FicWad

CHAPTER TWELVE


She assessed the results of her careful dressing in the mirror. Wearing a pullover Henley of almond cotton tucked into jeans and her navy boots, she looked casual and together. The neat twist confining her hair helped give the impression of aloofness.

Tynan smiled. She wanted to make certain her host noticed that. Aloof, composed, disinterested. The adjectives she hoped he’d soon apply to her. For pride’s sake she planned to stay until tomorrow afternoon, show him what she thought of his arrogance, then call a taxi and get back to her life. She recognized the pure cattiness of the gesture. But, she couldn’t feel bad about it.

“Do me the courtesy of never again giving me your back and walking away.”

She heard the anniversary clock chime noon. “Showdown time, R.F. Cairo.”

Tynan followed a hunch. She walked across the flagstone-floored, tapestry bedecked hall to the library. With the panel in his bedroom shutting out the sun, the lamp on the black marble top table beside the chair and the fire gave the only light.

It took four tries to work the mechanism. Then, the study door swung open on silent hinges. Wild flickering of the inner light told her the draft disturbed many candles. She entered, primed to face down Faelen.

He sat behind the big desk, a sheet of peach colored paper in his hand. On the credenza behind him and on the desk, many tapers burned. His ebony brows sat low above his eyes. Some unpleasant emotion turned down the corners of his wide, sensual mouth. He folded the paper, pushed it into a turquoise envelope. For a second, she thought he didn’t know she’d entered.

“Sometimes,” he murmured, “I wonder at human nature.”

“Like the rest of us don’t?” Tynan returned. She cursed herself the second after she replied. In a space of seconds, she’d placed herself back on bantering terms.
Taking the chair opposite him, she said, “I wanted to ask you what you’re doing about Blade.”

His whiskey-gold eyes glinted with intelligence. “Let me guess. You’ve decided to leave and you’d like to hear what I’ve done to eliminate his threat.”

“I have, and I do.”

Faelen leaned back in his chair. Over his steepled fingers, he studied her. “I put a man on Blade months ago. He tells me several of Blade’s followers have,” he paused for a fraction of a second, “left him.”

“That’s good news.” She felt a little uncomfortable beneath his intense regard. “I notice you don’t object to my plans to go.” Previously dormant feminine complexities surfaced. Little as she liked it, a sliver of her wanted objection. On principle.

“At this juncture, I chose to fight the battles when they come.”

“Ah.” She considered all she’d seen of him thus far. “You’ll wait until I leave to object.”

“Perhaps we won’t have to reopen the subject.”

Maybe tonight would provide a better time for her exit. She knew the house now, had a phone to call a cab. Armed with knowledge and a means of communication, she could leave without another scene. “Perhaps,” she agreed.

“I’m expecting a few special books to arrive tomorrow.” He rose and rounded the desk. “A journal and another of poems. Both written by a young woman in the latter part of the seventeen hundreds. You should find them of particular interest.”

“Bribery, Faelen?” Her collector’s instincts spiked. Books like that didn’t come along often.

“I hired an agent to track down your ancestry.”

Tynan stood. An eddy of surprise at the change of subject, and something like dread swirled in the pit of her belly. “I already tried. The only member of my Great grandmother died in a Devon retirement home ten years ago.”

He reached out and took her hand. “I’ve just heard from my agent,” he began in a gentle tone. “Your Great Grandfather Fitz Gerald sired twin illegitimate daughters. Their descendants, your relatives, live all over London, Bucks, Kent, and a few are in Greensted Epping near Brentwood.”

Tynan sat back down with inelegant suddenness. “Relatives.”

Faelen knelt at her feet, keeping her hand in his. “Thirty-seven of them. And, Tynan?”

She didn’t have to feel like an orphan anymore. “Thirty-seven.”

With his other hand he captured her chin, lifting her face. “The woman who wrote those books is an ancestor of yours. I bought them for you.”

Tynan tried to ward off the rush of tenderness. He’d done something amazing; transformed her from an isolated person to a member of a family again. Given her people who might have a sense of humor like hers, hair the same color or similar laughs. They lived an ocean away, but they lived. From now on, she wouldn’t have to go to a graveyard for a family reunion. All because he’d decided to do this for her.

She didn’t want to feel indebted. Her honor wouldn’t allow her to sneak off in the night given what he’d done. Clearing her throat to ease the tightness there, she said, “I don’t know how to repay you.”

Canting his head to the side, he regarded her from beneath lowered lids. “I didn’t do this to be ‘repaid’. I hated the idea of your missing the chance to meet relatives, if they existed.” Something she couldn’t identify moved over his face.

