EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2017 Doris O’Connor
ISBN: 978-1-77339-529-6
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
With thanks to everyone at Evernight Publishing.
SAVED BY HER VAMPIRES
Romance on the Go ®
Doris O’Connor
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
“And they lived happily ever after.”
Bianca shut the book of fairy tales and suppressed a sigh. Little Jimmy had fallen asleep several pages ago—worn out by all the excitement from the fancy dress party and the sugar rush from having eaten his weight in cupcakes—yet Bianca had kept on reading. Life was simpler in fairy tales. The good always won and the princess got her knight in shining armor, even in the much naughtier adult versions she liked to read at home. She smiled to herself, recalling the particularly naughty fairy tale she’d read in bed the night before, which had resulted in the most delicious erotic dream yet. She knew only too well this wasn’t the case in real life. Men never looked at her twice, once they saw her leg brace.
After she was paralyzed in the tragic accident that killed her parents, it had taken years of excruciating therapy to enable her to walk. Whilst the brace meant she was as mobile as she could be, it was also ugly, and painful, and a permanent reminder of everything she’d lost. She bent down to ruffle Jimmy’s carrot top and sighed. She would never have a baby of her own, even if she were to find a man not only prepared to look past the scars, but also to want her for more than just a quick fuck.
Bianca suppressed a groan when she straightened her leg. She’d sat still for too long, and the sharp pain shooting to her groin took her breath away.
“Are you all right, my dear?” Sister Maria’s concerned voice forced a smile on Bianca’s face. The elderly nun stood in the slightly open doorway with a guarded expression on her kind, wrinkled face. “I did think earlier, that you’d been overdoing it. All that dancing with the children. Let me arrange for a lift home. I’m sure Bernhard would be more than happy—”
“No, absolutely not!” Bianca almost shouted her denial, and Sister Maria frowned at Bianca’s sudden outburst.
Oh, good gravy. Bite her head off for no reason, why don’t you? But there was no way Bianca would be able to look the aloof Bernhard in the eye, let alone spent any time with him in the close confines of his car. She fought a blush at the mere thought. Bernhard, whose ice blue eyes seemed to look straight through her. Bernhard, with his six foot plus tall frame, impossibly broad shoulders, and slightly too long blond hair that he was always brushing off his forehead—star of last night’s erotic dream, together with his brother Archie—heavens no. She hadn’t seen much of them since she started to help out at the orphanage, but the odd glimpses had been more than enough to send her libido into overdrive.
What hot-blooded female could resist a pair of drop dead gorgeous specimens of manhood? One fair, one dark, one serious, one funny, and both seemingly devoted to the nuns and the children, and content to stay in the background—even if they would never look at her twice?
Aware that Sister Maria was still watching her, Bianca tapped her brace and forced her X-rated thoughts back in the box she usually kept them in.
“I need to walk, that’s all. I’ve been sitting down for too long. The walk home will do me good.”
“That’s as may be, my dear, but it’s late, and dark, and you never know what may be lurking out there, especially this time of night. A pretty girl like you can’t be too careful.”
Bianca swallowed down the hysterical laughter bubbling in her throat. Pretty? Her? As if! If you liked redheaded, freckled cripples, then maybe. She took a deep breath and blinked furiously to stop the tears from falling, as unbidden the childhood taunts bounced around in her conscience.
“Watch out, deformed carrot alert.”
“Here comes hop-along ginger, lame dotty, stick foot, crutch face…”
The small hand on her arm shook her out of the miserable memories, and Sister Maria’s concerned face came into focus.
“I’m so sorry, my dear. I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just … I so wish there was something we could do to repay you for all your hard work here.”
Bianca shook her head.
“Well, unless you have a magic wand that can get rid of this damn brace, then you can’t.” And send two hunks my way to fuck me senseless. Bianca was quite sure she would burn in hell for even thinking that in front of a nun.
Sister Maria just smiled that enigmatic smile of hers and turned sideways.
“Well, we will have to see, won’t we, Bernhard?”
As if she had conjured him up out of thin air, the man himself stepped out of the shadows, and Bianca stopped breathing when his crystal blue eyes seemed to stare right into her soul. He smiled, inclining his head slightly, and Bianca wanted the ground to swallow her up when his gaze rested on her leg brace. She normally wore trousers to hide the ugly contraption, but at the children’s request she’d joined in with the fun, and the witch’s costume skirt, whilst long, had a thigh high slit down the front. She hastily pulled the skirt over the brace, and Bernhard frowned.
“What happened?” he asked, his deep gravelly voice almost an annoyed growl. Bianca’s stomach dropped in response. “And why do you feel the need to hide your leg?”
“Bernhard, I really don’t think there is any need for that.” Sister Maria intervened.
“There is every need. I can’t help her if I don’t know whether she was born with this, or whether it can be fixed.”
“Who says I need your help?” Bianca found her voice from somewhere. Really, who did he think he was? “I don’t need your help, and I certainly don’t need your pity, so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going now.”
