Page 37

K adie parked the Corvette in the driveway and then sat there, staring at Saintcrow’s house.

Large and square, it was built of weathered gray stone.

There were turrets at each of the four corners which gave the place the look of an old English fortress.

Or a medieval prison. Thick iron bars covered the front door and the windows.

It looked like it had stood there since the world began and would still be there when the hourglass of time ran down.

Forbidding was the first word that came to mind.

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her handbag and suitcase and exited the car.

Her hand shook as she opened the heavy iron door and then the equally heavy wooden one.

It opened into a spacious living room that was furnished with a Jonathan Adler sofa, loveseat and armchair, and a pair of end tables.

Several exquisite paintings adorned the walls. Fancy draperies covered the windows.

Kadie wasn’t sure what she had expected—tapestries and antique furniture, perhaps, but this wasn’t it. Only the suit of armor in a far corner of the room, and the fireplace—which was surely big enough to hold a horse and its rider—looked to be as old as the house.

Dropping her suitcase by the door, she wandered through the rooms. She was surprised to find appliances in the kitchen.

Why would a vampire need a stove or a refrigerator?

Or a microwave? Did he bring blood home and warm it up?

Did he keep bottled blood in the fridge?

Curiosity had her opening the door. It was empty, of course.

She also found a set of expensive silverware and a set of Spode China.

The man had great taste, she would give him that.

There were six bedrooms upstairs. They were all about the same—large and square, painted in pastel colors, with bedspreads, curtains, and carpets in matching or complementary colors.

Only the largest room, which was done up in shades of blue and white, had an adjoining bathroom.

None of the rooms looked lived in. The closets were all empty.

So where did the master of the house sleep? Where were his clothes and shoes?

That question haunted her as she went downstairs to retrieve her suitcase.

Forty minutes later, with her clothes and toiletries put away, Kadie drove to the grocery store in town. She walked up and down the aisles, picking up anything that caught her fancy, and all the while snatches of conversation played in her mind.

I won your heart once before, Kadie. I hope to do it again.

We were lovers, Kadie.

I love you, Kadie. I hope someday you’ll love me again.

With her cart full, Kadie went through the check-out line, surprised to discover that most of the items she’d bought were comfort food—cookies, ice cream, cupcakes, blueberry muffins, hot chocolate.

Apparently, she’d had a brief moment of common sense, since she had also picked up a quart of milk, a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, and a jar of coffee, as well as bananas, grapes, strawberries, and oranges.

And, at the last minute, a box of tissue and some toilet paper.

Returning to Saintcrow’s castle, she put everything away and then wandered through the house again.

How long had she lived here with Saintcrow before she got sick?

Had they been happy together? How had she ever met and fallen in love with a vampire?

she wondered, and then shook her head. It probably hadn’t been too hard.

He was movie-star gorgeous with a devastating smile and beautiful, dark eyes.

She remembered dancing with him, feeling his arms around her, his body pressed intimately against her own …

She told herself to stop thinking about him, but she couldn’t help it.

He was sexy and desirable, easy to be with. If only he wasn’t a vampire.

Sitting in the big, overstuffed easy chair beside the huge fireplace, she tried to recall what she knew about vampires from the books she’d read and the movies she’d seen.

According to Hollywood, vampires were sensual creatures who mesmerized their chosen prey, then drank their blood.

They could move very fast, read human minds, make people do their bidding.

They slept in coffins by day and roamed the countryside delivering death and destruction by night.

They could scurry up the side of a building like a spider.

They had no soul and cast no reflection.

Closing her eyes, Kadie massaged her temples. She didn’t know if any of those things were true, but one thing she did know. He had killed two men right in front of her eyes. She had seen his fangs, watched his eyes turn a hellish shade of red.

We were lovers, Kadie.

She lifted a hand to her throat. Had he ever bitten her? Drank her blood?

Practically jumping out of the chair, she glanced around.

Where was he now? Had he left, like he promised?

Or was he asleep in his coffin? She frowned.

She hadn’t seen a coffin. None of the rooms looked as if they’d been occupied before she got here.

So, where did he sleep? Did he have a secret room somewhere in the house?

“Don’t be stupid, Kadie,” she muttered. “In the movies, the curious girls always become dinner.”

She couldn’t stay here, Kadie thought. She would never get a wink of sleep.

She would go to California, she decided.

She would leave now, tonight … She glanced around the living room.

Vampire or not, he’d been kind to her. She would leave him a note, thanking him for his generosity, and asking him not to get in touch with her.

She searched the drawers in the desk in the alcove off the living room.

And there, in the bottom drawer, she found a marriage certificate declaring that Kadie Andrews and Rylan Saintcrow had been joined in Holy Matrimony on the Fifth day of …

The words swam before her eyes before her world went black.

Saintcrow sat in his office located on the top floor of the Morgan Creek Hotel.

Ethan had spared no expense when he furnished it, from the state-of-the-art computer to the large mahogany desk, matching file cabinet, and the luxurious leather chair he now sat in.

The window to his right looked out on the town.

A TV was mounted on one wall, a large painting of Morgan Creek before the renovation graced the other.

Saintcrow stared at the numbers on the computer screen, but all he could think about was Kadie.

How was he going to win her back? Pushing away from the desk, he went to the window, his gaze drifting past the town to his lair.

With his preternatural vision, he could see Kadie in the alcove, poking through the desk drawers.

An oath escaped his lips when she found their marriage certificate.

A thought took him home. He caught her before she hit the floor.

Kadie woke to find herself on the sofa in the living room.

She blinked up at the ceiling, confused as to how she’d gotten there.

She had been poking around where she didn’t belong …

And then she remembered. The marriage certificate in the desk drawer.

She bolted upright, swung her legs over the edge of the sofa, and came face to face with Rylan Saintcrow.

Her husband.

“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” he said.

“Is it true? It’s not just something you made up, like those phony newspapers you can buy at carnivals?”

“I’m afraid not. Perhaps it was fate for you to find out today,” he said, with a faint smile. “It’s our fifteenth anniversary.”

She stared at him. Fifteen years. It wasn’t a vast amount of time. Still, how could she be married to a man that long and not remember him? “Were we happy?”

“Always.”

“If we’re married, where’s my ring?”

“Downstairs.” He had taken her rings off when the curse was broken, thinking to avoid any awkward questions.

“And we never had children?”

“Vampires can’t reproduce.”

She blinked at him. Vampire. She had momentarily forgotten about that. She must have loved him a great deal to willingly give up having a family. “If this is your house, why don’t you sleep in any of the bedrooms?”

“I have a room downstairs.”

“Downstairs? Where?” She hadn’t seen any stairs going down, only up. She had planned to explore the upper floor later.

Taking her hand in his, he pulled her to her feet. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

She followed him up a set of stairs that led to the four turret rooms. He showed her each one, saying nothing.

The first two, located in the front of the house, were empty.

The third room held a narrow cot and a wooden chair.

A large, black, wrought-iron cross hung over the bed.

It seemed an odd ornament for a vampire’s home.

The last chamber contained a bed, a chair, and a small table.

A tapestry that looked quite old covered the wall opposite the door from the floor to the ceiling.

The colors were faded and the edges frayed but it was still exquisite.

It depicted a handsome knight in chain mail mounted on a rearing black charger.

The knight wore a white surcoat emblazoned with a red cross.

He held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.

Stepping closer, her head tilted to the side, Kadie stared at the knight, then turned to look at Saintcrow. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

He nodded.

Kadie ran her hands over the tapestry and a shiver ran down her spine, along with the certainty that she had seen it before, touched it before. There was a door behind it. A door that led to a long, dark tunnel.