A Venetian Vampire

by Michele Hauf

  Now he put his hands on her shoulders. “The contact I have with woman is never a lie, Kyler.” But she sensed his sudden wince told more of the truth than he did. “If I didn’t want to kiss you, I would not. If I didn’t want to make love to you, I would not. It’s not a game, or a notch on the bedpost. It’s—” he exhaled and shook his head “—what I need.”

  “A new challenge? Someone prettier, younger, more sexually talented every time?”

  He kissed her then, and Kyler shoved him off her so hard his shoulders hit the rose-festooned fence three feet behind him.

  “I’m not going to feed your addiction,” she said, striding on. “And I’m not being controlled by King. Trust me on that one.” She quickened her pace, knowing he would follow like the hungry, touch-starved Lothario he was.

  That was it. She could believe it wasn’t a challenge or the notch thing for him. The man was simply addicted to women. New ones, pretty ones, brief encounters or longer, as he’d said. The man needed a woman to feel alive. Perhaps even more than he needed blood.

  It was sad in ways she couldn’t quite sort out. But Kyler knew she didn’t want to be Dante D’Arcangelo’s latest drug, despite the overwhelming attraction between the two of them. She needed more from a man. Respect. Trust. And honesty he could share with her as much as with himself.

  “What happened to you?” she said over her shoulder.

  “What do you mean?” He joined her, the tall, model-perfect gentleman in a suit and tie juxtaposing the oh-so-touristy-looking failed thief.

  “What in your life made you seek women for the quick fling? To, in your mind, love them, but only from a distance? Never with your heart. Is it Mommy issues?”

  He chuckled. “I’ll thank you not to make guesses about my relationship with my mother, may she rest in eternal peace.”

  “I’m sorry.” Of course, his mother must have died in the nineteenth century. If he was a created vampire, his mother had probably been merely human. “I’m being defensive. That was mean.”

  “Not mean, just—you’re trying to match me in this stupid game.” Now he tugged her to a stop again and took both her hands in his. “Let’s not do this anymore. I don’t need to win arguments with you. I want you to shine, Kyler. You can win them all from now on. Abuse me with your words if you must.”

  “I don’t want to abuse you with words or in any other way.”

  He was right. They were reacting in ways that were not moving their partnership forward and only making every little thing an issue. Smoothing a hand down his cheek, she took a moment to connect with his crestfallen gaze. “Sorry again about your mother. I know how that feels, losing your mom.”

  He nodded. “My mother was young. So lovely. And...now is not the time or the place to get into this personal stuff.”

  Right, because his personal stuff was off-limits to those women he “loved.” It was too intimate, she guessed. It would force him to move beyond the surface and into things he’d probably never experienced before. Things like trust and respect and, perhaps, even love.

  “But will you share that part of your life with me?” she asked, genuinely wanting more of him, one more piece of the real Dante D’Arcangelo. “Sometime?”

  He nodded. “We’ll see. For now...” He stretched his gaze over the hoards of tourists bustling about the open square.

  Ahead loomed the dock that boarded passengers on the vaporetti that transported them to the main continent. While a person could hop a water taxi and disembark the island virtually anywhere, this was the main arrival point.

  They both observed what appeared to be a long line waiting to go through a security checkpoint. Not the usual security. This one was checking all bags, suitcases and purses, and doing pat-downs.

  “Local polizia,” Dante said. “They must to be looking for the Fabergé egg.”

  “Now what?” she asked quietly. “Can we hop a taxi and get off this chunk of rock someplace else?”

  “Possibly.” He rubbed his chin. “You see down there?” He pointed toward a dock where private taxis parked. It was closed, and she could guess the sign, written in Italian, had something to do with going to the main landing for a security check. “We may have to wait them out.”

  “We?” She wasn’t sure why she questioned that. Wasn’t like he was going to give up the egg, and he’d already said they were a team of sorts. And she certainly knew she wasn’t going to sneak it away from him unless she seduced him into a freakin’ coma. “Right. We. I guess we should call it an evening, eh?”

  Maybe then she could slip away from him and satisfy her unquenched need for blood.

  “Indeed.” His gaze stripped her bare, and Kyler shivered to imagine his mouth right there, at her breast, licking slowly. “The night is young,” he said. “Do you really want to go back to the hotel room with me and sit in close proximity while we try to avoid the obvious?”

  The obvious being that they wanted to rip off one another’s clothing.

  Kyler asked, “What then?”

  “This way.” He headed toward the canal.

  Kyler was curious to learn what he had in mind for them now. When they arrived at a gondola dock on the Grand Canal and Dante handed over some cash to the gondolier, she knew exactly what he had planned. Not an escape from the island, or a touristy sail down the canal, but rather a romantic cruise under the moonlight.

  “I thought we had agreed to avoid exactly this scenario?” she asked as he waited for her.

  “You think I have seduction in mind?” He shrugged. “It’s a beautiful evening. The moon is full. And I’ve asked for a route that will take us near all the major and minor docks off the island.” He tapped his temple and flashed her a sexy grin. “Casing the island, yes?”

