Blood Wicked (17 page)

She had been a courtesan. And as insane as it seemed, she had to make love or she would die. She could do it, couldn’t she? It was what she’d done when she was a paid lover to men who were powerful, but whom she simply didn’t desire. She could close off her mind.

But she looked at Heath. His silvery-green eyes flashed, as though a fire burned within them. Sensual lines bracketed his mouth, and the way they deepened when he spoke or smiled made her knees weak. It was more than just green eyes, thick auburn waves, and the body of a Greek god that made her desire him. This was the man who had rescued Sarah, who had rescued her. She wanted
him
.

She couldn’t do this. She did not want any other man than Heath. Not even because her life depended on it.

And his words rang in her head.
I could easily lose my heart to you.

Could he possibly be wrong about the curse?

H
eath had been right. Everything changed.

At first, Vivienne thought he was wrong. There was no orgy. She’d expected to see people having sex in the open everywhere. All those women in scanty corsets and all those half-naked men rolling around in the corridors, in bedrooms, on the stairs, in every possible location and position.

At first there wasn’t
anything
like that to see. She walked at Heath’s side, following the labyrinth of hallways and corridors on the main floor.

“It’s very intriguing to watch the expressions on your face, Vivi.”

She jerked around to him. “What expressions?”

“I never saw a woman in the midst of an orgy look so serious. Or so disappointed. What are you thinking?”

She bit her lip. Dimtri’s “gathering,” as she’d heard the maid refer to it, seemed like scandalous house parties she had attended. At those, the guests moved from bed to bed indiscriminately, but on the surface the event appeared as refined and ordinary as a staid duchess might hold.

“Are you all right?” Heath asked. “You must be exhausted.”

“I suppose I should be. But my blood is … right now it feels on fire.” Her nerves were running riot. She was plunging into iciness, then turned scorching hot.

A clock somewhere in Lord Dimitri’s house struck three.

“Now it begins,” Heath said.

“What does?”

The door to a drawing room suddenly flew open. She peeked in and saw the shadowy room contained perhaps a dozen men and women. Before her eyes, the people in the room threw aside any pretense of control. They all began to grope and kiss each other on a sofa in the center of the room. This was like the orgies she’d heard about, but it was happening right in front of her.

People spilled out of rooms into the hallway. The scenes around her became utterly bawdy. Couples, threesomes, foursomes were making love anywhere they chose. And no one appeared the least bit shocked.

Heath took her into the main salon. As they reached the threshold, Vivienne saw two vampires lock gazes. The male was astonishingly tall and muscular, with golden hair tied back in a queue. The woman was a beautiful, angelic-looking blonde. Then, without even exchanging a word, the couple began to have sex up against the wall. They moved in perfect unison. They climaxed together almost instantly, without saying a thing. Their only communication had been moans and sighs, and the woman’s ecstatic screams.

And it was obvious the woman had truly felt her pleasure.

Then, as the woman drew in slow breaths, the man chuckled. And finally spoke. “Privacy now, my dear?” he asked. “If you would like me to put my tongue in your derriere, I would be happy to escort you to my bed.”

Good heavens, they were obviously strangers. And yet he had proposed such a shocking thing, such an intimate thing,
without blinking. The woman had simply nodded. Hand in hand, they left.

His tongue inside her rear? The thought left Vivienne’s knees shaking. And hot—so hot, the valley between her breasts was damp. Goodness. What would it feel like—to have Heath do that? Had he ever done that….?

Heath was watching her, a knowing smile on his beautiful mouth. “You’re shocked by this.”

She lifted a jaded brow. “Truly, I don’t believe your story about this place either. How do all these people simply have sex for the pleasure of it?”

“Just believe in it. It happens to be true.”

She could smell alluring scents in the air, the tang of male seed, the ripeness of feminine juices. All the men here were muscular, beautifully hewn, and many were completely nude. The women were either abundantly curvy, or sleek and smoothly lovely.

“All vampires are beautiful,” he murmured teasingly.

But it was true. They were. And Heath, she saw, was the most gorgeous of all the men. There was an allure to this. She couldn’t deny it.

What would it be like to have sex simply for fun? Not because she was the property of a man, courtesan to his protector. Sex had been survival. As a courtesan, she could never simply give in to lust. Anyway, she’d never really felt desire.

