Crimson Debt Read online

  “But think how much more he could have written,” I breathed. “Maybe your, uh, friend should have taken the risk.”

  “Maybe. It is a difficult decision—there is a fine line between genius and madness.”

  I looked farther down the bookcase and found something that topped even Tamerlane. It was a tattered paperback book with a picture of a bare-chested muscular man in a kilt with fangs. At his feet was a woman who was falling out of her low cut dress. I had known that there was a proliferation of vampire romance novels ever since the fanged set had come out publicly about ten years before, but I had never dreamed that a real, self-respecting vampire would read them. Especially a four-star vamp like Corbin.

  I looked up at him. “Uh…Immortal Highland Lover? Seriously?”

  He smiled. “I read it for comedic effect. The historical inaccuracies amuse me. As well as the way the writers always assume a vampire would keep his accent for centuries.”

  “Doesn’t he?” I asked, frowning.

  Corbin shook his head. “Maybe if he or she was able to stay in their country of origin. But in the era I was brought over, the need to keep moving, or be suspected of what one was, made that impossible. By the time I was a century old I had been around the globe twice and spoke twelve different languages. The accent is one of the first things to go.”

  “Can you still use it if you want to?” I asked curiously.

  He grinned. “That I can, lassie, an’ ye wish it.” His brogue was so thick and startling that I started laughing. Corbin laughed with me and before I knew it the book was back on the shelf and I was in his arms. “You’re beautiful when you laugh,” he murmured. There was still just a touch of an accent in his deep voice.

  I looked up at him. His body was big and hard in all the right places against mine and I couldn’t help the way my heart started to race when he was so close to me. He’s the enemy, I reminded myself sternly. A vampire’s a vampire, no matter how charming he is.

  “Don’t do that,” Corbin whispered, looking into my eyes. “Don’t talk yourself out of feeling for me.”

  I frowned. “How do you know what I was thinking? Are you trying to glam me?”

  He looked frustrated. “No. I’m trying to make you care for me. But it appears to be an uphill battle.”

  I shrugged. “Those are the breaks. Maybe you should have fallen for someone who hasn’t seen what vamps can do—how violent and destructive they can be. Or maybe you should just glam some other woman into thinking she loves you.”

  He frowned. “Is that what you think I want? A false love? A woman who only thinks she cares for me because I manipulated her mind?”

  “It’s what a lot of vamps seem to want,” I pointed out. I had seen it more than once—a human so enslaved by glam-sex that they would literally do anything for the vamp who was supplying them. No crack head in the world has anything on a glam-addict.

  “I see it is useless to try and change your mind.” Corbin let me go abruptly. “Therefore, let us commence your punishment.” His eyes were hard and every trace of the thick accent he’d used earlier was gone. I felt like a cold wind had swept through the room, taking away the warmth that had been momentarily between us and replacing it with chilly civility. But please, like I wanted to have warm fuzzies over a vampire?

  “Fine.” I lifted my chin. “You said no sex and no spanking. So what are you going to do to me?”

  Corbin settled into the brown leather chain and steepled his long fingers. “To begin with, I will watch you disrobe.”

  I looked at him in disbelief. “You’re serious? You want me to strip for you?”

  “Exactly.”

  “God.” I ran a hand through my hair, which was beginning to come down out of the tight ponytail I always wore it in. “Where’s some cheesy music and a stripper pole when you need them?”

  Corbin shook his head. “There is no need for you to try and make a show out of it to arouse me. I am quite certain I will find the sight of your naked body erotic enough without any other efforts on your part.”

  Sure, if he had a thing for freckles, small breasts and big thighs. At least I didn’t have to worry about him losing control once he saw me in the altogether. In fact, seeing me naked might just cure him of his ridiculous obsession with me—as I have mentioned before, I don’t hate my body but I’m not exactly model material either.

  I took a deep breath and started unbuttoning my jacket. Great—so my punishment was going to be humiliation. But if Corbin thought he could rattle my cage by getting me naked, he was mistaken. I could get through this, I told myself fiercely. Besides, taking off my clothes was a hell of a lot better than having sex with him.

  I kept telling myself that until I got down to my bra and panties. They were pink and lacy and innocent looking, which made me feel like an inexperienced little girl in front of Corbin, who was watching my every move intently. At least they matched. I was absurdly glad that he hadn’t caught me wearing my granny panties although I told myself I shouldn’t care what he thought.

  I was reaching behind my back to unsnap my bra when Corbin held up his hand. “Stop.”

  “What?” I looked down at myself. Had he already decided he’d seen enough? That was a little insulting.

  “What is that? On the inside of your elbow?” He pointed and I looked down with a growing sense of dread. It was Taylor’s bite from the night before and it was still raw.

  Corbin was up and out of his chair in a blur. Suddenly he was standing in front of me and the light in his eyes was truly frightening.

  “I…I…” I tried to back away from him but he already had my arm grasped firmly in his big hand.

  “Did I not tell you that you weren’t to give Taylor any more of your blood?”

  “Take it easy! That’s from last night when she came to see me at my place,” I protested.

  Corbin seemed to relax a little. “All right. But earlier you told me there was nothing more for me to heal, Addison. Why did you lie to me?”

  “Technically I told you there were no more scars, which is true,” I pointed out.

  He shook his head. “You kept this from me on purpose. Why?”

  I could tell from the look in his eyes that he wasn’t letting me go until I answered. “Because the way I felt when you…when you healed my wrists freaked me out, okay?” I said, feeling the hot blood rush to my cheeks as I remembered the way my body had reacted to his touch. “I couldn’t imagine letting you do that, letting you put your mouth on me, farther up my arm.”

  Corbin’s eyes darkened. “I fear that very soon you will have to get used to my mouth all over your body, my darling. In the meantime, you have incurred another punishment for lying to me.”

  “What? But I’m not even done with this one yet!”

  “Indeed you are not.” He let go of my arm. “Continue, please.”

  Trembling with anger and indignation, I went back to fumbling with my bra strap. But somehow the damn thing was stuck or else maybe my hands were just shaking too much. At any rate, I couldn’t get it undone.

  Corbin saw my problem. “Here. Let me.” He reached behind me to unhook the strap and then drew the bra slowly down my arms. Without asking, he knelt at my feet and slowly teased my panties down my legs until I could step out of them. Afterward he simply sat there, staring up at me.

  I wanted to be brave and proud and fierce and not care what he thought of me but too many years of body image issues got in the way. I put an arm over my breasts and my other hand between my thighs, cupping the neatly trimmed strip of red-gold curls that grew there. “Okay, I’m naked. Are you happy now?” I asked, feeling like my cheeks must be as red as my hair with mortification.

  “Not yet. Move your hands, Addison. Let me look at you.”

  “I don’t want to,” I said stubbornly. This punishment was turning out to be harder than I’d imagined. “I…I’m shy.”

  “I can see that.” His voice was curiously gentle. “Nevertheless, I wish to see yo