by ERIN BEDFORD
Loved By The Vampires © 2019 Embrace the Fantasy Publishing, LLC
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. 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 permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Also by Erin Bedford
The Underground Series
Chasing Rabbits
Chasing Cats
Chasing Princes
Chasing Shadows
Chasing Hearts
The Crimes of Alice
Hatter’s Heart
The Mary Wiles Chronicles
Marked by Hell
Bound by Hell
Deceived by Hell
Tempted by Hell
Starcrossed Dragons
Riding Lightning
Grinding Frost
Swallowing Fire
Pounding Earth
The Crimson Fold
Until Midnight
Until Dawn
Until Sunset
Curse of the Fairy Tales
Rapunzel Untamed
Rapunzel Unveiled
Her Angels
Heaven’s Embrace
Heaven’s A Beach
Heaven’s Most Wanted
House of Durand
Indebted to the Vampires
Wanted by the Vampires
Protected by the Vampires
Embrace of the Vampires
Loved by the Vampires
Academy of Witches
Witching On A Star
As You Witch
Witch You Were Here
Just Witch It
Summer Witchin’
Granting Her Wish
Vampire CEO
The Beast of the Fae Court
Chapter 1
Piper
I could just move next Thursday’s meeting to the following Monday…and there. I smacked enter on my keyboard with a resounding clack. I was done for the weekend.
With a long sigh of relief, I logged out of my computer and pushed back from my desk. Working for a lawyer wasn’t the most exciting job, especially not when your previous employment included so much excitement it almost killed you. Multiple times. But it was better than sitting around the house waiting for the others to tell me we could go back to our regular lives.
“You out of here for the day, Piper?” Bethany, a curly red-headed paralegal, smiled down at me as she stopped at my desk. In a tight, formfitting, forest green dress, the slit between the square neckline showed off just a hint of cleavage. With her perfectly on point makeup, Bethany looked the part of a serious but sexy businesswoman.
Unlike me.
I had to work twice as hard to look like more than just the plain Jane around the office. I had to admit, as much as I hated some of the outfits the Durands put me in, at least they had good taste. The best I could come up with were a series of blouses all of the same style but in different colors. I mixed and matched them with black skirts, pants, and sensible shoes. You couldn’t pay me to don those death contraptions Bethany wore to work every day. She didn’t have the same issues I did though. I never knew when I might need to run.
Holding back disdain from the way my thoughts had turned, I opened my desk drawer and grabbed my purse. “Yep. Right this moment.” My eyes darted to the open door of our boss’ office, Jack Biggs. I lowered my voice. “If I can get by the Big Man.” We both rolled our eyes and giggled quietly. Jack Biggs was just as arrogant as his last name. In his opinion, no one was better than Jack Biggs. Not in the courtroom…or the bedroom, which he’d not so subtly slipped into the conversation not even the first week I’d been working for him.
“It’s hard to believe you’ve been working here a year.” Bethany bumped my arm with hers as we walked toward the exit. Her heels clicked on the tiled floor, unfortunately signaling the Big Man of our departure.
“Piper!”
I held my answer to Bethany and cursed under my breath. Giving her an exasperated look before spinning around, I forced a smile on my face. “Mr. Biggs, I was just heading out. What can I do for you?”
“Please, Piper. How many times have I told you to call me Jack?” The dimple in his cheek peeked out as his full lips curved up in a flirtatious grin. Some people would be orgasming over having a boss like Jack Biggs. He had black hair that was almost blue in a certain light, and warm brown eyes that his smiles actually reached. If I was any other woman, I would have been delighted to have him as a boss, let alone someone interested in me, but I had more than my fair share of beautiful men, and frankly, Jack didn’t hold a candle to them.
Clutching my purse strap tighter, I glanced over at Bethany who was holding back a smile. Inwardly, I groaned. On the outside, I gave a polite chuckle. “At least one more time, Mr. Biggs. Did you need something? I’d really like to get home.”
“No, you’re not!” Bethany gasped and smacked me on the arm. “This is your one year at the company. We have to go out and celebrate. Come on, Jack, tell her!” Bethany turned her pouty lips toward Jack and fluttered her long lashes over her big hazel eyes. As much as Jack was interested in me, Bethany was far more interested in him. She once told me she wanted to have his Biggy babies. Really. She said it exactly like that. I wanted to vomit. A little like the way I felt now at the prospect of going out to celebrate my one-year workiversary.
To them, it might seem like a momentous occasion. But to me, it reminded me that I was dying a little bit inside each day that went by. Instead of voicing what I really thought of going out with them, I shoved down all my emotions that were billowing up and put on a strong face.
“I really shouldn’t. I need to—” I tried to make my excuses, but Jack interrupted me.