“Why?” She turned her face to the side, freeing herself from his hold. Looking back at him, she saw the way his lips had thinned. He kept her hand. She thought he wouldn’t relinquish the contact without an objection. At the moment, she lacked the energy to fight him. So, she let him have his way.

“I am the last of my bloodline, and I understand what you endured.”

“Why do so much for me?”

His amber eyes searched hers. For a moment he seemed to weigh his choice of words. “I’ve always known I’d recognize the woman for me. You are she.”

Tynan hadn’t expected that answer. “I caught on you wanted something from me. Don’t you think you’re confusing sexual attraction for something else?”

Candlelight poured over him. It cast deep shadows beneath his high cheekbones. “Confusion is rare with me.”

“You’re a man so accustomed to getting what he wants,” she replied, “you can’t accept it when somebody else’s desires conflict with yours.”

His mouth resumed the inviting carnality she’d come to anticipate. A provocative glow transformed his gaze to a weapon of seduction. Her heart somersaulted, her belly tightened and a receptive tingle spread over her skin.

“Our desires do not conflict.”

Tynan dragged in a deep breath. “I meant about my staying.”

He rubbed his thumb over the sensitive skin of her wrist, sending sensual delight coursing up her arm like a drug injected into her veins. “I don’t want ‘something’ from you. I want everything.”

Her breath arrested in her lungs. Liquid response pooled low in her pelvis, making her wet. Hot. She managed to shake her head. “I can’t. It’s too much.”

“Can’t what, ilshlava?” He leaned closer. “Does the passion we share frighten you?”

She found her self shrinking back in the chair; distance might prevent her from launching herself into his arms. “I told you.” Her breasts felt heavy within confines of her bra. “I don’t trust this. It’s like fairy glamour.”

“Trust yourself,” he answered. “Consider all that’s past between us.” The dark gold skin stretching over his chiseled jaw pulled tauter. “Tell me you can’t trust me.”

She sacrificed her dignity, and climbed out of the chair over the arm. It surprised her he relinquished her hand. Hoping her jelly-weak knees continued to support her, she faced him. “I don’t have time for an affair.”

Faelen came to his feet in a sinuous surge. He possessed the grace of an apex predator. “An affair doesn’t interest me.”

His meaning trickled in by degrees. “You’re thinking permanency?” An unwelcome idea raced through her brain. Now that she had family, she didn’t have to fear relationships. Deep down, she’d cowered at the notion of losing anybody else. Finding herself alone in the world again. She did not enjoy recognizing much of her isolation was of her own making.

“We are fated, ilshlava. Our passion for each other confirms this.”

Tynan caught herself before she shouted a denial. She gathered her tattered composure. “I think I’d better go now.” She nodded, seconding the motion. “It’s best for both of us.”

“Last night while I went out, twenty bodyguards and Shang protected you. All were prepared to preserve your life at the price of theirs.” He stepped closer. “How will you go on about your life with them surrounding you?”

“I won’t. I’ll go to the police,” she said. “They’ll send officers to protect me.”

Faelen turned and walked to the desk. “I’m going to end that argument.” He picked up his phone, punched in a series of numbers. A few seconds past. “Lieutenant Riker? This is Cairo.” A ghost of a smile flirted at the corners of his mouth. “I told you then, I’d carry it to my grave. But, I need to call in the favor. Could you stop by my beach house on your way home?” He paused. “That’s it. When shall we expect you? Fine. Until then.” He ended the call and placed the cell back on the polished top.



Faelen watched Tynan’s expressions. They changed with quicksilver speed. He’d hit her with too much, too fast. It seemed she would have trouble dealing with it all.

“Riker is a ten year veteran of SFPD,” he told her. “He entered the police academy to begin a second career after leaving the navy. I’m certain you’ll recognize him. Last year the city awarded him for bravery and heroism when he rescued two kidnapped boys from their captors.”

“Why do you need him?” she asked, once again displaying her ability to pull herself together. Her features smoothed. The set of her shoulders regained its customary pride.

“To tell you how the police can’t help you.”

“What if I plain old don’t care?”

“You will.” He returned to her side, conscious of the wild mix of fear, vulnerability and adrenaline-charged determination whirling within her. “He should arrive before one-thirty. Have lunch with me in the mean time.”

“Why does it seem you’re always staving me off with food?”

He smiled at that. “First of all, perhaps it’s in your mind. You always suspect me of having ulterior motives. Second, maybe you’re right. I could be using an ages old means of diplomacy; the breaking of bread.”

“I didn’t have breakfast,” she confessed. “I slept past ten.”

“Because you rose late, you felt you’d missed the meal?” His sharpened tone brought her gaze to his.

