Category Archives: exclusive excerpt

Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) Blurb reveal with added teaser excerpt!

 

So we’re closing in on May 18th and I’m sure everyone’s patience is beginning to wear thin as you wait for Snow’s book to be released. Today, I’m going to reveal the blurb for this vampire romance novel here at my blog, and give you another tease from the book to keep you all salivating over it. Don’t forget if you sign up to my newsletter / mailing list before April 30th, you’ll receive the first five chapters of Unleash in your inbox, plus you’ll be in with a chance to win signed paperback copies of the novel.

Without further ado, here’s a little insight into what’s in store in Snow’s novel! Oh, and a slightly longer than a tease teaser.

 

Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6)

A powerful vampire lost deep in his bloodlust, Snow is a savage animal, mindless with rage and a thirst for violence, and trapped with no hope of awakening from an endless nightmare… until a song draws him up from the abyss, restoring his sanity but leaving him haunted by the sweet feminine scent of lilies and snow, and fragmented familiar lyrics.

When the mysterious and beautiful songstress reappears in Snow’s room at Vampirerotique, she awakens a fierce protective streak and stirs dark desires that drive him to claim her as his female, even when he knows his touch will destroy her innocence.

A single forbidden taste is all it takes to unleash emotions in Aurora that she shouldn’t possess, tearing her between duty and desire, and luring her into surrendering to her wildfire passion and embracing hungers that burn so hotly they threaten to consume them both.

One act of kindness can lead to one thousand acts of sin though, each a black mark against the bearer’s soul and another grain of sand that slips through an hourglass. The clock is ticking and time is almost up. Can beauty save the beast?

 

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Unleash Five Chapter Preview and Signed Paperback Giveaways on My Mailing List

 

It’s getting closer to the release day of Unleash now. The final book in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series comes out on May 18th, and you can get a sneak peek at it by subscribing to my mailing list before April 30th!

From April 30th, I will be sending out the first five chapters of Unleash in emails during the lead up to the vampire romance book’s release day, and with each new chapter there’s another chance to get your hands on a signed personalised paperback copy of the novel!

These five chapters are exclusive sneak previews for my mailing list subscribers and will not be available anywhere else, so if you’re waiting on this book and want to get a taste of Snow’s story, then be sure to sign up as soon as possible. I won’t be sending out chapters to anyone who may have missed some, or posting these anywhere else before the book is released.

My mailing list subscribers get other amazing benefits too, such as the monthly prize draw for a $50 Amazon Gift Card, the exclusive Her Angel Interludes series of flash fiction episodes following Nevar’s life, and also news about book releases, tours, special offers, and more.

It’s also 100% spam free and I will never disclose your email address to anyone else.

You can join my mailing list at: http://www.felicityheaton.com/newsletter.php

 

Posted in exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Unleash, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | 1 Comment

Teaseday – Exclusive excerpt from Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series book 5)

 

Today’s tease comes from the book Bewitch, which is the fifth book in my very popular Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series and is due for release on January 19th 2013. Read on for your Tuesday tease from…

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Posted in Bewitch, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Teaseday, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | 16 Comments

Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: ENSLAVE Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

The Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour comes to my blog again today for an exclusive excerpt from one of the erotic vampire romance books in the series.

My last exclusive excerpt is from the new release in the series, Enslave. I’ve already posted chapter 1 in a previous blog post as part of the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour and also chapter 2 when the book was released, so here’s chapter 3 for you all to read today. You can read chapter 1 at this blog post and read chapter 2 at this blog post.

First, I’ll set the picture with the blurb so you all know a little more about the story and characters.

Felicity Heaton
His determination to succeed in business has left no room in his life for love. Now, a beautiful and deadly succubus has teleported into his dark, decadent world and is in danger of enslaving his heart.

Andreu’s future entails opening an erotic theatre like Vampirerotique, gaining wealth, women and power, not shackling himself to a single female, but he cannot deny the dangerously seductive succubus who stirs his anger and passion, and tempts him like no other—he will have her.

The moment their eyes meet, Varya knows she cannot have the exotic dark vampire who sets her pulse racing. His shadowed aura marks him as forbidden, but the hungers he awakens in her are too intense to resist—she must have a taste.

When an erotically-charged kiss ignites their soul-searing passion and reveals something dangerous about Andreu, will Varya leave forever or will she dare to risk all in pursuit of something she thought was beyond her reach?

Available now in ebook from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA / International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy

Apple iBookstores / iTunes:
USA | UK | Australia | Canada

Other ebook retailers:
Author’s website | Kobo Books | All Romance eBooks

Warning: HOT excerpt, not for the shy types…

CHAPTER 3

“I want to know what the fuck she is!” Andreu snarled and paced the black-walled double-height room, shaking all the way to his bones.

Whatever she had done to him with that kiss, it had been potent and drugging, leaving him all too compliant and hazy. His senses still hadn’t come back to full strength yet and his skin felt too tight and too hot. Not to mention that his cock was on a hair-trigger, eager to get instantly and painfully hard whenever he recalled his moment with her, which was around ten times per second.

Wherever she had touched him burned with blistering heat that had branded her imprint onto his flesh and he couldn’t shake the images of her that rushed through his mind, constant replays of how good it had felt to pin her against that wall and kiss the breath out of her.
Payne stood in the middle of the room, calm and cool, impassive grey gaze following Andreu. Snow had collected Antoine from his room, and Javier had phoned Callum to tell him to stay away from the theatre, just in case things turned violent with their intruder.

“Whatever the creature is, it is gone.” Snow’s words were of little comfort. Andreu hadn’t sensed her fully until she had let him. What if Snow was wrong and she could fool his senses too?

“How do you know that?” Andreu turned on him and the cold edge to the immense ancient male’s icy eyes warned him to back off or face the consequences.

“I know.” The calm reply was one he would be a fool to challenge but he was too fired up, too rattled by how easily she had closed the gap between them and brought him to his knees, to heed any warnings.

Andreu curled his fingers into fists and clenched them so tightly that his bones ached.

“Andreu.” Javier stepped into his path, blocking his way to Snow, and settled his hands on Andreu’s shoulders. He squeezed them, a show of solidarity and comfort that Andreu needed now more than ever. “We will find out what the creature is and how to protect against her.”

“Succubus.”

Everyone turned to stare at Payne.

“She is a succubus. They feed on sexual energy but normally they have more sense than to wander into a vampire’s territory.” Payne shook his head, the motion echoing the disbelief in his tone. “This one is missing a few pieces of her puzzle, if you get what I mean. Not only did she breeze straight in here to catch the show, but she sucked your face.”

Andreu frowned at him, unsure whether Payne was insinuating that she had made a poor choice by kissing him and could have done better or she had been insane to go after a vampire.

“You seem to know a lot about fae.” Antoine stepped away from Snow and towards Payne. Payne shrugged again but a glimmer of discomfort surfaced in his eyes, demolishing the effect of his casual air. He flexed his fingers, causing his forearms to ripple and tighten against the rolled up sleeves of his dark silver shirt. A nervous trait? What did Payne have to be nervous about? “Is she going to prove a problem?”

“I doubt it.” Payne ran his fingers over the soft spikes of his blond hair, revealing the elaborate swirling symbols tattooed on the undersides of his forearms. “Succubi know better than to meddle with vampires. We can sense them. She was using a strong glamour tonight, one that would have been draining her fast, and we startled her. She probably kissed Andreu to take some strength, enough for her to zip out of here and away to somewhere safe.”

“So she won’t be coming back?” Andreu frowned at himself. Why the Devil did he sound so disappointed? The succubus had tried to drain him with that kiss. What a kiss it had been though. He couldn’t remember ever sharing a kiss quite like it. His blood heated at just the memory, scorching him with the need for another, and his cock hardened once again.

Dios. He would probably end up dead if she kissed him again. He wasn’t even sure how he had found the strength to push her away. One moment he had been swimming in the kiss, oblivious to anything other than the bliss of her lips on his and wanting it to go on forever, and the next he had come crashing back to the world and realised that she was out to harm him. He had reacted on instinct to protect himself. He hadn’t meant to toss her across the room as he had. He had just wanted her mouth off him.

Was the pleasure he had felt when kissing her the result of her power as a succubus? For some reason, that thought didn’t sit well with him. It had felt real at the time, a natural passion and hunger for her that he hadn’t been able to deny. He didn’t like the idea that it might have all been the product of her tampering with his feelings. That was what succubi did. They toyed with men and made them feel things so they could get off on their aroused state. Andreu growled under his breath. She had played him.

But it had all felt so real at first. He had wanted her and when she had kissed him, he had given in to that need, surrendering to the attraction he felt towards her and his desire. It had been bliss and fire until his senses had sparked and he had suddenly weakened.

Did that switch between pleasure and pain signal the moment she had begun to feed from him?

If it did, then was everything that came before it real and not an illusion caused by her power?

He growled and tunnelled his fingers through his short hair. He would never know without asking her, and even if that happened he probably couldn’t trust a word that left her sultry luscious lips.

His cock hardened again.

Dios. She was going to be the death of him.

He tugged his black suit jacket down to make sure none of the males in the room with him would notice just how much that single mind-blowing kiss had affected him.

It wasn’t just the kiss that had him rock hard for her. She was undeniably beautiful, had dangerous curves designed for his hands to snake over and his lips to explore slowly, and extraordinary eyes that captured his whenever they met. She was bold, tempting and sexy. He had known some firecrackers in his time, but he had a feeling that she would outshine them all.

“I highly doubt she will return,” Payne said and Andreu nodded, and ignored the part of him that clung to the hope that Payne was wrong and she would return so he could kiss her again. Payne shrugged. “You saw how she reacted to me.”

Andreu certainly had. The succubus had stared at Payne as though he was the antichrist and had flashed a sharp set of teeth before disappearing.

“Either way, I want security at the theatre increased. Javier and Andreu, call the firm we use for day security and see about getting us some older vampires to protect the theatre. I want them to be discreet. The last thing we need are the attendees seeing them.” Antoine flicked a glance at him and then his brother. “All clear?”

Andreu nodded at the same time as Javier. It was clear all right. They were going to be on high alert for the next few performances at least. If their uninvited guest decided to return, it could prove to be a problem for the business, and the business was his priority, not pleasure. The older vampires had sensed her tonight. Chances were, they were already talking about what they had felt.

“Payne, I want you to come with me and Snow to my office. You are going to tell us everything you know about her species.” Antoine didn’t wait for the blond elite vampire to acknowledge him. He strode away with Snow stalking along behind him.

Payne muttered a curse under his breath and then followed.

Why had she reacted so violently to Payne?

When Andreu had seen her across the theatre, and when she had revealed herself to him in this room, she hadn’t reacted to him in that way. She had looked shocked, but definitely interested in him. Not scared.

Was she only interested in him as a target or did she desire him because she found him attractive?

He had seen the hunger in her incredible eyes. He had never seen eyes like hers. Deep brown edged them but in the centre, around the black chasms of her pupils, they were blue and flecked with gold. Maybe Payne was wrong and she was a siren rather than a succubus. She could lure a man with those eyes. Had lured him in with them more than once.

He frowned.

“It wasn’t chance that she kissed me,” he whispered and Javier looked over at him. “It wasn’t random. She didn’t just come across me and see a chance to feed so she could disappear.”

“What makes you say that?”

Andreu lifted his head and met Javier’s deep brown gaze. “I saw her in the theatre, when you went down to speak to Antoine and Snow. She saw me. She looked right at me and I felt pulled to her, and then she disappeared and the spell snapped. She was still there though, Javier. Watching me as I watched the spot where she had been.”

“What do you think it means?”

“I think it means that I need to take a shower and get my head straight.” Andreu pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

He was reading into things again and he only had to look at his brother to know where that sort of behaviour led when it came to females. He wasn’t about to become the victim of a woman’s charms. She was beautiful, but he refused to fall for her tricks. Nothing he felt for her was real. It was a fabrication created by her so he would go along with everything she did and she could feed on him. It was the same trick a vampire used on a human, putting them in thrall and making them feel pleasure so feeding from them was easy.

“She probably just chose me as a target because I saw her,” Andreu said, trying to convince himself as well as his brother. “If I hadn’t stopped her, she could have killed me. Maybe that’s what she wanted from me. I saw her and she wanted me dead. What other reason could she have for remaining at the theatre?”

“Payne said she needed more energy.” Javier ran a hand over his short sandy hair and settled it around the back of his neck, an action he often did when thinking or concerned. It was a wonder his brother had any hair left. “Do you think that wasn’t the case?”

Andreu nodded. “She had enough power to disappear. She could have used it to get out of the theatre, or could have slipped out with the crowd. Why stay if not to kill me?”

“I don’t want you sleeping in your temporary quarters today.” Javier frowned and touched his arm, his eyes warm with worry. “Stay in Callum’s quarters across from mine. I will keep an eye on you.”

Andreu covered his brother’s hand on his arm and tried to take comfort from it, and from the promise in Javier’s dark eyes. Neither gesture reassured him though. If the succubus wanted him dead, what was to stop her from feeding to regain her strength and then teleporting straight into his room? Would he be strong enough to fend her off again or would she get her wish this time?

Death by sex.

What a way to go.

He was too damn young to die though. At barely five hundred years old, he was in his prime and had centuries if not millennia ahead of him, and he wasn’t about to let a succubus take those from him.

She could come after him if she wanted but he wasn’t going to take it lying down. Andreu raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t going to take anything at all, and certainly not lying down.

He had fought fae in the past, had warred with werewolves and even vampires in his time as a warrior when he was younger and the world had been a place where battles were frequent and swords were more than ornaments.

In those days, he had spent more time bloodied than clean.

She had chosen the wrong vampire to target.

A shower would help him steel his mind against her beauty and those eyes, blood would replenish his strength and bring his senses back to their full power, and time would lure her into his trap.

If the succubus wanted a fight, then she had got herself one.

This was war.

And he would be the victor.

I hope you enjoyed this exclusive excerpt!

Available now in ebook from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA / International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy

Apple iBookstores / iTunes:
USA | UK | Australia | Canada

Other ebook retailers:
Author’s website | Kobo Books | All Romance eBooks

Be sure to follow this fantastic tour between June 28th and August 25th to learn more about the passionate heroes, wicked heroines, and life at London’s premier vampire erotic theatre! You can also find yourself in with a chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of stops, are available at the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour page.

Leave a comment on this post and enter the giveaway on the tour page in order to gain points. Just let me know you commented on this specific post by pasting in the URL into the extra information box.

Covet, Crave, Seduce and Enslave are all available in ebook from Amazon Kindle stores, Apple iBookstores, Kobo Books and other retailers. Covet, Crave and Seduce are also available at Barnes and Noble Nook store. Covet and Crave are also available as an anthology paperback, and Seduce is available as a solo paperback. Excerpts are available for all of the current releases in the series, so you can get a taste of these wicked erotic romances.

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)
Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4)
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) – Coming soon!
Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) – Coming in 2013!

Posted in Book Tours, Enslave, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | Comments Off on Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: ENSLAVE Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: ENSLAVE Exclusive Excerpt pt 1 – erotic vampire romance book

The Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour comes to my blog again today for an exclusive excerpt from one of the erotic vampire romance books in the series.

Since I’ve already posted chapters from Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1), Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2) and Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)on the tour, I thought I would tease everyone today with a glimpse of what’s to come in the fourth book, Enslave, when it’s released on August 4th!

First, I’ll set the picture with the blurb so you all know a little more about the story and characters.

Enslave
Felicity Heaton
His determination to succeed in business has left no room in his life for love. Now, a beautiful and deadly succubus has teleported into his dark, decadent world and is in danger of enslaving his heart.

Andreu’s future entails opening an erotic theatre like Vampirerotique, gaining wealth, women and power, not shackling himself to a single female, but he cannot deny the dangerously seductive succubus who stirs his anger and passion, and tempts him like no other—he will have her.

The moment their eyes meet, Varya knows she cannot have the exotic dark vampire who sets her pulse racing. His shadowed aura marks him as forbidden, but the hungers he awakens in her are too intense to resist—she must have a taste.

When an erotically-charged kiss ignites their soul-searing passion and reveals something dangerous about Andreu, will Varya leave forever or will she dare to risk all in pursuit of something she thought was beyond her reach?

Coming August 4th to Amazon Kindle, Apple iBookstores, Kobo Books, and other retailers

Warning: HOT excerpt, not for the shy types…

CHAPTER 1

Andreu watched the show unfolding. Tonight’s opening performance of the winter season was in full swing and to a packed house. It seemed that many of the aristocrat and elite vampires that had refused to set foot in Vampirerotique after discovering that one of the owners had fallen for and impregnated a werewolf had come crawling back, unable to find another theatre that could provide the erotic bloody fix they needed to satisfy their darker hungers.

That was the sort of addiction that Andreu wanted for the theatre he planned to open. Filling in for his older brother, Javier, at Vampirerotique was nothing more than temporary, half a year in which he would learn all that he could from the place and build some connections for himself. He had no interest in emulating Javier by becoming a slave to a business and binding himself to a single female. A century ago, when Javier had first told him that he was leaving Spain to open an erotic theatre in London that catered to their kind and provided live human performers, Andreu had been all for it. It had sounded like a fantastic business. It was, but Javier’s approach to the business left a lot to be desired in Andreu’s eyes.

When he opened his own theatre in the busy city of Barcelona, he wasn’t going to help run the damn thing. He would hire capable elite vampires to do the day-to-day work for him and would oversee it all from a distance, and reap the rewards. Enough money to keep him set for life and a reputation that would get him into even the most exclusive vampire clubs and would bring him a flock of females to satisfy his every carnal need.

Life would be good.

Pleasure and fun. That was what he wanted and the quickest way to get it was to get famous, get rich, and stay single.
Javier had it all wrong. Andreu couldn’t imagine what had possessed him to do something as foolish as chaining himself not only to his business but also to one woman for the rest of his long life.

Andreu leaned back in his crimson velvet seat, kicked his feet up to rest on the low curved wall that enclosed the private box, and clasped his hands behind his head, the motion causing his black designer suit jacket to fall open and reveal his equally dark shirt. He smiled and surveyed the eager audience stretched out below him and then those in the boxes that lined the wall opposite him, all of their eyes glued to the two male humans and the female vampire on the stage.

Life would be very good indeed.

The huge black four-poster bed in the middle of the stage was a new set piece. The human male chained to it by his ankles and wrists was a new twist too. Antoine, the aristocrat who handled most of the business, had decided to mix things up a little now that they were in the winter season and the night hours were longer, giving them more time for the performances. There had been many changes in the past five weeks, and not only in the shows.

He had respected Antoine once. The man had a head for business and a reputation for having a detached attitude that had given Andreu the impression that he was only interested in profit and pleasure, but it turned out that Andreu had been wrong. The pretty female blonde vampire wrapped tightly in Antoine’s arms where the powerful aristocrat stood in his usual position to the side of the audience in the stalls, watching the show, had been the first indication that Antoine wasn’t his sort of man after all. The female of their species had lured him into submission too, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

What lurked beneath the water was Snow. Andreu didn’t intend to show it, but Snow scared the hell out of him. The huge male with platinum hair and eyes like ice was frightening enough on a good night. When he had a bad one, the man was dangerous. Insane. What had possessed Javier to ask the two aristocrats for help when he and Callum had been setting up the theatre? There were a thousand better choices in aristocrat society than these brothers. Bloodlust gripped Snow most nights, and probably infected Antoine too. If both of them lost control, it would be a bloodbath.

Andreu shuddered at the thought.

No way in Hell would he be sticking around if that happened. It was every vampire for himself in that sort of situation and Andreu would be first out of the door.

The woman in Antoine’s arms, Sera, turned and looked up at her lover. Antoine dipped his head, as though pressing a kiss to her cheek, and she went back to watching the show. Sera had been on edge until only recently, annoyed by the presence of an injured woman who had once been Antoine’s lover. The aristocrat female’s wounds had healed and she had been gone for a few days now, long enough that Sera looked more relaxed around her man. She smiled more now and had spoken to Andreu several times, although he hadn’t really made much effort to converse with her. He had spent the past few weeks learning the ropes from Javier. His work seemed easy enough, and it had its perks.

The female vampire on stage, a pretty petite redhead dressed in a black leather thong, thigh-high boots and a matching black studded bra, chained the second nude human male’s wrists above his head, attaching them to the top of one of the bedposts. She kissed him until he strained for more and then backed away. Andreu quirked a dark eyebrow as she unhooked a whip from her side and the human male turned around. She cracked the whip across his back, leaving a red streak, and the scent of blood drifted up to Andreu.

