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They left his condo and went down to the parking garage. He helped her into his car and then slipped into his seat.
“The long way home?” He asked.
She shook her head. “I’m already late enough, and I don’t know what I’m going to say to him.”
He started the car. “Why don’t you tell him the truth?”
“Because I’m too much of a coward, and I don’t want to hurt him.”
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “He’s going to have to know sooner rather than later, and you must know my patience isn’t going to last much longer.”
She drew away from his lips and stared straight ahead.
Twenty minutes later, he parked his car behind her SUV.
Instead of getting out immediately when he walked around to open her door, she sat, taking deep breaths. Whenever they said goodbye, a feeling of panic and fear that she might never see him again set in.
“Trust me, you’ll see me again soon.” He extended his hand.
Reassured, she slipped hers into his, and he helped her out and walked her to her SUV. After sitting in the driver’s seat, she started the engine and turned to look at him.
“I’ll follow you,” he said and bent to kiss her.
She lifted her face, parted her lips, and enjoyed his mouth’s all too brief touch against hers. Five minutes later, she pulled into her parking space—next to the one where Evan’s car should have been but wasn’t. Thank God. Maybe she wouldn’t have to lie to him about where she’d been.
Andrei opened her door. “I’ll see you to your apartment.”
Shaking her head, she slipped out of her SUV, grabbed her briefcase, and started past Andrei.
He closed her door and reached out to catch her hand. “I’m coming with you.”
“Why?”
“To make sure everything is...secure.”
“He might be there.”
“His car isn’t here. So, I’m coming up with you.”
She glanced at her watch. It was nearly ten o’clock. Where could Evan be? The sooner she got Andrei on his way, the better. “Okay.”
They went up to the apartment she shared with Evan, and Andrei checked every room before he kissed her on her lips at the entrance door. “If you’re ever afraid, call me. I’ll come immediately.” He pushed something into her hand.
She glanced down at the two cards. One bore the name and several phone numbers of Aleksei Madison, while the other bore the name and numbers of Vladimir Madison.
“If, for some reason, I’m not available, call one of my brothers. If they can, they’ll come. If they can’t, they’ll make sure someone does.”
“You’re scaring me. Why would I need to call your brothers?”
“I don’t know that you will. I just want you to know that you can call them if I’m unavailable. You can call even if it’s just an uneasy feeling. Call, and I’ll come. You know that. Don’t you?”
Why did he sound as if he were saying goodbye? Dacoda nodded. “Of course I do, but I have nothing to be afraid of.”
“I just want you to know that my brothers will help you with no questions asked.”
“Why?”
“Because they know we belong together. If you ever need anything—including money—it’s yours. No questions asked.”
“Oh, Andrei, that’s sweet, but I’m fine financially.”
He stroked the back of his hand along her cheek. “Goodbye.”
Goodbye? She bit back the urge to ask when she would see him again. His twin sister, Tatiana’s wedding was three weeks away. She would see him then, if not before. “Good night, honey boy.”
After he left, she undressed, took a quick shower, and slipped on a nightgown. Then she settled down in the living room to wait for Evan. Several hours later, she woke and went into the bedroom. A fully dressed Evan sprawled asleep across their bed.
She looked at the clock. 4:18 a.m. When had he arrived home? And why hadn’t he awakened her?
Slipping onto the bed beside him, she realized his hair was damp. She frowned. Did she detect a hint of perfume clinging to his clothes? After another two sniffs, she decided she’d imagined the scent of perfume. Unlike her, Evan knew the meaning of marital fidelity.
* * *
AFTER HE LEFT DACODA, Andrei spent the rest of the night searching for the one female he hated enough to kill on sight—Veelee. He returned home just after dawn without having found her. Powerful and influential full-bloods were shielding her. That could only mean The Defense League of the Brotherhood—the group of full-bloods dedicated to ensuring they retained their supremacy over humans and all other non-vampiric creatures.
Fuck. He didn’t relish going up against the League, but if they stood between him and Veelee, there would be no getting around it. Veelee had to die before he could openly declare his feelings for Dacoda. If not, Andrei knew she would go after Dacoda with a vile vengeance that few creatures besides a nocturene could muster.
It was probably time he called on his brothers for assistance. His mother had vowed to hunt Veelee down, but so far, she hadn’t been able to find her either. And he was reluctant to have any fem he cared about hunting for the bitch who should have been dead already but so far refused to stay dead.
