SweetHeat (7 page)

Julie shook her head in denial.

It wasn’t possible. Caleb and
Zander
were far from Traditionalists. It was just lust coming out in her sleep, that’s all. It had to be.

But what she was experiencing was far from normal. Maybe she should give
Mati
a call and let her know what was going on.

The phone shattered through her thoughts again and she picked it up on the second ring. It was Selena again.

“You better get in here fast, boss. I just received several bids from the companies who want the chocolate line, and Ms. Mallow is outbidding everyone. Her offer is substantially larger than the one she quoted you the other night.”

Julie’s heart began a crazy fast beat. This was it.
Looked as if they had a bidding war on their hands.

“I’ll be right there.”

Screw the shower. Screw her fantasies. She would have to deal with everything later. Leaving Selena with instructions on how to handle the bids until she got there, Julie hurried to get dressed.

* * * * *

The entire day was chaos. Sure enough, a bidding war raged for her planned erotic chocolate line. By the end of the day, Ms. Mallow was by far the winner, outbidding all the competition by a mile. With the contract freshly signed, production would begin by the end of the month and distribution would shortly follow to Ms. Mallow’s entire chain of chocolate stores.

It was long after midnight before Julie flopped into bed looking forward to drowning herself in pleasure with her two sexy males. When she fell asleep, they materialized. She didn’t have the patience to question them about why they came to her in her dreams and not in real life.

Fuck me
, she urged them.

Fuck me hard. Fuck me fast. And fuck me all night.

And they did. And she loved it.
Craved it.

Wanted more and more.
So much more.

Chapter Six

Friday morning, Julie dragged herself to work.

Cursing herself for not confronting
Zander
and Caleb in her sexual dreams last night, she had to stop and remind herself they were mere dreams.
Red-hot sex fantasies.
As if she could get any answers out of them in a fantasy, Julie thought wryly, chastising herself for even thinking such nonsense.

She poured herself a good shot of human clone blood and forced herself to drink the bland stuff.

Zander
and Caleb were her dream males. Who just happened to work for
her.
Maybe, instead of staying away from them in real time, she needed to get near them and check them out. Surely she would discover for herself the real males were nothing compared to fantasy. Hadn’t she always heard that reality was nothing compared to fantasy?

Julie found herself nodding in agreement.

Washing out her mug, she felt the relief of her decision pouring through her in waves. It was a good idea. She would face them and discover they were a couple of jerks in real life. Then her fantasies would go away and she would get back to normal.

Hmm, but how would she live without all that scorching sex every night?
She loved having sex. Enjoyed seeing her two well-hung hunks and talking to them in her dreams. Not that there was much talking, but she had discovered they were friends. Hell, they were more than friends. They were her lovers.

Surely when she exposed they were jerks in real life she could hang on to her fantasies?

Yes, she could still fantasize about them. Just not to the point where she woke up more tired than when she fell asleep. Tonight, she’d pay them a visit in the lab and put all her worries to rest.

* * * * *

Julie smelled them as she stood in front of the lab door. Hell, she smelled them the instant they entered the building, five floors down, just before the night shift began. But that was crazy. It had to be. She couldn’t home in on them that much, could she?

Suddenly she wished she were more experienced with sex and everything that went with it. In her sire’s castle she’d been shielded by relationships due to the Traditionalist ways. No outward affection was allowed. Sex took place behind closed doors and was discussed in whispers. Then when she joined
Vampira
, discussions about sex were taboo and the females never spoke of it.
At least not with her.

She’d never really pursued
Mati
about what the leader of
Vampira
had learned about her fated mates. Truth was
,
she hadn’t cared.

Her knowledge of sex was limited to whatever she’d picked up reading books, on the television, movies or most recently on the Internet. In other words she knew next to nothing about vampire sex but lots about human sex.

What she experienced with Caleb and
Zander
couldn’t be normal. It
had
to be fantasy because it was so awesome!

She was ill prepared for how to react and fend off the males if her fated mates were to find her. Very ill prepared indeed. Maybe she should just get the heck out of here and talk to
Mati
before speaking with Caleb and
Zander
, she thought as she continued to stand in front of the lab doors. Confess to her about the sex fantasies and ask for her help?

Julie shook her head. No,
Mati
would probably force her to go into hiding. She wouldn’t cower from these males
nor
any other males. She needed to deal with this herself.

Swallowing her nervousness, she took a deep breath, pushed the door open and stepped into the lab. Their scents were richer and darker in here. She had no problem making out which belonged to each brother. Caleb’s scent was more dominating. He smelled of power, of raw lust and primal animal. His scent almost frightened her it was so overwhelmingly erotic. Yet
Zander’s
scent balanced everything out. He smelled of an all-consuming hunger, a yearning for love and a vibrant need to fuck her.

That last realization jolted her. Before she could decipher this new yet foreign thought of sensing what they wanted, she realized they’d been in here waiting for her. As if they’d known she was coming. They must have smelled her just as she’d smelled them.

They sat in chairs behind a spick and span metal lab table, their arms casually crossed over their chests. Two sets of bold dark blue eyes latched onto her and she grew instantaneously flushed as she took in their six-foot-three-inch frames. Her fingers itched to grab them by the muscular shoulders she knew were hidden beneath their lab coats. She wanted to dig her fingers into their strength, feel their power and feel those muscles move beneath her fingertips. A tremor of vulnerability shivered through her with both of them studying her. Their mouths were parted, giving her a glimpse of their gorgeous fangs.