The man was strong. Whoever had selected him had known he had potent blood that would get the audience leaning forwards and eager for more. Andreu didn’t want to fall for the same lure as everyone else in the theatre, but he found himself dropping his feet to the floor and sitting up.

Javier remained relaxed beside him.

Andreu cursed his older brother for having stronger self-control and settled back into his seat, watching the woman as she struck the man again. He cried out this time and a ripple of pleasure flowed through the theatre in response, murmurs of excitement following in its wake. Nothing got a vampire’s blood pumping like the scent of blood laced with fear and pain.

The naked dark-haired male on the bed writhed with each strike she placed on the other man, his hips grinding and bucking. Low moans escaped him as he tilted his head back into the pillows. Andreu’s brow quirked again. The female vampire was transferring her own pleasure to the male, her own desire and arousal, keeping him subdued but hungry for more. The man chained to the bedpost turned around to face his dark mistress, his eyes screwed shut in evident pain. She didn’t stop. She cracked the whip across his chest, leaving a long red gash that dripped blood down flexed stomach muscles.

Andreu sucked in a sharp breath as she rewarded the human male, licking the rivulets of crimson from his chest and then stroking her tongue along the line where the whip had struck him. Devil. He wanted a show like this in his own theatre.

He leaned forwards, resting one arm on the low carved wall of the box, his gaze glued to the woman as she writhed against the man, tasting blood that Andreu wanted on his own tongue.

He breathed deeply to steady himself as his fangs emerged, pressing against his lips.

He definitely wanted a show like this one on his own stage. He had been to plenty of erotic vampire shows in his years, especially the past century, but he had never witnessed one that had such darkness and such deviation.

The petite redhead unchained the man and wrapped slender fingers around his steel collar. She lured him to the bed with her and left him at the foot of the mattress, near the other man’s feet. Andreu frowned, nostrils flaring and blood on the verge of heating with desire as she crawled up the length of the man chained to the bed. He strained to reach her, unable to move his hands more than an inch in his cuffs. The female removed her underwear, teased her breasts and the man at the same time, and then settled herself onto his cock. The man bucked up, hissing and grunting, tugging on his restraints as the woman rode him with a few swift, brutal thrusts, and then stopped. He begged for more.

Was she lessening her control over him? Normally human thralls didn’t speak. They felt only what their master fed to them. In the case of erotic shows, they felt pleasure, bliss, and ecstasy. Everything the vampire controlling them experienced.

The huge screen that hung at the back of the stage projected everything she did with her two male thralls. She looked over her shoulder at the other man, coy and innocent, her youthful face flushed with heat and dark eyes wide. A siren. What man would be able to resist such a pure-looking woman?

The man behind her stroked his erection and then came to her, obeying her silent command. He pushed her forwards with force that confirmed to Andreu that she had indeed lessened her control over the two men and was going to let them have their way for a while before she ended the show by feeding from them. She moaned loudly as he parted her buttocks and filled her with his rigid cock.

Andreu glanced at Javier. His brother wasn’t watching the show. He was on his mobile phone. Andreu shook his head and leaned back so he could catch a glimpse of the screen. A picture of Lilah filled a square to the side of the message he was reading. Andreu sighed.

“I thought this was supposed to be a brotherly bonding session?” Andreu said, his English thick with his Spanish accent.

Javier looked up, the phone screen illuminating his face, and smiled. Sickening. The glow in his brown eyes had Andreu close to giving up on this whole night and telling his brother to get the hell out of his sight and back to his woman. Love. It had turned their sister into some heartsick girl when she had once been a hardheaded businesswoman. Now it had crippled his brother.

Dios, if it came for him next he would run as fast as he could.

It was bad enough that their parents, his mother in particular, had already begun with the whole ‘one marriage leads to another’ drivel just because their sister had married and then Javier had almost got himself killed in pursuit of Lilah, and now they were marrying.

“She is looking at dresses with Kristina and has seen one that she likes, but believes it is too expensive.” Javier’s dark eyes twinkled with affection.

“How much?” Andreu played along, only because his brother would want to talk about it and it was quicker and less painful to let him get it out and then they could get on with their evening. He intended to take his brother out to some London clubs, get him drunk on blood, and then lecture him about the perils of marriage and sacrificing bachelorhood for a woman.

“Five thousand.”

“Pounds?” Andreu almost choked. “On a dress… for one day?”

Javier shrugged, his shoulders lifting his dark suit jacket, and began typing, thumbs moving fast over the on-screen keyboard, his sickening smile still in place. “Whatever my love wants, my love will have.”

Andreu blew out a sigh and went to look back at the stage.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled.

His senses spiked.

Someone was watching him. Andreu frowned. No. Not him. Javier had stiffened too, his fingers paused against the phone, and Andreu could feel him scouring the area with his senses. Andreu looked around at the other boxes and noticed that other vampires were suddenly on edge too.

Antoine had wrapped one arm across his woman’s chest, his hand clutching her upper arm as his pale blue eyes scanned the theatre. The side doors close to them burst open, causing some of the audience to jump, and the white-haired demon that was Snow strode up to Antoine.

“Something isn’t right,” Javier said beside Andreu and he nodded in agreement. Something was very wrong.

The performance continued unaffected. Less than a quarter of the audience showed signs of tension. Was it only vampires over a certain age that could sense whatever presence had just entered the theatre?

Andreu scoured the three tiers of private boxes across the theatre from him, trying to find what they had all sensed. Nothing out of the ordinary in any of them but the feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn’t going anywhere. The moans and deep groans from the stage distracted him and made it hard to focus but he kept searching, unwilling to let his guard down when someone powerful and non-vampire was so close to him.

Javier finished his message, stood and slipped his phone into the pocket of his tailored black trousers. “I’m going down to speak with Antoine and Snow.”

Andreu nodded. “I’ll keep looking from up here. Be careful.”

Javier’s expression was grim as he nodded and placed his hand on Andreu’s shoulder, squeezing it through his black suit jacket. “You too.”

Perhaps taking his brother out for a much-needed night on the town would have to wait. Whatever had just entered the theatre showed no sign of leaving and they needed to know what they were dealing with, just in case it turned out to be something dangerous. Vampires were powerful, stronger than most creatures, but there were some out there that made his species look as frail as human babies.

Andreu stood and clutched the carved edge of the private box. He scanned the crowd below him, catching his brother crossing the strip of red carpet between the front row of seats and the black stage out of the corner of his eye. His senses touched on everyone and each came back as a vampire. Where was their uninvited guest?

He leaned forwards, trying to see all the boxes on his side of the theatre. He couldn’t see into any of them.

Andreu looked down at Javier as he joined Antoine and the female vampire still held protectively in his arms. Snow was gone. Andreu found him closer to the back of the theatre, staring across at the boxes around Andreu. Looking for their intruder. If they were on Andreu’s side of the theatre, Snow would find them. Andreu focused on scanning the boxes opposite him again, one by one this time, studying each of the occupants. Every single one of them was a vampire.

Was it possible they were mistaken?

The feeling at the nape of his neck and deep in his gut said it wasn’t. Someone was here, something dark and powerful, and dangerous.

Andreu went to look down at his brother. His gaze froze on a beautiful woman with jagged jaw-length dark hair and a strapless bodice, short skirt and over-knee stockings combo that set his blood pounding. There was something unusual about her and it wasn’t just the fact that she was perched on the wall of an otherwise empty private box at the front of the middle tier, nearest the stage, one hand on it between her booted feet to hold her steady.

She seemed engrossed but as he stared at her, she slowly turned her head and her eyes met his across the theatre. The whole world shrank between them until he swore he could see the incredible colours of her eyes and a million volts ran through him, setting every nerve ending alight. His heart exploded into action and his blood boiled like liquid fire in his veins.

“Dios,” Andreu breathed, lost in a haze that came over him and veiled everything other than her. She was bright in the centre of so much darkness, a shining colourful light that drew him to her. A dazzling jewel like no other. A jewel he wanted to possess. He placed one foot up on the low wall surrounding his box, intent on crossing the theatre to her.

She disappeared.

The theatre popped back into existence and Andreu wobbled on the wall. His eyes shot down to the thirty-foot drop to the stalls below. He stumbled backwards and collapsed into the soft velvet seat behind him, breathing hard to settle the panic that had instantly chilled the heat in his blood.

“Cristo,” Andreu whispered and stared wide-eyed across the theatre to the box where the woman had been.

And was now gone.

Disappeared.

He panted, his heart still thumping against his chest and shivers still skittering over his skin.

Whatever she was, she wasn’t a vampire.

Whatever she was, he wanted her.

He would find her, and when he did, he would have her.

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter teaser excerpt!

Coming August 4th to Amazon Kindle, Apple iBookstores, Kobo Books, and other retailers

Be sure to follow this fantastic tour between June 28th and August 25th to learn more about the passionate heroes, wicked heroines, and life at London’s premier vampire erotic theatre! You can also find yourself in with a chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of stops, are available at the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour page.

Leave a comment on this post and enter the giveaway on the tour page in order to gain points. Just let me know you commented on this specific post by pasting in the URL into the extra information box.

All of the books so far in the series are available in paperback, and in ebook from Amazon Kindle and Kobo. Excerpts are available for all of the current releases in the series, so you can get a taste of these wicked erotic romances.

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)
Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4) – Coming August 4th!
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) – Coming soon!
Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) – Coming in 2013!

Posted in Book Tours, Enslave, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | Comments Off on Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: ENSLAVE Exclusive Excerpt pt 1 – erotic vampire romance book

Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: SEDUCE Exclusive Excerpt pt 2 – erotic vampire romance book

The Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour comes to my blog today for an exclusive excerpt from one of the erotic vampire romance books in the series.

Since I already posted one double excerpt of Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)on the tour, and we still hadn’t leapt into Antoine’s sexy mind, I thought I would post another exclusive excerpt of that book today.

First, I’ll set the picture with the blurb so you all know a little more about the story and characters.

Seduce
Felicity Heaton
Bloodlust runs in his veins, a dark master waiting for the day it will reign over him. Now a woman with a pure soul and wicked intentions has him in her sights and is determined to crack the ice around his heart, and she might save or damn him.

Antoine stands apart from the world around him, a dangerous and broken soul who must maintain rigid control at all times or risk his dark addiction finally seizing hold of him. The shadows of his past haunt him and he sees his bleak future each night when his brother wakes screaming, his blood addiction turning him savage. He cannot allow himself to feel, but when Sera walks into Vampirerotique, the erotic theatre he runs with three other vampires, to audition, she awakens dangerous desires in him—hungers that could spell the end of both of them.

Sera has wanted Antoine since the night she first saw the gorgeous aristocrat vampire. She can’t ignore the deep carnal hunger he stirs in her or the ache to know the heat of his touch. With the help of her sire, an ex-performer at Vampirerotique, she sets in motion a game of seduction, one designed to thaw the ice in Antoine’s veins and make him burn for her.

When Sera discovers the shocking truth about his past and the darkness that lurks within him, will she be strong enough to seize his heart with both hands and win him forever or will she lose him to the ghosts that still haunt him?

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
Other Retailers: Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Warning: HOT excerpt, not for the shy types…

CHAPTER 3

Antoine couldn’t believe that Callum had roped him into this and he had allowed it to happen. When the black-haired elite vampire had walked into his office earlier this evening and announced that he would have to interview Elizabeth’s child because Kristina had managed to get an appointment for her first ultrasound, Antoine had done his best to convince the elite vampire to get another appointment for her. He had even offered to arrange it himself. He knew some of the best vampire doctors that money could buy and all of them were discreet. Callum had refused to hear a word about it. The elite vampire was irritatingly stubborn when it came to matters surrounding his offspring or the werewolf bearing it.

Not that Callum being here tonight would have made much difference. He had been distracted from the moment he had met Kristina close to three months ago and that had only grown worse when he had discovered that she was pregnant. On top of that, Callum still hadn’t apologised for the whole fiasco that had severely damage the theatre’s reputation. Talk of what had occurred that night, and that Callum’s lover was a werewolf, had spread like wildfire through vampire society. Attendance was down but Antoine could smooth things over with the elite and the aristocrats given time.

He sighed and relaxed into the theatre seat, trying to get his mind off business and onto the woman on stage. It was impossible when his anger was riding him so mercilessly.

What Callum had done wasn’t the reason he was so annoyed. It was what he had done. It haunted him. He should never have allowed the performance that night to start, let alone degenerate to the level that it had. If Kristina had died, Callum would never have forgiven him. Antoine knew what it was like to lose someone you loved with every drop of blood in your body and it wasn’t something he wanted Callum or anyone to go through.

Dark memories stirred at the back of his mind and he forced his focus back to the woman as she stripped.

Sera.
She deserved his attention since she had made the effort to pull strings to get on his stage. It was a shame that she had none of the talent of her sire. She was too young, and too new as a vampire. Her looks were appealing though and that was the only reason he was allowing her to continue. Youthful with clear flawless skin, a rosy hue to her cheeks, and dark eyes. He couldn’t make out the colour. She skimmed her hands up her curves, past her bra and up the sides of her head, pulling her long hair up and tangling her hands in it, her eyes closing in apparent ecstasy. Blonde hair was always good on the stage. The lights played well on it. Her figure was better than average, with sumptuous curves and her navy lacy bra cupping what looked to be good firm handful-sized breasts. She ran her fingers over the bra cups, as though she had sensed his sudden desire to know what her nipples were like. He imagined them small and dark, sweet plums made for sucking.

Antoine cleared his throat and brought his focus back to appraising her as a performer.

She had nice hips. Her waist flared out into them just right, an hourglass figure made for tempting men’s imaginations and rousing a hunger to sweep hands over those dangerous curves. She unzipped her blue jeans and turned away from him, granting him a tantalising flash of matching lace panties that stirred his interest. His control slipped again but he reined it back and ran a glance over her bottom. Small, pert. She swayed her hips and teased him by lowering her jeans and then raising them again.

Was she wearing a thong or normal panties?

French knickers.

The vision of her in them flashed across his mind and he found himself leaning forwards as she edged her jeans down, eager to see if luck would be with him and she was wearing his favourite lacy little shorts.

Antoine leaned back, shocked to find that she had lured him in completely without him realising.

What was he doing?

It had been centuries since that had happened. He had watched the performances each night, unaffected by the act, uninterested. They were actors. Every one of them beneath him. His name and that of his older brother were on the licence for the theatre because it brought in the aristocrats with their money, not because he was debauched enough to want to watch people engaging in sexual intercourse on a stage, although the final act always got his blood pounding, just as it did any vampire.

That wasn’t a good thing.

That was dangerous.

And so was this female.

She shimmied out of her jeans, revealing his worst nightmare. Lacy navy French knickers. They clung to her bottom but rode up it as she bent forwards to free her feet from her jeans, flashing smooth peachy globes that caused an unsettling need to step up on stage and run his hands over them to feel their softness. She kicked her jeans away and then turned towards him, her smile sultry and her dark eyes meeting his. An errant wavy strand of her blonde hair caressed her neck and drew his gaze there. His urge to leap up on stage increased. He wanted to clear the hair away from the slender column of her throat, revealing it to his eyes. He would step around her then, keeping his hand on her shoulder as he brushed his front across her back. His hard cock would nestle against her bottom as she arched into him, eager for harder contact between them, and he would lower his mouth to kiss the soft flawless skin and breathe her in. He hungered to taste her and know her scent, to let it envelop him and send his desire soaring.

Antoine tamped down the need and pulled back on the reins again. He was in control here. This was all just an act designed to thrill. The desire in her eyes, the way she moved as though it was his eyes on her that made her want to do such a naughty little wriggle and put on a show were all fake.

Sera swayed her shoulders and then licked her lips and unhooked her bra. She let the lacy cups fall away from her breasts, revealing deep pink buds that made his blood cry out for him to give up his ridiculous need for control and get on stage with her.

That was not going to happen.

He glanced at his watch. More than ten minutes had passed. Part of him said to end it now, thank her for her time, and leave. It was safer that way.

Antoine looked back up to tell her just that but she stole his voice by running her hands over her bare breasts. Her hips rocked side to side, luring his gaze downwards, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her hands. She teased her nipples between her fingers and thumbs, and Antoine realised that she was no longer nervous.

She stared straight at him, her eyes dark with desire that he could smell on her, bold in the way she held his gaze, as though daring him to come and see if he could make her feel better than she was already making herself.

Antoine forgot what he was supposed to be doing. He forgot the rules he had laid down, forgot everything that his family had hammered into his head about not interacting with elite beyond what was necessary, raising him to be a true aristocrat. He forgot it all.

What he didn’t forget was how it had ended the last time he had let himself slip and fall, and how much he had despaired on discovering that she was gone, and how he had spent close to three centuries nursing the pain in his heart.

Antoine slammed the lid on his desire, stamping out the flickering spark of it in his chest.

Sera frowned as though she had seen the change in him, and then continued, and it seemed to Antoine that she had doubled her effort.

He felt dangerously close to slipping again.

She cupped her breasts and pinched her nipples, her gaze locked with his. He tried not to stare at her, fought it with every ounce of his will. When he managed to drag his eyes away, they betrayed him and fell to her hands, following them as she ran them over the flat plane of her stomach to her hips. He stopped breathing when she slipped her fingers into her blue knickers and shifted her hips backwards, moaning as she touched herself.

Devil. He bit back the growl that rolled up his throat and battled the hot rush of desire that came with it. He wouldn’t give in to her. He wouldn’t slip. He was in control.

She moaned again, the sound filling the theatre and curling around him, taunting him. Her face was a picture of bliss, her eyes closed and rosy lips parted with satisfaction. He gripped the arms of the seat until his knuckles bleached and ached, refusing to fall for her act. It wasn’t going to happen. Not now. Not ever.

She was elite, a turned human no less. She was beneath him.

Devil, he wanted her beneath him.

Not going to happen. His cock throbbed, telling him that it could easily happen. All he had to do was surrender the rigid control he insisted on having in his life, the ridiculous need for order and distance, and give in to his hunger.

He couldn’t give in to his hunger.

The Devil only knew where that would lead him.

He knew exactly where, and the thought sobered him up so quickly it was as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice on his crotch.

Sera frowned again and Antoine knew she had seen the change this time. No doubt about it. She turned up the heat, trailing a finger up over her breasts, luring his gaze up with it, and then sucking it into her mouth. He swallowed the dry lump in his throat and stared at her mouth, watching as she worked her tongue over the pale digit, twirling it around the tip. He throbbed in his black trousers again, aching at the beautifully erotic sight of her as she sucked one finger and touched herself with another.

His heart began to pound.

Nothing good would come of this.

He had to put an end to it now before it was too late.

He had to save himself.

“Shall I bring Victor back in?” His voice cut through the silence, loud in his ears. She stumbled, a blush heating her cheeks, and looked uncertain. “You are no use if you will not perform with a man… or a woman. I could have a woman brought in if that is your preference?”

The thought of her touching another man had his blood burning with rage. Touching a woman, however. That had a certain appeal.

Sera shook her head, grabbed her clothes, and headed for the steps down from the stage.

She was giving up?

That should have satisfied him.

So why did he want to block her exit and make her stay?

I hope you enjoyed this rather wicked and sexy excerpt!

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
Other Retailers: Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Be sure to follow this fantastic tour between June 28th and August 25th to learn more about the passionate heroes, wicked heroines, and life at London’s premier vampire erotic theatre! You can also find yourself in with a chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of stops, are available at the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour page.

Leave a comment on this post and enter the giveaway on the tour page in order to gain points. Just let me know you commented on this specific post by pasting in the URL into the extra information box.

All of the books so far in the series are available in paperback, and in ebook from Amazon Kindle and Kobo. Covet and Crave are available from Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks and Sony Reader too. Seduce will be available at those retailers soon. Excerpts are available for all of the current releases in the series, so you can get a taste of these wicked erotic romances.

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)
Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4) – Coming August 4th!
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) – Coming soon!
Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) – Coming in 2013!

Posted in Book Tours, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Seduce, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | Comments Off on Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: SEDUCE Exclusive Excerpt pt 2 – erotic vampire romance book

Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: CRAVE Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

The Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour comes to my blog today for an exclusive excerpt from one of the erotic vampire romance books in the series.

I’ve already tantalised you all with exclusive excerpts from Seduce and Covet, so it’s time to tease you all with an exciting and sexy double chapter excerpts from Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2). Read on to get a taste of the sizzling forbidden desire that sparks between the hero and heroine!

