Twice Tempted (21 page)

The double assault of pleasure was too much. I cried out as thousands of nerve endings clenched at once. That cry turned into a moan as ecstasy washed over me, turning need into sweet release. My pulse, once thundering, seemed to slow while languorousness stole into my limbs, making them feel heavier.

Vlad’s mouth left my breast after a final lick. It slid in a searing trail across my shoulder and up my neck before he kissed me, pressing me back against the silky fur. This time, I barely noticed the coppery flavor to his mouth. I was too focused on the way his tongue stroked mine, the feel of his hard chest against my overly sensitive nipples, and the desire that flared anew when he took off his pants.

I opened my legs, moaning as he grasped my thigh and pulled it against his hip. A delicious expectation caused my inner muscles to clench, making me even wetter. When he reached down and his fingers invaded my depths, I gripped him and arched with more demand than invitation.

His chuckle ended in another fiery kiss. Those fingers went deeper, intensifying the ache that had me moving against his hand. My breath came in muffled gasps as he continued to kiss me with increasing fierceness, ravening my mouth with his lips and tongue. Then his hand stopped its sensual torment and slid beneath my hips, lifting me.

I was more than ready, but he was big and it had been a while. Inner walls stretched as he moved deeper, and when his full length pushed inside me, I let out something like a sob.

His hand left my hip to tangle in my hair, thumb caressing my jaw. His kiss changed, too, matching his slowness as he began to withdraw. My body hadn’t fully adjusted yet, but I wrapped my legs around him and sent him a single, fervent command.

Don’t stop and don’t hold back
.

The sound he made. Harsher than a moan, more primal than a growl. Then he thrust forward while his fangs buried into my throat.

Both sites flared with quicksilver pain and then overwhelming, molten pleasure. I didn’t have a chance to cry out before another thrust/bite, sending more shattering sensations through me. My nails raked down his back as the electricity I couldn’t control surged into him. It only made him grip me tighter as he continued to move with those rapturously rough strokes. By the time I realized he’d stopped biting me, I didn’t care. He could’ve kept drinking me until there was nothing left. As long as it felt like this, I’d welcome it.

My senses sharpened as pleasure built toward a crescendo. Vlad’s smoke-and-spice scent had never been more intoxicating. His body was scorching, muscled thighs harder than stone against mine, and his mouth ravished everything it touched. I felt lost in him, and when those incredible spasms shook me from the inside out, the strangest sort of vulnerability filled me. He’d wanted all of me and that’s what I’d given him. Did it mean I had nothing left?

“No,” he muttered, voice thick with passion. “You have me, and I love you.”

Then he kissed me, moving faster, and reality blurred once more. By the time his climax surged powerfully through him, I couldn’t remember what I’d been concerned about. Losing myself was gaining him, and vice versa. That was well worth any cost.

Chapter 30

Y
esterday, I woke up in the infirmary still nursing a broken heart. Today, I woke up in Vlad’s bed as Mrs. Dracula. What a difference a day made.

“If you introduce yourself to anyone as Mrs. Dracula, I’ll bite you in a manner you won’t enjoy.”

I smiled without opening my eyes. Some things didn’t change, like Vlad being grumpy when he first woke up.

“I’m quaking with fear.”

“As you should be, and I’ve been up, my lovely bride.”

Now I did open my eyes. Vlad was dressed, to my disappointment, sitting in a chair with an iPad on his lap. He rose and came toward me, expression so serious that I tensed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Just reading some e-mails,” he said while his fingers flashed across the tiny keyboard. Then he held it up to me.

Someone in this house has betrayed me
.

I sucked in a breath. An ironic smile twisted his mouth as he typed something else and held it up again.

Aside from Maximus, that is.

I left that alone.
How do you know?
I thought.

More rapid typing.
I became suspicious when my staff tracked Maximus’s cell phone to that hotel, yet Hannibal beat me there. You said Hannibal knew details about your powers that were privy only to members of this household. As final proof, an e-mail Mencheres just sent confirmed that more incriminating information leaked that could only come from someone here.