They looked dangerous. The two of them with their shaggy black hair and tense bodies dressed in neatly pressed white lab coats. Garments she wouldn’t mind removing, she thought as she pictured them standing here and slowly doing a strip tease, tossing their coats onto the floor and wearing nothing underneath.

Just bare flesh and solid hard-
ons
.
Like in her night fantasies.
Big, long, thick erections she wouldn’t mind getting a taste of in real life. Julie cleared her throat and forced the erotic images from her thoughts. Images that were hard to get rid of because they entailed what she wanted. To be sandwiched between their rock-hard bodies. Forcing herself to break their magnetic eye contact, she strolled into the lab.

“I wanted to give you two the good news in person. Ms. Mallow won the bidding war today. She made an offer the company simply could not refuse.”

“We heard. Congratulations, Ms. Sandalwood.” Caleb’s low drawl smoothed over her senses like melting chocolate and Julie instantly knew she was in trouble.

The current of desire lacing his voice was unmistakable. Blood zipped through her at an intoxicating speed. Her skin suddenly felt way too sensitive. Her breasts swelled; her nipples felt too tight against her bra.

Carnal sensations hummed through the rest of her at lightning speed. All at once she became aware of the many fantasies she’d had of both males.
Tons of them over the past several months.
Yet she’d never fantasized about the three of them doing the naughty here in her factory.

Oh shit! Something else she realized too. She felt exactly the same way about them here in reality as she did in her fantasy dreams.

She needed to find out what was going on and she needed answers now!

“Who are you two? Why are you doing this to me?” She could barely speak as the two males circled her like predatory animals.

More of the rich and dark male lust scent wafted off them. She could feel herself tumbling into the warmth of it.
Their safety.
Their love.

“We are your fated mates, Juliette,”
Zander
replied.

Dammit
! They knew her real name. Was this true about their being her fated mates? Was this why she was reacting so intensely to them? Dreaming of them? Craving them? Obviously they knew about the arranged marriage created between their sires. The familiar cheapness of being sold washed over her. For decades she hadn’t felt it, but now it was back just as bad as ever.

“How did you find me?” She would need to know that so when she escaped them she could cover her tracks better.

We found you by accident
. It was
Zander’s
voice clear as a bell inside her head. Shock sizzled through her. She could hear his thoughts?

And what of you, Caleb?

We have a link as
well
,
came Caleb’s heated voice.

Oh dear. She’d been delusional thinking she could stop this insane attraction. Tonight, it was stronger than ever.

Unbreakable.

The word echoed through her mind and she realized all three of them had said the word in her mind at the same time. They were linked.
In her mind?

“According to vampire legend our bond is unbreakable,”
Zander
remarked out loud and Julie became transfixed as both males stood and sauntered toward her.

Caleb melted against her and nuzzled her earlobe. The sharp prick of a fang pushing against her tender flesh was unmistakable. Hunger at wanting him to pierce her flesh invaded her senses.

“Over the decades we
kept wanting
you, Juliette.
Kept needing you.
But we couldn’t find you.”

She couldn’t breathe as he moved away from her.
Couldn’t assemble her thoughts.

This is happening way too
fast
,
was all she could think.

It’s been happening for months
,
Zander’s
voice whispered in her mind
. In our dreams we came to you. Made love to you. We are exactly the same in reality.

Julie cleared her suddenly dry throat, feeling like a fool. These were her fated males? Her head whirled. Why hadn’t she sensed it? Why hadn’t she known?

Panic dashed through her and she knew she really needed to calm down.
Needed to digest this.
Figure things out.

She wasn’t a young one anymore who was running from a trap. She was a mature female with needs and these males had taken full advantage of that. It wasn’t something she should be forgiving easily.

Grabbing a chair she plopped into it and didn’t miss how their bodies were tight with tension as they studied her.

She couldn’t believe how she hadn’t noticed what was happening more than she already had. Was she so naïve? Was she so inexperienced that she hadn’t realized they were a threat to her senses and to her independence?
To her life under
Vampira
protection?

“You don’t belong to
Vampira
. You belong with us,” Caleb growled with fierce possession.

Her head snapped up at his
Vampira
comment. Dark and smoldering, his gaze injected pure excitement through her nervousness.

Okay, so they’d found out she belonged to the elite clique. Knew she was protected. That she was off limits to males.

“The reason we approached you in your dreams is because we thought you wouldn’t perceive us as a threat,”
Zander
said. “You would simply think you were fantasizing. We wanted to seduce you every night until you came to us. And you finally have.”

Her fangs throbbed and heat seared through her, despite feeling angry at being duped.

“Consider fantasy time over, Juliette. Now it’s the real thing,” Caleb growled.

She watched as they both removed their lab coats.

When her gaze dropped first to
Zander’s
significant bulge pressing against his pants and then Caleb’s impressive one, she felt alive. More alive than she’d ever felt in her life. Power zapped through her giving her an insane amount of energy. No longer did she feel tired.
But so beautiful and feminine.
And vampire.

Suddenly she wanted one of them in her mouth, the other one in her pussy.

Between her thighs, her pussy creamed in anticipation, preparing her for them.

Oh hell, she’d just have to deal with the fallout with
Vampira
later. “I want both of you males and the pleasure you give,” she heard herself confessing.

Their sharp inhalations indicated their appreciation at her comment. “Pleasure is our middle name, baby,” Caleb drawled roughly as he undid his buckle.

“And pleasure is the name of the game,”
Zander
replied in a strangled voice.

Their fangs were dropping big time now.
Elongating past their lush lips.
Sharp and sparkling white, readying for her.
Her own fangs ached with a fierce need as she thought about biting them, piercing their hot flesh and tasting their blood for real this time.