First, I’ll set the picture with the blurb so you all know a little more about the story and characters.

Crave
Felicity Heaton
His mind has been set on his work for the past one hundred years. Now a forbidden beauty has stolen his attention and is threatening to steal his heart too.

Callum has come to the city of romance on business, not pleasure, but when he sets eyes on a gorgeous werewolf in a nightclub, he can’t ignore the dark carnal craving she ignites in him. His work for Vampirerotique, the erotic theatre he runs with three other vampires, can wait. The only thing that matters now is satisfying his sinful hunger for a woman who most vampires would consider an enemy.

Kristina is on the run from her pack. Her alpha is intent on forcing her to bear his child and she’s not about to live through the same nightmare as her mother had. When a tall, dark and sexy vampire catches her eye, she can’t believe the ferocity of the desire he unleashes in her or the fact that she enjoys the feel of his eyes on her and his silent pursuit of her in the clubs each night.

When Kristina finally gets a taste of Callum in a forbidden kiss, will she be strong enough to resist the allure of the vampire and his offer to share his bed for a week of unbridled, wild sex, or will she surrender to her own craving for the safety and passion she finds in his embrace?

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
Apple iTunes / iBooks Stores:
US | UK | Australia | Canada
Other Retailers:
Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback as a Covet and Crave anthology from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

CHAPTER 1

Three weeks had passed since Callum had left London and headed to Paris to scout for performers for a new show at the theatre he ran with three other vampires, and it had been one week since he had last emailed Antoine, the aristocrat pureblood in charge of overseeing the performances at Vampirerotique.

He should have contacted him again by now. It wasn’t as though Callum hadn’t thought about it. He had booted up his laptop and started to type out the email every morning before retiring for the day. Yesterday, he had even reached the point of typing in his name at the end of the email before deleting the entire thing.

Callum leaned his back against the brass rail that edged the curved dark mahogany bar top, his green gaze scanning the occupants of the crowded room, picking out viable prey, potential performers, and identifying the species of each person his eyes fell on. Part of him was still working and it was that part that kept whispering that Antoine wouldn’t be angry with him for disappearing. If he just dropped a brief email or even a text message stating that he was still looking for performers but hadn’t spotted anyone worthy of joining the Vampirerotique family in the past week then Antoine would probably forgive him for disobeying his command to contact him daily.

It would be a lie though.

He had seen several vampires, both male and female, at the nightclubs he had been moving between for the past three weeks. All of them would work well in the theatre and draw the crowds. They were exhibitionists who had been more than comfortable performing private acts in front of the gathered dancers. There had been males who had groped and grinded with their human female prey, and female vampires who had engaged in acts just a whisper away from screwing in the open booths where anyone could see them. All of them had been worthy of him approaching them and giving them the hard sell. Not many of their type refused to audition when they gained an all expenses paid trip to London and the chance to try out for a place in a famous theatre.

There was one female who had stood out amongst the usual crowd last week. She was perfect for the new show that Antoine had in mind, could easily be the star performer, but Callum couldn’t bring himself to approach her and whenever he thought about mentioning her to Antoine, a knot formed deep in his gut.

Callum had ignored the feeling and just satisfied himself with watching her in the club. He had first seen her with another female, one that he had approached during a lull towards the end of the evening. She had eagerly accepted his offer of an audition, even though she knew the sort of place his theatre was and that it didn’t normally look for performers from her species.

Werewolf.
When Antoine had first told him that he would be departing for Paris in search of new talent, and that it wouldn’t just be the usual scouting mission this time but would include seeking werewolves for a special performance, Callum had almost choked on his glass of blood.

Vampirerotique had never hired werewolves before. In fact, he was certain that in the hundred years they had been running the theatre, there had never been a werewolf on stage. Their kind rarely interacted with each other, unless you counted the occasional war. Werewolves didn’t like vampires. The feeling was more than mutual.

Callum had sent three werewolves to audition so far, all female as requested.

This female would be perfect for the show too. She would steal it and make it hers, just as she stole the attention of the entire club as she moved through it with sensual grace that had the eyes of every male and some females on her, and made Callum think about some therianthropes he had met in the past. She had the moves of a feline shifter rather than a werewolf.

Callum could easily imagine her moving on the stage, how she would sidle over to the large vampire males and bring them to their knees with only a seductive sway of her hips and flash of a sultry smile.

Hell, she had Callum on his knees. He had been following her for a week now, shunning his duty in favour of tracking her down each night and watching her from a distance. His new private pleasure. The club she had chosen tonight catered to a mixed crowd, although the humans didn’t know that. One of the male bartenders was a shifter, one was human, and one was a vampire. That surprised Callum. He had never thought he would live to see a vampire working alongside a shifter, but the two young males seemed to get along. He couldn’t sense any bad feelings between them so it wasn’t an act put on for the sake of the patrons and the human bartender.

Callum’s gaze tracked the female through the club, studying how she slid between the dancers, occasionally stopping to work her body against a male. She smiled wickedly at a young human man as he caught her wrist and pulled her against him, twisting her so her back pressed against his front. She wriggled her hips and raised her hands above her head as she slid down the length of her partner and then back up again, almost as tall as he was in her heeled black boots. Her tight dark jeans emphasised lean long legs that Callum had rather disturbingly dreamed about since first seeing her, imagining their slender strong lengths wrapped around his backside as he fucked her. He had dreamed about pushing the loose flowing material of her empire-line top up to reveal the toned plane of her stomach and then kissing it, feeling her body shift beneath him, before continuing and peeling the high waist tucked under her breasts over their full firm globes. He had dipped his head and captured each sweet dusky bud in turn, swirling his tongue around and sucking them until she moaned low in appreciation.

The brunette female werewolf moved on, thanking her temporary partner with a brief brush of her rosy lips across his cheek and a saucy stroke of her palm over his crotch that had Callum ready to speed onto the dance floor and rip the human to shreds.

She was his.

He drew a long slow breath to calm himself, focusing on it and not her, waiting for the need to pass. If he looked at her now, he would be on the dance floor before he realised what he was doing and would be tugging her into his arms, using all of his strength to make it clear to her that she belonged to him now.

Callum shook his head to rid it of the desire to dance with her and feel her body pressing into his, hot and supple under his questing hands. He wouldn’t let her go as easily as the male human had.

He watched her move through the dancers again, twirling and smiling, her wavy soft brown hair dancing with her, tumbling over her shoulders and breasts. Each time she lifted her bare arms in the air, the hem of her top rose, revealing a tantalising flash of her stomach or back. Her jeans rode low on her hips, barely covering her backside and crotch.

She was a vixen, a real predator as she glanced over every man, even those with partners, looking for tonight’s fun. He had seen her leave with a new man every night. A strange urge to follow her and see what she did with them had built inside him until he had no longer been able to resist the need to know. It wasn’t what he had thought it would be and an even stranger feeling had swept through him on realising that she was luring males away to feed on them. Like his kind, werewolves enjoyed the taste of blood and needed it to survive, although they could supplement their need with nourishment from food.

Unlike his kind, werewolves couldn’t turn a human. Her bite wouldn’t change the human into a werewolf. Once she had finished with the man, she had wiped his memory and left him in the alley.

Callum had almost followed her home but had forced himself to return to his hotel instead. The sight of her feeding had given him some seriously erotic dreams and he had woken tonight with a raging erection that hadn’t gone down until he had tended to it.

It was coming back as he watched her, his thoughts diving down routes they shouldn’t be taking. A vampire had no place desiring a werewolf.

Desiring?

Hell, this hunger went beyond desire and ran deeper in his veins than lust.

He craved her.

Callum turned and flagged down the vampire bartender. The blond man smiled knowingly, nodded, and took down a martini glass. He filled it to the brim with dark liquid that was black in the flashing purple and blue lights of the club and stuck a cherry on a stick in it. Callum held out a twenty euro note at the same time as the vampire placed the glass down on an elegant white napkin and slid it across the bar to him.

“I’ll take one of those,” a female voice said right beside him, “and tall, dark and sexy here is paying.”

He was?

Callum frowned and turned to say that he damn well wasn’t paying for her drink and froze as his eyes fell on the female werewolf. He felt the vampire bartender’s gaze on him, sensed him waiting to see what Callum’s reply would be. Callum glanced at him and nodded. The vampire made up another glass of blood, stuck a cherry in it, and slid it over to her before moving away.

The werewolf raised her glass in a salute to Callum, sipped the blood, and set it back down on the napkin. Her bloodstained lips curved into a wicked sultry smile.

Callum was smitten.

She leaned closer, her bare left elbow resting on the bar, and ran her fingertips down his dark purple silk tie. Her smile widened when she curled her fingers around it, drew it away from his black tailored shirt, and tugged him towards her.

“You’ve been watching me like I’m a bitch in heat and you’re an alpha. What gives?” She wasn’t French as he had expected. Her accent was as British as his own.

Callum calmly removed her hand from his tie, straightened it out and smoothed it down. “I’m just here on business, and I’m definitely not an alpha. I’m a vampire.”

She smiled and tilted her head to one side, causing the long waves of her brown hair to shift across her breasts and cover the tempting display of cleavage the tight section of her black sleeveless top created.

“A vampire with a definite hard-on for a species most of his kind would see as disgusting and forbidden,” she said over the rapid beat of the music, lifted the cocktail stick and cherry from her drink, and popped it into her mouth.

Callum’s gaze narrowed on her mouth, transfixed by the sight of her sucking the cherry. She parted her lips and withdrew the glossy red fruit, dipped it back into her blood and swirled it around before raising it back to her mouth and teasing him by licking the crimson liquid off it again. His chest tightened and he struggled to breathe as the tip of her tongue flicked over the cherry, swirling around it. She slowly slid the fruit into her mouth, lips puckering as she sucked, her eyes closing in what looked like pleasure to him. The sight of her ratcheted his hunger up another notch, flooding him with a deep throbbing ache to feel her tongue brushing his in the way it had the cherry, to have her mouth on his flesh and to run his lips over every inch of her bare skin and drive her wild until she was sobbing his name and begging for more.

“I don’t have a hard-on for your species… just you.” Callum moved faster than she could evade, catching the wrist of the hand she held the cocktail stick in, pulling it away from her lips and claiming them for his own.

She responded instantly, her tongue thrusting past his lips and teeth to slide along his. He slanted his head, slipped his other arm around her slim waist and dragged the full length of her body against his as he seized control of the kiss. She melted against him, as supple and hot as he had dreamed she would be, her breasts pressing into his hard chest, the heat of her driving him to the edge. He tangled his tongue with hers, swallowing her breathy gasps as he dominated her, crushing each attempt she made to reclaim control. Her fight only made him burn hotter for her, made him use his strength on her and tighten his grip on her wrist and side. Her gasps became low rumbling moans. The firmer he was with her, the more of his strength he used, the lower they became and the more she struggled, as though she wanted to feel how much more powerful he was than her.

She liked it.

The female werewolf snapped out of his grasp and slapped him so hard across his cheek that he couldn’t fail to realise where he had gone wrong. His fangs cut into his lower lip. He hadn’t noticed them extending. Before he could explain to her that it was just the heat of the moment that had brought them out and that he hadn’t intended to bite her, she was striding away from him, heading back towards the busy dance floor.

Callum growled, swiftly drank his martini glass of blood to take the edge off his hunger and followed her, intent on explaining and tasting her again. The crowd kept closing behind her, blocking his way and frustrating him. He pushed through them, his senses tracking her so he didn’t lose her again. She wasn’t heading out of the club at least. The expansive dark club only had one exit and that was the other way, beyond the bar. She was either heading towards the booths that lined the edges of the room or the dance floor itself. Was she planning on losing him in the throng of people? It would be difficult to track her in amongst so many signatures. There were several other werewolves in the club tonight. Their presence would help mask hers even though he knew her scent now, had instinctively put it to memory when kissing her. Devil, she had tasted so wicked and delicious.

Callum licked the faint trace of blood off his lips and finally broke through the crowd around the bar, coming out near the edge of the dance floor. The heavy beat of the music pounded through his body, thrumming in his veins, pushing the tension mounting inside him, the need to find her and have her in his arms again.

The need to taste her lips.

He scoured the dancers and spotted her heading closer to the DJ. The lights flashed brightest there, hurting his eyes, and the volume of the music would be unbearable that close to the speakers. She knew vampires well. Her species could move around during the day so they weren’t as sensitive to light and her hearing wasn’t as acute when she was in her human form. She stopped there and danced with a male. He couldn’t tell whether her partner was human or werewolf, but he was immense, taller and broader than Callum was. She had intentionally chosen a place that would hurt him and had now selected a partner who could easily protect her. Her wiliness told Callum that the male would be a werewolf.

He only wondered why she no longer looked confident. Her gaze constantly darted about as she danced with the man, her body held at a distance from his, as though she was afraid to get any closer. Why would she fear her own kind?

That question and the challenge she had issued by choosing to dance with an immense werewolf in an area that was uncomfortable for Callum drove him onto the dance floor. He moved through the crowd, his gaze constantly on her, studying her face and the flicker of fear that was gradually surfacing in her eyes. The usual confident shine in them was gone by the time he was within a few metres of her.

The male werewolf caught her shoulders, turned her around and dragged her back against his bulky body, caging her there with a thick forearm across her stomach. His black t-shirt stretched over an obscene amount of muscle and Callum considered the insanity of approaching such a male. Although he was likely older than the werewolf, and vampires were inherently more powerful, his build was almost slender compared to him and he was a good few inches shorter too. That could be an advantage though. A lower centre of gravity gave him a more solid footing than his monolithic rival and his slimmer build gave him the advantage of speed. He could probably incapacitate the werewolf with only minimal injury to himself.

However.

There were two other male werewolves seated on the curved dark leather seat of the booth behind the male dancing with the woman, and both of them were watching the couple. Three glasses stood on the oval black table in the centre of the booth. The male was with them.

One werewolf he might be able to handle.

Three would crush him.

It should have stopped him from pursuing the woman, but his feet still propelled him forwards, towards what could only be a bloody and painful future.

He couldn’t turn back now that he had tasted her.

He hungered for another touch, another taste.

He craved her.

And he would have her.

CHAPTER 2

What was she doing?

When she had fled England, Kristina had vowed to avoid interacting with werewolves. It was safest that way, no matter how much she often craved the company of her kind. All packs had a unique scent, something a werewolf could smell on each other and recognise. Part of her training as a cub had been spent on burning knowledge of the European werewolf packs and their scents into her mind. It was something all packs taught their young. The man now grinding against her backside and turning her stomach with his dominant grip on her was from a local pack here in Paris but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t turn her over.

She had been on the run from her pack for months now but she was sure they were still looking for her.

This was a mistake.

Kristina tried to get free of her partner but his thick arm tightened across her stomach, holding her firm. A spark of panic leapt through her blood and she struggled to tamp it down and disguise it so he wouldn’t sense it in her. She made out she was turning in his arms and he allowed it, his large hands moving to her backside, clutching and squeezing.

What the Hell had she been thinking?

The vampire had scared her and she had gone running to her own kind. Pathetic. She was stronger than that. So his fangs had come out and she had felt their sharp tips on her tongue, that didn’t mean he had intended to bite her. Not everything she had been told about vampires was true. She had thought she had known that, had accepted it as fact, and had always been proud of herself for being able to see that vampires weren’t really a threat unless you made them one by provoking them. It turned out that she was wrong and she hadn’t accepted it after all. The moment his fangs had touched her, she had panicked and lashed out, her heart rocketing and hackles rising. Everything bad she had ever been told about vampires had shot through her mind and she had gone with it rather than telling herself that it was just desire that had brought his fangs out. It was a reaction her kind shared with vampires. Whenever she got a little overexcited, her canines extended against her will.

She should have been flattered by his reaction to her kiss, not sought to knock his fangs out.

She was no better than every other werewolf. They had driven fear of vampires, horror stories about them, so deep into her mind that she couldn’t escape it even when she thought that she had.

The male werewolf leaned down towards her and she stiffened in his arms, fear of him rising inside her and telling her to break away from him, that he would try to dominate her just as her alpha had. She had to run.

His warm breath washed over her skin, turning her stomach, and she shrank backwards, trying to escape his touch. She had been a fool to run back to her own kind for protection. She had probably been safer with the vampire than she was with this male. They all wanted the same thing from her, all smelt her readiness to mate and took it to mean that she wanted them when she didn’t. She wasn’t interested in bearing cubs like a dutiful female. She wanted a life.

A firm cool hand on her shoulder caused her to jump. The start of a shriek escaped her before she clamped down hard on it and the world whirled past her in a blur of blue and purple neon and laser lights. A hard wall of black slammed against her and a low threatening snarl curled out over the pumping music.

Her instincts sparked, senses zeroing in on the male werewolf at her back and the dark presence of vampire in front of her. The vampire’s arm tightened around her, pressing her to his chest, and he snarled again, a feral sound that a werewolf would have been proud of making. The werewolf growled back but it lacked the strength and ferocity of the vampire’s, sounding weak and tailing off at the end.

Kristina glanced up at her unlikely saviour, looking past the strong defined line of his jaw and the sensual mouth that had sent her head spinning with only a kiss, beyond his straight nose that said he might be an aristocrat vampire, to the red coals of his irises and the vertical slits of his pupils. He growled again, bearing his fangs. They were enormous now, fully extended as he threatened the werewolf behind her.

The werewolf snarled back at him and she sensed the two other male werewolves rise from their seats, heading out of the booth to back up their leader.

Kristina wasn’t sure how to defuse the situation before it exploded. She did the first thing that came to her.

She tiptoed, caught the vampire’s cheek in her palm, and kissed him.

The werewolves behind her stopped moving. The vampire froze against her, his mouth slack and unmoving. With all four males shocked, Kristina made her move. She grabbed the vampire’s hand, twisted out of his embrace, and dragged him into the crowd. They had made it halfway across the dance floor before she heard the werewolf growl and felt the vampire come back to his senses. His hand shifted in hers and he spun her into his arms. He looked down at her, the flicker of coloured lights over his face turning his eyes from red to blue to purple and back again.

Kristina expected him to shout at her, or try to escape her grasp and return to fight the werewolf, or do something.

He just stood there in the middle of the dance floor staring at her.

His pupils gradually widened, switching back to their normal state, and the colour of his irises shifted, so the lights now made them flicker between green, blue and purple.

“I wasn’t going to bite you,” he said in a low voice that she barely heard over the music and stepped towards her, until she could sense his body close to hers and the temptation to move the bare few inches and bring them against each other hummed through her. “But he was.”

The hard look that entered his emerald eyes caused her to divert hers and she stared past him, not wanting to admit that he was right and the male werewolf had intended to mark her right there in front of everyone and she had been too weak and scared to do anything about it.

“What’s your name?” she whispered and shoved her weakness away, cleared her throat, lifted her chin and looked directly into his eyes. “I think I have a right to know the name of my hero.”

“Hero?” He laughed and shook his head, causing a silken strand of his long black hair to drift down against his cheek. He casually swept it back behind his ear, so it curled around it, and then smiled at her. “I’m hardly the good guy here… but you can call me Callum.”

Callum. Cal. Although he didn’t look like the sort of man who would easily accept someone shortening his name without permission.

Kristina bravely closed the gap between them and ran her hands over the soft black cotton of his obviously expensive shirt. His chest was granite hard beneath the material, the feel of it sending a hum of pleasure through her body as she recalled the strength of his grip when he had kissed her and when he had rescued her from one of her own kind. She slid her palms up to his strong broad shoulders, looped them around his neck, and started to move against him.

He kept perfectly still, the calm confidence in his eyes melting away to allow something akin to confusion to surface.

“Well, Callum.” She tipped her head back and looked up into his eyes. They were locked on hers, searching, probing, as though hers might tell him what she was up to and what she intended to get out of him by swaying in his arms. His pupils dilated with the first brush of her hips across his and his bowed lips parted to reveal the barest trace of straight white teeth. “Don’t you want to know my name?”

Kristina rotated her hips into his and held her nerve when she felt the growing bulge in his black trousers. He looked beautifully startled when she pressed her groin against his, moving up and down his body, teasing him with the friction.

The hunger for him that had begun as little more than a spark of interest when she had noticed him watching her around six days ago had slowly grown into a burning desire for him three days ago and she had been teasing him since then, toying with him. She had wanted to speak to him so many times so she could know why he watched her so closely and why he was following her. Her initial reaction had been one of fear but then she had realised that he was a vampire, not one of her alpha’s goons come to take her home. The feel of his eyes on her had given her confidence that she had never felt before. She had danced with men, aware that he was watching, putting on a show for him. Her nightly repertoire had grown in the strange pre-dawn twilight this morning, climaxing in her feeding on a human man while he watched from the shadows.