  “Good call.” But she knew it was a ruse, all the same.

  Sighing heavily, Kyler looked over her shoulder. She could walk back to the hotel herself. Had he left the egg there? It had been a good twenty minutes between her leaving the room and him finding her in the alley with her disastrously botched snack. Enough time for him to stash it elsewhere. Which meant she wasn’t about to let him out of her sight.

  The blood could wait. Right now she would suffer the romance. He might talk a good game about casing the docks, but she knew what his ultimate goal was.

  She turned to find him standing in the gondola, holding his hand out to her, silently entreating her to step forward. Take a chance. Enter his wickedly seductive game. Because he wasn’t ever going to stop playing. She knew that. He couldn’t. He didn’t know how.

  “Casanova has returned,” she said as she took his hand and stepped onto the gondola. There was only one seat at the back, which fit two comfortably.

  “It’s what I do,” Dante said as he sat beside her. He didn’t leave any space between the two of them, nudging his thigh against hers. “And I do it well. Time to pull Kyler out of uptight mode and settle into relaxation. There’s nothing we can do until the heat goes away and we can leave the city.”

  “I could get another hotel room.”

  “And leave me alone with the egg? If you wish it.”

  “Even without the egg in hand, you’d follow me. I know you would. Like I said, you won’t be satisfied until you’ve completely mastered me. And that means biting me. Much as you think you don’t want to? You do.”

  His sigh was inexplicable. Had he not commented because she was right or because she was so, so wrong? She wanted to be right. She would be.

  The gondolier pushed off, and they sailed smoothly down the quiet waters, which were almost as crowded as the streets. The canal glittered madly with moonlight, alchemizing into liquid mercury. Dante put on a good show for a while, noting the docks, which were shut down with signs redirecting travelers to the main dock. But he eventually clasped her hand and pulled it to his mouth to kiss
her knuckles. Slowly, one by one, savoring a treat. His breath whispered over her skin as if an enchanted breeze.

  And before Kyler could succumb to the inner meltdown of desire, she tugged slightly, jarring him from his erotic focus.

  He blinked and nodded. “Right. All business?”

  “You did say we should stop it.”

  “I suggested we stop trying to berate and argue with one another. I said nothing of the sort regarding a cease and desist to our intimate play. Come, Kyler, I can hardly keep up the indifferent ruse. You are an irresistible woman.”

  Kyler caught her breath. She hadn’t ever been told that. She had always been average in every way. But she didn’t need the flattery from Dante. Really.

  Maybe.

  Who was she kidding? It felt great.

  “Can I have a bite?” she asked, testing his reaction.

  “Right here?” Smoothing a hand down his shirtfront, he cast his gaze across the waters away from her.

  “Of course not,” she said. “Later, in the hotel room. I’m curious about being bitten, and biting, another vampire.”

  “Is that so?” He leaned in close to her ear, keeping their conversation quiet. The gondolier was humming and had on earbuds anyway. “You’ve never been bitten by another?”

  “I was bitten for the transformation,” she explained. “And I’ve not been with a vampire since. So yes, I’m very curious about the bite in a non-transformational way. Just for kicks. Can we do that and not have sex?”

  “What’s so terrible about having sex with me?”

  “Have you not been following the conversation? It’s your means of controlling me.”

  “If only I had such power. As I’ve said before, Kyler, you are a strong woman. You’ll not allow any man to control you. Unless of course, you feel you owe him something. Is that it? And you believe the egg grants a vampire eternity. King wants this supposed eternity?”

  “It’s not for you to know. I’ve already told you too much. We were just talking about an agreement between the two of us. We agree to a bite without sex. And winner takes all when the coast is clear and we’re finally able to leave with the egg. Whoever leaves Venice with it in hand is the winner. Yes?”

  “No sex. All the blood. Winner takes all. Hmm...” He leaned in and nudged his nose along her ear.

  “Do you bite every woman you’ve ever had? I mean the vampires. Do you let them bite you?”

  “No,” he said softly. “No vampires...”

  And Kyler knew then that he must be afraid of the bite from another of his kind. Why? They didn’t have to bond. Or did he believe they would?

  “I may give it a try,” he said slowly. His eyes glanced fleetingly into hers. He lifted her hand to his lips again and held it there. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

  “Like your reasons for pursuing women as if they were precious objects without a heart and soul?”

  “That’s cruel, even for you, Kyler.”

  “But it’s the truth, and I think you know it.” She turned his head so he faced her. A glint of steel pierced his gaze, the moonlight a deadly ally with his soul. “Trust me, Dante. I won’t judge. I’ll tell you anything you like about myself. My mother died of cancer a year ago. It turned my world upside down with grief.”

  He leaned his head against hers. The soft, leathery scent of him melted into her senses, and she wanted to kiss him. She sensed his vulnerability right now, though, so she would follow his lead. He deserved her patience and respect.

  “My mother killed herself,” he said quietly.

  “Oh, Dante, I’m so sorry.”

