“That’s because you’ve never been around anyone who understands you.” Nash left me speechless as he opened the door to what looked like someone’s home. He flicked on the lights. The sky-high ceiling made us both seem tiny. I took in the gray walls covered with art. Plush, mulberry furniture surrounded a crackling fireplace.
Without thinking, I kicked off my heels and headed straight for the fire. I relished the heat. The cold had already become too familiar.
“I like it, too,” Nash said. I hadn’t realized he’d come up behind me. “Feeling the fire inside makes me feel human again.”
I turned to him, only coming to his chin without my heels on. “The other reason I’m here is because I don’t want to be human anymore.”
Nash was the only one I’d ever told that.
Keep reading WANTED
Marked: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance
by Gwen Knight
“Madam? Ms. Amelia Winter to see you.” With a faint nod in my direction, the receptionist slipped back into the hallway and closed the office door behind her. Apparently, that was what qualified as an introduction in this place.
Madam da Silva didn’t turn to greet me. So, instead, I noted the credentials framed on her mahogany desk and the alphabetized bookshelf off to the side. A posh couch ran the length of her room, adjacent a gleaming glass table.
As for the madam… She stood facing a large picture window, her hands linked together at the small of her back. Long folds of midnight silk molded her ample curves and muted champagne pumps hugged her feet.
Seemed appearances meant a great deal here. Even the receptionist wore a dress that had likely cost a semester’s tuition. And here I stood, rumpled after spending two nights in the hospital’s hard, plastic chairs.
“Sit, please, Amelia,” Madam da Silva murmured, still facing the window.
I eased into the nearest seat and crossed my legs at the knee. When she finally turned, I uncrossed them and smoothed my clammy palms down my thighs.
“Now, then. Let me have a look at you.”
That task would have been easier if I’d remained standing. My mouth quirked at the corners, but I held my barbed tongue. It might have taken the first twenty-two years of my life, but my father had successfully instilled within me the ability to think before speaking—a trait which would come in handy here. Annoying the one woman capable of saving Tessa’s life seemed rather unwise.
Madam da Silva’s sharp, amber gaze lingered on my face, and I knew what she saw. Long, wheat-colored hair swept back into a messy knot and cornflower blue eyes set in a softly rounded face. Odds were, it wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before. At least not here. Madam da Silva was a woman who made her livelihood off beautiful women. I was nothing more than another face in a sea of blondes.
She tapped the tapered edge of her long fingernail against her lips and stepped toward me. “I must admit, your application is timely. I found myself down another girl today. The flu, it would seem.”
I nodded, unsure of what to say. Truth be told, Tessa had been the one to somehow arrange this appointment. Whether or not the other madam’s courtesan had the flu, I hadn’t a clue.
“However, Amelia, I would like to know why exactly you wish to become a vampire courtesan.”
Holy crickets. Hearing those words nearly gave me an aneurysm. I didn’t want to become a courtesan. Not in the least. My entire life, I’d been told vampires were evil, and after everything I’d seen, I was inclined to agree.
But I no longer had that choice.
Most humans lived their lives without spotting a single bloodsucker, even though vamps had populated the Chicago metropolitan area since its inception. But they had their own society deep within the underbelly of the city, and the general population had only recently learned of their shadow world. Nevertheless, my family had a long history with vamps, and, as a result, were not welcome among them.
“Amelia?”
Madam da Silva’s voice roused me from my thoughts. “Uh, it’s Winter, actually.”
Surprise flickered across her face. “You dislike your given name?” she asked, her head cocked as though I’d finally said something interesting.
Dislike wasn’t the correct word. It wasn’t that I hated my first name, more so how soft it sounded. Growing up with four older brothers, I’d need something stronger and less flowery than Amelia. Very few people in my life were privy to my first name, and those who were had long since taken a vow of silence.
A silence I responded with right now.
“Very well, then.” Her plum-colored lips curled upward as though I amused her. “Tell me what brings you here.”
I tamped back the nervous laughter that rose up in my throat. The truth was unbecoming and I couldn’t use it. Tessa had warned me of that before sending me on my way. I wasn’t to mention her name or suggest I had a relationship with any courtesans. If I did, I’d be kicked to the curb faster than I could say vampire. At the time, I’d simply nodded, too afraid to delve further. I still lacked the entire story, and only knew enough to get me through this interview. Which meant resorting to a half-truth. All right, a bold-faced lie, one I was convinced she’d heard many times before and would accept at face value.
“I can’t afford my tuition anymore,” I finally responded, shifting in my seat, “and I’m running out of funds. Part-time waitressing isn’t cutting it. I have until the end of the week to pay off my semester’s tuition or I’m out. I need money, and I need it fast.”
