“Quite enjoyable.” He lifted the next glass, swirling it like a snifter of brandy. He took a sip, letting out a sound of pleasure that made Jade quiver. “But not as good as this black cherry.” He drained the glass and returned it to the tray. “Marvelous how they can add flavors to synthetic blood. It allows me to taste things I haven’t experienced in centuries.”
She moved on to the chocolate cake. “That must be a real treat for you.” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine giving up chocolate.”
He took a drink from the glass of chocolate flavored blood. “Nor should you.”
She snorted, staring down at her half empty plate. “My bathroom scale would disagree with you.”
His hand was on hers before she knew it. He moved with the speed only the truly old vampires could produce. “Nonsense. You are a vision of loveliness, like finding a blooming rose among a nest of brambles.”
She knew better than to mention her weight-related angst in front of a client. It must’ve been the champagne lowering her inhibitions.
Lowered inhibitions and a man she wanted to lick from head to toe were so not a good mix.
“It’s kind of you to say so.” She heard the stiffness in her voice. She knew he was only being kind. After all, he’d shown himself to be nothing but a gentleman since the moment they’d met.
“I’m not… kind.” The hand resting on hers moved slowly up her arm, caressing the bare skin above her inner wrist.
She dropped her fork to the plate with a clatter.
He leaned forward, his knee brushing against hers, then angling between her legs, parting them slightly.
“Look into my eyes.” When she kept her gaze fixed on the table before her, he continued. “Tell me it’s only kindness you see reflected there.”
She finally forced herself to look up and meet his eyes. They were a shade darker, the pupils enlarged to an abnormal degree, the way vampire eyes tended to do when they were extremely hungry.
Or aroused.
Her breath caught in her throat. “Renaldi…”
He interrupted her attempt at protest. “I find you… entrancing. Beautiful.”
This wasn’t happening. Any minute now, Mike In The Morning would come blasting through her clock radio, waking her up from what had to be a dream.
His voice dropped to a husky register. “I have not been able to stop thinking of you since the first time I saw you.”
She dropped her napkin to the floor, overcome with nerves, embarrassment, a plethora of uncomfortable feelings. No one had ever said such things to her.
“Flirting with the wedding planner won’t get you a discount, you know.” She tried for a humorous tone, but it fell flat. The shaking edge of uncertainty in her voice sounded anything but comical.
He removed his hand from her arm and slid back in his seat, ending all physical contact in one smooth movement. “I must apologize for my unwanted advances.”
Unwanted? In what universe would any advance from this man be unwanted? “It’s not that, it’s… I… have… I have…” Body image issues. Hang-ups. Inhibitions.
He let out an unpleasant laugh. “How could I assume that you wouldn’t have a man in your life already?” He shook his head. “Please, forget my blunder. I was…” He gave her a wistful smile. “… quite taken with your many charms.” He raised another glass of synthetic blood. “Let us say no more of this and continue to work together as partners and friends.”
Friends? How did she go from captivating him with her charms to being back in “friend” territory?
He’s messing with my head. What other explanation could there be? No way was the most gorgeous specimen of man she’d ever met, alive or undead, interested in the likes of her.
And not just gorgeous, but charming, polite…
She sighed again. “Partners and friends,” she repeated. “Sounds like a plan.”
A plan for misery.
Why, why, why had she agreed to take this job?
Chapter 4
Renaldi paced the luxurious basement retreat of his spacious Houston home, waiting for the sun to break over the horizon and send him on to his daily dance with oblivion.
Lately, oblivion was the only thing that stopped him from obsessing about Jade.
What a fool he’d made of himself earlier, letting his lust take control. He’d made overtures to a woman he only knew in a business capacity.
A woman who was apparently attached to another.
He raked a hand through his hair, grinding his teeth. If that was so, the man in question had done a poor job of making her feel like the goddess she was. She seemed blatantly uncomfortable with the compliments he could hardly help but pay her. How could she be unaware of her own beauty and sensual allure? In the world of his youth, she could’ve taken her place beside Aphrodite. Surely she had men from every walk of life paying her tribute.
Frankly, the woman was driving him out of his mind.
If this man she was involved with had somehow made her think less of herself, then he, Renaldi, would step in and woo her away from this vile creature. After all, what right did this other man have to her? This woman belonged to him, Renaldi D’Aria, and no other. She was his thunderbolt.
He would show her the depth of her worth. If he had to pleasure her for a thousand and one nights, it was a task he was more than willing to do.
His painfully aroused body agreed.
But first, he mused, a little seduction was in order. He would put her to the test and see if she truly loved this other man, or if the relationship was merely a placeholder until a greater passion came along.
But how to arrange matters… that was another question. First, he had to engineer circumstances to place them together in a romantic and intimate setting. He rubbed his forehead, his thoughts tangling and snarling like yarn in the capable paws of a cat.
But wait. There was the matter of Antonio’s honeymoon to settle. He and Marie planned to spend their wedding night in Houston before departing for a cruise to the old country on a vampire-friendly ship the next day. Wouldn’t a cursory tour of the finest honeymoon suite in the city be just the thing for the wedding planner and the best man to explore together?
