Alejandro hesitated, noting the sudden stiffness in her body. He squeezed her calf and then ran his palm up her skin slowly, to the back of her knee. Her breath quickened, but it did little to relax her. Flicking her gaze to the left, she saw that Sante had resumed his position against the wall, settling in for the show.

Alejandro yanked her toward him again, this time a little rougher. It was an unspoken directive. He was right; she had to get her head in the game.

Daria sat up, curling one hand around Alejandro’s neck and drawing him down over her as she sealed her mouth to his. A hungry sound rumbled out of him. He grasped her boxer shorts and jerked them downward, drawing a quick gasp of surprise from her throat.

Once he had the article of clothing down and off, leaving her in only her cotton underwear and the tank top she wore to bed, he inserted his knee between her thighs and forced them apart. Then he came down on top of her, dragging her leg up over his hip and grinding his cock against her.

Apparently Sante being in the room hadn’t affected his sex drive.

Her entire body went taut. She drew a breath, trying to relax herself, trying to soften her muscles and command the soft, erotic wash of pleasure over her body that would be present if her mate was about to take her blood. However that kind of mood couldn’t be commanded, not now. Not with Sante here. Not even for the kind of stakes they were playing for.

Thinking about her every move, she spread her legs for him. Alejandro’s touch had produced somewhat of a reaction in her. Her breasts had grown heavier and her hard nipples pressed against the fabric of her tank top.

Alejandro’s fingers fisted in her hair and he used it to yank her head to the side. He nibbled and sucked his way from her mouth, over her chin and then along her throat, raising goose bumps along her body. His fangs nicked her skin and a short burst of pain exploded, followed quickly by a rush of intense pleasure. Alejandro had unfurled a massive amount of veil over her, mischiefing her mind.

Ah, thank god . . . Even though she’d forbidden him, he was using his “special ingredient.”

Normally it would have alarmed her, pissed her off. Now she relaxed into it gratefully. It filled her like a drug, erasing her inhibitions and making the threat of Sante in the room only a distant concern.

Soon all she could think about were her body’s needs.

Her eyes closed and she shuddered in a long erotic sigh. Her whole world became Alejandro—his hands on her body, his cock rubbing rhythmically against her pussy through their clothes, his lips and mouth moving over her skin. Between her thighs, she warmed and plumped, knowing the scent of her arousal now filled the room.

He reached down and pulled her panties down and off, then dragged his fingers over her heated flesh, stopping to rub her clit until she whimpered against his lips.

Her cunt felt heavy and warm. Alejandro didn’t ever have to do much to elicit that reaction in her. All he had to do was touch her, kiss her, look at her. Her breasts strained against her tank top. She whimpered, trying not to beg for his hands on her, the slow, long glide of his cock deep inside her.

Alejandro slid his thigh between her legs and pressed up against her sex. She let out a sharp breath at the contact, her fingers twining through his hair. He groaned against her throat and rocked his leg back and forth, stimulating that needy part of her anatomy.

He yanked her head to the side, exposing the vulnerable column of her throat. Keeping up the slow rock between her thighs, he traced his skillful lips over her flesh, raising more goose bumps over her.

All the world faded away, replaced by Alejandro’s will and her wanting body. She opened her eyes briefly in a haze of lust as he brushed his fangs over her skin. He bit and a wash of orgasmic bliss flowed over her. She dug her fingers into his upper arms and hung on under the onslaught.

Alejandro made a low, pleasured sound of approval and moved from her throat, where a bead of her blood welled, down her chest. His hands found the small of her back, arching her up and into him as he nipped gently at each of her nipples through the material of her tank top, making them sensitive and erect. Her fingers fisted in his hair, twining through the silky strands as she fought the urge to move her hips to increase the delicious friction of him pressing against her sex.

