Page 1 of The Virgin and the Vampire (Escape to Haven County)

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Carina’s carefully painted red lips are currently wrapped around her dom’s dick and I feel nothing. Except perhaps a mild longing for the old days, when a vamp could swoop in on someone unawares, feed, and be about his business in no time. It’s true there’s less screaming and flaming pitchforks these days, but I never thought I’d have to be this close to another man’s junk just to get dinner.

I sigh and sink my teeth into the side of Carina’s neck. Her wrist was an option, I suppose, but the neck will be faster. I can feel the tremor of excitement vibrate through her body. Her dom groans while I roll my eyes. I can’t remember the guy’s name, she changes doms like most women change handbags. I’m probably the most consistent part of her participation at The Sanctuary.

Having fed, I step back only to find Carina’s eyes on me, assessing. For what, I’m unsure. Her mouth is free once again, but I’m still surprised when she speaks.

“Kade? Can I talk to you? Privately?”

I frown. The subs and vamps don’t really have too much interaction here. Subs are free to request a particular vamp if they’re cleared for the inner sanctum, but it depends on who’s on the roster for that evening to feed. Beyond that, there aren’t too many things to talk about.

“Sure. I can meet you in the bar in, say, fifteen minutes?” I cast a glance towards her dom.

Carina smiles and shakes her head. “Don’t worry about Jimmy. He’s on a test run tonight. Although he did very well.” The cat-ate-the-cream smile she aims at her current lover is at odds with the roles they’re playing, but I try to stay out of those relationships. Asking will only pull me in. Jimmy frowns. “We’ll be talking about that attitude next time, missy.”

Carina gives a mock shiver and smiles even more brightly as she hops off the table where she was splayed. “Excellent.”

Fifteen minutes later she struts towards me in the bar area, her Sanctuary sub uniform of the short sheer white toga having been replaced by skin-tight jeans and a forest green sweater that slides off one shoulder.

“Thanks for meeting me, Kade. I know you’re a busy guy, so I appreciate it.”

I stay silent, waiting for the real topic of conversation. Carina casts her eyes down.

“It’s about my sister. Gianna. She’s eight years younger than me and, well, we’re total opposites. Gianna’s very shy and very smart. She’s spent her whole life buried in schoolbooks. And the lab. She’s been obsessed with vampires ever since she learned you guys are real and not only a legend.

Anyway, the one thing she wants most is to meet one. I think she’d be over the moon to be bitten, but I realize that’s asking a lot outside of the club. Her twenty-first birthday is this weekend and well…” She raises practiced, pleading green eyes.

“Why not just invite her to the club? She can watch several vamps from the window in the main playroom.” I shrug, like that answer was obvious.

Carina chokes on her astonishment. “Kade! You don’t understand. When I said she’s shy, I meant it. I’m fairly certain Gianna’s still a virgin. And she doesn’t want to even go out for drinks on her birthday. She said she’d rather stay in and study.” The bemusement on Carina’s face is almost comical.

“So you’re asking me to do what, exactly?”

“Could you stop by her place, maybe with a bottle of champagne I can give you and let her admire your fangs?”

I snort in disbelief. “ Admire them?”

Carina nods enthusiastically. “She still has Hollywood ideas mixed in with the academics. You fit her image of the ideal vamp to a T. Please, Kade?”

Her sister sounds innocent and na?ve, which, while different, doesn’t exactly promise entertainment. But Carina has been a pliant and cooperative blood source for the last few years, and I feel like I owe her. “Fine. Give me her address and a time. After sunset,” I add dryly. It’s a myth that vamps can’t go out in daylight. It just makes our eyes water and our skin itch, so we generally try to avoid it. And if her sister is that into vamps, I’d hate to ruin her fantasy by showing up mid afternoon.

Carina practically radiates with excitement. “Oh! She’s going to be so excited! I can’t wait to hear about it.”

“I take it that means she doesn’t know you’ve been feeding me?”

She slowly shakes her head. “No. And please don’t tell her. She’ll feel like she’s missing out again. She’s really sweet and bubbly, Kade. But when she’s with strangers, she freezes up. Gianna missed out on a lot of social events growing up. When it’s just the family, she’s the life of the party.”

I nod, not sure what to say, and take the slip of paper Carina hands me. Gianna lives all the way out in Cedar Valley. I sigh, half wishing I hadn’t already committed. But it’s one evening that will bring me out of my routine, so how bad can it be?

I glance around my small cottage on the outskirts of Cedar Valley with pride. Earlier this week I washed all the leaves on my houseplants so now they’re gleaming with health and vitality. It’s my twenty-first birthday today and despite my older sister’s whining, I did things my way. I met some friends from grad school at a small bakery for coffee and cake earlier and now I’m going to have a long, soaky bath with a new vampire romance I’ve been saving for tonight. It’s going to be delicious.

Tightening the sash of the silky robe my mom got me as a present, I pick up my celebratory glass of white wine and pad towards the bathroom in my bare feet. The doorbell rings and I nearly jump out of my skin. I think I’ve heard it precisely twice in the three years that I’ve lived here.

