"What are you doing?" she gritted.
With annoying ease, Viper moved toward the nearby doorway.
"You said you wished a tour."
"I can wander about on my own. There is no need for you..."
He hoisted her high enough so he could meet her gaze squarely. Just for a moment Shay struggled to breathe.
It wasn't just his stunning beauty. Most vampires were beautiful. How else could they so easily lure their prey? But there was something compelling about those midnight eyes. Something that threatened to stir sensations she definitely didn't want stirred.
"There is every need, my pet" he murmured in silken tones. "Now do be quiet and let me perform my duties as your host."
Shay grimly averted her gaze. She had never believed it was possible for her to ever be enthralled or seduced by a vampire, no matter what his powers. She had hated them her entire life.
Now, she wasn't nearly as certain as she should be.
"Do you make a habit of carrying all your guests around?" she muttered as she battled the most ridiculous urge to squirm in his arms.
"You are my first and only guest."
Her gaze shifted back to his elegant features. "You're lying."
His brows arched. "Why do you say that?"
"I can't believe a man like you would be willing to leave his harem behind."
"A man like me?"
"A vampire."
"Ah. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm currently harem-less." The midnight eyes flashed their magic. "Unless, of course, you are volunteering?"
The prickling excitement inched over her skin and pooled in the pit of her stomach. Dammit. She had never been so intensely aware of a man. Certainly not a man who had the bad taste to be a vampire.
It was freaking annoying.
Time for a distraction.
"You've truly never had any guest here before?"
The midnight gaze held a knowing amusement. One that made her want to take a poke at that long, perfectly aquiline nose.
"I come here to be alone."
"Then why—"
"Ah, the living room" he firmly intruded, as if it was his turn for a distraction. "You will notice, I hope, the fine bay window that offers a stunning view of the lake. The wooden floors are polished oak that is native to the estate, as is the wood for the hand-carved staircase. There is something terribly fascinating about the stone of the fireplace, but I must admit that I did not pay particular attention when the real estate agent was torturing me with her endless spiel."
She had a brief glimpse of a shadowed room that seemed to consume an enormous amount of space. Oddly, even in the dark and with a muted sense of vastness there was a feel of warmth to the room.
No. She gave an unconscious shake of her head.
The feeling of warmth was not the room, but the entire house.
As if those who had lived here had made it truly a home and left behind the echoes of their happiness.
Lost in her ridiculous thoughts it took a moment to realize that Viper had not turned toward the nearby doorway that led further into the house. Instead he was climbing the wide sweep of stairs.
Crap.
Whatever his promises of not forcing himself upon her she didn't trust him.
He was a vampire.
Enough said.
"Surely that isn't all the rooms on this floor?" she demanded.
"No, but they are not nearly so intriguing as the rooms above." His voice was the same velvet midnight of his eyes. Just as magical,
Damn him.
"I wish you would put me down. I'm perfectly capable of walking." And running. And locking herself in the nearest room.
"I like the feel of you close to me." He reached the landing and turned into the first door on the right. He paused only long enough to touch the switch on the wall before continuing into the center of the room. "Here we are."
Holding herself stiffly, she studied her surroundings. She wasn't sure what she expected. Whips. Chains. Shackles bolted to the wall.
Instead she discovered a room that possessed the same welcoming warmth she had sensed from downstairs.
"This is your bedroom?" she demanded, regarding the large four-poster bed with its thick quilt and hand-carved dresser that held a vase of fresh daisies.
She could think of nothing less suited to the elegant, sophisticated vampire.
Oddly his face became an unreadable mask. Even the midnight eyes were guarded.
"Actually it is yours."
Her heart forgot to beat. "Mine?"
"Do you like it?"
"I..." She licked her dry lips. Suddenly the soft, charming room was more frightening than any amount of chains or shackles. "Why?"
He studied her expression with that unnerving intensity of a predator. "Why what?"
"I'm your slave. You can do anything you want to me. Why are you treating me like some sort of privileged guest?"
"It is because you are my slave that means I can treat you in any manner I think fitting."
She closed her eyes against the power of his gaze. "Please, just tell me what you want from me" she whispered. "The not knowing is worse than anything you can do to me."
There was a moment of hesitation before he was striding forward. Before Shay knew what was about to occur, she felt herself being tossed onto the center of the soft bed.
Her eyes flew open as she landed, but not in time to prevent him from following her downward and covering her body with his much heavier frame.
"Very well." His head angled downward until his lips were pressed to her throat and the silken silver hair brushed her face. "I want you in my bed beneath me, screaming out my name as you come in pleasure " he murmured, his mouth moving against her skin to send a thousand tingles of delight through her body. "I want to drink deeply of your blood and bathe in your heat. I want to wrap myself in you until I can get you to stop haunting my dreams. Is that what you wanted to know?"
Her eyes slid shut as she battled the urge to wrap her legs around his waist and beg to be taken exactly as he described.
He wasn't the only one haunted.
"Not really," she rasped.
"Don't worry, pet. I don't force myself on women. We have an eternity to sate my hungers." His mourn shifted so she could feel the sharpness of his fangs. "Both our hungers."
She shivered even as she shook her head in denial. "You know nothing of my hungers."
"I intend to learn."
A sharp, poignant sadness swept through her, helping to dispel the seductive madness that this vampire could infect with such terrifying ease.