She tried to get past him, but Bernhard blocked the door as effectively as a man-made mountain. He really was tall, and this close to him his dark, virile, dry scent wrapped itself around her. Why, oh why did he have to smell so utterly divine? Bianca had a hard time holding on to her righteous anger, and she froze when he put his hand on the small of her back and moved out of her way. Curiously cool, his touch nonetheless burned through the thin fabric of her dress. With him behind her and Sister Maria in front she couldn’t move. In fact, she had a hard time drawing any breath into her lungs, as he bent down and pitched his voice so low only she could hear.
“Trust me, pity is the last thing I feel for you. Now stop being difficult and accept Maria’s help. She worries enough over you, and I will not have her upset.”
Sure enough, Sister Maria seemed anxious for her. She scanned Bianca’s face, and the look she threw up at Bernhard could only be described as a warning. What the hell was going on here?
“I’d really feel much better if you allowed Bernhard to escort you home, my dear.”
Bianca sighed, and the hand on her back sank a little lower until it cupped her ass. A shiver of awareness went down her spine, and her treacherous hormones almost sang a chorus of hallelujah. Was she that easy that the slightest touch of this man could have her insides drooling in anticipation of … what? She wasn’t actually sure, but h
eaven help her if she wasn’t ready to find out. His very presence overpowered her defenses, and she had to fight the urge to lean back into the muscular body, clearly outlined under the casual shirt and tight jeans he wore.
“I believe the young lady has changed her mind about walking home on her own, Sister Maria.” Bernhard’s gravelly voice teased her senses.
A warning tap to her bottom meant she nodded, and Maria visibly relaxed.
“Oh good, you’ll be in safe hands. I’ll be retiring then. Bernhard, tell Archie to lock up after you leave. I expect you’ll be some time.” She smiled at Bianca, who remembered to shut her mouth just in time. Before she could query what on earth Maria meant by that, Bernhard had whisked her past the woman with such speed she felt quite dizzy. She couldn’t even be sure her feet touched the ground. In fact, she was almost positive they hadn’t, because when the world stopped spinning, her brace locked as her feet encountered the smooth and slippery marble of the entrance hall. She blindly grabbed for some support and encountered hard, male flesh. She instinctively curled her hands into the biceps flexing underneath her fingers and looked straight into Archie’s laughing amber eyes. His hands settled on her hips, to steady her, and her mouth went dry. This close he was even more gorgeous than the odd glimpses she had caught of him before now. He was slightly taller and more muscular than Bernhard, who stood to one side watching the two of them with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Maria has charged us with seeing Bianca home, brother.”
Archie flashed him a smile that made her toes curl under and her pussy clench. That grin lit up his rugged face with the prominent jaw and the slight stubble that made her fingers itch to see how coarse it was. A lock of his dark hair fell across his forehead, and Bianca bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from drooling. Erotic images from last night’s dream flashed across her mind, and a surge of moisture coated her lacy panties. Pretty underwear was her one concession to feminine vanity, and it would prove blinking useless at hiding the evidence of her instant state of arousal. Heat stained her cheeks, and she focused her eyes on the buttons of Archie’s shirt instead. If she stared at them long enough, then surely that would prove an effective antidote to all that testosterone overload that made her all gooey inside?
Alas, those blasted buttons moved with the measured intake of his breath and only served to remind her how impossibly broad that chest was. She couldn’t help but follow that trail of tiny buttons, down to the belt buckle, holding up his jeans and … holy shit!
Archie laughed, Bernhard groaned, and Bianca realized that she’d said that out loud. Could she embarrass herself any more if she tried? But really, that bulge was huge. Maybe this was just another dream. Yes, that had to be it, and if it was, well, then, she would blooming well make sure she enjoyed herself. She’d probably fallen asleep on Jimmy’s bed and the poor boy would wonder why she was groaning so much.
Her attention was brought back to the here and now by the simultaneous sensation of cool night air blasting in through the open door and Archie’s hot breath skimming across the sensitive skin of her neck.
“Oh, my sweet, you’ve seen nothing yet.”
Her nipples beaded, whether in response to the cold air or Archie’s suggestive words, she couldn’t quite determine in her befuddled state. Really, if she got any more turned on she’d dissolve in a puddle on the floor. She’d never live that one down.
Focus!
“Archie, behave yourself. We’re charged in taking her home, that’s all.” Bernhard’s voice could have cut glass. “She made it perfectly clear upstairs that she doesn’t need or want our help.”
“Ah, yes, that. I heard, but, brother dearest, you were rather abrupt. Perhaps if we explained how pleasurable it would be for all of us…” He winked at Bianca and ground his hips suggestively into her belly. Before she could even catch her breath, Bernhard had whisked her away from his brother, and she was shivering in the frigid cold air. A slow mist spread up from the Thames. Its icy tentacles wrapped round her feet, as though it wanted to pull her into its swirling depths. Bianca folded her arms around herself, as unease settled in her belly like lead. The lit lanterns on the stairs which led up to the heavy oak door, guarding the orphanage entrance, suddenly looked menacing, and she accepted the jacket placed round her shoulders gratefully. Bernhard’s scent surrounded her, and her stomach dipped when he picked her up in his arms.
