Free Min's Vampire by Stella Blaze

in
complete control, and though it had been exactly what she’d needed,
and it had been nearly the best sex she’d ever had in her life, it had been so
controlled it had been close to masturbation.
    Her mind flickered on a
memory, the memory of him— the man who held the number one
spot in that department, and still held a place in her
heart—Günter.
    The memory practically sizzled with how
wild and uncontrolled it had been, under a crescent moon, against
the trunk of a great, white, oak tree, in the middle of the forest.
He’d smelled of earth and pine, the musk of wolf. And he’d brought
her to ecstasy so many times that night, using his power, his
preternaturally strong body—smooth and muscular, every inch of him
hard as iron.
    But he’d torn her heart, her very life,
apart when he’d left. For The Hunt was more important. It was his
life, his true love. And it had taken years for just the thought of
him not to reopen those old wounds. The thought of him and what
she’d gone through after he’d left still tore at her. But it was a
pain she could bear.
    She had told herself she never wanted
to feel that way again. She’d vowed she would never let another man
into her heart again. That was why she’d…the mere act of
remembering what she’d done to herself, and with magick,
crystallized the blood in her veins, freezing her to the
bone.
    The spell she’d cast that night, when
she could take the pain of his leaving no longer, seemed like such
a simple thing: warding her heart from new love. Like the wards on
the house, it was a simple thing to do. But she had never tried
such a thing, and it was so very dangerous. She’d kept her plans
hidden from her mother and sister, and yet her mother knew the
moment she’d seen her again, that she’d constructed a wall of
magick around her heart. And that it would never let a new love in
again.
    That spell had lasted a good many
years. She’d been able to ignore every single man who showed the
least bit of interest, only now and then taking a man into her bed,
and only for the sex. But now, it seemed, her wall of love stopping
magick might be crumbling. The vampire’s hands held her arms firmly
now, and though he was no warmer than room temperature, she felt
heat building under her flesh where he held her.
    Oh god, how she hungered for
him.
    His arms slowly slid around her and
pulled her body into his. He was hard, pressing himself through the
fabric of his pants against her backside. Min gulped as his mouth
touched the back of her neck, causing all sorts of sensations to
cascade down her spine and over her skin.
    Min looked up to the mirror over the
sink to find she stood alone in its reflection. She gasped as her
cold fear made a return, clogging her throat. No, no…not like this.
If she couldn’t see him in the mirror, she couldn’t ignore or
delude herself that he wasn’t the monster he really was. She tried
to pull away from him, but his arms squeezed tighter and held her
in place against him.
    “ Please,” she breathed,
trying to turn around, “in the bedroom.”
    “ Why?” His breath was cool
against the back of her neck. “So you can pretend I’m something I’m
not? That I’m just some human man?” He ran his hands down her body
to the hem of her negligee. He leaned his weight in against her as
he pulled that thin silk shroud up around her hips, exposing her
bare bottom to the cool air of the bathroom. Min gasped as his
chilly hands glided over the tender flesh he’d just
bared.
    “ I’m a monster,
Min.”
    By the goddess, having him say her name
made her feel like a compass. It gave her entire body a jolt, and
made her heart…oh yes, it was indeed her magick-shrouded heart. It
made her heart beat harder, faster, and only for him. Having him
saying her name made him her true north, it was just as simple, as
impossible, and inexorable as that.
    “ And you will bear witness
to that fact.” He reached out with one hand and tapped a