Tangled Hunger
Tina Christopher
Book two in the Celestial Surrender series.
Tanasha Omeiko is powerless—an unusual and undesirable state for a Naema whose society deems power essential. She struggles to find her place, shunned by all but her best friend, Sydney. When that friend disappears, Tanasha suspects Sydney’s husband is responsible. To prove him guilty, Tanasha turns to cocky and sexy Vampire PI Duncan O’Clare.
Duncan distrusts Naemas, but when sweet and curvy Tanasha walks into his office, he’s instantly drawn to her. She makes him feel things he hasn’t in years—intrigued, enchanted…inflamed.
Tanasha isn’t sure what she feels. Lust and distrust make uneasy bedfellows when she and Duncan pose as lovers to spy on Sydney’s husband. Thrown way out of her comfort zone, Tanasha must decide if she wants to make this charade reality, risking her heart on a man so far out of her league he could be in another dimension. But Duncan surprises her at every turn.
Then she discovers not only her heart depends on her link to Duncan, but also the fate of the galaxy. Talk about trouble.
Tangled Hunger
Tina Christopher
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Victoria Davies once again for being a fabulous critique partner and for telling me in no uncertain terms when I went off track. Gina and Bonnie, thank you for being there whenever I needed you, no matter the time of day. Without you, writing wouldn’t be half as much fun. Elizabeth, thank you for your belief amongst the stress of your wedding preparation. Attack Hug!
A huge thank you to my wonderful editor Grace Bradley, whose determination was a driving force in making Tangled Hunger the best book it could be. Your sense of humor definitely makes some comments that much more bearable. Uncle ;)
And as always, thank you to my readers. Without you I wouldn’t be here. Thank you.
Chapter One
Duncan nearly spilled the blood he sipped over his clean, white shirt when the black market species scanner he’d swiped a little while back and installed at the entrance to his office beeped blue. He switched on his screen and watched her sit down in his front room. What the Jade was one of her kind doing in his neck of the woods?
The recepto-bot directed her to wait and called to let him know he had a client waiting. For a moment Duncan thought about leaving her sitting in his waiting room until he’d finished lunch, but realized that would be too polite. If she didn’t like him drinking blood, she shouldn’t have come to him.
He instructed the bot to send her to his office. She entered but didn’t come farther into the room, as if waiting for him to rise and offer her a chair.
Something hit Duncan’s chest like a solar flare. Heat and cold raced across his body and every nerve ending came to attention. Before he could analyze or identify what had happened, the energy drained away. He could breathe again.
She didn’t look as if anything out of the ordinary had taken place.
Duncan remained slouched down, his right leg across his left and his foot slowly bobbing up and down. The glass of blood stayed in his hand. He purposely didn’t get up. If she expected him to show manners and get excited by her presence, the presence of one of the high and mighty Naema, she was in for a rude awakening.
“Duncan O’Clare?” She tucked one side of her chin-length black bob behind her ear and clutched the grip of her expensive handbag tighter.
“That’s what it says on the door.”
Her well-cut hair and expensive smock and pants screamed her status, but unlike most of her kind, she didn’t waltz into the room as if she owned it. He frowned. Part of him was intrigued, curious even, but most of him just wanted her to leave.
She didn’t move.
Running out of patience, Duncan gestured to one of his client chairs. “Have a seat.”
She hurried over and sat down as if he would change his mind and send her away.
Duncan raised an eyebrow. What a pleasant thought.
She bit her lower lip. “I am here to hire you.”
He had to tighten his grip on his glass and was glad he’d been around long enough his features never showed anything he didn’t want the opposition to see. “Are you really?”
She sat up straighter and seemed to find some of that confidence her kind was famous for. “Isn’t that what you have an office for? Even if this building looks like it will fall apart any moment now, it does say Private Investigator on the door. Or is that just for decorative purposes?”
Duncan snorted. “No, the sign is correct. I’m just a little taken aback that you chose me. You’re pretty far from home. Don’t they have PIs in your precious District?”
She tightened her lips. “I’ve been told you’re the best and the most suitable investigator for the job I have.”
Duncan leaned forward. Her scent surrounded him like a cloud. She smelled delicious, like cinnamon and spice. She might pretend she was in control, but her running pulse gave her away. He wanted to sink his fangs into that soft skin while thrusting his hard length into her wet pussy.
He froze. Whoa, where the Jade had that come from? He didn’t usually go around imagining himself having sex with every woman he saw. And definitely not a mousy Naema.
He was glad his massive desk hid his suddenly hard cock. He cleared his throat. Pity he couldn’t order the blood out of his dick as easily as that. “Really? Who told you that?”
She looked down for a second and both her hands clenched around a leather tassel hanging off her handbag. “I can’t remember,” she threw out, looking back at him. “Somebody must have mentioned your name at a gathering or something like that.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t important, but at no point did the tension leave her body.
“A Naema mentioned me at a party? Oh yes, and there’s that little moon you want to sell me, the one I’ll have all to myself except for that colony of fertility priestesses.”
A blush stained her cheeks and she avoided his gaze.