“Let’s get you home.”
Chapter Two
Safely ensconced in Bernhard’s arms, Bianca snuggled closer into his hard frame. The fog was by now so thick, she couldn’t see a hand in front of her eyes. Yet, Bernhard’s steps were sure and steady, as though it was the brightest of days, and not close to approaching two AM on a freezing cold night. She’d never admit it to anyone, but a small part of her had always been frightened of the dark, never more so than in the mists of a New Year.
New Year’s Eve and the celebrations that came with it—all that bright hope for a new future—would forever be tainted by that fateful ride home on such a night years ago, when her life had changed forever.
It was one of the many reasons why she’d jumped at the chance to spend this evening at the orphanage, the children’s innocent enthusiasm a perfect distraction from the more sinister undertones this evening would always hold for her.
Surely if there were monsters of the dark out there, now would be the perfect time and place to make an appearance. The mere thought sent a shiver down her body, and Bernhard’s hold on her tightened.
“We’re almost there,” Bernhard said.
“How can you tell? I can’t see a thing in this pea soup.” The fog seemed like an impenetrable wall to Bianca.
“Oh, we can see all right.” This time Archie’s voice came from somewhere up ahead of them. “I still say we should have taken the car. She’ll be half frozen by the time we get her home.” He chuckled. “Of course, that means we’ll just have to warm her up.”
Heat stained Bianca’s cheeks, and Bernhard’s grip on her grew painful. The deep rumble from his chest vibrated through her. Oh, she was doomed, but how sexy was that?
“I told you, brother, I’m not taking any chances with her. We may be able to see where we’re going. Other car drivers will not. Humans are far too careless in their metal tins.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Bianca’s leg ached in agreement, a permanent reminder just how careless people were in their cars. She sniffed indelicately and tried to hold back the never far away tears as memories of the dark day that had claimed her parents threatened to overwhelm her.
“Come on, little one, don’t cry. What the fuck are you doing to her, Bernhard? Perhaps I should take over.” Archie materialized next to them, his dark brows drawn together in a frown, all signs of his earlier teasing gone. He glared at his brother, and Bernhard growled again. That was the only way to describe the toe-curling noise he made.
One that shot straight to her pussy. She squirmed to hide her body’s reaction, and both men inhaled sharply, almost as though they could smell the wetness seeping onto her thighs. Damn those non-existent knickers and her overactive hormones. There they were, doing her a favor, and she was acting like some wanton hussy.
Bianca thought of herself as a level-headed person, but tonight her emotions seemed to be yo-yoing all over the damn place, and the sudden tension between the brothers was not helping. She put one hand on Archie’s chest, and marveled at the band of steel abdominals tensing under her fingertips.
“He didn’t do anything, bar give himself a bad back carting me around.”
Both men grumbled their denial at that.
“You weigh little more than a feather, my pretty.” Bernhard shifted her higher up his body as if to prove a point, and his mesmerizing eyes darkened when she gave him a tentative smile. His shirt had ridden up with the movement, and Bianca’s curiosity got the better of her. The strip of pale flesh she could just about see called to her, and she snuck her hand under his shirt
. She encountered rock hard, curiously cool abdominals. Bernhard sucked in a breath as she traced the contours of those peaks and valleys. A woman could spend hours just doing that. And from the little contact she’d had with Archie his abs were just as drool-worthy as his brother’s.
“So, if it’s not Bernhard upsetting you, then what’s the matter, little one?” He stood unmovable in front of them, arms crossed, waiting for her answer.
“Answer my brother, so I can get you home.” Bernhard’s tone was harsh, but his hold on her gentled and he nuzzled the side of her neck. His hot breath sent delicious tingles of awareness along her skin. Bianca leaned further into him, and she sensed his smile, as he dropped a kiss on her neck and withdrew.
“Fine, Jesus. Who made you so bossy?” Bianca knew she was pouting, but she couldn’t help it. This was her dream, wasn’t it? You’d think she would get her way without having to bare her soul. And surely this damn fog shouldn’t be seeping into her very bones and making her dress all clammy. No doubt her unruly hair was also turning into a mass of corkscrews as she watched her breath steam in front of her.
“Do we have to have this conversation out here? You said we were almost at my house. I promise I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, and I … I don’t like this fog.” She mumbled the last few words, lest they think her silly.
“Wise words from our girl, brother.” One of Bernhard’s rare smiles lit up his face, and Bianca forgot to object to his possessive words. “Shut your eyes for me, and I’ll have you home in no time.” When she hesitated, his eyes narrowed, and his pupils dilated, drawing her into the oceanic depths of his gaze. Her eyes fluttered shut of their own accord.
“Good girl.” The whispered encouragement gave her a warm glow inside her chest and instantly the world tilted. A rush of freezing air later, her feet gingerly touched the ground on her tiny porch, and she blinked in the small circle of light that managed to penetrate the ever-thickening fog.
Saved by Her Vampires Page 1
