“I want revenge, too.”
He said that so smoothly and calmly, Karey nearly missed the dark intent in the words. “Bernard, you’re out of your mind! Revenge for what?”
He shrugged. “Where do I start? For enslaving my ancestors, killing Camille and stealing the family treasure. For using my family to enrich his.” As he spoke, his eyes narrowed and the flush deepening on his cheeks revealed his passion. Karey wondered what she’d ever seen in him. Bernard appeared truly ugly, all his superficial charm gone in the rush of anger. More than that, he looked insane. His eyes burned with fervor.
“Bernard, this is the twenty-first century. This is your life, your time. Why waste it trying to harm others?”
Bernard looked away, stared out the window. When he returned his gaze to her, she saw the same Bernard who had met her at the door on her first day, charming and welcoming. Despite regaining control of himself, his words were still poisonous. “I want to make them suffer for what they did. You might not understand. You’re from a northern family, aren’t you?” His expression made her feel inferior, although she knew she wasn’t.
“My family came over from Germany just before the Second World War.”
“Jewish?”
“No, just not Nazis.” She saw no reason to share any more of her family history with him. Bernard Foret was a snake. A pretty snake, wrapped in old-world elegance and fine words, but nonetheless, just as lethal as his plainer brothers. She changed the subject. “So you’re into voodoo?”
“Vodun. It brings a certain amount of power.” He glanced around the room, and let his gaze rest on Jordan and Didiane, heads close together over the table. But they didn’t look cozily intimate. Karey had the feeling that if she didn’t get back there soon, they would start to butt heads. “When your vampire lover tires of you, come to me and I might help you. The chances are they’ll both have you. Vampires are completely amoral.”
Karey doubted that. “You think they’re a different species?”
“Completely. They’re not human at all. They’re animals, and they should be put down like the vermin they are.”
“You don’t want what they have?” Karey thought someone as power hungry as Bernard would jump at the chance of winning a vampire to his side.
“Not in the least. They have too many restrictions, and they’re not strong at all. I seduced Didiane last night with a very simple spell. She couldn’t resist me.” His lips turned up in a sneer. Despite his denials, Karey knew he was lying.
“But you wanted her?”
“Oh yes. She’s very attractive. Besides, she wants the stone, too, so I needed to stop her. I left her asleep in bed when I—“
“When you drugged me and tried to make Susannah take up permanent residence in my body?”
He smiled slowly, creeping Karey out with his enjoyment of other people’s helplessness. “Yes, except I would have brought you back. Didn’t you enjoy it? Wasn’t Thomas quite the man?”
“You bastard, I ought to kill you for that.”
“You can’t.” His arrogant certainty took Karey’s breath away. “You will have to wait until I need you again. I’ve put a ring of power around this place. You can’t leave. Ever.”
* * * * *
Jordan watched Karey and Bernard walk to the serving hatch with mixed feelings. He could keep an eye on her while he spoke to Didiane, but he hated her anywhere near that bastard. Didiane leaned forward, her lily-of-the-valley scent overpowering him. “Having a good time, hmm, Jordan?”
“We’re finished Didiane.” He’d meant to be more subtle, but what was the point? Didiane never reacted to subtleties. Or gentleness. Even sex with her was always rough and ready, and the more violent he’d been, the better she liked it. Didiane lived life on one level, never ventured outside her self-appointed boundaries.
She gave him a winsome smile and spoke to him in French. “Tu sais, you don’t mean that. Have your last fling with your wife, Jordan. I don’t mind. After all, I’m amusing myself with the delectable Bernard.”
He replied in the same language. “You think he’s delectable? I’m disappointed, mignonne. I thought you had better taste than that.”
“Enough taste to get you out of those disgusting clothes you wore when you first came to me. Let me know when you’re ready to leave. I’ll have the apartment ready for you.”
He met her gaze coolly. “As for the apartment—you can keep it. I’ll sign it over to you, I don’t want it. But I meant it, Didiane. We’re over. You told me too many lies for me to trust you, so not only are we over in bed, we’re over out of bed, too.”
