Deal With the Devil Read online

  There was really no excuse to dress up for a vampire but I’d bought the outfit ages ago to wear on dates and then it had just languished in my closet. Even though I knew that tonight was about a business deal, I couldn’t help putting it on. Feeling pretty made me more confident and at that moment I needed all the confidence I could get just to walk into Jude’s house.

  He shut the door so gently I didn’t even hear it close. I was too busy looking around, anyway. The large house was decorated in turn of the century antiques, at least the parts that I could see. Polished parquet floors gleamed in the dim light from the miniature chandelier overhead.

  “You have a lovely home,” I said, feeling stilted and awkward.

  “Nothing is as lovely as you are tonight. I am so glad you wore your hair down—I had hoped you would.” Jude brushed a few stray curls away from my neck and I shivered at the touch of his large hand against my sensitive skin.

  “Thank you.” I felt suddenly shy which made me uncomfortable enough to get irritated. “So where are we doing this?” I asked, lifting my chin.

  Jude raised an eyebrow. “All business, are you?”

  “Why not?” I gave him a challenging look. “This is a business deal, right?”

  His eyes hardened. “Indeed it is. Very well then, please follow me and I’ll show you where I’d planned for us to be tonight.” He turned and walked away noiselessly and I had no choice but to follow him deeper into the huge house.

  We passed by lots of rooms until he gestured me courteously into one at the end of a long hallway. I went in rather reluctantly and saw that it was decorated as a study. Bookshelves lined the walls and there was a desk at one end of the room with a closed laptop on it. Hmm, a vamp who kept up with modern technology—interesting. Many of them didn’t, preferring to live in the past. Apparently Jude liked to look ahead—a point in his favor as far as I was concerned. Not that I would ever be interested in a vampire, but still.

  At the other end of the dimly lit room was a long, low brown leather couch in front of a stone fireplace. Somewhat to my surprise, I saw there was a small fire flickering there—it was the source of most of the light in the room. My first thought was that it was way too hot this time of year for a fire, even a small one. But then I realized that it really wasn’t. Jude must have turned the AC way down because the room was a very comfortable temperature inside.

  “Please.” He gestured to the couch and waited until I sat down before he settled himself beside me. I could feel the heat of the fire against my knees and bare lower legs and had a moment to wish that I’d worn pants instead of a skirt. But then I would have had to take them off completely when he bit me whereas with the skirt, I could just push it up.

  Just thinking about having him down between my thighs with my skirt pushed up to my waist made me nervous. I took a few deep breaths, trying to relax. It’s business. This is just business, I reminded myself sternly. He just wants to taste your blood. There’s nothing even remotely erotic about it.

  Yeah, right. That line of thought went flying right out the window when I looked up and met Jude’s eyes in the firelight. They were half lidded with lust and he was gazing at me with an intensity that made me blush and look away.

  I cleared my throat nervously. “Um…now what?” I said, trying not to sound as flustered as I felt. Yeah, I’m one tough cookie but I had very little experience when it came to this kind of thing. And none of the experience I’d had was good.

  “Now, this,” Jude murmured. Leaning down he cupped my face in his hands and pressed a gentle, barely there kiss to my lips. It felt so good and I was so hungry for physical contact that I might have let him go on. Except this was supposed to be a business deal—not a make-out session. Or so I tried to tell myself.

  “Wait a minute.” I pulled back from him before he had a chance to kiss me again. “What…why are you kissing me?”

  He caught my gaze with his. “Firstly because I want to. And secondly, because I’m trying to get you warmed up, so to speak. Taking blood is a great deal like sex. You wouldn’t want to make love without a little foreplay first, would you?”

  “I wouldn’t know, remember?” I crossed my arms over my breasts protectively. “Look, I thought you said this didn’t have to be sexual.”

  Jude’s eyes flashed. “We can treat it in a clinical manner if you like but I’m afraid there will still be some elements that may remind you of sex.”

  “What elements? You’re just going to bite me—end of story.” I lifted my chin and frowned at him.

  “But that’s not the end of the story. Think about it, Luz.” His voice was soft and deep. “You will be spreading your legs for me—opening yourself. And I…I will be penetrating you.” His eyes flickered down to where I had my hands clenched together in my lap and I knew he was thinking about my thighs. My inner thighs. I had another mental image of his mouth on me there, licking, sucking…biting.

  God, I was getting hot and wet all over again, thinking these forbidden thoughts and listening to his deep, soft voice describing what we were going to do. What was wrong with me? I can’t give in to this feeling, I told myself firmly. I can’t. I took a deep breath.

  “Look, let’s just get down to it, shall we?” I said as briskly as I could. “You wanted to drink my blood—okay, so drink some. I don’t have all night.”

  Jude shook his head. “A pity. I could spend all night, every night admiring and exploring your lovely body. Very well.” He slid off the couch and suddenly he was on his knees in front of me. “Spread your legs for me, Luz.”

  Those words spoken in his deep, sensual voice made me shiver as I did what he said. Goose bumps jumped out all over my skin, despite the heat of the fire. But this was what I had come here for and I was determined to go through with it.

  That was until Jude pushed up my skirt and asked me to remove my underwear.

  They were black lacy boy shorts that covered me completely and I had thought myself very smart for wearing them. There was no way he would be able to catch even a glimpse of my pussy with those in the way, which was a very good thing since I didn’t want him to know how aroused he was making me. Right now I was so hot and wet and nervous that I could barely concentrate on what he was saying. So I had to ask him to repeat himself twice before I understood his request.

  “I’m sorry?” I said, looking at him blankly.

  “I said I need these to come off.” Jude tugged at the stretchy lace material of the shorts. “They’re in the way.”

  “How?” I demanded, looking down at my legs in the firelight. I mean—you have plenty of thigh to work with there. How are my…my underwear in the way?”

  “I prefer to bite at the inguinal crease—the place where your thigh meets your body. It’s easier to find a blood vessel there.”

  I looked at him suspiciously. “You sure you’re not just making that up so you can get me out of my underwear?”

  “I promise you, Luz, that I will treat this as a business deal and not take advantage of you,” he said dryly. “Unless, of course, you wish me to do more than bite you?” He raised an eyebrow at me questioningly.

  “No, no,” I said hastily, feeling my cheeks heat. “I just…it’s embarrassing, that’s all. I don’t…I’m not used to having a man down there.”

  “Of course not.” He ran one large hand over my thigh slowly. “But I have promised not to take what isn’t offered, remember?”

  “How can I trust you?” I demanded.

  He shrugged. “Have I betrayed your trust so far? Don’t you think I could simply take what I wanted instead of arguing with you if I was so inclined?”

  Fear sent an icy finger down my spine. “I suppose.”

  “But I won’t.” Jude’s voice was suddenly softer. “I may be many things, Luz, but I am no rapist.”

  “All right.” I don’t know why but for some reason I believed him. He might be a vampire but he had behaved like a gentleman so far.

  “Just keep telling yoursel