by Sharon Page
Someone knocked on her door. “Vivienne, love. Will you come with me? Julian and two servants will watch Sarah.”
It was Heath. He must have come to take her downstairs, to the rooms where vampires indulged all their carnal desires. She hurried to the door and opened it. “I don’t want to leave her. I can endure the pain.”
Vivienne saw Heath’s seductive mouth flatten into a firm line. “You can’t, love. They gave you a potion to heighten your lust. The pain will be far, far worse tonight.”
Heath leaned on the doorframe and drank in the sight of Vivienne in a scandalous scarlet dress. The neckline was a low scoop, cupping her breasts and lifting them into generous mounds. Her gown clung so tightly to her, it looked more like a deep blush than that she was dressed. He wanted to plant his boot in Dimitri’s arse. She looked like she’d been made to be ravished, and Dimitri knew Heath couldn’t make love to Vivi again. This was obviously Dimitri’s idea of a joke.
And now he got to watch the other vampires in the house desire Vivi, seduce her, pleasure her. He would have to convince her to willingly go to another man. To let another man save her life.
He’d been cursed because he deserved it. Shouldn’t he be enjoying the pain?
She and Sarah were safe here. This time, he hadn’t failed two innocents who depended on him. But he wanted to make love to Vivienne. He wanted to savor her, pour out his longing for her, work out his terror over the danger to her. But he couldn’t.
Ruefully, he smiled down at her. “You’re going to need to have a night of wild, wanton sex. It’s the only thing that will undo the effects of that potion.”
Vivienne bit her lush lower lip. “Oh dear,” she whispered. She sagged against the door, and put her hand to her forehead.
He slid his hand there, too. She was on fire.
“I’m afraid to leave Sarah.”
He moved his hand. Just touching her had him hard and throbbing with need. “She’ll be safe. The council can’t infiltrate this place. No one who is a guest here would risk angering Dimitri by approaching her. And no one here would try to seduce an unwilling woman.”
“Why not?”
“Because there are dozens of willing ones. And because Dimitri and I would rip him apart.” He sighed. “Now, I need to thoroughly rescue you. Very soon, you will be in desperate need of sex—and lots of it.”
“And you won’t do it again,” she said. She spoke flatly. It was that emotionless voice women used that truly condemned a man.
He felt damned, more than he ever had. “Hades, if I could, I would lock you into your bedchamber and spend the night making love to you. But I can’t because I’m cursed.”
She touched his chest. Christ, her fingers felt like fire against him.
“You mean, you are cursed with being a vampire?”
“No, my curse is something different. It’s a magical thing, placed on me by my sire when I was turned—”
“Turned?”
“It’s a term we vampires use for the moment when another vampires bites us, then feeds us his blood to make us one of them. My sire, the vampire who made me, used an ancient spell to curse me. If I make love to any woman twice, I transform from a vampire into a demon.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how it works exactly.”
“But what sort of demon? I mean—”
“You mean, aren’t I one already?” He groaned. “No, love, because I control my own urges. The kind of demon I would turn into is a violent monster. I would have the power to rip England apart, to completely destroy it. I was told I would have enough power to bring about the end the world.”
Her blue eyes were wide with fear. Her tempting breasts rose and fell. She stepped out into the corridor, closed the door to her daughter’s room behind her. “But you don’t know. You’ve never turned into a demon before.”
Vivienne was dangerous. She seemed to see into his thoughts, seemed to find the darkest things in his heart. He wanted to believe he could make love to her and get away with it.
“I have,” he said softly. “When I was turned and cursed, I was given a demonstration of what my transformation would be like. My sire had a sorcerer enslaved to him. He instructed this old man to give me a taste of what I would become if I was foolish enough to disobey the curse. With magic, he transformed me into a demon, then changed me back. I was a demon for a half a minute, and in that short time, I did several unspeakable things. So no, I’ve never dared take the risk.”
