Venice Vampyr - The Beginning (40 page)

“Do it, my love.”

Lorenzo opened his mouth wider and pressed his fangs into her skin, piercing it, before he drove deeper. As he drew the first drops of her blood, his head swam. Her essence was pure and sinful at the same time, more intoxicating than he could have ever imagined. Without haste, he sucked on her vein, taking the life-giving essence into his body where it rejuvenated his cells and recharged his power.

At the same time, his hips moved, and he slowly withdrew his cock from her sheath only to thrust it back into her. Her muscles gripped him tightly, shuddering as he plunged deep. But he needed more, an even closer connection to the treasure he held in his arms. And for the first time in his life, he opened his heart and laid its contents bare, sending his emotions out to her.

He knew when she pressed her hand against the back of his head to hold him tighter to her neck that she felt the connection between them.

“Oh, God, Lorenzo!” she moaned on a shallow breath.

Lorenzo released her neck and licked over the puncture wounds, closing them instantly and turned his face to her. Her lips glistened and beckoned him to approach. As he brushed his bloodstained lips against hers and licked against them, she parted them. He swept his tongue inside and kissed her, claiming her as his while he continued to send his feelings to her, his mind and heart pouring out of him so she would understand the depth of his need for her.

Her hands came around him, gripping him tighter, urging him on to take her harder. He complied and drove deeper into her until her interior muscles spasmed around him, sending him over the crest and into paradise.

Chapter Eighteen

Bianca felt Lorenzo’s lips on hers and slowly opened her eyes.

“It’s called the little death,” he explained with a smile as he caressed her cheek with the back of his index finger.

“I fainted.” She’d never passed out in bed with a man.

“It happens sometimes when the pleasure is too much to bear.” He planted a soft kiss on her lips.

If she’d had any decency left, she would have blushed at his words, but as it was, all she could think of was what it had felt like when he’d bitten her. Her entire body had been afire. But not only that: she’d sensed him, his emotions, the love he had for her, almost as if she’d been inside his mind.

“I felt something strange when we made love,” she started.

Lorenzo took her hand and lead it to his lips to kiss it. “I know. I opened my heart to you so you could feel what’s inside me.”

So she hadn’t dreamed it. “How?”

“My vampire powers allow me to reach out to you and send you my thoughts and my feelings without speaking.”

“Does that mean you can read my mind too?”

He shook his head. “I only know what you show me or tell me, but I can’t see into your heart. But what you’ve shown me tonight, what you’ve given me by offering me your blood, has told me everything I need to know.”

His eyes shone with the evidence of his affection for her. It made her chest feel heavy with the secrets she still kept from him. But she couldn’t share them now.

“And your blood.” He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for a moment. “My sweet Bianca, I’ve never tasted anything as pure as you.”

Pure? She wasn’t pure. Panic gripped her for a moment. What if he ever found out about her past? About her life as a courtesan? Would he still consider her pure then? Her pulse raced at the thought that if he ever discovered her secret, he might change his mind about her. And then? Would he toss her aside, bitter about her deception?

If she confessed everything now, would he forgive her? She had to try. “Lorenzo, there’s something I need to say …” She paused, not knowing how to go on.

“Bianca, before you say anything else, I need to explain one thing to you. It’s about what you overheard that night. About Elle.”

At the mention of that name, Bianca remembered his friend’s words about a betrayal. An uneasy feeling rose from her stomach. “Yes?”

Lorenzo rolled to his side and let his head flop onto the pillow beside her. Then he pulled her into the curve of his body, cradling her against him. His breath was at her ear when he finally spoke. “I loved a woman once. She was human, and her name was Elle.” He sighed. “I trusted her, and I believed that she loved me. And maybe she did. But her love wasn’t strong enough.”

“What happened?”

“She betrayed me. When I confessed to her what I was, she pretended that she didn’t mind, that she could live with it. I should have seen it. She’d hidden her feelings in plain sight. One night, I awoke to find her bending over me with a stake. She almost killed me.”

A heavy gasp escaped her as tears formed in her eyes.

“Oh, Lorenzo, I’m so sorry.” She realized then that he wouldn’t be able to forgive another betrayal. “What happened?”

“I had to wipe her memory of any knowledge of me. But it was too much for her mind to take. She became insane and died soon after.”

Bianca’s heart stuttered to a halt. Having felt how he’d projected his own feelings into her mind, the knowledge that he could wipe away memories didn’t surprise her as much as it should have. Yet, there was something else that didn’t make sense to her. “But, I don’t understand. How could she not have accepted you? Why would she forgo the kind of pleasure your bite brings? Why would—”

“I never took her blood. She didn’t allow it. At the time I thought if I was patient, maybe she would change her mind. But sometimes we just don’t want to see what’s in plain view. She didn’t love me.”

A sob escaped her.

“You, my love, are the only woman who’s ever freely offered her blood to me. And for that, I cherish you even more.”

His words choked her, because she knew she didn’t deserve his adoration. She’d deceived him just as Elle had, and while Bianca had no intention of ever hurting him, she knew if he found out about her past, he would feel the same kind of betrayal that he had gone through with Elle. She couldn’t stop the next sob from freeing itself from her throat.

Lorenzo stroked over her cheek. “You weep for my heartbreak, my love? There’s no need for it anymore. My heart is mended now. I’ve given it to you, and I can’t imagine a more worthy woman to keep it safe for me.”

