by Jessica Lee
“How do you know he was the one who did it?” The conversation had taken a turn down a slippery slope toward hell.
“Oh, please,” she replied. “It’s his Enclave. Whether he drove the stake in himself or not, doesn’t matter. He’s hated her for as long as I can remember. Mother always said he never wanted either of us.”
“Why? I don’t understand why you think he hated you both so much.”
“Kenric resented the hell out of my mother for creating him and conceiving me. Even though by siring him, she’d saved his life. He’d been a warrior even back in his time. My mother rescued him from the field and turned him before he died from his battle wounds. Yet she told me that he always hated being a vampire.”
“So he left your mother before you were born, and you never knew him.”
“That’s the gist of it. A real winner in the daddy department, huh?” A laugh bubbled up and out of her that had nothing to do with humor. “So ironic, I have a whole colony on the hunt for a small piece of me, but my own father would rather I had never existed,” she stated, her tone weary. “Why you?” Eve tossed out, breaking the tension. She raised her chin a little higher, the cool air of control settling back in to place.
“Why me, what?” He shrugged, feigning a nonchalant attitude he didn’t come close to feeling.
“You never answered my initial question. When you learned about the existence of Marguerite’s child, why did you have to find me? I understand why the others are tracking me—what they’re after. What’s in it for you, Lombardi?”
“You intrigued me.” He tossed a smile in for good measure.
“As you so politely put it earlier: bullshit.”
He laughed. “Touché.”
“Try again.”
“I’m more than three centuries old, my dear.” Guerin plopped back down on the bed. “Very little surprises me anymore. The information Marguerite’s lover shared with me about you…let’s just say you captured my attention.” He eased back until his shoulders rested on the headboard, one leg up on the mattress and bent at the knee. “I couldn’t resist finding out if you were real.”
“I see.” Eve moved onto the bed, facing him on her knees. “And now that your curiosity has been satisfied, what’s next?”
Guerin leaned forward, bringing them closer. “I would say that’s up to you, beautiful.” He trailed a finger down her cheek. “But I think you, or should I say we, have a more pressing matter to deal with. Like who has us on the run?” God knew, a new conflict added to the already-tenuous situation Guerin had gotten himself into wasn’t something he needed. But with the vampire’s attempt on Kenric’s daughter, a female he was growing to care about, whether he liked it or not, a new enemy was exactly what Guerin had acquired.
“True.” She settled onto her backside and sighed. “Seth Keller. He’s been after me for a few years, but I’ve managed to stay out of his grasp and I thought I’d finally given him the slip this time. So I opened the Rose’s Thorn. That was around the time I learned my mother had left for the States. Everything was under control…and then you showed up.” Eve’s gaze fell to the towel snugly wrapped around her, and she played with the frayed hem. “My senses went on high alert. A vampire appearing at my door and looking for Eve…” She glanced at him from under her lashes. “What else was I to think? You had to be working for Seth. One of his minions.”
“I’m no one’s minion,” he stated. “Never going to happen. Not after— How’s that saying go? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…”
“Someone took advantage of your trust.” Her tone made it a statement, not a question. She knew exactly where he was coming from.
“You could say that.” Compassion stared back at him in her clear blue eyes, and the realization floored him. Every fiber in him screamed: Marguerite may have raised her, but this woman possessed more of Kenric’s heart than her mother’s.
“That’s part of the reason why you said it had been a very, very long time since…”
“Yeah.” He sighed, then uttered, “Daniela De Santis.” Her name left a nasty taste in his mouth. “My creator, or sire, whatever you want to call it,” he bit out and swiped a palm over the lower half of his face as if he could wipe away the bitter aftereffects of talking about her.
“Did she turn you against your will?” she asked, her voice gentle. Eve joined him against the headboard, both facing the opposing wall.
