Blood Kiss (36 page)

A
s Paradise descended the grand staircase of her home, she held up the flowing skirt of her pale blue gown. With each step she took, she thought of the night one week before, when she had come down to find Anslam there on the marble, waiting for her as if there was nothing out of sorts, nothing wrong, nothing threatening.

For a split second, her mental wires got crossed and a shimmy of adrenaline shot down her spine.

Doc Jane had been right: The concussion had healed and so had the bruises, but her brain had a new pathway, one that had been forged quickly, but permanently. The conditioned fear response wasn't going to be a prison, though. Mary was helping her make sure of that.

As she got to the last step, her father emerged from the library. “Oh . . . Paradise.”

With a dip of her head and body, she curtsied to him. “Father.”

“You look like your mother.”

When he held out his hands, she went to him. “That is the most perfect compliment.”

“Well, it is true.” Guiding her in a twirl before him, he smiled. “And I have something for you.”

“Oh?”

“Come.”

Drawing her into the study and over to the desk, he presented her with a flat red box with a signature golden border. “These were hers.”

“Father . . .”

“No, come now. You must open it.”

Paradise's hands began to tremble as she accepted the box and toggled the top open. As she gasped, he stepped
in and took the antique diamond rivière from its satin bed.

“There are forty-eight diamonds, one for each of the first forty-eight years I spent with your beloved
mahmen
. On this night, I give it to you free and clear in the same manner I give to you my love and respect. I couldn't be—”

“Wait.” She stopped him. Shook her head. “I can't accept that.”

“Why ever not?”

As his face fell, she closed her eyes. “I have to tell you something. It's . . .”

Unable to stay still, she began to walk in a tight circle. All she could think about was that conversation they had had about love, and class, and how he wanted her to have an aristocratic match like he and her mother had had.

But unlike before she'd gone into the training program, she had a much better sense of who she was now. And even if it broke his heart, she was going to love whoever she wanted, regardless of station, class, or ranking.

“Father, I'm in love with a male. He's a commoner, and I don't care. More to the point, I don't believe that makes him any less valuable than anyone else. Craeg is—”

“Finally!” he exclaimed. “Finally!” He pulled her in and kissed her on both cheeks. “I've been waiting all week!”

“What—wait, what?”

“Peyton told me.”

“What!”

“And I agree with you. Craeg is a male of worth—and I totally approve. You may have all my blessings.”

Paradise frowned and shook her head. “Father . . . I don't understand. Just last week you were telling me that I needed to mate an aristocrat. I know Craeg saved my
life, but you can't do a one-eighty like that and expect me to believe it.”

“My darling,” he said with a recoil, “when did I tell you that you had to mate a member of the
glymera
?”

“We were having First Meal before I went out—and you were saying that I had to have a mating like you and
mahmen
had. Two aristocrats set up by their families.”

“No, I said your
mahmen
and I found true love. That's what I want for you. The true-love part—as long as the male is good to you, I do not care where he hails from. I have long watched the travails of our class and been summarily unimpressed. Balls and parties are fine, but one must return home with the person to whom one is mated. That is far more significant than any pedigree—and I shall make no apologies to anyone if there is talk—”

Paradise launched herself at her father and squeezed the dickens out of him. “I love you so much I'm going to cry!”

Her father, her dear, wonderful, perfect father, laughed and held her in return. “Will you allow me to put this necklace on you now? And will you finally admit that Craeg is attending to you this eve?”

“Yes, yes, he's coming! Oh, he is! I can't wait for you to meet him properly and get to know him.”

“Nor can I, my love . . . nor can I.”

Thirty minutes later, with streams of glittering guests arriving through the front entrance and proceeding down the hall to the ballroom, Paradise thought . . . well, at least she
assumed
Craeg was coming.

He'd told her he was coming.

Really, he had.

Standing just inside the ballroom's upper level, at the head of the grand staircase that took guests down to the dance floor, she searched the crowd. She didn't think it was possible that she'd missed his arrival. Certainly not with the butler announcing everyone as they came in before they descended to the party below.

She'd been well aware that he'd seemed a little uncomfortable at the idea of escorting her, but he wasn't the type to back down. Especially not where she was concerned—

“Hey, beautiful.”

“Peyton,” she murmured as she turned to her friend.

As they embraced, she glanced behind him, hoping to see . . . nope, no Craeg.

