Hot Blooded Read online

  Hot Blooded

  By

  KyAnn Waters

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Hot Blooded

  COPYRIGHT Ó 2008 by KyAnn Waters

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by Angela Anderson

  The Wild Rose Press

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0706

  Visit us at www.thewilderroses.com

  Publishing History

  First Scarlet Rose Edition, 2008

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To my editor. Diana, thank you for pushing me to write the best possible story—even when I went kicking and screaming.

  Reviews

  Delicious Darkness

  A Recommended Read! DELICIOUS DARKNESS has definitely made my list for favorite books of the year. Everything about this story is phenomenal...KyAnn Waters managed to make me believe that true love really does exist. This is a story I will be raving about to everyone I know for a very, very long time! ~ Amanda Haffery of Dark Angel Reviews

  The Cougar Meets Her Master

  Colt is just...Hot. He sees her, he wants her; he goes after her. This character totally works for me! He relishes the challenge of dominating an alpha-female like Taylor so he presses his agenda with maximum heat, forcing her to gradually forgo her inhibitions...The BDSM aspects of the story are more subtle than you sometimes see, that is, D/s is displayed more as a state of mind for Taylor and Colt as opposed to utilizing many overt props and activities associated with a BDSM lifestyle. So if you’re not sure about it, this would be a rousing introduction for someone who has never read something in this genre. The characters are interesting, the sex steamy and the HEA promises future delights. Who could ask for more? ~ Camomile of Whipped Cream Reviews 4 1/2 Cherries

  Hot Blooded

  Kelis Lebrun—Born in the year 1671 - Died 1708

  Present Day, Los Angeles

  Kelis Lebrun pulled at the collar of his button-down dress shirt. A sheen of perspiration glistened on his brow. He groaned, swallowing the lump in his throat.

  His assistant, Ms. Loni Soleil squatted at the filing cabinet, pulling her skirt tight across her rounded backside. She glanced over her shoulder, catching him staring at her ass. “Are you okay, Mr. Lebrun?” She turned back around and lugged open the drawer, causing her hips to wriggle enticingly.

  Sitting at his desk, he adjusted on the chair and gave room to his swelling cock. Not an uncommon occurrence since meeting his assistant. “Does it seem unseasonably warm to you?”

  He loosened his red power tie and yanked it from around his neck. If he didn’t get out of the office soon, he’d shed the rest of his clothing, and wouldn’t that be a surprise for the prim and proper Ms. Soleil.

  “You know me,” she said, closing the drawer. “I’m always cold.” She stood with the files and smiled.

  Loni might be cold, but she made him incredibly warm. Soft spoken, sweet smelling, and if he didn’t know better, he’d think she purposely kept him in a state of arousal.

  Kelis didn’t have problems with the heat, or more distinctly the sun...as long as he fed regularly, sating his needs on the sweet elixir of the unsuspecting Angelinos. He lived among humans, leaving them unaware of the symbiotic relationship he had with them.

  “Here are those numbers you wanted on the McCann account.” She set the folder on his desk, then tucked her hair behind her ear as she leaned over his desk. She clicked a few keys on his computer. “Did you know, on average, people fear spiders more than death?”

  What? He’d obviously missed part of her conversation while he’d imagined that golden hair draped over his chest as she fucked the life out of him...except that he was already dead.

  “Excuse me.” His computer beeped, and the McCann portfolio filled the screen. “What do spiders have to do with the McCann account?”

  She laughed, the light mellifluous sound played like a seductive tune to his ears. “Nothing. I was saying the other night I was in the library. You know the one on Fifth Street

  ?”

  Yes, he knew the location well.

  “I think it’s important for a person to learn something new every day. I spend a lot of time in the library. I guess you could say I like to people watch.” She glanced into his face and their eyes locked.

  A chill slithered up his spine. Not a portent of lurking danger, but a sureness that she could expose his weakness should she learn the truth of his curse. Since their first introduction, he’d been hypnotized by the striking golden striations in her vibrant baby blues. Perhaps that’s what he’d initially found attractive. Now, she seemed to have found a way under his skin. Something he never let happen.

  “Don’t you find people interesting?” she whispered, her pulse fluttering in her neck.

  Shit. Adrenaline shot through his system. Was she trying to tell him something? Something she had no business knowing. Something she was better off not knowing. He’d been in the library a few nights ago. However, he hadn’t been there for books...but to feed.

  “I’m too busy to socialize.” He couldn’t risk friendships, and not when the hunger had him in its grip.

  Los Angeles was known for its night life and its mild climate, but record heat had the city experiencing rolling blackouts. The heat and his hunger made him reckless. Normally, he was cautious. He had to be. Protecting his secret was imperative.

  The sole purpose for maintaining his downtown office was to give him access to unknowing hosts. However, most of his investment and stock trading business was done through the Internet.

  Before the digital age, he’d had to relocate often—different cities, different continents—because he didn’t age. His appearance remained unchanged. Same hazel eyes, dark hair, and square jaw. He didn’t have to work to keep a toned physique. Like most solitary predators in nature, he was strong, intelligent and cunning. His survival depended upon it.

