Chapter 2
The man gathered me into arms that were gentle yet held no warmth. His breath ghosted over my throat. Then he sank his fangs deep.
Sharp points pierced tender flesh. The copper scent of blood bloomed between us.
A dark, heady vertigo swept through me, sending me floating toward ecstasy.
My vision fractured. I wondered if I was dreaming, if I might wake in my old bedroom at any moment.
Just as oblivion rose to claim me, he withdrew.
His chilled lips lifted from my neck. Hunger smoldered in his crimson eyes, barely leashed. "You are exquisite. I am Vincent Thorne. Your name?"
Through the haze, I whispered, "Tina. Tina Reed."
That evening, Bob from next door brought me home.
He'd been up in the hills looking for his lost dog when he spotted me at the trailhead, unconscious, my face drained of all color, a corpse in all but name.
My parents were frantic. They rushed me to the hospital; the doctors called it mild anemia. The next morning, my mom set a rare steak before me, the center still cold and bloody.
I picked at it, my thoughts drifting elsewhere.
Would that gorgeous monster honor his bargain and deliver the gold?
My fork scraped the plate, the sharp sound snapping me back. Catherine was watching me with a strange, unreadable look.
Something inside me whispered, "Tell no one. Keep him secret."
Was it a premonition? Instinct?
I heeded the warning, locking the truth of that day inside my bones.
Rather than sitting around like a fool waiting for Vincent to come calling with his fortune, I poured my hours into firing off resumes to every local company with a Help Wanted sign.
More than once, I convinced myself I'd dreamed the whole thing. My neck was smooth and flawless, not a mark. Yet the memory of his fangs piercing my flesh remained vivid, inescapably real.
I shook my head hard, trying to banish the foolish girlhood fantasies from my mind.
The three days passed in a blur.
On the evening of the fourth day, I sat hunched over my laptop in pajamas, my hair a wild tangle, sending out applications to the last few employers still hiring.
Then my mom knocked on my door. "Tina, come to the living room."
My heart lurched.
I dropped the mouse, threw on a black dress, and scraped my hair into a ponytail.
When I entered the living room, my parents and Catherine were all there.
Sitting across from them was a young man in a sharp suit. It was Vincent, the very vampire who'd bitten me that day.
He winked, slow and deliberate, then snapped open the suitcase beside him. Gold bars gleamed inside, stacked and blinding.
I froze.
Vincent smiled. "Tina, I fell for you the moment I saw you. Marry me."
My head spun with exhilaration. I said yes before sense could catch up.
My parents feared I had fallen for a con artist. They grilled Vincent for hourst.
Vincent claimed to be the last heir to an ancient aristocratic bloodline, his family's empire spanning the globe, filthy rich, with ancestral castles and vast estates scattered across the Old World.
Our bond, he said, began on that hike.
He lied that I saved him from a cliff's edge, that my courage stole his breath, that this life debt compelled him to pledge himself to me. Hence, the case of gold. Hence, his earnest proposal at our door.
By coincidence, my dad's business hit a rough patch.
Vincent calmed my dad's nerves with a blank check. I became Vincent's bride soon after.
On my wedding day, Catherine trailed beside me, sullen. She looked at me in my gown, and her eyes suddenly reddened. "If you marry him, will you stop coming home?"
My heart twisted.