Blood Rites: (Royal Blood #3) (11 page)

“But you said no relationship…” I
complained.

“
No, but I’m sexually
monogamous, Lorelei. I don’t sleep with other women while I’m with
someone. I would hope you’d do the same.”

There was no problem with that. I sighed.
“Of course. I’m not like that.”

Vaughn hesitated, running his hand over his
face. “I have business to attend to this afternoon, but if you’d
like to remain and have breakfast with me…”

I smiled at his uncertainty and was amazed
at how accepting of all this I was. “Sounds great.”

He smiled his trademark perfect smile.
“Perfect.”

I couldn’t help the warmth that began to
spread through my veins and smiled in return. “Perfect.”

Thirteen

Vaughn

I sat across from Lorelei at
the dining room table and watched as she cut her pancakes up into
delicate little squares.

She glanced up at me, her eyes sparkling.
“What?”

I smiled and shook my head. “Nothing.”

When I walked into the kitchen and asked for
breakfast for two, the look on the housekeeper’s face was
priceless. It had everything to do with the fact that there were
never two, only one, unless I had a business meeting at the house.
When Lorelei had walked into the dining room, the surprise had
grown.

Strangely, I liked seeing a woman in my
shower, I liked seeing a woman in my bed, I liked seeing a woman in
my house…and I really liked that it was Lorelei.

“Do you enjoy working at the gallery?” I
asked, smiling at her movements. She really was very…orderly with
her food.

“Yes,” she replied, oblivious to my
thoughts. “I mean, I don’t need to work, but I love it.”

“Your family allows it?”

“My father just wants me to be happy,” she
said with a shrug. “Working at the gallery gets me off, so he
encourages it.”

“Art gets you off?” I asked with a smirk.
“I’ll have to remember that.”

Lorelei laughed and speared a slice of
pancake on her fork.

“Your father hasn’t pressed you to
marry?”

“No. He married for love, so he doesn’t see
marriage like most. We don’t have a title or anything worth
preserving like that. My mother, on the other hand.” She rolled her
eyes.

I frowned. “She wants you to marry?”

She nodded. “She’s obsessed with social
climbing is all. She’s just a little overzealous.”

“And you don’t want to?”

She shook her head, her gaze
locked on mine. “I’m like my father,” she said, her voice becoming
a little husky. “I’d like to marry for love, one day.”

I swallowed hard. I’d never thought about
falling in love or marrying up until now, so I wasn’t sure the
correct way to reply.

“A reasonable dream,” I finally murmured,
and her gaze fell away.

So, if this were to continue between us and
go public, her parents might have a few interesting things to say.
If we kept it secret, then her mother would no doubt find out in
record time the moment she tried to set Lorelei up with some
tightly strung eligible Lord.

I knew I said casual, no relationship, but I
wasn’t sure that was such a good plan any more. The more time she
was in my presence, the more I felt like latching onto her and
never letting go. Was that love or merely lust?

“Lorelei…” I hesitated, not knowing what to
say. That was a fucking first for a man who could bullshit his way
out of a tight corner.

She cocked her head to the side, waiting for
me to continue.

“
Do you like heights?” I asked,
quickly back peddling.

“Heights?” She looked confused. “They don’t
bother me, if that’s what you mean.”

I smiled to cover my
uneasiness. “Good. I know a man who operates a hot-air balloon
company.”

“
A hot-air balloon?” Her eyes
lit up.

“I’d like to take you next weekend.” My
nerves began to even out as her excitement began to grow. “I hear
it’s quite the experience.”

“Where?”

“Buckinghamshire.”

She smiled again, a wicked gleam in her
eyes. “Sounds delightful.”

“Eat your breakfast,” I scolded, smiling in
return. “It’s getting cold.”

“So bossy,” she retorted and slid her
pancake laden fork into her mouth.

Oh, she had no idea. Tied up, commanded,
naked…that was my kind of bossy where beautiful women were
concerned. That was something I’d very much like to do with
her.

I smiled to myself, thinking devilish
thoughts. Perhaps this could work after all.

The moment Lorelei left in the car with
Hawkes, all the tension that she’d managed to bleed from my body
came rushing back.

It was an odd sensation, having
a woman be a balm for all the bullshit in my life. Fuck, it was odd
just wanting to have her near me. I’d been telling her the truth
about not having a woman sleep in my own bed, and maybe I should’ve
told her that I’d never had breakfast with them either. Even the
restaurant I’d taken her to last night was my personal favorite.
One that I enjoyed on my own often and never with
another.

She made me laugh, her spirit was
refreshing, her answers surprising. She was intelligent and
beautiful and hadn't missed a trick yet.

I was at a loss to explain to her how much
she meant to me already.

Wandering upstairs, I sat at my
desk like it was the throne to my kingdom and began calling all my
underlings. My phone call with Sykes that morning had gone as well
as I’d expected. Threats were slung about, mostly from his side, so
I had to be careful going forward.

