Kissed by a Vampire. Caridad Pineiro

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СКАЧАТЬ quickly drained the container dry.

      The energy of that small bit of blood surged through her body, awakening it.

      Awakening needs of various kinds.

      She sipped the blood in the glass as she strolled back to the claw-foot tub and placed her beverage on a small, filigreed stand. Whirls of steam rose from the water as Stacia slipped off her robe and then eased into the roomy tub.

      The heat enveloped her, but it was a poor substitute for a lover’s embrace. That would have to wait until tonight’s encounter.

      Maybe she would run across the handsome man from last night. The one who had seemed so interested in her. The intense look on his face had stayed with her long after she had lost sight of him in the crowd and then left the club.

      For a few moments she let herself imagine how that intensity might feel directed toward her. How his long, lithe body, so much bigger than hers, would surround her and how he might lift her up against him with those muscled arms. Take her to her bed and fill her night with pleasure.

      With a sigh, she reluctantly eased her arm out of the warmth of the water to grab her glass. Took a bracing gulp of the blood, which sent a wave of energy crashing through her insides.

      Stacia gasped from the force of it, and as she sucked in a steadying breath, the scents from the baths slipped into her consciousness.

      Eucalyptus.

      Orange blossoms like those on the potted trees tucked into the niches of the walls in her family’s bath.

      Memories assailed her of those baths, driving away the pleasant daydream about her mystery man.

      The scents recalled the times she had shared the baths with her family. With Hadrian, when she had turned him, centuries after she had lost her life and her innocence.

      Lost both of them in those waters.

      With her hand shaking from the blood’s life force running through her veins, she brought the glass to her lips and took another deep gulp, nearly emptying it. She placed the drink back on the stand and eased beneath the water’s edge, the temperature of the liquid feeling almost cool now that the vampire’s heat surged through her body.

      The desire stirred by the blood became unbearable, and as Stacia slipped her hand down between her thighs to satisfy that desire, the warm wetness and scents of the water transported her back to that fateful day.

       Rome, nearly 2,000 years earlier

      “Stop it, Cassius.” Stacia giggled as she dodged her intended’s amorous advances along their moonlit stroll. They had been walking for close to an hour, through the Forum and then back to her family’s home near the Tiber.

      Cassius grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her into the shadows by the door to the building holding the baths in her home. “The ceremony is tomorrow, beloved.”

      Tomorrow being the day her father would place her hand in Cassius’s, turning over control of her to her intended along with the substantial dowry her father, a senator, was bestowing upon them to start their married life together.

      Not that Stacia would be controlled.

      At seventeen she was past the age when most of her friends had been married. Wiser than them, she thought as she snared Cassius’s hand as he slipped it beneath the edge of her sleeveless tunic and pressed his body to hers. The obvious proof of his desire butted against the softness of her belly.

      “Cassius,” she warned again, but her beloved would not be dissuaded.

      He inched closer and bent his head, bringing his lips to her neck. He dropped a line of kisses up to the shell of her ear where he whispered, “I have something I want to show you.”

      Stacia shivered as he tugged on her earlobe, desire awakening despite her better sense. There was something different about Cassius lately. In the past few weeks, ever since he had spent time with some new friends out in the country, he had been …

      Sexier.

      More demanding.

      Infinitely darker, with a dangerous air he had not possessed before.

      He must have sensed she was weakening, since he reached down, cupped her breast and unerringly found the tip, rotating it between his fingers and dragging a strangled moan from her.

      “You are so beautiful. Let me show you how beautiful, my wife,” he said huskily, the low tones of his voice strumming alive greater need within her.

      “Wife now, is it?” she teased and pulled on a longish lock of his dark hair to draw him away.

      “Tonight you are my wife. Tomorrow is only a matter of ceremony, no?” He smiled, his deep brown eyes glowing with a strange new light, the paleness of his skin a startling contrast to the darkness of his jet-black hair.

      Had his skin always been that bloodless or was it an illusion from the moonlight? she wondered for a moment before he tightened his fingers on her breast, creating a sympathetic tug between her legs. The pull of desire was so intense she had to close her eyes against the strength of it, which just caused Cassius to chuckle.

      “Do not deny yourself, Stacia. You are a woman of immense passion. I can show you great pleasure tonight. The kind of pleasure we will share forever, my wife.”

      Forever, she thought, imagining the life she would be starting with Cassius come the morning. Eager to begin a new phase since she had gotten bored with the mundane tasks of helping her mother run their household. It was long past time that she should have a home of her own and a husband to warm her bed.

      “Show me,” she said, and he chuckled once more, grasped her hand and led her into the baths.

      Stacia dragged herself away from the painful memories of her once-beloved Cassius.

      As something wet trickled down the side of her face, she brushed it away, but was surprised as she encountered the salt of her tears and not the bathwater.

      Dashing away the tears, she rose from the bath and dressed quickly, needing to leave before the reminiscences brought more pain and disillusionment. She had no desire to let those emotions cloud the bright Miami days she had escaped Manhattan to enjoy.

      As she dressed and shot one last look in the mirror, imagining how she might appear, another image pulled at her memory. The vision of her tall, handsome Latino—the one she had connected with briefly at the club the night before.

      Yet again it occurred to her that there had been something familiar about his face, much as his expression had given away that there had been something recognizable about her. As she finally left her hotel room and escaped into the night, she tried time and again to place the man, but each attempt failed.

      The identity of her mystery man would have to wait until later. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have an eternity of nights to find him, although she hoped it wouldn’t take her too long.

      Something about him whispered to her that he might be able to fill the nights that loomed before her, eternal and empty.

      Predictably boring.

      Recalling СКАЧАТЬ