“Wow, nice ice.” Peyton leaned in and checked out her necklace. “Where's your man?”

“I don't know.” She frowned. “And I thought you were bringing that female, what's her name?”

“Oh, her. Yeah. No. Her father called mine and asked what my intentions were. I'm not about to get entangled with that stuff.”

“Why didn't you ask Novo then?”

“Don't know where you got that idea.” He surveyed the crowd. “Well, time to find a date. Anyone in our generation here, or is it full of old farts—wait, look, I think there's a female over there with her own teeth still.”

“Peyton. You should have asked Novo.”

“Who?” He kissed her on the cheek. “Laters.”

As he sauntered down the red-carpeted steps into the crowd, he attracted all kinds of attention, a reminder that her best friend was a very viable commodity in the
glymera
.

The poor bastard.

And there was another reason she was worried about him, for him. Ever since the night at her house with Anslam, Peyton had closed up. On the surface he was just the same, but she knew him at a level other people didn't.

Something had changed in him, and he wasn't talking about it. Then again, a friend of his had killed a relation. That was a lot of grief to process.

God, she wished he'd talk to her. To someone.

As music swelled and couples began to make it to the center of the ballroom, she fluffed her skirts out a little and realized she'd wanted to share this with Craeg—but
that might be asking too much of him. Most males would find this a snooze—or worse, a curse.

Well, fine. She didn't have to go to these things. And she could wear her damn diamonds in her bathrobe and be perfectly happy. After all, what made the necklace important was that it had been her mother's and was now hers.

Yup, her father was so right. As fancy as this crowd was, with their gowns and their jewels and their airs, it was a flat experience to stand among them. Even though she belonged here by right of birth, she was totally apart, and really pretty uninterested—

“Is there a better band coming later?”

Wheeling around, she smiled like crazy—and then stopped. Put a hand to her mouth. Took a step back.

Craeg shook his head and looked down at himself in horror. “Damn it, Butch swore to me this contraption fit. He
swore
it.”

“You are . . .”

Her male was flat-out 007-gorgeous in his white tie and tails and his patent-leather shoes, looking as tall and distinguished as anybody else in the room. Although it was funny . . . she liked him just as much in his jeans and his baseball cap.

Or nothing at all. Even better.

“Wait, is that . . . my father's ceremonial sword?” she blurted, blinking through sudden tears.

Craeg smoothed the gold sheath that hung off his left hip. “He was waiting for me when I got here. He insisted I wear this tonight. He said he would have it beneath no one else's dagger hand when his daughter was presented to society with a male escort for the first time.”

Paradise had to clear her throat. “That is . . . an immense honor.”

“I know.”

“And you got your hair cut,” she said. Although as soon as she spoke, she wanted to kick herself in the ass. “I mean—”

“I was pretty shaggy.”

She jumped up and hugged him. “Thankyousomuchforcomingimsohappyyourehere—”

Craeg laughed in that great baritone he had started to use and he held her in that great way he did, up close to his body so she could feel his strength. “I would have been here sooner, but my ride was getting busy.”

“You made it. That's all that matters—and oh, my God, you are
hot
.”

“And you are . . .” He put some space between them and seemed to look at her properly for the first time. “Wow. That is some dress, and . . . are those real? Those are real. . . . that one in the middle is the size of my thumbnail.”

“It was my
mahmen
's.”

“It's almost as beautiful as you are.”

As they talked, she was very aware that they were being sized up and spoken about, and there would be scandal, yes, there would be.

Fuck 'em, she thought as she hooked her arm in his. “Come with me?”

“Anywhere you take me, tonight and always.”

Leading her male over to the head of the stairway, she nodded at Fedricah, who immediately bowed in deference to Craeg.

“Sire. My honor to see you this eve.”

And then the
doggen
turned to the crowd and in his best, most formal voice announced in the Old Language, “
Mistress Paradise, blooded daughter of Abalone, First Adviser to Wrath, son of Wrath, sire of Wrath, and the honorable Craeg, son of Brahl the Younger, bestowed of the King's Award of Valor last eve for services rendered unto the royal court
.”

A hush silenced the crowd, and then a ripple of conversation overtook even the orchestra.

Meanwhile, Craeg recoiled. “What was all that? I got what? They did who?”