When she had stepped away from the man and wiped his mind of the incident, replacing the memories with ones of passion, she had felt sure that the vampire would make his move, that the sight of her feeding would have driven him over the edge. He had stayed in the shadows for long minutes and then left. Had he fought his desire and won?

Part of her despised him for that, for having better control than she had over herself. She hadn’t been able to overcome her curiosity tonight and had gone to him, only to run away like a cub when she had felt his fangs. Well, that wouldn’t happen again.

Kristina wiggled her way back up him, twirled the long black hair in the ponytail at the nape of his neck, and smiled into his eyes, giving him her best seductive look.

His pupils dilated further and he finally moved, his hands coming to settle on her hips and then sliding upwards to the low waist of her tight jeans. She shivered with the first caress of his cool palms over her waist, his hands under the flowing loose material of her top. His thumbs pressed into her stomach, fingers firm against her back, the touch electrifying her. It was dominant but in the best way. He was reconfirming his strength and silently telling her that he could easily take control of things if he wanted, while his expression told her that he was also more than happy to comply and let her take the lead.

She swayed her hips and moved down his body again, trailing her palms over his shoulders and chest, forcing his hands on her up to her ribs and the sides of her breasts. His eyes narrowed briefly, heat blazing in them as he shifted his hands forwards to capture her breasts, and then he frowned when she worked her way upwards again before he could touch them.

He stepped into her, wedging a hard muscular thigh between her legs and stopping her from wriggling. A moan slipped from her lips as he moved it, brushing it against her groin, and she looped her arms around his neck. Staring into his eyes, lost in them, she forgot about the werewolves in the club and the pack back in England that were searching for her. The world fell away, taking her cares with it, stripping her of the part of her that continually whispered that this man was not for her.

It didn’t matter that he was handsome and strong. It didn’t matter that when he watched her she felt as though she could do anything. It didn’t matter that she wanted him more than was reasonable and that her need for him was fierce and controlled her to a degree.

He was a vampire.

In his arms like this, that was the thing that no longer mattered.

He bent towards her, his hands pressing into her sides as he lowered them down from her waist over her hips and round to her backside. He pulled her closer, cranking her temperature up another ten degrees, and moved against her. The slide of his thigh between hers, the fleeting contact between his hard body and her aching one, had her sinking her teeth into her lower lip. She wanted more, cursed her tight jeans for inhibiting her and stopping her from being able to gain the satisfaction she desired. She pushed against him, curling her hips, hungry and seeking more friction to sate her need.

Callum’s cool skin brushing her neck startled her and her gaze leapt from his to what she could see of his hand out of the corner of her eye. He swept the tangled lengths of her hair from her throat, the teasing whisper of his fingers over her hungry body almost too much for her to bear, and then leaned into her. Kristina moaned and couldn’t stop herself from tilting her head to one side even though she was aware that by doing so she was breaking the rules of her kind. It was wrong of her to welcome a vampire’s touch and let him kiss her throat, especially when she had feared one of her own species doing such a thing to her just minutes before.

It was different with Callum.

The hard press of his lips on her throat, the sweep of his tongue over her jugular, stirred only desire in her, flooding her with the ache to bury her fingers into his hair and anchor him there so he wouldn’t stop. There was no threat in his caress, no sense that he intended to sink his fangs into her, and even if he did, it would only be the vampire equivalent of a love bite.

The werewolf had intended to mark her and claim her with the bite.

A vampire couldn’t do such a thing.

“Tell me your name,” Callum husked into her ear, his cool breath tickling her skin. He kissed and sucked her earlobe, curled his tongue around it, sending a shiver down her throat that set her aflame. She rocked against him, meeting his shallow thrusts, panting as her desire got the better of her. His firm grip on her backside with one hand and the nape of her neck with the other drove her wild. She bucked and writhed, rubbing herself along the length of his thigh. Her fingertips pressed into the hard bulge of his pectorals and raked downwards, catching his nipples through his black shirt and tearing a groan from him. She answered him with a moan of her own when she reached the granite slab of his stomach, her imagination running away with her. What would he look like nude and in all his glory? She pictured a lean built physique. Muscles that could melt a woman right down to her core barely hidden beneath milky skin. A trail of hair as dark as his ponytail that led down from the sensual dip of his navel to his impressive hard cock. Lithe powerful legs that exuded strength as much as the rest of him. He was a god in her imagination.

Would he be that way in reality?

She had an itch to find out and wanted to scratch it right there in the club.

“Tell me,” he said again, voice rough with desire, and nipped her earlobe. It was hard to think when he was licking and kissing, his body moving into hers, hands grasping and kneading. She couldn’t remember her own name. All she knew was intense pleasure and a craving for more.

He chuckled against her throat and kissed it again, wet open mouthed ones that made the fragments of thoughts she had gathered scatter and tore a moan from her.

“I guess I’m not the only one having trouble functioning here.” His voice was a silken purr in her ear and he suddenly stepped away from her.

Kristina stood on jelly legs, gripping the sleeves of his black shirt in tight fists to keep herself upright. He looked around them and enough sense broke through the haze of arousal fogging her mind for her to wonder what he was looking for. She stumbled when he locked a strong hand around her wrist and strode towards the edge of the dance floor. She bumped into several dancers, mumbling apologies, and saw past Callum’s wide shoulders. A couple exited one of the curtained booths directly ahead of them. A blush blazed across her cheeks as she realised what he was up to and what might happen between them if she entered the private booth with him and sense reared its ugly head and told her to break free of him before it was too late.

The desire to do such a thing faltered and died when he looked over his shoulder at her, his hungry gaze devouring hers, expressing everything that she was feeling inside. He knew as well as she did that this was wrong but it wasn’t stopping him.

And she wouldn’t let it stop her either.

He pulled her into the booth, closed the heavy black velvet curtains with one stroke, and turned on her.

Kristina let her breath out on a sigh as he claimed her waist, moulded her body against the hard expanse of his, and kissed her.

Before she started to kiss him back, before things got beyond her control and she lost her ability to think again, she pulled away and stared into his eyes.

“Kristina,” she breathed and he grinned sexily.

“Now I know what to call you when I lose myself in you.”

Oh, Heavens, that sounded so hot husked in his deep voice as he stared at her with hungry eyes that promised he wouldn’t let her go until he had satisfied the passion bouncing between them. Kristina grabbed his tie, yanked him to her and pressed a brief hard kiss to his lips.

She smiled wickedly.

“Mister, you’ll be screaming it by the time I’m done with you.”

I hope you enjoyed this double excerpt!

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
Apple iTunes / iBooks Stores:
US | UK | Australia | Canada
Other Retailers:
Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback as a Covet and Crave anthology from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

Be sure to follow this fantastic tour between June 28th and August 25th to learn more about the passionate heroes, wicked heroines, and life at London’s premier vampire erotic theatre! You can also find yourself in with a chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of stops, are available at the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour page.

Leave a comment on this post and enter the giveaway on the tour page in order to gain points. Just let me know you commented on this specific post by pasting in the URL into the extra information box.

All of the books so far in the series are available in paperback, and in ebook from Amazon Kindle and Kobo. Covet and Crave are available from Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks and Sony Reader too. Seduce will be available at those retailers soon. Excerpts are available for all of the current releases in the series, so you can get a taste of these wicked erotic romances.

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)
Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4) – Coming August 4th!
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) – Coming soon!
Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) – Coming in 2013!

Posted in Book Tours, Crave, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | Comments Off on Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: CRAVE Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: COVET Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

The Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour comes to my blog today for an exclusive excerpt from one of the erotic vampire romance books in the series.

Since I’m talking so much about Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1) I decided it would be best I shared an excerpt of the hot vampire romance book with you all today. I’m going to post the first two chapters of the book, so you have something to really sink your fangs into!

First, I’ll set the picture with the blurb so you all know a little more about the story and characters.

Covet
Felicity Heaton
They’ve burned for each other for two years, the forbidden attraction between them growing each night. Now resisting the sinful desires of their hearts is becoming impossible.

Javier knows better than to succumb to his hunger for Lilah. The mortal female belongs to a powerful aristocrat patron of Vampirerotique, the theatre he runs with three other vampires. A single touch is all it would take to break the sacred law of his kind, sentencing himself to death, but his passion for her has become too fierce to ignore and he will risk everything to make Lilah his.

Lilah has fought her desire for Javier since arriving at his theatre as a servant but each glance he has stolen, his eyes promising pleasure that will satisfy her longing for him, has chipped away at her defences and she can no longer deny her need and her forbidden feelings for the powerful vampire male.

When they find themselves alone in a private box during one of the erotic performances, will they surrender to their passion and live out their wildest fantasies in a night of wicked pleasure or will the threat of Lilah’s master keep them apart forever?

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy 
Apple iTunes / iBooks Stores:
US | UK | Australia | Canada 
Other Retailers:
Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback as a Covet and Crave anthology from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

CHAPTER 1

There was one rule his kind honoured above all others: an owned human must never be touched by a vampire other than their master.

Every vampire knew that to lay a hand on a bonded human out of desire or feed from their vein caused them immeasurable pain and suffering, and that their master would know of it and would come to act out the penalty.

Death to the vampire who had broken the sacred law.

Death was not something that Javier was looking for but knowledge that it awaited him should he break the law hadn’t stopped the fierce heat of desire from gripping him the moment she had arrived at the London theatre two years ago, sent to work by her master. Javier had been telling himself to forget her ever since. In the time that she had been in the service of the theatre, he had been unable to escape the torment of her presence. The simplest task had become agonizing for him. Giving her orders for the night with the other staff was torture he couldn’t endure. Two years and his need for her had only grown worse. His desire had gone from a liquid fire that threatened to make him step out of line if he were in her presence for more than a minute to a crushing need to kiss her whenever he heard the soft melody of her voice in the distance.

It was unbearable.

But bear it he would.

There was no alternative. Her owner was one of the richest of Vampirerotique’s patrons and his business partners would stake him if he lost the man’s much needed money. That was, if the man didn’t kill him first. Lord Ashville was an aristocrat, a pureblood vampire, and almost three times Javier’s age and strength. As only an elite, Javier couldn’t contend with him. His death would be swift and brutal, and by law he wasn’t even allowed to defend himself. If he dared to touch her, to act out his dark urges and needs with the human female, he would have to quietly accept the consequences.

It was madness to desire a human owned by such a man. He would easily sense the violation of the bond. It was madness.

Javier swirled the blood in his crystal whisky glass, staring at it but not seeing it. His head was full of her, his heart rebelling against his better sense that said it was impossible and to give up on his futile desire for her. She would never be his.

The soft lighting in the back of the black limousine turned the blood dark and uninviting. He drank it anyway, forcing it down, and poured himself another glass from the decanter in the small refrigerator built into the back of the driver’s seat. He had been drinking more and more often recently in the hope that it would stave off his growing hunger for her.

Lilah.
The car engine purred as they slowed and dread settled in his stomach. This was the moment he always feared whenever he was called away from the theatre. Lilah had been on his mind the whole time during his journey, and the whole month that he had been resident at his remote family home in northern Spain. He could still see her clearly in his mind, could vividly remember how she had looked at him with her beautiful golden brown eyes when he had announced to the staff that he would be leaving them in the capable hands of Callum, and how her heart had set off at a pace, colouring her cheeks when his control had slipped and he had looked directly at her. She was so beautiful, so alluring even in the plain long black dress of her uniform. She had haunted him this past month, had been waiting for him to close his eyes each morning and drift off to sleep before stepping into his dreams and ensuring his desire for her burned fiercer than ever each night he awoke.

A month.

The car pulled to a halt on the road outside the elegant columned Grecian façade of the theatre. Warm floodlights lit the sandstone from below. On a normal night of business, it would have looked inviting to him, his home away from home, the place that housed something so precious to him. Tonight, it looked cold and dark, ominous and frightening.

An icy chill settled in his chest.

What if this time his fears became real and he had returned to find that she was gone?

A month was long enough for Lord Ashville to have decided he needed more servants in his mansion and sent for her. Callum had emailed Javier regular reports on the staff and the theatre while he had been away attending his sister’s wedding. His old friend hadn’t mentioned Lilah at all but that didn’t mean she was still here. Javier had wanted to ask about her so many times, had typed the words in his emails to Callum only to delete them when sense had overcome the desires of his heart. Callum might understand his plight but if word reached Antoine or Snow, the aristocrat brothers who ran Vampirerotique with them, there would be hell to pay.

The car door opened and Javier swiftly necked the glass of blood. He set the glass down and stepped out of the limousine, his polished black leather shoes reflecting the lights of the theatre. He straightened his deep silver-grey tie and fastened the button on his black suit jacket, preparing himself mentally at the same time. The driver nodded and closed the door, and then opened the boot of the vehicle and removed his luggage. Javier took the dark grey suit bags from him, hanging them off his fingers by his side, and looked up at the theatre. Six tall columns supported a triangular block of sandstone. Each carved figure on the frieze had been cleaned during his time away in preparation for the new season. Tonight was the first show, open only to elite vampires. The aristocrats were yet to return from the countryside or abroad.

Javier managed a smile when the wooden shutters on the other side of the windows and glass doors drew back, revealing the sumptuous red and gold interior of the theatre and his friend. Callum’s steps were swift and sure, his handsome face a picture of darkness as he hurried down the wide marble staircase in the middle of the entrance hall, tying his long black hair back into a ponytail. He shoved the doors open, leaving one of the staff to hurriedly wipe his handprints off the glass, and briskly took the five stone steps that led down to the pavement and Javier.

“It’s a nightmare.” Callum raked long fingers through his hair, messing it up again. It was a habit of the elite vampire’s when he was under stress. His green eyes flashed with irritation and Javier could sense that he was angry about something as well as see it.

“Hello to you too.” Javier’s smile widened and he motioned for the driver to come to him.

Callum snatched the black designer suitcase from the driver, stuffed a large tip in the man’s breast pocket, and waved him away. Like Javier, Callum wasn’t used to the attention of servants and being waited on. It had taken them both years to get used to having humans and weaker vampires fetch them things or do menial tasks such as carrying their baggage. Clearly Callum still had difficulty with the latter.

Javier looked beyond him to the foyer of the theatre, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lilah. Was she working tonight?

He frowned, his sandy eyebrows knitting tightly, and stared at Callum. What if his nightmare had something to do with the staff?

“Has something bad happened?” He fought to keep the note of worry from his voice. Callum would see straight through him if it slipped out. They had spent years together at the finest vampire academy in England even though Callum was a century younger than he was and had remained in touch after graduating. They had always been close friends, even when they had been hundreds of miles apart and in two different countries.

“Victor got into a fight and got his nose broken. He’s a bloody mess.” Callum practically growled the words, his British accent hardening the final two and emphasising his anger.

Javier could understand his distress now. Victor was one of their best performers and often took the lead in the final act of the show, seducing a human thrall before feeding from them in front of the audience. He was a favourite among the female theatregoers because of his good looks and the fact that he was happy to engage with male as well as female partners on stage, and could handle more than one human at a time. He had been with the theatre for almost a decade and was a big draw. Even the aristocrat females liked him and he wasn’t averse to giving some of them private performances to keep them sweet and keep the money rolling in for the theatre. They needed Victor on form and on stage. On a normal night, Javier might have felt more concerned by the news, but the flight from Spain had felt as though it had taken days rather than a couple of hours and his frayed nerves were telling him to find somewhere quiet to rest, at least until he knew that Lilah was still here.

Still temptingly close.

Once he knew that, he would be able to function again and find his usual calm edge and the emotional balance he needed in order to face a crisis. He couldn’t think straight at the moment, let alone deal with the drama of their star performer having a broken nose when he was due to go on stage tonight.

“So tell Antoine.” Javier swept his suit bags over his shoulder, resting the back of his hand on the soft material of his black suit jacket. “He deals with the performers, not me.”

“Antoine is busy with Snow, and I have good reason for coming to you first.” Callum mounted the sandstone steps again and led the way into the brightly lit foyer of the theatre. The black haired elite vampire looked over his shoulder at Javier, his vivid green eyes still dark. “It was one of the staff who hit him.”

“One of the staff broke his nose?” Javier found that one difficult to digest. All of the staff were either human or of weak vampire lineage. Victor was of elite blood. His family weren’t as strong as Javier’s or Callum’s, their blood diluted by too many turned humans in their ranks, but he was still powerful enough to deal with any of Javier’s staff.

“A woman.” Callum dumped Javier’s expensive luggage down in the middle of the marble floor. He waved to one of the passing male staff and the man came over to them. “Take these things to Javier’s office.”

The man dutifully picked up the suitcase and then held his hand out to Javier. He stared at it.

“I was going to freshen up and change before the performance tonight. It has been a long journey, Callum. I’m sure this can wait.”

The look on Callum’s face said it wouldn’t. Javier sighed and handed the dark grey suit bags to the man. He bowed his head, hurried across the foyer to the side of the double-height elegant room and opened the plain wooden door that led to the staff only areas of the theatre.

“The show starts in under an hour. We need to get Victor fixed up and then you need to speak with the woman who hit him and find out what happened before Antoine hears. He has enough problems on his plate at the moment. Snow is going through a rough patch again. I doubt he will tolerate this, regardless of who her owner is.”

“Owner? The female is human?” Javier said and Callum nodded. “Who was it?”

Callum’s dark eyebrows rose and he shrugged his broad shoulders, shifting his black designer suit jacket. “You know I’m not good with their names.”

Javier knew that. Callum dealt with the darker side of the theatre business, tracking down vampires who could become good performers from cities all over Europe and sourcing human victims for the final act and other parts of the show the theatre hosted each week. His friend had long ago given up finding out anything about the humans. He had said it made his work easier. Javier took that to mean that his old friend was growing a conscience about what he was doing. He had even given the sourcing of victims over to a firm of vampires recently, letting them deal with it all, and had focused on finding vampire performers to bring into the Vampirerotique family instead.

Callum started across the foyer in the direction the man had taken and Javier followed. An hour wasn’t a long time to fix this mess without Antoine hearing about it. If Snow was in a bad way again, Antoine would be in the mood for bloody murder. Whenever his older brother went off the rails, Antoine’s temper degenerated into nothing short of vicious.

“Can you describe her?” Javier suspected that Callum would be able to manage that at least. He had an eye for detail, especially when it came to human females. The prettier the better to him.

“Tall, reddish brown hair… fiery… great tits… and had the strangest golden eyes.”

Javier stopped dead. Callum paused with his hand on the wooden door, holding it open, and looked back at him.

Lilah had hit Victor?

Before he could ask Callum more about it, a female member of staff appeared out of the gloom on the other side of the open door. She bowed her head to Callum, who still held the door, and then Javier and walked through. Javier’s gaze tracked her, his head tilting to one side as he took in what she was wearing.

“Do you like it?” Callum said and when Javier looked back at him, he was smiling, all trace of anger and concern gone from his eyes. “I thought it suited the theatre more and it means the staff can move around during the performances without being an eyesore for those attending.”

Javier turned back to stare at the woman again. She stood near the glass doors, speaking to one of the male staff as he polished the windows.

“I leave you in charge for a month, and you change the uniforms?” Javier couldn’t quite believe it. Callum thought that the incident with Victor was a nightmare. This was a nightmare to Javier.

The male uniform hadn’t changed much. The material of the black formal outfit the man wore was a little finer than before, and the cut was tailored now so it fit snugly to his figure, but the long tail of the jacket still made him resemble a butler.

The female uniform.

Javier couldn’t stop staring at it.

It looked as though Callum had gone to a sex shop and bought out every French maid uniform they had. The puffed sleeves of the black dress were lined with black lace, and the neck scooped so low that Javier was surprised he couldn’t see her nipples. Perhaps he could if he was close enough. The lace that trimmed the material there was probably obscuring them from this distance. The horror of it didn’t stop there. The previous uniform dress had reached the ankle of the wearer. The new one barely reached mid-way down her thighs, revealing creamy flesh and long over-knee black socks. The only thing that had remained the same was the black pumps and the colour.

If he saw Lilah in such an outfit, it would be the death of him.

And he had to find her and find out why she had punched Victor.

The Devil help him, he wasn’t going to be able to resist her any longer.

It would be a miracle if he even managed to utter a single question before finally succumbing to his need for her.

