Her Billionaire Vampire

by Fated Mates Romance

  I didn’t know whether it was because I was still disconcerted by my bold statement, but I found it hard to unhook the seatbelt.

  Ethan leaned over to help me and our hands brushed. Lightning spikes went up my body instantly. He must have felt it too because he paused.

  For some precious seconds, his face was an inch away from mine. If I moved my head a little, our lips would meet. I desperately wanted them to touch. The arrival of his bodyguards broke the highly charged moment.

  My face became as red as a tomato. So I took in slow and silent breaths to make the flush go away.

  “There,” he said, as he hooked the seatbelt.

  Powerless to look in his direction, I nodded.

  As he drove through the busy streets of New York with neck-breaking speed, I realized I was way deep in my feelings for him. At that moment, I didn’t care about my past life. All I wanted was to be with Ethan.

  Chapter Seven

  The bulge was back. I didn’t know how and why. All I knew was that the lump in my chest was rising by the minute.

  Looking back, I think it formed when we walked into the park. I was carrying the hamper and the blanket in one hand, having refused my head of security from taking them. Amy had slid her hand into mine. And so, we’d walked towards a bench holding hands like a couple.

  I witnessed the stunned looks of my security team and heard their thoughts. They were all shocked at how domestic I had become. They weren’t the only ones who were surprised. I, too, didn’t understand what was going on with me. Amy was changing me. I was becoming human again.

  While it was okay to share meals with Amy, workout with her, and play games, it was a whole different ball game holding her hand and having a picnic together.

  Why did I even suggest this in the first place?

  It had been hard sharing my apartment with her since I was used to being alone, but I eventually got over it. Being seen in public with her, behaving like a couple was a different feeling on its own.

  I usually took my women to dinner in exclusive restaurants, and we ended up in bed at the end of the evening. I’d never had a breakfast or lunch date with any of them.

  While the sensation of having a picnic with Amy was unusual, I had to admit that it felt unnatural but comfortable. As a matter of fact, I liked it. Very much!

  Everything looked alien to me, even the blanket that contained several confectioneries, soft drinks, and a bottle of white wine. I watched as Amy sucked on a strawberry with those pouting lips of hers.

  Oh, my God! My body hardened instantly. Was she doing this on purpose, knowing the effect she had on me? She’d never given the impression of a coy and seductive woman, but I couldn’t be definite.

  She’d taken my breath away a while ago when she surfaced in my living room looking like a million bucks. It had taken every strength in me not to cover the distance between us, yank her into my arms, and beg her to stay with me forever before crushing her lips with mine.

  Get your thoughts in order.

  “Where are you going?” I questioned when she pushed herself to her feet. We’d been sitting there in companionable silence for some minutes.

  “I don’t know why, I suddenly feel like drawing,” she announced with a strange look on her face.

  “You can draw?” I queried softly, wondering with a rapidly beating heart if she was beginning to remember who she was.

  A frown marked her temples. “I don’t know. That’s what I’m about to find out. I want to ask that man over there to lend me his drawing pad and pencil.”

  The swelling in my chest was threatening to choke me as I watched her walk away.

  The park wasn’t crowded. A few people were also having picnics; some of them were taking their dogs for a walk, while others were reading or playing games. I wished they would all go away so that it could be only Amy and me in the park.

  I desired to lie her on the blanket, pushing away every other thing on it, so that I could taste her lips.

  Every time she brushed past me, I always caught a whiff of roses and plum—her natural scent. I wondered if she would taste like the fruit when I kissed her. I’d give anything to be able to kiss her without earning a slap on my face or ruining the friendship we’d developed.

  An emotion I couldn’t quite understand which seemed very much like jealousy stole up my chest when I saw Amy smiling at the man, and he was reciprocating. I hadn’t missed the appreciative looks of some of the men around when Amy and I walked into the park. I’d also heard their sensual thoughts. It had taken everything in me not to grit my teeth at them. My fangs would probably have shown, so I had to control myself.

  Jealousy was an alien sentiment to me. I didn’t know how to handle it. Deciding it was best if I looked away, I gulped down the remaining liquid from my wine glass.

  Unable to resist it, I glanced in their direction when I heard the man’s admiring thoughts. I saw him holding Amy’s hand as a way of a handshake. A small sound changed the course of my gaze.

  “Damn!”

  I’d snapped the neck of the glass. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Amy heading back to me. I swiftly placed the broken glass in the basket. What could I tell her if she asked what happened and why I wasn’t bleeding? I wiped the shards of glass on the field and smiled at her.

  “What a nice man! He offered me his drawing pad and told me I looked familiar,” Amy narrated, as she sat opposite me.

  As smiles went, I was sure mine looked as if it was carved from stone.

  “Since I still can’t remember anything, I couldn’t tell him anything. Maybe we could go and talk to him about it when I return his drawing pad.”

  “Maybe,” I responded in between clenched teeth.

  Amy’s eyes searched my face. I avoided them.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” I replied, a tad hastily. I couldn’t let her know I was jealous of the few minutes she had shared with a stranger.