“You are the best receptionist I’ve ever had. You don’t have any work you need to do. And I know for sure that your boss would approve.” He winked at me, causing Bethany to giggle.
Seeing that I was not getting out of this, I conceded, “Fine. One drink.” I held my finger up with a stern look. “Just one.”
“That’s my girl!” Bethany cheered, and looped her arm through mine as they steered me out of the building.
With my free hand, I grabbed my phone and shot a quick text to Darren to let him know I was going out. There was a fifty-fifty chance he wouldn’t even look at it.
Darren had taken up the head of the household role quite easily since we went into hiding. Or rather the Durands had. Darren and I were playing at being normal humans for the time being. That time seeming to be endless since we’d first moved to Seabrick a year ago. I’d hoped it would be short-lived. My promise to not wait around for them hadn’t quite gone as planned. Hard to bust down the doors of the vampire hunters when you had no idea how to find them. Plus, I might be a human servant, but that only allotted me so many extra benefits. Speed, heightened senses, and unfortunately, raging hormones. Darren kept telling me they would get under control eventually, but I had yet to see it.
“So, where are we going?” I asked, trying to keep my mind off my own tragic life, and focused on my pretend one.
“Just down a block or two.
” Jack pointed to the west once we stepped out of the building. Seabrick was a cute little town with a fifteen-minute walk to the beach from any part of town. I guessed that was why Antoine had planned for Darren and me to go here. No vampire in their right mind would live by the beach, where getting as much sun as possible was the motivation for practically all its residents.
There wasn’t a pale face in sight as we walked down the street. Everyone had a nice tan from—if not spending time on the beach—being outside in general. And they were all just so…happy. It was sickening really. Who was that happy? There had to be something in the water.
“Were you able to move my meeting?” Jack glanced over at me, his long legs having to shorten their stride to keep in line with Bethany and myself.
Thankful for something non-personal to talk about, I offered him a small smile. “Yes. I moved it to Monday.”
Jack grimaced. “Not too early, I hope?”
I suppressed a giggle. “Of course not. We wouldn’t want the Big Man to lose any beauty sleep, would we?”
Jack smirked as Bethany groaned.
“You’re not seriously going to talk about work this whole time, are you? This is a celebration!” Bethany skipped a bit in her three-inch heels, jerking me with her. “I want to know more about you, Piper.”
“Me?” I squeaked, my shoulders bunching up at the idea of spilling all my secrets.
“You’ve been here a year now and we hardly know anything about you,” Bethany continued with a disappointed frown.
“That’s not true,” I argued, avoiding both of their astute gazes. I hadn’t been very forthcoming with information, because trying to lie to a lawyer was like taking a polygraph test on steroids. On top of never being good at hiding my thoughts on my face—something Rayne didn’t need his powers to see—it was near impossible for me to tell my coworkers anything without giving away my double life.
“Okay, fine. We know you’re from a small town outside of Atlanta. You have a mom and a dad who you don’t speak to much. You’re not married. No kids. And your favorite color is a pale crystal-like blue, but not like the sky, almost white.”
I stared at her for a long moment. “You remember all that?”
Jack chuckled. “She’s not my paralegal for nothing. Bethany has a memory like a steel trap.” He tapped the side of his head with a proud grin. “You say it, she remembers it.”
Bethany beamed at Jack as we stopped before one of a dozen bars in Seabrick. For a place as small as it was, they sure liked to drink.
Jack held the door open for us and we walked into The Croaking Parrot. While it was named after the colorful bird, the inside of the bar was the complete opposite. Dark wood covered the floor, the walls, and even the bar top. The only color that filled the place was the mismatched barstools ranging from cold silver metal, to bright orange and red plastic, and a multitude of different woods. The only thing that did match were the tables spread throughout the rest of the bar’s interior.
I’d wonder why the owner would call it The Croaking Parrot, except there were tons of pictures on the walls of different parrots, or maybe it was the same parrot in different places? Hell if I knew. They all looked the same to me. A creepy stuffed parrot sat behind the bar on the shelf next to the mirror-backed shelves.
Freaky.
The place already bustled with happy hour nine to fivers, ready to get their weekend drink on. We were lucky to find three stools next to each other at the bar in the crowded room. Bethany obviously hoped Jack would sit next to her, but we ended up with me in the middle of the two of them. I could already feel myself needing that drink.
“What are you having?” The bartender was a pretty, alternative looking woman with shaggy pink and green hair, with one side hanging down over half of her face and the other side of her head buzzed. An array of earrings lined the visible ear. They went along well with the brow, nose, and lip piercings. I itched to ask her if she ever had trouble getting through airport metal detectors.
“I’ll have a Cosmo,” Bethany chirped, beaming at the woman, picking a very businesswoman drink.
