Mitch (13 page)

“Oh my...I’m embarrassed now. That goes to
the warehouse.” She asked him what warehouse. “Mine. Well, yours I guess. It
was part of the house when I sold it to you. A building and some...well, this
will look like nothing in comparison.”

“A warehouse. I own...do you think someone
might have told me this?” Luther grinned at her and said he had. “When? I think
I would have remembered someone telling me I own a warehouse full of stuff.”

“I think it was discussed the day you came to
the house with your mother. You and she were arguing about your father and aunt,
I believe. She asked me where the key was to the warehouse, and I told her that
I’d have to find it.” He shrugged. “I think I might have met the sun a few days
later. It was a very hard time for me, you see. And once the house was sold, I
simply joined my lovely missus.”

As he moved away and then faded out, Vinnie
made her way to her office. There was some mention of the warehouse there, she thought,
and she wanted to see just what it said. She knew wording in contracts could be
either damning or helpful.

As soon as she pulled out the deed to the
house, she read the part where she not only owned the house and the said
warehouse, but she also owned the contents. To do with, it said, as she pleased,
as they were part and parcel of the house. She looked up when the door opened. Mitch
was standing there looking like a man on a mission.

“We own a warehouse. Did you know that?” He
told her that he didn’t but was glad for them. “Why? Oh, to store this stuff in,
I guess you’re thinking. Well, that might not work out so well either.
Apparently it’s full. From top to bottom, and somewhere along the line someone
has even gone so far as to purchase the buildings next to it on either side. We
have three such places.”

“And the plans to open the antique shop, you
think that might be a possibility now?” Vinnie told him she thought it might
be. “And the things down there, do you have plans for all of it? There are
things in there that some museums would love to have if we don’t find a need
for them.”

“If you’d like. The house and everything else
I owned before you is now yours as well. If we decide to donate some of the
things or sell them, we make that decision together.” He nodded and still stood
near the door. “Are you coming in or leaving again?”

“I’d very much like to come in you.” Her body
heated immediately. “However, there is something that I’d like to talk to you
about first. I found something in the vault in the sublevels and I asked Luther
about it. He told me a very wonderful story. Would you like to hear it?”

“Yes.” Her voice sounded hoarse and a little dark.
Clearing her throat, she moved her chair back to regard him. “What is it you
found?”

“When he and his lovely wife were first
together—about four hundred years or so ago, he thought—they were in the south
of France visiting a friend of theirs, and he showed them his collection. One
part of his collection was a jewelry box filled with things he’d picked up at
an estate auction. I guess back then, they had them for families that didn’t
have the funds to pay for some funeral expenses or a trip.” Nodding, she said
she’d done the same thing, picked things up. “The man’s name wasn’t important,
I guess, because Luther couldn’t recall it. But he did tell me about one piece
in particular.”

As he made his way to her, she felt her body
heat up more. Whatever he had, she knew it was going to be epic. Her mind was
running a mile a minute and kept getting sidetracked watching him move. When he
was standing next to her, she reached out and ran her fingers down his erection
outlined in his jeans.

“You said you wanted to come inside of me.”
He nodded and dropped to his knees. As he spread her legs wide and moved
between them, Vinnie moaned. “This is good. I can almost feel your tongue now.”

He took her left hand into his and kissed her
palm before sucking each finger into his mouth and then moving to the next one.
The longer he suckled at her hand and fingers, the wetter she got. Curling his
hand at the back of her head, he pulled her to him and kissed her like he never
had before.

It was consuming and giving. Heartbreakingly
soft and warm. His breath moved along her cheeks as he lifted his head, and then
he sucked her lower lip into his mouth and bit her. Vinnie felt her inner beast
move along her skin, her need was so high. But instead of taking her, which she
thought he was going to do, he took her hand into his again and slipped a ring
on her finger.

“Victoria Alexandra Millicent Graham, would
you marry me? Would you keep me safe and love me? Every day will you wake up beside
me, lay down by me, and love me? Have children with me, grow older with me? Will
you, Vinnie Graham, be my wife for the rest of our days together?”