Callum’s intent gaze on him roused him from his thoughts and he turned a blank look on him.

“You don’t like it.” Callum let the door drift shut. “We can change it back. I just thought it gave the guests something to look at between acts. Antoine thinks it’s a good idea.”

“I like it,” Javier lied and forced another smile. “We should speak to Victor before Antoine comes down to speak to the performers prior to the show.”

Javier hoped that Victor would tell them everything and then he wouldn’t need to find Lilah and speak to her. Callum opened the door again and Javier strode down the dimly lit black corridor with him, heading for the area to the side of the stage where stairs led up to the offices and hallways led backstage and off to the staff quarters. They were almost at the end of the hallway and out into that brighter double-height expansive room when several females crossed before him. Lilah was among them, carrying a broom and a red plastic box of cleaning equipment, her dark chestnut hair twirled up in a bun at the back of her head.

She said something he didn’t hear to the three other women and then broke away from them and struggled to open the heavy wooden doors that led to the area in front of the stage in the theatre. Her broom knocked against the door when she managed to open it, fell from her grasp and clattered on the floor. She cursed softly and Javier echoed her in Spanish when she let the door close again and bent to retrieve her fallen broom.

The frilled black skirt of her dress hid nothing from view as she picked up the broom, her back to him. He stared at her bottom and her black knickers, blood pounding in his temples, his hunger for her kicking back into life and threatening to seize control of him. He pictured crossing the scant few metres that separated them, sliding his hands over the firm peachy globes of her backside, and drawing her back against the raging erection tenting the black material of his tailored trousers beneath his jacket.

Lilah straightened so fast that he jumped and she whirled to face him. Her cheeks coloured, rosy and dark, and the startled edge to her round eyes captivated him. She blinked, shuttering her beautiful golden irises, and then dipped in a curtsey. Her gaze stayed downcast this time, her head slightly to one side, so the cord of her neck remained taut and tempting.

“This is the one, Javier,” Callum said and Javier almost barked that he knew that already and barely stopped himself from throttling his friend for interrupting his perusal of her neck.

He cleared his throat instead. “I will deal with you later.”

Callum moved on. Javier remained where he was, his feet firmly planted to the dusty floor, his eyes glued to her, waiting to see her reaction.

Lilah’s gaze slowly rose, bringing her head up with it. When it touched on his, the colour on her cheeks darkened and he forgot to breathe. He stared at her, mesmerised, lost in the black abyss of her dilated pupils.

Enthralled.

She didn’t take her eyes away from his as expected. She held his gaze, steady and unafraid, no trace of fear in her scent. The way she looked at him spoke of desire and he had a hard time telling himself that he had to be imagining it. Her bond with her master made it impossible for her to feel anything for Javier. The gentle rhythm of her heartbeat called to him, luring his gaze down to her cleavage, and he fought his desire to step closer so he could reach out and run a lone finger over the luscious curves of her breasts. Touching her would only bring her pain. He couldn’t. No matter how much he needed to have her warm soft skin beneath his fingertips and know the feel of her at last. It would hurt her. He didn’t care. No. He did care. If it hurt her, he would stop. He would never harm Lilah. To pain her was to pain himself. He cared about her too much.

“Are you coming?” Callum’s voice shattered the spell she had cast on Javier and he glanced at him and nodded.

When he looked back, the door was closing and Lilah was gone.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, drew in a long deep breath, catching the enticing scent of her in the air, and followed Callum backstage.

Later.

He would be in her presence. Alone.

And he wouldn’t be able to resist her any longer.

If it hurt her, he would stop, but he needed to touch her.

He needed to know the feel of her and her taste.

Even if that one taste was all he could ever have.

Even if it signed his death sentence.

CHAPTER 2

Lilah didn’t pause to watch the show as she cleaned the boxes, preparing the red velvet seats for the coming week. She pulled another of the covers off the plush soft seats and hit it with the palm of her hand to beat out any dust that had managed to creep under the protective cream material. The murmur of the crowd below drew her attention to them. She pressed her hands into the small of her back, stretching her spine, and sighed. Preparations for the new season were always tiring but she had been working harder than ever tonight, hoping that Callum would notice and that Javier’s punishment would be less severe because of it.

She wasn’t sorry that she had hit Victor. She was surprised.

She had expected him to stop her or evade her fist. He must have been more caught up in what he had been doing than she had thought.

Lilah removed the cover off the final chair in the elegant gold and red box, folded it and set it down on the pile near the red velvet curtain that shielded the private area from the corridor that ran between all the boxes. During the main season, the aristocrat vampires used the boxes, separating themselves from the elite who sat in the rows of seats filling the theatre below. She had never cleaned the boxes before.

She ran her fingers over the carved wooden top of the hip-height wall around the box. Antoine had arranged the cleaning of the exterior and repainting of the interior during the closed period so the cream paint was perfect, highlighted with beautiful gold that one of the decorators had told her was real. Only the best for the aristocrats.

Lilah leaned against the edge of the box and looked down at the crowd as they watched the show on the grand stage to her left. How did the aristocrats feel when they sat up here, looking down on their weaker kin? Was that why they preferred the boxes? So they could look down on vampires they believed were weaker and less worthy than they were? She had never understood the sense of separation between them. To her, it didn’t matter how pure their blood was or what lineage they were from. They were all vampires.

She had never believed in their existence until Lord Ashville had found her on the streets and forced his blood down her throat, bonding with her and claiming her as a sort of slave. His blood in her veins linked her to him but she hadn’t seen him in a long time and she didn’t care. She hated him and wished she could break free of his rule, had tried to escape his mansion many times, so many that he had grown tired of her and sent her here along with another of his humans. She hadn’t realised what sort of place the theatre was until she had caught her first glimpse of the show. She had blushed a thousand shades of red and hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the stage, watching the perversion playing out on it, the bloodletting and debauched erotic acts.

Lilah was used to it now and rarely stopped to watch, and she made sure that she was never in sight of the stage during the final act. The first time she had witnessed that, she had discovered the true nature of vampires. The scent of human blood had driven them into a frenzy, both the vampires on stage and those in the audience. It had even reduced the aristocrats, with their fine airs and graces, to slavering beasts, their red eyes bright and sharpened fangs dripping with saliva.

That was the reason why she didn’t understand the separation between elite and aristocrat. When it came down to it, all of them hungered for human blood and couldn’t resist the smell of it. They were all beasts in human form.

A brief flicker of golden light drew her gaze down to the door below the boxes opposite her, close to the front of the stage. The door slowly shut and she shifted her focus forwards, past Antoine where he stood to one side watching the show, blending into the darkness that edged the theatre, to the vampire who had exited from backstage.

Javier.

It was dark where he crossed the theatre using the strip of open red carpet between the raised black stage and the front row of the audience, but she knew it was him. She would recognise his fine athletic figure anywhere and the haphazard mess of his sandy brown hair. His suit jacket was gone but other than that he hadn’t changed from when she had seen him earlier. Her heart had lodged in her throat when she had looked up to find him there, watching her, his rich chocolate eyes intent on her and stirring heat in her veins. She had thought he would say something about what she had done, would berate her in front of everyone, and had even braced herself for the hard edge his words would have. When he had spoken, his tone had been surprisingly soft, warm with his Spanish accent lacing the words. She could listen to him forever, sometimes drifted away when he was issuing orders to the staff first thing in the evening and last thing in the morning, imagining him speaking close to her ear. Just the memory of his voice had her heartbeat accelerating, a flush of heat sweeping over her skin. Her teeth teased her lower lip. She had to stop torturing herself like this. Javier would never do such a thing with her. He had taken care of her over the past two years but he took care of all his staff, whether they were vampire or human. She wasn’t special to him.

Lilah leaned forwards, following him until he disappeared beneath her. Was he coming up?

He had said that he would speak to her later about what she had done. She both feared it and looked forward to it.

She picked up the broom again, intending to sweep the floor so she would look busy if Javier was coming to see her, but her gaze caught on the show.

Three men were pleasuring one woman in the middle of the luxurious red and gold stage set, all of them vampires right now, but she knew that would change before the final act. It was early in the show. With each act, things grew a little more risqué and a lot darker. The moans of the four vampires writhing naked on stage filled the theatre, the rapt audience watching in silence. The woman sat reclined on a red velvet armchair, her legs splayed over the arms and a man between them. Another stood to one side of her, one hand tangled in her blonde hair, holding her mouth to his cock as he thrust into it, his other hand on the erection of the man behind the armchair, pumping it as he kissed him. Lilah tried to drag her eyes away but found that she couldn’t when another two women joined the group, both of them human and both of them under the thrall of two of the vampires on stage. She could tell it by their glassy expressions. They walked calmly forwards on black stiletto heels, their sheer feather-trimmed baby dolls barely concealing their breasts and the black leather thongs they wore. Two of the naked men broke away from the vampire female as the third man pulled her onto her knees on the armchair and thrust into her from behind, causing her to cry out.

The two female humans approached the male vampires who held them under their thrall, teetering on the heels now, a hint of nerves flickering on their faces. The males were lessening their control over them, letting them see where they were and that an audience was watching them. The scent of their fear would satisfy the gathered elite and the humans would still be under the vampires’ spells enough that they wouldn’t think to escape.

The human women sat down on the two red leather couches positioned in the middle of the stage, one on each. Crimson spotlights bathed them, making them look as though blood covered their skin. In perfect synchronisation, the broad bare male vampires crouched before their woman, lifted the opposite leg to each other and started to kiss along it from ankle to knee.

It wasn’t turning her on.

Lilah told herself it a thousand times over but the sight of the vampire couple fornicating at the front of the stage and the forced seduction happening behind them had her heart pounding and her nipples hardening against the tight top of her uniform dress.

“I need to question you about Victor.” Javier’s deep accented voice coming from behind her caused her to drop her broom and turn.

She panted hard, startled and trying to get her arousal under control so he wouldn’t sense it.

His dark brown gaze slid to the stage and then back to her.

Lilah quickly bent to pick up her broom. When she straightened, Javier’s eyes were on her dress, his pupils wide in the low light coming up from below. The moans on stage grew louder and she tried to ignore them and push the images of the couples out of her mind.

“Why did you hit Victor?” Javier said, more composed than she was. Didn’t the show affect him at all? He had crossed the theatre without pausing to watch and his eyes were fixed on her now. She had heard that he and his partners had been running the theatre for almost a century. He had probably grown immune to whatever was playing out on the stage.

“Because he was hurting Nia.” It came out blunter than she had intended and she added, “Sir.”

Javier’s eyebrow rose. “Victor said you had no grounds to strike him.”

“Then he’s a liar and a bastard.”

“He’s an elite.” The darkness in his tone was reprimand enough to Lilah. She bowed her head.

“My apologies.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at Javier so she glanced to one side when she brought her head back up. It was a mistake. The act on stage was getting hotter, with the two humans now kneeling on the couches and swallowing the rigid cocks of their partners as they stood before them. She ripped her gaze away and closed her eyes, figuring it was safer. That way she didn’t risk seeing the anger in Javier’s eyes or the debauchery on stage, and she could keep a clear head. “He was forcing himself on Nia and she told him to stop. When he didn’t, I hit him. I thought he might stop and block me.”

“He said Nia was cut. He was under the influence of his hunger. That is why he didn’t stop.”

That made sense. “Nia cut her hand on some glass. A mirror in the main dressing room had broken. We had to clean it up and she cut herself.”

He muttered a ripe curse in Spanish and stepped towards her. “Were you cut?”

Lilah opened her eyes, looked up into the dark pools of his, and shook her head. “No.”

The relief that swamped his eyes surprised her and sent fear into her blood. What if she had been the one to cut herself? Would Victor have tried to touch her and taste her instead? Would Nia have tried to stop him or would she have let him hurt her?

“You must be more careful around our kind,” Javier said and she nodded slowly, unable to take her eyes off his.

The moans from the stage grew louder and she blushed when Javier looked towards the performance.

“Will I be punished?” She tried to shut out the sounds. Javier’s gaze returned to her and he shook his head.

“Victor overstepped the line.” He frowned and turned quiet for so long that she couldn’t ignore the noises coming from the stage. She glanced across at them. Javier’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Do you like to watch them?”

Her eyes shot wide and she instantly shook her head. He stepped closer, slid his hand over her jaw in a way that had her shivering and her breath quaking, and carefully turned her face towards the stage. His thumb and fingers remained against her face, holding her gently, warming her down to her bones and causing a flood of arousal to sweep through her.

He traced his hand down her throat and stepped up behind her. What was he doing? She trembled under his touch, anticipating pain from it but feeling nothing but pleasure.

“Does it arouse you when you watch them fucking?” he breathed into her ear and she shivered, her eyelids dropping, a ripple of shock running over her skin at hearing him say such a thing.

“I don’t watch them,” she whispered, her voice barely there.

“You were watching them when I arrived.” He ran his thumb up her throat and claimed her jaw again. How long had he been watching her before he had said something and torn her attention away from the show? Had he enjoyed watching her while she watched the performance, unaware of his presence and his eyes on her? The thought that he might have sent heat into her blood that pooled in her abdomen, tightening it with arousal.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the show now but she wasn’t taking any of it in. All of her focus was on Javier where he stood behind her, so close that his hip was against her bottom. Why was he doing this? Why wasn’t it hurting her? Was there no pleasure in his touch, no sense of desire inside him as he ran his hands over her throat and pressed his body close to hers?

Lilah sharply turned her head towards him. He was so close to her that his breath skated over her lips, her chin touching his cheek. The darkness of desire in his eyes was unmistakable. There was hunger in his touch, in the way he forced her to face the stage again, clutching her jaw and lowering his mouth to her throat.

He drew in a long shaky breath and pressed his brow against the side of her head. “You smell so good… such a temptation.”

He wanted her. Her knees weakened beneath her, legs going slack at the feel of him pressed against her back, his hands firm on her body.

Lilah’s breathing quickened and she stared at the three couples on stage, her heart racing and blood thundering. Javier reached around her and slid his hand over hers where it gripped the pole of the broom. He took it from her and let it fall to the ground as he pressed soft kisses to her bare shoulder and the nape of her neck. They tickled, sending shiver after shiver through her, dizzying her.

This was so wrong.

But that only made it feel more right.

She had wanted him for so long, had craved the feel of his hands on her body, ached to know what it would feel like to be with him. She had never thought it possible though, had thought her bond to Lord Ashville would prevent it and pain her if she accepted the touch of the man she desired with all of her heart.

Javier licked the nape of her neck near her hairline, teasing her, and she couldn’t stop herself from arching her backside into him. He groaned and cursed softly in her ear, kissing it and nibbling it with blunt teeth.

“Watch them,” he whispered into her ear and licked the lobe, teasing it with the tip of his tongue. “Keep watching them while I touch you.”

She nodded and bit back a groan when he slid his hands down over her stomach and then around to her backside, palming it through her short dress. He suckled the lobe of her ear and then kissed her throat and ran his hands up her sides, pressing them in hard as he passed over her ribs. He cupped her breasts and stepped into her. The feel of his erection against her bottom sent a new hot flood of arousal pooling between her thighs. Was this really happening? She felt as though she was imagining it, as though it was a fevered fantasy brought on by watching the show and seeing him crossing the theatre towards her. It didn’t feel real.

“You cannot deny me this,” he uttered into her ear and she trembled at the command in his tone, the hunger that roughened it. “I will have you.”

Lilah didn’t want to deny him, but the thought that he wouldn’t let her only served to arouse her further, making her heart skip a beat as his strong hands kneaded her breasts through the confines of her short black dress.

She would never deny him.

No matter the consequences.

He was worth the risk.

And she would have him.

I hope you enjoyed this double excerpt!

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy 
Apple iTunes / iBooks Stores:
US | UK | Australia | Canada 
Other Retailers:
Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback as a Covet and Crave anthology from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble

Be sure to follow this fantastic tour between June 28th and August 25th to learn more about the passionate heroes, wicked heroines, and life at London’s premier vampire erotic theatre! You can also find yourself in with a chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of stops, are available at the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour page.

Leave a comment on this post and enter the giveaway on the tour page in order to gain points. Just let me know you commented on this specific post by pasting in the URL into the extra information box.

All of the books so far in the series are available in paperback, and in ebook from Amazon Kindle and Kobo. Covet and Crave are available from Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks and Sony Reader too. Seduce will be available at those retailers soon. Excerpts are available for all of the current releases in the series, so you can get a taste of these wicked erotic romances.

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)
Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4) – Coming August 4th!
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) – Coming soon!
Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) – Coming in 2013!

Posted in Book Tours, Covet, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | Comments Off on Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: COVET Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: SEDUCE Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

The Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour comes to my blog today for an exclusive excerpt from one of the erotic vampire romance books in the series.

Since Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3) has just come out, I thought I would post an exclusive excerpt of that book today. I’m including the first chapter as well as the second never-before-seen chapter of his hot vampire romance book.

First, I’ll set the picture with the blurb so you all know a little more about the story and characters.

Seduce
Felicity Heaton
Bloodlust runs in his veins, a dark master waiting for the day it will reign over him. Now a woman with a pure soul and wicked intentions has him in her sights and is determined to crack the ice around his heart, and she might save or damn him.

Antoine stands apart from the world around him, a dangerous and broken soul who must maintain rigid control at all times or risk his dark addiction finally seizing hold of him. The shadows of his past haunt him and he sees his bleak future each night when his brother wakes screaming, his blood addiction turning him savage. He cannot allow himself to feel, but when Sera walks into Vampirerotique, the erotic theatre he runs with three other vampires, to audition, she awakens dangerous desires in him—hungers that could spell the end of both of them.

Sera has wanted Antoine since the night she first saw the gorgeous aristocrat vampire. She can’t ignore the deep carnal hunger he stirs in her or the ache to know the heat of his touch. With the help of her sire, an ex-performer at Vampirerotique, she sets in motion a game of seduction, one designed to thaw the ice in Antoine’s veins and make him burn for her.

When Sera discovers the shocking truth about his past and the darkness that lurks within him, will she be strong enough to seize his heart with both hands and win him forever or will she lose him to the ghosts that still haunt him?

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website
Amazon Kindle Stores:
USA/International | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
Other Retailers: Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

CHAPTER 1

Sera’s attention wasn’t on the show. While her sire sat beside her in the sumptuous red velvet seats of the dark stalls, her focus fixed on the erotic acts playing out on the stage of Vampirerotique, Sera’s gaze was elsewhere, drawn to a man who had been on her mind since the first time she had set eyes on him over a year ago. He stood to her right at the edge of the theatre near the front row, shadows clinging to him as though they too were drawn to his lethal beauty, his own gaze on the stage. Not once did it stray from the performance—not even when she prayed under her breath every second that it would come to rest on her—and never did the intensity of it lessen. His pale icy eyes scrutinised everything, watching closely, as though he was studying it so he could give a blow-by-blow description of it to someone after it had ended. Perhaps he did. He often disappeared as soon as the show reached its climax with the bloodletting, heading through the double doors that led backstage to an area she could only imagine.

Her sire, Elizabeth, had described it for her a few times but she had always been more interested in learning more about the enigma that was the vampire who ran the theatre.

Antoine.

His name was as exotic as his looks. The deadly combination of lush chocolate brown hair, those intense pale blue eyes and his lithe figure that just screamed he would look like a god naked, was too much for her. The more she saw him, the more she wanted him.
Regardless of the warnings that her sire often whispered in her ear.

“Perhaps I should arrange for a seat closer to him next time?” Elizabeth hissed across at her, amusement ringing in her tone.

Sera tore her eyes away from Antoine, ashamed that she wasn’t watching the show that had cost her sire a pretty penny. Elizabeth had been getting her better seats with each performance and Sera knew that the closer they were to the stage and the action, the more expensive the tickets became. Not only that, but she had paid for Sera’s new outfit of a lacy deep green camisole top that matched her eyes and tight black jeans that showed off her legs to perfection, and the new highlights in her long blonde hair as well as the makeover they had both enjoyed this evening before attending the theatre.

She tried to watch the show, concentrated hard on maintaining her focus on the act playing out on the black stage but she couldn’t take in any of it. Her head swam, unable to keep track of what was happening, focus diverted by the drop-dead-gorgeous man who stood barely twenty feet away from her. She gritted her teeth and frowned, forcing her eyes to follow the performers. It didn’t help.

Seats closer to the stage just meant closer to Antoine, presenting her with a much better view of him. A view she didn’t want to squander.