As her tears flowed freely, Lorenzo’s hands caressed her and lulled her into sleep and the comfort she didn’t deserve.

***

 Lorenzo leaned back in the armchair in Nico’s rooms and stared into the fire.

“Then why don’t you tell her that you know about her past?” Nico asked and took a seat next to him, stretching his long legs toward the fire.

“Things have been so perfect the last couple of days, I don’t want to upset the status quo.”

“And what
is
the status quo?” his friend asked pointedly.

“I told you already. She knows about me now. And she accepts me as I am. Hell, every day and every night, she offers me her blood. Freely, without restraints. I can’t tell her that I’ve been looking into her background. What must she think?”

Nico smirked. “That you’re a cautious man? Who has reasons to be cautious, if I may add. Surely, she can’t fault you for that. She showed up in your home, unannounced and—”

“Which reminds me,” Lorenzo interrupted, “what
was
my housewarming present to be if it wasn’t Bianca?”

“Ah, that!” Nico grinned. “We were planning on organizing an orgy for you, with exotic belly dancers fresh from the Orient, but seeing that you’re so infatuated with this woman, I suppose we shall purchase a piece of furniture instead.”

“Much appreciated.” The thought of an orgy had no appeal for him at all. Not when he knew that Bianca was warming his bed.

“Now, to get back to my point:
she
’s the one who deceived you, yet
you
’re the one feeling guilty for investigating her background. Why do I think that’s odd?” Nico made a near comical face, underscoring his sarcasm.

“Because you’re an unfeeling ass, Nico! If you understood women at all, you’d see clearly that I’m in a quandary here. How am I going to show her that her past has no bearing on my feelings for her when I don’t want to let her know that I already know?”

With his hands, Nico made circles in the air. “As you so eloquently stated, that is a quandary. And you’re quite sure, you’re not willing to admit to your little indiscretion about inquiring into her past?”

Lorenzo shot him an annoyed glare, and Nico instantly threw up his hands.

“Very well then. And since I
do
know women a little, thank you very much, I have a suggestion.”

Lorenzo edged forward on his chair. “Let me have it.”

“I haven’t met a woman yet who won’t forgive a little sin like yours as long as the reward is big enough.”

“Reward?”

Nico nodded. Then his gaze swept to his left hand, his right index finger pointing at the forth finger of it. “Yes, reward. And don’t tell me the thought hasn’t crossed your mind yet.”

Indeed, the thought had crossed his mind.

Chapter Nineteen

Bianca tossed and turned. Vaguely, she registered that at some time during the wee hours before sunrise, Lorenzo had returned from visiting a friend and joined her in bed. He slept soundly now, but her own sleep was agitated. Her dreams tormented her.

Scenes from her time in Florence flitted across her mind, reminding her of what she didn’t want to go back to. Pictures of her former lovers mingled with those of the suitors her father had entertained, laughing at her now that she was a fallen woman. All of Venice knew. She found herself on the streets, her dress torn, walking across Piazza San Marco barefoot and with not a
lira
to her name. The people she passed turned away from her. But their whispered words carried to her nevertheless.

A whore.

Her lover found out and tossed her out on the street where she belongs.

She lied to him.

It’s an open secret.

All for a treasure that was hidden in plain view.

Bathed in sweat, Bianca woke with a start. Her chest heaved with the effort to breathe. She glanced at Lorenzo, hoping she hadn’t talked in her sleep. But he was sound asleep, the reflection of the flames from the low fire dancing on his skin.

As quietly as she could, she slid out of bed and walked to the sideboard which held a pitcher of water. She poured herself a glass and gulped it down, trying to cool her heated body.

She couldn’t go on like this. She had to tell him about her past and why she was here. Maybe he would forgive her for her deception. If he truly loved her the way he showed her every time he drank her blood, maybe he could find it in his heart to forgive her.

Bianca took a tentative step toward the bed. The fire behind her threw bizarre shadows over Lorenzo’s body and the headboard behind him. As she walked closer, the shadows shifted and moved, pulling her gaze to the intricate carving on the wooden headboard. She stared at it, her eyes suddenly focusing in on the delicate workmanship.

Her heart stopped when she saw it. There, in large carved letters it was written:
Tesoro
. Treasure. Her feet carried her to the edge of the bed, but there was no mistake. The carving said treasure.

Bianca crawled onto the bed, careful not to disturb Lorenzo, and kneeled in front of the carving, letting her hands run over the letters. She’d felt them before when Lorenzo had tied her up, but she’d never paid them much attention. But now that she knew what they spelled out, she pressed against each letter, holding her breath. The last letter gave way and depressed. An instant later, a section of the carving not larger than a book sprang open like a little door.

Behind it was a dark space. This was where her father’s treasure had to be hidden.

Excitement coursed through her as she reached her hand inside, unable to see its contents for lack of proper lighting. Her fingertips brushed against a piece of paper. She pulled it from the small cave and held it up so the light from the fireplace fell onto it.

Disappointment swept over her when she looked at it closely: underneath a symbol of a cross with three horizontal waves, all that was written was a list of names. No treasure map, no instructions on where the real treasure was buried. She tossed the useless item onto the pillow next to her and reached into the hidden compartment once more.