“Whatever you have on tap is fine.” Jack inclined his head toward the beers.
“And you?” The bartender stared hard at me with a less than thrilled attitude.
I shifted in my seat, not sure what I wanted to drink. I could tell the bartender was getting irritated by my hesitation, but before I could answer, a warm arm wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me back against a familiar chest as a smooth, no-nonsense voice told the bartender, “She’ll have wine. White. No Riesling. And make it two.” The bartender left with a nod to fill our order while Bethany gasped.
“Oh, my. Who is this gorgeous piece of eye candy? You have been holding out on me, Piper.” She gave me a chastising look as she giggled and blushed at the man behind me.
“Do you know this man?” Jack questioned with a bit of stiffness to his voice.
I placed my hand over the arm around me and leaned back against him. “Yes, this is Darren. My boyfriend.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Bethany’s eyes bugged out of her head and her mouth dropped before she clipped it shut and gave me a knowing look. “Now I know why you never talked about your home life. I wouldn’t want to tell anyone about someone who looked like him.”
Darren’s arm tightened around me, not because he was uncomfortable with her words, he’d had worse said to him by creatures who wanted to do more than drool over him. I hoped one day I’d have that easy of a reaction to someone talking about me like I wasn’t there. Unfortunately, my mouth and temper seemed to be the cause of a lot of my issues with the Durands. Sad but true.
Thankfully, Darren answered for me. “We prefer to keep our business and personal lives separate.”
“Is that so?” Jack directed the question toward me, suspicion beginning to creep into his voice.
I dipped my head and pretended to be bashful. “Uh, yeah.”
“Is that who you were texting?” Bethany asked, finally getting over her surprise.
The bartender came back and handed out the drinks. I took a sip of mine with a sigh. “Yeah.”
“That’s so sweet.” Bethany giggled and drank from her Cosmo. “How long have you two been together?”
I twisted in my seat so my back was to the bar and I wasn’t having to split my attention between the three of them. “A few years now.” I sipped from my glass as I met Darren’s dark eyes. He quirked a brow at me, but didn’t argue.
It had taken two months before I could get Darren to stop wearing his butler suit. He’d even conceded the gloves after I’d pestered him for a whole day about them. We weren’t working with vampires now. At least, not face to face. It took a while to get used to Darren in jeans. Even now I had to do a double-take sometimes. If Darren in a suit was delicious, then Darren in tight-fitting denim was practically sinful.
“And what do you do, Darren no last name?” Jack inquired with more prejudice than I expected from my boss.
“It’s Pritchard,” Darren supplied, his eyes not leaving mine.
“And what do you do?”
I shot a look at Bethany at Jack’s line of questioning. She shrugged, no more clued into what our boss was thinking. He was acting like an overprotective boyfriend, but not in the attractive ‘I think I have a claim on her and want to know what she sees in you’ kind of way.
Antoine.
He sounded like Antoine. The thought of the head of the house of Durand made my heart ache, and Darren took my hand in his, directing my attention back to him. He always seemed to know when I was thinking of our vampire master. Not that I’d ever call Antoine master to his face. He’d have a field day with that. Antoine was arrogant enough.
Darren held my gaze for a long moment before turning to Jack. “I’m a liaison for a high-profile family overseas.”
Jack’s brows rose. He took a swig from his beer and twisted it on the top of the bar. “And what exactly does that entail?”
; Something in Darren shifted, and as if he were reading from a script as he responded, “I handle the household issues, run errands, and do anything the family needs to keep running smoothly.”
“So…you’re an assistant?” Bethany jutted her glass toward Darren.
Darren’s lips ticked up at the side, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Of a sort.”
“And you two…live together?” Bethany shifted a finger between the two of us.
“Uh, yeah. For a while now.” I drank deeply from my glass, letting the alcohol soothe my nerves. Too many more questions and I’d be spilling my guts about the whole damn thing.
“That’s curious.” Jack hummed, though I could tell he was holding back what he really wanted to say. I worked with the man five days a week. Jack rarely held his tongue, but for some reason this time he did.
Either way, I was glad for it. I didn’t want to know what Darren would do if Jack tried to get in his face about it. The butler had dealt with vampires far longer than any of us three have been alive. A puny human man was nothing to him.
“Why?” Darren retorted, and I tightened my hand on his.
What the hell was he doing?
Did he want to start a fight?
“Why what?” Jack met Darren’s challenging gaze.
“Why is that curious?”
I gave a nervous chuckle and patted Darren on the chest. “Jack’s just being polite. He speaks lawyerese. Don’t try to understand it.”
“No.” Darren’s expression and tone went flat as he stared Jack down. “I do believe he means something else entirely. Don’t you, Jack?”