Now the magnificent décolleté on display to him was blushing pink. If he bent and kissed her lips, kissed that deep valley between her breasts, then lifted her skirts and tongued her cunny, where would she be hottest?
“So you truly have never made love to any woman twice?” Vivi asked.
“Since I became a vampire. The curse was payment for my wife’s death. Intended to ensure I never knew what it was to love again. Or if I did fall in love, I got to suffer without being able to make love.” Heath shut his eyes, but even that didn’t spare him from temptation. She smelled of rose soap from her bath. “But right now I am thinking about what it would be like to make love to you again.”
Vivienne wanted to deny the ache growing in her. But she couldn’t. “Well, then, we have a problem. Because you say I need to make love.”
Heath’s fist banged against the plaster beside the door. Suddenly his teeth grew before her eyes, turning into long fangs. But the sight of him didn’t frighten her. “I know,” he growled. “Hades, how I know that. And tonight, I will have the honor of watching you be very well pleasured. Come, Vivi.”
Vivi. She suddenly realized he had called her that a few times. Along with “Flower.” No one had called her by an affectionate nickname for ages. Not since her mother had called her Vivi, when she’d been little. In happier times. In Heath’s deep, seductive voice, the name sounded more … naughty.
He tried to coerce her to walk with him, but she resisted, digging in the heels of her borrowed slippers. “Exactly what do you think you are going to be watching?”
Then all he said were those two infuriating words. “Trust me.”
They asked for so much. “No. You must tell me what you think I am going to do.”
“Dimitri has told me there are four very experienced vampires who desire you. I don’t want to share you, but you need what I can’t give.”
Four very experienced … vampires? Goodness, he couldn’t mean she was supposed to make love to—to all of them at once, like Molly in the brothel? “Heath, no. I know you brought me here, but I don’t want any other man but you.”
“This is just erotic fun, Vivi. It’s not an expression of love but a chance for some play. And I intend to take part—at least to watch. I would not miss seeing you experience sexual play for the world.”
Oh, she felt terribly unsure. Uncomfortable. “But aren’t you going to be … upset? Men are very possessive, I’ve learned.”
“This is part of the vampire world. Vampires do take mates, which is a deep joining of the heart. The games here don’t cause jealousy, because the mates know how strong their bond is. I could easily lose my heart to you, Vivienne, even though I know I shouldn’t. I recognize this is just a carnal game. Dimitri’s orgy will be beginning now, before dawn comes. Indulge me: spread your wings and play.”
She had been a courtesan. And as insane as it seemed, she had to make love or she would die. She could do it, couldn’t she? It was what she’d done when she was a paid lover to men who were powerful, but whom she simply didn’t desire. She could close off her mind.
But she looked at Heath. His silvery-green eyes flashed, as though a fire burned within them. Sensual lines bracketed his mouth, and the way they deepened when he spoke or smiled made her knees weak. It was more than just green eyes, thick auburn waves, and the body of a Greek god that made her desire him. This was the man who had rescued Sarah, who had rescued her. She wanted him.
She couldn’t do this. She did not want any othe
r man than Heath. Not even because her life depended on it.
And his words rang in her head. I could easily lose my heart to you.
Could he possibly be wrong about the curse?
10
Heath had been right. Everything changed.
At first, Vivienne thought he was wrong. There was no orgy. She’d expected to see people having sex in the open everywhere. All those women in scanty corsets and all those half-naked men rolling around in the corridors, in bedrooms, on the stairs, in every possible location and position.
At first there wasn’t anything like that to see. She walked at Heath’s side, following the labyrinth of hallways and corridors on the main floor.
“It’s very intriguing to watch the expressions on your face, Vivi.”
She jerked around to him. “What expressions?”
“I never saw a woman in the midst of an orgy look so serious. Or so disappointed. What are you thinking?”
She bit her lip. Dimtri’s “gathering,” as she’d heard the maid refer to it, seemed like scandalous house parties she had attended. At those, the guests moved from bed to bed indiscriminately, but on the surface the event appeared as refined and ordinary as a staid duchess might hold.
