“I don’t have a home.” I whispered and finally succumbed to the tears that had been threatening to fall since Adrian’s rejection of me began. I heard a muffled oath and arms came around me, pulling me forward against a hard chest. God he smelled so good and I took advantage of the fact that he wasn’t quite the ass he was trying to make out he was, and curled my arms around his back. I pressed my palms flat against him, his muscles shifting under my hands as he moved slightly. Feeling the most secure I’d actually felt in a long time, I gave in to my emotions and I cried.
“Don’t you have a home to go to little one?” Fabian’s voice came to me through my tears.
“N...no, my father took me in about a year ago. I’d been living with him and Flame’s mother but then things got really bad and they couldn’t make the rent; I couldn’t earn enough to pay it so we ended up on the street. We’ve been living out of his van for about a month or so. I don’t…I don’t want to live out of a van any more.” I lifted my tear stained face to Fabian’s. “I want to be with my sister. I finally have family. All my life I’ve just wanted family, I’ve wanted someone to want me.”
“You can stay here Faith and be with your sister. My home is big enough although there is a little bit of a problem with the lack of food in it given we don’t really need food ourselves.” Fabian gave me a lopsided grin.
That got my attention and I lifted my head from Adrian’s chest to give him a wide eyed look. “Really, I can stay here?”
“Of course you can Faith.” Flame answered. “If Fabian has invited you to stay with us, he would not say so if he didn’t mean it.”
I felt Adrian tense up against me. “You can’t be serious. She can’t stay here with us. She’s human. Do you intend turning her into a mobile blood bank, is that the reason behind your offer of a place to stay?”
“Are you questioning my motives son?” Fabian’s voice had a distinct chill in it. “I am merely offering to help a young woman who as it turns out is not just family to one of us but who did try to help us handle the situation with Flame and Faith’s father. That situation has now been taken care of, which has inadvertently created a problem leaving Faith with nowhere to live. My home is large, there is more than enough room for her to be here and no, she will not be a one stop blood shop for us. Obviously you don’t want her here since she seems to know some of your secrets. We will not be pressing her for information on you Adrian. You are my son. Just as long as you aren’t breaking any of the rules I have in place, I will not force either you or Faith to reveal what it is you get up to. Although I suspect I have already worked out one of your secrets which has me curious as to why, but I will not press you to answer me.” Fabian touched me on the shoulder. “Now, as for you Faith, you must forget this foolish notion that my son is somehow meant to be a part of your future. You are a virgin and no one here will take that. You need to find a nice man suitable to give it to or a man who will be your ideal life partner. Do not look at my son through rose tinted glasses. He is vampire, you are human.”
I pulled out of Adrian’s arms and dashed the last of my tears away with the palms of my hands. “Please don’t tell me that a vampire and human can’t be in love or be together. I know you all started off with human partners.” I turned to look around the room. “Allegra, Arissa, Sirene and of course my sister, you were all human when you began relationships with your vampires. From what I can see in my visions, you all became vampire through necessity not because you chose to be one. I know you have fought what happened to you for weeks Flame and you nearly broke your poor vampire’s heart in the process.” I swung my eyes to Damien briefly before turning back to Fabian. “So please, don’t make it seem like it’s impossible for a human and vampire to be together.”
“Dammit, why won’t you listen?” Adrian snapped, racking a hand through his beautiful hair, disturbing it where it was held back by a band. “You and I are not destined to be together. You say you can see what I am, well, take a closer look. I will only end up hurting you if you fill your head with romantic notions about us. I…am…not…for…you.” He ground out, his brows drawn together as he frowned down at me.
I looked up at him and a strange feeling of peace washed over me. God he was so beautiful, but he was wrong. He would be mine; I would give myself to him. I just had to make him see that for himself. I reached up and cupped his cheek, feeling the stubble of his permanent 5 o’clock shadow. He stared down at me something flickering in his eyes before he swore and pulled away from me again. “You’re not damn well listening to me and I’ve had enough of this. It’s late, I’m tired. I need to shower and go to bed. Good night.” He said, walking from the room with long strides and I watched him until he disappeared from my sight.
When I turned back to everyone, they were all watching me closely. “How old are you little one?” Fabian asked.
“Twenty.” I replied. “Why?”
“You are so young and innocent. Do as my son says. Don’t fill your head with romantic dreams of him. I don’t know what he gets up to most of the time but I sense it would be unwise to plan a future with him. Find yourself a man who wants you and appreciates you. Don’t hold out for my son. He will only hurt you.” He straightened. “Now, Flame will show you to your room and find you something to wear for sleeping in. You will have to go tomorrow and get some food in to eat. This house has a fully functional kitchen and a fridge but of course none of us cook when there is no need to. Do you have money?”
“I have some, not much.” I said. “I had managed to save some money but whatever I had, father used up pretty quickly. There is very little left. I hid some from him or he would have taken everything I had. Still, I will need to get out and find more work.”