Someone moved out of the corner of her eye, but she couldn’t bring herself to glance over, couldn’t bring herself to . . . care. Not when Alejandro was moving further down her body still, pushing up the hem of her tank top and dragging his sensual lips over her abdomen, stroking the pad of his index finger over her clit until she spread her legs for him. Under the heavy veil he’d used on her, she regarded nothing important but the pleasure washing over her and the anticipation of Alejandro’s next bite.

He nipped at the place where her thigh met her sex, such a sensitive area, and she shuddered. His fingers grasped her legs and pushed them apart as he dragged his tongue down her skin to her inner thigh. There, he brushed his fangs—a slow, hard rub in amongst all the softness. It made her shiver, made her clit throb with the need to be touched. Alejandro did not oblige her. As much as she wanted it, some deep, buried part of her was grateful.

Alejandro’s heavy, warm hand rested on her hip. His other hand braced against her opposite knee, forcing her legs apart and holding her down. Her hands fisted in the blankets on either side of her and her body tingled with awareness. He licked the area high on her inner thigh, laving it with his tongue. After he’d laid a lingering kiss, the sharp points of his fangs pricked her skin, a sweet hint of pain playing counterpoint to the pleasure.

Then he bit.

His fangs slid into her flesh and that familiar ecstasy enveloped her body, tingling along her nerve endings. It brought her just shy of a climax and left her teetering there, on the brink. He pulled on her blood, and his suction brought a new wave of pleasure. Her clit pulsed, swollen and throbbing with the need to be touched.

Daria arched her back and fought the rising whimper in her throat. She held on to the blankets with all she had, her body riding that leading edge of climax but, maddeningly, not tipping over.

Alejandro took his time, dragging out his feeding and keeping her there, hovering on the edge. By the time he’d finished, she was a frustrated mess from the sexual teasing.

He released her leg and climbed up her body, threading his hands through her hair and staring down at her in the semidarkness.

For that one moment, their bodies strung tight from sexual need, it truly was as if they were all alone.

Bare desire shone in Alejandro’s eyes, touched with caring for her. It was the caring that made her want him. It was the leading edge of love that she could see glimmering in the depths of his dark eyes, like a velvet blanket brushing over her skin, holding her close and warming her on a cold, cold night.

“I’ve seen enough,” said Sante from across the room. Neither Daria nor Alejandro moved or acknowledged his presence at all. “It is clear you are mated. This matter is put to rest.”

Alejandro didn’t break his hold on her gaze as Sante and his men left. Once the door closed, Alejandro lowered his head and kissed her. Passion coursed between the two of them, tangible as heat against their skin. Daria had to have him now, damn all else. Why had she rejected him before now?

He lifted his head. “Daria,” he whispered.

She pulled at his clothing, trying desperately to free him of the fabric that separated her body from his. All she wanted was the sensation of his bare skin sliding along hers, his cock buried deep within her cunt.

“Daria!” He grabbed her wrists and pressed them to the mattress on either side of her head. “Listen to me.”

Panting, she tried to focus on his face through the haze of lust.

“I tore down your walls with veil. I took away all your inhibitions to get you through that. What you’re feeling now are your impulses free from your misgivings, your fears, and perhaps your better sense. Do you understand? I did the thing you told me never to do to you. Right now, it’s like you’re drunk. I can’t do this while you’re this way. It would be taking advantage.”

She fought against his grasp until he released her, and she grabbed the front of his shirt, dragging him down nose to nose with her. “Alejandro, fuck your respect for me. Screw your honor. I want you. Veil or not. You will take away this need I have of you right here, right now.”

“Daria—”

She pushed up, her fangs lengthening, going straight for his throat. Her fangs bit at the time she unfurled her veil. Alejandro’s big body stiffened above hers and he let out a low groan of pleasure as she took what she needed from him.

To seal the deal, she reached between their bodies and found his cock through the fabric of his boxer shorts. She took the long, thick length against her palm and stroked it from tip to base, until he shuddered.

