by Mara Leigh
“Chelle likes you, Rock. I mean, really likes you. She hates that we’re together.”
Frowning, he glances back at his waitress, then turns to me. “I trust Chelle. You don’t have to worry.”
“Easy for you to say, big man.” Gray’s finger slides close to my sex. “You’re not the one he wants to stake.”
“Only because he thinks I’m human.” Rock looks down at the table to hide the pain in his eyes.
“Come on, Rock,” Gray says. “It’s not the same for you. We all know that cop is licensed to stake either Selina or me on sight.”
Rock shrugs, but I sense his pain. Alone all my life, never belonging anywhere, even I can’t imagine what it’s like to not even know what you are. At least I knew I was human and now a vampire, even if I was totally alone in both worlds. Rock carries a deep mantle of sadness and shame I don’t fully understand, but hope beyond all hope I can help him lift.
I turn to Gray. “See you at training tomorrow?”
“Is that a hint for me to leave, princess?”
I fake a yawn. “I am tired.”
“So, I take it that’s a no to my earlier suggestion.” His fingers caress high on my thigh.
“Not a no, just a not tonight.”
“Your loss.” He bends close. “My cock’s loss, too.” He slips out of the booth and stands at the edge of the table. “I’ll see you two tomorrow at dusk. Unless Selina’s new crush is outside waiting to stake me.”
My cheeks flare with heat. “My new what?”
He laughs, then bends to cup my chin. “It’s okay pet. I get it. I’d fuck that cop, too.” Gray strides out of the bar with infuriating confidence as I regain my composure after his accusation. I got defensive because he was right.
I clear my throat and turn to Rock. “Should we make sure Gray’s okay? What if that cop is waiting outside?”
Rock shakes his head. “Gray can handle himself—unless the cop set up an ambush involving a hundred of this friends and a dozen silver nets.”
“That image isn’t exactly comforting.” I look toward the door, wishing I could see through it, wishing I had a way to know Gray was safe.
“If the cop set a trap, then Gray’s already dead,” Rock says without emotion.
I suck in a breath.
He stretches across the table and takes my hands. “Acushla. He’s fine. With Gray’s training and experience, he would have sensed a group of humans lurking outside.”
I nibble my lower lip. “I know. It’s just…today’s been a lot.”
“Let’s go downstairs.” He slides out of the booth and I follow.
Rock envelops me in his arms and I feel safe in his embrace, his huge, warm body shielding mine from the rest of the world. But no matter how good it feels, I can’t live my entire life in Rock’s arms.
“You okay to close up?” he calls over to Kev.
“Sure, boss. No problem.”
We head down to the apartment, and he takes out the bedding for me to use on the sofa.
As he bends to set it down, I lay my hand on his back. “Can I sleep with you tonight?”
His ribs expand as he inhales, then he turns and sets his hands on my shoulders. “Acushla, we’ve talked about this.”
“I’m not talking about sex. I just want to hold you. I want you to hold me. I want to fall asleep in your arms where I know I’m safe.”
The word safe has an obvious impact, and I see in his eyes the possibility that he might yield. I press my head against his chest, loving how his two hearts thump at different rates, especially when he’s aroused.
I love that he’s turned on, even if he won’t act on it. I’ve accepted that for now. It’s sad, but I’m not going to push Rock into doing something that makes him uncomfortable.
Without a word, he slips his arm over my shoulders and leads me toward his bedroom. Without speaking, we undress, but he leaves his boxers on, then we both slide under his cozy duvet with its crisp white cover. He turns out his bedside lamp, a beautiful object I’m pretty sure is an original Frank Lloyd Wright.
I shift toward him, and he doesn’t object as I snuggle into his side, using his chest for a pillow.
“Thank you,” I say softly.
He responds by gliding his hand over my back, and I squeeze my legs together to contain the pleasure.
I trace my finger along a scar on Rock’s chest. “How did this happen?”
“I’m not even sure anymore.” His voice tightens. Clearly he’s not in the mood to open up, and if I push too hard, I might find myself kicked out of his bed.
“Do you think it’s Pike who’s been asking around about me?”
“Who else could it be?” His voice is low—soft but deliciously deep.
“No one, I guess. Silly for me to think there could be anyone else. It’s not like I’m anyone special.” I slide one of my legs over his and am grateful when he doesn’t push it back off.
“But you are special.” He kisses the top of my head. “Very special.”
“You know what I mean. And besides, you have to say that. You love me.”
“Yes I do. Very much.” His fingers stroke my spine again, and his gentle caress contrasts against the heat and power radiating from his body and the rumble of his deep voice. I’ve never been more in love. Or more turned on.
