FicWad

CHAPTER FOURTEEN


Tynan reached out with one shaking hand to touch his mouth. “I saw long, sharp teeth. Felt them on my skin. But not when you kissed me, or,” she paused, tried to find a delicate way to say it.

“I control them.”

“Show me.”

“Later,” he equivocated. She knew the tone. It meant he intended to sidestep the request.

Taking a deep breath, she replied, “The unknown frightens me most.”

Faelen pulled her forward until her breasts flattened against his chest. Steaming water lapped at the sides of the marble tub. His body seemed impossibly hard, like steel covered in smooth dark skin. A familiar liquid response pooled low in her belly.

Arguments and answers tomorrow

“No.” Tynan forced back the sensual fog clouding her mind. “Some questions can’t wait.”

Faelen regarded her from beneath lowered lashes. He waited with a predatory sort of indulgence, like a wolf giving a rabbit time to plead for its life before he devoured it.

“I’m not on the pill, for one thing,” she gave as case and point.

“That’s a statement, not a question,” he pointed out. “And, I know this.”

“From pawing through my things?” she asked, still a bit sore at his having done it.

“I would smell it if you were. The scent would come through your skin.”

She needed a moment to gather her thoughts. Finally, she told him, “We’ll have to take precautions.”

“Inter-species inception is very rare. The chances of you conceiving with me is less than one in a million. No contraceptive in the world can boast those odds.” His hands moved over her back, restless and hungry.

His matter of fact reply made her cheeks heat. “There’s still diseases and-”

“I am immune to human illness, and cannot pass them along.” One big hand cupped the back of her head. Wrap your arms around me, and kiss me again

Tynan did. She loved kissing him. He possessed a wondrous talent for transforming a simple action into a sultry courtship of mouths. Her entire body seemed to shudder, then sigh away its inhibitions.

Still, the image of his elongated, snowy canines lingered in her mind’s eye. She’d never considered herself the kind of female who might get a thrill from dangerous, sexual adventure. Like it or not, Faelen showed her parts of her psyche she hadn’t known existed.

He pressed his other hand flat at the base of her spine, pressing her belly against his intimidating erection. The heat of him surprised her almost as much as the size. He seemed far hotter than the water, capable of astonishing sensual mayhem. Nothing in her amiable affairs had prepared for that, either.

Faelen brought his knees up behind her, moving her forward to sit directly on top of his steely length. Tynan gasped into his mouth. The cleft of her sex cradled him. It was as provocative as if he’d entered her. More so, maybe. As he gave his hips a lazy flex, his erection slid over her slippery skin, stimulating that ultra sensitive nubbin nestled in the slick folds.

You’re more wet than the water

Tynan whimpered. He stroked her tongue with his, nibbled her lips, and repeated the wicked caress. His hands settled on her waist, moving her the opposite way he did. It created an intense sensation; a slow, deliberate glide of her softness against his hardness.

She gripped his shoulders, dug her fingers into the sleek brawn rounding them. With her feet on the floor of the tub on either side of his hips, she lie open to him. Although she held the dominant position, she knew he controlled the situation.

He gave her mouth a thorough, delicious ravishing. Her taut nipples rubbed over the lightly furred wall of his chest. Between her thighs, their bodies slipped and slid in a blatant imitation of mating. The prurient feelings swamped her. She felt his as well, knew his desire fed hers. Passion pooled around them as surely as the lapping water.

Tell me you want me

“Yes,” she panted, on fire and shameless. “Inside me.”

He shifted his hips. The wide blunt tip of his erection nudged the threshold of her body. I won’t hurt you, fated one. Let me in.

Tynan had no time to answer or object. He pulled her hips down and pushed into her. Her breath caught. She knew he couldn’t have entered more than three or four inches, but her inner muscles had to stretch to accommodate his width. Gooseflesh broke out upon her skin and her breasts felt full and heavy. Even her fingertips and toes tingled.

Inch by glorious inch, he buried himself in her. He left room for nothing else. Impaled upon him, she threw back her head, and reveled in the unbelievable sensations. Her legs shook and the world spun on a giddy axis. Reality retreated, leaving her sequestered in a candlelit bath with a lover of deliciously potent virility.