He watched her face harden. It was fascinating to see, especially as she had been careful not to show him before. She changed from fun loving, winsome woman to a hard, driven vampire. Her eyes gleamed. “No one walks away from me, Jordan. No one. Gillespie tried, and look what happened to him. Be warned.”
“Was that why you wanted him dead? He wanted to leave you?”
“He tried. Others have tried. None have succeeded.” She paused. “Thalia tried.”
“What?” Jordan knew Didiane’s tastes weren’t entirely heterosexual, but he’d never suspected this. “Did you kill her, too?”
“No.” her reply was instantaneous so he knew she was lying. “I took some nourishment from her.”
“About seven pints of it.”
She shrugged. “I was thirsty. She died, yes. It was perhaps a mistake to leave her so close to my lair, but I was tired.” She shrugged an elegant shoulder. “She was a disappointment. First she got upset when I took her boyfriend to bed, but she objected when I invited her to join us. There’s no pleasing some people, n’est-ce pas?”
“Bien sûr,” he replied sardonically. He could do nothing to help the poor girl now. Jordan was disgusted with himself, for allowing himself to be so deluded by Didiane at first, and for not preventing the needless tragedy of Thalia’s death. If he showed her his true disgust, together with the anger now roiling through him she would only be amused, so he tried reason. “Why don’t you want anyone to walk away, Didiane? Would it please you if you walked instead?” He’d give her that, if it meant Karey’s safety.
“I walk when I please. However, my men do not. It isn’t gentlemanly. You owe me, Jordan, you know you do. I might have—“ she shrugged in a particularly Gallic way— “omis a few things, but I couldn’t tell you everything at once.”
“Even that some vampires have human mates?”
He was leaning close to her so he saw the shock in her eyes. “Who told you that?”
“Sarah. She’s one of us, Didiane. Didn’t you guess?”
More shock. She blinked, her mascara-clogged upper and lower lashes tangling briefly. “No. I’ve met people who think they are vampires since I arrived here, but few real ones. We are rare.” Her gaze hardened. “And you know why.”
He didn’t drop his fixed stare into her eyes. “Yes, I know why. I’m willing to sacrifice what I need to for Karey.”
“Mais pas pour moi?”
He evaded her question. “I didn’t have to for you.” He leaned back and caught sight of Karey arguing with Bernard. Immediately he got to his feet and strode across the room to her. Didiane’s proximity was choking him.
He cupped Karey’s elbow. “We’ll eat somewhere else.” He saw relief flood her eyes. Nodding briefly to Arcenaux, he led her from the room, ignoring the low whistles of a few of the workmen. The arguments must have been obvious to everyone.
Upstairs in his room Jordan called a taxi, and gathered their things together. “We’re going right now.” She didn’t demur. He called a hotel and booked a room while she was busy in the bathroom.
The cab company sent a large vehicle, as he’d requested, to carry all they could. He wanted no excuse to return here while the ghosts still roamed. Perhaps not even then.
The hotel would be a great success, he was sure. The house was beautiful, a gracious mansion, the cottages in the grounds more economical alternati
ves to the house, and the resort features as luxurious as money could buy. Try as he might, Jordan couldn’t imagine this place full of guests, masseurs, lifeguards for the as yet unopened pools, cooks, maids and all the other staff needed for a resort of this size.
Jordan made sure all their personal possessions were packed, but found the police had taken most of the equipment Karey had used. Just as well. Auguste could take care of that when he got back and have it shipped back to New York, if the police returned it. The Sorcerer might want it, though he doubted it. They had their own ways.
By the time they were safely in the car, Jordan’s legs ached in an ominous way. Newly healed, they would take another night before they mended properly. If he put too much strain on them now, they might break again, and he wanted to get Karey out of New Orleans as soon as possible. That meant resting until his legs were completely better. It wouldn’t take more than a couple of days.