It was the first of many things he hoped to explore with Jade.
Renaldi strode over to his marble topped wet bar, where a bottle of Vlad’s “Death By Chocolate” flavor synthetic blood sat in a warmer, keeping it a perfect 98.6 degrees. He reached for a snifter and filled the base of the glass with the red liquid.
Yes, that was the plan. He’d invite her to examine the honeymoon suite at the Hotel Marmont downtown.
He flopped down in the burgundy leather armchair in front of the fireplace where candles flickered on the hearth in lieu of an actual fire. As a vampire, fire was his least favorite of elements. Unfortunately, his element to control was wind, which usually had the adverse effect of stirring fire and making it worse.
On the other hand, the ability to control wind had the distinct advantage of allowing him to send messages along its currents. A smile crept across his face. He’d start the seduction then and there with a little help from the elements.
He closed his eyes and cleared his mind, then focused all of his attention on Jade. They were not bound in any sort of way, but he could still direct the wind to her by concentrating his energy on her name and the image of her beautiful face floating across the screen of his consciousness.
Jade, he thought, raising his right hand slowly, palm up, calling the wind to him. It had no choice but to obey.
Jade, he repeated to himself, recalling mental pictures of her like a slideshow in his mind. Know this. Thoughts of you are my waking torment. The sleep of death brings my only relief.
I dream of you.
And with that, he sent the breeze winging its way toward her, spiraling through the pre-dawn darkness to wrap her in his invisible embrace.
Chapter 5
“Your Veuve Clicquot, sir.” The room service waiter gestu
red to the famous yellow-labeled bottle nestled in a crystal ice bucket.
“Excellent.” Renaldi nodded his approval. Jade had obviously enjoyed the champagne at their menu tasting the previous night, and watching her indulge herself had brought him immense satisfaction.
“And a bottle of chocolate raspberry Vlad’s.” The waiter smiled, indicating the black and red bottle in the custom warmer.
“Everything seems to be in order.” Renaldi examined the crystal bowl filled with ripe strawberries and the accompanying dish of whipped cream. “This is your wedding package?”
“Minus the blood, yes.” The waiter glanced nervously at Renaldi. “But we’re willing to add it gratis when one of the happy couple is of the vampiric persuasion.”
“Very good.” Renaldi handed the waiter a generous tip. “That will be all for now, thank you.”
The waiter backed himself out of the room as if he didn’t feel safe taking his eyes off Renaldi. The vampire smiled to himself. With the advent of synthetic blood, his kind had no need to drink from humans anymore.
Except, he noted, in the heat of passion.
Turning his thoughts in a less amorous direction, he walked around the spacious suite. He’d arranged to have the sitting room filled with flower arrangements. Thankfully, he was not among the bloodline with rose-borne allergies. The bedroom, with its massive round bed and white satin coverlet, was bathed in the warm glow of vanilla scented candles.
He wanted to show Jade unequaled sensual pleasure, the kind of pleasure he was sure she had the capacity to experience, after watching her eat the wedding cake with such apparent relish.
He looked down at the bed, picturing Jade on it, her bare skin against a pool of white satin…
“Wow, who died?” Jade’s voice called from the sitting room.
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I did, several hundred years ago.” He stood in the doorway that led from the bedroom to the sitting room, catching her in the act of inhaling the fragrant scent of a rose.
“I take it you’re not among the rose-challenged.” She looked up from the floral arrangement and met his eyes with a smile.
“Fortunately not.” He wandered into the sitting room, admiring the way her pale skin and coppery curls contrasted with her carefully tailored black suit. “Do you like the suite?”
She glanced around the room, taking in the details. “It’s beautiful… but I don’t remember seeing flowers included in the info they faxed over to me today.”
“The flowers are my own personal…” He reached out to stroke her upper arm, earning a gasp from her. “…touch.”
She closed her eyes, a flush creeping across her cheeks. “Renaldi…” She took a step back from him. “You have to realize what an attractive man you are.”
“As you modern Americans would say, I hear a ‘but’ coming.” He let her slip from his grasp with regret.
Her eyes darkened a shade. “But I never get involved with clients.”
He crossed the room and sank down onto a white plush loveseat. “While I admire your business ethics, I fail to see the harm in mixing a little business with pleasure.” He leaned forward, snaring her with his gaze and letting a trickle of his power flow out toward her. “Why do you show such loyalty to a man who obviously cannot appreciate you?”
Her forehead creased. “What man? You mean Avery? Because let me assure you, he doesn’t appreciate any women, not in the way you mean.”
He dismissed her reference to her assistant with a wave of his hand. “No. It’s this boyfriend of yours, the one you spoke of at the menu tasting. The one who has made you doubt your own worth.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I never said I had a boyfriend.”
He shrugged. “It was implied.”
His cell phone rang before she could answer. With a curse of impatience, he removed it from his pocket.
“It’s the Court,” he said with a glance at the tiny LCD display. “This will only take a moment, if you’ll excuse me.”
