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“She’s said all she has to say,” I snapped, even though she hadn’t said the one sentence that would expel him from the shop. I lowered my voice and leaned in. “I suggest you sheathe those before I tear them out of your skull.”
His lips twitched on a snarl, his baby fangs peeking out in a comical show of defiance, but he nodded, then looked past me at her. He closed his mouth, and when he spoke again, his fangs were retracted. “I’m so sorry. Please let me explain.”
“You’re a vampire,” Jacqueline whispered, shock evident in the way her voice trembled.
The kid’s shoulders slumped.
“Gannon Hayes,” she said, and I couldn’t fight the smirk pulling at my lips. Poor fucker was about to learn the hard way who was in control. “I revoke your invitation to enter this building.”
His brow furrowed, but then he walked past us, movements stiff as the power of her words compelled him from the building against his will. We both returned slowly to watch him leave, and when he was gone, she spun on me so fast I nearly stepped backwards in shock.
“You too.”
“Jacqueline.”
Her eyes narrowed and she pointed to the door. “Don’t make me say it, Vinny.”
“I was trying to keep you safe.” I raised my hands in surrender. “I would have returned the keys.”
“Vinny.” She sighed, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling. “I’ve been controlled by men my entire life. Good men. Men who just wanted to keep me safe.”
My eyes zeroed in on the pulse in her slender throat and my mouth watered at the beautiful sight, the promise of life pumping through her veins, the tease of what her blood might taste like. I’d finally tasted the paradise between her legs, which had only heightened my desire for her blood. That, combined with the way her ex-boyfriend’s surprise return had made me feel so possessive, had created a frenzy of need. To claim. To take. To make her mine in every damn way possible.
It thrummed in my blood.
Became a deafening demand in my brain.
My mouth watered as I watched the beat of her heart beneath the delicate skin of her throat.
I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth, waiting for the thirst to pass.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
I opened my eyes and she gasped, taking a step back.
“Don’t run.” The words were forced through clenched teeth and sounded like someone else entirely, thick with hunger… and terrifying—if the look in her eyes was any indication.
Jacqueline’s bottom lip trembled and I fucking hated myself for putting that fear in her.
“I have to go.”
She nodded.
“I’ll see you at ten.” I ran from her so fast all she probably saw of my departure was a blur of color. I needed to feed again, to sink my teeth into the neck of a willing donor and soon, because I meant what I said.
Not until she begged for it.
Chapter Ten
Jack
Giovanni had moved out of the neighborhood as soon as he turned eighteen. As the eldest of the three of us, he’d been our father’s pick for taking over the business, but he’d had his own dreams, his own goals. And, unlike me, he’d been able to pursue them.
So he worked his way through culinary school at various restaurants in the city, and with a small dowry our father had set aside, just ten grand each for the three of us, he started his business when he was only twenty years old.
Fiorino’s Fine Foods began as a pickling and canning company, with Gio hocking his goods from the back of an old Buick, then morphed into a food truck, and when that went viral and he couldn’t keep up with customer demand, he eventually turned that business into a brick-and-mortar store just three blocks from the family butcher shop.
But he still insisted on living across the bridge, so while I drove to his house for Christmas Eve dinner, I had plenty of time to think about the royal catastrophe my life had become.