One of his hands remained upon her waist; a casual reminder of his dominion. The other cradled the under curve of her breast. His thumb teased the tight peak. Libidinous delight streaked down to the pulsing flesh wrapped taut around his erection.

I’m in your mind, your body.

Her entire being shivered in answer. Faelen began to move within her. Sensual bliss became nirvana. The luscious drag of withdraw and liquid pleasure of return undid her. She went wild, moving upon him without inhibition or shame. He encouraged her with husky words in his foreign language.

Tynan reached a crisis. Her muscles quivered, the blood in her pounded like kettle drums, and the fire of lust flamed to its zenith. Longer than she believed she could endure, the moment before release stretched. She fancied she heard the snap of finale that sent her over the peak.

A heartbeat after her world shattered, Tynan felt the scalding explosion of her lover’s orgasm. He erupted into her with meteoric force. Her half-scream of pleasure echoed in the bath. She clung to him, and subsided into a long shuddering finish.

Faelen’s hands moving upon her returned Tynan to awareness. She lifted her head from his wide shoulder. Inside her, he remained firm.

She wiped her brow with a wet hand. “I’ve never enjoyed a bath so much.” Remembering his words, she said, “Though I can’t agree with the relaxation idea.”

He kissed her, mated his mouth with hers. Time slid past. He ended the kiss, leaned back, gazed up at her. “Let’s dry off.”

Tynan sighed. “I don’t think I can move.”

In a swift surge, Faelen lifted her from him, turned her in his arms and stood. He stepped from the tub and carried her into the bedroom. She felt the raw silk of the spread cling to her damp skin, as she nestled upon it.

“I still need you, ilshlava”

Glancing down, she saw his semi-erection. Her cheeks stung with instant heat. “I see you do.”

“I want to taste you. Have you inside me”

“You’ve lost me.”

Faelen fixed her with an intense gaze. I am vampire

Uncertainty made her draw the black cover over her nakedness as she sat up straight. “You have to understand, Faelen, it’s going to take time for me to accept. I can’t deal with everything at once.”

“You would deny me?”

His flat tone sent an apprehensive shiver down her spine. “It’s my right.”

The swift anger that flared in his eyes juxtaposed the ice in his voice. “I am your mate.”

He gave the impression the title meant a great deal to him. She’d hoped to postpone hashing out this issue until another time. “No,” she returned, smoothing a loose strand of hair from her cheek. “You’re a playmate. A spectacular one,” she allowed. “But nothing more.”

“First you call me a monster. Now, a plaything.” He stepped closer, a study in masculine perfection, seeming as confident naked as clothed. She marveled at his security in his beauty. “Make up your mind.”

Wrapping the spread more tightly around her, she scooted sideways. The raw silk caught upon itself. It took two tries to free it from the bed and reach the edge. Although she didn’t see him move, he suddenly blocked her way.

“Faelen, I don’t have the luxury of indulging myself with you more than tonight.” She gazed up at him. The dimples bracketing his sensual mouth had deepened, and the bronze skin over his slanted cheekbones appeared twice as taut. “And it looks like the party’s over.”

“I promise you, Tynan,” he said, voice soft and flat, “you will not have me for your plaything.”

“All right.” Her combative nature took over. She met his gleaming eyes. “Then I suppose that leaves the role of monster.” She rose, and would have stepped around him.

One second she stood beside the bed, the next she lie upon it. Faelen’s big hard body stretched atop hers. His desire hit her in a full broadside.

As you wish

He stripped the cover from between them with terrifying ease. Knife-edged anger sliced through her; as did her answering passion. She recalled the way it felt to have him buried inside her. With the memory so fresh, she responded to him despite her temper.

Faelen lifted one of her legs over his arm. He pushed just a bit into her body. The blazing heat of him astonished her as much as the first time. Her heart lurched and she bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. His dark head lowered. She felt his lips touch the hollow of her throat. He anchored his fingers in the loosened knot of her hair, pulled her head back until she arched up from the mattress. Faelen buried his erection to the hilt the same instant she felt sharp teeth penetrate her.

