Billionaire: Billionaire Romance: Billionaire Tiger (A Billionaire New Adult Shifter Contemporary Romance) (46 page)

I wasn’t sure I’d made up my mind about anything by the time I reached the studio loft the two vampires shared in a downtown neighbourhood of Seattle called East Roxbury. But I knew I had my answer when I stepped over the threshold and gazed in awe at my new home.

It was a studio loft with wooden floors painted varying shades of light grey and walls encased with red bricks that ran all the way up to the windows which overlooked the adjacent building across the street. The walls were lined with rustic brown which matched the thin brown blinds that covered both living room windows. The living room was sparsely, but comfortably furnished with a two-seater sofa positioned in front of a big-screen TV with a massive vintage poster of a young and swarthy Al Pacino hanging above it and a small, foosball table just behind the sofa. I stared aghast at the adorable round table with four red chairs stacked all around it and an antique arcade machine.

The loft became all the more modern and extravagant the closer I moved to the four bedrooms located behind a Japanese screen of sorts which separated them from the living room area. One look at the bedroom with boxer briefs and issues of
Playboy
strewn across the floor told me that it must belong to Beck. Although his fascination with naked
human
women was a little baffling to say the least. Then I passed by a bedroom door left ajar. Inside I could see an impressive bookcase filled to the brim with every kind of novel and editorial imaginable. That must be Santiago’s room.

“This will be your room over here,” Beck informed me with a nonchalant gait. I opened the door and peered inside. The only things inside there were a queen-sized poster bed and a pedestal drawer with a chic lamp on top. But the bedroom window had an amazing view of the Seattle skyline, which made me swoon.

And just because I couldn’t stop spazzing over my good fortune, I jogged back into the hallway and opened the door to the fourth bedroom. And stopped dead in my tracks at what lay before me. It had a bed inside, but there were a few strange contraptions visible to the naked eye like a set of fuzzy handcuffs hanging above the headboard. My eyes travelled over what looked like a whip of sorts coiled around a lamp next to the bed. Then my eyes practically bugged out of my skull at a box closest to me that looked like it contained a variety of sexy toys.

“Uh…this room isn’t quite ready for visitors yet,” Santiago interjected with nervous laughter, guiding me away from the room in question.

“Of course it is; it’s set up exactly the way we want it – it’s a torture/sex chamber, depending on what we need it to be in the moment.” Beck supplied with a wicked smile.

“He’s kidding,” Santiago shot back, scowling pointedly at his vampire compatriot.

“He’s really not,” Beck retorted, his grin becoming all the wider as he continued referring to himself in the second person.

“Whatever, I don’t care about the freaky stuff that vampires do. It’s not like I’m ever gonna use that room for anything.” I offered with a mesh of diplomacy and what I thought was genuine dismissal.

Boy, was I wrong about that.

Chapter 4

A whole two weeks passed after that and I was slowly getting used to my new surroundings as well as my vampire roommates. For all his show of being an egotistical ass-hat, Beck was surprisingly kind and chivalrous on a good day. He wasn’t one for talking, but he always found a way to be there and give me a helping hand when I needed it, especially when it came to lugging hefty crap around.

As for Santiago, he and I clicked instantly. He was well-read, smart, funny, sensitive and a generally nice guy. Wait, generally nice vampire. No, generally nice guy/vampire – aww, forget it. He was incredibly easy to talk to; on my very first night in my new apartment, he and I stayed up till 4am just getting to know each other. He even told me about how he became a vampire.

I was closing up the bar by myself and Santiago was waiting for me to finish up so we could walk home together. He had left most of his glass filled with Southern Comfort untouched.

“It was three years ago when I had everything I could’ve ever wanted in my life,” Santiago began, a radiant smile dotting his handsome, tanned face. “I just got promoted at my dream job and I was engaged to a woman I loved with all my heart. I was walking home alone one night the day before Valentines picking up flowers and a gift for my fiancée when these four guys jumped me. I offered them my expensive watch and my wallet, but they wanted something completely different from me…” Santiago trailed off, his features darkening with intensity.

