Pigalle Palace (15 page)

He cried and Soleil became alert instantly as if her mother radar had kicked in already. She positioned herself wearily. I helped her by positioning a pillow underneath our son for her to breast-feed him.

“He's so perfect,” Mother said with tears in her eyes.

“Yes, he sure is,” I stated proudly.

“This calls for a toast,” Azura said as she handed us glasses full of rose-colored champagne. “Rain, you should do the honors.”

Everyone lifted their glasses after Rain.

He said, “While thus we agree, our toast let it be. May our little one flourish happy, united, and free? Long may the son of Onyx and Soleil entwine the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine! Ulysses.”

We all laughed at his humor of combining the old Greek drinking song into his toast as we drank in celebration of the birth of a vampire. Ulysses was pureblooded and it was no myth.

B
y the time I made it home from the birth of Ulysses, Chantal wasn't home. I called her cell phone, but she didn't answer. I turned on the laptop while sitting on the couch to view my e-mails. A few bank statements alerted me that a few purchases went through that morning. Chantal knew how to spend a whole shitload of money. Even though I was smart enough to have daily cash withdrawal limits, Chantal swiped that card any- and everywhere she went. She shopped for the most expensive things she could find and it was becoming ridiculous.

What in hell did she want with Versace China?

There was a knock on the front door. I answered it to find a mortal in his early thirties.

“Is Chantal here?” he asked with a frown.

“You have the wrong address.”

“Chantal doesn't live here?”

“She sure doesn't.”

“Look, she's been staying here. She gave me this address to come for her. I'm her husband and I'm here to take her home.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, that's so.”

“All right, well, come in and have a seat. She should be here in a moment.”

I let him in and walked down the hallway. She had the nerve to tell him to come pick her up when I had specifically given her direct instructions. My thought was to take a huge bite out of him and drink every ounce of blood he had in his body, but then I stopped myself. If he was whom she wanted, then I was going to allow her to have her wish.

“Have a seat. Would you like a beverage of some sort?” I offered.

He stared at me oddly, guarded, and refused to sit on the couch. I knew then that he knew more than he should've. He was a brave soul to come to the door of a vampire's home.

“No, I'm fine. Do you know when she'll be here?”

“She didn't tell me she was leaving.”

“Well, I'll come back a little later on. She should be ready by the time I come back.”

“Ready for what?”

He swallowed hard as if a lump had formed in his throat. “She should be ready to leave with me.”

“Oh…okay…sure…”

He turned and walked out the door. I closed it behind him and went to stand on the balcony, in the dark and cold. I didn't feel as if her husband was any type of dangerous threat. I didn't know anything about him, but I could smell his fear. Fear was the most dangerous type of weapon. Fear would make a man kill even if he had never thought of killing before.

I heard her come in the door twenty minutes later. She was talking on the phone, laughing with shopping bags in each hand. Seemed like she was having a ball all on me, at my expense.

Chantal didn't see me because I was sitting underneath the shadows outside on the balcony. Someone must've called her other line. She said, “Hold on a second… Hello... Hey,
baby. What's up?”

The sound of the excitement in her voice when she talked to him made my nose flare. She was glad he called. “What?” She gasped and then paused as if paralyzed. “You did? Um, I don't know… Look, I'll call you right back.” She wore a look of terror as her body stiffened.

She straightened up, placing the bags on the floor. “Legend! I'm home!” she yelled, walking briskly to the kitchen. Her heels clicked against the wood floors.

I entered silently and sat on the couch.

As soon as she reentered the living room, she saw me. “Hey… Legend.”

I clenched my teeth to stop myself from calling Chantal out of her name. “Your real husband came by looking for you.”

“I know.” Her brown eyes, the same eyes that looked at me with sincerity when she told me she loved me, were full of deceit, lies, and betrayal. “I can explain everything.” Tears fell from her eyes.

“You don't have to explain anything to me. You are officially free to leave. Truth of the matter, you could've left a long time ago, but you chose this life and you chose to stay. Does he know that you're no longer a human being?”

“Yes,” she admitted. “And he doesn't care. He just wants me to come home.”

“How do the two of you plan on living that way?”

“I don't know. All I know is that I miss him.” She was worried that it wasn't going to work out with him, but she was willing to give it a shot.

“Why were you here in Paris pretending to be a single woman? Why did you come to the Red Light District?”

“We were having problems and I wanted to have a good time. I didn't plan on any of this.”

“If you would've told me, I would've never sunk my fangs into you. Why'd you lie?”

“I don't know…I was in vacation mode. I was playing this game to piss him off, at first. Look, Legend, I thank you for turning me into such a beautiful immortal, and I love staying this way, but I don't want to stay with you.”

“Oh yeah? Well, here's your wakeup call, sweetie. You'll never be able to leave Pigalle Palace with that human being alive. Do you understand me?”

“Who's going to kill me? You?”

I shook my head. “No. The Préfet take matters like these into their own hands. The moment you walk out that door with him, you'll never make it to the airport. Trust me when I say that.”