His thoughts turned to Dacoda sleeping with her big, dumb blond. Bile rose in his throat. A full-blood could only take so much. He had to find the bitch soon, or he’d go mad and kill Chandler. Then he’d worry about how he could win Dacoda’s forgiveness and make her believe he’d treat her baby fairly—even if it killed him.
After he had undressed, he took a long shower before falling across his bed. Thoughts of Dacoda filled his head as he fell asleep.
He dreamed of ripping Chandler’s throat open and watching his blood and life force gush from his body in such gruesome detail that he woke, almost expecting to see his carcass on his bedroom floor.
Damn. Why wouldn’t someone unconnected to him kill Chandler? Then he thought of Veelee and closed his eyes. She needed to die first. Then he’d decide what to do about Chandler.
* * *
THREE EXHAUSTING, MENTALLY, and sexually frustrating weeks later, Andrei stood alone in the shadows of the large hotel ballroom. His twin sister, Tatiana, and her husband, Eric Jason Makefield, sat at a long, beautifully decorated table at the front of the room.
Nearly everyone dear to him was there to celebrate Tat’s marriage to the latent full-blood hunter. She had finally admitted he was her bloodlust or perfect mate. At dawn, she and Makefield had united in a Blood Oath with their family and closest friends as witnesses. Later, they exchanged vows in a traditional human ceremony for those not present at the Blood Oath.
Tat, with her long dark hair in an elaborate French braid, wore a beautiful cream and mauve colored wedding gown he and their brothers had paid a small fortune to have custom-made. During her vows at the Blood Oath, she had worn a mauve-colored gown with cream highlights that their mother and stepfather had custom-made for her.
He sighed, his gaze locked on the twin he loved more than his own life. Her brown skin glowed while her blue eyes sparkled with contentment. She had never looked lovelier. Or happier.
Andrei glanced around the room, allowing his gaze to rest on his mother and her husband. His siblings, nephews, nieces, and the humans he counted as friends were present. Everyone seemed happy.
And why shouldn’t they? Each adult was accompanied by their lover, wife, husband, significant other, object of desire, or bloodlust, except for Andrei. He’d come with a fem he considered a casual friend. But everyone knew where his true interest lay.
Feeling bile lodge in his throat, he turned his gaze to a table near the front of the room. Dacoda sat there. Although she bore little resemblance to the tiny blondes he usually preferred, he was amazed that he’d ever thought of her as anything but stunning.
Within a few hours of meeting her, he’d discovered that she was warm, sweet, breathtakingly passionate, and completely unforgettable. He hadn’t enjoyed a moment’s peace of mind since they met several months earlier.
Thoughts of her soft brown skin, beautiful dark eyes, and voluptuous body with those enchantingly large, natural breasts, long legs, and a sinfully round ass haunted him. When they’d met, she’d worn her hair short and natural. Now she wore it long and chemically straightened—no doubt to please her dickhead husband.
Her husband! The thought infuriated him. She should be his. Instead of being his woman carrying his baby, she was married to a human male who could never want or need her with the depth of hunger and passion Andrei felt. He was Evan Chandler: her husband and the father of the baby that should have been Andrei’s. Because of circumstances beyond his control, he’d lost her.
He thought of the fem who had forced him to walk away from Dacoda, Veelee, the low-breed, rogue vampire. That treacherous nocturene had come close to having Tat killed and wasn’t dead—even though she should be. When he finally found her, he’d tear her limb from limb without remorse or regard for their intimate past.
If not for her, he would be with Dacoda. Dacoda. The long weeks spent without her in his bed and arms filled him with rage and frustration. His life would be much happier and simpler if he could only forget her. Why couldn’t he forget her? The moment he closed his eyes, memories of her shy smile and soft lyrical voice taunted him, making sleep and peace of mind almost impossible.
Knowing another man held her each night and slid his cock into her aromatic pussy, left him struggling to contain an increasingly murderous rage.
Turning to see Andrei glaring at him, Dacoda’s big, dumb blond husband slid his hand over her belly and between her legs.
Andrei inhaled. The stupid bastard was about to get his death wish granted. Uncaring of the humans present who didn’t know they were in the company of full-bloods, Andrei bared his incisors and stormed forward.
A hand descended on his shoulder.
He shook it off and swung around. The last person he’d expected to intervene stood behind him, shaking his head.
He stared at his older brother Vladimir. “What?”