“What do you do Faith?” Flame asked me.
I smiled. “I tell people’s fortunes of course. It pays quite well but not well enough to keep up with someone who could spend the way our father could.” I felt tears threatening again. “Thank you to you all for being so kind, thank you Flame for not turning your back on me when you don’t really know me, and thank you Fabian for letting me stay here.” I swiped at the one lonely tear which began to track a path down my cheek.
“Flame, take her to her room; the room before the communal room.” Fabian said.
“The communal room?” I asked curiously.
Damien and Lucian both began to laugh. “It’s probably best you don’t know.” They said together and burst out laughing again.
I walked over to them and put a hand on each of them, seeing flashes of images in my mind. They became clearer and when I saw what I knew to be the communal room in use, I felt my cheeks heat up. “Oh.” I gasped.
Damien and Lucian looked at each other in surprise. “You can see things just by touching us?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure I wanted to see that. So you’re both pierced? You know, down there?” I asked.
Lucian was the first to recover from my words and burst out laughing. “Oh looks like you’re going to have to be careful what you get up to with Flame from now on bro, seems there might very well be someone watching.” He said in a staged whisper.
“Fuck off Lucian and go home. It’s late; shouldn’t you be home instead of here?” Damien punched his younger brother in the arm.
“Yeah, you’re right. Come on baby.” He held a hand out to Arissa before turning to me. “It’s been interesting.” He started to walk from the room. “Good night all.” He called and Arissa murmured a soft good night too and they were gone.
“We’re going to head off too.” Dominick spoke up. “It’s certainly been a strange evening but I think it would be best if we left you all alone now so you can make Faith welcome in your home sire.” He stood and Allegra rose too. “Come cara.” He bowed briefly to us all before leaving. I stared after him as he left. He was so good looking; well they all were for that matter.
“So is it being vampire that makes you all so beautiful?” I asked and Francesca burst out laughing.
“Come.” Flame slipped an arm around my shoulders. “I’ll show you to your room.” She said as she led me away from the others.
“Good night.” I called before following my sister suddenly exhausted and badly needing to sleep.
Chapter Two
Adrian
Adrian had trouble sleeping after leaving everyone following the disturbing problem of Faith. What the hell was she thinking saying she was his? So she had dreams and saw them together in those dreams? There had to be something to what she was saying because she seemed to know about him, far more than he wanted her to know, but she was delusional thinking they’d be together. He didn’t do relationships. Ok, she was gorgeous and he wasn’t immune to her beauty, but she was innocent and that made her so very wrong for him.
The most frustrating thing was that she’d have quite happily divulged to his family what he spent his evenings doing. He wasn’t ready for them to learn that he was a male prostitute. He was no street corner hooker though. He was a gigolo, the man who gave women what they wanted. One thing he’d kept quiet about was his ability to sense what they wanted. With one touch, he could read them. Not read their minds, he wasn’t psychic but he’d feel their wants and desires. They would flow through him, and he was surprised how many women wanted a man to dominate them, to control them, not to mention the number of women who wanted him to handcuff them, bound, spank and even whip them.
When he’d first become vampire, it hadn’t taken long to discover that he could read what women wanted. Eventually he decided to use his talents if they could be called that to make money. He wasn’t like his father. His father had been vampire a long time and was a wealthy man, Adrian was not.
He’d made good money selling his body, and he’d secretly bought a property, which due to an accident in his early days of being vampire, had now become the place he kept his other secret his family knew nothing of. Life had become very complicated so quickly for him. At times he’d wondered how the hell he could keep going. That was back then, when it had all first blown up in his face.
Still, time had passed, he’d become more experienced, more settled and accepting of what he was, and he’d found a way to use his talents to make money, a lot of money. Sometimes though, the burden of his secrets would get to him and he’d wake, trembling and his stomach twisted into a knot from his guilt.
He’d settled into the routine of dealing with the secrets he kept from his parents. They knew nothing of his double life and he figured they never would until her, until Faith. Sweet, innocent, beautiful Faith who had no idea what she was opening herself up to by saying she was his. She had no idea what he was capable of, although for a fleeting moment he wondered if that might be the way to get rid of her. Fuck her, show her everything he could do to her and hopefully scare the crap out of her and frighten her off.
Faith
I was so tired and when my sister finally left me alone in the huge, opulent bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her, I staggered to the bed and collapsed on top of it. I wanted to look around since the room was amazing, so big, simply beautiful, but fatigue was sucking me under, making my eyelids heavy and without bothering to change or slip under the blankets, I succumbed to my exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.
Flashes of colour came to me. I could see a bed, a huge bed with four posts rising up to a canopy overhead. There were mirrors on the underside of the canopy top reflecting down onto the bed and I could see a couple under what looked like black satin sheets. It was a man and a woman, but I couldn’t get a very clear image of them. My brow furrowed as I struggled to see them more clearly and then suddenly with a flash of near blinding light, the fog lifted and I saw them.