I’m not sure I’ll be able sleep in this state, but I don’t want to do anything that might ruin this intimacy between us. I feel like I belong here in his bed, in his arms.
Tipping my head up, I kiss him softly and I’ve never felt quite so safe or so warm. Some day I do hope we can consummate our love. He claims we aren’t compatible, but I sense that the real reason behind his sex avoidance is more complicated than that.
As much as I yearn for Rock, as much as I lust at the thought of his massive body moving above me, inside me, I love him enough to give him space, to let the sex between us happen on his terms, when he’s ready. We have nothing but time. And with him I am safe.
Chapter 24
Rock
“That cop came by the bar again.”
“So?” Grayson leans against a pillar in the warehouse as Selina takes a well-deserved break from training.
“You don’t find it troubling that he’s hanging around my bar? Right above where Selina lives?”
“Maybe you’ve got a point.” Grayson folds his arms over his chest. “Selina should move in with me.”
“Very funny.” But his idea isn’t totally crazy. We can’t go on this way forever. I know Selina loves me, but I also know she feels trapped living in my basement, and I know Gray could house her somewhere she’d be freer to move around, to see other people, to have a life outside mine.
I want that for her.
“I don’t think she’d move into FJS corporate housing,” I tell Gray.
“That’s not where I live.” He straightens off the pillar and drops his hands to his sides. “I’ve got a house. In Rosedale. Big enough that you could live there too, if you want.”
“What? The three of us shacking up together?”
He shrugs. “Is it the worst idea you’ve ever heard?”
As he asks the question, I realize it isn’t. “How many bedrooms?”
“Six.”
“And you live there alone?”
“At the moment, yes. All the windows are treated. No risk of sunlight burns, and it’s not a dungeon.”
“Hey.”
Gray raises his hands. “I’m just calling it like I see it, mate. You’re the one who chose to live two stories underground, and you’re not even harmed by sunlight. Just saying.”
I look over to my love who’s back at work, practicing a running, twisting kick that Gray taught her. She hits her target every time.
Selina was strong when I met her, compared to a human anyway, but I can’t deny how her power changed after she drank from Grayson and how her abilities improved once we started this training.
If we all lived together, would she drin
k from Gray’s vein all the time? Would he drink from hers? Would she sleep in his bed instead of mine? We’ve shared a bed for five days in a row now. She’s respected my boundaries, and holding her as she sleeps, waking up with her in my arms, has been amazing.
Gray and Selina are already having sex every chance they get. If living together strengthens their emotional bonds, will I lose her?
She leaps into the air, spins at least five times, then thrusts out her leg, striking the practice dummy in the head. She’s amazing.
And I’m being a selfish child.
I can’t put my happiness over hers. It’s not like I could ever fulfill all Selina’s needs or be a true mate for her, anyway. After we finish training, I’ll ask her whether she likes the idea of us moving in with Gray.
The sound of splintering glass fills the air.
Shards rain down onto the concrete floor as several vampires fly through the broken windows and land on the floor, all fully armed with wooden stakes and crossbows.
Ignoring me, the vamps head for Selina, so I race forward, grab two of them and smash their heads together. Gray arrives like a flash quickly staking one, then chasing after another.
Where is Selina?
Using one of the moves Gray taught her, Selina takes out a tall vamp with a side sweep aimed low on his legs to steal his balance. Leaping over him in a cartwheel motion, she grabs the stake from his hand, but before she can stab him two other vampires are aiming loaded crossbows at her chest.
Another one grabs her from behind and holds his stake ready to drive through her back and into her heart.
“Grayson!” I shout.
The vamp he’s chasing lunges at me, and I throw him back with a swipe of my arm. The vamp smashes into one of the metal pillars, Gray stakes him, then pulls the weapon from the dead vamp’s chest.
Gray leaps toward Selina. But she’s got at least three stakes aimed straight at her heart. Gray stops short.
My hearts pound as I look for a solution. There are two vampires barely four feet in front of her with crossbows, and another’s got his arm across her neck and a wooden stake pressed into her from behind
“Back off,” the one holding Selina yells, and I’m surprised to hear it’s a female voice. “Back off or she’s dead.”
“You’re not going to kill her,” Grayson says. “Not if Xavier sent you.”
“Want to take that bet?” One of the vampires holding a crossbow sharpens his aim, finger on the trigger and the point not four feet from Selina’s heart. “One false move and she’s dead.”
“Come on,” Grayson walks slowly toward them. “Let’s talk. No need for more of you to die. You can have her—for a reasonable price, that is. Let’s talk numbers.”