“They could’ve drained my body of blood and just killed me; instead, they turned me into a monster. I couldn’t face anyone I knew after that, so I just ran away. I regret it because I abandoned everyone I cared about but they would hate me more for what I became. Beck met and befriended me when I was I was trying to find a way to kill myself. He helped me accept my new abilities and create a balance. I mostly drink from blood bags that an orderly in a hospital helps me get; but every now and then, Beck and I go hunting for low-lifes when we’re craving fresh blood.

“So that’s why you killed Gus and his friends,” I remarked.

He nodded and took a sip of his drink. “That, and because he really did kill a friend of mine and Beck’s. She was a nice girl who didn’t deserve to die. Beck and I couldn’t protect her, so all we could do was avenge her in the end.”

“She must’ve been pretty special,” I surmised while wiping down the bar. I quirked an eyebrow when I noticed the way that Santiago’s mouth had curled into a seedy smile for the briefest moment.

“That she was.”

“Wait…she was a close friend, right? How close exactly?” Santiago gave a noncommittal shrug, but with a huge shit-eating-grin on his face. “No way! You and her-”

“And Beck.”

“Shut up! The three of you were fuck buddies?! You and Beck actually had sex with a woman…who’s human?” I questioned in disbelief. Is that even possible? Sure, I’ve watched TV shows like
The Vampire Diaries
and
True Blood.
But I thought this shit was fictional, if not wholly impossible.

“Of course we had sex with her,” Santiago remarked. “Vampires can have sex with humans. We just have to be…more careful. Our strength and stamina are a lot higher than the average human being. Obviously.”

“Obviously,” I agreed in a sardonic tone. “So you both just…shared her? And she was ok with that? And both of you were ok with that?”

“Some people are worth sharing, especially if it means you get to have the best parts of her.” Santiago concluded with finesse.

I didn’t even realize how hard my heart was pounding in my chest when he said that. So I remedied my flustered feelings by turning away and attempting to clean the bar counter more vigorously. “Pass me your glass when you’re finished,” I said over my shoulder.

“Think fast,” Santiago murmured from behind me.

I turned around and watched in horror as a glass half-filled with amber-coloured alcohol came skidding across the bar counter towards me. Santiago had tossed it my way. In my bid to rescue the glass from hitting the bar floor, I tilted my tiny body a little too much. And in doing so, I lost my balance and started falling backwards. But before I could hit the floor, Santiago flew off his chair and came sprinting towards me at the speed of light. His right arm moved behind me and grabbed my back. And with his left hand, he reached forward and effortlessly caught the glass as it flew off of the counter.

My heart was still pounding like a freight train in my chest when Santiago calmly put the glass back onto the counter with one hand while still holding my body close to his with the other. Our eyes were just a whisper apart; it was becoming difficult to concentrate on anything but the feel of Santiago’s cold hands encircling my waist and his warm, brown eyes burning like lasers all over me.

“Whoa,” I breathed in awe. “How did you do that?”

“When it comes to being a vampire, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, Mamasita,” Santiago promised with a devilish twinkle in his eye.

And before I could think twice about it, I had pulled him closer and pressed my lips to his in a flurry of newfound familiarity and euphoria.

CHAPTER 5

I didn’t exactly intend for it to happen, but Santiago and I slept together that night. I liked every single part of it; Santiago turned out to be quite a sweet and passionate lover. But I kinda felt uber awkward afterwards, especially since both Santiago and Beck are now my roommates. I mean, I had sex with a vampire, and his vampire roommate and friend may or may not know about it. This is all too fucking weird.

For the most part, Beck hadn’t bothered with talking to me that much since I moved in. But we somehow got thrown together a few nights afterwards when Santiago went to see his orderly friend about the blood bag supply and was out of the apartment till super late.

And in-between that time, I got to talk to Beck while he put together a new drawer that I’d bought from IKEA. Don’t give me that look – what else is having a super strong and agile vampire for a roommate good for? So there we were sitting on the floor of my bedroom, with me passing Beck nuts, bolts and other tools while he put the pieces of the drawer together. As soon as he was finished, I was going to head to the hardware store on the corner to pick out some paint and wallpaper to decorate my new drawer with.