Vladimir placed an arm around his shoulders. Before he could object, he was turned and walked out of the ballroom and into the corridor. Two half-blood bouncers from Andrei’s group of clubs stood guard outside the door.
“Now is not the time. And this isn’t the place to break his damned neck, Drei.”
He jerked away from Vladimir. “How the hell much shit am I supposed to take from that bastard? He knocked her up, he’s fucking my woman every night, and now he thinks he can taunt me too? Fuck no! I’m going to kill his ass—regardless of what you say!”
Vladimir arched a brow. “When did I say you shouldn’t kill him? I just said now isn’t the time. This isn’t the place. This is Tat’s night, and doing anything to take the spotlight off her, and that sorry ass wimp she married will get your ass kicked by either Mother or Aleksei,” he said of his twin brother. “Or both of them. Kill his dumb ass, by all means. Don’t do it here or in a way that she knows you’re responsible.”
“You think I care if she knows I killed him?”
“Trust me when I tell you, Drei, that no matter how much we say, we don’t care what our human bloodlusts say or think, we do. They’re demanding, weak, and needy as hell. They insist we jump through hoops to keep them happy and damned if we don’t ask how many.”
“Just because you care what Adam thinks doesn’t mean I care what she thinks.”
Vladimir laughed. “Who the fuck are you trying to kid? I don’t think you care what she thinks. I know you care. If you didn’t, he’d have been dead the first time he touched her.”
“You sound like a damned bleeding heart.” He shook his head. “What the hell has that silly blond of yours done to you?” he asked of Adam Cady, Vladimir’s bloodlust.
Vladimir laughed and slapped his cheek hard enough to make it sting. “I’ll thank you not to refer to him as a silly blond.”
“That’s what he is,” he said, pushing Vladimir’s hand away as he was about to deliver another slap.
“There’s little doubt of that, but he’s my silly blond, and I’m excessively fond of him. Knowing him has changed my life in ways I never imagined.”
Andrei stared at him. Noting the softening of his brother’s tone and the look of contentment in his gaze, he realized Vladimir was in love and in bloodlust with his silly-ass blond. “Damn,” he said.
Vladimir shook his head. “If you tell him I said that I’ll have to kill you.”
The two brothers shared a laugh before Andrei sobered. “I have to kill him,” he said, his thoughts turning back to Evan Chandler.
“Probably,” Vladimir agreed. “But not tonight. Get even tonight by fucking her raw and sending her back to him with your cum trickling down her leg.”
Andrei’s cock hardened at the thought of finally sliding inside the sweetest pussy in the world again. He nodded. Closing his eyes, he reached out to her. Dacoda, I need you. Come to me, my sweet, addictive one.
He felt a faint, startled acknowledgment from her before he turned to look at the tall, blue-eyed blond male who emerged from the ballroom. It still amazed him that Vladimir was bloodlusting with another male. Still, there was no longer any doubt about how important this male was to his brother.
Andrei walked over to him and spoke with his lips against the other male’s ear. “Whatever you’re doing with him, keep doing it.”
“Yes?”
Hearing the surprise in Adam’s voice, he nodded. “Yes.”
“I often get the feeling not many in your family approve of our relationship.”
Andrei shrugged. “Speaking strictly for myself, you make him happy. That’s all I care about. So keep doing it because it’s working.” He caressed and slapped Adam’s ass and stepped back to watch the look of surprised delight cross his face.
Part of the vampire culture Adam had embraced with his relationship with Vladimir entailed siblings sleeping with each other’s bloodlust. He knew Adam often felt slighted since neither Andrei nor his other brothers were prepared or interested in sex with him. That wasn’t ever going to change since he didn’t do men. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t kill him to slap Adam’s ass occasionally, or God forbid, brush against his ass when on his way to fuck Dacoda.
Adam glanced at Vladimir, who stood watching them before smiling at Andrei. “I will.”
Andrei turned, walking to the elevators. They had reserved the entire 20th floor for the weekend. He’d wait for Dacoda in his suite.
Thanks, Drei.
At the elevator bank, he turned to incline his head, acknowledging Vladimir’s thanks for his deference to Adam. Anyone capable of giving his brother a brighter outlook deserved kudos and an occasional slap on the ass.
When the elevator arrived, he stepped inside. Dacoda. Come to me.
There was no acknowledgment. Still, he knew she heard him. She’d better respond, or he’d return to the ballroom to kill that blond bastard who was foolish enough to think he could take his woman from him and live to enjoy her.