Paradise patted his hand. “My father told Wrath you
saved my life, and the King gave you a title. But I loved you just as much before. You were supposed to find out tomorrow evening—I think our butler got a little overexcited.”

“What?”

“Technically, you're an aristocrat now.”

“WHAT.”

“Pay no attention.” She met him right in the eye. “It doesn't change anything—well, except tacitly tell the haters to f-themselves.”

Craeg blinked and then chuckled as he looked out over the assembly. “Let's do this, my Paradise. And then maybe we can find a private spot?”

She leaned in. “I already have one in mind.”

“That's my female, oh, yeah.”

Stepping forward with him, she didn't look at the crowd. They weren't even in the room for all she knew.

No, she was looking at her fine male.

“You know something,” she said with love as they descended to the black-and-white marble dance floor.

“What?”

“I am the luckiest female on the planet. Right here, right now.”

Yup, she thought as his chest puffed with pride. She knew exactly who she was . . . and who she was with—and they were a helluva pair.

“I love you,” he whispered as he swept her into his arms. “Dance with
me.”

Read on for a sneak peek at the first book in a new contemporary romance series by
New York Times
bestselling author J. R. Ward,

THE BOURBON KINGS

Available in hardcover from New American Library
everywhere print and e-books are sold.

Charlemont, Kentucky

M
ist hung over the Ohio's sluggish waters like the breath of God, and the trees on the Charlemont shore side of River Road were so many shades of spring green, the color required a sixth sense to absorb them all. Overhead, the sky was a dim, milky blue, the kind of thing that you saw up north only in July, and at seven-thirty a.m., the temperature was already seventy-four degrees.

It was the first week of May. The most important seven days on the calendar, beating the birth of Christ, the American Independence, and New Year's Rockin' Eve.

The One Hundred Thirty-ninth running of The Charlemont Derby was on Saturday.

Which meant the entire state of Kentucky was in a thoroughbred racing frenzy.

As Lizzie King approached the turn-off for her work, she was riding an adrenaline high that had been pumping for a good three weeks, and she knew from past experience that this rush-rush mood of hers wasn't going to deflate until after Saturday's clean-up. At least she was, as always, going against the traffic heading into downtown and making good time: Her commute was forty minutes each way, but not in the NYC, Boston, or LA, densely packed, parking-lot version of rush hour—which
in her current frame of mind would have caused her head to mushroom cloud. No, her trip into her job was twenty-eight minutes of Indiana farm country followed by six minutes of bridge and spaghetti junction delays, capped off with this six – to ten-minute, against-the-tide shot parallel to the river.

Sometimes she was convinced the only cars going in her direction were the rest of the staff that worked at Easterly with her.

Ah, yes, Easterly.

The Bradford Family Estate, or BFE, as its deliveries were marked, sat high up on the biggest hill in the Charlemont metro area and was comprised of a twenty-thousand-square-foot main house with three formal gardens, two pools, and a three-hundred-sixty degree view of Washington County. There were also twelve retainer's cottages on the property, as well as ten outbuildings, a fully functioning farm of over a hundred acres, a twenty-horse stable that had been converted into a business center, and a nine-hole golf course.

That was lighted.

In case you needed to work on your chip shot at one a.m.

As far as she had heard, the enormous parcel had been granted to the family back in 1778, after the first of the Bradfords had come south from Pennsylvania with the then Colonel George Rogers Clark—and brought both his ambitions and his bourbon-making traditions into the nascent commonwealth. Fast forward almost two hundred fifty years, and you had a Federal mansion the size of a small town up on that hill, and some seventy-two people working on the property full – and part-time.

All of whom followed a feudal rules and rigid caste system that was right out of Downton Abbey.

Or maybe the Dowager Countess of Grantham's routine was a little too progressive.

William the Conqueror's times were probably more apt.

So, for example—and this was solely a Lifetime movie conjecture here—if a gardener fell in love with one of the family's precious sons? Even if she were one of two head horticulturists, and had a national reputation and a master's in landscape architecture from Cornell?

That was
just
not done.

Sabrina
without the happy ending, darlin'.

