Lauren stepped into the penthouse and did her best to school her expression into not looking impressed. This place was huge.

Obviously, she’d known he must have had money. Most vampires did. It was easy to accumulate wealth when you had hundreds of years to do so. Plus, the wolves had told her that he had bought her, so she figured if you had enough money to pay for an actual human being, you were probably fairly well off.

The way it had all happened had been strange, though. The wolves had come and made her get all dressed up, as though she was going to be presented like some kind of gift, but then they’d ended up running.

Also, the way she’d reacted to this vampire wasn’t how she’d been expecting either. She’d expected to hate him the moment she set eyes on him—what kind of person bought another person anyway?—but it had been quite the opposite. She’d heard him speaking in her head, and she was sure she’d somehow sensed him. Then when she’d been faced with him, it was as though she’d been reintroduced to an old friend she hadn’t seen in years. No part of her was afraid of him, though she felt she should be. Hadn’t he bought her for her blood?

So why did she feel as though she’d been rescued rather than bought?

The vampire, Nikolai, pulled a mobile phone from his trouser pocket. He lifted a finger at her.

“Stay right there, okay? Don’t move a muscle. I need to see if my friend is all right. I feel bad that I abandoned him there.”

He placed the phone to his ear, and she took the moment to study his face as he listened, frowning into the phone.

He truly was an attractive man. Perhaps a bit hard to be considered beautiful, but striking, most certainly. His jaw was almost a little too square, and the light blue of his eyes could be considered cold. His hair was somewhere between blond and brown, and cut to be swept away from his face with product, so there wasn’t a single hair out of place. His shoulders appeared broad in his shirt, and from what she could see from the shapes beneath the material, his stomach was flat, his pectoral muscles well defined.

He spoke in one word answers, his voice clipped. “Yes ... No ... Fine ... Tomorrow ...” Then he hung up.

She cocked an eyebrow. “Everything all right?”

“For the moment, yes, but I don’t know how long it will last. My maker, Ivan, was able to get out of there, but I don’t think this will have done much good for vampire-wolf relations.”

“So the other vampire with you was your maker?”

“Ivan, yes. He saved my life. But I was only in that club because of him. He was the one who persuaded me to go through with this.”

Lauren pressed her lips together. A curious question burned through her. “How much did you pay?”

He frowned at her. “Sorry?”

“How much did you pay the wolves to take me?”

He shook his head, the confusion never leaving his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

She blinked, the confusion transferring from him to her. “You bought me, didn’t you? That was the whole reason I was being kept down in that cellar. The whole reason I’m wearing this stupid dress. The werewolves had been paid to take me, and you came to collect what you’d paid for.”

“Lauren, I swear to you, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”

She hesitated, unsure if she should believe what she was hearing. “So... you’re saying you’re not the vampire who’d bought me?”

“Of course not! I’d never pay for a person.” His reaction made her believe him, as though she’d just insulted him with the worst possible slur. Something inside her relaxed, and she found herself exhaling a sigh of relief. So this wasn’t the vampire who had paid for her. She didn’t know why that should mean as much as it did, but she was relieved to be able to look at him in a different light. She hadn’t liked thinking this beautiful man was capable of paying to own a person to sate his desires. He had rescued her, not bought her, just as her instincts had told her.

He must have thought of something, as the lines of his frown deepened. “So, you mean, there was another vampire on his way to get you?”

She nodded. “If it wasn’t you, then yes, there must have been.”

“And he’s about to turn up at the club, only to find the thing he paid for has already been taken.” Nikolai ran his hand over his mouth. “Fuck. This is more serious than I thought.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “It’s always seemed pretty serious to me.”

But then something else dawned on his face. “Wait a moment. You thought I was the vampire who’d paid to have you kidnapped, but you came with me anyway?”

She shrugged. “When I heard your voice in my head, and then I saw you in person, it was like I already knew you. I wasn’t afraid of you—quite the opposite. It was like something was pulling me to you. Like I looked at you and I saw only hope.”

He stared at her with those light blue eyes and nodded. “Yes, I felt it, too. That was the reason I came to find you. I sensed you, too, Lauren.”

She gave a tight smile. “Besides, I kind of figured anything was going to be better than being around those wolves. You seemed like the safer bet.”

“I am. I’ll never let anyone hurt you, or threaten you, ever again. I swear that to you on my immortal life.”

He looked so earnest, as though he truly believed everything he was saying.

“But why?” she asked. “Why are you saying all of this to me?”

“You’re my Bloodmate, Lauren. You know what that is?”

She shook her head.

“It means we’re destined to be together,” he continued, “you and I. I knew it from the moment I first caught the scent of you.”

“Caught the scent of me?” Horrified, she turned her head and sniffed at her shoulder. She’d had a shower the same morning she’d been taken. The idea that she smelled so strongly that she left a trail mortified her. “Do I smell?”

He must have read her thoughts on her face. “Not like that. You smell like everything wonderful I could ever imagine. All the scents of my childhood rolled into one.”

What he was saying to her sounded crazy, but for some stupid reason, she believed every word that came out of his mouth. Because it was a beautiful mouth—full lips, with a defined Cupid’s bow, straight white teeth, and she wondered ... if she looked closely enough, would she catch a glimpse of his fangs? The thought sent a strange thrill through her. She should be screaming and running, but instead an unfamiliar tingle ran through her, causing her core to tighten, and her nipples to crinkle into buds. The tingle spread to her lips, and she realised he was staring at her mouth in the exact same way she was staring at his.