Duncan took an exaggerated sip from his glass. He might be intrigued to discover why she’d come to him but that didn’t mean he’d give her an easy ride. “How did you find out about me?”
She exhaled, somewhat put upon. “If you must know—”
“I do,” he interrupted her.
“I found you in the Red Pages.”
Duncan’s brows shot up. The Red Pages? He didn’t even try to suppress his laughter.
She was not appreciative.
“There are a number of PIs in the RP, what made you choose me?”
“I did a little research. You have a decent success rate and seemed the most open to unusual cases.”
“Unusual?” Duncan used his power to levitate the glass beside him and rested his chin on his clasped hands. “Well, tell me about this unusual case,” he instructed. “Why would a pretty little Naema like yourself leave her precious District and slum with the likes of me?”
She took a deep breath. “A friend of mine is missing. I need you to find her.”
Duncan leaned back again and grasped his drink. He noticed the moue she tried to hide. To egg her on, he took his time, sipping the blood slowly and licking his lips as if this was a special treat. “As far as I am aware you have the Guard in your District.”
“They don’t think Sydney is missing.”
“Why would they think that?”
“Sydney has taken off before, disappeared without telling anybody where she’s going or what she’s doing. Her family thinks she’s off on another jaunt, one quick trip before she settles down.”
Duncan tapped his free hand against his knee. “What makes you think she’s not doing just that?”
A door slammed. The noise of furniture moving sounded from the other side of the
wall behind him. Female laughter rang out. Duncan wanted to roll his eyes. His neighbor George was at it again.
The noise stopped his visitor for a moment, but then she leaned forward and counted off on her fingers. “Firstly, she tells me when she goes on one of her trips. She may not tell anybody else, but I always know what’s going on. Secondly, she disappeared two days after getting married. She and her new husband were set to leave on their honeymoon today. There was no discernible reason for her to take off. Any idea how much planning and organizing is involved in the honeymoon of a high-grade Naema?”
Duncan smirked while trying to breathe shallowly. Her scent sank into him like fangs. “Can’t say that I do.”
“Well, it’s a lot. She wouldn’t just hovercraft off, not when everything is ready for them.” She paused.
“And thirdly?” Duncan asked.
Her black eyes captured his. “I don’t know how, but the man Sydney fell in love with has managed to persuade her whole family that she’s on a trip, leaving him to hold down the fort and in charge of her dowry. I think Marius Villette is a con man and has abducted Sydney.”
Once again Duncan didn’t restrain the laughter. He’d never met a Naema with a sense of humor or imagination before. “That’s quite a tale, darling. How does the husband con everybody around him but you?”
Her hands balled into fists. She took another deep breath. “My name is Tanasha Omeiko.”
He exhaled. “The Naema without a Gift.”
Tanasha hated that description, but she’d been prodded and poked so many times over such a long period, she’d learned early not to give too much away.
When she’d hit puberty without a discernible Gift developing, her family grew desperate. The daughter of one of the senators on the Naema Council, and she had no signs of empathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance or any of the other many Gifts usually demonstrated in her society. Her parents had dragged her from pillar to post in an attempt to find out what was wrong with her. Unfortunately, they trusted the wrong psychic and the story leaked to the media.
Tanasha became “the Naema without a Gift”, an exotic, a freak. Most of the people around her either wanted to study her, make her pray for her redemption or dissect her with a laser. Preferably while she was alive.
She learned to keep out of the limelight, to use different channels to achieve her goals. Sydney had been one of the few people who made her feel alive, who’d dragged her, sometimes kicking and screaming, to participate in life. Tanasha played with one of the tassels on her bag. She missed her friend.
O’Clare may be rude, obnoxious and a Vampire, but she needed him. She didn’t trust any of the Naema PIs and humans were too open to be influenced by Paranormals.
And there was something about the Vampire before her. A voice deep inside her, a voice she’d learned to trust during the turbulent and painful years of her youth, told her to trust this unpleasant blood-drinker.
A Vampire whose presence had nearly knocked her on her behind. The minute she’d stepped into his office she’d had a flashback to that one horrible time when a doctor had tried to stimulate her Gift by attaching electrodes all over her body and shocking her in irregular intervals. That feeling had only lasted for a few moments and should have felt dreadful, but instead it had turned her body into a sensitivity receptor.
Jade, she’d nearly shown her wings, she’d been so rattled.
Now her clothes moved across her skin like a lover’s touch, her nipples hardened behind her layers of fabric and her blood pumped faster. She wanted to put her hand between her legs to rub away the arousal. She’d never felt this kind of instant physical connection before.
Tanasha cleared her throat. She needed to persuade him to look for Sydney before it was too late. Over the last few days the belief that her friend was running out of time grew stronger and stronger. She had no idea where this sense of urgency came from, but she heeded it.
Tanasha’s stomach lurched as she watched him sip the synth-blood as if it were a delicacy. Maybe it was. For all she knew it could be like her having a triple-fudge brownie. But her stomach didn’t listen to her head and kept jumping.
He had to take this assignment.
If necessary she would offer him more money than he’d ever seen. She had plenty of it.
