Venice Vampyr - The Beginning

He’d changed his mind? He was going to throw her out after all? A breath dislodged from her lungs and traveled upwards. She tensed her body, not wanting it to escape sounding like a sob. Had she done something wrong? Did he not like the way she’d sucked him?

“You can stay for a few days until we’ve figured something out. But you can’t be my mistress. Rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He leapt from the bed and gathered his clothes so fast, she had no chance to hold him back. A moment later, the door closed behind him. She was alone. And Lorenzo didn’t want her body.

That knowledge was like a slap in the face.





Chapter Seven




Something was seriously wrong with him. Lorenzo bolted for the next room and sought shelter from his warring emotions and from the enthralling naked Bianca in the next bedchamber. When had he ever developed scruples about fucking a woman? This wasn’t the first time he was taking advantage of somebody, and it wasn’t going to be the last.

Exactly, his cock chimed in. So, let’s go back in there and do it.

Lorenzo stared down at his hard-on and felt like slapping it into submission. He wasn’t going back into that bedchamber and take advantage of a young woman who’d had no choice but to offer her body to him so she would have a roof over her head. Not even he would sink that low.

He yanked his trousers up and pulled his shirt on, fastening the buttons quickly before he could change his mind. God, Bianca had gone so far as to suck him with those amazing lips, running her tongue along his shaft so tenderly, he’d thought he would burst. While he knew she wasn’t an innocent and clearly not a virgin, no decent woman should be subjected to having to service a stranger in such manner, no matter what hard times she’d fallen onto. It wasn’t her fault that her father had gambled away all the money.

Lorenzo stopped in his thoughts. He’d left money with the solicitor to give to the daughter so she would have something to tide her over. Had the bastard pocketed the money himself and not given it to her? Was that why she was destitute? No. Now he remembered. Bianca hadn’t even seen the solicitor yet. She’d arrived and come straight to the house. No wonder she didn’t know about the money, didn’t realize she wasn’t completely penniless. This could be corrected.

He would send word to Signore Mancini, making him aware that Bianca was temporarily staying at his house and that he should have the money delivered to her there. That would take care of it. Once she had the money, surely she’d be more than happy to depart and leave him to his debauchery.

Once she was gone, he would be no danger to her anymore. But right now she was in danger of him taking the last bit of her innocence and if he lost control, the last drop of her blood. And she didn’t deserve that, particularly because Lorenzo actually liked her.

Her strength when she’d been confronted with the news that the house wasn’t hers anymore had impressed him, and her determination to do anything to survive was admirable. He couldn’t bring himself to break the spirit of such a woman. It wasn’t her fault that she was in the situation she was in. She shouldn’t have to be the one to pay for her father’s sins.

Lorenzo finished dressing and stalked down the dark stairs, ignoring the enticing scent drifting to him from her bedchamber. He needed to get out of the house for a few hours while night was still upon them. And maybe somehow he could come up with a plan to help Bianca pick up her life and make a new one now that her father was dead.

If he was lucky, he’d find Nico at one of his favorite hells and enlist him in making a few inquires for him.

Half an hour later, Lorenzo marched into a nightspot which was part brothel, part drinking hall, and picked up Nico’s scent. He breathed a sigh of relief and headed for the upper floor where small rooms lined the long, dark hallway. The smell of sex, sweat, and unwashed bodies assaulted his senses, making his body aroused and repulsed at the same time. He’d spent many a night at this establishment to slake the unquenchable lust that always coursed through his body. He’d never known any different. It was a difficult vice to control, particularly for a vampire like him. His heightened vampire senses made all temptations that were thrown at him even more irresistible. Once a long time ago, he’d given in and instead of simply giving his body what he needed, he’d opened his heart. Only to have it ripped out in the process.

Elle. He hadn’t thought of her in years; he’d suppressed the memory of her quite successfully for a very long time. He didn’t understand why he was thinking of her now, other than the fact that maybe Bianca had reminded him a little of her. The same round eyes that could mimic innocence quite effectively.