She looked at the ring that was at her second
knuckle. The band was wide, almost half an inch wide, and a gold so brilliantly
bright it hurt the eyes. When he rolled it around so she could see the set on
it, Vinnie cried, covering her mouth with her other hand.

“It’s a Medici. I met him once, Jean-Baptiste
Mellerio.” The ring...words could not begin to describe the sheer beauty of the
ring. “There is a shop, Mellerio dits Meller, in France still. Where they first
came to that country. He made jewelry for kings and queens. Wherever did he get
this?”

“He said he picked it up from his friend, who
would never tell him where he’d actually gotten it. It looks as if it was made
just for you.” She lifted her hand so that the ruby and diamond could catch the
light. “I love you, Vinnie. Will you marry me?”

“Yes.” She grinned at him. “But didn’t you
say something about coming inside of me? I think that would be a good way to
seal the deal.”

“Take off your clothing for me. Then I want
you to get up on the desk so that I can drink my fill of you first.” She did as
he asked, standing up and started to unbutton her blouse while he pulled his
shirt over his head. “I’m going to enjoy this. Eating you while you’re spread
out on this desk. Taking my time with you so that I can feel you come every
time you do. Taste you, the cream that you have when you’re aroused or coming.
It’s more than a man like me could have ever hoped for. And you love me too.”

As soon as she was naked, she sat down on the
edge of the desk and lifted her legs up so that they rested on the arms of the
chair he was now sitting in. His cock was hard, straining away from the dark
thick curls at his groin. Curling her toes around his thick shaft, she moved up
and down him as he rocked upward. When he asked her to lean back, she did so
without hesitation. She needed him to make her come.

She knew she was wet. Her pussy had been
dripping since he’d walked into the room. But when he pulled her nether lips apart
and blew gently over her clit, she cried out at the enormity of feelings that
washed over her. When he suckled at her clit, much like he did at her nipples,
she knew she was going to come quickly and hard.

When his fingers entered her, touching off
several climaxes at once, she begged him to give it all to her. But he took his
time now, sucking at her clit, slowly fucking her with his fingers. As she
tried to get more from him, riding his mouth as much as she could, Vinnie
cupped her breasts and tugged hard at her nipples.

“You should see you the way I am right now.”
He fucked her harder with his fingers as he watched her, his tongue flicking
over her clit just enough to give her a little climax each time. “You’re
swollen here, your lips are so delicious with your cream. The thought of being
able to drink from you any time I want makes my cock hurt to empty in you.”

“Please. Fuck me, Mitch. I want to feel your
cock inside of me.” He laughed, and she nearly snarled at him when he sucked
her clit again, this time biting down just enough to bring her up off the
table. As he pushed her back down, she sobbed, begged him to finish her. And
when he stood up, she nearly came just from looking at him.

It had cost him to eat her this way, teasing
her the way he had. His body was covered in a sheen of sweat; the small triangle
of hair on his chest was matted now and she wanted to lick him. Sitting up, she
took his nipple into her mouth and bit down, using her fangs to draw enough blood
that she could nurse from him this way.

“Christ, yes.” He held her to him, his hips
rocking back and forth as if he were fucking her now, barely touching her,
teasing her so that she was in pain as well. Wrapping her hand around him, she
leaned down and took just his crown into her mouth and wrapped her tongue around
him. The precum at the tip was as good as anything she’d ever tasted. “You keep
that up, and I’m going to come down your throat and not your pussy.”

She rolled his balls in her hands as he fucked
her mouth harder now, nearly gagging her. When she swallowed, he cried out and
she could feel his hot cum sliding down her throat. Then she was on her back
and he was standing over her.

“You’re making me crazy.” His cock filled
her, slamming so hard into her that he moved both her and the desk. Pulling
back, he plowed into her again and again as he stood over her. His hands dug deep
into her hips as he took her. He leaned over her, his mouth an inch from hers, and
she nearly came when he told her to open her vein. “I need to taste you like
this, when you come for me.”