Her gaze drifted back to him as though he had his own gravity and she was powerless against its pull. He stood side on to her, his tailored black trousers and crisp charcoal shirt accentuating his figure, igniting her imagination. It raced to picture him naked. Long legs and powerful thighs. Firm buttocks with sexy dimples above them. A lean muscled back that followed the sensual curve of his spine and flowed into strong shoulders that would be a pleasure to study as he moved. And finally, a chiselled torso blessed with rope after rope of honed muscles down his stomach and a chest that would feel solid beneath her cheek and palm as he held her protectively in his embrace.

Elizabeth giggled, the sound so out of place during the intense erotic performance that the dark-haired man in front of them looked over his shoulder and frowned.

“You don’t want to get involved with him. It wouldn’t end well,” Elizabeth said.

Sera wished that her sire had waited for the man to turn away before saying that. Now he was frowning at them both, dark eyebrows drawn tight above red eyes.

Elizabeth dismissively waved her hand, long scarlet nails catching the bright colourful lights that illuminated the stage. “I’m not talking about you. You’ll miss one of the best bits.”

The man’s frown hardened but he turned back to the show. Elizabeth swept her wavy dark red hair over her shoulder and returned her attention to the performance too. Sera fidgeted on her seat when she caught a glimpse of the man on stage. Victor. Elizabeth had worked with him during her time at the London theatre. He had been with Vampirerotique since a few years after it had opened a century ago and was their star performer. The large brunet male was currently pumping a woman in centre stage, his fangs enormous as he growled and fucked her side on to the audience so they could witness the whole act. The petite brunette bent over in front of him was moaning with each deep plunge of his cock, her hands grasping her knees and breasts swinging in time with his powerful thrusts. Two other men were pleasuring human females a short distance from him. The men sat on the red velvet gold-framed couches, one on each, flanking Victor where he stood close to the front of the black stage. The human females under the thrall of the other two vampires were facing the audience, kneeling astride the one who controlled them, bouncing on his cock and groaning as they palmed their breasts. Sera looked away, cheeks burning.

Elizabeth leaned towards her. “Besides, he’s as frigid as a nun and as cold as ice. In the fifty years that I worked for him, I never once saw him with a woman. The only person he loves is his messed up brother, and that’s one relationship you don’t want to interfere with.”

Sera had heard the warnings so many times now that they were losing their effect. Every time Elizabeth brought her to the theatre to watch a performance, she reiterated the long list of reasons why Sera shouldn’t want Antoine. Unfortunately, those warnings only made her want him even more. According to Elizabeth, the gorgeous male vampire had been alone for God only knew how long. Sera wanted to be the woman to smash his armour and tear down his defences, and end his loneliness.

If he was lonely.

Her gaze slid back to Antoine. He stood rod straight, posture perfect, shoulders tipped back as he continued to study the performance. The first few times she had seen him, she hadn’t thought to ask her sire about him. She had thought he was just one of the crowd stretching his legs. When Elizabeth had noticed her staring, she had told her that he was one of the owners of the theatre, and an aristocrat vampire. That had explained the tilt of his chin and the air of pride he wore, and perhaps even the coldness that settled on his face at times when he was greeting the more important guests before the show started.

He was so distant, even looked miles away as he studied the show, lost in thoughts that she wanted to know.

Elizabeth nudged her and she looked back at the stage, trying to keep her eyes off Antoine. If she couldn’t recount at least half of what had happened, Elizabeth would give her an earful on their way back to the city centre apartment they shared.

Things were heating up on stage. Victor had finished with his vampire female and was now toying with one of the humans, a young redhead with full breasts. The blond male vampire that had been with the female on the couch was with them, kissing her as Victor stood behind her, palming her breasts and rubbing himself against her backside. The blond male looked into her eyes and she turned obediently in his arms, coming to face Victor. She stared at him. Or beyond him. Her glassy expression said that the male now behind her wasn’t lessening any of his control just yet. It felt so wrong to watch a woman under the power of a vampire, unable to do anything to disobey her temporary master, but she couldn’t deny that it turned her on a little. The woman wouldn’t know any discomfort or panic. She was so deep under that she was probably experiencing the purest hit of pleasure she had ever had. Exactly what she had signed on for.

Elizabeth had let Sera in on a secret. Apparently, all of the humans who participated in the shows had agreed to the erotic acts in exchange for a rather handsome amount of money. Elizabeth said it hadn’t always been that way, but modern times called for a modern approach, and it was far easier not to kill them. The humans knew they would be participating in an on-stage orgy for an audience, and most of them had done such acts before, they just didn’t know what they shared that stage with. Vampires. That meant they also didn’t know they would be doing things under hypnosis.

Not that many of the humans required hypnosis to make them fully participate. The blond male vampire had lessened his control over the redheaded female human bent over in front of him, letting her desire rule her instead, and she was moaning and writhing against him, rubbing herself against his long hard cock.

Sera stared, cheeks heating, as he slowly inched his erection into her body and Victor stepped up in front of the woman. She reached for his rigid cock and closed her eyes as she wrapped her lips around his full length, swallowing him each time he thrust into her mouth. The man behind her pumped her at the same pace, drawn out and deep, slow enough that the audience was twitching for more.

Sera stared at the blond male, imagining Antoine behind her like that, his face a picture of pleasure as he slid in and out with long deep strokes.

Her gaze shot back to the man of her fantasy and she found he was still staring at the stage with the usual detached look on his face, as though the sight of two men on one woman didn’t arouse him in the slightest. She supposed that he had probably seen enough shows that he was immune to their effect now.

A few impatient growls erupted through the theatre and he flicked a glance over the audience and then went back to watching the show.

Sera had tried to talk to him once, when he had passed her by after the show had ended with the feeding and the crowd were leaving. He had blanked her. He hadn’t even glanced her way. He had walked straight past her as though she didn’t exist. She had spoken loudly enough that he must have heard her. It was after that moment that Elizabeth had started with the warnings, revealing only a tantalising amount of information about the powerful handsome aristocrat, just enough to make Sera want him even more.

Now, she craved his eyes on her, wanted to hear him speak and know his voice at last, and above all, she wanted to look up into his eyes and try to see past the barriers around his heart so she could understand him. Was his distance from everyone just because he was an aristocrat, or was there more to it than that?

A shriek from the stage melted into a moan of pleasure and the smell of human blood spilled through the air, encompassing her. Antoine visibly tensed, his arms flexing beneath his charcoal tailored shirt, as though he had clenched his fists. His pale eyes darkened, changed just as hers did to reveal her true nature. He turned away and she feared he would leave earlier than usual and her chance would slip by once again.

She tugged on Elizabeth’s arm and her sire sighed, rose to her feet, briefly applauded and then started along the row with her trailing behind. Her legs bumped several vampires who were still trying to watch the final act, absorbing the scent and the thrill of bloodshed. She didn’t care for it herself. More important matters needed her attention.

The men and women she passed snarled at her, baring their fangs in her direction and leaning to one side in an attempt to see past her. She muttered her apologies, trying to move quickly so they didn’t attack her. Elizabeth made that impossible. She moved slowly and with grace in her long scarlet dress, her head held high and no apologies leaving her lips. Her sire was old enough to stand against these vampires should they choose to attack but Sera wasn’t. It would be years before she had the strength of her sire. They reached the last person and broke out onto the wide strip of red carpet that lined the edge of the theatre.

“Antoine,” Elizabeth called and he paused and swung back to face her.

Sera’s heart almost stopped when his deep crimson gaze briefly flickered to her before returning to her sire.

Her nerves rose as he strolled up the incline to meet Elizabeth and Sera slowed, the gap between her and Elizabeth growing larger by the second. What was she doing? It had taken months for her to convince her sire to do this for her and now that she had finally agreed, her nerve was going to fail? She wanted this man’s eyes on her, wanted to be alone with him, and the only way to get what she wanted was to get a job at the theatre.

If she made it past the interview, then Antoine would have to meet with her. Elizabeth had said that he spoke with each new performer to ensure they were suitable for the theatre. Sera just had to get the interview out of the way and then she would have the chance she wanted. Once they were alone in his office, she would take a shot at convincing Antoine that she was the woman for him. Whatever the outcome of that meeting was, she would quit her role as a performer. She didn’t intend to perform at the theatre. Hell, no. She didn’t have the right sort of personality for that. She wanted to blush whenever she chanced a glance at the black and red stage set and saw what the couples on it were doing. If it weren’t for Antoine’s presence in the theatre and her sire’s insistence that they have a little fun, she would never come to such a place.

“Callum,” a deep male voice called out, sharp with authority, and Sera stopped dead. Sweet mercy, Antoine had a voice that could tame even the wildest of angels. That voice was a drug. It went straight into her heart and raced through her veins, the effect sweeter than any amount of blood.

Sera turned towards her sire and Antoine, only to see that he was walking away, leaving her sire with another dark-haired man. He was handsome, full of smiles as he spoke to Elizabeth, far warmer and more amiable than Antoine was but nowhere near as alluring. Elizabeth signalled her to join them and she did, moving past the vampires now spilling out of the stalls and watching Antoine leave at the same time. She’d had a chance to meet him and she had blown it. If she had only kept up with her sire, she would have been close to him, maybe would have caught his attention this time and had his eyes on her at last.

“Is this her?” the vampire called Callum said and ran a glance over her. Sera kept still, feeling as though she was for sale as he moved around her, his eyes on her body, inspecting and scrutinising every inch. He came back to stand before her and looked at Elizabeth. “The summer season will end soon so we’ll have time to train her before the winter one begins but we need someone with natural talent. Does she have what it takes?”

Sera opened her mouth to speak but Elizabeth beat her to it.

“Absolutely. She’s my child, Cal. It’s all in the blood.” Elizabeth smiled broadly at him, red lips curving perfectly. Her deep brown eyes shone with warmth and she swept her dark red hair over her shoulders, exposing their bare curves. “You know I am one of your best ever performers.”

Callum nodded and the longer lengths of his cropped black hair fell down over one emerald green eye. He frowned and raked it back, and then ran a hand around the nape of his neck, drawing Sera’s eyes to a set of dark marks on it. A bite mark. It looked deep and fresh too, no more than a night or two old. Did he have a lover?

He looked at her again and Sera’s gaze leapt to his. She swallowed the desire to confess that her sire was lying and she had no natural talent for the sort of thing that he was talking about. She smiled instead, trying to look every bit as seductive as her sire. Elizabeth had been Vampirerotique’s star female performer until she had decided to quit her job and return to her family instead. They had met shortly after that, and Elizabeth had turned her into a vampire. That was thirty years ago now. It had taken Sera most of those years to become accustomed to life as a vampire.

“Come by tomorrow night when we’re closed,” Callum said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“Thank you,” Sera said and he smiled at her, nodded, and then disappeared into the crowd.

Their excited chatter filled the theatre, the people passing her by discussing the show and the finale. Other elite vampires were still in their seats, enjoying the lingering scent of blood and sharing an intimate moment of their own with their partners. Sometimes the kissing that happened post-performance in the stalls was more erotic than what occurred on stage. Sera dragged her gaze away from one couple near the front who were going at it with wild abandon. They looked as though they wouldn’t make it out of the theatre before they succumbed to their desire and took things a step further.

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Elizabeth. “Does Callum have a lover?”

“I thought you had set your sights on Antoine?” Elizabeth laughed when she blushed and then her expression darkened. “A wife… and I’ve heard rumours that she’s a werewolf.”

A werewolf? Sera had expected the owners of an erotic theatre to be quite liberal and wild, but marrying a werewolf? She definitely hadn’t expected that one.

“You’re serious?” She never could tell with her sire. The woman enjoyed a joke more than was natural. Sera supposed that you needed to have an easygoing attitude when you chose to spend fifty years participating in an on-stage orgy with people you hardly knew.

Her stomach turned.

Thank the Devil she wouldn’t have to do such a thing to get her chance to speak with Antoine. Just an interview that she would ace thanks to her sire’s tuition and then she would be in his office, alone with him. Just the thought stirred heat in her veins. Since her sire had agreed to help her, she had spent every night trying to figure out how to win Antoine. It wasn’t going to be easy. She knew that much. She’d had lovers in her human life and even in her vampire one, but she had never pursued a man before, not as she intended to with Antoine.

Elizabeth had laughed when she had confessed that and had told her that she should probably start with easier prey and work her way up to someone like Antoine. That gave her the feeling that she was going to fail. What sort of woman would he desire? He ran an erotic theatre and watched the beautiful women performing on his stage without the barest hint of desire in his expression. If they couldn’t arouse him, what hope did she have?

Maybe he wasn’t interested in women who worked at his theatre. If that was the case, was she only shooting down what slim chance she had with him by interviewing for a position as a performer?

“I need a drink, and you look as though you could use one too.” Elizabeth grasped her wrist and tugged her towards the exit at the back of the theatre. “Come along, my pupil. You have a lot to learn before tomorrow night if you’re going to have a snowball’s chance in Hell of impressing that man.”

Sera trudged along behind her sire, weaving through the lingering crowd. Elizabeth’s warnings rang in her ears, one louder than the rest. She glanced up at the three storeys of elegant boxes that lined the theatre. The gold on the carvings decorating the curved cream low walls that edged the private boxes reflected the warm lights that illuminated the heavy red velvet curtain now closed across the stage. Matching curtains hung at the back of the boxes, some of them open now that the performance had ended. Many of the boxes were empty but beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen still occupied the others.

She spotted Antoine amongst a group in one of the boxes on the first tier. He was smiling. She had never seen him smile. It looked forced to her. Hollow. Even among his own kind, he was still distant, his eyes devoid of emotion as he put on a grand performance of his own.

Sera wasn’t going to overcome the challenge of winning Antoine’s heart just by meeting the man.

First, she had to break through a barrier that was beginning to look impenetrable.

He was an aristocrat, and an old one at that. Although he looked barely a day over thirty-five, he was in fact over a thousand years old. His brother, Snow, was almost twice his age.

Sera was an elite.

To an aristocrat, she was some sort of filth they scraped off their shoes and nothing made that clearer than the theatres. The aristocrats sat in their boxes, looking down on the elite gathered in the stalls, separated and distant from those they saw as commoners and mongrels.

That disdain for her kind was the reason why Antoine looked so glacial whenever he had to greet the more important members of the elite, and why he had failed to hear her when she had tried to speak with him. He wanted nothing to do with the elite vampires outside the small circle that were part of the theatre. He would certainly want nothing to do with her. Not only was she an elite, but she was a turned human. She was the bottom rung of the social ladder and he was the top. The elite that he deemed worthy of a moment of his time, that he greeted with gritted teeth in order to maintain good relations with her kind, were all born as vampires into families that had turned humans within their ranks. None of them were turned humans themselves.

Even Elizabeth was born of a vampire father and turned mother.

If Sera wanted to shatter Antoine’s armour, she would have to convince him to see beyond the fact that she was a turned human.

Elizabeth had taught her a few things, weapons that she hadn’t held in her arsenal before, but she wasn’t sure if she was brave enough to risk using them on Antoine.

Could she do what Elizabeth had said it would take to shatter his defences?

Could she really seduce such a powerful man?

Sera curled her fingers into tight fists and stared at him. He paused in the middle of saying something to the aristocrat vampires in the box with him, slowly turned towards her and then lowered his eyes. They locked on her. He had felt her watching him. Her heart beat harder, thumping against her chest as her blood heated, but she held his gaze across the theatre stalls, refusing to back down.

The next time she saw him, she would be alone with him.

And she would seduce him.

CHAPTER 2

Sera paced in front of the black stage in the empty theatre. She had arrived a full thirty minutes early for her appointment. An appointment she hadn’t realised she’d had. Callum hadn’t specified a time for her interview. He had just said to come by whenever as the theatre was closed. So she had.

The woman who had shown her into the theatre had been very kind. One of the staff based on her short black dress that revealed far too much leg and bosom. Sera reminded herself that she couldn’t really judge the woman by the clothes she wore. After all, it was her uniform and Sera herself was trying out for a position as some sort of on-stage whore. What on Earth must the woman have thought of her? Perhaps Sera should have asked to interview for a position as one of the staff. Cleaning seemed infinitely more appealing, and possible for her, than being a performer in the shows. Antoine still would have met with her so they could sign her employment contracts. Was it too late to change her mind?

She continued her pacing, her eyes roaming over the deep red velvet curtain that closed off most of the stage, leaving only a strip of painted black boards around three metres deep exposed, and twirled her long blonde hair around her fingers. It was so quiet in the theatre that even her breathing sounded loud in her ears. How much longer did she have to wait?

And why were they interviewing her in the theatre itself?

Elizabeth had said they would take her to one of the meeting rooms or the offices to interview her. That was what she had gone through to get her position at the theatre decades ago. Sera shook her hands at her sides and blew out a sigh, trying to expel her nerves. Maybe the offices weren’t vacant tonight or they wanted to give her a tour before the interview began. That seemed plausible.

One of the sets of double doors at the back opened and a bright beam of light cut down the length of the dimly lit theatre to her. She shielded her sensitive eyes with her hand and squinted so she could make out if someone was there.

Her heart stopped.

The doors closed.

Antoine strode down the aisle, long legs carrying him easily at a brisk pace, as handsome as ever in his silver-grey tailored shirt that emphasised his build and clung just right to his muscles, hinting at how delicious his body would look if he were naked and stirring her imagination into a frenzy. His black tie, crisp black trousers and polished leather shoes perfected his image of a businessman but made him look decadent and alluring at the same time.

Behind him walked the immense male vampire that she knew from the performances. Victor. His normally thick dark hair was gone, shaved to his scalp to reveal thin scar lines in places, giving him a menacing air as he followed Antoine, dressed in a tight black t-shirt and jeans.

Were they just passing through?

Her heart started again at a pace.

Please, God, say they were just passing through.

Antoine shoved his fingers through his deep brown hair, the action screaming of irritation as much as his scent on her senses. He was annoyed about something. Was he angry with Victor for some reason?

Sera moved aside, keeping her back to the stage so they could easily pass her and go about their business. She tried to keep her eyes downcast but they refused to do as she ordered and snuck to Antoine, meeting his icy gaze. The warm lights from the stage lit his face, chasing the shadows away, and she had her first real glimpse of him. He was so handsome regardless of the darkness he emanated and the coldness in his eyes. He looked like an aristocrat, princely with his straight nose, defined jaw and perfect bone structure. Did he resemble his brother, Snow? She couldn’t imagine the devastating effect the two together would have on the female aristocrats at social gatherings.

Her heart did a flip in her chest.

Antoine alone had a devastating effect on her. She could be strong, had taken to life as a vampire with surprising ease according to her sire, and had a flair for luring male prey that she still couldn’t quite believe. She wanted to be that confident, sexy, attractive woman around this man, but whenever she set eyes on him, her heart trembled like a timid thing in her throat, her palms turned clammy, and she wanted to bolt. It was only the deep pounding need he stirred in her, the intense inferno of arousal that flooded her veins like liquid fire whenever she was near him, that kept her feet in place. She wanted this man.

It went beyond natural desire, or at least what she had experienced in the past. No man had ever had such a startling effect on her. It was soul-deep, more than just a carnal longing. It was as though her very happiness depended on her being in this man’s strong arms.

He stopped right in front of her.

“Sera, I presume?” he said and her bones melted at the sound of his deep voice pronouncing her name.

She nodded and held out her hand. He raised a dark eyebrow in her direction and didn’t take it. She lowered it again, feeling like a fool for thinking he would touch her, a turned human, and for the first time since she could remember, her gaze didn’t want anything to do with him. She stared at the red carpet beneath her feet. What in God’s name was she doing here? This was all going to go horribly wrong. She was going to end up getting her heart smashed by this man.

Confidence.

Elizabeth had pounded that one word into her head more than any other. Sera was beautiful, alluring, sexy, smart and funny, and more than that, she was warm and caring. She was a confident woman. She was. Sera clung to her sire’s words about her, trying to believe in them. They ran around her mind and she felt their effect, felt the confidence begin to flow through her.

Sera managed to convince her eyes to shift up. They didn’t make it to his face. They stuck on his tie. Shiny black paisley contrasted against the matt black of the rest of the tie. It was fascinating. Truly. That was the only reason she was looking at it and not resolutely into his eyes as she had planned.

He huffed.

“Well, let’s get on with this. I have other matters that require my attention and the night is not growing any younger.” He sat down in one of the front row seats.

Sera glanced at Victor, and then at Antoine. This change required a whole rethink of her plan. She had expected Callum to be the one interviewing her, not Antoine, and she still wasn’t sure why Victor was present. Was he here because, in the absence of Callum, the elite vampire she had met last night and who Elizabeth had told her dealt with sourcing performers, Antoine needed someone more intimate with performers to help him?