Selina’s eyes turn toward Gray and anger swells inside me. I know Gray doesn’t mean that—at least I hope he doesn’t—but I wish I understood his plan. My only tactic against a vampire is using my size and strength, and that only works when I catch one by surprise, negating their far superior speed and agility.
I feel so useless. It’s too risky for me to tackle any of the vamps around her at the moment. I’m not fast enough and if one of those crossbows is fired…
Gray leaps, landing between the stake-wielding attackers and Selina. He grabs for a crossbow.
The vampire tries to duck around Gray, and his weapon shoots, the stake flying through the warehouse, narrowly missing me before striking the wall.
Something else smashes through the darkened windows above, and the lights in the warehouse space go out.
Now the room’s barely illuminated through the broken windows, and fear invades my chest as I realize I’m now at even more of a disadvantage as the only one in the room who can’t see in the dark.
Hearing a yell, I turn toward the sound as my eyes adjust. A beam of moonlight illuminates the center of the room. One of the crossbow-wielding vampires is trapped under a net that looks like it’s made of silver. The metal must be coated in acid because it’s burning through the vamp’s leather garb, and then the silver’s burning into his skin. Smoke rises as he screams in agony.
Gray disarms and then stakes the other attacker, who was clearly distracted by his buddy’s torture under that net.
Those two vamps are neutralized, but Selina’s still held from behind, a stake at her heart, and I’m pretty sure there are other vampires alive in the room. I can’t see them in the darkness. Or Gray.
From the beam of light, Selina stares right at me. “Pike,” she mouths, or at least that’s what it looks like to me, and she tips her head up and to the side.
I search around the room, then up high where she gestured, wishing I had night vision.
When I turn back to her, Selina’s body twists in pain. That asshole is pushing the stake into her flesh. Her eyes fill with fear, but also a determination to live. I creep forward, but if I come much closer, or make any attempt to get that vamp off her, the stake will be through her heart. I’m fast, but vampires are faster.
Hearing a sound, I spot another vampire near the side of the room. He or she is creeping around, scanning the room, crossbow at the ready, probably looking for the source of that silver net.
Hearing my heavy footsteps approach, the vampire turns and fires in my direction. I duck to the side, but the stake pierces my shoulder.
I barely feel the pain, and without slowing my advance, I tug the wooden weapon out and plunge it into the vampire’s heart before he has a chance to reload.
I turn back toward Selina.
She’s gone.
While I was fending off that last attack, she got away from the one holding her, but where did she go?
Panicked, I scan the room, searching for her.
Gray is in hand-to-hand combat with two vamps, and I don’t think he’s yet noticed she’s gone.
Hearing a sound near the ceiling, I look up.
Atop one of the rafters, a huge, leather-clad vampire holds Selina under one of his massive arms. Light from outside catches his scarred face.
Is this Pike?
Selina punches and kicks, and the vampire almost loses his balance. He puts a cloth to her mouth and her body goes slack.
The vampire tosses her body over his shoulder, then leaps through the broken window and into the night.
Continue reading Selina’s story in BOUND BY HER PASSION, coming January 2020. Order now.
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Also By Mara Leigh
PARANORMAL, WHY CHOOSE ROMANCE
Bound by her Blood Series
Bound by her Blood
Bound by her Passion
Bound by her Destiny
Bound by her Love
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Bad Stepbrother
Downey Brothers Series
Bad Boy Next Door
Bad Habit
Bad Princess (coming soon)
Best Kind of Bad (coming soon)
SHORT EROTIC READS
Fantasies Unleashed Series
Dirty Business
Surrender
Bedded by Strangers
Humbling the Boss
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About the Author
Mara Leigh e
scaped from the corporate world and now hangs out in coffee shops, letting her imagination run wild. After living in various cities including Edinburgh, San Francisco and Philadelphia, Mara and her exorbitant shoe collection have settled in Toronto where she writes sexy, smart and satisfying contemporary and paranormal romance.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Copyright © Mara Leigh
Cover design: Covers by Juan
ISBN: 978-1-989318-05-8 Digital Edition
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book is protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. Except for quotations for use in reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
Bonus Read
Hi, Reader!
Thank you so much for reading BOUND BY HER BLOOD.
Do you also like to read contemporary romance?
If you do, here’s a peek of my steamy contemporary romance, BAD BOY NEXT DOOR.
Chapter 1
Nick
An hour before closing, the club was half full, mostly loners with boners.
Stationed inside the front door, I crossed my arms over my chest and my hands barely reached my elbows. Intimidation was at the top of the job description for a strip club bouncer, and my bulked-up bod—a disadvantage for some things—made me an ace at this job. A master.