  “She was...” He inhaled and exhaled deeply. He sat back on the cushion. Kyler leaned against his shoulder, placing a hand over his chest. Again he took her hand and kissed it. “My mother, Angelique D’Arcangelo, was a courtesan. A very famous and lovely courtesan who serviced many royals, actors and artists in her prime. During my teen years, my mother’s home was a brothel. I grew up in a household teeming with women who had no shame about their bodies and who often walked about in all states of undress. I learned a lot.” He smirked at that memory.

  Kyler could imagine what his sexual education must have been like. That alone could forever alter a man’s perception of women. But for good or for otherwise, she wasn’t sure.

  “It seeded my love for women,” he continued. “But a courtesan’s career is short, and her competition can be catty and vicious. Age tends to lessen a woman’s value, and her fellow courtesans tend to boldly remind her of that at every new wrinkle, every age spot. After a particularly horrible argument with a younger friend who had taken over her clients, Angelique killed herself. It was her fiftieth birthday.”

  He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. Kyler didn’t know what to say. What a strange and interesting childhood he must have had. But his poor mother. She bet he’d asked for vampirism for the very reason she had: to avoid death after watching it swiftly draw in their mothers.

  “Is that what you wanted to know, then?” he asked, opening his eyes to gaze skyward.

  She understood a bit more about his obsession with women now, knowing he’d grown up surrounded by prostitutes. What he must have learned. And then to have lost his mother because of one of those women he may have trusted?

  But she wouldn’t push any more. He didn’t deserve her scorn, only acceptance and understanding.

  “Thank you.” She kissed his jaw softly. “For sharing that with me. It means more than you can imagine. I will keep your confidence. And I’m not saying that as another ploy in the stupid game we’ve been playing.”

  He nodded and pulled her in closer to hug up against his chest. “That game is over, Kitten.”

  Yes, the emotional subterfuge game was over. But there was still the physical prize that she must not overlook. How to mark herself the winner if it was over? She would not leave Venice without that egg. But for now she was content to set that worry aside and simply hug Dante. He needed her.

  For the next half hour, they sailed the narrow canals under the moonlight, not speaking a word. Yet their hearts beat as one, and their fingers entwined in an embrace. Words weren’t necessary. Their synched heartbeats said it all. They’d settled into a certain acceptance of one another.

  When the gondola dock loomed into view and Kyler had to shake herself out of almost falling asleep against Dante’s slow, rhythmic heartbeats, she remembered that all was not well, and that she had yet to figure out a plan to get the egg out of the city.

  How easily snuggling in Dante’s arms could sway her focus.

  “Where is it, by the way?” she asked as she sat up and fluffed out her hair.

  “The egg? In a safe place.”

  “In the hotel? If you put it in the safe—”

  “My palazzo. I stopped there before finding you after your bite.”

  “What? The very place that was easily broken into by creepy werewolves? I thought you were smarter than that.”

  “I do have security in the office. I have simply never used it until now. Besides, the wolves must have left the island.” He nodded toward the moon. “It’s not safe to be trapped on a small island when you shift to a monster.”

  “We can hope. What if they don’t shift?”

  “It’s safe, Kyler. All werewolves shift under the full moon.”

  “I need to see for myself. Tell the gondolier to take us to your palazzo.”

  “For a kiss.”

  She kissed him quickly, feeling his disappointment as she sat back in the seat and gestured for him to do as she’d requested. He gave the gondolier the directions in Italian.

  Damn him! This push and pull of want and need and trust and mistrust for the man would prove her greatest challenge.

  Chapter 9

  K
yler flew toward Dante’s palazzo. She’d wanted to race ahead, but she’d had to rely on him to find the place. Now she recognized the brick-red door. “Open the door.”

  He stuck a key in the lock and pushed the door open. Kyler dashed inside and across the stone floor. The foyer’s welcome coolness swept over her face and shoulders with a greeting. She smiled and then immediately frowned. “Where is the safe?”

  “In my office to the right,” he offered casually.

  She found the carved rosewood door and pushed it open. The room was dark save for the moonlight streaming through the white sheer curtains, which fronted the windows that looked over the canal. The wall opposite the door was lined with shelves, occupied by books and artifacts. A seashell here, an odd bronze statuette there. It smelled old and dusty. The way a vampire’s lair should smell, she thought briefly. A massive wood desk dominated the room, but no papers or supplies sat on top, save for a slim silver laptop, closed.

  “Where’s the safe?” She spun to find Dante poised in the doorway, one shoulder tilted against the frame and a hand at his hip. He always looked so cool and together. That suit was his damsel-seducing armor.

  “Come on, James Bond. That egg is mine. You can’t take it as you please.”

  “I thought it was finder’s keepers? We agreed to that stipulation while on the gondola, yes?”

  “Don’t you do this to me. You promised we would sit it out together until the authorities removed the checkpoints.”

  “I made no such promise. Although if we were in this together, why the concern about the egg? It’s in a safe place. Don’t you trust me?”

  Just when she’d thought they’d come to terms with each other. And, well, hadn’t they gotten closer on the gondola ride? He’d opened himself to her about his mother. Had it been a ruse to gain her sympathy?