Jade gave him a nod, and he rose to his feet, making his way back to the bedroom in two strides.
“Yes, Melaina?” A call from the empress of the Gulf Coast Vampire Court was never a good thing.
“We have urgent business to discuss.” Melaina’s voice, honed to a perfect pitch of seduction through centuries of practice, purred through the phone.
“What might that be, your grace?” He held his breath, waiting.
“Your friend Antonio has chosen a wife from among our ranks and is soon to be wed.” A low chuckle crackled through the speaker at him. “Now you must do the same. Choose a bride from among Court blood by the next full moon, or forfeit your place among us forever.”
Renaldi bit back a curse. This night was not going as planned. Not at all.
———
Jade took a deep breath, trying to rein in her runaway thoughts. What on earth made Renaldi think she had a boyfriend?
And what was behind his not so subtle innuendoes? Surely he didn’t expect her to believe he found her attractive. There had to be some hidden agenda. But what kind of hidden agenda could a master vampire have with a wedding planner?
Unless he just felt sorry for her. Jade put her hand over her suddenly leaden heart. Did vampires have some kind of yearly good deed to perform, like giving the poor lonely wedding planner a pity fuck?
Or was she a bet between Renaldi and the groom? Was this all some kind of pre-stag party entertainment? See who can bed the chubby chick first?
A wave of nausea rolled through her. Renaldi had seemed every ounce the gentleman, and if she could believe that his interest was genuine, she’d fly to the stars on sheer ecstasy.
But she knew better. Painful experience had long ago made her aware of the dark side of human nature. And what were vampires but former humans with the gift of immortality and the curse of an even darker nature?
Shaking off the cloud of despair that threatened to smother her, she squared her shoulders. This had to stop, and it had to stop then and there. Jade Simons wouldn’t be made a fool of again. She’d take a cursory look around the rest of the suite and sign off on it for Antonio and Marie’s wedding night, and from that moment on, it would be nothing but business between her and one Renaldi D’Aria.
But judging by the racing of her heart beneath the hand still pressed against her chest, it might be easier said than done.
———
“I’m trying to understand why you’ve chosen this moment to make your will known, your grace.” Renaldi glanced over his shoulder, through the doorway into the sitting room where Jade stood with her delicate hand pressed to her heart, looking out the window, thinking of that bastard boyfriend of hers, no doubt. Renaldi felt his fangs extend. Jealousy was as potent an appetizer as lust, and at the moment, he was overwhelmed with both.
“As you know, Dracula’s ball will be held in Houston this year for the first time in a century.” Melaina paused, effectively underscoring the importance of her words. “We of the gulf coast must make an effective showing before our rivals.”
“House Minotaur,” he said, referring to the local vampire house that was known to harbor rogues. They also tried to subvert any positive policy enacted by the Court and to undermine the local authorities, both human and vampire, at every turn.
“We must present a united front and show that our bloodlines are closely linked and strong.” She paused again. “Unless you are wed and bound to another, you will be a weak link in our chain.” Her voice dropped to a hiss. “The Minotaur masters will use any trickery at their disposal to force you into bonding with one of their own.”
He was aware of the risk of dealing with rogue vampires. A master vampire who wasn’t bound to a mate was an easy target. An unscrupulous vampire could force an energy-based connection to him, effectively binding him to one of them until they chose to release him.
It would be war, vampire mayhem.
“Perhaps, your grace, the best alternative would be
for me to avoid the ball completely.”
“And call attention to yourself?” Melaina made a sound of disgust. “I think not. You may as well paint a target upon your back.”
Renaldi tried to look in on Jade again, but she’d moved out of his line of sight. “I understand the delicacy of the situation.”
“I’m not at all sure you do.” Her voice tightened with tension. “We of the Order of St. Germain must do everything we can to preserve ethical behavior among our kind. Left to the likes of House Minotaur, we will become outlaws again, legal prey to anyone with a round of silver bullets. If they steal one of our own, they weaken us in the eyes of the vampire community at large. Is that what you want?”
“You know it’s not.” He scrubbed his forehead with his hand. “This is all just… rather sudden.”
“Sudden or not, you must find a wife among the Court at the very best, among the Order at the very least. And do it soon.”
He heaved a sigh. He’d deal with this tomorrow night, after he’d had the chance to talk to Jade. “Yes, your grace.”
“I’ll be monitoring your progress.” With that, she ended the call.
Renaldi stood there, the phone dead in his hand.
Where did this leave him? Madly in lust with a mortal woman who apparently was attached to another. Ordered by the empress he loyally served to find a mate among the upper echelon of vampire kind before the next full moon.
Not to mention planning a wedding with the very woman who could bring him to his knees and make him forget the Court and the Order he’d vowed to serve for the rest of his immortal life.
He was, as they said in Texas, in a hell of a fix.
———
“Important phone call?” Jade watched as Renaldi came back into the sitting room, a less than happy expression on his face.
“Vampire business.” He went to the room service cart and held up a bottle of Veuve Clicquot for her inspection. “Can I interest you in a drink?”
I Was A Vampire Wedding Planner Page 2