A microsecond’s pain stabbed downward from his mouth, then, an invasive force drew fierce, clawing pleasure through her veins. Survival instinct caused her to panic at the dangerous intrusion. She shoved at him even as her hips bucked up to meet his driving thrusts. The opposing sensations of want and anxiety battled for dominance.

Objections to his proprietary use of her would not emerge. She heard herself moan, raked her nails down his back.

Faelen’s hot mouth drew upon her. The force whipped at her over stimulated nerves, assaulting them with a stinging mix of pleasure and pain. He surged and subsided within her like a battering ram. In her state of sexual avarice, her mounting physical tension won the war. Rainbow-hued lights danced behind her closed eyelids. The knot of arousal twisting in her pelvis gave with monumental release.

Tynan’s world went nova. Then she felt a strange giddiness. Some still functional portion of her brain recognized the affects of sudden substantial blood loss.

She managed to lift her heavy lids, as he erupted inside her. His neck was arched, head thrown back. White canines glistened between his parted lips. Lips dark with what he’d stolen from her.

Her heart kicked against her ribs, and her hands went to the base of her throat where she’d felt his teeth. Only smooth skin met her fingertips.

When she felt his gaze upon her, Tynan looked up at him.

“Now, I’m a monster.”

He left her body, and her lying there. Residual fear and a degree of shock made coherent thought difficult. The backlash of sensual gratification, and his unnatural intrusion, blended with the slight soreness from his feral lovemaking. She blinked back the involuntary tears, brought the wrinkled cover back over her and sat up.

Faelen emerged from the bath maybe five minutes later. He’d taken down his hair and it hung smooth and shiny to his bare shoulders. A pair of black brushed cotton jeans encased his slim hips, disappeared into black boots. His amber eyes gave nothing away as he looked at her.

“You should sleep,” he told her, tone detached enough it made her wonder what he strove to conceal.

“It’s early,” she returned. “I’m going to shower and call a cab.”

“You aren’t going anywhere.” Faelen took a heavy silver necklace from the bedside table top and placed it over his head. Lifting his hair free, he said, “You need to lie down before you start moving around. The dizziness will pass after you’ve rested.”

Tynan found her chaotic thoughts clearing. She noticed the subtle sheen his bizarre communion had cast over him. His hair seemed shinier, bronze skin gleaming with enhanced vitality. She could almost hear the crackling energy that surrounded him. Though she wished she felt angry enough to hate him for what he’d done against her wishes, she admitted to herself she did not.

Then a horrific idea struck her. “Omigod,” she exclaimed, gripped with horrible panic, “I won’t become like you, will I? What have you done?”

“Calm yourself,” he replied, unruffled and more remote than ever. “That can only occur if I drained you to the point of death, then fed you my blood.”

“You mean mine,” she countered, still shaky. “Mine’s in you.” His earlier statement made sense now.

“Yes.” Faelen opened the sliding glass doors which lead to the balcony. “Stay abed, Tynan. Obey me in this.”

He closed the doors behind him. She sat there, alone with an enormous amendment to reality as she knew it. It wouldn’t settle in at once. But, some trickled into place.

Vampires existed. How many, she wondered. Faelen and Blade couldn’t make up the populous. The lieutenant treated the matter with casual frankness. Faelen’s employees must all know. Who else?

Her curiosity suppressed her apprehension. It became real to her with a swiftness that surprised her. She wanted answers. Needed to understand the world she’d unwittingly become part of.

She climbed from the bed despite the woozy sensation that rushed up to plague her. It didn’t prevent her from dressing and returning to her room for a shower and change.


Tynan followed her hunch, and made her way to the grey stone tower jutting up from the rocky slope. By the time she reached the entrance, her legs shook. The security keypad blinked red. To gain entry and not trigger the alarm, she’d most likely have to come up with the code in one or two tries.

She punched in R-F-C-A-I-R-O.

It beeped. The digital panel read ‘re-enter’.

She inhaled, cleared her mind for a second, and let her imagination work. He’d use something more subtle, less easy to guess. Probably in that foreign language. From nowhere, she pulled a word. It printed itself upon her mind, like type upon paper.

F-E-I-L-I-S.

Although she had no idea what it meant, or where it came from, she went with it. The alarm gave her a green light. She tested the door, found it had unlocked.