Victor peeled off his tight black t-shirt to reveal the ropes of hard muscle that lined his stomach and the twin slabs of granite that formed his chest.

Sera’s cheeks flushed.

Oh. Lord have mercy. Victor wasn’t here to help with the interview.

This wasn’t an interview at all.

It was an audition.

Her heart thundered. Her limbs shook.

Panic prickled down her spine.

“Is there a problem?” Antoine frowned, his annoyance turning his scent bitter. She knew he could sense all of her feelings and smell her fear, and she tried to get a grip on her emotions, but they bombarded her.

Was there a problem? Was there ever. She hadn’t expected she would have to perform with someone and she definitely hadn’t anticipated that such a performance would take place in front of the man who was her reason for doing this whole crazy thing in the first place.

“I thought it was going to be an interview. My sire said she had an interview with Callum.” Her voice trembled. Good God, could she sound any more weak and feeble? Suck it up or this whole ridiculous affair was going to be over before it even started. Such a powerful man would want nothing to do with a weak female. She pulled in a deep breath and held it but it did nothing to calm her growing panic.

Antoine huffed again. “We might have done things that way eighty years ago, but we do things this way now. So, begin.”

He waved towards the stage. Victor obediently leapt up onto it. Sera remained firmly rooted to the spot on the red carpet between the stage and Antoine where he sat in the middle of the front row, her gaze fixed on his. The coldness in his pale blue eyes was fathomless but mixed in with it and his scent was increasing irritation. If she didn’t do something soon, he was going to toss her out on her backside for wasting his time.

She could do this. She would take it slow and pretend that Victor was Antoine, and come up with a new plan while she was at it. If luck was with her, she could conceive something before things went too far. Just how far was he expecting things to go?

Before she could ask, Victor’s hands were under her arms and she was on the stage. Her knees almost gave out when he released her and she wobbled.

Antoine sighed again and raised the stakes with a pinch of the bridge of his elegant straight nose.

“Not wise to keep the boss waiting,” Victor whispered into her ear, his cool breath tickling her neck, and she shivered.

He pressed the full length of his body against her back and her eyes widened as the hard bulge in the front of his black jeans pushed against her bottom. Heavens. She swallowed. Trembled. This was not happening. Antoine couldn’t possibly expect her to perform with this man. She had seen him on stage, witnessed the sort of debauchery he did with women, and the size of his thing. He would break her.

What alternative was there? Either she performed or she ran like a chicken and lost her chance. Antoine would never look at her again. Hell, she would never be able to look at him again. She had said that she would do whatever it took to make him belong to her and she couldn’t back down now that another challenge had presented itself.

She had come here to seduce Antoine.

Seduce him she would.

Fear crawled through her, obliterating her momentary resolve and confidence.

She wasn’t ready for this. He was going to laugh at her.

Antoine cast a critical eye over her and then waved towards Victor. She yelped when he settled his hands on her waist and nuzzled her neck.

“Come on, sweetness, play with daddy.”

Gross. It was hard to resist the urge to elbow him in the stomach and kick him in the shin.

“Your fifteen minutes just became ten, Sera. Am I wasting my time here?” Antoine said and she shook her head. She could do this.

She broke away from Victor and turned to face him. He was handsome but she wasn’t attracted to him. How was she supposed to do anything with a man she didn’t desire?

“I am very busy, Sera. Start.”

She jumped at the word and wished Antoine would stop using her name. Whenever he rolled it off his tongue in his exotic mixed accent, fire flashed through her body, heating her blood, and she wanted to close her eyes and do wicked things.

Maybe she needed him to say it more. Maybe if he kept saying it, she would find the courage to do what was necessary.

Ten minutes.

Even that sounded like a lifetime.

Her gaze flicked over Victor. He was already topless and the large bulge in his tight jeans confirmed that he was already hard. Where was she supposed to start?

Removing his jeans seemed like a good place.

She stalked over to him, doing her best to look sultry and alluring despite the fact that her jeans and t-shirt combo wasn’t the sexiest outfit in the world. Victor didn’t seem to care about her casual attire. His eyes were on the prize already, locked on her breasts. She raised her hand, drifting it upwards over her chest, luring his eyes to her face. Much better. She didn’t like his eyes on her body.

Her gaze locked with his. Victor smirked at her, so obviously assured in his charms and looks. She wanted to roll her eyes and tell him that he wasn’t her type, that when she looked at him, she was really imagining Antoine. She ran her fingers over the ridges of his torso, his skin cool beneath them, and tilted her head back and held his dark gaze as she undid his belt.

Sera stepped back and tugged it hard, pulling it through the loops of his black jeans in one fast motion. Too fast. The flamboyant rise of her arm as the end came free caused the belt to whip across Victor’s chest, leaving a red streak on his skin.

He growled at her.

She curled up on instinct and leapt backwards, dropping the belt.

Antoine looked thoroughly unimpressed when she risked a glance in his direction.

She tried to claw things back by doing a sexy little shuffle across the stage, her mind racing to remember the moves that Elizabeth had shown her and all the things she had witnessed in this theatre.

On this very stage.

A stage she was now performing on even though she had promised herself it would never come to this.

Sera tackled Victor’s jeans, popping the buttons while clumsily kissing the whip mark across his chest. She gasped when the final button gave and his rigid cock sprang free, already eager for her. Her heart bolted into action again, galloping so quickly that she felt dizzy.

She looked at anything but his erection, battling her nerves and panic again. It was just sex. Sex on a stage. Sex on a stage in front of a man whom she really desired and whose opinion of her was probably rapidly sinking into seeing her as just another whore for his theatre.

What the hell was she thinking?

Sera squeaked when Victor pulled her blue baby-doll t-shirt over her head, catching her blonde hair and yanking it at the same time, and exposed her torso to the chilly air of the theatre.

Antoine sighed and stood.

It was over.

He was going to tell her thanks but no thanks and kick her out for wasting his time.

“Leave,” he said and she grabbed her t-shirt off Victor and went to put it on. “Not you.”

Sera froze, clutching the top to her chest. Victor casually buttoned his jeans, shot her a smile, and then dropped down off the black stage. He sauntered towards the doors at the edge of the theatre, opened them and disappeared from view. Sera remained paused on the stage, waiting for Antoine to throw her out.

“I am not looking for solo acts, but clearly this is your first time on stage. Do you feel you can perform now?”

Sera didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t kicking her out? She swallowed and faced him. He was serious. He had made Victor leave so she would feel more comfortable, and she did. Being on stage in front of him still felt wrong, but the thought of performing for him alone had a strange appeal. If she had ever wanted a chance to seduce him, they didn’t come more perfect than this. She could do this. She could tease him with a slow reveal of her body to his eyes only, and from there it would only be a small step to other more wicked things. She was sure that once she was nude and bared for him that the feel of his gaze on her would give her the confidence to take things further and really perform.

And she was sure that performance would give her the chance to crack the armour around his heart.

What had looked like it was going to end in disaster was now looking as though it was a chance at victory.

A chance that she wouldn’t squander.

Sera nodded and dropped her t-shirt onto the scuffed black wooden boards.

Antoine’s gaze flickered down to her bra-clad breasts and then he sat back in his red velvet chair in the middle of the front row and stretched his long legs out.

His eyes held hers, cool blue and beautiful, fixed on her with such intensity that her cheeks heated with a blush.

He waved his hand.

“Perform for me then.”

I hope you enjoyed this double excerpt!

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Be sure to follow this fantastic tour between June 28th and August 25th to learn more about the passionate heroes, wicked heroines, and life at London’s premier vampire erotic theatre! You can also find yourself in with a chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Certificate if you follow the tour. More details, including how to enter and a full list of stops, are available at the Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour page.

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All of the books so far in the series are available in paperback, and in ebook from Amazon Kindle and Kobo. Covet and Crave are available from Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iBooks and Sony Reader too. Seduce will be available at those retailers soon. Excerpts are available for all of the current releases in the series, so you can get a taste of these wicked erotic romances.

Books in the Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series
Covet (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 1)
Crave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 2)
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 3)
Enslave (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 4) – Coming August 4th!
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) – Coming soon!
Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) – Coming in 2013!

Posted in Book Tours, exclusive excerpt, paranormal romance, Seduce, Vampire Erotic Theatre, vampire romance | Comments Off on Vampirerotique Summer Book Tour: SEDUCE Exclusive Excerpt – erotic vampire romance book

Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #4) – Chapter Five

It’s time for another chapter of Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel romance series #4) as part of my Paranormal Pandemonium 2011 Blog Tour. I’ll be posting the first five chapters for FREE. You can find them all by clicking here: Her Guardian Angel chapters

Her Guardian Angel is currently available in e-book direct from my website, Amazon Kindle Stores, and Smashwords, Apple iBookstore and Kobo. It will soon be available from Barnes and Noble, Sony. It’s also available as a paperback from Amazon sites and Barnes and Noble.

Other stories in the Her Angel series are: Her Dark Angel, Her Fallen Angel and Her Warrior Angel. Details of them and where they are available in e-book and paperback can be found at my website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebookseries.php?series=Her%20Angel

Felicity Heaton
A simple mission becomes a fight for survival in this fantastic instalment in the Her Angel series.

A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia’s trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.

Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn’t turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there’s more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world—a world where God and the Devil exist, and only one angel can save her from death—Marcus, the angel she’s falling in love with.

On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by Marcus’s angel friends and their amazing women, fighting for survival against the odds, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.

A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.

ebook price: $3.99
paperback price: $9.99
genre: paranormal angel romance
length: 110000 words
rating: sultry
released: July 2011
Book 4 in the Her Angel series

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle Germany: http://www.amazon.de/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77776

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-guardian-angel-felicity-heaton/1032773836

You can now download the extended excerpt of Her Guardian Angel (the first five chapters) in PDF from my website. Just click the large “download extended excerpt” button on the book page: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel

CHAPTER FIVE

There was no doubt about it.

Marcus had put his foot in it.

Everything had been going well yesterday until Amelia had taken hold of his hand and he had quickly withdrawn his, and rather than making an excuse as planned, he had warned her away.

Instinct had pushed those words from his lips.

He had no desire to get any closer to her than was necessary.

Marcus raked his fingers through his overlong black hair, combing it away from his forehead, and stared into the distance across the rooftops of London.

Who was he fooling?

Not himself, that was certain.

The spark of desire her touch had reignited in him, bringing his hunger to caress her in return back to boiling point, and the warmth that travelled through his flesh, spreading outwards from the point where her fingers rested against his skin was unmistakably a sign of him harbouring an attraction towards her.

He paced the black tarred roof of his apartment building, scouring the horizon for an answer to his troubles. The problem of gaining Amelia’s trust had been all but solved until he had foolishly told her to keep away from him.

He had always been aware that his instinct to protect her ran deep in his veins but had never suspected that it had corrupted his heart too and that he would even deem it necessary to protect her from himself. She’d had her share of pain and suffering, more than such a pure kind soul deserved, and he couldn’t bring himself to add to it. When his mission was over, he was leaving Earth and Amelia behind him for good. If he used her desire against her, her heart would break when that happened. She would never understand. She would blame herself, just as she did whenever one of the vile men she involved herself with decided to leave her or did something that forced her to leave them.

He couldn’t be like them.

Amelia deserved better.

Far better than him, that was for sure.

One day, she would meet the man who would become her world and who would treat her right and make her happy.

A flash of her smiling at him yesterday cut into his thoughts and deep into his chest.

He had made her smile.

Truly smile with happiness and warmth.

And then she had looked wounded, leaving him at the café alone to ponder what had possessed him to say such things to her and why he had decided to once again intervene in her destructive relationship with her ex-lover.

Duty.

In part it was a lie to say he did these things out of his sense of duty, but it was also his shield and he would not cast it aside.

The dying rays of the sun warmed his skin, the lingering heat of the day cocooning him in a soft breeze that stirred his soul as he watched the sun set over London. It was growing late. Time had passed quickly while he had been lost in his thoughts, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the mortal realm far below him, and he still hadn’t found the answers to the questions that plagued him. Questions about his mission had been joined by ones about Amelia and her feelings for him.

Why would a beautiful mortal female look upon him with such desire?

Marcus looked down at his hands and turned them palm up. These hands had killed many in the line of duty, harvesting souls of sinners and detaining them for judgement. In times past, when wars had been frequent, he had reaped battlefields and cities alike in the name of Heaven, following orders to the letter to assist the angels of death in their mission, never once feeling remorse over his actions.

Until now.

He had told her to keep away from him.

She deserved better than a man who had killed so many of her kind without flinching.

A role he would gladly resume once his current mission had come to an end.

He was no better than those men who had hurt her.

If anything, he was worse.

For all their noise and disgraceful behaviour, none of them had ever taken the life of another mortal. Amelia believed him good and kind, thought that he was different to the men she had previously been intimate with, but she would never see him that way if she knew the things he had done in his past, in the time before he had lost his wings.

Since being cursed, he had led a different life. Wars had become less frequent and the angels of death had no longer required outside assistance from the other branches of angels in Heaven. His kind, the guardians, had returned to their normal duties, shepherding souls and protecting Heaven, or watching over the mortals, both in the present and in the future.

He had never seen the single pool which held the future. Only a few angels were allowed entry to the room containing it in the grand palatial house of Heaven, and those angels were sworn to silence, allowed only to speak to their superior, who in turn relayed necessary information on critical events to other high ranking angels.

His superior included.

Which led Marcus to believe that he was aware of what fate awaited Amelia.

Marcus curled his fingers into fists and frowned at the vambraces protecting his forearms, watching the way the sunlight danced across the blue armour and reflected off the silver raised edges and the silver buckles on the leather straps against his underarms.

There was something freeing about changing out of his mortal appearance and donning his armour. He felt closer to home again and distant from the goings on of the mortal world around him. He shrugged his shoulders, raising the blue breastplate of his armour and exposing his bare stomach, and then stretched his arms out at his sides and closed his eyes as he unfurled his wings.

Warm summer air tickled his silvery-blue feathers, teasing his senses, and he basked in the sunlight, absorbing the heat and allowing it to relax him and chase away his troubled thoughts.

He was a soldier.

Soldiers followed their orders.

He didn’t have to think. He just had to follow orders and his mission would be over.

Marcus opened his eyes and looked at the infinite sky. The pale blue dome turned to green and then hues of orange near the horizon, scattered with ribbons of cloud that caught the fading sunlight and burned gold and pink. It was beautiful and this evening it would be his playground again, his world in which he would immerse himself to escape the mortal realm and find peace for a few brief hours. He would fly until he ached from the exertion, until he couldn’t beat his wings one last time, and then he would return to his apartment and sleep until morning finally came.

Free of this world.

Five centuries without wings and every day had been torture.

He beat his wings and lifted off the tarred roof only to be struck by a shaft of brilliant white light.

Marcus closed his eyes and waited for the tingling sensation caused by the light to pass before opening them again.

He sighed at the sight of the white double doors ahead and the reception room surrounding him.

All he had wanted was to fly for a while. Couldn’t they have waited? By the time they returned him, it would be deep night. These things never moved swiftly and while they could return him to the same moment they had taken him, they never did.

Marcus pushed the double doors open and marched straight to the dock, facing the same three angels who had questioned him the last time they had brought him here.

“There has been a development.” His superior sat at the head of the triangle closest to Marcus, his sandy hair as neat as his blue armour and the large silver-blue wings tucked against his back.

The dark haired mediator and white-blond haired angel of death murmured in agreement.

“May I ask what this development is?” Marcus hid none of his displeasure at having his plans for the evening ruined. They had brought him here and he would make the most of it. While they hadn’t answered direct questions about his mission, perhaps they would answer one about the date of the event if he asked it in such a way that linked it to this development. “Does it mean my mission will end soon?”

All three angels nodded.

“Your final task approaches.” There was no lie in his superior’s expression, or that of the other two angels. “Soon your mission will end, Marcus.”

“You have been patient in your duty and we appreciate everything you have done for us. Once this final task has been completed, you will be free to return to Heaven.” The mediator to his superior’s left smiled at him and then looked across at the angel of death.

“You must be relieved to know that your final task will be over soon and you can return home,” the white-blond haired man said.

Marcus nodded and his shoulders relaxed with the relief that swept through him but he didn’t quite feel as he had expected to on hearing such good news. There was something about the appearances of all three angels, and the soft way they spoke to him, that set him on edge and filled his head with more questions than ever before.

“What is my final task?” All three angels had mentioned it so all three knew what it was, but the moment the question left his lips, their expressions turned stony and closed.

“You will find out soon enough.” His superior leaned back in his chair on the raised platform. The other two angels seated slightly behind him looked at each other and then at his superior, and then at Marcus.

“In the meantime, you must continue to protect her from the world.” Those words leaving the mediator’s lips startled Marcus into looking straight at him.

It was more than he had been told before.

“Am I to believe that there is someone who seeks to harm her?” It had always been there at the back of his mind. Why would a mortal need an angel to watch over them until a certain point in time? Why would they need a protector unless someone intended to hurt them? He had never been told to guide her on her path. His mission had always been phrased in a way that made him believe it was physical protection that she had needed in order to achieve her destiny.

“You must not allow demons to interfere with her existence.”

Marcus’s gaze snapped back to his superior and he stared wide-eyed at him. “Demons?”

The sandy-haired man nodded. “You must keep the female safe until the event that we have witnessed comes to pass.”

“And what is this event?” Marcus knew he had pushed too far again when darkness crossed his superior’s face.

“It is not necessary for you to know that right now, Marcus. We need you to focus on your mission. It has become critical that you gain her trust. Your attempt failed. Your mission was clear. You will get closer to her by any means. Do you understand?”

Marcus wasn’t sure that he wanted to understand.

“What are you implying exactly?” He frowned at his superior, wanting him to say the words so he knew exactly what they were ordering him to do. So everyone here knew and acknowledged the order they were giving him.

“The female is enamoured with you. You are to use that to gain her trust.”

Marcus’s heart raced, anger curling through his body as he looked at all three men seated before him and searched each of their faces for a sign that this was some sort of sick joke. Their expressions remained cold and fixed, hard as they stared back at him. He reined in his outrage and stifled it, unwilling to allow it to control him and give away how much he despised the thought of what they were asking of him let alone the reality of it.

He had no desire to be false with Amelia or hurt her, and they were ordering him to do just that.

“Why is having her trust so important?” he bit out the words and then clamped his jaw shut before he could add that it was despicable of them to do such a thing to a mortal. He had no love for the mortals himself but he had principles. He was an angel, born into a race created to protect humans, not deceive them and lead them into sinning. That was the job of those in the service of the Devil.

“Silence, Marcus.”

He glared at his superior, barely restraining his fury and desire to argue. Using Amelia’s feelings in such a way went against everything he stood for, all of his principles and his honour, and was callous and cruel. He had no desire to hurt her.

“Follow your orders.”

Marcus went to speak but the light engulfed him again. When it faded, he was standing outside the café where he had shared coffee with Amelia.

He tilted his head back and frowned at the colourful evening sky. They had returned him to the exact moment in time that they had taken him. Why? It wasn’t like them.

He looked down at himself and noted that he was dressed now, wearing a dark blue shirt and dark jeans with his boots. It was a little smarter than his usual attire and it was his true appearance, not a glamour they had cast upon him. They had even neatened his hair for him, combing the unruly black lengths back out of his face. Why? They had to be up to something.

The answer became apparent when Amelia walked past him, heavy white plastic grocery bags hanging from her arms.

They certainly weren’t wasting any time. They had dressed him up and sent him back to the moment they had taken him so he could seduce Amelia tonight.

Marcus shook his head. He couldn’t do such a thing and he doubted she would go for it even if he tried. His actions the other day had driven her away and she hadn’t even looked at him the two times they had passed each other today.

Although, he suspected that her reason for ignoring him just now was because she literally hadn’t seen him.

He waved at another passerby, his hand close to their face, and they didn’t even flinch.

When the person had passed him and there were no others in sight, he lifted the glamour that made him invisible to mortal eyes and hurried towards the entrance to his apartment building, determined to reach it before Amelia stepped into the lift. The dull silver lift doors were closing just as he stepped into the foyer and he raced for them.

“Hold it,” he hollered and was surprised when the doors opened again and he stepped inside to find that Amelia was alone.