“You know…if you’re just planning on decorating this drawer with some girly crap, Santiago and I could always pitch in and help you buy some materials.” Beck said, almost as if he could read my thoughts.

“Thanks, but no thanks. I appreciate the offer, but you guys are already letting me live here rent-free. I can’t accept any more freebies from you.” I told him with as much grace as I could muster.

“Living here rent-free isn’t exactly a freebie. We’re still making you pay for utilities,” Beck countered with a sly smirk on his face.

“Yeah, including the ones I don’t even use. What the hell do you guys need a hot plate for? It’s not like either one of you…eats.”

“The hot plate isn’t for us, genius. You are the only human around here that does eat after all. We didn’t buy the hot plate till you moved in.”

“Son of a bitch. You mean I’ve been avoiding using the hot plate because I thought it belonged to either you or Santiago this whole time? I could’ve made some really good grilled cheese.” I whined comically.

“Nothing stopping you from doing that as soon as we’re finished here,” Beck supplied in earnest.

“You really didn’t have to buy me a hot plate on top of everything. How do you guys have so much cash to spend on different things?” I asked curiously.

“Easy: we rip off the heads of wealthy douchebags,” Beck quipped. “Or maybe it’s because Santiago was a stock broker before he became a vampire. So we play the Stock Market with his phenomenal financial instincts and voila – a pot of gold.” He ended off with flourish.

“So if Santiago does that, what exactly do you bring to the table?”

“Santiago may be book-smart, but I’m street-smart and devilishly handsome to boot. What else do I need to offer to the world?”

I couldn’t resist erupting into laughter. “I bet that kind of sweet talk lands you all the pretty girls.”

“Only sometimes. But then you get others like Kate who don’t see me in that light. She saw something totally different which drew her to me.”

I stopped short at the serious tone that Beck’s rich voice had taken. “Kate? Is that your friend who died? The one you and Santiago shared?”

Beck nodded and that’s when I understood that the conversation had turned decidedly morose. “She worked in a night club, but was the sweetest girl you could possibly imagine. Santiago and I thought that we’d chosen her out of millions of girls. But in reality, she chose us and made us all the better for knowing her. She was…special.” If a girl’s fucking two vampires at the same time for kicks, she’d better damn well be special.

“So Kate thought you were a good guy?” I probed tentatively.

Beck turned to face me with a small smile lining his sexy, smouldering face. “Believe it or not, I was a pretty good guy before I became a vampire. The only problem was that I was invisible; people saw me, but they took me for granted because I was also a nice guy who had zero self-esteem and couldn’t say no to anything. This may sound crazy, but turning into a vampire was the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me. I was living and breathing while working a crappy-no-future job at a convenience store in my childhood neighbourhood. But I felt reborn the day I changed into…all this. Kate was one of the few people who really saw me for all that I am, and all that I could become. Maybe one day you’ll see it too.”

And just like before with Santiago, I found myself getting swept up and lost in Beck’s beautiful eyes as he stared right down into my soul in that moment. Only this time, he reached for me first and planted a sweet and chaste kiss on my lips that made me yearn for more. So I settled the score and planted myself in his lap, wrapping my hands tightly around his neck and melding our mouths together till breathing no longer became a factor of importance.

CHAPTER 6

“Ginny, you’re being weird for no reason.”

“Could you at least give us a clue, Jeopardy Style?”

I ignored both my vampires’ attempts at being funny and finally turned to face them. It was five days later, a whole five days after I unwittingly slept with Beck too. I fucked Beck too! I slept with two vampires in the space of two weeks! What the hell is wrong with me? When did I become a…vampire slayer of the sexual variation? I’ve been avoiding both of them ever since both encounters happened.

“It’s too complicated and I’m not ready to talk about it. I’m sorry,” I told them, feeling close to tears. Tears that come from fucking two vampires. I’m sorry, but this is huge. This is totally going into my memoirs one day.

Beck sighed pointedly at my admission and turned to look at Santiago. “We have to tell her,” he told his friend in a sombre voice.