“Daria, I can’t resist you when you do this.” He sounded desperate and heavy with lust, his voice little more than a groan.

I know, she whispered in his mind.

He growled like the vampire he was, with a low and feral sound. His hand plunged between her legs to stroke and tease. Daria lost her hold on his throat and threw her head back on a moan.

His mouth closed around one nipple, then the other, sucking and gently biting. Daria struggled to gain control over herself, but couldn’t stop the snap and twist of her hips as she rocked her cunt against his caressing hand. She wanted him inside her more than she wanted anything else in the world at that moment.

“Alejandro,” she groaned, her fingers curling around his cock. “Please.”

He yanked his boxers down to his knees, forced her thighs apart and thrust inside her roughly, impatiently to the base of him. The length and breadth of him stretched her deliciously, stroking deep places inside her that hadn’t had attention in a long, long time.

She squirmed for a moment beneath him, her cunt crammed full with his cock. It was such a possession to have him inside her this way, like he owned every inch of her. She shivered.

She liked it.

Alejandro remained unmoving for a long moment, hovering over her and staring down into her heavy-lidded eyes. He murmured her name like a prayer, pulled out, and thrust back in. She closed her eyes, and stars exploded on the back of her eyelids. Orgasm poured through her body, dragging her into a sea of pleasure.

He took her hard and fast, pinning her to the bed as he slammed into her over and over. The slapping sound of skin on skin filled the room. Her climax went on for a deliciously long time, her cunt pulsing around his shaft that moved pistonlike within her. It wasn’t long before his cock jumped inside her and she felt him come.

Together they lay tangled on the bed, a mess of intertwined limbs. Her body tingled nicely in places that couldn’t remember the last time they’d received such erotic attention. She could tell she’d be sore in the morning, since Alejandro was not a small man . . . in any way.

And she wanted him again. Just the thought of it made her shiver.

Alejandro wrapped his arms around her and rolled to the side, taking her with him. She ended up with her legs still straddling his muscular waist, his cock still buried deep within her. His mouth found hers, his lips skating softly across hers. A sigh released itself from her throat and she tightened her arms around him.

“Again,” she murmured against his lips. “Fuck me again, Alejandro.”

He shifted his hips, showing her that he hadn’t lost his hardness. It was a trait of some Chosen males, and one she was currently very happy Alejandro possessed.

“You’re still veil affected.”

She ran her hand down his hip and over one nice, muscular buttock. Squeezing, she pushed him against her. “Alejandro, I need to sate myself with you. Don’t deny me.”

He traced her collarbone with his index finger. “You’re going to hate me in the morning.”

“I don’t care about the morning.”

“I do.” In one smooth, powerful move, Alejandro pulled out and flipped her. She scrambled for a moment facedown on the bedcover, surprised at the show of speed and strength that had so suddenly gotten her there. Then he grabbed her by the thighs and dragged her over the mattress to fit his cock once again to her pussy.

Her fingers curled into the blankets in anticipation, but she never expected the touch of his finger to her anus. She jerked on the mattress in surprise.

He clamped down on her, preventing her from moving away. “Hush, Daria, it’s all right. Have you ever been touched here before?”

“No.”

“A lover has never awoken all these sensitive nerves?” he purred as he stroked her.

Daria shivered in pleasure as her cunt suddenly gushed with moisture. There were, indeed, many nerves there. All of them felt delicious when stimulated.

“None of your lovers have ever penetrated both places at once, sweet Daria? Fucked your cunt and your ass at the same time? Tell me it isn’t so.”

Again, alarm flared through her briefly, but it was no match for her arousal. “No.”

“What sort of men have you been with that they wouldn’t do such a simple and pleasurable thing for you?” His silken voice rolled over her as he gathered slickness from her cunt and rubbed it over her anus. Slowly, carefully, he slipped a finger inside her.

She tensed. “Alejandro!”

“Relax, Daria. Just relax and let me do as I wish. I promise you will not be sorry.”