“I don’t want Karen, or anyone for that matter, waiting a meal for me.”

“If Karen realized why you skipped eating, she’d tell you this herself. I pay her, and all my staff, very well to take care of myself and my guests. If you want a soufflé in the middle of the night, or Beef Wellington mid afternoon, she’ll want you to tell her.”

Tynan’s delicate chin lifted. He knew the look. “I’m not like you. I don’t believe in buying people.”

Faelen swore under his breath. “Everything is all implications and injustice to you. I tire of bearing the brunt.” He captured her hand and took her with him as he quit the study and headed for the kitchen.

Just outside the flagstone hall, she dug in her heels. Faelen turned and looked at her. She must have sensed his mood. When he resumed his stride, she did not resist.

Karen stood at the stainless steel stove. Long wooden spoon grasped in her small, sinewy hand, she stirred a huge copper pot of what his nose identified as fresh marinara sauce. She glanced up, smiled, resumed her task. “Just in time.” Several other pots steamed and bubbled. “I decided to set the table in the solarium. There’s Beaujolais chilling on the table.”

“Serve,” Faelen said, “then join us for the meal.”

He allowed Tynan to pull her hand free. “I’ll help, Karen.”

She waved the offer away, replying, “Nonsense. Sit down. I won’t take a minute.”

Out in the solarium, Faelen seated Tynan. “Don’t lecture her for doing her job.”
She shot him a combative glance from the corner of her eye. “Don’t tell me what to do, or not.”

“Only when you need it,” he responded.

Tynan seethed, and he felt it. Although her anger reached him in pulsing waves, she held silent. Waiting to blast both he and Karen, no doubt. His mate shared her opinions generously.

Karen served a plate of antipasto. Faelen’s preternatural senses took in the scents, identifying each element. As his chef returned from the kitchen with a stack of eating ware, she set a place for herself. Karen, Eldon and Mrs. Pullman often dined with him and human guests. He watched Tynan study Karen’s easy manner as she served the first course and then took her seat.

Faelen noticed his mate did not even take up her fork as he poured the wine for them and the meal began. Shades of the night her friend had dined with them. “Karen,” he said, “please tell Tynan what the policy is here about meal schedules.

His chef froze for a second, forkful of tomato and cheese halfway to her mouth. She glanced at Tynan, then him. “What policy?”

Tynan leaned forward. “I have a problem with him paying you enough to assume slave status.”
Karen laughed merrily. He waited for her realize Tynan meant business. By degrees her brown eyes lost the sparkle of amusement.
Turning her face to Tynan, she responded, “No one in this house is treated like a slave.” She set down her fork on the edge of her plate. “We aren’t just the hired help. Everyone of us owes Faelen their lives. If not more.” Karen reached across the table and touched his mate’s hand. “He lets us do what we love, lead incredible, free lives, and still gives us enough we never have to worry. Even if something happened to him. He pays our expenses. Our wages are just for investing and fun. None of us have to work again.”
“That warrants enough loyalty to condone a felony kidnapping?” Tynan drew back her hand. “You would’ve concealed it if I’d continued to refuse to stay of my free will?”
Karen returned, “Yes. I trust him enough not to question him.” She leaned back in her chair, sighed. “I know he’d do the best thing. As he did for all of us.”
“The medieval mentality appalls me.”
Faelen cut in, “It’s the fact my people don’t object, that you object to.”
Tynan reclined in her chair. “I suppose I can’t incite a rebellion.”
Karen laughed again. She ruffled her close cropped white hair. “For our sakes, don’t save us.” Taking up her fork, she invited, “Shall we?”
Faelen watched to make certain his mate ate some of the salad, then fresh pasta with marinara. He sipped the imported French wine.
Conversation between the ladies grew more relaxed as the meal progressed. Karen served white chocolate mousse with raspberries, and coffee. As he watched Tynan sample the fluffy confection, he sensed Riker’s arrival at the door.
Shang, admit the lieutenant he sent. When he heard Riker’s step in the kitchen he said, “Our guest has arrived.”

The lieutenant entered the solarium and strode to the table. Faelen shoved back his chair and rose.

“Cairo,” the uniformed man greeted. Built big and broad, Riker cut an impressive figure.

“Thanks for coming, lieutenant.” Faelen skirted the table and shook hands with the tall, grey haired officer. “Lunch? Dessert?”

Adjusting the hat under his powerful arm, Riker shook his head. “No thank you.” His clear blue eyes moved to the women still seated. Inclining his head, he spoke to them. “Ladies, good afternoon.”

“You know Karen,” Faelen began, “this is Miss Tynan Singleton.

“Hello, Lieutenant,” Tynan greeted.

