Bitten by the Vampire. Bonnie Vanak

Mara. Now pull your pants down.”

      “No way,” she squealed.

      Yes. Way.

      The deep voice spoke inside her mind, compelling her obedience. Horrified, she found her hands fumbling with the zipper on her jeans. They slid over her hips, down to her ankles. Lucien gave a small smile.

      “White panties with little blue flowers. Quite feminine.”

      Pull those down as well.

      Mara struggled against the overwhelming command but hooked her fingers into the underwear and tugged them past her hips.

      His jaw went taut as he studied the thatch of dark curls, the slight splay of her thighs.

      Lucien hooked an arm around her waist. Captive in his powerful grip, she cursed as he sat and drew her over his knees.

      The belt cracked the air again. Tensing, she waited for the bite of pain. But instead of hitting her, his long fingers stroked her bare bottom. Lucien squeezed and gently kneaded until she shivered with pleasure.

      “I should spank you,” he murmured. “But I hate leaving a mark on such a beautiful ass. There are more pleasurable activities I have in mind for it.”

      Cupping her ass, he gave a playful squeeze. “Such as cushioning me when I mount you from behind.”

      A moan escaped her as a warm, wet tongue stroked over one rounded cheek. “Or taste your sweet flesh all over. Mmm.”

      When he slid a finger into her crevice and down across the wet cleft of her core, she did cry out. “So many pleasures. I shall not spank you. I’ll savor your sweet skin later. All over.”

      Oh please. Please.

      Burning with embarrassment, she turned her face away. This time she knew it wasn’t his silky voice speaking inside her mind, but her own desire.

      Lucien released her and she tumbled to the floor, her panties and jeans around her ankles. Mara glared at him as he rebuckled his belt.

      “I’d get up if I were you,” Lucien advised. “You look quite tempting lying on the floor with your pants down.”

      As she wriggled back into her clothing, he chuckled. Glaring at him, she buttoned her pants. “Mind control. Big deal. You think that sets you above my demon?”

      A twinkle lit his dark eyes. “Perhaps.”

      Mara’s jaw dropped as Lucien began floating toward the ceiling like a balloon. He rose until his head nearly hit the ceiling.

      “I’m quite above your demon now.”

      “Oh…wow,” she said weakly.

      “Though perhaps not your angel, if she has wings,” he joked, slowly descending.

      As his shoes hit the floor, Lucien gave a cocky grin. “Make yourself comfortable. I must make a phone call.”

      Mara fled into the bedroom to escape his amused gaze. The vampire had enormous powers the likes of which she had never seen.

      The elegant furnishings did little to soothe her turbulent emotions. She paced, and then her gaze fell on a single spray of white orchids. In a glass vase on a small table by the sliders, the orchids shimmered with beauty.

      So delicate and frail. The raging emotions quieted.

      Mara touched the orchid, remembering the flowers her father used to surprise her mother with. Her mother’s soft cry of delight, her father’s shy grin. Then she remembered the day she came home to find her younger sister sobbing with fear, her parents’ bodies lying on the floor.

      Blood pooling at their feet.

      The orchid shriveled, the delicate leaves curling and turning brown as it died.

      Nothing survives around me. Tears burned the back of her throat.

      She opened the sliders and stepped outside.

      Hands gripping the railing, Mara gazed at the delicate lace of the waves, the churning blue ocean. Her stomach felt like glass grinding in a blender.

      “The orchid died because of your pain, not because you willed it.”

      Lucien. Stiffening her shoulders, she stared at the ocean. The vampire had the power to see inside her mind. She felt more exposed than when he’d forced her to yank her pants down. Mara gave an indifferent shrug.

      “I wanted it to die.”

      “Untrue. I can feel your grief. It’s like a hot wind, biting and sharp.”

      “You don’t know anything about me.”

      “You’re the oldest of triplet sisters whose mother and father paired in an illegal mating. Your parents were killed by a Society bounty hunter six years ago. To escape attention, you and your sisters went into hiding, living on the trust fund your parents left for you. You were the main caretaker for your sisters, but when you turned twenty-one, all three of you parted ways because your goals diverged. Samantha wants to use her growing dark powers to avenge your parents’ deaths, Ariana is determined to never use her dark powers and you want to fit into the human world. Or try. You recently began college courses and were abducted by Jones the second day of classes.”