Tynan felt the chill of the early evening in spades within the stone structure. Darkness cloaked everything. Bone numbing cold sank in its icy claws. She regretted not wearing a coat with the sweatshirt, jeans and loafers. Drawing upon her memory, she felt her way to the spiral stairs and began to ascend.

Around the first turn she glimpsed light. Warmth brushed her as well. Invited by both, she climbed higher. The strain created by her nagging dizziness added difficulty as she approached the top. She kept one hand on the cold, rough wall.

Tynan paused just as she reached Faelen’s room at the top. A single large window let in grey light. Dozens of tall fat column candles lit the room. The Japanese brazier they’d used on the beach burned several feet from him.

She saw him standing before a canvas washed in black. His broad shoulders prevented a better view. He worked with blurring speed, using almost wild strokes. Beside the easel stood an innovative palette stand on rollers. It supported a large tray dotted and smeared with myriad shades of peach, earthy red, brown and cream. A small patch of yellow-green perched at one edge. On a traditional palette, held in his hand, white and black paint created a twisted array of greys.

“Faelen?”

He whirled to face her. His amber eyes glowed like a wolf’s. A savage intensity sharpened his aristocratic features. He didn’t seem to recognize her. Sharp-set elemental reaction made her hold up a defensive hand.

“I made a lucky guess at the code,” she explained.

He fixed her with an intimidating stare. “You could not know the Vhumpeer word.”

Tynan held her ground. “I got in, didn’t I? Maybe the mind thing you do works both ways.” Recalling his crack about obedience, she found the grit to take the final three steps. “You get into mine. I get into yours.”

He gave his dark head a shake. A strand of inky hair caught in the light pelt covering his wide chest. It drew her attention to a few flecks of dried paint there. Something about that struck her like a fist. Maybe the fact she hardly saw him looking less than perfect. Whatever. It hit a tender spot.

“It means, the last.” Faelen switched the fan brush he held to his other hand. “It will reset itself behind you. Go away.”

Tynan resisted the urge to submit. Fatigue made her want to give in, not her nature. She swiped the back of her hand over her clammy brow. “I’ll ‘obey’ that order like I did the one to stay ‘abed’.”

“You must learn to obey.”

His image swam before her eyes. Her knees turned to jelly. “I will not.”

She refused to faint. It had always seemed a self-indulgent show of dramatics. A few unsteady steps carried her to a durable looking sea chest situated flush as possible to the curved wall. She seated herself, leaned back against the stone. It’s cold uneven surface offered little comfort.

“Do you test me?” he demanded.

Tynan ignored the question. As her vision cleared, she eyed the way he stood with his feet braced wide apart, the compressed line of his chiseled lips. “You’re just aching to smash something. If either of us deserves a tantrum, it’s me. You got what you wanted, despite my telling you no. So, why the attitude?”

“You did not answer my question,” he replied in the same indifferent tone he’d used in his room. “Shall I demonstrate again how easily I can enforce my will?”

“Ah.” Realization dawned like the sun after two years of rain. “My show of rebellion doesn’t anger you. You like it. You’re pissed because you lost that iron-clad self-possession you seem to pride yourself on.”

He closed the distance between them.

Tynan caught sight of the canvas as he moved away from it. “My God! I looked like that?”

He’d painted her lying upon the black silk spread, shown from above, the angle he’d gazed down at her from. In the hour or less since, he’d captured the image with astonishing clarity and realism. Although lacking the final refinements and details, the painting almost breathed.

She stared at herself, shocked by the mix of gratified carnal appetite, yielding and fear upon her face. Her flushed body offered sex; limbs long and inviting, breasts jutting up from her rib cage. Taken as a whole, she looked like some virile demanding man’s mistress, freshly ravished and submissive.

The shoe fit all too well.

Tynan blushed. “I don’t think I like her.” The doppelganger on the canvas made her feel uncomfortable. Vulnerable. And worse, intrigued.

Faelen knelt before her. “I haven’t behaved like I did in over a hundred years.”

“Are you pissed at me for provoking you, or yourself for letting me?”

“Both, ilshlava.”

Until he used the endearment, she hadn’t realized how she’d wanted to hear it. That kind of reaction promised trouble. “It’s done. Let it go.”