“Miss Singleton,” he acknowledged.

“Lieutenant, I’ve had some trouble with Blade.”

The older man’s brows lowered. He glanced back at the two females. “Perhaps we should leave the ladies to finish their coffee.”

Karen said, “I was just going to clear lunch.”

Faelen went to pull out her chair. “Thank you, Karen.” As he pushed it back in, he saw Tynan lay her red napkin on the table. He helped her up as well, feeling the tension within her crackle like lightning.

She didn’t waste time. “Lieutenant Riker, is it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I realize Mr. Cairo is a friend of yours. And from what I overheard when he called you, someone who has some thing to hold over you.” She seemed to take a visual inventory of Riker as she faced him. Faelen stood next to her, watching her expression. “I remember you from the news. And, I don’t like to think a man who risked his life saving two little boys, would submit to that kind of pressure.”

Faelen sensed Riker’s military dignity took the brunt of her words. The officer’s voice took on an edge. “I don’t understand.”

Tynan’s delicate jaw firmed. “Let’s talk plainly, lieutenant.”

Faelen caught the man’s uncertainty. “I asked you here for this, Riker. Tell her whatever she wishes to know.”

“I’ll do my best, Miss Singleton.”

“Perfect.” She smoothed a strand of hair over her ear. “This Blade character harassed me, trashed my apartment, and so I am told,” she glanced at him, “will try to do the same to me. Mr. Cairo seems to think San Francisco PD can’t protect me. I’ve trusted this, but now I’m having serious doubts. Give me your opinion.”

Faelen had known when he called Riker this would happen. He’d weighed the advantages with care. A revelation of this proportion would go easier coming from some one else, given her determination to resist him.

“You must know Blade’s very nature gives him the edge. He can move faster and make better alibis for his crimes. Who’d believe he killed you, if ten minutes later he was seen in a bar across town?”

Her brows lowered. She shook her head. “You mean these followers of his might do something. He’d be suspect, but because he didn’t do it, he’d have an alibi?”

Riker paused. Faelen knew the older man looked to him for direction here. “Spare her nothing.”

“In that case,” the other man began, “I mean, he could get past any officer, slaughter you, remove evidence, flee the scene, clean himself, and cause a disturbance somewhere else to create a solid alibi.”

“Yeah,” she scoffed, “water tight as a sieve. No jury in the world would buy into the thirty or forty minute time gap.”

The lieutenant cleared his throat. “Miss Singleton he could drain you dry, do the rest, and make that alibi in about ten, forgive my French, goddamn minutes.”

“Drain me dry?” She threw up her hands, let them fall to her sides. “I am Alice. Okay, White Rabbit, fill me in.”

“The chances,” Riker replied, “of you posthumously receiving a jury with someone on it who not only knew, but could convince the others, is probably less than your chances of getting attacked by a shark, while you’re standing dead center of an Iowa cornfield.”

Faelen felt her anger spike. She took a step toward the officer. “Someone who knew what?”

“He’s a vampire,” Riker returned, sounding almost impatient.

Faelen noted the way she began to react in anger at the response, then become amused. “Well, that puts it all in a different light.”

He decided to change her mood. “What the lieutenant told you is correct.” Her head turned, gaze locked on his.

“Vampire,” she returned, “like he thinks he’s Bela Legosi?”

“No,” Riker cut in, his brusque military manner coming to the front. “He’s a made vampire. He can get past any of our officers. He can kill you and get away with it.”

Her pale eyes brimmed with disbelief. “I see I’ve wasted my time. This is a house of lunatics, and people willing to collaborate their stories.”

Faelen shed his concerns for her. He wanted an end to the subterfuge. “Blade is a vampire made. He’s riven with jealousy. He hates me because I am a vampire born, and of a noble blood. I am a Magnus, capable of killing him and his easier than he can climb a flight of stairs.”

She crossed her arms over her full breasts. After a quick look at the lieutenant, no doubt assessing his reaction to the words, she returned her attention to him.

“Uh-huh.” Her complete unwillingness to consider anything they said as truth filled her voice. “Vampire feuds and killing sprees ... Wow. You’re too busy to baby-sit me. And, I don’t want to tie up a room. You’ll need all you have when Wolfman, the Monster and the Mummy come to visit.”

Faelen ignored her sarcasm. For the moment. “Blade’s anger stems mostly from the fact I came into this world an aristocratic member of an ancient race, and no matter what he does, or who he allies with, he will always be the bi-product of one of my kind’s feeding.”

“I can see where a guy might get sore at being considered leftovers.” Sarcasm dripped from her words.

This time it would not pass. “Lieutenant,” Faelen said, “Thank you for your time.”