Had she known it was him and that was why she had held the doors, or hadn’t she realised? He pinched the bridge of his nose. A man could go crazy trying to figure out the inner workings of the female mind. It was little wonder he had never bothered to try before now.

The journey up to their floor passed in uncomfortable silence and it was only when they were stepping out of the lift that inspiration struck Marcus.

He couldn’t disobey his orders to gain her trust but that didn’t mean he had to play the cad and seduce her. He would try the friendship thing again and hopefully this time he wouldn’t mess it up. Rather than using her attraction towards him, he would do something he had never done. He would lower his guard and let her in instead, and gain her trust that way, as a man would, not a devil. No deception.

Marcus reminded himself that he was already deceiving her. She had no idea what he really was and why he had been living next door to her for a month now.

“Amelia,” he said and she stopped at her door and turned to face him. Her beauty arrested his steps and his breath, chasing away some of his anger. He hesitated and then walked over to her, broadcasting as much confidence as he could manage given the unfamiliar situation. “I apologise about yesterday. Can I make it up to you somehow?”

She smiled. “Dinner would be good.”

Like a date? That didn’t sound good at all. That sounded like what his superior had ordered him to do. Marcus squirmed for a few seconds, battling the part of him that said it wouldn’t be so bad to seduce her. She was beautiful and he was finding it increasingly difficult to get dancing Amelia out of his head and his dreams.

“How about dinner at my place?” he said without thinking and the way her face lit up was all the answer he needed. It had been impulsive but it had avoided taking her out to dinner and therefore any sense that this was more than platonic.

He frowned.

Or had he only made it sound more like an offer of sex?

Dinner in his apartment could easily be classified as more intimate than dinner in a restaurant.

“Great. I’ll be over in half an hour.” With that, she opened the door to her apartment and closed it behind her, leaving him standing in the cream hallway trying to figure out what he had offered her.

Perhaps he should call for assistance. He knew one angel in London. Einar was fallen thanks to his forbidden relationship with a female half-demon but that very fact only meant that he was qualified to answer Marcus’s questions.

Marcus opened the door to his own apartment with the intent of calling Einar and interrogating him about women and whether he had just offered something a touch more intimate than anticipated but halted halfway to the telephone. The apartment was a mess.

He had never really paid much attention to his living quarters but it certainly didn’t look like the sort of place a man should invite a woman into. He swapped calling Einar for a quick sweep of his apartment, using his supernatural speed to toss all dirty clothes into the laundry basket in his bathroom, straighten furniture, and clear the dust away before Amelia knocked on his door. If there was any time left on the clock, he would phone his friend for advice, but it wasn’t looking promising. The bathroom was a mess too and so was the kitchen, and she was likely to visit both of those places.

Dinner in a restaurant suddenly looked more appealing.

Marcus stopped dead in the middle of the kitchen, turned on his heel, and gingerly opened the white refrigerator. The only thing in it was some old cheese he hadn’t particularly enjoyed the taste of and a half eaten melon that had seen better days. There was no need to inspect the dark wooden cupboards. He could definitely recall eating the remaining half a box of cereal this morning whilst thinking and the carton was still on his bedside table to prove it.

Someone knocked on the door.

Marcus spun to face the kitchen doorway and looked through it to the entertainment centre in the living room. He glared at the clock on his DVD player. Amelia was ten minutes early. He cursed. No time to correct the food problem or call Einar. He scanned the pale apartment en route to the door and, satisfied that it now appeared far less like the bachelor pad it was, opened it.

His greeting fled his lips the moment he set eyes on her.

She had changed out of the short jacket, t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing in the lift and into a rather alluring little dark red dress that had him clearing his throat and searching for a compliment.

“You look…” What would she like to hear? The expectant shine to her eyes and the tentative smile curving the corners of her glossy cherry lips said that she was hoping to hear beautiful or similar, and he would be a liar if he said anything less. “Stunning.”

Stunning was apt. He certainly felt as though she had clobbered him.

“You don’t look half bad yourself.” She smiled and he went to follow suit but then she held up a bottle in front of her and he froze. “I only had rosé. I know it’s a bit girly but it would’ve been rude to bring nothing.”

He hadn’t really taken in anything she had said whilst he had been staring at his nemesis.

Alcohol.

Of course she would bring alcohol. It was the right response to the situation, wasn’t it? A man invited her to dinner in his apartment. She brought something to make the evening go without a hitch.

He forced a smile and reached out to take it, but she drew it back to her chest, clutching it there and eyeing him closely.

“That’s not a good smile. I’ve seen that smile before,” she said with a small frown and looked down at the bottle. “It’s really all I had but then I guess you’re probably a beer drinker.”

“No.” He snatched the bottle from her, accidentally brushing her cleavage at the same time. Could someone in Heaven reverse the past thirty minutes for him and give him a second chance in which not to make a complete idiot of himself?

The blush on Amelia’s cheeks and the way she was staring at her breasts said it all. He had practically groped her. Considering he had wanted this evening to be little more than just opening up to her and gaining her trust through friendship, he was certainly sending out the wrong sort of signals. Were his superiors in Heaven tampering with him or something? He didn’t feel at all like himself and he was currently on course for gaining her trust the way they wanted.

Still, the feel of her soft breasts beneath his fingers in that flash of a caress had his heart racing and palms sweating. He was a stranger to physical intimacy but had witnessed enough carnal matters as a watcher to know the sordid things humans did. It hadn’t interested him much in the past, but the more he focused on his hand and the area that had brushed her chest and on how beautiful Amelia looked tonight, the more appealing interacting with her physically became.

Cad.

The object of tonight’s mission wasn’t seduction. It was forming the foundations of friendship.

She stared at him, making him heavily aware that he should have said something to explain his reaction rather than drifting off into a fantasy world.

“The wine you have brought is not the problem… and it is most appreciated… but… I just don’t really drink.” He shrugged and hoped she would let it go and not pursue the subject. He wasn’t sure what he would say if she asked him why he didn’t drink. Could he play the role of recovering alcoholic? Would that dampen Amelia’s desire for him?

Marcus wasn’t sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

“Oh.” Her eyebrows rose, bringing her head up with them, and he wished she would stop looking at him in a way that left him feeling emasculated. She nodded a few times and then said, “So you don’t drink coffee and you avoid alcohol. Are you one of those vegan types too?”

“Hell no.” He stepped back, horrified at the suggestion. He could eat a whole cow in one sitting when on Earth. In Heaven, he didn’t have to eat at all, but that certainly didn’t place him in the vegan category. There was nothing wrong with abstaining from certain substances that didn’t agree with your lifestyle choice, but this wasn’t one of those times and he would be happy to prove it to her.

Amelia closed the door behind her and walked into his apartment, casting her gaze over everything and then him, and he felt the challenge in her look. She was trying to figure him out and he didn’t particularly like the tone of her expression.

In a fit of desire to prove himself a man, he strode into the kitchen, unscrewed the cap on the wine and set it down on the counter. Another flaw in his plan produced itself as he searched the dark wooden cupboards for wine glasses but he overcame it by using two short tumblers instead. If anything, rosé wine could only look more manly in such a glass, surely?

He poured two healthy glasses of wine as Amelia approached the open double doors and then held one out to her. She took it without questioning his choice of glass and then raised it towards him.

“Cheers,” she said in a low sexy voice that had his gaze drifting towards her lips so he could watch her drink and then added, “Cheers?”

Marcus realised he was supposed to respond in kind, so raised his glass too. “Cheers.”

“Or bottoms up.” Amelia giggled, turned and walked back into the living room.

Bottoms up.

Marcus’s eyes dropped to her backside. The deep red material of her dress clung to it, emphasising the shape of her bottom in a way that had his blood pounding through his temples again. He took a deep breath and joined her in the living room. Amelia sipped her drink. Marcus stared at his.

Alcohol hadn’t passed his lips in five centuries, not since the one and only time he had dared to drink it and had awoken with a demonic curse scrawled on his back. Back then, it had been a forbidden item. Now, any angel could drink it without castigation.

Marcus had no desire to do such a thing.

He took another deep breath and blew it out, trying to psych himself up. He could feel Amelia’s gaze on him and he hoped she didn’t think he was spacing out again or had noticed his fear of what might happened when he finally took a sip of the wine. Blood whooshed through his ears, drowning out all sound as he stared at the innocent looking pink liquid in the glass. Alcohol released inhibitions. It would be a good way of lowering his guard so he could grow closer to Amelia and gain her trust.

Marcus lifted it to his lips and breathed in, catching the fiery hint of alcohol in its scent, and then continued. The moment it passed his lips, a shiver raced down his spine and along his arms, and heat followed it down his throat.

The effect was instantaneous. He had spent the whole day thinking over his mission and had ignored his body’s cries for nourishment, leaving him ravenous and his stomach empty. The wine rocketed straight to his head, sending it spinning, and a second sip only made the situation worse, lessening his control over his body.

His eyes widened in alarm when his wings pushed for freedom and he concentrated hard in an attempt to contain them and stop them from tearing through his navy shirt.

“I’ll be just a minute.” He rushed into the bathroom, slammed the door, and turned to face the white vanity unit and the large rectangular mirror above it on the wall.

Marcus set his glass down and fumbled with it, almost knocking his wine down the sink, and then turned the cold tap on so fast that he had to dash to his right to avoid the spray of water that bounced off the porcelain, threatening to douse his crotch. With a grimace, he turned the tap down to a steady flow and splashed the water on his face. His wings pushed again and he ached with the desire to strip off his shirt and unleash them for a moment, to surrender to his desire to beat them and shed his mortal appearance.

He couldn’t.

Not only could Amelia end up seeing them, ruining any chance of gaining her trust, but he might not want to put them away again. He couldn’t spend the whole evening in the bathroom.

His stomach growled and he pressed his damp hand against it.

If tonight was going to be anything near to a success, he needed to eat and soon, but there was nothing in his apartment. He had promised Amelia dinner. Even if she was kind enough to offer her own groceries, he wouldn’t know how to cook her anything. He had never used a stove for anything other than warming basic foodstuffs, such as soup and other items that came in neat little cans with clear instructions on the labels.

This whole plan was ridiculously flawed.

His head turned again and he reached for his wine, taking a greedy gulp of it in the hope that it would dull his senses enough that his wings would relent and he would forget his desire to fly off somewhere.

With Amelia.

That was a thought.

He looked into the mirror at the reflection of the white door behind him. Water dripped from the tip of his nose and rolled off his jaw. His heavy breathing filled the silence.

How would a human react to the sight of his wings and the knowledge that angels existed? If she knew what he was, he wouldn’t be deceiving her and there was a chance that he could convince her that his reason for being here was to protect her. Would that gain her trust?

He laughed at himself.

Any sane mortal would run a mile if they saw an angel.

She would never trust him.

“Are you feeling alright?” The sound of her voice, soft through the door, roused a different sort of hunger in him. He stared at the door, picturing her on the other side, how concerned she would look and how that caring edge to her expression would only add to her beauty.

If forced, could he seduce her?

Could it be called deception if he wanted her too?

It wasn’t going to happen.

Marcus dried his face on a hand towel, opened the door and smiled at her. “Never better.”

She gave him a hesitant and unconvinced smile in return, and looked past him at the bathroom, her eyebrows raised high. What was she looking for? It dawned on him that she thought the wine had made him sick. He could laugh at that. The one time he had turned to drink, it had taken close to a barrel of mead to render him unconscious, and even then he hadn’t thrown up.

He picked up his glass of wine, sipped it again to prove that he could handle it, and then smiled at her. Crimson spread across her cheeks, a delightful rosy tint that his smile had caused, and she held her own glass up, revealing that it was already empty.

Marcus took it from her and went into the kitchen to top it up. He took another swig from his own glass to give himself a little Dutch courage and then filled it too. When he walked back into the living room, Amelia was perched on the arm of his pale couch, her slender legs crossed at the knee, smiling at him. A different urge struck him, one that would definitely give her the impression that he was out to seduce her should she notice the effect it had on him.

He handed her the glass and stood in a way that wouldn’t reveal the growing bulge in his jeans, waiting for it to pass.

Amelia toyed with the glass, delicately running her right index finger around the rim, mesmerising him and filling his head with images of her stroking him in such a fashion. She looked up at him. “So what are we eating?”

Marcus grinned. “About that… you see… I don’t actually have any food that is edible and even if I did, I am not a good cook.”

The expression that settled on her face looked decidedly like relief.

“Something I said?”

A smile teased her lips. “I half expected you to be this incredible cook and to show me up. I’m atrocious.”

Marcus felt her relief sweep through him too and remembered how often she ate take away food. His gaze dropped to the bare slip of a dress she wore. Take out didn’t look bad on her. She had to work out more often than he knew. He had watched her jogging around Hyde Park before and had even jogged there once or twice himself before giving up the pretence and flying above her instead, invisible to mortal eyes.

“How does Chinese food suit you?” She took another sip of her wine before picking up the black cordless phone from the coffee table. “I know a great place that delivers.”

Marcus nodded in approval and then listened as she recited what sounded like the entire menu. He didn’t care what he ate as long as it got here fast and gave him some defence against the wine so he let her order some of her favourite dishes for them to share.

He paid for the food when it arrived twenty minutes later and Amelia helped him arrange the dishes on the long wooden coffee table between the sofa and the entertainment centre in the corner of the room. While he went to top up their drinks and get some plates and cutlery, she found a movie in the small collection of DVDs he had acquired in his short time on Earth, and put it into the player.

It felt far too much like a date as he sat beside her on the couch. He wasn’t sure what a date felt like, but in all the movies he had watched on Earth and couples he had observed during his time in Heaven, this sort of thing was frequently classified as one. Dinner. Movie. Wine. Man and a woman. Date.

Marcus finished off the remains of his food and leaned back into the corner of the couch, bringing his wine with him. He crossed his legs and stretched his right arm out along the back of the sofa, settling his hand close to Amelia, and rested the bottom of his glass on his knee. He paid little attention to the movie playing on the large flat screen television. Amelia held it too firmly, keeping his eyes locked on her face as she laughed, oblivious to his watching her. She was beautiful, and it wasn’t the wine talking.

A pure soul, full of kindness and warmth. Her internal beauty shone through, enhancing her external looks and leading him to wonder how such a pretty woman could fall for such disgusting men. She couldn’t see the damage to their souls, so it was understandable that she would occasionally fall for males who were beneath her, but to always find the bad seed amongst the many decent men in the world? He had at least expected her to get rid of them the moment she realised they were no good for her, but she persevered, attempting to change their ways, as though she hoped that she could make them into a good man if she tried hard enough.

Impossible.

Men were resistant to change.

As were angels.

Amelia looked at him over her shoulder, her laughter dying away when she caught his gaze and her expression turning serious.

“Do I have something on my face?” she said with a hint of a smile and a blush.

Marcus wanted to say that she did and use the excuse to reach across and sweep the backs of his fingers across her cheek. He wanted to see if his touch could affect her with the same intensity that hers affected him. He shook his head instead, expecting her to go back to watching the movie. She didn’t.

She turned and leaned over him, kneeling on the couch seat, and pressed her hand against his chest.

Marcus stared at her mouth, everything good in him screaming to break away and stop her. He didn’t. He stayed stock still and let it happen.

His first kiss in this lifetime was a tentative sweep of soft lips over his followed by the press of her body into his. The feel of her against him sent a flood of feelings surging through him, setting his blood aflame with desire and the need to clutch her to him and possess her. It overwhelmed him and his restraint, crushing the good part that was still struggling to resist, and while he stopped himself from sliding his arm around her back and pulling the full length of her body flush against his, he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her.

She moaned softly when he responded, grazing his lips against hers in a gentle caress that fanned the flames within him until he burned for her and for more. Her tongue brushed along the seam of his mouth and he brought his to meet it, tangling softly and luring it into his mouth where they danced. He couldn’t remember kissing in his past lifetime but he certainly would have if it had felt like this. Warmth suffused him right down to his bones and every breathy little moan he elicited from Amelia turned the heat up another notch, until he was close to grabbing the nape of her neck and holding her mouth against his.

He breathed hard when she broke away to kneel on the sofa in front of him, her grey eyes wide and hand coming up to cover her mouth. She touched her lips, drawing his hungry gaze there, and he was ravenous all over again, starving for the sweet taste of her on his tongue.

“Shit… I’m sorry,” she said, instantly deflating his desire, and scrambled from the couch.

She was leaving?

Not good.

Marcus was off the sofa and had his hand locked around her wrist before she could reach the door.

“Wait,” he said and wasn’t sure what to do when she looked back at him so he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again.

And damn she tasted just as good as she had the first time.

And damn he needed more.

She moaned when he backed her into the wall beside the door, pressing the hard length of his body against hers, and grabbed his shoulders. For a moment, he thought she would push him away, and then she dragged him closer still and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her fingers into his hair.

Part of him was vaguely aware that alcohol was responsible for his current situation and that he was going to regret it come the morning but the rest of him didn’t care. He had wanted to release his inhibitions and he had. He just hadn’t expected that this would be the result, and right now he didn’t care that he was on the verge of doing exactly as his superior had ordered.

All he cared about was satisfying his hunger to taste Amelia.

The part of him that was chanting about deception wouldn’t shut up and the more he listened to it, the more he felt like a demon.

Marcus stepped back, leaving Amelia sagged against the wall, panting so hard that her breasts rose and fell with each breath, presenting him with a glorious view that had him reconsidering what he was about to say.

She slowly opened her grey eyes and smiled shyly before raking her gaze over him. It lingered on his groin and her eyes widened, pupils dilating until her irises turned dark with desire. There was a wicked edge to her eyes when they met his again and she inclined her head, her pouty come hither look almost luring him in. Desire wasn’t the only thing written plainly across her face. There was expectation there too, and that alone pushed him into saying what he needed to.

“I think this is a bad idea.”

Her sultry temptress look immediately dissipated, leaving the Amelia he was familiar with standing before him.

“You really don’t like me,” she whispered and the hurt in her heart beat within his.

He wasn’t saying anything of the sort. But what could he tell her? He was halfway to drunk and not only did he need to get his head on straight so he was certain that he wasn’t doing this because he was subconsciously following orders but he was hardly going to produce the stellar performance she expected of him.

He had been celibate this entire lifetime.

And he was damned if his first time was going to be under orders.

If something was going to happen between them, it was going to happen naturally. He wasn’t going to seduce her and use her feelings against her.

“I do… but… I think the wine has gone to my head and I think it might have gone to yours too.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” She glanced at the empty bottle and his half-full glass on the table.

“It is.” Marcus ventured a step towards her and brushed the backs of his fingers against her cheek, sweeping her straight dark hair from her face. Her skin was as smooth as he had imagined it would be and the way she closed her eyes, slowly inhaling at the same time, empowered him. He opened his hand and cupped her face, resting his fingers along her jaw and bringing his thumb close to her mouth. Such soft lips. He wanted to dip his head and kiss her again but he wasn’t sure he would be able to stop at just kissing if he did. “It is all a little quick and I don’t want you waking tomorrow feeling like crap because of what we did tonight.”

“I doubt I would feel crappy.” There it was again. Blatant expectation. Why? Because he was handsome to her? That instantly made him Casanova?

No pressure then.

“Amelia… how about we take it slow and steady?”

Her eyes lit up and he realised there could be another meaning in his words but he didn’t bother to correct her because he wasn’t about to let things get that far. His final task was coming. Everything that had happened tonight would satisfy his superior and his orders to gain her trust. He would date her a few times, keeping a suitable distance, and once his mission was over he would leave.

She nodded, tiptoed and kissed him.

Resisting was impossible.

He swept his lips over hers, tasting her again and savouring this brief contact between them. When she broke away this time, he led her back to the couch and settled there with her, his thoughts weighing him down. He watched her again, fascinated by the amusement she got from the movie and how she curled up next to him, her bare knees brushing his thigh. A deep ache to slide his arm around her shoulders and draw her closer still beat in his bones but he resisted.

He couldn’t use her feelings against her.

Not when he was starting to feel something for her too.

Available in e-book from:
Author’s website: http://www.felicityheaton.com/ebooks.php?title=Her%20Guardian%20Angel
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005EUJIG8/
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Amazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005EUJIG8/
Kobo Books: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Her-Guardian-Angel-Her-Angel/book-lVb0k7lC80OOiMBAOa-Ldg/page1.html
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and the Apple iBookstore

Available in paperback from:
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463788363/

I hope you’ve enjoyed these five free chapters and that you’ll purchase Her Guardian Angel, and perhaps others in the Her Angel series, and tell your friends about it if you enjoy the stories.

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