Blood Rites: (Royal Blood #3) (13 page)

“I know it’s much too fast,” he went on, “I
know you’re afraid, but I’m a man who knows what he wants. I don’t
fuck around.”

The last statement I understood completely.
He'd been relentless in pursuing me, but I'd made it easy for him.
I'd wanted him from the beginning, even though the thought of us
together had had me flushing.

But I wasn’t sure what the
right thing to say was. Should I tell him that I felt exactly the
same way, even though I felt like he was keeping a bucketload of
secrets from me? Sometimes you just
knew
things and what I knew was that I wanted Sebastian
Vaughn, darkness, game, bullshit or not. What I didn't know, was if
I could put up with it.

“Lorelei, say something,” he said, his
expression full of panic.

A smile pulled at my lips as my
heart overrode my head and I raised my hand to cup his strong jaw
in my palm. I ran my thumb along his stubble and his eyes closed,
my skin tingling all the way down my arm.

“You don’t need to play games with me,” I
whispered and he opened his eyes to gaze at me.

“I’m not.” He was so sincere about it.

I smiled again.

“Lorelei, you don’t understand.”

“Then tell me,” I whispered.

His expression was laced with pain and my
smile began to fade. He opened his mouth and closed it again,
obviously having trouble finding the right words.

My heart began to twist.
“
Vaughn
.”

He sighed, his breath shaky.

“Just let it out,” I coaxed, my voice low.
“Open up the wound and let me stitch it back up.”

His gaze met mine. “I'm a bad man,
Lorelei.”

I let my hand drop.

“
I've lied, cheated, committed
crimes, ruined lives... I never cared... until you.” His blue eyes
searched mine, my heart was thundering so loud I wondered if he
could hear it. “I've murdered men.” I began to shake, my skin
feeling clammy as the truth began to slam into me. “Can you stitch
that back up?”

I glanced away, my throat
tightening.
Murder
? What did I know of these things? It was bad, so fucking
bad. I should run as fast as I could go and find my father, call
the police.
Run away to daddy
…

“There’s a man…” Vaughn went on. “A very bad
man… He was at the party… He saw the photographs in the paper…”

“The phone call this morning?” I asked
quietly.

Vaughn nodded. “He threatened me.”

I jerked backwards. They’d threatened him…by
threatening my life. “Tell me it isn’t true…”

“I’m so sorry.”

“He—”

“
I’ll protect
you Lorelei. Until it’s over… Whatever it takes, consider it done.”
He was getting desperate. He was trying to hold onto me with all he
had. What did that mean? Did he
love
me?

I thought about the past two
weeks and the feelings that Vaughn had stirred up in me. Feelings
that I’d never felt in my entire life. I was consumed, overwrought,
obliterated and alive, all in the same breath. Had it only been
days since I’d met him on the street? It felt like an eternity and
my heart had already made up its mind in the limousine last
night.

He was here before me right now, laying his
deepest darkest secrets at my feet, pleading for forgiveness,
knowing that I had everything I needed to destroy him. He’d given
me all his power and his heart. Now, the decision was up to me. My
life might be in the wind, but I held his in my hands.

I never believed it, I always thought it was
the stuff of fairy tales, myth and legend, stories to give women
hope that there was someone out there for them. Vaughn and I…well,
it was love at first sight.

The thought of standing beside him, of us
owning one another…it had such a profound hold on me that I wasn’t
sure which way was up. Criminal espionage… him and I. Could I do
it?

“
Vaughn,” I began, my entire
being attuned to his. “I understand why you didn’t tell me. This
has happened so fast…” I drew in a deep breath, my throat aching. I
felt like crying, but I wasn’t sure what the tears were for. “This
is so fucked up.”

“
If they get a
hold of you…” he began desperately, but I reached over and placed
my fingers over his lips. What I was about to tell him might be
rash, but it was the truth. I felt it
everywhere
. Sincerely, without a
doubt.

“I don’t care,” I murmured. Because I
didn’t.