He watched Tynan’s gaze follow the officer’s progress to the door. “Time for me to leave, too,” she announced. “I think your library is the only thing that kept me here these last few days. Thanks for everything, Faelen.”

She turned to go. He caught her waist in his hands and spun her to face him. “I told you never to turn your back and walk away again.”

Shock, then fury lit her eyes. They narrowed at him. “Take your hands off me.”

He tightened his grip. “My patience with you has reached its end. We’re repairing to a more private venue to settle this.”

“The only place I’m ‘repairing’ to, is home.”

“You’re going where I wish.” Hot, primitive response to her challenge sent an electric current through him. He’d tempered it too may times to do so now.

“I will not.” She grasped his wrists, but did not attempt to break his hold. “What’re you going to do, use that parlor trick?”

His canines tingled, stimulated by his simmering arousal. “No, ilshlava. It’ll be my great pleasure enforce my will a more barbaric way.”

Faelen bent and had her draped over his shoulder before her human reflexes could possibly react.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN


The world upended and whizzed past in a dizzying rush. Faelen’s hard shoulder dug into her belly, his hand pressed the small of her back. Tynan’s brain struggled to process the visual input. Her mental upheaval didn’t help. But, she identified the flagstone of the tapestry hall a heartbeat before she heard a heavy door slam and Faelen stopped. Down the length of his white denim clad legs, she saw him standing on shiny wood. Flickering fingers of yellow firelight twisted upon it.

The library.

Tynan contracted her lower back and righted herself. His strong arms released her with a sort of deliberate slowness. The second her feet touched ground, she stepped back and lashed out with all the hot emotion he provoked.

Faelen caught both her hands. “None of that.” The amber skin over his princely features seemed tighter, made them more pronounced.

As she had by the pool, Tynan experienced a sensation of danger. She did her best to ignore the visceral warning. “I’m done ‘taking your word’ and ‘trusting you’!”

Faelen scooped her up in his arms. “I’d hoped you’d listen.”

She fought him with every last reserve of strength. He restrained her with humiliating ease. “If you think the ‘private venue’ you’re carrying me to is your bed,” she panted, “you’re in for a news flash.” Her heart thundered. The combined stimuli of fear and fury made her light-headed. But, it wouldn’t stop her from fighting.

A moment later, he placed her upon the big red chaise before the ever crackling fire. She blinked, and found him half on top of her. He’d pinned her arms above her head with one powerful hand. A try proved his hold immovable. She realized he knelt beside the chaise, his torso covering hers.

“I’ve wanted this from the moment I met you,” he told her, his deep voice like rough velvet. His damnably handsome face hovered inches above hers.

Lava like response bubbled to life, flowing slowly through her with red hot potency. She hated herself for it. “What? The chance to force yourself on me?”

“A kiss.” He lowered his head a fraction.

Fear and anger mixed with her unwilling sexual excitement. It made a powerful cocktail. She shivered. “Don’t you dare!”

His mouth brushed over hers, warm and gentle, more of a coaxing than the ravishment she expected. “Open for me.”

Tynan pressed her lips together. Her belly fluttered.

Another whisper of a kiss. “Let me taste you, ilshlava.”

The seductive words poured over her like honey. She surged up in rebellion, attempting to kick. He ended her feeble effort with a shift of his lower body. Still determined to fight, she tried to use her teeth. His lips closed over hers and his silky tongue swept into her mouth.

Faelen groaned, a deep throated masculine purr. His sensual invasion went through her in a full broadside of libidinous delight. She couldn’t seem to make herself bite the source. Her eyes closed. Mind numb with pleasure, she did the only thing that occurred to her: she tried to conceal her tongue. But, he changed the angle of his head, and deepened the kiss. His tongue touched hers in an almost unbearably intimate caress.

“Don’t hide from me,” he murmured into her mouth. Catching her lower lip with his teeth, he gave a gentle tug. “Kiss me, mae ilshlava.”

Tynan knew she couldn’t continue even the illusion of resistance under this intense sexual coercion. She lifted her head from the chaise and returned the gesture. He released her hands and captured her face in his.

Nothing could have prepared her. He tasted wild and fresh as the air before a summer storm. Her breasts swelled against the wall of his chest. A sweet ache bloomed between her trembling thighs. She felt as if all the kisses she shared before, were only to punctuate the difference in their mediocrity and the cataclysmic carnality of this.

Tynan wrapped her arms around his corded neck. She clung to him; her only anchor amid a vortex of physical joy. When he pulled from her, she moaned a protest. Her tingling lips felt starved for his. By degrees, she opened her eyes.