Trouble was brewing and we had
to be ready for anything. First things first, I had to get my men
out of the London partnership with the Necromancers. They had to
pack up and withdraw, quickly and cleanly. No fuss, no mess and
especially no dead bodies. The Necromancers had a nasty war on
constant rotation with Royal Blood, last thing I needed was to be
added to their repertoire.

My thoughts kept going back to
Lorelei and our evening and morning together. She’d almost slipped
through my fingers, then suddenly she was in my lap. I was inside
her and she craved more.
I craved more
. More sex, more her…more everything.

If love is what it came down
to, I’d eventually have to tell her the complete truth. No holding
back.

I couldn’t allow her to love me without
knowing who I really was.

After a long afternoon of phone calls and
heated discussions, I paced back and forth in my office, wondering
when the world would come tumbling down. My men trusted me enough
not to ask questions and had taken my orders with surprise, but
hadn’t challenged them. They knew I had their best interests at
heart, no matter the kind of work we did.

Hawkes had arrived back at the
house hours ago and had reported that Lorelei was home safe. I
wondered if I should have her watched in case Sykes tried anything.
I’d taken some unnecessary risks, turning up at the gallery opening
and taking her out to dinner. We’d been seen together by more
people than I would have liked. Her friends at the gallery, her
business associates. Annalise,
her parents
, and most of all, Sykes had seen me
dancing with her at the party last week. If he caught wind that
this was more than just a casual affair, he’d use her to get to
me.

This was the exact reason I didn’t allow
myself to become close to anyone. If I cared, if I let someone in,
then they would suffer for it. Lorelei was going to get hurt and
there was nothing I could do to stop it. Best it be me that did it,
than Sykes or one of my other enemies. That, I could control.

My phone began to ring, vibrating on the
desktop. Picking it up, I saw the caller ID and rolled my eyes.

Sykes. Couldn’t that guy take a direct hint?
I picked up the phone, my lip curling in distaste, and accepted the
call.

“What do you want, Sykes? Didn’t I make
myself clear this morning?” I didn’t do him the honor of saying
hello.

“
Oh, you made
yourself clear,” he drawled. “But I’m not sure you heard
me
,
Vaughn.”

He had to let it the fuck go.
“It’s not doing anything for me, Sykes. I’m in this for profit, not
best friends. This is a damned relationship, all
one-sided.”

“Damned?” He began to laugh. “As in damned
to hell?”

“
I will not
associate myself with the likes of
you
. You need to up your game if you want to be taken
seriously in this business. You are seen as nothing more than a
thug, Sykes. A crude
amateur
.” I could practically hear him seething down the
line. “You gave that away when you turned up to my home unannounced
looking like a pimp. Clean up your act.”

“
There is
no
withdrawal
,” Sykes snapped. “If I were you, I’d check your
email.”

My skin began to crawl and I flipped open
the laptop, keeping the phone to my ear. It came to life and emails
began to ping into my inbox and the one at the top caught my
attention immediately. Clicking on it, images began to load in the
message body.

Photographs of me and her at
the gallery opening, our stolen touches while we were talking, last
night at the restaurant…and a perfect image of her gazing at me,
love in her eyes. Love…
FUCK
.

Lorelei
.

“I can tell by your silence, Vaughn, that
you now understand the stakes. Do you think I am an amateur now?
Reinstate your men, resume the merger and no harm will come to the
girl.”

“Your threats will not get you anywhere,
Sykes,” I snarled. “Threaten the girl again and I will have your
head.”

He began to laugh and I wished to fucking
god that he was here right now so I could put a bullet in him and
watch him bleed.

“You know my terms. You have twenty-four
hours.”

Pulling the phone away from my
ear, I snarled as it disconnected. I threw it onto the desk, my
gaze settling on the laptop and the photographs that were still
displayed there.
Motherfucking
…

Lorelei had to come back and stay at the
house. I was here with her, Hawkes and the security team could
watch over her…but she’d only left this morning. This was going way
too fast. I was falling much too hard and when I hit the ground, I
feared that I might explode and Lorelei might end up hating me or
worse…wind up dead. What the fuck was I doing?

There was no other choice. Her life was at
stake. She’d come stay with me, I’d deal with Sykes once and for
all, and then she’d be safe. I’d protect her, make her mine, give
her everything she desired. I’d put her enemies in the ground if
that’s what she asked of me.

I picked up the phone again and dialed her
number. She’d coyly given it to me at breakfast a few hours prior
and it had given me a great deal of satisfaction, but now it was
more than that. It was somewhere closer to relief.

“Vaughn?”

“Lorelei,” I said with a sigh. She was okay,
she hadn’t been touched…yet.

“What is it?” She sounded distracted, like
she was in the middle of something.

“Tired of me so soon?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she said with a laugh. “What kind
of person would that make me if I got bored after a day?”

I could’ve said a lot of things in reply to
that little question. “Are you free? Can you come to the
house?”

There was a pause.

“I know you only left this morning,” I went
on, “but I need to see you again. It’s important.”