by Tara Sampson
He said the words as if it was a normal every day thing. Not some type of freakish anomaly that was seriously starting to set Shelby at unease. None of this was making any sense to her, the return of her knight or the fact that he brought her here—to his home.
“Who are you?” she barely whispered the words. Her voice was so small that she didn’t think he had heard her. Shelby knew exactly who he was. She could feel him deep in the marrow of her bones and that scared the living shit out of her.
How can I have such a connection with a person that I hardly know? She needed assurance. She needed him to tell her the truth all over again.
In a split second, Leo crossed the room and closed the distance between the two of them. He stood behind Shelby and placed possessive hands on her shoulders.
“You know who I am, little one. You feel me in your blood. I can sense it. You call to me as I have wanted you to do so ardently over the years.”
Leaning in, he intentionally let his breath fan over the back of her neck. He wanted her to feel him; to know exactly who he was.
His touch branded her. It burned straight through the thin sweater that she was wearing and seeped below the surface of her sensitized skin. The sensation tingled across her shoulders and electrified her nerve endings; filling her to the brim. It made her feel so alive; more alive than she had ever felt in her entire life.
Shelby jerked away from his touch. She needed space. She couldn’t think with him so close to her. What she felt when he was near her wasn’t natural. It couldn’t be. This urge to be with him was ludicrous at best.
“Who are you?” she repeated the words once again. This time, with more grit and she allowed her frustration to show through.
Leo sighed when she pulled away. He didn’t seem to like her resistance.
“I am Leonardo Risso, your soon-to-be-husband,” he answered her.
Her eyes widened in disbelief.
“My what?” she screamed and took a step back from him.
That confirmed it. Now she knew that her knight was too good to be true. He was certifiably insane!
Leo once again closed the distance between them, needing to be close to her. He wanted to breathe her in. He craved to taste her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her back flush against his chest.
“You are to be my bride, Shelby. We were bound eleven years ago.”
Shelby shuddered from his closeness. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and wrap her arms around his neck and hold him to her. But in the next second, she thought about the absurdity of the idea. This guy intended to wed her. This stranger who had saved her all those years ago was declaring her as his!
Panic suddenly rose in Shelby. She needed to be free. She had to get away from him. Struggling, she tried to pull away but it was futile. He was entirely too strong for her.
“Let. Me. Go,” she said the words concisely and with an undertone of warning.
“You are mine, sweet Shelby.” He whispered the words and bent down to kiss her neck.
He lingered at the throbbing point of her pulse; lazily licking and slightly grazing his teeth over the spot that he wanted so badly to sink his teeth into. He wanted to claim her with fierceness now that the drive from the beast was almost too much to hold back.
A wrap came at the door, suddenly.
“Damn,” he muttered the curse and lifted his head.
It was Ric. He had no doubt. He could sense his presence close by.
“Go away!” he barked out loudly.
How dare he bother me when I’m in my chambers with my new bride! I gave him specific instructions for us not to be disturbed.
The knock came again; with persistence this time.
“You’ve been summoned, Master. It’s your mother and she says that it’s urgent,” Ric called out through the door.
Shelby stood rigid in her knight’s arms. Something was different. She didn’t know what it was but there was something about this man that held her that was off—predatory.
Leo suddenly released Shelby and she stumbled backwards. Roughly pushing his hand through his hair, he let go a string of expletives that she only half understood because they were spoken in what sounded like Spanish.
Leo turned and headed for the door leaving a stunned Shelby to stare openly at his back. He opened the door when she yelled out, “Hey! What about me?”
Leo stopped and glanced over his shoulder.
“You,” he began and inclined his head toward the bed, “may rest. I’ll be back.”
The way he said that irritated the hell out of her. It was as if he expected her to sit around and just wait for him. He was sorely mistaken. It wasn’t going to happen in this life time.
“Yeah,” she shot back at him. “I won’t be here when you come back, buster. I’m going home,” she added with raw determination.
Leo raised his eyebrows in amusement.
“Sweetheart, you are home,” he said simply and waltzed out the door, closing it behind him. She heard the click of the locks and panic seized her again.
Oh no, no he didn’t!
She ran for the door.
Frantically, she pulled on the door and tried to wrench it open with as much force she could muster. She refused to stay there no matter how much of a god the man looked like or how much her traitorous body seemed to yearn for him when he was near. That made it more pertinent that she get out of his house, and fast.
“You will not leave me,” the order unsuspectingly whispered itself into her mind.
Shelby stilled at the intrusion and spoke aloud with steel conviction in her tone, “You can’t keep me here!”
This time, she felt the rim of power touch her mind; strong and certain and then a ghostly stroke of a hand lightly brushed her face before she received an answer.
“Watch me!”
Chapter 4
Leo stalked down the long narrow halls of his home with meaningful purpose. Of all the times that mommy dearest could have called, why in Satan’s name did it have to be now; on the night when he was about to bring his bride completely over into his world so that she would walk through eternity with him.