His hand curled around my wrist, pulling
mine away from his mouth. “Lorelei, you don’t understand. This
isn’t a game. They will use you to get to me. They will do horrible
things…”

“You’ll protect me.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.” It was a vow. I
heard it in his voice, I saw it in his eyes and I believed him
without a single doubt.

I shifted closer to him, so we
were touching from shoulder to hip and hip to knee. “You have to
promise me that when this is over, that you’ll tell me anything I
want to know. If I stay with you, I have to know everything. No
matter how bad. There can’t be any secrets between us.
None.”

“Anything for you,” he said with a sigh. “I
still don’t understand it, I’m not sure if it’s right…”

“Love?” I asked, resting my forehead against
his.

His gaze met mine. “Yes.”

I sucked my bottom lip into my mouth and let
my gaze wander across his face, memorizing his features. “Yes,” I
replied.

I loved him. It was that simple
and in time, after this threat was eliminated, he would be able to
say it back.

“I need to go home,” I said. “I need to get
some things… I want to go to work.”

Vaughn opened his mouth to complain, but I
pulled away and shook my head. “I won’t let some asshole dictate my
life and make me live in fear. I’ll hire a bodyguard to watch over
me.”

“Fuck that,” Vaughn said and I frowned at
his vulgar mouth. “Hawkes will stay with you. I trust him with my
life. I can’t trust an unknown.”

I nodded and went to rise. “I won’t be
long…”

Vaughn pulled me back to his side and I fell
onto the mattress again. “Stay with me tonight and worry about it
tomorrow,” he pleaded.

Curling my hand into his, I acquiesced.
“Tomorrow, then.”

He sighed and pulled me against him, his
lips meeting mine. “You’re precious to me, Lorelei Lansford,” he
murmured against my mouth. “I’ll protect you with my life.”

And as we kissed, I found myself forgiving
him for everything. People said that love was blinding, but I never
realized how much until I was smack bang in the middle of an epic
love affair with a billionaire with a criminal double life.

Romeo and Juliet had nothing on Vaughn.

Fifteen

Lorelei

I’d never really slept next to anyone
before.

There were the times where I’d
stayed over with various boyfriends, or they’d slept the night at
my place, but I’d always toss and turn all night and it wasn’t
because of any naughty business going on. It never felt right
having someone in my bed and yet here I was, in Vaughn’s bed for
the second night running and I’d slept like a baby.

Stretching my limbs out like a cat, I
smiled, warmth spreading through my body. Turning, I took in
Vaughn’s sleeping form. He was sound asleep, his expression soft
and boyish, lips parted. I thought of the dark things he’d
confessed to me yesterday and they did not match the man who slept
next to me one iota.

I wanted to ask him so many things. I wanted
to know everything about him and then some. I wasn’t sure what I
wanted to find out, if he felt remorse for the things he’d done, if
he wanted to change or if this, who he was, was it. There was a
point where people grew and just stopped, right? Where you became
who you were meant to be and never changed again. If this was who
Vaughn was for the rest of his life, did I want to give myself to
him regardless?

Sighing, I memorized his features, taking
the chance to study him while he was so vulnerable. I guess I had
to stick around a while and find out the answer to that bleeding
question. At least until the threat against us was dealt with.

Sliding out of bed, I tingled
as I remembered the unbelievable sex we’d had right before falling
asleep in a mess of limbs.
Insatiable
. What had he called me?
Greedy
. I guess I was.

He hadn’t stirred, so I tiptoed
across the bedroom and slipped into the ensuite bathroom. It was
exhilarating being on my own in his house, to have a chance to see
his things. How a man kept his home said a lot about him, or so
said Bex.
Bex
,
who I hadn’t thought about since Friday. How would she take all of
this? How would she take Hawkes hanging around the gallery? Bloody
hell, it was going to be a nightmare, that’s what. I shook my head.
That was an interrogation for later.