Tearing at her throat, she screamed out her
release as soon as he took his first mouthful of her blood. She found his
beating pulse with her tongue as she tilted his head for her bite and then bit
down hard. As soon as he cried out he was coming again, she let herself go, let
her own release take her away. He fell atop her. Vinnie knew then that if the
sun were to come up right now, she’d be dead and would die a very happy
vampire.

Chapter 9

“All we have to do is wait for them to come
out of the house and get enough away from it that we can nab her.” Amber
nodded. It was the fourth time he’d told her what their plan was. She didn’t
even bother telling him for the tenth time that this was a stupid plan. First
of all, she was just one person to take down her daughter; and secondly, every
time she asked about what she was to do about the man should he be with her,
and he said he had it worked out. But nothing was ever forthcoming about what
he had worked out.

“As soon as she is clear, you—”

“Stop telling me what to do.” He took a step
back from her anger, and she felt good. But it was short lived. When he hit her
with his fist, it first made her sick, but she knew that he’d left something
behind when he’d touched her.

The slime, as she’d been calling it, had started
yesterday evening. She was in her slumber, her casket closed up and the room
dark as night, when she heard something in the room with her. Using a little of
her power to turn on the lights, she stared at the thing in front of her and
realized with a sudden jolt to the system that he was her mate. And that he was
falling apart.

“What has happened to you?” He asked her what
she meant, and then he walked in front of her mirror. Of course, there was
nothing reflecting back at him, but she got up to go near him. Not to touch him
but to get a better view. “Your skin, it’s melting. Like...I don’t know, like
you’ve been turned into a candle and you’re falling apart with the heat.”

His hands touched his face, and she watched
in horror as his fingers entered his flesh and moved it around like mud after a
rainstorm. Amber had to turn away or be sick. She’d never thrown up in her life
that she knew of, and she wasn’t about to do it now.

“You’re going to fuck this up.” Amber turned
to him now, shielding her mind at how badly he was looking as the night wore
on. He’d told her he felt no different than he had before, but she could see
it. He was going to be a puddle soon, and she’d be left all alone.

“I’m not going to mess it up. And I really
hate that word. Use something else.” He laughed at her. That was another thing
she hated, when he laughed at her. “I’m to stop the car when it gets to this
point, and then I’m going to try and see my daughter. If she’ll see me. Which I
doubt. She’s not returned any of my calls for days now. And even when I try to
contact her, she’s blocked me. It’s like hitting a hard solid wall of
nothingness. I don’t know how this is going to work either.”

“If you make this look good, then she’ll stop
for you.” When she asked him what he meant by that, he only told her to do it.
The man’s lack of help in this was going to make her stake him. If she even
could. “Have you heard from my sister?”

“Millicent?” He asked her what other sister
he’d be talking about. “I don’t know, Horatio, maybe you have in your head that
she and I have luncheons together if we could, or we’re the best of friends. Or
perhaps you’ve mistaken me for given one bit of concern for the woman who hates
me as much as I do her.”

“Then I will take that as a no. I wonder
where she’s off to. I know she wants in this house as much as we do.” She asked
him why he’d think that. “Well, she sure has been asking me a lot of questions
about what we’re going to be doing once we were inside.”

“She asked me too.” He nodded, but Amber
thought that perhaps Millicent had another plan in place. “Do you think she
means to kill me off once we’re inside?”

“And why would we do that? You’re the only
one that is alive enough to move things around for us. We need you to sell off
the stuff for the cash.” Well, she thought, that hurt. “And who will help us
kill Victoria once we’re in the house? You have to do it, Amber. You’re the
only one that can.”

The car coming down the drive kept her from
replying. There was plenty to say too. Why was she doing all the work? What
were they going to do with all these riches once they got them? Who was she
supposed to contact to sell them? Things like that were questions she’d been
asking Horrie for days now, and all she ever got in response was that he had it
under control.

