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He tucked it under his arm and slid his phone from his pocket. “I’ll call them now.”

“No.”

He looked at me.

“No. You go there, and you fucking stand over them. Make yourself at home in their office. We do this today.” I watched Jason until he all but saluted.

I needed this win today, this control, to take my mind off the human woman. I couldn’t dedicate time to finding her today, so I needed something else to focus on. I’d find her later, though. Find her and explore all of the delicious opportunities her scent offered, so fucking help me.

A human. I could hardly stand to think about it, even though I’d known this day would come if my mother was correct in her superstitions. It wasn’t like virgin vampires still existed.

“Let me know when you’ve got the paperwork. Benedict, I’ll leave you to handle the rest of these files.”

Benedict nodded as I left the room and strode to my office. Jason was already on his phone, warning our legal team of his impending arrival.

I grabbed my gun from my safe and secured it in the shoulder holster under my suit jacket. Technically, I absolutely didn’t need a gun. I was quite capable of… I grinned… neutralizing any threat without the use of firearms. However, and also on a technicality, I absolutely needed the gun. I couldn’t reveal myself as vampire to humans because we weren’t supposed to actually exist, never mind roam among them. We pretty much all obeyed the creed—even the newly turned ones. And those who didn’t… Well, we dealt with them. Just not with guns.

Still, I was seeing humans today, and sometimes a gun was the only way to scare them. It was what they understood.

Although usually my natural charm was scary enough on its own.

Jason knocked on my door very quickly with the contracts I needed, and soon I was in my limo and heading to Jean Boucher’s plantation property just outside town. I remained quiet as we sped along, my mind alternating between the task at hand and the woman from last night. Desire flared through me again, but I restrained it by refocusing on the contract, reading it over, preparing for all the arguments Boucher would likely have.

He didn’t deserve to keep the properties his wife’s family had worked so hard to establish and maintain. They were both better off with me. I couldn’t do anything else for Camille and her ancestors, but maybe I could rescue what Jean had ruined.

The stores and concrete soon gave way to open land and trees. It was boggy out here but the Boucher house was in a nice area, and I could probably make it quite useful or lucrative. I could even open a second casino location or a boutique hotel, perhaps.

But when Jenkins, my driver, swung into a heavily pot-holed driveway, driving between cracked and leaning gateposts, complete with wrought iron gates hanging lazily from their hinges, I sat up a little straighter, eager for my first glimpse of the house beyond the overgrown bushes and shrubs.

Spanish moss hung from the trees like tangled hair instead of graceful curtains, giving the impression that this place was no longer worth what Jean Boucher had led me to believe.

By calling in his debt, I was inviting all kinds of further financial problems.

I cleared my throat, and Jenkins half-glanced over his shoulder.

“Yes, sir?”

I shifted in my seat, leaning forward, and rolled down my window. “You know, maybe we should just turn arou—”

The main house came into view and a tantalizing, familiar scent drifted into the car. The scent of a viable, of-age virgin. But surely two in Baton Rouge in as many days was too much of a coincidence? I wouldn’t have remained oblivious to two of them, surely? And especially two that made my dick stand up and take notice like this.

“Sorry, sir?”

I shook my head. Maybe virgins were like buses. You waited for one for ages and then two came along at once. “You know what? Nothing. I shouldn’t think I’ll be very long here. You can just wait outside.”

Now, I’d only come here for one thing. But there appeared to be a virgin inside who belonged to me, unless my nose was playing tricks on me.

“Very good, sir.” He rolled smoothly to a stop in a driveway overgrown with weeds, and when I stepped from the car, I let my gaze wander up the building. More weeds sprouted from the steps at the front, and some sort of creeper plant covered the side of the building and had invaded its way under the roof tiles.

I shook my head. “For fuck’s sake.” This looked increasingly like a bad idea, but a contract was a contract, and I owed this to Camille’s line. Her family line of women had always been particularly strong. Special, almost.

I approached the front door, stepping over rotten boards as I went. No one answered the knock on the door, but when I twisted the handle, it swung open to reveal a dark entrance hall. Dust motes hung in a thin stream of light seeping from around the edges of heavy velvet curtains.

“Hello?” My voice echoed in the vast space. Had Boucher gambled away every stick of furniture, too? His wife should have nailed things down before her passing.

I drew a deep breath—a prelude to a sigh—then stopped as my head spun. That woman. She was definitely here. Her scent filled my nose, and I almost groaned as I took another breath. She was here somewhere, and…shit. It was like she’d put a spell on me. More than simply being a virgin, every fiber of my being raged that she was meant for me.

I steadied myself on the doorframe before looking at the folder in my hand, trying to remember what the hell I was doing.