He did. She knew, because she saw the relenting in him. His eyes lost their wildness, his bare shoulders relaxed from their rigidity. By degrees, he smiled. A dazzling show of white teeth and long masculine dimples.

Tynan touched his lips. “Show me.”

His smile vanished. “Sure?”

“Yes.”

Faelen captured her wrist, moved her fingers into his mouth. A second later she felt his canines pushing down between them, hard, slick and smooth as ivory. She witnessed their swift metamorphosis from even to pointed, elongating perhaps a fourth of an inch past the line of his other teeth.

She tried to pull back her hand. He held it fast for a moment, moving her fingers over their sharp points. The memory of them sliding into her remained vivid. Almost panicked, she jerked in an attempt to free herself.

He released her hand, dropped the brush and gathered her into his arms. “Kavnae, ilshlava.”

The inky silk of his hair brushed her cheek. His warm skin of his bare chest and arms wrapped her like a blanket. He cupped a large hand around back of her head.

Pulse racing from alarm, Tynan hesitated, then embraced him. She inhaled the erotic musk and incense fragrance of his sleek skin, noting the subtle changes arousal and anger had wrought. She loved his scent. It reassured and attracted her at once. A drugging combination. The kind that could make a woman do things she’d blush and sigh over in the morning.

Or evening, she thought, the things she’d done with him returning in a sultry rush.

“I won’t let you leave me,” he said into her hair. The heat of his breath made her shiver.

“You mean, you’ll try to stop me” She realized she’d probably have paint on her now.

“I’ve already scheduled my jet for us in the morning. We’re leaving for England to meet your relatives.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Faelen watched Tynan sleep. Although his gaze traveled over her features, he thought of her mind for the moment. It had required vast convincing arguments and subtle bribes on his part to convince her to go willingly to England this morning. She’d not relented without a fight.

Her lips parted and she gave a soft, purely feminine moan. The violet shadows beneath her thick lashes told him how he’d exhausted her. A faint darkening of her lips betrayed the affects of his demanding mouth. The stamp of the effects of his passion on her made him hard all over again.

Mine, he thought.

His internal clock told him they had less than two hours before the scheduled departure. “Mae ilshlava, resi ve.”

She rolled onto her belly and buried her pretty face in the pillow. “G’way.”

Faelen chuckled. “Resi ve.”

“No habla,” she said, words muffled.

He would see she learned his language. For now, he responded in kind. “Es manana, querida. ”

“Aaaaggghhhh.” Tynan flipped onto her back and swung the pillow at him. “I wish I’d lied about having a current passport.”

He plucked it from her grasp, tossed it in the floor. “I’ve been wondering why you did. Planning a trip or already had one?”

“Last year Lam went on a buying trip to France. I’d planned to go, too, then decided I couldn’t afford it.”

“Any last minute requests,” he queried. “I can have someone make a quick visit to the apartment and meet us at the airstrip.”

She shook her head. “Whoever went last night got what little I needed.”

Three days from now, they had an appointment at an exclusive boutique on The Strand. Between now and then he had to convince her to go along with his intention to have the proprietress outfit her for the rest of their trip. Especially, the parts she did not yet know they would take.

Tynan wrinkled her creamy-skinned brow. “Are you sure you can leave your guests like this?”

He smoothed the little lines with his finger. “When they arrive Fen will explain the circumstances. The hospitality of the house will remain theirs.” Faelen omitted they’d all attend the same Halloween Masque he and Tynan would, at Lord and Lady Paris’ residence in Paris, All Hallows Eve.

Faelen took her hand and held it to his bare chest. Despite what she would allow him to do to her once he’d aroused her, she did not offer her touch. Not the way he gave his to her. He’d remedy that, and the way she tried to retreat after sex.

She glanced at her hand upon him. “Shouldn’t we get moving?”

He saw straight through to her spine. She’d attempted the same ploy last night; to deny him until she could no longer. His mate feared her response to him. He theorized something she’d seen his painting of her caused it.

He leaned down, brought his mouth close to hers. “Cressner will wait.” He’d decided not to make love to her again until she initiated it. But make it a damn supreme priority to induce her to action.

“You know the pilot?” She pushed at him for a tell-tale second.