What would it be like just to be wanton?

It was so tempting….

No. She was just doing this to ease the pain. She was not going to be foolish, like her mother had been, and become addicted to desire and sex.

This was what was truly dangerous about Heath. Not his fangs. Or the fact he must drink blood, though she’d never actually seen him do that.

His true danger was how he tempted her to forget all the careful, cautious lessons she’d learned.

Heath wanted this to be more than sexual gymnastics that saved Vivi. He couldn’t give her much, but he wanted to give her two gifts. He wanted to ensure Sarah defeated her illness. And he wanted Vivienne to lose her fear of sex, to learn to accept pleasure and delight in it.

It was all he could give her.

Though, hell, he couldn’t even find his own brother. And he hadn’t been able to save his wife and daughter. He must be an arrogant madman to think he could rescue anyone else.

Cloth suddenly flew over his eyes. A pert feminine giggle followed. “Lord Heath! It has been so very long since you were here. Dimitri has told me I still cannot have you tonight, even though you are here. Tell me it isn’t true!”

He knew the voice, as he caught hold of the silk scarf and drew it away. He saw Vivienne’s pursed lips and highly arched brows. She was surveying the giggling blonde vampiress with an iciness he could feel.

“Good evening, Sadie.” He gave a formal bow. “It is true. I can only have a lover once.”

“Isn’t that convenient for you, Lord Heath, since you are known to have such a wandering eye?”

Convenient. Years ago, before he’d married, he’d been like any earl. He had liked his sexual pleasures easy, bountiful, and varied. Every vice and delight had been available to him due to his title, his money. Then he’d found Ariadne. And he had been faithful. His reputation had endured, but it felt like it belonged to another man, not him.

Sadie leered at Vivienne. “Lord Dimitri told me it was ess—well,
important
—for me to seduce your lady here, Lord Heath.”

Vivienne blinked. She glowed like a ruby in her scarlet dress. “Seduce me? What on earth do you mean?”

“Sapphic pleasures,” Heath pointed out to her in a low voice. And he saw her chin jerk with shock. “You’ve never done that before? Made love to another woman?”

“Of course not.” She spoke low, another flush blooming in her cheeks.

“Didn’t one of your protectors offer you the earth for it?”

“H—How would you know about that?”

“I know how the male mind works.”

“I refused. Whenever I saw two women together with a man, it had nothing to do with making love.” Her brow lifted in her cool, jaded way. “All the women did was argue, fight, and pull each other’s hair, competing over the man.”

Sadie watched them both, her large blue eyes slanting from one to the other.

“You see, Sadie,” he said. “You will have your work cut out for you. Miss Dare will resist your seduction.”

Sadie frowned. “Lord Dimitri said I must do it, though, or your lady will suffer greatly. He said if she doesn’t make love, she will die.”

Vivienne was trembling. “But surely he meant make love to a gentleman—though I do not want any other man than Heath.”

Hell. He didn’t deserve such loyalty. Or such … desire or whatever it was that made her so steadfastly determined not to enjoy herself with anyone else. And she needed to make love to another man eventually, or the pain wouldn’t stop. Still he said softly, “Why not try an adventure, love? If you don’t want another man, why not delight in the beauty in other women?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“Lord Dimitri insists the pleasure will help you,” Sadie said.

Hell, what did Dimitri know? But Vivi bristled. She squared
her shoulders, tipped up her chin, and faced Sadie. “But why would you want to do such a thing? We are strangers.”

The girl gave a wicked smile. “But some of my most erotic fun has been with strangers.”

“Vivi, if it’s going to ease your pain, you should do it.”

Vivi speared him with a withering look. “You really want to see this, don’t you, Lord Blackmoor?”

Heaven. Hell. Both of them were being displayed before him. Heath’s hand tightened around his brandy glass.

“What is your fantasy, Lord Heath?” Sadie now wore only a corset. Below its lace-trimmed edge, he could see the trimmed thatch of gold pubic curls, the abundant curve of her hips. She had led him to a well-stuffed wing chair that stood at the edge of a quiet, deserted, dark room.

