Page 88 of Venice Vampyr: The Beginning

***

Bianca let the words roll over her tongue and realized the moment they hit the air that she spoke the truth. She trusted Lorenzo, the man she knew to be a vampire, the man who could kill her so easily if he wanted to.

Yet instead of fear, another emotion coursed through her like blood rushing through her veins: excitement. Lorenzo wanted her, not simply to rut on her, but to keep him company. And he’d confessed that he couldn’t get enough of her. The way with which he looked at her now, desire and affection equal occupants in his gleaming eyes, she truly couldn’t imagine that he’d ever hurt her. Even when she recalled the way he’d looked when he’d quarreled with his friend, when his fangs had shown and his eyes had burned like molten lava, no fear emerged in her heart.

On the contrary, knowing what power he kept leashed inside him, made her desire for him even more intense.

Bianca brushed her lips against his. “You won’t hurt me.”

“And you won’t hurt me,” he whispered back before he took her lips and kissed her more tenderly than he ever had before.

And if a vampire could be tender, then she had nothing to fear from him, she knew it in her heart. Her only fear now was that he tired of her, because what she wanted most was to stay with him, not to continue her search for the treasure, but to be with Lorenzo.

When he carried her to bed that night and cradled her in his arms, Bianca didn’t sleep for a long time. Instead, she watched him sleep, watched how his chest fell and rose with each breath. He was a living, breathing man, full of passion and tenderness. And he had power over her, just like she had power over him.

His friend’s words echoed in her ears. “Do you trust her enough not to kill you in your sleep?”

Bianca looked at Lorenzo’s sleeping nude form and stroked her hand over the place where his heart was. It beat against her palm, strong and steady.

“My love,” he mumbled in his sleep.

No, she couldn’t hurt him, even if he turned out to be a terrible monster. So she hoped with all her heart that whatever it meant to be a Vampire was nothing more than an affliction that required him to drink blood, but that apart from that gruesome act, he was as humane as she thought herself to be.

“Sleep, my love, you’re safe,” she whispered and snuggled into the curve of his body.

Chapter Seventeen

Ever since the night he’d quarreled with Raphael, Lorenzo thought that Bianca looked at him differently. Whenever she thought he wasn’t watching, he caught her perusing him in a most peculiar fashion as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes. It would have been unnerving, had she not at the same time become even more wanton in bed, inciting him to drive them both to the point where control shattered and ecstasy ruled supreme.

“Tie me up!” Bianca urged him now as she lay writhing underneath him, already bathed in sweat from their lovemaking but eager for more.

He pulled his rock-hard erection out of her, more than willing to comply with her request. As he reached for the ties which had taken up permanent residence on his nightstand and proceeded to tie her wrists above her head, Bianca impatiently rocked her pelvis against him.

“Yes, show me how powerful you are. Make me submit to you.” Her words were interspersed by heavy breathing, her voice sounding almost delirious. And her eyes watched him with untamed lust, her tongue licking her lips the way she always did when she wanted to suck him. God, he was one lucky son of a bitch having Bianca in his bed.

Once he’d secured the restraints around the headboard, he lowered himself over her again, playfully sliding his cock over her pearl. She hissed out a breath and arched against him, but he withdrew too quickly for her.

“Oh, no, my sweet, I’m your master now. I’ll control your pleasure.”

She lowered her gaze to his cock. “Let me suck you. I know how much you like that.”

Despite the fact that she was right about how much he enjoyed his cock in her mouth, he shook his head. “It’s your pleasure I want.”

Then he reached for the black scarf. “Now be a good mistress and close your eyes.”

There was a glint of surprise in her look before she lowered her lids and let herself be blindfolded. He’d never deprived her of her eyesight before, but he’d never seen her acting with such abandon as tonight. If she ever agreed to this, it would be tonight.

“What are you going to do?” she asked. He heard no fear in her voice, only excitement.

“Do you remember when I told you that on occasion I would want somebody else to watch us?”

Her breath hitched as her muscles tensed. “Who is it?”

Lorenzo smiled. “You haven’t met him. And it doesn’t matter who he is. All that matters is that you know that a stranger is looking at you while I’m pleasuring you.”

He rose and swung his legs to the side of the bed. “He’s waiting downstairs. I will go and fetch him now.” Then he stood and walked to the door and opened it, glancing back over his shoulder. He noticed how Bianca’s chest rose, her breathing more uneven than before. “Don’t be concerned, my love. He may only watch, not touch.”

Then he walked into the corridor and closed the door behind him.