“I employ him.” Faelen sank his fingers into her tumbled hair. The warm silk of it made his belly tighten. He watched her face, saw the way her pupils dilated, and lips parted. “I can smell my skin on yours. Do you know what it does to me?”

“I can feel it poking my hip.” She blushed the instant she replied.

“Sore?” He traced her top lip with his tongue, nipped the lower. Knowing he’d snare himself in the plot, he nonetheless resolved to see it through.

She wiggled her fingers in his grip, but lifted her head to increase the contact. “A little.”

“I could,” he shifted lower in the bed, pressed his mouth to her throat. She sucked in a sharp breath. He dragged the sheet from her, bent, kissed her smooth belly. “Kiss it better.”

Tynan moaned. She pulled her hand from his, scooted up a bit. He allowed it, studying her.

“I should ... jump in the shower.”
F
aelen steeled himself to the desire raging in him. “All right.” He rolled to the bed’s edge and stood. Naked and aroused, he gave her a moment to look at him. She seemed confused. Good, it told him she expected him to ‘force’ her again. Alleviate her of guilt.

“Ladies first,” he told her, dragging on his pants. “I’ll tie up a few details.”

Faelen turned his back as he buttoned the fly over his rampant erection. Not an easy task. He walked into his dressing room, pulled a clean shirt over his head and slipped his feet into a pair of low Cassock shoes.

He stopped by the bed, where she sat amid the twisted bedclothes, a sheet clutched to her bosom. “Kiss me, ilshlava.”

Her loose hair flowed over her naked body, in a display so inviting, for an instant he reconsidered his plan. Refusing to accept less than everything, he girded himself. She tucked her knees under her, rose, and reached for him with one slim, apricot-skinned arm.

Faelen bent and let her press her sweet lips to his in a brief kiss, all the while battling the fierce urge to push her back on the bed and bury himself in her tight wet heat. He left her there, and descended the stairs.

As she’d slept last night he’d phoned his domestic staff in London , Yvette’s boutique, Lady Iolanthe and Lord Dougray in Paris and Kai, on whose Pacific island they would spend a week. This morning, he need only confirm last minute details. Entering his study, he made the necessary calls.

Faelen finished, left his study, crossed to the stairs and ascended to his boudoir. Tynan stood packing her purple duffel. She wore her hair up in a simple knot, a blue blazer over a white oxford, jeans and heavy tread loafers. A sharp tang of defensive anger underscored the scent of her stimulated body and peach body lotion.

He’d anticipated this. Rather than soothe her, he wanted her to steam and steep until she attacked him. Her outbursts of anger he could easily convert to passion, he’d learned.

“I’ll not take long.” He entered the bath, showered, and dressed within fifteen minutes. In the hours while Tynan slept, he’d attended details, packed and sent his bags with Eldon. Only getting to the airport demanded his attention now.

Tynan had taken her bag and descended to the library he saw, as he emerged from the bath. He observed her when he approached the stairs. She stood before the hearth, staring into its dancing flames. The little frown line he expected at such moments, creased the smooth skin between her elegant brows.

Faelen would bet his worldly belongings his earlier actions inspired it. She definitely wanted sex without the guilt, liked the idea of his ‘forcing’ her. He would not give her the luxury of ‘victimhood’ again.

He joined her. She did not take her eyes from the fire. Still, he felt her attention shift to him. For a long moment he did not speak. Then, he gathered her to his side. She resisted enough to save pride, he thought, then curved into him.

“It pleases me you’ve agreed to the trip,” he told her.

“I don’t think I’m pleased with myself.” She did not try to pull away from him.

“Don’t berate yourself for chasing a rainbow.”

Tynan turned in his half embrace. Her sparkling eyes searched his. “Am I chasing one?”

“Yes.” Faelen gathered her closer, until her full breasts pressed low on his chest. “You should. If we don’t take chances, explore, we do not live.”

“Even,” her tone changed, “vampires.” Self-defensive doubt drenched her words.

Faelen released her. “I recognize this ground.” His temper began to simmer. “Back to ‘Bela Legosi’ mentality.” He took her shoulders into his hands. “Tell me.”

“I believe,” she confessed, “I may have been snowed. You could’ve faked -- everything. Anything-- to suit your purpose.”