A knowing glint shimmered in her piercing eyes. “The costs these days are abysmal, unfortunately. The sacrifices we must make for higher education, yes?”
I hummed a noncommittal response.
“You wouldn’t be the first to come to me for a similar reason.”
I believed it.
My dad actually had more than enough slotted away for my education. Of his five children, I was the only one who had elected to attend post-secondary. I still remembered my first day. It was one of the few times I could remember my father shedding tears. My brothers had chosen, much to my father’s dismay, to dedicate themselves to the family business: Second City Exterminators.
Ridding the city of pests, one vampire at a time.
Yup, you heard me.
I, Amelia Winter, was the youngest, and only, female in a family chock-full of vampire slayers. Hence, the reason my stomach had twisted into knots. Here I was, the innocent daughter of a slayer about to sell my blood and body to the monsters my father had sworn to destroy, all to save my best friend’s life.
Keep reading MARKED
* * * * *
And be sure to check out Rebecca Rivard’s bestselling Fada Shapeshifter series!
Discover a new breed of dark, sexy shifters.
THE FADA.
Shapeshifters created during Dionysus's infamous bacchanals from a mix of fae, human and animal genes.
They're ruthless, untamed—and irresistible to the one person fated to be their mate.
Seducing the Sun Fae: A Fada Novel, Book 1
Claiming Valeria: A Fada Novel, Book 2
Tempting the Dryad: A Fada Novel, Book3
Lir’s Lady: A Fada Shapeshifter Story (Book 3.5)
Amazon Series Page
SEDUCING THE SUN FAE: A Fada Novel, Book 1
*2016 EPIC Awards Finalist for Best Fantasy/Paranormal Romance*
A Dark Shifter Alpha…
Dion, alpha of a clan of river shapeshifters, has had enough. The sun fae queen has seduced many of his best warriors, leaving them fit for little but fishing and drinking wine, and draining life-energy from all his clan in the process. Then comes the final straw—she works her wiles on his youngest brother. It’s time to turn the tables on the shallow, pleasure-loving queen.
A Jaded Fae Queen…
Cleia is a two-hundred-year-old fae whose powerful glamour gets her any man she wants. But she’s bored. She wants something more—and all she knows is that the river fada men have it. So w
hen she meets the big, untamed river fada, she decides she’s going to have him.
She all but orders him to her bed.
That’s just what Dion is counting on…
Amazon
CLAIMING VALERIA: A Fada Novel, Book 2
He wants a second chance…
Rui do Mar has everything he’s ever wanted. He's the Rock Run clan's second and he’s found his mate, the sexy Portuguese shifter Valeria. But it all falls apart when he assassinates an innocent man, leaving the man’s young daughter an orphan. Sick at heart, he brings the girl home to Valeria and then leaves--for an entire year.
But can she trust him with her heart?
It was the hardest thing she's ever done, but Valeria has forged a new life for herself and her adopted daughter. She's even found a new man. Then Rock Run’s alpha is kidnapped by the sun fae and Rui steps in to reclaim his position as second. Now he’s determined to win back Valeria as well.
A dark secret threatens them all…
But Valeria's new man is hiding a dark Gift. Soon she and Rui are in a fight for not just their love but their lives, and that of the little girl they’ve both come to adore.
Amazon
TEMPTING THE DRYAD: A Fada Novel, Book 3
His dark Gift...
Rock Run warrior Tiago do Rio is hiding a dark Gift, one so powerful and easily misused it could make him a pariah in his own clan. Worse, he lusts after the beautiful sun fae queen—his own brother's mate. The temptation to use his Gift to make his darkest fantasies come true is almost irresistible. The only good thing in his life is his friendship with the dryad Alesia.
Her shifter mate...
Wild, solitary fae Alesia lives on an uninhabited island in Rock Run territory. Her Gift is to make things grow. She spends her days tending to her woodland home, but her nights are lonely—until she meets the sexy Latino shifter. Now she and Tiago are best friends, but she longs for more.
A clan’s fate at stake...
Then just as the two realize they may be mates, a den of rogue shifters threatens to bring war down on the Rock Run clan—and Tiago and Alesia are caught in the middle. Can Tiago master his terrifying Gift in time? Or will he lose his mate as well as his soul?
Amazon
Coming soon: Books 4, 5 and 6, featuring Adric and the Baltimore Earth Fada.
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—Rebecca Rivard
Copyright
Ensnared: A Vampire Blood Courtesans Romance
The Blood Courtesans Series
Copyright © 2016 by Rebecca Rivard
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Cover art and design by Monica La Porta
All rights reserved.
The uploading, scanning, and distribution of this book in any form or by any means—including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the copyright holder is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized editions of this work, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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