“Oh, no.” He laughed, but not a damn thing was funny. “I was all for it. Dying for her to turn me, in fact.” He glimpsed the dark-haired beauty at his side. “I would have done anything for her at the time. And I nearly did…” Guerin sucked in a deep, stabilizing breath. He couldn’t believe he was telling her this shit. Not even Kenric knew the extent of what he’d endured for Daniela, but truth be told, it was a major part of why he’d connected with the master vampire years ago. And it was why Guerin felt so strongly about Marguerite that he had wanted to do whatever it took to help his best friend stop the pain once and for all.
“How did you two meet?”
“When I was in my late twenties, I met Daniela just outside of Rome. She’d come for a late-night visit to the home of a wealthy businessman where I was working as one of the stable hands. Up until that point, I’d had to fight for everything I’d ever had in my life.
“When I was a little more than a year old, my parents died in a fire. I was told that my father had saved me, and then went back inside for my mother. But neither ever came out.”
“I’m so sorry.” Eve smoothed her palm over his arm.
“It’s okay. It was a very long time ago.” Guerin stared at the chipped paint on the far wall, doing his best to detach his emotions from the hellish trip down memory lane.
Guerin’s mind wandered back to the moment Daniela had stepped from her carriage. Her blond hair had hung in long ringlets over the shimmering green silk of her tight bodice. Holding the door, waiting for her exit, Guerin had forgotten to breathe. The night had been so cold, and a fine mist had hovered in the air. Chills raced down his arms at the memory. It was as if he’d seen his sire for the first time last week, instead of more than two hundred and fifty years ago.
But when Daniela had turned her head, capturing Guerin with her dark gaze, he’d heated to near combustion.
“So, after years of struggling to survive on a daily basis, garnering the attention of a beautiful, wealthy woman was one heady trip. She opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed—and for many years, I was completely enamored.”
“She must have hurt you pretty damn bad.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “And I wanted every bit of it.”
“She was your first Mistress?”
He nodded. “My first, and only.” He risked a glance in Eve’s direction. “Daniela had homed in on something about me I hadn’t realized myself: how much I enjoyed pain and domination when it came to sex.” He closed his eyes. Images flickered behind his eyelids: blood, chains, and crops. Sounds echoed inside his head: the crack of whips, agonized groans of ecstasy. “She became an addiction I would have done anything for, just to have another taste.” Guerin’s head fell back with a thud against the wood. “For a long time, it disgusted me to realize how far I’d let it go. How far I’d let her go. She took me to a place inside my head where I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I thought I was in love.” He scoffed and opened his eyes, facing Eve. “I didn’t have a clue what love was.”
“You were young, Guerin. And it sounds like she was a manipulative bitch who knew exactly what she was doing.”
The corner of his mouth curled at the curse. “Perfect word to describe her.” He pivoted his head and focused on a dull gray picture of some unnamed coastline with waves crashing onto the rocks. The words came easier when he didn’t have to look directly into Eve’s eyes. “When Daniela discovered the high tolerance I had for her games, she became feverish with the idea of seeing how far she could push me. And like a moth to a flame, I’d come back f
or more—and more.” He rubbed his palms over his thighs and curled his fingers into the fabric. “I really thought there had been much more between us than the show I provided. But after twenty-five years of providing her entertainment—bleeding for her…” He dragged his attention from the painting to Eve. “The light dawned on how messed up our ‘relationship’ was when she asked me to kill for her.”
Unbidden, his mind went there—as if sucked back more than two centuries with the force of a dark vortex.
“Kill her?” Guerin tugged on the metal that held his wrists against the St. Andrew’s cross. The human female lay on the floor, her eyes wide with horror, a gag stuffed between her lips, and her arms bound.
Daniela plucked the key to his shackles from the table beside him, and with a click, released one of his cuffs, then the other, followed by his ankles.
“You said you’d do anything for me…” She straightened and pouted, her eyelashes fluttering. His gut twisted. She was a master of manipulation. “I know you’re hungry.” Daniela’s nostrils flared. “Doesn’t she smell divine?”
And that she did. Like ripe berries on a summer morning. He closed his eyes, but the human’s racing pulse drew him like a foghorn in the night.
