Free Blood Wicked by Sharon Page

packed side by side. She tentatively reached up. One of the volumes in front of her looked ancient. The other books gripped it so tightly, it would not come free. “These are all about that word you used? Succubus?”
    “A succubus is a female demon who appears to men in dreams, naked, beautiful, and carnally skilled. Flower, I suspect every vampire hunter alive has either written a book about succubi—or would like to.”
    A female demon?
    Gently, he eased out the book and opened it. In the light she could see an image on the yellowed paper. A woman with flowing hair, large bare breasts, and fangs was straddling a human male. “This
can’t
be me. I don’t have fangs. I don’t bite men.”
    “I think you might. Under the right circumstances.” Hemoved behind her. His hard, taut thighs brushed along her bottom. She took a step forward, away from him. “A succubus steals a man’s soul when he climaxes inside her. The fangs are not necessary.”
    She took a deep breath. “If I was one of these, how could I have been born to my mother and lived my life in England? I am a normal woman.”
    His voice softened. “I suspect you are an extraordinary woman.”
    Madness, but she felt a quiver of pleasure at his flattering tone. She quickly quelled it. “I am
ordinary
.” Another picture leaped out at her. A blond woman had her mouth to a man’s throat and his member in her hand while he writhed beneath her in pleasure and pain. “I was not a succubus. I was a whore.” She hated saying the word. She heard the anger in it, vibrating like a blade of fine steel when it whipped through the air. “I was cursed, but not in the way you seem to think.”
    “I have to search a brothel tonight. You won’t understand why I’m right unless you go there with me.”
    Dear heaven, she never wanted to set foot in such a place. She had escaped being forced to work in a whorehouse by the skin of her teeth. “No.”
    He inclined his head. “You don’t have a choice. I am taking you with me. When we return, before dawn, I will feed your daughter again.”
    “You are wrong. I
do
have a choice—” She stopped. She knew what he would do. It was what any man would do to get what he wanted. Be vicious, ruthless. “You won’t help Sarah unless I agree.”
    He recoiled as though she’d hit him. “I would never use your daughter as blackmail. Never. I meant merely that I could do this—”
    A scream shot out from her lips as he came to her in a blurred motion and lifted her. The shelves raced by as she flewthrough the air, then flopped over his shoulder. His hand clamped firmly on her bottom.
    “There, darling. No choice. You have to know temptation without release. Until you experience that, you aren’t going to know what you are.”
    She had no idea what he was talking about. She hammered her hands on his back, wildly kicked her feet. He tightened his grip, and the most shocking erotic sensation raced from where his fingers pressed into her derriere. She should
not
be aroused by this.
    This was what men did. When they couldn’t win in any other way—not with money or words or power—they used their size and their strength.
    She could never let herself forget that.
    And she would never let herself feel hot and erotic and wanting at his touch. Not ever again.

4
     
    H eath dangled a set of iron shackles in front of her eyes and Vivienne froze on the velvet seat of the carriage. Then she gathered her wits and her fury. “Just
what
do you plan to do with those?”
    He merely grinned. Naughtily. “I intend to subdue a rebellious succubus. I assume you’ve enjoyed some bondage encounters. Your skills with a riding crop are legendary.”
    Enjoyed
. He truly had no idea. Through pursed lips, she warned, “I have tied men up. I never let them do so to me. Those are my rules and I never—”
    With a blur, he caught her wrist and drew her arm back with surprising gentleness.
    “Let me go! I refuse to be bound!”
    The only thing