“What does that say on it?” The van, a big
white one with lettering on the side, zoomed past her before she could step out
to get it to slow. There wasn’t even time for her to see who was driving the
thing, much less try to get inside of it to get her daughter. “Did you read
what that said?”

“Yeah.” She turned to Horrie to tell him what
it said. “It’s an appraiser. What do you suppose she wants one of them for,
unless she’s found your treasure? You think that’s it?”

Amber looked up at the big house, and her
anger doubled at her daughter, and her envy for all the things that Vinnie had
that she didn’t. A lovely house, servants, as well as her familiar. Amber had lost
hers years ago when in a fit of hunger, she’d taken more than she should have
from her and she’d died. And there had been no one to replace her with. The
only reason that didn’t come back to bite her in the butt was because she’d not
died at her hands, but the taxi that had hit her when she’d staggered away from
her. Stupid woman. What was she supposed to do, go hungry? No way.

“You said she’d never find it. You told me it
was hidden so deep in the walls that there was no...Luther.” Her temper got the
better of her when she thought of the man again. “He told her, didn’t he? Showed
her where the safe was and then how to open it. Why, the nerve of the man,
giving away our money.”

Amber stomped around the grassy area she’d
been hiding in since the sun had gone down. Luther had betrayed her. Amber
looked over at Horrie when he said nothing. But he was gone, and she called for
him three times before she realized he’d just up and left her again. Making her
way to the end of the drive and where she’d left her car, she was cursing up a
storm when a man was suddenly in front of her. She knew who he was even before
he opened his mouth to tell her.

“I’m Mitch Riley. And you need to go away and
leave us alone.” She was so shocked by his statement that when he laughed at
her, she lost her temper again. But before she could touch him, reach out and
snap his little human neck, she was pinned against a tree hanging from her daughter’s
hand. Amber tried to think what she needed to do now.

“Vinnie, where have you been, child?” Vinnie
shook her hard, and she felt her teeth snapping together. “This is no way to
treat your mom. Put me down this minute and let’s go up to your house and
talk.”

“No. I don’t think so. I’ve found I like you
not being there.” She asked her why she was being that way. “Because, Mother dear,
I know you and Father are plotting against me. To take my house and the
contents. You’re not going to, just so you know. I have things set up nicely
now, and I’m not in the mood to have you snooping around anymore.”

Her mind nearly shut down. How the heck had
she figured it out? But she knew that if she messed up now, Horrie would never
forgive her. Smiling as best she could, trying to make her face softer around
the feeling of being pissed off, she patted Vinnie’s hand and spoke softly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dear
child. Your father is dead. Remember? You staked him out while I stood there
and watched you. Now he’s gone.” Vinnie shook her again. “Stop that right now.
I don’t know where you get off thinking you can treat me this way, but I will not
stand for it.”

“But killing me was going to be all right
with you, right?” Amber said nothing because she wasn’t sure what to say. “And
so you know, the money, the treasure that you’ve been trying to get at? It’s
not here anymore. I’ve had it moved to a safer location.”

“All of it?” Horrie was going to kill her,
Amber thought. “You can’t have done all that. And...and...and I don’t know what
you’re talking about anyway. What treasure?”

She was put down, but she wasn’t let go. Mitch
stood there watching her, and Amber felt like a bug on the end of a pin. It was
on the tip of her tongue to order him to go away, but to be frank, she was more
afraid of him than she was of her daughter.

“Why are you here, Mother?” When Vinnie asked
her again why she was there and where her father was, she snapped.

“What do you need with a house like that for anyway?
And the money. You have more than most vampires twice your age have. Why did
you have to go and move it all? Your father is going to be mad, and I’m not
going to take it from him either.” Vinnie just stared at her with that look on
her face that Amber had come to hate. “Don’t look at me like that. I tried to
do this nicely, asking you if I could move in with you when your father died.
But you’d not have anything to do with it or me. Why not? And now that he’s
back and wanting something that I can’t give him because of you, I’m going to
be the one to pay the piper. As usual. Why are you doing this to me?”