“Feed, my pet,” Daniela demanded. “Then destroy her before you drain her dry. I want to watch, marvel in the strength and power of my beautiful creation.” Daniela stroked his face, and he opened his eyes. Her fingers fell away before she ripped the nipple clamps from his chest. Pain arced, then shot down his spine, carving a path straight to his shaft. He wasn’t prepared for the exquisite onslaught of sensation.
And it was too much.
Guerin’s legs buckled, and his orgasm erupted. “Oh, fuck…,” he groaned, and his knees slammed onto the wood planks. His cock pulsed, adding more insult from the cock ring with each wave as he emptied. A hard shiver rocked him.
Gasping, he glanced up through the damp strands of his hair at his Mistress. She no doubt would be pissed.
“You disappoint me.” Daniela shook her head, scowling. “Do you plan to compound your failure and deprive me of the pleasure of watching you take down the prey I’ve so graciously provided?”
He swallowed hard and turned his gaze to the trembling female. Hunger surged, a clawing beast under his skin and inside his mind. The animal cursed the lingering particles of his humanity that hesitated. Feeding was a necessity. For the last quarter century, at his Mistress’s side, Guerin had sunk his fangs into human flesh more times than he could remember. But killing…?
He’d done and been many things to survive before he’d met Daniela. Some he was more proud of than others. A young orphan on the streets had to be clever and possess a strong stomach if he wanted to survive. And he’d managed to make it when others had succumbed. Yet a murder was something he’d never considered adding to his list of accomplishments.
Daniela’s nails dug into Guerin’s cheeks, and she yanked his head up. “I thought you said you loved me—would do anything for me? Did you lie?”
Panic seized him like an invisible net, freezing his limbs. “No. I would never lie to you.”
“Then kill her,” she demanded, fire flashing behind her irises.
The vampire inside him roared to life, driven by hunger and the primal need to please its Mistress. Guerin lunged. The room blurred, and he was at the human girl’s throat. Fangs extended, he struck. The female’s spine arched under the impact, and her essence burst down his throat. Guerin drank her down. Swallow after greedy swallow, he indulged until the room tilted under the rush.
He reared back from the girl’s neck on a growl, his vision red and his veins on fire. “Kill her!” Daniela’s command rang inside his mind. Claws extended, Guerin lifted his hand, ready to rip away his prey’s throat and fulfill his Mistress’s wish. The human’s head lolled, her doe eyes locking with Guerin’s in one last soul-filled plea for mercy from the monster prepared to destroy her. Something clicked inside his brain.
What the hell have I become?
Guerin dropped his arm. Frantic, he scurried away from her body.
Laughter ricocheted off the walls. “Pathetic!” Daniela cried out, and her palm impacted his cheek with a piercing crack, jarring the bones in his face. “Secure him,” she ordered her minions. “Use the silver this time. I want to make sure he hangs around to see how the girl dies because he didn’t have the balls to finish the job.”
“Hey…Guerin…” Eve squeezed his fingers, pulling him back into the present. “Where’d you go?” she whispered.
He forced a thin smile. “A place better left buried in the past.” Guerin swiped a hand over his mouth and chin. “Anyway…I escaped and never looked back.” He shook his head. “When I walked away from Daniela, I did the same with the lifestyle—a hard and clean break from it all. So to let someone in like that again…and allow her to see what makes me tick…” He looked over at Eve. “I made a vow to never get sucked back in to trigger those needs. Ever.
“Been there. Done that. And I didn’t like the T-shirt.”
“I see… Are you saying that’s it, then? You won’t let down your walls for anyone?”
A low grumble rolled from his throat, and he fisted a handful of her hair, but not enough to pull at her roots. He held her gaze, her blue irises darkening into a midnight storm. “You drive me crazy, beautiful. Make me contemplate things I swore I’d never do again…”
The pink tip of her tongue appeared, and she moistened her lips. So inviting. And he couldn’t resist. But Eve met him halfway, their mouths colliding, melding in a fusion of desire. She opened and he swept inside. Searching, tasting, jonesing to sample every inch she’d allow.
