a ball. Half the party was asleep too, overcome with alcohol and excesses of the evening. The coke had run out. Time to go to bed for a couple of hours.

  Robert picked Monika up and carried her inside. Gary made a space for her on the couch but Robert went right past him to the bedroom and closed the door.

  Yeah, he’d been an idiot, he thought. Anne’s brother practically decked him the day of the wedding after the bride left in their limo. Gary got so ripped he knocked over the cake, not that there were many guests left to eat it. The DJ kept playing like the orchestra on the Titanic. The place looked deserted. To make matters worse, he caught Monika in a lip-lock with some dark caveman who liked to dance the bear hug. She’d fainted in his arms and the guys laid her on a settee in the dressing room, in her blue maid of honor dress. Too much champagne, he thought. They’d all nearly left her there passed out.