“It occurred to me you might not have truly accepted.”

“I only know what I think I saw or believe I felt,” she contended.

Faelen forced himself to calm. He risked much in giving her a family, an anchor to the world of the uninformed humans. “That doesn’t concern me.”

Her eyes widened and her lips parted. A swift intake of air told him the effect of his words. “Excuse me?”

“I worry over your reaction to the truth. Not doubt.”

Tynan rubbed her forehead. “I just don’t know.”

He picked up her bag and took her hand. “We’ve a plane to catch.”



Faelen ignored her silent treatment as they flew to JFK. He read the financial reports his London solicitor faxed him the day before, a follow up from the investigator who’d discovered her relative’s, and made entries into his computer log. When the jet touched down to top off the fuel tanks, he offered her lunch on the town.

“No thanks,” she replied, maintained the same coolness she had during the cross-country flight. Her slim nose remained buried in the Ripping Jack book Karen loaned her.

I know a place not far from here,” he persisted, “an inn that serves wonderful food.”

She shook her head. “I’d rather not have to get off and back on.”

Faelen caught his flight attendant, Brigitte’s, attention. “Dejeuner pour une, sil vous plait.”

“Qui’est-ce vous desirez?”

“Du poisson.”

Brigitte nodded. “Oui. Tout de suite.”

Tynan marked her page, closed the book and set it aside. “I didn’t catch much of that.”

He stretched out his legs. “I ordered you lunch.”

“Oh.” Silence for a moment.

His vampire senses detected fear and anger. The anger he realized stemmed from him. “Tynan,” he clasped hands with her. “Was this your first flight?”

“Yes.”

“You all right?”

“No.” After a brief hesitation, she said, “I’m terrified.”

“Tell me why.”

“Because the last time I saw my parents they were getting on a plane.”

Faelen digested that, considered her canceled trip to France. “The trip you were to take with Lam. Did fear or finances change your mind?”

“Fear mostly.”

If not for the issues he had to settle with her, he could have kept her in the jet’s stateroom, too busy to worry. “You hid your emotion well in San Francisco.”

“It seemed like if I let anything out, I’d fall to pieces.”

“You should have told me.”

“I managed.”

He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. “I’ll have Brigitte bring wine with your meal.”

“Tell her to bring the bottle.”

Faelen smiled.


By the time they stopped to refuel, the late night, heavy meal and two glasses of wine had taken their toll. She fell asleep not long after take off. He carried her back to the stateroom and placed her on its big bed. Pulling back one side of the white spread, he covered her.

He would have far preferred ditching his plan to make her come to him. But as he’d told her, he wanted everything.

The hours past quickly. When the pilot, Cressner, announced over the intercom they’d land at Heathrow within twenty minutes, Faelen went to wake Tynan. He leaned down and kissed her mouth. Lips soft and flushed from sleep tempted him to further taste. She moaned low in her throat and opened for him. Faelen ended the kiss when she reached for him. He knew the limits of his ability to resist.

We’re about to land in London

Her sable lashes stirred, lifted. The warm light his touch had put in her eyes vanished as she glanced around. “You moved me.”

“To the back of the jet.” Faelen helped her up from the bed. His gut gave a swift twist as her hair tumbled down. She put up her hand to catch the barrette which had moored it.

“I can’t believe I slept so long.” Tynan twisted her hair back up into a coil at her nape, and secured it with the efficient ease.

“The sauvignon blanc helped.”

“I need a few minutes.”

He nodded to her little carry on he’d brought in with him. “I’ll wait for you.”

Faelen chafed at the self-imposed restraints on his behavior. He didn’t allow himself to pace or otherwise show it. Instead, took a seat and watched out the window.

She emerged from the stateroom, dropped her bag and sat down only a few minutes later. Buckling her belt, she said, “I’m excited. Since I was about eight and watched a documentary about The Tower of London, I’ve dreamed about coming here to see the sights.”

“No more fear of flying?” He wondered if she’d catch the innuendo.

If she did, she concealed it well. “Not too much. Getting on required the greatest effort.”

“You hated giving the control to someone else as much as anything.”

“Probably,” she replied.