“Are you all right?” Heath asked. “You must be exhausted.”
“I suppose I should be. But my blood is … right now it feels on fire.” Her nerves were running riot. She was plunging into iciness, then turned scorching hot.
A clock somewhere in Lord Dimitri’s house struck three.
“Now it begins,” Heath said.
“What does?”
The door to a drawing room suddenly flew open. She peeked in and saw the shadowy room contained perhaps a dozen men and women. Before her eyes, the people in the room threw aside any pretense of control. They all began to grope and kiss each other on a sofa in the center of the room. This was like the orgies she’d heard about, but it was happening right in front of her.
People spilled out of rooms into the hallway. The scenes around her became utterly bawdy. Couples, threesomes, foursomes were making love anywhere they chose. And no one appeared the least bit shocked.
Heath took her into the main salon. As they reached the threshold, Vivienne saw two vampires lock gazes. The male was astonishingly tall and muscular, with golden hair tied back in a queue. The woman was a beautiful, angelic-looking blonde. Then, without even exchanging a word, the couple began to have sex up against the wall. They moved in perfect unison. They climaxed together almost instantly, without saying a thing. Their only communication had been moans and sighs, and the woman’s ecstatic screams.
And it was obvious the woman had truly felt her pleasure.
Then, as the woman drew in slow breaths, the man chuckled. And finally spoke. “Privacy now, my dear?” he asked. “If you would like me to put my tongue in your derriere, I would be happy to escort you to my bed.”
Good heavens, they were obviously strangers. And yet he had proposed such a shocking thing, such an intimate thing, without blinking. The woman had simply nodded. Hand in hand, they left.
His tongue inside her rear? The thought left Vivienne’s knees shaking. And hot—so hot, the valley between her breasts was damp. Goodness. What would it feel like—to have Heath do that? Had he ever done that….?
Heath was watching her, a knowing smile on his beautiful mouth. “You’re shocked by this.”
She lifted a jaded brow. “Truly, I don’t believe your story about this place either. How do all these people simply have sex for the pleasure of it?”
“Just believe in it. It happens to be true.”
She could smell alluring scents in the air, the tang of male seed, the ripeness of feminine juices. All the men here were muscular, beautifully hewn, and many were completely nude. The women were either abundantly curvy, or sleek and smoothly lovely.
“All vampires are beautiful,” he murmured teasingly.
But it was true. They were. And Heath, she saw, was the most gorgeous of all the men. There was an allure to this. She couldn’t deny it.
What would it be like to have sex simply for fun? Not because she was the property of a man, courtesan to his protector. Sex had been survival. As a courtesan, she could never simply give in to lust. Anyway, she’d never really felt desire.
What would it be like just to be wanton?
It was so tempting….
No. She was just doing this to ease the pain. She was not going to be foolish, like her mother had been, and become addicted to desire and sex.
This was what was truly dangerous about Heath. Not his fangs. Or the fact he must drink blood, though she’d never actually seen him do that.
His true danger was how he tempted her to forget all the careful, cautious lessons she’d learned.
Heath wanted this to be more than sexual gymnastics that saved Vivi. He couldn’t give her much, but he wanted to give her two gifts. He wanted to ensure Sarah defeated her illness. And he wanted Vivienne to lose her fear of sex, to learn to accept pleasure and delight in it.
It was all he could give her.
Though, hell, he couldn’t even find his own brother. And he hadn’t been able to save his wife and daughter. He must be an arrogant madman to think he could rescue anyone else.
Cloth suddenly flew over his eyes. A pert feminine giggle followed. “Lord Heath! It has been so very long since you were here. Dimitri has told me I still cannot have you tonight, even though you are here. Tell me it isn’t true!”
He knew the voice, as he caught hold of the silk scarf and drew it away. He saw Vivienne’s pursed lips and highly arched brows. She was surveying the giggling blonde vampiress with an iciness he could feel.
