1

If sin were a woman, there would be no doubt what she’d look like.

Long dark hair cascaded over her bare shoulders and caressed the strapless, elegant dress she wore, a dress that accentuated her voluptuous breasts. Nipping in at her waist, the red silk flowed to the bottom of her legs and over pretty toes that peeked out from high-heeled golden sandals.

When she made a motion to kick them off, Cain commanded, “Leave them on.” He paused. “Take everything else off.”

A gentle laugh as delicate as a whisper in the wind came from her. “Oh, Cain,” she drawled in a soft southern accent that instantly sent a flame to his groin and filled his entire body with desire.

“You know how much I love it when you strip for me.” He tossed his dinner jacket onto an armchair and glanced around.

The suite of rooms was large and opulent, and consisted of a bedroom and a sitting room connected by large double doors that stood open at present. The absence of windows made this the ideal place for a vampire’s residence, providing safety as well as privacy. Priceless works of art adorned the walls, and elegant furniture provided an atmosphere fit for a king. This was no cave dwelling despite its underground location. It was an impenetrable fortress.

The seductress made a step toward him, her body moving with the grace of a tigress approaching her prey. And Cain might as well have been her prey, albeit her very willing prey. Just as she was his.

When her lips parted, he caught sight of her fangs elongating.

“Starting without me, my love?” he asked, and gave a shake of his head, a gentle reprimand, while at the same time the beast inside him delighted at her primal reaction and readied itself to react in kind.

A vampire showing his fangs had only two reasons: hunger for blood or for sex.

And he was certain this beautiful specimen, who now brought her hands behind her back to lower the zipper of her dress, wasn’t hungry for blood. Although Cain wouldn’t mind biting her while he impaled her on his cock. The memory of it now manifested on his tongue. So sweet, so rich, so full of passion. A strange sense of longing and loss slammed into him, but the latter feeling vanished just as quickly and made way for more pleasurable thoughts.

His gums itched, and he allowed his own fangs to descend, readying himself for what was to come. Anticipation heated his body from the inside, dispelling once and for all the false belief that vampires were cold. Parting his lips, Cain made her aware of his desire for her, though he was certain that the red glow in his eyes had already given him away.

Blood pounding in his veins, he watched her peel the red fabric away from her torso. His breath hitched in his throat as she bared her rosy nipples, already hard and standing to attention, her hands casually stroking her skin as she pushed the dress lower past her hips. The dress bunched there for a moment, getting caught by her generous proportions, which, these days, were perhaps less common. Women with hourglass figures like hers were rare, and maybe that was one of the reasons Cain was so fascinated by her. So drawn to her.

He imagined his fingers digging into those hips, holding onto her as he pounded into her softness. The knowledge that he could take her as hard as he wanted, because she was nearly as strong as he, made his fingers want to turn into the claws of the beast that lived inside him. But he pushed back the urge, not wanting to mar the flawless skin that stretched over her tantalizing flesh. Nor did he want to remind her of the violence in her past, the pain she’d endured at the hands of a cruel master. Never again would he allow anybody to hurt her. Not even he himself.

“More!” Cain demanded now and noticed the change in his voice. The hoarseness in it attested to his aroused state. He dropped his lids, glancing at the front of his pants. The bulge there was hard to overlook. He wasn’t trying to hide it from her. He wanted to show her what she did to him, what the extent of her power over him was.

“Oh, I don’t know if you can take any more.” A saucy smile underscored her words.

He took a step toward her, while his hands got busy ridding himself of his bowtie and shirt in vampire speed. He threw both on the armchair to keep his jacket company.

“Impatient much?”

“Do as I say!” Cain ordered, his chest heaving with the effort it cost him to keep a modicum of civility when inside him the vampire raged with the need to take her, to make her his.

Elegant hands pushed the dress over her hips, making the garment fall to the floor with a soft whoosh. But Cain didn’t look at what lay at her feet now. Instead, he stared at the dark triangle of hair that guarded her sex.

Mouth watering, his eyes lifted to her face. “You weren’t wearing anything underneath.”