Nina shook her head as if to shake something off.

“No. I can’t. I can’t betray Eddie. He was all I had. He was the only one who ever cared about me.”

She suddenly jumped up and off the bed. Amaury rattled at his chains, but the silver stung his skin. He bit his lips to stop himself from screaming in pain. Shit! His wrists felt like they’d been dunked into deep fryer.

“Nina, I care about you. Don’t leave.”

Without another word, she turned and stormed out of the bedroom.

“Nina, come back!”

She didn’t answer. He heard her footsteps as she crossed the living area. Then the entrance door opened.

“Nina, damn it! Come back and finish what you’ve started!”

And he didn’t mean killing him.

His cock stood fully erect, the tiny slit in its tip looking at him accusingly. He was aching now, yearning to be inside her, to find his release with her. And he realized that for the first time his pain was different. He wasn’t aching for a climax because his head was exploding. No, this time his body was aching for a connection, a connection with Nina.

She was exactly what he needed. With her blunt human teeth she’d bitten his nipples, and in that instant he’d hoped she would draw blood. He’d ached for her to bite him again when she’d worked her way up his body. Quite deliberately he had presented his neck to her, hoping, wanting, and baiting her to drink his blood. It was foolish. He’d never allowed any of his vampire lovers to bite him, never offered his blood to a human, but her tentative bite had awakened a desire in him he couldn’t quite explain, yet wanted to explore.

Wait until I find you.

But until then, he would have to figure out a way of getting out of his current predicament. Breaking the chain was not an option, even though it was not very thick. The fact it was made of silver made it impossible for him to do any damage to it. Every time he yanked on it, it only dug deeper into his flesh.

“Fuck!” Amaury cursed, feeling the pain more intensely now that Nina was gone and he had nobody but himself to focus on.

Amaury looked around his bedroom for anything he could use to rid himself of his chains. He shook his head. How could he have completely lost it and not have noticed her taking the chain and tying him up? No woman had ever gotten him into such a state that he’d completely lost all his senses.

In the last decades, he’d rarely had sex for the sake of sex. The only reason he’d had sex was to get relief from the pain in his head. But when Nina had started seducing him, all he had thought about was feeling her and enjoying her. Not because he had to have sex, but because he wanted to. And that hadn’t happened in ages.

With the silver eating away at his wrists, he couldn’t just lie here and wait until one of his friends came looking for him. There was no time to waste, or the healing process would take days, not hours. Besides, his hard-on wasn’t coming down by itself, especially since her scent still lingered in the bedroom. He needed to get out and start looking for her.

Amaury glanced at the phone which sat on the bedside table. It was several feet outside the reach of his hands. He tried to shift closer, but the chain would only go so far. The more the silver damaged his wrists and dissolved his skin, the more he started cursing her.

Wait until I get my hands on you, chérie.

And why was he still using the French word for sweetheart? He shook his head at his own stupidity and set his mind to the task at hand.

Twisting his body sideways, he stretched both his legs toward the cordless phone. If he pulled a muscle because of it, he would make her massage it with her tongue, he promised himself.

The image only intensified his erection which seemed to grow thicker by the minute.

With renewed determination, he grasped the receiver between his feet and pulled it onto the bed. His toes were too big to dial individual numbers, but if he could press redial, he would reach one of his friends. He wasn’t sure which one, but at least somebody would come to help him.

His big toe hit the button, and his sensitive hearing picked up the ringing sound. Even though he couldn’t put the call on speaker, it would be sufficient for him to communicate.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Great. Thomas? Really?

Somebody was having a joke at Amaury’s expense.

Thirteen

It was just Amaury’s luck that he was tied up in bed with a hard-on that could knock out a charging bull and had to ask his only gay friend to come and untie him. Perfect.

“Amaury?” Thomas’ voice came through the receiver again.

He swallowed before he spoke. “Thomas. I need your help.”