I hadn’t forgotten Hannibal’s too-accurate knowledge, but getting kidnapped, dying, being comatose, and marrying Vlad, all in less than a week, had pushed it from the forefront for me.

Not for Vlad, obviously.
Do you know who it is?

An eye roll preceded his next sentence.
Wouldn’t I be torturing that person now if I did?

True, and while details of my abilities could have accidentally reached the wrong ears, telling Hannibal’s boss where me and Maximus were was no innocent slip of the tongue.

Then the significance of Vlad’s typed messages hit me.
You think whoever did this is on this floor.

Vampires had great hearing, but Vlad’s bedroom was better insulated than most. Plus, his house was always full of people, which meant lots of background noise. Unless he thought the betrayer was very close, Vlad wouldn’t type instead of speak.

And only his most trusted staff had rooms on this floor.

I winced.
I’m sorry.

Don’t pity me
, he typed with lightning swiftness.
Pity the man who will die a terrible death once I discover who he is.

I probably would pity that person then, but right now, we needed to find him. I held up my right hand with grim purpose.

I’ll help you weed him out.

Vlad stared at me, his cold expression changing to an inscrutable one. When I saw his typed response, I read it three times, yet still couldn’t believe what it said.

As long as you remain human, you won’t.

I
descended the narrow steps to the dungeon, guards I’d had to trick before now bowing to me as I passed. Marty walked in front of me, two curved silver scimitars attached to his belt. The knives reached his knees, making him look almost comical, but I knew how fast Marty was. Vlad knew it, too. That’s why Marty was my bodyguard now.

I hadn’t wanted Vlad to accompany me for more reasons than the fight we’d just had. I’d known our marriage would be tumultuous, but I hadn’t anticipated the sparring to start less than twenty-four hours after we said I do.

What’s that you were saying about the difference a day made?
my cursed inner voice mocked.

I ignored it and kept walking, nodding at the guard who let us through the entrance. Once inside, torches provided enough light that I could see where I was going. The manacle-laden stone monolith was now empty, as were the poles in front of it. Whatever that meant, I wasn’t sure and didn’t want to ask.

“This way,” Marty said, taking the passage to the right.

I hadn’t ventured to this part of the dungeon before, and when I saw the next chamber, I never wanted to come back. Torchlight revealed machines both ancient and high-tech, complete with grisly accessories that defied even my abilities-driven imagination as to their use. It made the part of the dungeon with the impalement poles look as benign as a waiting room.

“Freaky, isn’t it?” Marty grunted. “When you’re a prisoner, the first thing they do is give you the grand tour. Then you’re manacled to that stone wall to think about what you saw. Next is the pole, where round one of questioning begins. If you don’t answer to their satisfaction, you come here for more incentive.”

I looked around with a shiver. Why would any of Vlad’s people betray him, knowing they’d end up in this little slice of hell if they got caught?

Then again, I was here to see someone who’d done just that.

Marty led me past the chilling machinery room to another tight passageway. This one didn’t open to a large antechamber. Instead, a string of cells were hewn into the rock. Most were only as tall as Marty, leaving those unlucky enough to be in one unable to stand. This part of the dungeon was colder, too. My turquoise skirt hung to my ankles and I had on a long-sleeved top, but I should’ve grabbed a coat, too.

As I passed the smaller cells, nothing stirred in them. They, like the rest of the dungeon so far, seemed empty.

I had to ask. “Do you know where the prisoners are?”

Marty opened his mouth, but another voice beat him to it.

“Vlad had them all executed in honor of his wedding.”

Maximus’s tone was harder than the stone walls surrounding us. I swallowed and then followed it to the end of the walkway, where the last few cells were regular-sized, at least.

“How magnanimous.”

I wasn’t being sarcastic. I’d prefer death to experiencing everything this dungeon had to offer, and if someone wronged Vlad enough to end up here, death was the only way out.

Well, almost the only way.

Maximus came into view as I got closer. At some point since I’d last seen him, he’d been given new clothes, but his hair was still reddish from all the dried blood in it. He leaned against his bars, his gray gaze lit up with green. Then he looked at the ring on my gloved finger and his mouth curled downward.