Vaughn’s bathroom was nice.
When I said nice, I meant it looked like it was right out of the
pages of a posh design magazine. The walls were all white marble
with a feature, behind the shower, of black hexagonal tiles and
sleek matte black tapware. A modern double basin sat below a large
mirror set into the wall behind, and bright but soft lighting
mingled with the early morning sunshine streaming in from the
window above the bath. A woman could fall in love with this
bathroom.

My toes curled, the underfloor heating
warming them up as I wandered into the large double shower. Yeah,
he definitely gained points for the bathroom design.

I turned on the taps and waited for the
water to warm before stepping in. Picking up a bottle of bodywash
from the inset shelf, I flipped the lid open and inhaled.

Mmm
…it smelt like Vaughn. Spicy, musky
and clean…I could deal with having him on my skin all day. I
squirted some into my palm and began lathering it across my
breasts.

“Here, allow me.”

I gasped as I felt Vaughn’s hands glide over
my waist and trail upwards. He pulled me back against his chest,
massaging the soap into my skin, paying extra special attention to
my nipples.

I sighed, leaning into him,
feeling his
entire
length against mine.

“Morning,” he murmured, before licking at my
neck.

“
Good
morning,” I
replied, raising my hands to pull his face toward
mine.

His eyes sparkled, a boyish grin on his
lips. “It is.”

“You have a nice bathroom,” I said.

“You like it?”

“Yeah.”

“I like you in it.” He smiled. “Naked.” His
lips pressed against mine, kissing me softly at first, but as my
tongue darted out to tease his, he turned me in his arms and held
me tightly, clutching my body with an unbearable passion.

I lost myself in him, our kiss deepening,
our embrace tightening, the scent of his bodywash filling my
senses. He edged me backward and the moment the water from the
shower drenched my head, I pulled away with a squeal, laughter on
my lips.

“
Vaughn
!”

“Such a fucking beautiful sound,” he
murmured, trailing his fingertips across my cheek. “You’re
beautiful when you smile.” His expression began to change and I
wondered what he was thinking. There were a lot of things I should
be worried about, but wet hair was not on the list.

My smile faded, and for a
moment, I had forgotten the trouble he’d landed me in. For a split
second, it had just been us and it had felt wonderful, carefree…two
fools in love.

As if he sensed my mood was souring, he
pressed his lips against mine again, his hands cupping my ass. I
felt his hardness against my lower belly and moved against him, my
tongue twining with his.

Everything was so fucked up.
I’d changed so much in such a short amount of time, it was
alarming. Was it for the better, or was it taking me down a dark
path without any safe return? Did I even want to come back?
Straight-laced and demure Lorelei Lansford, shacking up with a
criminal mastermind…who’d have thought it?

“I want you,” Vaughn murmured against my
swollen lips.

“I can feel that.”

“I can’t in the shower…unless…”

I knew what he was getting at, he had no
protection and the idea of taking him bare certainly didn’t flip
all my switches, but there was something I hadn’t done for him yet.
Now seemed like the perfect time to try.

“Well,” I murmured, placing a kiss on his
chest, “it’s about time I treated you to something special.”

His eyes widened slightly as I
lowered myself to my knees, kissing his skin as I went.
Yes,
Vaughn
, I
thought.
It’s your lucky day
.

His cock was fully erect,
waiting for me to do what I willed and I kissed the underside, my
gaze darting up to meet his. His eyes were hooded, lips parted.
Clasping my hands on his thighs, I bared my tongue and licked him
from root to tip then clamped my lips around his crown. Vaughn
moaned, his hands finding my hair and twining into my wet
locks.

I sucked, swirling my tongue,
tasting, my own body aching. I hated giving head to a guy, I hated
it so much I always tried to avoid it with past boyfriends, but I
found myself lowering over Vaughn, taking him as deep as I could
and
delighting in it
.

I moved back up, rasping my tongue against
his heated skin as I went, my fingernails biting into his thighs.
His hands began to guide me up and down his shaft, his breathing
ragged.