With a curse, Lizzie turned the radio on in hopes of getting her brain to shut up. She didn't get far. Her Toyota Yaris had the speaker system of a Barbie house: there were little circles in the doors that were supposed to pump music, but they were mostly for pretend—and today, NPR coming out of those cocktail coasters just wasn't enough—

The sound of an ambulance speeding up behind her easily overrode the haute pitter-patter of the BBC News, and she hit her brakes and eased over onto the shoulder. After the noise and flashing lights passed, she got back on track and rounded a fat curve in both the river and the road . . . and there it was, the Bradfords' great white mansion, high up in the sky, the dawning sun being forced to work around its regal, symmetrical layout.

She had grown up in Plattsburgh, New York, on an apple orchard.

What the hell had she been thinking almost two years
ago when she'd let Lane Baldwine, the youngest son, into her life?

And why was she still, after all this time, wondering about the particulars?

Come on, it wasn't like she was the first woman who'd gotten good and seduced by him—

Lizzie frowned and leaned forward over the wheel.

The ambulance that had passed her was heading up the flank of the BFE hill, its red and white lights strobing along the alley of maple trees.

“Oh, God,” she breathed.

She prayed it wasn't who she thought it was.

But come on, her luck couldn't be that bad.

And wasn't it sad that that was the first thing that came to her mind instead of worry over whoever was hurt/sick/passed out.

Proceeding on by the monogrammed, wrought-iron gates that were just closing, she took her right-hand turn about three hundred yards later.

As an employee, she was required to use the service entrance with her vehicles, no excuses, no exceptions.

Because God forbid a vehicle with an MSRP of under a hundred thousand dollars be seen in front of the house—

Boy, she was getting bitchy, she decided. And after Derby, she was going to have to take a vacation before people thought she was going through menopause two decades too early.

The sewing machine under the Yaris's hood revved up as she shot down the level road that went around the base of the hill. The cornfield came first, the manure already laid down and churned over in preparation for planting. And then there were the cutting gardens filled with the first of the perennials and annuals, the heads of the early peonies fat as softballs and no darker than the blush on an ingenue's cheeks. After those, there were the orchid houses and nurseries, followed by the outbuildings with the farm and groundskeeping equipment in
them, and then the lineup of two – and three-bedroom, fifties-era cottages.

That were as variable and stylish as a set of sugar and flour tins on a Formica counter.

Pulling into the staff parking lot, she got out, leaving her cooler, her hat and her bag with her sunscreen behind.

Jogging over to groundskeeping's main building, she entered the gasoline – and oil-smelling cave through the open bay on the left. The office of Gary McAdams, the head groundsman, was off to the side, the cloudy glass panes still translucent enough to tell her that lights were on and someone was moving around in there.

She didn't bother to knock. Shoving open the flimsy door, she ignored the half-naked Pirelli calendar pinups. “Gary—”

The sixty-two-year-old was just hanging up the phone with his bear-paw hand, his sunburned face with its tree-bark skin as grim as she had ever seen it. As he looked across his messy desk, she knew who the ambulance was for even before he said the name.

Lizzie put her hands to her face and leaned back against the doorjamb.

She felt so sorry for the family, of course, but it was impossible not to personalize the tragedy and want to go throw up somewhere.

The one man she never wanted to see again . . . was going to come home.

She might as well get a stop watch.

New York, New York

•   •   •

“Come on. I know you want me.”

Jonathan Tulane Baldwine looked around the hip that was propped next to his stack of poker chips. “Ante up, boys.”

“I'm talking to you.” A pair of partially covered, fully
fake breasts appeared over the fan of cards in his hands.
“Hello.”

Time to feign interest in something, anything else, Lane thought. Too bad the one-bedroom, mid-floor, Midtown apartment was a bachelor pad done in nothing-that-wasn't-functional. And why bother staring into the faces of what was left of the six bastards they'd started playing with eight hours ago. None of them had proved worthy of anything more than keeping up with the high stakes.

Deciphering their tells, even as an avoidance strategy, wasn't worth the eye strain at seven-thirty in the morning.

“Helllllloooo—”

“Give it up, honey, he's not interested,” someone muttered.

“Everybody's interested in me.”

“Not him.” Jeff Stern, the host and roommate, tossed in a thousand dollars' worth of chips. “Ain't that right, Lane?”

“Are you gay? Is he gay?”

Lane moved the queen of hearts next to the king of hearts. Shifted the jack next to the queen. Wanted to push the boob job with mouth onto the floor. “Two of you haven't anted.”

“I'm out, Baldwine. Too rich for my blood.”

“I'm in—if someone'll lend me a grand.”