  She shrugged and lifted the pad to start drawing.

  “What do you want to draw?” I questioned when she began making strokes on the paper.

  I wasn’t one to take in the beauty of my surroundings, but I assumed it was a good case study. Spring was here, adding color to the trees and flowers planted around the park.

  “You’ll see,” she said and darted a glance at the man she’d just left.

  My face tightened. Was she drawing the man? How could she? There were like a million and one things she could draw. Why the stranger? Was she drawn to him? Did she want to be with him instead of me?

  Whoa! I was allowing my emotions to get the best of me. Since when did I become so jealous that I was thinking of making the stranger disappear from the Earth’s surface for good?

  My fingers went through my hair. I had it bad. I rose swiftly. Amy didn’t even raise her head from her activity. My heart broke when I saw that she was drawing a masculine face.

  How could she do this to me?

  “I’m going for a walk,” I announced, grateful that she didn’t look up. She was bound to see the color of my eyes changing.

  I longed for flight, but I had to force myself to walk. Never in my life had I felt so terrible, not even when I was changed from human to vampire by my boss.

  Amy had turned me into a mushy man. I couldn’t understand why I was so jealous of her drawing the portrait of another man.

  It’s because you love her.

  “Then curse love!” I muttered fiercely.

  If this was what it meant to be in love, then I didn’t think I liked the emotion. Every night, I transformed into a bat to watch Amy sleep. I’d return to my room and stay awake till the early hours of the morning thinking about her and what life would be like with her.

  Now that I saw it so clearly, I didn’t think I liked it much at all. She was my Amy. I found her. Sharing her with others was bound to kill me with jealousy.

  Why would I even want to be with only one woman when women threw themselves at me wherever I wen
t? Like that woman over there who was giving me “the eye” even though she was sitting beside a man on the bench.

  “I can’t do this,” I surmised.

  I hated this emotion of possessiveness and jealousy. Love felt sweet, but the other emotions that came with it were what I didn’t envisage or desire.

  I took my time walking around the park to get my emotions under control and in their usual tight rein. I even went to my car, drew out my secret compartment, and drank two bottles of synthetic blood. By the time I reached her, she was done with her drawing and smiling broadly.

  I slowly sat on the blanket, trying to keep my face expressionless because, from the sparkle in her eyes, she was dying to show me her drawing.

  “Ta da!”

  Shock got me frozen as I stared at the drawing of my face. Damn! She was good. She had captured every line and every detail on my face.

  “Wow! You’re good. You must definitely be an artist,” I remarked, taking the pad from her to peer closely at the drawing.

  A great twinge struck me in my chest when I realized that this was how I looked fifty years ago. This was how I would look fifty years from now. No changes!

  But that wouldn’t be the same for her. She would grow old and die unless I changed her into a vampire. I couldn’t do that to her, however.

  Being undead wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t wish that on my greatest enemy let alone the woman I loved. Painful though it was, I came to a decision.

  I had to let her go.

  Chapter Eight

  “I won’t be returning to the house with you,” I informed Amy on our way back to the house.

  “Oh,” was all she said.

  “I've got a few things to handle. I’ll be back before you know it,” I went on, not sure why I was trying to reassure her.

  “I think I might have a lead on who you are,” I fibbed to get her reaction as I maneuvered the steering of the car.

  My sideways glance at her revealed an impassive face. I had expected that she would be joyous of the fact that she would be going home.

  “Oh,” she said again, twirling her fingers on her lap.

  “I don’t know how long it’s going to take. Maybe you shouldn’t wait up for me.”

  It was early evening. We’d spent almost all day at the park. After leaving the place, I’d taken her to a restaurant for a light dinner. All the while we were there, I’d been very uneasy, thinking someone would walk up to us and claim knowledge of her.

  Although I’d decided to give her up, my heart was still at war with my resolution. I knew deep down that even if I got to live up to a thousand years, I would never find or love someone like Amy.

  “Can I come with you?” she inquired into the silence that had enveloped the car.

  “I’m afraid you can’t,” I recanted.

  “Why?”

  I struggled with words. How would I put it to her? I was going to my council of vampires. After I’d decided to let her go, I had sent messages to all the members to assemble for an urgent meeting.

  Someone was bound to provide me with an answer as to what to do with Amy. Possibly one or two of them might know who was looking for a daughter, a friend, a roommate, or a girlfriend. The last word left an acrid taste in my mouth. I wasn’t sure if I’d be willing to let her go if I found out there was a man out there waiting for her to come back home.

  But wouldn’t that be selfish of me? She and the man could grow old together, unlike me who would live on when she was long gone.

  Only know you love her when you let her go.

  The lyrics to one of the songs I favored made me grit my teeth. What if I loved her enough to want her to stay with me forever? By forever, I meant changing her into a vampire.

  Inwardly, I shook my head. Amy didn’t deserve such a life. She deserved better. She was a beautiful young woman with a life ahead of her. Being saddled with a vampire wouldn’t be the right call for her.

  Realizing only then that I hadn’t answered her question, I glanced her way. Her eyes were expectant, waiting for me to reply her.