  Kelis didn’t allow people close. Familiarity soon led to questions. Why didn’t he ever look older? Why didn’t he date? Why didn’t he marry or have children? All questions he couldn’t answer without revealing his secret. He doubted neither his friends nor clients would thrill to know they associated with a three hundred year old vampire.

  “Let me pull up your schedule. You should take a day off.” She hesitated briefly. “Another good place to people watch is Griffith Park. Plus, I love the observatory.”

  A quiet growl simmered in his chest. Yes, both good places, large crowds. One might call both locations a buffet.

  Desire coiled in his gut like a poisonous snake ready to strike. He wanted Ms. Soleil—had since she came to work for him a month ago. However, a relationship outside the office was impossible...if that was the implication she was making.

  Loni leaned over him and clicked a few more keys on his computer. Thick blonde hair hung to the middle of her narrow back. Her blouse pulled tight across her chest, revealing a lacy white brassiere. He cursed his acute eyesight. The thin fabric didn’t conceal her beautiful round and full breasts with large dusky nipples. Yes, he stared as they puckered and poked through the thin material. She reminded him of the voluptuous women of two centuries ago. Curvy hips and buttocks, narrow waist and large succulent breasts gave her the perf
ect hourglass figure.

  The subtle fragrance of her perfume drifted to his nose. Kelis sensed anxiety, but the strong pheromones of arousal nearly dropped him to his knees. He inhaled. Sweet hell, the intoxicating scent of her blood, surging through her veins caused his incisors to lengthen. He clenched his hands into fists and breathed shallow. The rapid pounding of her heart drummed in his ears. It couldn’t be the rampant beat of his heart—he’d died long ago. The man he became didn’t have a pulse.

  “Your afternoon is free.”

  Free, no he would never be free.

  “You’ve been working hard,” she continued.

  Yes, he had, but that wasn’t the only thing hard. The heavy throb in his cock and the acute ache in his balls demanded release. They’d been toying with each other for the past month. Some twisted part of him enjoyed the agonizing torture of wanting something he couldn’t have. When he’d hired Loni, he found her attractive but hadn’t known how her presence would affect him...hadn’t realized how much he’d want to bury is thick length into her wet heat. He didn’t just want to suck on those perfect, erect nipples, but to bite—hard.

  The subtle scent of her cream intensified when she was near him. She also wanted him, but he couldn’t act on those desires. To do so meant sinking his teeth into the butter-soft flesh of her neck, drinking the lifeblood flowing through her veins, while he rammed his demanding steel shaft deep into her cunt.

  “Mr. Lebrun?” Loni placed her pale hand on his forearm. Her alabaster skin, nearly translucent in color, revealed veins bulging with rich, decadent blood. His mouth watered.

  Kelis jerked away from her touch. Heat blazed through his linen shirt and singed his flesh. “I need to get out of here.” He slipped the top two buttons free. “It’s bloody hot today.”

  “My invitation to go to the park still stands.” Loni smiled, tilting those luscious lips, the ones he’d imagined wrapped around his rigid cock while she sucked him hard and deep into her hot cavernous mouth. He groaned.

  “You should get some fresh air. We could pick up sandwiches.” She brushed her hair over her shoulder and drew her fingers along her neck. “Unless you’d rather have...I mean, do something else?”

  Fuck. Had she known he focused on the pulsing, heated blood flowing through her veins, she’d never have offered to spend the afternoon with him. He was a monster, and he couldn’t steal her beauty.

  Maybe if the woman was anyone except Loni. She was too much temptation. Meals were easy to find on the street. A quick conversation in the coffee shop, some psychic mojo, and he’d have an unsuspecting host, preferably female, cloaked from view in his mental shadow.

  “Thank you for the tempting offer. Perhaps another time.”

  “Oh, well okay.” She straightened but didn’t walk away. “Let me know. The invitation is for anytime.”

  His cock strained in his pants, and his fangs, desperate to drop, nipped at his own lip. But he couldn’t feed from Loni. Not a woman he wanted for longer than a moment in his eternal life. He would never—could never willingly change a human—especially Loni—no matter how much he wanted her.

  Kelis remembered the day he lost his humanity. 12 December in the year 1708. In the filthy streets of London, death as he expected had not come, and immortality...immortality had been a fate worse than death. He’d spent the next hundred years in mental slavery until his master finally met his demise.

  Kelis pushed the bitter memories aside. He was destined to be alone rather than change a woman and make her his mental slave. And while he accepted that lonely fate, when faced with a woman like Loni, a forsworn vow of pleasure, he cursed the burden of his existence.

  “I think I’ll take the rest of the day off.” And spend it in bed, drinking his fill from a nameless host, expunging the image of Loni from his tortured mind.

  In his haste, he bumped her as he stood and knocked her off balance. “I’m sorry.” He grabbed her quickly.

  The moment paused. Lights flickered and dimmed. The room darkened. Kelis turned to the windows facing the street. Heavy blinds blocked most of the sun, increasing the time he could go between feedings. But with the rolling outages in the city, the heat was just as deadly...to those around him.

  She turned startled blue eyes to him. One hand rested on his arm and the other on his chest. She didn’t pull away. Did she lean in?