Jeff looked across the green fleet table and smiled. “It's you and me again, Baldwine.”

“Looking forward to takin' your money.” Lane tucked his cards in tight. “It's your bet—”

The woman leaned down again. “I love your Southern accent.”

Jeff's eyes narrowed behind his clear-rimmed glasses. “You gotta back off him, baby.”

“I'm not stupid,” she slurred. “I know exactly who you are and how much money you have. I drink your bourbon—”

Lane sat back and addressed the fool that had brought the chatty accessory. “Billy? Seriously.”

“Yeah, yeah.” The guy who'd wanted to go a thousand dollars into debt stood up. “The sun's coming up, anyway. Let's go.”

“I want to stay—”

“Nope, you're done.” Billy took the bimbo with the self-esteem inflation problem by the arm and escorted her to the door. “I'll take you home, and no, he's not who you think he is. Later, assholes.”

“Yes, he is—I've seen him in magazines—”

Before the door could shut, the other guy who'd been bled dry got to his feet. “I'm out of here, too. Remind me never to play with the pair of you again.”

“I'll do nothing of the sort,” Jeff said as he held up a palm. “Tell the wife I said hello.”

“You can tell her yourself when we see you at Shabbat.”

“That again.”

“Every Friday, and if you don't like it, why do you keep showing up at my house?”

“Free food. It's just that simple.”

“Like you need the handouts.”

And then they were alone. With over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of poker chips, two decks of cards, an ashtray full of cigar nubs, and no bimbage.

“It's your bet,” Lane said.

“I think he wants to marry her,” Jeff muttered as he tossed more chips into the center of the table. “Billy, that is. Here's twenty grand.”

“Then he should get his head examined.” Lane met his old fraternity brother's bet and then doubled it. “Pathetic. The both of them.”

Jeff lowered his cards. “Lemme ask you something.”

“Don't make it too hard, I'm drunk.”

“Do you like them?”

“Poker chips?” In the background, a cell phone
started to ring. “Yeah, I do. So if you don't mind putting some more of yours in—”

“No, women.”

Lane shifted his eyes up. “Excuse me?”

His old friend put an elbow on the felt and leaned in. His tie had been lost at the start of the game, and his previously starched, bright white shirt was now as pliant and relaxed as a polo. His eyes, however, were tragically sharp and focused. “You heard me. Look, I know it's none of my business, but you show up here how long ago? Like, nearly two years. You live on my couch, you don't work—which given who your family is, I get. But there's no women, no—”

“Stop thinking, Jeff.”

“I'm serious.”

“So bet.”

The cell phone went quiet. But his buddy didn't. “U.Va. was a lifetime ago. Lot can change.”

“Apparently not if I'm still on your couch—”

“What happened to you, man.”

“I died waiting for you to bet or fold.”

Jeff muttered as he made a stack of reds and blues and tossed them into the center. “'Nother twenty thousand.”

“That's more like it.” The cell phone started to ring again. “I'll see you. And I'll raise you fifty. If you shut up.”

“You sure you want to do that?”

“Get you to be quiet? Yup.”

“Go aggressive in poker with an investment banker like me. Clichés are there for a reason—I'm greedy and great with math. Unlike your kind.”

“My kind.”

“People like you Bradfords don't know how to make money—you've been trained to spend it. Now, unlike most dilettantes, your family actually
has
an income stream—although that's what keeps you from having to
learn anything. So not sure it's a value-add in the long term.”

Lane thought back to why he'd finally left Charlemont for good. “I've learned plenty, trust me.”

“And now you sound bitter.”

“You're boring me. Am I supposed to enjoy that?”

“Why don't you ever go home for Christmas? Thanksgiving? Easter?”

Lane collapsed his cards and put them face-down on the felt. “I don't believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny anymore, goddamn it, and turkey is overrated. What
is
your problem?”

Wrong question to ask. Especially after a night of poker and drinking. Especially to a guy like Stern, who was categorically incapable of being anything but perfectly honest.

“I hate that you're so alone.”

“You've
got
to be kidding—”

“I'm one of your oldest friends, right? If I don't tell you like it is, who's going to? And don't get pissy with me—you picked a New York Jew, not one of the thousand other southern-fried stick-up-the-asses that went to that ridiculous college of ours to be your perpetual roommate. So fuck you.”

“Are we going to play this hand out?”