Vivienne had only just been led into the room. He could see her blinking. She couldn’t see in the dark. But before he could ask for candles to be lit, Sadie’s voice dropped to a sultry purr. “Do you wish to be a sultan, enjoying the secret play within the harem? Or perhaps you have slipped into an academy for schoolgirls and you are witness to their explorations in their dormitory beds? Or would a nunnery be your fantasy?”

“Good heavens.” Vivienne’s sardonic tone sliced through the dark. “Men are so … silly. What
is
your fantasy, Heath? I would be so interested to know.”

And he understood. Vivienne had protected herself by thinking of men as silly, creatures driven by their lust. But he’d also heard the quiver in her voice. She knew he was not quite so simple.

“Light candles, Sadie,” he requested softly. It bought him a few moments as she did his bidding. He needed to think of a fantasy to surprise Vivi. Something unusual—though the thought of the harem and Vivienne wearing nothing but silken veils had his cock pulsing.

Veils … “Perhaps a wedding,” he suggested teasingly. “Where the blushing bride is seduced by her attendants?”

“We’ve never done that before.” Sadie lit the last taper, and the candles brought a golden glow into the room. She looked like a china shepherdess with her yellow ringlets, large blue eyes, full bosom, and tiny waist. She turned to the back of the room, where an area was enclosed with black curtains. “Come out
now
, Jasmine and Zoe. Hurry up.”

Two other vampiresses moved elegantly out from behind the drapes. They were now nude. Jasmine had long, straight black hair, and exotic, almond-shaped green eyes. She possessed a lean, sleek figure, with small pert breasts, and long legs. The third, Zoe, was a fiery redhead. Zoe cocked her head. “I’ve seen Molly boys have a false wedding, even wearing white gowns.”

Molly boys were men who sexually desired other men.

“No.” That was Vivienne. “I don’t want to play a bride, blushing or otherwise.”

Heath stroked his chin, making a pretense of considering. “I’ve always fantasized about what upstairs maids do when they aren’t at work.”

“Service the gentlemen of the house,” Vivienne suggested dryly. But she was shivering and rubbing her arms, even in her heavy silk gown.

He remembered the dream they’d shared of Hyde Park. That was the woman he wanted to unearth: the saucy, joyous temptress who liked to play. He knew she was truly inside Vivi. If he could get to that woman, he believed he could open Vivi’s heart….

Hell, that wasn’t his plan. With his curse, he wasn’t supposed to be messing around with anyone’s heart.

“Ooh, I can think of some rather delicious things to do with feather dusters,” Sadie mused.

“I think we should just begin,” Heath said. “Watching Vivienne
explore pleasure; I don’t need any more fantasy than that.”

He heard her breath catch—before she swallowed hard.

Sadie smiled. The vampiress could sense Vivienne’s uncertainty. She readily slipped into the role of mistress of the play. She pointed to Zoe and Jasmine in turn. “You two must show Lord Heath’s love what it is like to pleasure another woman. Give her a performance while I help her undress. I must admit, she looks so lush and lovely, I am looking forward to stripping her bare.”

Heath smelled the tang of blood.

He looked down. His clenched fist had snapped a large sliver from his empty glass. He suckled his finger and healed the wound—before three vampiresses offered to do it for him.

Vivienne was not prepared to be dragged to a stool, or to have Sadie firmly push her down upon it. The blonde vampire worked swiftly. Vivienne’s gown sagged open in moments. Sadie peeled down the bodice. “You are most generously endowed. No wonder Lord Heath is besotted with you.”

Besotted
. “He isn’t, Sadie,” she corrected.

Behind her, Sadie tugged at her corset laces. “Lord Dimitri said you were a succubus. What is that like? Is it fun to seduce men in their dreams?”

“No,” she said at once. But the dream she’d shared with Heath about Hyde Park; that had been rather … fun.

“His Grace told me you just learned you are a demoness. He said you are frightened by it. You should not be.”

Vivienne twisted on the stool to look at Sadie, who was plucking the ties at the very bottom of her corset. This brought her eyes almost right up to Sadie’s bare, erect nipples. She was quite embarrassed to see Sadie’s naked breasts, though they were lovely—so round and full. She was still blushing from looking at the other naked women, Jasmine and Zoe.