With much more force than necessary, he pushed the door open to his study and made great strides to the waiting phone sitting on his desk. The entire time, his back teeth were clenched tightly in irritation. He stopped at his desk and took a quick moment to close his eyes and check in on his desert flower. He could only smile when he saw her sitting on the bed, staring intently at the door.
How wonderful,he thought, she can’t wait for me to come back to her.
They were going to make the perfect life partners together.
Blinking his eyes, Leo brought himself back to the study and glowered down at the phone.
Ten years!
A decade had gone by and the woman had made no effort to contact him until now?
Why now of all times?
Why call on him over all of his other brothers and sisters? He had a slew of them; four sisters and six brothers to be exact. All of them now coupled with their own life partners and a gaggle full of children in tow.
There was only one way to find out. Taking the plunge, Leo picked up the phone and brought it to his ears.
“Hello, Mother,” he said stiffly.
“Leonardo, darling, how are you?” his mother asked in a tune ladled with her rich Italian accent.
Leo blew out a steadying breath in an effort to stay composed.
“I’m fine, Mother. What brings you to call upon me this night?”
Leo’s mother, Isabella, harrumphed, “Now, is that any way to greet your mother Leonardo? After all, I’m the woman that carried you for nine long months; the same woman that spent hours bringing you into this world; the woman that coddled you through your troubled youth.”
The same lady that screams drama a million times over and is only concerned with that which affects her, Leo thought wryly.
Leo was determined to be as civil as p
ossible. This was his mother after all. For better or worse, as she so kindly pointed out moments before. With false sweetness infusing his tone, he answered, “No, Mother. I only meant to ask if there was something…wrong.”
Leo heard her bristle. Something was most definitely up, which was why he was the one called above all his other siblings.
“Nothing is wrong, darling. Can’t a mother just call to say hello to her son?”
No, Leo thought wryly; especially after ten years of not hearing anything from her. Not even a measly Christmas card. Instead of speaking his mind though, Leo went for more of a non-combative approach and settled on the more obvious.
“Okay, Mother,” he drawled out slowly, still unsure that she was being totally honest with him. “It’s good to hear that you are well.”
At first the line was quiet. A cold silence spanned the miles between the two people who were merely connected by the audio waves that remained invisible to the naked eye.
Then it came—the waterfall of tears.
At first, the sound was so soft, so inferior that Leo almost didn’t hear it. Then it grew louder and more insistent—the sound of sobbing; uncontrollable female bawling that played havoc on Leo’s sensitive hearing.
“Mother?” he questioned. “What on earth is wrong?”
At first he was met with more wailing which had him wincing in response.
“He…he…left me!” she finally managed to wail between the incessant cries.
Leo furrowed his brows in confusion. Father had been dead for twenty years now.
“Who are you talking about, Mother?” he asked curiously now. “Who has left you?”
“Jerome!” she cried out again, now adding the disgusting sniffling sound in between the heart-wrenching sobs.
Jerome? Who the hell is Jerome? Leo wondered. He had never heard any mention of any Jerome before today but it had been ten years. There was no telling what his aristocratic mother had been up to in that amount of time.
Sighing, Leo had conceded that his mother wasn’t going to let him off the phone any time soon. He thought of his beautiful bride locked away in his bedroom and wanted this phone call to be over with so he could be with her.
Collapsing in his majestic chair that was centered at his desk, Leo closed his eyes, bit the bullet, and asked dryly, “Who was Jerome, Mother and why has he got you so upset?”
Her sobs eventually started to quiet as the seconds all too slowly trickled by, turning into minutes. One last sniffle was heard before Isabella composed herself and spoke again, “He was my human consort, Leonardo. Where have you been these last few years?”
Leo raised an eyebrow at this. He had been in the same place that he has resided in for the last sixty years. It was his mother who was the impossible one to pin down. He had long since stopped trying to connect with her and assumed if he was needed, she would find him.
“I’ve been in the same place that I have always been,” Leo said patiently. He was holding tight to the small reign of patience that he had somehow managed to locate far within himself.
“Hmm,” his mother replied nonchalantly and stopped to think a moment before continuing. “Well,” she said, all signs of her former breakdown seemingly gone, “I’m coming in for an extended visit. It has been far too long since I’ve seen my baby boy.”
Leo sat up in his chair.
“What?” he almost screamed and in the process, managed to sound rather foolish.
He had to have misheard her. There was no way that she could have said what he thought she had just said. There was no way, no how that the great Dame Isabella Marie Risso had just stated that she was coming to stay at his home.
“You heard me, Leonardo. I didn’t stutter. I said that I was coming to stay with you for a month, perhaps even two. I want to spend some time with my son. There’s no crime in that. It shouldn’t be a problem since you have yet to claim a life partner, correct?”