Eve reared back, leaving a burst of cool air where the warmth of her body had once been. “Stop,” she commanded.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s an earlier matter that’s been left unfinished. One you never asked my forgiveness for.”
“I see…,” he drawled and sat back against the headboard.
“You see? What?” Before he could form his next word, Eve straddled his hips and held his chin in her hand. As if it had a mind of its own, his cock surged upward, rock hard, seeking the heat she provided.
“I see I haven’t made sufficient amends for my lack of control earlier.” He reached high and curled his fingers around a spindle in the headboard.
Eve drew closer, her mouth centimeters from his lips. Cinnamon and vanilla. Damn, they were now officially his two favorite scents on the planet. Guerin swallowed, forcing the groan back down his esophagus. The warm and wet tip of her tongue stroked his lips. Fuck. Me. He lifted his hips, driving the covered hard ridge of his shaft into her center. Eve hissed and pulled away.
“You move when I tell you to…” She lifted a brow. “Or this is over. You have to trust me enough not to take you somewhere you don’t want to go. Can you do that?”
Guerin inhaled, slow and deep, forcing his body into compliance. Maybe it was who she was—or wasn’t. He closed his eyes. Whatever. He was now thinking: to hell with the promise he’d made. For now. This would never last anyway. He knew it—and shit, she had to know as well. So how risky could it be? If he made sure to hold on tight, give her exactly what she asked, nothing more, maybe he could do this. Just one more time. Savor the pain. The pleasure. And not lose a piece of himself along the way.
He opened his eyes. “Yes.” Eve lowered his arms to the mattress.
“Very good.” A seductive smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Eve lifted her hips from his body and maneuvered from the bed. Her movements fluid, effortless. She stood beside the mattress and allowed the cotton around her to drop to the floor. His head swam. Damn. Every ounce of blood pounding inside his veins must have surged to his groin.
“Three hundred years old…” She let the statement hang, reached down, and tugged at the edge of the towel, loosening it from around him. The cotton fibers scratched at the sensitized flesh, then fell away, allowing his thick e
rection to spring up. “To make it to such an impressive age you would have to possess a great deal of self-control,” Eve went on to say. “Don’t you think?”
Guerin narrowed his gaze in her direction. “I’d like to believe so.”
“Yet earlier…” She started toward the end of the bed.
“A momentary lapse. I—”
Eve came to a halt and snapped her head in his direction. “You speak when I give you permission.”
Gripping the sheet at his side, he conceded. “Yes.”
Apparently satisfied, she continued the short journey to the other side of the bed. Eve climbed back on, settling on her knees next to him. Her full breasts jutted forward topped by the most delicious rose-colored nipples that had ever graced a female. His mouth watered for their flavor. Unable to resist the urge, his gaze raked her. Guerin’s palms itched to stroke her soft curves. Her bare pussy beckoned him. The scent of her arousal had his fangs barreling from his gums. Had he ever been more hungry for a female?
“Eyes up, vampire!” Guerin swung his gaze to her face. “Show me that control. I want you to show me what kind of leash you have over the animal inside. The beast that wants to take what it craves.” Eve reached over and fisted his cock. Guerin’s breath shuddered from his lungs at the sensation. “Longs to give in to the unyielding desire.” She stroked up to his crown and spread the large drop of precum leaking from his slit over the head before retreating.” A low groan resonated in his throat. “Give me your hand,” she demanded.
Guerin extended his arm.
“Take your cock.” She released him, and he did as instructed.
Eve smoothed her palm down his thigh, spreading his legs farther apart in the process. “Stroke it, vampire,” she said, her voice firm and unwavering. “Let me see what you would do if I wasn’t here. What takes you to the edge when you’re all alone, aching for release?”
Slowly he slid his palm up and worked the sweet spot at the base of the head before moving back down the shaft.