“I’d say congratulations, but we both know I’d be lying.”

I rested my hands against the bars. “Considering where you are, I don’t blame you.”

“That’s not why.”

Quick as a striking snake, he had my hands in his. Then his fingers tightened, preventing me from pulling away.

“After your breakup, I thought Vlad was still fixated on you because
you
ended things. Then he brought Mencheres to the boat even though seeking another Master’s assistance in rescuing his people makes him appear weak. That’s when I knew.”

“Knew what?”

“That he loved you,” Maximus said in the same tone most people used to deliver terrible news.

My mouth quirked. “Yeah, he told me. Even if he hadn’t, proposing would’ve been a big clue.”

Maximus made a harsh sound, releasing my hands to turn in a short circle. “You’re romanticizing it, but you’re trapped now. He didn’t allow his first wife to leave him. Why do you think she jumped off that roof?”

“Because she thought he was dead and an army was on its way to drag her off to captivity.” Even Wikipedia knew that.

“So she left her young son to face them?” Maximus asked, spinning back around. “I think not. He was Clara’s world.”

I said nothing, absorbing two facts I hadn’t known before. First, Vlad had never told me his first wife’s name, and history had forgotten it. But the other detail was more significant.

“You knew her.”

A bleak smile flitted across his lips. “I was one of the guards Clara brought with her to her new husband’s home.”

Vlad’s words the day before rang in my mind.
My actions horrified her, as they horrify you
. . .
It was more than an advancing army that made her throw herself from our roof. It was me . . .

Was Maximus right? Had Vlad’s first wife killed herself because death was the only way she could escape him?

I took in a deep breath. “Whatever her reasons, I’m not her. I know Vlad’s dark side and I can handle it.”

Maximus sighed. “Can you? The scars on your wrists show that darkness broke you once before.”

I stiffened. “If you think Vlad is such a horrible person, why have you stayed with him all these years?”

His laugh sounded hollow.

“You misunderstand. I love Vlad and I’d gladly die for him. But whenever
he
loves something, he ends up destroying it. He can’t help it. It’s just his nature.”

Marty threw me a hard look. Clearly, he had the same concerns, but all he said was “Do what you came here to do.”

I stared at Maximus as I punched in numbers on the keypad outside his cell. The dungeon might look medieval, but it had all the conveniences of a modern jail. The bars disappeared into the rock floor with a soft swish.

Maximus didn’t move. “What is this?”

“My bride price,” I said coolly. “Vlad told me to name anything I wanted. I chose your freedom, as he knew I would.”

Maximus still didn’t move. I swept out my arm. “If you’re waiting for a red carpet, I didn’t include that.”

Very slowly, he walked out of his cell, looking around as though expecting silver knives to rain down on him any moment. Objective accomplished, I turned on my heel and walked away.

“Since I probably won’t see you again, thanks for saving my life. We’re even now, so good luck with the rest of yours.”

“Wait.”

Cool fingers sank into my shoulder. I whirled, anger at his grim predictions making me whip my right glove off.

“Let go of me or I’ll use this.”

Maximus dropped his hand, a mixture of frustration and empathy skipping over his features. “Leila, had I known before how Vlad truly felt about you, I wouldn’t have—”

“Convinced me he might be behind the bomb? Lied to him about me being alive? Or kept trying to sleep with me?”

“All of it,” he replied evenly. “But you still need to be wary. You don’t know him as well as I do.”

He’s right, you don’t
, my hateful inner voice whispered.

I turned away again. Whether I was mad at Vlad or not, I wasn’t going to listen to any more disparagements about him.

“He’s letting you walk out of here, Maximus. Bet you didn’t see that coming, so maybe
you’re
the one who doesn’t know him as well as you think.”

Chapter 31

W
ith all the wedding guests last night, the house should have been bulging with people. Instead, everything looked normal, which was a relief to me. I wasn’t up to making small talk with several hundred strangers. Contrary to popular opinion, I
did
know what I could and couldn’t handle. Even though I was a human surrounded by vampires who had napped for longer than I was alive, I was still the best judge of me.