  “Because it’s not a place for someone like you,” I finally responded flippantly.

  Humor tinged her voice. “Someone like me? Are you going to a dangerous hood or what?”

  “Something like that,” I concurred in a low tone.

  “Then I think I should come with you. I don’t think I’ve had any experience going to such places.”

  I scoffed. “How do you know?”

  “Well, because it doesn’t feel like I have,” she returned stubbornly.

  I remembered the dreary street I picked her up from. It wasn’t the hood, but it wasn’t high-class either. Or was it like that only at night?

  Chuckling, I said, “I know you majored in argument at the university, but the answer is no. You’ll be safer at home. I promise I’ll be back before you know it.”

  “Majored in argument, huh? Someone wants me to ruin the drawing I made of him,” she threatened, reaching for the paper in the back seat.

  I abruptly pulled the car to the curb when I saw her hand making the motion of tearing it. I reached for it, but she jerked it away from my grasp. I continued trying to get it, but she kept removing it from my reach.

  At one point, I had to remove my seatbelt and lean in to get it because she stretched her hand backward. In my quest to reach the paper, I leaned on her.

  Her sharp intake of breath held me bound for some seconds as her face was mere inches from mine. Lowering my hand, I cupped her chin and caressed it.

  An emotion that was foreign to me consumed my entire being. I was so entranced by the lovely and seductive picture she made lying under me with a blush creeping up her face and her lips parting in expectation of a kiss. I lost control of my emotions for the first time in a long while.

  I could sense my eye color changing and my fangs beginning to draw out. My gaze fell on her lovely neck. The urge to make her mine warred inside me. I didn’t know if she saw it, but the interior of the car began to darken as I drew closer.

  The sound of a horn blaring jolted me from my stupor. I swiftly sat back, cleared my throat, and started the car again. No word was said between us as I drove her home.

  We also didn’t tell each other goodbye when I pulled in front of my apartment building. I drove off in a rush to our meeting place.

  I was desperately in need of help.

  Our meeting place was the house of our president. He had an underground cave where we held our meetings. I rode into the area and pressed the secret buttons which took me directly to the cave.

  “You’re late,” one of the members snapped immediately as I entered the large room that looked like a mausoleum.

  “I apologize. I was…delayed.”

  “What is this about?” the president asked from his high chair.

  I strode into the midst of the other seated members and stood in the middle. I narrated how I picked Amy up from the deserted street and how she’d been living with me ever since. Of course, I left out the part where I had deep feelings for her. But they all knew, I couldn’t hide my thoughts from my brothers even though my face was as impassive as I could make it.

  One of the members laughed. I turned in his direction, hoping he would tell me what to do.

  “Turn her over to the local police. I’m sure they’ll find out who she is,” the man said, grinning.

  The suggestion didn’t sit well with me, although it appeared to be my best option.

  “Ethan,” my president called.

  I whirled my body in his course. The man appeared startled. Then he shocked me by bursting into laughter. The muscles in my chin moved up and down in anger at the man’s apparent enjoyment of my predicament.

  At last, he pulled himself together while I stood there with rage in my eyes. I hadn’t expected sympathy, but I hadn’t expected to be mocked either.

  “Pardon me. The humor in the whole thing overcame me. You see, one of the witches in New York’s coven has gone missin
g—the granddaughter of the leader. They’ve been so frantic to find her.”

  My features became stone-like. I didn’t think it was funny that I’d been holed up with a witch for a couple of weeks. Hope welled in my chest that she might not be the one. It could be a coincidence. But when our president asked for a description of her, and I told him, he confirmed that she was the missing witch.

  If I had a heart, it would have fallen off my chest and shattered into a million pieces right there.

  Why? Why of all the supernatural beings on Earth did Amy have to be a witch? I felt like going into the recesses of the cave and remaining there forever, brooding.

  It was so unfair that when I finally found someone I genuinely liked, she had to be a rival. Vampires and witches didn’t see eye to eye. The feud began a long time ago. Now I knew why I couldn’t read her thoughts.

  As I walked away with the eyes of my brothers on me, I acknowledged that the situation couldn’t be helped. I couldn’t have a relationship with a witch. Come morning, I would take her to the nearest police station, drop her off, and be done with this whole thing.

  Chapter Nine

  The pesky feeling wouldn’t go away even as I prepared for bed. There was something about Ethan that had been nagging at me all day. I couldn’t say what it was precisely, I knew it was something to do with his personality.

  Although he was quite pale for a man, there was something dark about him. I wouldn’t call it sinister, but it was something I wouldn’t care for in my real life.

  I got into bed, but a minute later, I flung the sheets away and rose. I couldn’t sleep with the badgering feeling. I had to find out what was it about Ethan that made him different from other men.

  At my door, I listened quietly to see if he had returned. Not that I heard him come in, but I wanted to make sure. When I heard no movement around the apartment, I carefully opened the door.

  I tiptoed to his room down the hallway. Praying that the door would be unlocked, I pushed it. Alas, it wasn’t open.

  “Darn!” I exclaimed my frustration.