Without another word, they crashed together, his hands plunging into her dark tresses, and her hands slipping up his back to feel the rock hard muscles of his shoulders. His mouth captured hers, kissing her fiercely, his tongue pushing its way into her mouth. She felt as though she had lost her mind, allowing herself to be kissed in such a way in the middle of a strange vampire’s home, but she couldn’t help it. Her body had taken over, and now all she wanted was more of what he was offering her. His kisses left her mouth and peppered down the side of her jaw and down to her throat. One of his hands left her hair and reached down to where her breasts were still cupped in the bodice of her dress. His fingers squeezed her through the material, making her gasp.

A vampire is kissing your neck. He’ll bite you. He’s a vampire, and he’s near your neck. You’re going to end up as dinner.

Sudden panic surged through her, and though it took every ounce of her self-control, she managed to push him away. “No, stop, please.”

He looked down at her, and she noticed how his silvery blue eyes had gone a shade darker with lust. She dared glance down and saw how a thick ridge ran down one side of his trousers. Jesus Christ. His cock looked huge, and she hadn’t even seen it properly yet.

Yet? Why was she thinking yet?

She couldn’t go around having sex with strange vampires. This whole thing was insane.

Lauren covered her face with both hands and spun away from him, purely so she didn’t have to look at him anymore. She knew she wouldn’t be able to resist the invitation in his eyes if she had to keep looking at him.

Her body pulsed with desire. She wanted more, desperately wanted more, but she knew it would be a bad idea. She’d only just met this man, and he was a vampire, and he’d rescued her from a cellar owned by wolves who’d kidnapped her. She must have lost her freaking mind.

“What’s wrong?” Nikolai growled.

Lauren threw her hands up in the air. “Everything! Everything is wrong right now. My world has turned upside down, and I have no idea what I did to wish this upon myself.”

He caught her hand and dragged her back to him. She glanced away, not wanting to meet his eye, but his fingers touched under her chin, lifting her face to his. “No, Lauren, you’re wrong. Your world hasn’t turned upside down. Quite the opposite. Your world has only just righted itself. This is your world now. With me.” One eyebrow pulled down as he looked at her quizzically, as though he didn’t quite understand why she didn’t get it. “Don’t you feel it, Lauren? The way we’re drawn together?”

“I do, but … but ... this all feels so crazy. One moment, I’m kidnapped, and then I have a bunch of werewolves telling me there’s something special about my blood, and then—”

“Wait.” He interrupted her. “What did you just say?”

“That a bunch of werewolves—“

“No, not that part. The bit about your blood.”

“They said I have special blood, and that is why I was taken. Apparently, I have fae blood somewhere in me, and it’s from an old bloodline.” She held out her wrist to show the spot where the needle had gone in. “And he took some of my blood for the other vampire to taste.”

“Fuck. And that’s why the vampire is after you?”

She nodded. “Yes, I think so.”

“Dammit. Then he won’t stop. He’ll continue to try to track you down. I’m not sure we can handle this alone. We may need some backup.”

“Backup?”

“Yes, the way this is sounding makes me think we’re going to need to get The Directive involved. Vampires can’t go hunting down other supes and expect to get away with it.”

Her eyes widened. “Supes? You mean supernaturals? I’m not a supe!”

“If you have fairy blood, then you are. At least partly.”

She shook her head. “But I don’t have any fairy blood. I mean, I’d know, wouldn’t I?”

“Not necessarily. Not if lengths were taken to make sure you didn’t find out. Your fae family might have been trying to protect you, and figured it would be safer if you didn’t know.”

A snort of laughter burst from her nose at the idea of any of her family wanting to protect her. “Seriously, Nikolai, no one has ever tried to protect me. My mother is a drunk, and basically spent most of her life trying to pretend she didn’t have a daughter, and I don’t even know who my father is. If you think he’s the one who was trying to keep me safe, then he didn’t do a very good job of it by abandoning me with her. I got out of that house as fast as I could, and I’ve been living off my own back for the past five years. I didn’t need anyone else protecting me, and I still don’t, for that matter.”

She folded her arms across her chest and scowled in his direction.

His expression softened. “Hey, Lauren, I didn’t mean to upset you. That’s absolutely the last thing I would ever want to do. I was just trying to piece everything together. But it’s okay to need help sometimes. I get that you’ve been totally self-reliant, and I admire that about you, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. Things have changed now that we’ve found each other.” He hesitated and then said, “I need help from you, too, you know.”

She frowned. “What are you talking about? How could I possibly help you?”

“I’ve been afflicted by something called The Thirst. Have you heard of it?”

“No.”

“It can mean the end for vampires. It takes away their self-control and makes them dangerous to the rest of society.”

Alarm jarred through her. “You’re not making me feel any better.”

He took her hand. “But you make me feel better. Finding you has put The Thirst to rest inside me. It doesn’t trouble me when you’re near. I know humans don’t believe in such things, but you’re my Bloodmate, Lauren. We’re destined to be together, to have a life together. I might have saved you from those wolves and the vampire who bought you, but you’ve saved me, too.”