“I want no misunderstanding between us,” he said. His face had hardened.
“I am vampyre.”

Reality came crashing back, bringing with it her wits. “What a nasty way to have my theory about this attraction proven. I can’t trust it.” She released him. “Not when it makes me forget the guy inspiring it has a serious mental problem.”

He made an animal sound of displeasure, eerily like the hiss she’d heard Blade make the night she and Faelen met. “Inside you’ve always known the truth. See me, Tynan.”

Faelen seemed to lose that smooth covering of urbanity. Although nothing of his appearance changed, he changed. A ripple of anxiety added its flavor to the mix of emotions seething inside her. She felt trapped and vulnerable, but didn’t struggle. Instead she went very still; the instinctual reaction of a prey animal in a predator’s presence.

“Get off me.” It disgusted her to hear the trepidation in her voice

Between his sculpted lips, snowy teeth glinted. “You begin to accept.”

Tynan considered another try at fighting him. The thought barely crossed her mind, when she found her arms pinned above her head again. Her heart thudded against her ribs, its rhythm syncopated and panicked.

She felt the yank, heard the rip a second before air rushed over her torso. Glancing down, she saw her ruined Henley parted down the front. The sight of her exposed bra shocked her. But, she had no time to react. A second later Faelen lowered his head and pressed his lips above her heart.

Prurient response lashed her. “No.”

“Feel what I can do,” he tempted. With his free hand, he unhooked her bra. It opened between her breasts. Their fullness kept it from parting. Before she could protest, his mouth moved over her skin. Gooseflesh spread in its wake. She felt his warm breath and an alarming rasp of sharp teeth. An almost violent trembling shook her limbs.

“Don’t,” she panted, fighting to control her body’s wanton reaction. “Stop it-”

His kiss ended her plea. The heated male demand in it evoked a melting low in her belly. Miserably, she realized if he did no more than strip her pants and slide into her, he’d find her wet and ready.

With that thought in mind, it made his unfastening the button of her jeans the more disconcerting. His big hand splayed across her belly. The muscles beneath quivered. Further protests died before she could speak them. Resistance cindered in the flame of desire. When his mouth left hers to blaze a fiery trail to the tops of her breasts, she couldn’t help herself. One animal response gave way to another. She clutched his shoulders.

Tynan didn’t know how long ago he’d released her. She didn’t care. Faelen pushed her opened bra apart. She gazed down at his dark head so near her tight nipples. Fascinated, she watched him rub his smooth cheek along the inner curve of her breast, lazily bringing him ever closer. His breath whispered over her sensitized skin, a heartbeat before she felt the sultry heat of his mouth close upon her.

Her back bowed. Vivid lust streaked from the erect peak to the pulsing flesh between her legs. Faelen spared not an inch of her breasts. He toyed with her, using his teeth and tongue as instruments of sensual torture.

He lifted his head. “Look what touching you does to me.”

Primitive sexual hunger sharpened the lines of his face. His eyes glowed the color of candlelight piercing crystal.

Tynan felt captured by his gaze. Transfixed, she let it chain her as he pulled off her boots and socks, unzipped her jeans and tugged them down her hips. Only her thin cotton panties shielded her now.

Faelen sat back on his heels. He unbuttoned his shirt and had it off almost too quickly for her to witness. At the sight of his bare torso, Tynan suffered a stab of feminine alarm. He rivaled a panther’s sleek, sinuous grace. And its danger. A sprinkling of shiny jet hair covered his wide chest. She’d never seen such an exquisite blending of lethal brawn and masculine elegance. Sensual greed replaced wariness.

He reached for her. His hands grasped her just above the knees, and slid up her thighs as he leaned forward. When he clasped her hips, his thumbs dipped beneath her panties. They smoothed over her most sensitive skin. Tynan blushed, felt the abundant wetness they met.

Faelen made a rumbling sound of masculine approval deep in his wide chest. A second later her panties sailed away and his mouth settled hotly over her.

Her body coiled, strung too taut to bear. A profound shiver wracked her from head to foot. The knot of passionate tension in her twisted. Even her scalp pulled tight.

Mae ilshlava, Il tonai othere este.

She heard it in her head. His voice twined through her brain in a seductive spiral. Carnal tension mounted so quickly, she feared only her skin held her together. Then, with an almost painful release, she climaxed.

Tynan heard her cry echo in the library. White hot pleasure lanced her, its ripples of ecstasy flowed outward over her. As if from a distance she knew her nails cut him. Then a backlash of orgasm whipped through her. Tynan’s hips bucked and she dug her fingers deeper.

Tears coursed down over her temples into her hair. Her lungs couldn’t seem to take in enough air. Every muscle in her body had turned to water.