“I don’t trust you.” Amber slapped Vinnie on
the cheek before she could think she should have reigned in her temper a
little. But the smile Vinnie gave her in return made Amber’s blood run cold and
fear wash over her nothing like she’d ever had before. “Do you feel better now,
Mother? Did it make you feel like you might, for once, be a parent to me? You haven’t
been. Neither you nor Father were in my entire life. And the last years, the
years after he was dead, I found myself thinking that you were the dumbest person
I knew.”

“How can you treat me this way? I’m your
mother. I gave birth to you.” She looked at Mitch, hoping, she supposed, for
something from him. “Do you see this? Do you think she won’t treat you the same
way when she tires of you? She will. Victoria is the most selfish person I
know. Like when the money ran out? Her father and I had nothing, and she just wouldn’t
lift a hand to help us out, ever.”

“Perhaps you should have thought of that
before you tried to have her killed.” She asked him what he was talking about. “Millicent
has been most helpful in a lot of things. And if you’re thinking of making her
pay for this, she’s moved on. And happily too. But she told us of the time you
left your daughter out in the weather hoping that some human would come along
and kill her. Or the time that you dropped her over the side of the bridge
hoping to drown her. She was eight and had, thankfully, taken lessons to learn
to swim before that incident. Then there was the time—”

“That’s not fair. She was a drain on our
resources. Do you have any idea how many plans we had to change when she was
growing up? Finding someone to watch her was a chore as well. People saw our
house and decided that they didn’t want to be there, didn’t have any desire to
even enter our house.” His comment had her looking at Vinnie again. “You told
him we never mowed the lawn or cleaned up? Why would you...? You should have
done that on your own if that’s what you wanted. I had no time for such things.
Why should we have to keep up our home like the humans do?”

“Because when you live in a human world, they
expect you to abide by their rules. Go figure.” Slang. Amber barely understood
her only child when she spoke English. But when she spoke the things that were
well over her head, Amber wanted to hit her. Much like she did her father all
the time. “You aren’t getting into our home, Mother. You’ll never be able to break
the spell that’s around it, and more importantly, I’m not going to help you or Father
in any way. I can see him now, and I’m no longer afraid of what Mitch and the
others can do.”

“You ungrateful child.” Before she could say
much more, her mother appeared. That was another person she was sick of, and she
wasn’t going to take her crap anymore either. “I’ll have you know I’m not going
to take your criticism anymore either. You’ve tried to make me feel bad my
whole life, and I will not take it anymore, Mother. Never. To me you are dead.”

“Oh, that’s perfectly fine with me, Amber. You
might find it hard to believe, but I wrote you off long ago.” Amber was shocked
and it must have shown on her face. “What did you expect, Amber? For me to bow
down before you and beg you to let me be in your life? No, I’m too old and too
set in my ways to ever do such a thing. Especially for a child like you. And in
the event you think to come to my home and try and steal what I have there,
you’ll be out of luck there as well.”

“Why? Have you found someone to put a spell
on the house that will keep me out? It won’t work on your home, Mother. You’ve
already invited me in. In fact, Horrie and I have been going in and out of
there for weeks now.” Her mother simply smiled. “Are you going to tell me to
stop doing as I please? Do you really think you can?”

“I don’t live there any longer.” Amber told
her she lied. “I don’t lie, and I have moved out. The house no longer belongs
to me, so your entrance privileges have been revoked as of eight tonight. Just
as you were leaving the house with that horrid man you married, the house
changed hands and the new owner won’t be letting you in. Just so you know.”

“You can’t do that. Why are you doing this to
us? We don’t have any place to go.” Her mother only smiled at her, and Amber
turned to Mitch. “This is all your fault. Why did you have to come into our
lives and mess things up for us? We had it all worked out, and now it’s all
messed up because you couldn’t keep it in your pants.”