Funny, he didn’t look like a soulless monster. Obviously, she’d seen Vampires before, but not up close and personal.
He’d leaned back in his chair and watched her with penetrating gray eyes that made her feel naked. And not in a good way. His eyes seemed closer to silver than the normal-looking gray and showed a depth and darkness she hadn’t encountered before. He wore his raven-black hair long and loose. Most of the men in her acquaintance styled and gelled their hair to within an inch of its life, but O’Clare’s just hung there, thick and luscious.
What she could see of his body behind the massive desk looked fit and in shape, though more on the leaner side.
Tanasha realized that they’d both been silent for some time now. He’d given her an equally thorough study. For a moment she wondered what this example of masculinity thought of her, but she pushed it aside. She would never be classified as beautiful. All she could hope for, on a good day, was pretty.
His magnetic gaze focused on her right index finger, which drummed to a beat only she heard. Tanasha stopped her twitchy finger.
“I’m guessing that as a senator’s daughter you won’t have a problem meeting my fee?” he asked.
She wanted to slap the sardonic smirk off his face.
And then kiss him.
“No,” agreed Tanasha, wondering what the Jade she had just gotten herself into and where her common sense had wandered off to.
O’Clare slid his comp across the desk and in front of him without moving. A telekinetic. “Tell me why you think your friend’s husband is a fraud who’s kidnapped his wife.”
Tanasha winced at the description. She’d heard it more than once when she’d attempted to indicate Marius as Sydney’s kidnapper.
Something bumped against the wall behind O’Clare. He ignored it.
She took a deep breath. “When Sydney first got together with Marius Villette, she was bubbly, happy, excited eight months ago. Whenever we met, she’d be talking about how lovely he was, how romantic and always looking after her, making sure she had what she needed. That was, when she wasn’t complaining about the fact her father wasn’t happy with her choice. He didn’t like Marius and thought she was just going through a phase. The longer Sydney was with Marius, the more the tension between the two men increased. She got more and more upset.”
A loud feminine moan sounded through the wall.
Tanasha froze but O’Clare continued typing as if nothing unusual had happened. And maybe it hadn’t for him. Maybe listening to his neighbors was part of his daily routine.
Shame she couldn’t be as casual as he was.
She cleared her throat and continued. “Then, suddenly, about three weeks ago, her father just had a complete change of heart and now praises Marius, loving him, and is very excited to have him as a son-in-law.”
O’Clare shrugged and checked the chronometer at his wrist. “Maybe the father realized he could lose his daughter unless he accepted the situation.”
Tanasha shook her head, her thoughts whirling. Nothing she said made any impact. “You don’t understand. Sydney has a large and extensive family and her father wasn’t the only one who wasn’t keen on their engagement. In their minds Marius didn’t have the right background. A number of family members had reservations.” She leaned forward, wanting to shake him. “But that all changed. Every single person in Sydney’s family now loves Marius and is his biggest fan. It’s like he flicked a switch.”
O’Clare frowned and threw a quick glare at the wall behind him when something bumped it again. “Flicked a switch? It really happened from one day to the next?” He studied Tanasha.
His focus increased her heart rate. Does he believe me yet?
&
nbsp; “Maybe it developed more slowly and you didn’t realize because you’re not part of the family.”
Tanasha shook her head. “I spoke to Sydney often. I was her Maid of Honor. In and among listening to her worry about flower arrangements and music, she would complain that none of her family were on her side, that they didn’t understand how she felt.” Naemas were supposed to be under control at all times, but her friend had been a mess.
Another bump and a deep male groan followed by a higher female cry. “Jade, again. Lick it again.”
She met the Vampire’s eyes for a moment before she had to aim just a tad over his shoulder or turn an unattractive shade of Labayo Lobster red. Even so she couldn’t stop heat from rising into her cheeks. “Up until this day she complained about the lack of support from her family.”
O’Clare nodded and continued to make notes on his comp. Tanasha wondered why he didn’t use the voice link. Unless he doesn’t want you to know what he’s taking notes of.
“And when she disappeared four days ago,” she continued, admiring the beige wall to the fullest, doing her best to ignore the intermittent noises coming from behind it, “nobody even blinked. Not one member of her family is concerned or worried. Marius said she’s having one last trip and will be back very soon, ready to settle down. Everybody smiles and nods. I’ve tried talking to her parents when he isn’t around, but they don’t listen and tell me to talk to Marius.”
O’Clare stopped taking notes and his gaze, what she caught out of the corner of her eye, pinned her to the chair like a cat playing with a mouse. His eyes had gone even more silver.
Tanasha pulled her focus from the wall and faced him, her breath rapid and her cheeks hot. Nerves or excitement? She couldn’t make up her mind. She needed him to take the case but the atmosphere in the room suddenly grew scorching.
O’Clare too seemed far more affected by the scene in the neighboring office than she’d thought going by his earlier non-reactions. A flush painted his high cheekbones, teeth catching his lower lip. His chest shuddered as he drew a shaky and unnecessary breath. He stared at her with hunger in his eyes, pupils wide and dark. His eyes dropped to her mouth.
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