“Good evening, Sadie.” He gave a formal bow. “It is true. I can only have a lover once.”
“Isn’t that convenient for you, Lord Heath, since you are known to have such a wandering eye?”
Convenient. Years ago, before he’d married, he’d been like any earl. He had liked his sexual pleasures easy, bountiful, and varied. Every vice and delight had been available to him due to his title, his money. Then he’d found Ariadne. And he had been faithful. His reputation had endured, but it felt like it belonged to another man, not him.
Sadie leered at Vivienne. “Lord Dimitri told me it was ess—well, important—for me to seduce your lady here, Lord Heath.”
Vivienne blinked. She glowed like a ruby in her scarlet dress. “Seduce me? What on earth do you mean?”
“Sapphic pleasures,” Heath pointed out to her in a low voice. And he saw her chin jerk with shock. “You’ve never done that before? Made love to another woman?”
“Of course not.” She spoke low, another flush blooming in her cheeks.
“Didn’t one of your protectors offer you the earth for it?”
“H—How would you know about that?”
“I know how the male mind works.”
“I refused. Whenever I saw two women together with a man, it had nothing to do with making love.” Her brow lifted in her cool, jaded way. “All the women did was argue, fight, and pull each other’s hair, competing over the man.”
Sadie watched them both, her large blue eyes slanting from one to the other.
“You see, Sadie,” he said. “You will have your work cut out for you. Miss Dare will resist your seduction.”
Sadie frowned. “Lord Dimitri said I must do it, though, or your lady will suffer greatly. He said if she doesn’t make love, she will die.”
Vivienne was trembling. “But surely he meant make love to a gentleman—though I do not want any other man than Heath.”
Hell. He didn’t deserve such loyalty. Or such … desire or whatever it was that made her so steadfastly determined not to enjoy herself with anyone else. And she needed to make love to another man eventually, or the pain wouldn’t stop. Still he said softly, “Why not try an adventure, love? If you don’t want another man, why not delight in the beauty in other women?”
“I—I don
’t know.”
“Lord Dimitri insists the pleasure will help you,” Sadie said.
Hell, what did Dimitri know? But Vivi bristled. She squared her shoulders, tipped up her chin, and faced Sadie. “But why would you want to do such a thing? We are strangers.”
The girl gave a wicked smile. “But some of my most erotic fun has been with strangers.”
“Vivi, if it’s going to ease your pain, you should do it.”
Vivi speared him with a withering look. “You really want to see this, don’t you, Lord Blackmoor?”
Heaven. Hell. Both of them were being displayed before him. Heath’s hand tightened around his brandy glass.
“What is your fantasy, Lord Heath?” Sadie now wore only a corset. Below its lace-trimmed edge, he could see the trimmed thatch of gold pubic curls, the abundant curve of her hips. She had led him to a well-stuffed wing chair that stood at the edge of a quiet, deserted, dark room.
Vivienne had only just been led into the room. He could see her blinking. She couldn’t see in the dark. But before he could ask for candles to be lit, Sadie’s voice dropped to a sultry purr. “Do you wish to be a sultan, enjoying the secret play within the harem? Or perhaps you have slipped into an academy for schoolgirls and you are witness to their explorations in their dormitory beds? Or would a nunnery be your fantasy?”
“Good heavens.” Vivienne’s sardonic tone sliced through the dark. “Men are so … silly. What is your fantasy, Heath? I would be so interested to know.”
And he understood. Vivienne had protected herself by thinking of men as silly, creatures driven by their lust. But he’d also heard the quiver in her voice. She knew he was not quite so simple.
“Light candles, Sadie,” he requested softly. It bought him a few moments as she did his bidding. He needed to think of a fantasy to surprise Vivi. Something unusual—though the thought of the harem and Vivienne wearing nothing but silken veils had his cock pulsing.
Veils … “Perhaps a wedding,” he suggested teasingly. “Where the blushing bride is seduced by her attendants?”