  Kelis needed to gather strength. Spending his days fighting his drive for blood and sex­­—Loni’s blood and sex—was becoming a taxing occupation. If he didn’t find a way to control his lust, he’d need to stop coming into the office and work from home. However, that posed another set of complications. He didn’t hunt in the community where he lived. “Loni?”

  She didn’t seem to hear him. Her fingers grazed his sternum as she regained her balance. Then her hand fell away and she took a step back.

  “Are you okay?” He held her at arm’s length.

  “No...um, maybe.” She glanced into his face and blinked a few times. “Actually, yes. I am.” She crossed the room. “I’ll walk out with you. There are some things we need to discuss.”

  He shook his head. Better to discuss business in the office. In desperate times, a few personal acquaintances—he didn’t have friends—had fed his hunger. Afterward, he always wiped the encounter from his host’s memory. Strangers were preferable solely because of his own accountability keeping him from using those he knew. Like Loni.

  “Oh, and it’s personal. I understand that you don’t want to have lunch with me.”

  “Loni, it’s not that.”

  “You don’t have to apologize. I understand. I’ll grab a coffee and a croissant across the street at the café.”

  Shit. “Okay, we can ride down the elevator together.” But no further. Not until he regained his strength.

  “Give me a minute.” She hurried out of the office and returned a moment later. She stood in the doorway, wearing a heavy sweater and with her small purse slung over her shoulder. “Okay. Ready.”

  He’d do better to keep this image in his head. “Aren’t you warm?”

  “You know me, I’m always cold.”

  Yes, and the more she kept covered, the better off he was. A woman who wore conservative length skirts, sheer but modest blouses, and sensible shoes didn’t get on her knees under the desk, take her boss’s cock into her wet wicked mouth and suck him off.

  Too bad for him.

  Kelis followed Loni into the outer office. “Are you happy with the position?” he asked as they walked down the corridor to the elevators. He hoped so. He didn’t want to think about what it would mean to him not to see her. That would be worse than fighting his desire to possess her.

  She smiled. “Yes.” She hesitated. “And no.” Then she hit the down arrow. Overhead fluorescent lighting flickered. “There are a few...adjustments I’d like to discuss.”

  The bell dinged and the doors opened. A wave of adrenaline washed over him. Within the confined space, her acute scent would weaken his resolve. The drumming of her heart would pound into his head until they reached the ground floor and he could put distance between them. Perhaps if he’d fed recently, he’d be able to withstand the aching need within him. But he hadn’t fed and Loni wasn’t safe.

  Kelis followed her into the elevator. The doors closed. Loni stood near the control panel so Kelis took position in the opposite corner. Leaning against the wall, he crossed his arms over his chest. He sensed her quick breaths, the rasp in his ear an erotic sound that tightened his groin. Desire for her clawed at his will. His labored breathing matched hers. Ninety seconds and he’d be free from her pull.

  The elevator descended. The lights flickered. A loud screech vibrated the walls. The elevator came to a jarring stop. She cried out, lost her balance and fell against the control panel. They plunged into complete blackness.

  “Loni, are you hurt?” His detached voice echoed in the silent elevator.

  “It’s dark.” Her voice quivered. “I can’t see my hand in fr
ont of my face.”

  Neither could he. Even with his night vision, he needed a sliver of moon or a star-studded sky to draw light from. In the windowless black box, he was as blind as she was. Although he still had his hearing, and the rustle of Loni’s clothing alerted him to her movement and her location.

  “Where are you, Mr. Lebrun?” Her breathless voice held a note of fear, and yet he felt her desire for him as sharply as his hunger for her clutched at his fortitude.

  “Here.” He stepped closer. “Call me Kelis.” Hopefully calling him by name would calm her.

  “What happened?”

  Her fingers brushed his sleeve. She wrapped her delicate hands around his forearm. Kelis wanted to pull away. But he didn’t. Fever washed over him, and her warm touch scorched his flesh through his clothing. Sweat trickled down his back. He began to salivate. His lips parted, and his fangs dropped. No! He had to maintain control.

  “I suspect the rolling blackouts.”

  “Then we’re trapped.” Her voice rose. “On the news, they said the power company was rolling the blackouts in two hour blocks.” Her grip tightened.

  Two-hours. Fuck. He’d never last. Heat, from Loni and from the confined space, already had him apprehensive on his ability to withstand her lure. His teeth ached and his cock throbbed. He put his hand over Loni’s. “Are you afraid?” She should be. He had only one way to stave off the hunger pains. Sex.

  She stepped closer, and his fingers trailed up her arms. “I’m not afraid,” she said. “As long as I know I’m not alone...that you’re here with me.”

  He inhaled sharply. “You don’t want to be alone with me,” he whispered with his jaw clenched. “Not now.” He gripped her shoulders, attempting to set her apart.

  She clutched his arms. Her heart rate spiked. Blood rushed through her veins like a raging river, calling to him with the promise of eternal life. A lonely life for him. Even though he desired this woman, he would never subject her to an existence like his. He could make love to her—god forbid, feed from her—but he would never change her.