Without panicking Karey, he had her out the hotel and into the waiting SUV as quickly as he could. This was daytime, and he was human, but day or night, he was still Jordan Arcenaux.
Before they climbed in the car, she turned to him, eyes wide. “Bernard said he’d erected a barrier, that we can’t leave.”
He smiled at her, then put out his senses before flicking away the barrier around the front gate. “Insubstantial. Constructed of cobwebs,” he assured her.
A short while later the car drew up outside the best hotel in New Orleans. It was worth every penny for the look in Karey’s eyes when she turned to smile at him. “We’re staying here? Jordan, how can we...?” Her voice tailed off and she laughed. “You really are seriously rich, aren’t you?”
Joy filled his soul and at that moment Jordan knew whatever sacrifice he made was worth it, ten times over. So he would turn his back on the incredible opportunities the vampire life offered him, so what? He hadn’t had them long, and he wouldn’t miss them, as long as Karey stayed with him.
Impulsively he pressed his lips to hers in a brief, loving kiss. She returned it in full measure. Jordan felt entirely content.
He’d booked a suite. Karey loved it. She walked around the sitting room and bedroom twice before turning to him, her face shining with happiness. “It’s like the honeymoon we never had.”
“It is the honeymoon we never had,” he said, catching her in his arms and planting another kiss on her lips.
She leaned into him and they forgot where they were in a deeper, more passionate exchange. Until Jordan groaned, and not from sexual desire. Karey pulled back at once. “Jordan? What is it?”
He gazed down into her eyes, a deprecating smile on his lips. “My legs. They hurt.”
“Oh, God, you’ve been on your feet far too long! Go and lie down on the bed and I’ll pour you a bath.”
He stayed where he was for one more moment, although her plan sounded like heaven to him. “Only if you join me.”
She grinned. “I will if there’s room.”
* * * * *
There was room.
When Karey stepped into the bathroom she almost stepped back out again when she saw the luxury waiting for her. The huge tub had plenty of room for two and jets at the sides for a Jacuzzi effect.
Pushing the door closed, she turned on the mixer tap, letting the water flow hot. She decided against bubble bath, slipping back into the room where Jordan lay obediently on the bed with his legs propped on pillows, to rummage in her bag until she found her mineral salts. She had sprained a muscle a few months ago, and bought this mixture from a health store. Perhaps it would help Jordan, and in any case, it smelled delicious. With a smile for her husband, she went through to the bathroom and dumped some of the mixture in the water, letting the scented steam fill her senses.
Her husband! Karey found it hard to believe she had him back, hard to believe he’d changed so much, or perhaps just allowed the essence of Jordan to permeate through the work-weary exterior he’d worn before. The awful clothes, a result of little time to shop rather than no taste, the irritability and the permanent frown she’d known had all gone, to be replaced by a brooding sexuality Karey found deliciously overwhelming. Jordan would never be completely free from worry, it wasn’t his nature, but he’d learned to prioritize his life, and it seemed she was right up there with Hosts to Ghosts.
“Higher.”
Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t heard him enter and she jumped when he slid his arms around her waist. “What?”
“You’re higher than Hosts to Ghosts. Higher than anything. And it’s nothing to do with what happened to me in Paris. I missed you so much when I thought I’d lost you, nothing else mattered anymore.” He kissed the top of her head and pulled up her t-shirt. “Isn’t that monster pool ready for us now? Do you think we can swim in it?”
The garment muffled her chuckle. “I doubt it.” Before she managed to untangle herself from the sleeves he had her bra unclipped and pushed the straps down her arms.
“It seems forever since I touched these,” he murmured, his hot breath close to her ear, his hands palming her breasts. She leaned back against his chest and allowed him to have his way. How could she not when it felt so good?
One of Jordan’s hands slid down her body to the front of her jeans where he efficiently unsnapped and unzipped. When he couldn’t get them over her hips with one hand, he reluctantly released her breasts to shove them away, taking her panties in the same motion. “In with you,” he murmured and she stepped forward into the sunken tub, up to her thighs in hot, scented water.