I carefully check the peephole and am even more surprised to see it’s a man standing on the mat holding a bottle of champagne and a bouquet of baby pink roses. Despite the voice of caution in my head, I open the door partway and peer around it.

“Yes?”

“Gianna Coletti?”

I nod, still confused. He holds out the objects in his hands and smiles, or maybe that’s more of a grimace. In any event, it exposes the tips of two white fangs and I lose my shit. And in my excitement I drop the wineglass that naturally shatters on the tile floor.

The man moves faster than lightning to push open the door and pick me up. Before I can utter a word, I’m sitting on the kitchen counter having my feet inspected. I gape in astonishment when he places his mouth over a small gash on my instep. The cut doesn’t hurt, but his hot suction on my skin? It’s mind-blowingly good.

“Um, who are you?”

He waits to answer me until he’s laved my cut with his tongue three times. To my disappointment, his fangs don’t come anywhere close to piercing my flesh.

“I’m Kade and you are not to walk around with glass in bare feet again, understand?”

I stare into his dark eyes. “No. I don’t understand. What business is it of yours?”

He straightens to his full and rather intimidating height. “Now that I’ve tasted you, Ms. Coletti, everything about you is my business.”

Frowning, I meet his dark blue gaze directly. “You didn’t bite me, so I don’t believe you.”

His lips twitch. “If that was a challenge in an attempt to manipulate me, be very, very careful, little one.” His head lowers to mine, not touching, but so close I can feel the heat of his skin. He rumbles in my ear, “I will bite you, over and over and over again, my sweet little thrall, but only after you complete the paperwork and wear my collar. Put some shoes on and we’ll take care of the jewelry tonight.” He pauses thoughtfully, as if admiring the efficiency of his plan.

I’m less convinced. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t know you! Maybe you tell really bad jokes. I’m not stupid enough to sign up for a few hundred years of that without thinking it through first.”

Thralls are the bonded blood donors for vampires. Not all vamps have them or ever did. Keeping a woman chained in the basement doesn’t count, and I think that was all Hollywood, anyway. But according to the small amount of research I’ve been able to find, a fully bonded thrall (meaning the vamp has drunk her blood and had sex with her) will live either her natural lifespan if the vamp dies first or, and here’s the kicker, die only when the vamp does. Assuming that’s decades or centuries beyond when she might have naturally passed. It’s strange, but the thought of living for a few or even several hundred years beyond my natural lifespan doesn’t throw me off as much as you might think. I’d never considered it as an option except maybe in my fantasies, but I’m smart enough to know not to go down that road with someone I’m not compatible with.

Kade frowns, as if he’s used to people following his orders without question.

“The collar is not a lifetime commitment, little one. That comes with… other things. It’s simply there to keep other vamps away and mark you as claimed.”

I roll my eyes. Is he afraid to say sex in front of me? Did someone tell him I’m a shy little virgin? My eyes narrow. “Carina put you up to this, didn’t she? I’m fully aware that the full bonding requires both biting and sex. You can say the words, Kade. But the very fact that you thought you couldn’t proves my point. You don’t really know me.”

He rubs his tongue over the tips of his fangs. “I don’t know the minor details, but your blood told me everything important. You are mine , Gianna. You can take some time getting used to the idea, but you’ll wear my collar while you do it.”

The arrogant grumpiness in his voice has my pussy clenching with excitement. Kade could be one of my romance novels come to life. Only better because his attention is completely focused on me . Just to see what he’ll do, I tilt my head to one side and, uncharacteristically sass, “Make me.”

When he unceremoniously picks me up and tosses me over his shoulder, I remember why I stick to conversations that keep me in the background. Kade quickly carries me out to his car. When he turns me right side up in order to set me on the seat, he growls, “Don’t move out of this seat or I will tie you to my bed for a week.” The threat slides right over me and down to my eager clit, which throbs in response. For some strange reason, I’m not afraid of Kade or his threats. It’s not completely rational that I’m not. I should be. Everything in me recognizes that he’s dangerous and yet… I can’t help feeling that he’s sweet deep down on the inside.

He locks up and returns to his vehicle, handing me my purse and keys that I’d left on the sideboard just inside the entry.

“Why are you kidnapping me?” I ask, remarkably calm.

He looks startled. “I’m not. I’m simply bringing you back to my place so I can collar you. I wasn’t expecting to find such a delicious treat this evening, angel, or I’d have come prepared.”

His strong hands rest lightly on the steering wheel as he drives competently down the narrow country roads towards Snowberry. There’s minimal traffic and yet he won’t answer any of the questions I pester him with. He doesn’t argue. It’s more like he’s unaware I’m even with him. It’s annoying as fuck.

And yet… I find myself yearning to snuggle into his side. To have those elegant fingers currently curled around the steering wheel grip my flesh instead. And there’s also a strange kind of knowing. Like maybe my soul recognized him and this was the moment I was waiting for, a reason to be brave and take a monumental risk. Even if my sister would say I’m wet in the head and need a keeper instead of a vampire lover.