Even in my sleep, I think I blushed. It was the strong, muscled back of a man I could see, the light shifting over each beautifully defined muscle as he moved. He was naked, his buttocks flexing in a rhythm of tightening and relaxing, over and over. I could see legs locked around his waist and as I watched, fascinated, I realised the couple were in the middle of what seemed to be a very intense, very physical act of making love. No, this couldn’t be called making love. It was more violent, hard, passionate, a kind of basic coupling. It was almost animalistic and as I stared at them, feeling a wave of heat spread through my body, the man turned his head to one side and I gasped.
His expression was so consumed with lust, a deep, intense passion etched into his stunning features, I couldn’t look away. He was beautiful, a near perfect example of a male. Over long black hair, blonde streaks through it and a shadowing of dark over his jaw. His eyes were closed, but as I stared at him, realisation struck and I didn’t need to see them to know who it was. It was Adrian, right in the middle of a highly arousing sexual experience, and he was a thing of beauty to watch.
Another wave of heat coursed through my body and I felt achy, needy, wanting something, wanting him. I stared at him, making love, no, not making love, this was more basic. He was fucking that woman and going by the soft breathy gasps I could hear coming from her lips, she was enjoying herself.
I felt envy, jealousy and unable to control myself, as I watched them in the middle of an act that was highly intimate, I slipped a hand into my panties, surprised when I felt how wet I was between my legs.
I gasped at the stab of pleasure I felt from my wandering fingers and that gasp turned into a shocked exclamation when Adrian’s head reared back and for the first time I saw the face of the woman he was pounding into with such long, deep, penetrative strokes. The woman’s face looked as if she was in pain, her eyes squeezed tightly shut, her mouth slack, open. She arched her back, her nails raking over the broad shoulders of Adrian and I watched, shocked, tense, mesmerised by the image in my head as her eyes suddenly shot open.
For a brief moment, it felt like she and I were making eye contact, intense blue to intense blue, but I knew she couldn’t see me. This was a vision, of a time still to come. Of a time that was to be mine. The woman under Adrian, the woman, who screamed and began to tear deep furrows into the skin of the man driving into her, who bucked and writhed under him; the woman who had clearly just reached orgasm, was me.
I cried out at the sight before me. Unable to control my response, I writhed and squirmed, my hands between my legs, my thighs clamped tightly together as I felt stabs of pleasure radiating through my body. Helplessly unable to look away from what was happening to me, I watched as Adrian bit into my neck in the vision and my whole body bucked up again. My spine bowed until only my head and the heels of my feet were on the bed and in my vision I could see I’d reached orgasm again, just from his bite. The pleasure was so intense, it felt so real though. How could that be?
I gasped again, moaning and rolling from side to side and I could hear something, a man’s voice. It was getting louder, more insistent until finally I realised he was calling my name.
“Faith, Faith, wake up, you’re having a dream, nightmare, something, wake up.” I finally opened my eyes at the persistent calling of my name, and the feel of someone shaking my shoulders.
My eyes lifted and I found myself staring into the concerned face of Adrian. The very man from my vision, my
future, my vampire, and the man I was just under in that vision. As the image of it almost seemed to superimpose itself over his gorgeous face, I felt colour flood mine. It was like being caught peeping through the keyhole at a couple having sex.
“Ok, so I can see you were having more than a dream weren’t you? You haven’t come yet though. Let me help you with that.” Adrian’s voice penetrated my thoughts and I turned to him, confused by his words.
He must have seen my expression and his eyes dropped down my body, a hint of a smile tugging up one side of that beautiful mouth of his. My gaze dropped from his and lowered to where he was looking and when I saw what he was seeing, I felt totally mortified. I could feel sweat break out on my top lip my embarrassment was so extreme.
My hand was down my pants and I’d been masturbating in my sleep obviously while watching the vision of Adrian and me together. It was the first time I think I’d ever been turned on by one of my visions and resorted to touching myself. I could have lived with that, been embarrassed sure and survived it but having Adrian catch me in the middle of it had me wishing the ground would open up and suck me in.
Suddenly his words registered and my embarrassment was momentarily forgotten as I stared into his pale eyes. “Help me…help me with what?” My voice was shaky.
“I’ll help you come. You’re wound up tighter than a spring Faith, I can see it. It’s something that I do; something that I can see but you know that. You know what I am, what I do, don’t you?”
“Oh my god.” I squeaked. “I’m so embarrassed. I was having a vision; they come in my dreams sometimes. It was…” I broke off, suddenly realising I’d been about to tell him what I’d seen. He didn’t believe me anyway so there was no point bringing it up again about me being his.
Passion For Hire (Passion #5) Page 2