A moment passed. Or many. She gazed down at his face inches from the apex of her thighs. She could smell his exotic scent. More pronounced with arousal. Provocative.

The ice water of reality dashed her in the face. Tynan scrambled from him, performing an unwilling encore of the earlier scene in the study. Half-falling from the chaise, she grabbed her jeans.
“Damn me,” she hissed, hooking her bra and trying to put on her jeans. Hopping in the process, she watched him come to his feet in a smooth surge. She saw strands of his hair pulled from the smooth que. Realizing she’d done it, she flushed. “I’ve made a titanic mistake. And I mean ‘Titanic’, huge and tragic.”

Faelen came toward her, all panther perfect grace and virility. His whiskey-colored eyes gleamed. “What troubles you most, ilshlava; realizing I am a vampire, or what you’ve let a vampire do to you?”

She yanked the edges of her torn shirt together and left her boots. “I regret everything!” Rushing toward the door, she heard a violent rip and cracking. Unable to deny her curiosity as she exited, Tynan glanced back.

Faelen stood over the ripped-in-half ruins of the red chaise.

Even from the door, she could see his elongated white canine teeth.

Vampire! her mind screamed.

Creatures of shadowy legends and violent gothic tales.

Vampire.



Faelen surveyed the results of his fit of temper. He hadn’t lost control this way in over one hundred fifty years. His rampant erection throbbed within the denim confines of his pants. He didn’t know if he should indulge her human fears, or hunt her down and have his mate. Perhaps he could do both.

As expected, he found her door locked. On the other side he heard her rushing around. Packing perhaps. All the discussion of her departing had been delay tactics on his part. He had no intention of letting her leave him. Ever.

“Tynan, open the door.”

“Leave me alone!”

“I won’t ask again.” He waited a few seconds. Nothing.

Faelen wedged his fingers into the hinge side of the frame, grasped the knob, and ripped the door free. He heard her cry of surprise as he dropped it and stepped through the threshold. With a glance, he noted she’d put on a tee shirt. She backed away, bumping into a chair during her retreat.

“Stay away.” Her voice shook. Near shock dilated her pupils.

He held out his hand to her. Advancing, he said, “Come to me.”

She didn’t take her eyes off him as she skirted the chair. Standing behind it, she replied, “Don’t come any closer.”

He moved forward slowly, continuing to offer his hand. “Let me end your fear.”

“No!” She shouted the denial. Her hands gripped the chair’s back so hard it turned her knuckles white. “I’m going home.”

Faelen’s proprietary instincts spiked. “I am your home; your shelter, your comfort.”

“You’re a monster!” The appealing apricot hue seemed to drain from her skin.

He’d witnessed her fear. However, without the tempering desire, it struck a sympathetic chord. “Let me hold you.”

“If you care anything for me, you’ll stand aside so I can go.”

“I care more for your life than my own,” he responded, trying to exercise patience. He closed the distance by another four strides.

Tynan glanced about, as if seeking any means of escape. Faelen decided to end the scene. He reached her, swept her up in his arms and had her halfway up the stairs to his bedroom before her human faculties could react. She struggled with admirable spirit. But, accomplished little more than rubbing her delectable body against him.

“Ilshlava, I need no arousing,” he told her.

As he anticipated, she went still in his embrace.

Faelen carried her to the bath, locked the door, then set her upon her feet. She listed to one side, before righting herself. Predictably, she rushed to the door, in an attempt to flee. He used a little-used kinetic ability he possessed, and prevented he lock from freeing.

“Tynan, I am the same man you’ve spent the past five days with. The man you gave carte blanche with your body not ten minutes past.”

When she’d twisted and yanked at the portal without success, she spun around to face him. “Why have you brought me in here?”

He drew upon his reserves of restraint. Sitting on the tub’s edge, he turned on the flow, flipped the drain lever and adjusted the temperature. Careful to move slowly, he removed his boots.

“A bath will relax you,” he explained. “And since I watched you in the pool, I’ve thought about how you’d look wet and naked.”

She astonished him by managing to perform her composure gathering act, even under this kind of stress. Her expression calmed. She took a deep breath and said, “I swear upon my parents’ souls, I won’t make trouble for you. I just want to leave.”

Faelen checked the level of the water. He pulled out the camouflaged drawer in the Anubis statue standing in the corner near the mirror. He struck match to tender and lit the fat candles along the tub’s back edge. “How could you allow me to make love to you with my mouth, and now fear me?”

The color rushed back into her face. “I admitted my mistake.”

He adjusted the candles so their flames reflected in the long mirror behind the tub. “Yes. After I’d brought you to orgasm.”