If only she knew his life partner awaited him just a few rooms away. He only needed to complete the conversion that he had started eleven years ago in order to fully claim her the proper way—the way of his people; the way of the vampire.
It was a ritual as old as time itself—a simple blood exchange to forge the connection. He shared his blood with Shelby all those years ago in order to save her life. All he needed to do now was drink in her life force to make her fully his; to make her like him—a formidable creature of the night more powerful than any other species that inhabited this earth. He could hardly wait.
“Mother,” Leo started hesitantly, “now may not be the best of times.”
His latest words should have been considered as the understatement of the century. Once Shelby’s conversion started, it would take three days to complete and he would have to be at her side every step of the way. Once she awoke as her new self, he would have to teach her their ways: how to hunt, how to feed, the magic of their world. There would be so much to learn and with an over-cumbersome mother trudging around, it would make the process that much more difficult. He didn’t need this right now.
“Ridiculous,” she replied flippantly. “There’s always a good time for a mother to visit her son. Expect me on the next eve, darling and have my room ready; the one that faces the west so that I can view that gorgeous ocean of yours. It reminds me so much of the early years with your father.”
Leo felt the heaviness of a thick stone settling in the pit of his stomach. She was coming whether he liked it or not. She had made it abundantly clear that there was no changing her mind. He started once more to try and protest.
“Mother-” he was immediately cut off.
“Until tomorrow, darling,” and the line was disconnected.
“Damn!” he swore and pulled the phone from his ear to slam it back down on the receiver.
It was the last thing that he needed right now when all of his attention needed to be focused on his beautiful desert flower awaiting him.
Shelby sat on the edge of the bed staring at the closed door with growing hostility for the man that had locked her in this room. How could he be so arrogant, so overbearing, and pompous even? He was the most infuriating man that she had ever encountered yet, she felt drawn to him. She wanted to enfold herself in him, have him touch her innocent lips in a way that they have never been touched before. She wanted him with a hunger that she couldn’t explain and it terrified the hell out of her.
Shelby battled the array of unfamiliar emotions all the while knowing that she needed to find a way out of this godforsaken place. This man was dangerous to her; dangerous on so many levels that she could barely comprehend them all at one time. He could steal her soul and with his allure, she would surely cave and be more than happy to hand it over to him.
The door creaked open and the handsome man with the dark as night eyes appeared, filling the entrance of the room with his imposing presence. One look and Shelby felt his undeniable male prowess taking over the entirety of the space that looked so large but now felt so small.
“Hello, my sweet,” he whispered the words in a way that was considered intimate.
Shelby heard the words, yet it wasn’t until a few seconds elapsed that she realized that the man did not move his mouth. The words she had heard had been said in her mind. At first, she thought that maybe she had only imagined them but then she heard more words.
“Sorry to have kept you waiting. No fear; we should have no further interruptions this night.”
Shelby gasped. There was no refuting that she was hearing his words in her head now. This was not normal—not natural. Something was different about the gorgeous man that stood before her and it terrified her.
Leo took a few steps into the room and closed the door firmly behind him. He couldn’t wipe the telltale smile from his face when his eyes landed on his bride-to-be. She was absolutely exquisite; like an expensive fine wine that he was more than eager to taste.
He had definitely chosen well when he first committed himself to the young S
helby Tanner. By sharing his blood and saving her life, he bound them eleven years ago in ways that could never be broken. No man, woman, or creature could tear them apart. She would be the eternal sunshine to his dismal darkness; a brilliant star that would lead his path for the rest of their immortal life.
Shelby jumped off the bed and held her hands out in front of her. She needed to put some much needed space between the strange man and herself.
“Stay away from me,” she warned, sounding much weaker than she intended.
Inside, she was warring with conflicting feelings. Part of her wanted to be free of this place and the man that was obviously too sexy for his own good and the other part wanted to run into his arms and kiss him from head to toe.
What is wrong with me? She asked herself.
“Sweetheart,” Leo called out with a slightly concerned look while she kept moving away from him. “Do not fear me.”
Shelby shook her head and took a few more steps backwards.
“I said, stay away from me,” she repeated much stronger this time.
The strange man continued to stalk her in his own cocky way. Every step she took back, he took one forward to counteract it. This continued until Shelby’s back met the unmistakable feel of the cold brick wall behind her.
As Leo continued to close the distance between them, Shelby felt trapped—cornered. She looked to her left, and then looked to her right. There was nowhere to go. Turning back to the beautiful man who was now just mere inches from her, Shelby felt her heart leap in her chest. Excitement, trepidation and anticipation were all part of the tumultuous emotions that she was feeling at the very moment.
She looked up into those obsidian dark eyes and was instantly drawn to him. She found that she couldn’t look away even though she ached to. Or did she really?
“What are you?” she finally whispered aloud as Leo leaned in and with one hand, he tenderly caressed her cheek. Shelby subconsciously leaned into his touch. She loved how his hand felt against her skin.