Unfazed by what I was saying, she looked at her cell phone that buzzed. “He's downstairs waiting for me. I guess this is goodbye.”

She quickly reached into her purse and returned my debit card along with the diamond ring. She turned and walked out the door.

I
usually held private parties at either my house or upstairs of the club. I liked to invite what we called the VIP upstairs for some fun. I had never tried, or been particularly interested in, threesomes with only women. I usually preferred orgies with a few men and a few women, but it was one of those things I had to try to gain a new experience.

I always had an attraction to women, something I liked to hide from my family because they were too judgmental. Since my brothers were preoccupied with their own women issues, I decided to take full advantage of my alone time in the club without them.

The good thing that I enjoyed about threesomes was that there was double the pleasure. Sometimes, someone felt left out, but I always did my absolute best to keep everyone engaged. My encounter that night was one I would never forget.

She was tall, with blonde hair and crystal-blue eyes. She was very slender and she had a real sultry look; as if she were a dancer.

“Are you a stripper?” I asked when she paid at the door.

“I dance at a club around the corner,” she admitted.

Even after she walked away to party with friends, she had been staring me down all night, as if she wanted to have me all to herself. At first, I tried not to notice, but then it became hard for me not to observe.

She nearly intimidated me. She wasn't the kind of woman that looked at me and then turned away. She stared me directly in my eye and winked. She had this look on her face like she wanted to rip all my clothes apart. That's how intense she was.

There was another girl in the club, but she was there with a male. Maybe he was her friend; I wasn't sure. I'd seen her around the club a few times, but never with the same group of people. She would always gaze at me whenever she came. At first, I thought that she was staring at Onyx, so I ignored her.

When I realized she was staring at me, I started looking at her, too. By that time, she was dancing all over her male friend with his hands climbing up her skirt. She was tall with red hair, dark eyes, and darker skin. She had a little body fat and it was exactly where she needed it. Her thickness was sexy to me. Her face was really pretty.

I was still collecting money at door, when I saw the redhead helping her friend sit on one of our lounge couches. He was wasted. We made eye contact for a while and she smiled at me. I returned it. I sat there while she walked over to me.

She said, “
Bonjour
, beautiful. I'm Eve. What's your name?”

“My name is Azura.”

We shook hands and I could feel an electric spark between us. Her hand was so soft that I never wanted to let go. We held each other's hand for a split-second longer than necessary, then I said, “I see you around here a lot. Are you enjoying yourself tonight?”

“My friends and I love this place.” She took notice of the blonde watching our interaction very carefully. “The blonde is sexy.”

She looked at me to see my reaction, and I replied, “Yeah, she is. Many guys fantasize about her...and some women, too. I mean,
I would imagine so.”

Her laugh was cute when she said, “I bet you're one of those women, aren't you?”

I answered truthfully, “She's a nice one to fantasize about.”

Her eyebrow rose. “I agree. Anyone else you fantasize about in here?”

Eve knew exactly where she wanted this to go. I grinned at her. “Wouldn't you like to know?”

“Why don't we go somewhere private so you can tell me? I hear there are private rooms upstairs. Then, nobody will overhear you,” she said, as if somebody overhearing me was what I was worried about.

“What about your friend?”

“He's drunk. Someone will make sure he gets home.”

“All right, let's go.”

We left the strobe lights and noise of the club, and she followed me upstairs to the largest room we had. There were toys, handcuffs, whips, chains, and all types of dominant toys in that room. I only liked to use those when I was role-playing.

She sat on the couch that was in the corner of the room. “So are you ever gonna tell me about these fantasies?”

I felt my nipples harden. “I think you can pretty much imagine all the possibilities.”

“Tell me what kind of woman you're attracted to.”

“Well...I like a woman with long, straight, red hair...really dark eyes...and a big ass.”

She smiled triumphantly. “I thought so. Want to know what kind of woman I like?”

“Tell me.”

She said, “Light-almond-shaped eyes, a bright smile, and juicy-looking lips.”

“Oh, would that be me?”

“That would be you, Azura.”

Eve stood in front of me and leaned down to kiss me. She held my face with both hands and her tongue slipped into my mouth. My hands went to her hips and pulled her in closer. She managed to straddle my lap. Our kiss got deeper and more passionate. My panties started getting wet and my whole world felt like it was in her body.

Her hands continued to caress my face and hair, rubbing my shoulders occasionally. We made little moans into each other's mouths. My hands moved down to massage her thick ass. I slid one hand under her shirt and bra, feeling her breast directly against my hand. I squeezed lightly and rubbed my thumb over her quickly hardening nipple. Her body jerked when I touched her nipple and she moaned louder. I bit her bottom lip as I pressed her nipple into her breast, and then rolled it between two fingers.

We both heard the door open. She jerked again, but this time in surprise. Eve remained on my lap. I looked up and saw the blonde. She must've followed us. She was standing directly in front of us, and neither of us moved.