He joined her in record time, his clothes piled on top of hers on the tiled floor. She studied his body with more than sexual interest, and when he sank down into the water, she leaned forward and smoothed her hands over his chest.
“Where are the scars?”
He lifted his arm and showed her a deep, pink line. “That was the worst of them. They’ll go tonight.”
“It’s not possible.”
“It seems to be.” He traced around her nipple with the very tip of one finger. “This, on the other hand, is too perfect to be possible.” He didn’t give her a chance to retreat, but pulled her into the shelter of his body so he could feast where he had touched.
After one long lick he settled to sucking, making her moan gently. She draped her legs over his and gave herself to him, but passivity wasn’t in her nature, and she did her share of stroking and kissing in turn.
Jordan’s chest was almost bare of hair, but below his waist a dark line led invitingly to the nest of dark curls, framing his now rigid erection, the steamy water only emphasizing his masculinity. Karey teased, smoothing her hands around his backside, up to his back and over his hips. His responsive groans were more musical than Mozart to her biased ears.
When she touched his balls he flinched in sensitive response, but she went on, cuddling them, massaging them in the sac until she felt the tension increase. Only then did she move on to his shaft. Soft, but with a core of iron.
With a low cry, he released her nipple and leaned back in the water. “Oh, God, Karey, how did I ever imagine I could do without you in my life!”
She chuckled, and reached for the soap. He watched her, eyes darkly gleaming as she rubbed the lemon shaped cake in her hands, releasing the sharp citrus perfume. Karey took her time. Never taking her eyes from his she reached down and smoothed one soapy hand over his cock.
Jordan held nothing back. When she swirled her hand up, replacing her other hand at the base, he groaned, a long, luxurious sound of pure, decadent pleasure. She began a rhythmic figure of eight motion, finishing each flourish over the head, seeming to pull it so it lengthened under her hands. It reddened even further, and when Jordan closed his eyes, she watched his cock, fascinated with the effect she was having on it.
Karey realized she had never watched in this way, never studied the reaction to what she did and the study turned her on like crazy. She wanted to impale herself, but forced herself to think of his pleasure, reminding herself that her
turn would come soon. Just not soon enough, from the way she felt heat bloom between her legs.
When she speeded up her motions he cried out again and opened his eyes, a sharp longing reflected there. “No more! Karey, I want to come inside you.” His seductive, hoarse voice drove her past wanting to having and she rose up and lifted herself over him.
Together they watched as, under the water made slightly murky by the herbal infusion, they became one. He lifted his hands on her hips to hold her steady, but exerted no pressure, leaving it to her to set the pace. When she impaled herself on him, both gave sighs. At last, as if they’d spent the last half century apart.
She went slowly, waiting until her body had opened completely before sitting down hard, pushing him right to her heart. That was what it felt like, to have him pierce her body, together with her soul.
Her turn to cry out. His cock slid past her womb, a twinge of pleasure-pain as he passed, then settle under her. “Open to me, mon amour, show me what you want,” he whispered.
Opening her eyes again she met his intense gaze and did as he asked. Mind and body, all were his, and his belonged to her. There was no part of him she couldn't see, no part he tried to hide. She saw his regret for nearly losing her, his love, and knew it was real. The most real thing in her life was a vampire called Jordan Arcenaux.
He seeped into her mind, invading her like morning mist, and invited her into his. She felt them both, his needy hardness, held back for her sake, and her own soft, wet acceptance of his body in hers. They moaned, then laughed, but it wasn’t to break the tension. More, it was sheer happiness at being together once more.
“I don’t deserve you,” he murmured, his words making all this real. “I tried to push you away, but I couldn’t. I could never have done it completely.”
She rocked forward, making him gasp. “I wasn’t mistaken in you, deep down I knew it. Jordan, I love you. I never stopped loving you.”
Hosts to Ghosts Box Set Page 42