“Yet with me you want overwhelmed, taken, so you don’t have to assume half the responsibility for what happens between us.”

Tynan tensed, averted her gaze. “Do we have to get into this now?”

“It will keep.” He saw her relax at the reprieve.



Faelen’s London driver, Stanfield, waited with the black Rolls as they emerged from the airport. “Welcome back, sir,” he greeted, taking their bags. He nodded in acknowledgment. “Miss Singleton.”

He introduced his driver and helped her into the car. During the ride, he watched her drink in the sights, point and exclaim over landmarks like a school girl. Such undisguised pleasure and appreciation was a rare thing in a jaded world.

“I can’t absorb it all,” she told him with artless candor. “I may burst.”

He’d seen it all a thousand times. From 1822 until 1893, he’d lived here almost full time. Yet, through her eyes he could see it again; imagine how it must look to a human viewing it for the first time. The mix of landmarks and trendy coffee shops, uniformed bobbies and kids with nose rings and leather jackets.

At quarter to ten local time, the area approaching the new financial district buzzed with activity. Stanfield maneuvered the car with admirable competence in the clogged streets.

“Bloody - beggin’ your pardon, miss - quagmire this time o’ day,” he said.

Faelen saw Tynan catch the little man’s gaze in the rear view mirror.

“You’ve outraged my delicate sensibilities.” The game smile she flashed him in the wake of her solemn declaration made Stanfield relax, and warm to her with an enthusiasm Faelen felt at once.

“I’ll do better, mum.” The wiry, reformed thief glanced back, grinned.

“You bloody well better,” she said.

A few minutes later, they pulled into the underground parking garage of Hanover House. A large building of Canary Riverside, Canary Wharf, it had become a prestigious address with the growth of the most recent business district.

Faelen opened the door, stepped from the sedan and helped Tynan out. Stanfield circled round the car and removed their bags from the trunk. The three of them took the elevator to the top floor. When the doors opened into the foyer, Mrs. Stanfield waited there. Her hazel green eyes lit upon Tynan and softened with maternal response.

“Yer pur luv,” she crooned in her Irish lilt, taking Tynan by the hand and patting the back of it. “Sure and didn’t that trip take the starch right outta yer.”

The older woman’s warm welcome came as a surprise. She tended to treat Faelen with a sort of fearful disdain that often tried his patience. He wondered if she would take it upon herself to ‘save’ Tynan from him. That, he would not tolerate.

“Stanfield,” Faelen said to his driver, “take our bags to the master suite. Miss Singleton and I will be changing and going back out.”

Tynan’s head turned. She fixed him with her gaze. “We will?”

“I assumed you’d wish to go see your family.”

Color suffused her cheeks. “Today?” she queried in a breathless tone.

“Your family, your call,” he replied. He had assumed she would want to begin the process as quick as possible.

She squared her shoulders, smoothed back a strand of hair. “Of course.”

“You’ll be wantin’ a late supper, then?” Mrs. Stanfield asked.

“For Miss Singleton, yes. Unless she’d prefer dining out.”

The grey haired woman patted Tynan’s hand again. “I’ll fix you a proper meal, luv. None o’ this fancy stuff they call gor-may.”

Tynan smiled at her. “I can’t wait.”


When the car pulled alongside the curb of the Mayfair address given in his solicitor’s report, Faelen looked at his mate. She hadn’t uttered a word during the trip, and now sat still and silent as a head stone. The fetching apricot hue of her skin seemed to have drained, replaced by a hectic flush in her cheeks.

She could have reached for him, asked in any number of wordless ways that he comfort her. Instead, she remained aloof and rigid. Damn her.

“I’ll wait here,” he said to provoke a negating response.

She stared at the place. “Probably best.”

A moment passed. Two. “The bell won’t ring itself.”

“Right.” She reached for the door handle.

He opened his door, climbed out and beat her to it. “Bon chance.”

She stood beside the car. Eyes glittering with anticipation, she nodded. Yet, she did nothing. Faelen seethed. She need only reach out and he would give her his strength. Offer any support. Turn the world upside down to accommodate her.

Tynan glanced at him then fixed her attention upon the face of the townhouse. She picked up her small purse, inhaled loudly. Exhaled. “Here goes nothing.”