Faelen watched her battle her fear and pride. She tucked loose strands of hair behind her ears, opened her mouth and shut it without speaking.

“I suppose,” she replied after several moments. “I didn’t expect the first real kiss you gave me to extend below the neck.”

“Yet you trusted me. Let me have you that way,” he persisted.

“I didn’t believe you.” Tynan’s composure slipped a bit. Rubbing her forehead, she added, “I thought you were ... ”

“Insane?” he offered and cut off the water.

She flushed.

“I see.” He waited until she began to fidget. “You found allowing a madman to do the things I did acceptable. Permitting the same with a vampire, you do not.”

“You’re twisting my words. Maybe I just couldn’t think at all.” Tynan’s gaze rose to the glass arching above the tub. Then, she looked at him. “How can you ... stand the daylight?”

“Come here.” He held out his hand, and waited.

After a long tense moment, she crossed to him. She hesitated, her fingers hovering above his, then placed her slender hand within his grasp. Faelen tugged her closer.

Meeting her gaze, he answered, “I was born in 1683 to vampire parents. The sun poses less danger to me than you.”

“So, you aren’t ... human?”

Faelen felt her slight shivering. “I am vampire. The last of my line, sole heir and keeper of the House of Cairo.” Bringing her hand to his mouth, he kissed the back, then turned it over and did the same to the palm.

“I don’t think I want to have a bath with you watching,” she told him, voice hardly above a whisper.

“I’ve exercised more patience with you than I knew I possessed.” He released her hand. “If only for tonight, let me have my way. Tomorrow you can renew the rebellion.”

Her eyes narrowed at him. Her chin lifted. “I’ve learned for every inch I give, you take a mile.”

“Tynan, would you deny the pleasure I can give, only to congratulate yourself for having done it?” Faelen knew she would try. He wanted her to see the err in her logic.

“I don’t understand any of this. About what you are...” Her words trailed away. She let out a long breath. “For all I know, you’re going to ‘drain me dry’. Isn’t that how the lieutenant put it? God, that sounds so crazy out loud.”

Enough of that. He changed tactics.

Faelen slid his arms round her and pulled her between his thighs. “Don’t you want to get in with me? Baths this big are made for lovers.”

“I’m not good at this kind of exchange.”

He took one arm from her waist and curved his hand around her nape. Sitting on the high marble edge put him several inches lower than her. “Then just kiss me.”

She trembled. “That’s how it started before.”

He urged her to him. Her mouth touched his with charming shyness, considering what he’d done to her.

Tynan made a soft sound he recognized. He pulled her nearer, and delved in to taste the whimpering moan. Every beat of her heart brought the perfume of her blood to him. Beckoning.

Her tongue touched his with a tentative, questioning lightness. Although he felt like swallowing her whole, he let her explore his mouth as he had hers. He sat, acquiescing despite the ache of his upper jaw and swollen erection. When her hands brushed over his shoulders and her arms circled his neck, his control faltered. He tightened his hold on her waist and nape.

I want inside you

She lifted her head a bit, “I know. I can feel it.”

Faelen opened his eyes. I knew you could hear sending

“It was,” she rubbed her lips along his jaw, “hard to accept.”

You feel how much I want to taste the essence of you? You know what else I desire?

“It scares me.”

He turned her head, covered her mouth with his and kissed her with all the passion raging in him. Without reason. Forget everything you’ve seen and heard.

Faelen relinquished his hold. He rose from edge of the tub and peeled her tee from over her modest bra. A juggernaut of lust shot straight to his cock. Need gripped him.

Undress for me

Tynan’s long-fingered hands went to the waistband of her jeans and unbuttoned them. The slide of the zipper made his canines tingle. A tempting glimpse of apricot-skinned belly met his gaze.

I’ve exhausted my patience, ilshlava

She pushed the jeans down her hips. They pooled at her ankles, and she stepped out of them. The little wedge of mahogany hair at the apex of her thighs made him doubt his assurance to her. Mayhaps she should fear.

He saw her hands tremble as she removed her final garment. She moved round his leg and stepped into the steaming water.

Tynan sank back and stretched out her long legs. “If I play pliant maiden, I want the pleasure.”

Faelen shed his remaining garments and joined her so fast she gasped. Settling behind her, he turned her to face him. Look at me Water lapped a the high sides of the tub.

His mate drew her legs up beneath her. She blushed as their bodies came into more intimate contact. Then met his gaze.

He settled his hand upon her hips. Mae ilshlava

“What does that mean?” she asked, sounding breathless.

My fated

“What did you say earlier?”

He didn’t have to guess as to when. The lingering taste of her recalled it.

My fated, I will have no other