He worked the digit back and forth, making a low moan rip from her throat. Then he added another, stretching those muscles that had never been stretched and stimulating her into nearly climaxing.

“Ah, you like it. I thought you would, Daria,” he whispered in a ragged, aroused voice. “I like it, too. I like it because it is the ultimate domination.” He paused. “You like it for that reason, too, I would guess.”

He was right. Alejandro sliding into that most private, vulnerable part of her body was the ultimate domination.

“Now, feel what double penetration is.” He eased two fingers into her cunt and thrust back and forth out of each orifice at the same time. It was . . . indescribable to have both places filled and stimulated at the same time. Overwhelming. He possessed every intimate inch of her.

“Oh, yes, baby, you like that, don’t you? One day I want you tied up and at my mercy, querida. I want to fill this pretty little ass of yours and fuck your cunt at the same time.”

His language, coarse as it was, made her shudder with pleasure. The image his words brought up made her body shiver on the edge of a climax.

“That’s it, Daria. Come for me.” He thrust into her ass and cunt over and over and she surrendered herself completely to the erotic bliss of it.

Daria clawed at the blankets as he rocked her body back and forth on the mattress. Her orgasm exploded over her, making her writhe and cry out his name. She gushed over his hand, her cunt gripping and releasing his invading fingers. Daria didn’t think she’d ever come so hard.

Then, before the tremors of her climax had completely faded, his cock was deep inside her cunt.

But this time he took her slow.

Alejandro withdrew and thrust in again so leisurely she could feel every inch of his shaft as it glided inside her. With a strong grip, he held her hips, keeping her from moving as he slowed his pace even more.

God, he wanted to drive her crazy. That had to be it.

Yet he knew what he was doing, knew that the slow thrust of his cock was priming her body for another powerful climax. The man could play her body like a fine instrument, it seemed. He knew just which notes to play for greatest effect.

She clawed at the sheets in front her. “Faster,” she pleaded. She knew he was building her up for a mind-numbing orgasm, but the time it would take to get there would kill her.

He jabbed into her in response. “No. I want you slow this time. I like the way you look in the moonlight, Daria. The arch of your back, and the curve of your hip. You’re beautiful.” He said it like he meant it, and, ridiculously, it made tears prick her eyes. “I won’t go faster, not yet. I want to savor you.”

Her breath hissed out of her as she found herself once again impaled and at Alejandro’s mercy. She liked being at his mercy . . . at least in bed. She also liked the slide of his cock into her sex. Every inward stroke brushed the head against some sensitive point of pleasure deep inside her.

Alejandro bent over her body, still shafting her slowly enough to make her lose her mind, and kissed the nape of her neck. She shuddered at the way his body pinned her and how his lips brushed her skin so gently, so . . . lovingly. Something within her twinged a little, longed for that kind of touch more often in her life. Maybe even longed for it from him.

He trailed his tongue down her spine as far as he could, leaving goose bumps in his wake. Then he slipped his hand between her abdomen and the mattress, delving down to find her clit and tease it.

His fingers slipped over the bundle of nerves, rotating and pressing until her body quickened and her breath came in little pants. She tried to push up, but he kept her prone.

“Come for me again,” he murmured. “I want to feel you come, mi amante.”

As if purely on his command, she shattered once more. A primal yell ripped from her throat as another, far more powerful climax poured through her body. On the heels of her release, Alejandro found his. He groaned low and whispered her name as he spilled inside her for the second time that night.

After they’d tumbled together onto the mattress and lay for a few minutes, catching their breath, Alejandro rolled to the side, pulling her to curl against his body. Irrationally, she missed his cock when it pulled from her. Missed that intimate connection.

He didn’t stop touching her, even though they’d made love twice. His hand caressed her breasts slowly, teasing her nipples, dipped between her thighs to slick over her folds and over her sated, swollen clit. Soon lust tightened her body again and he brought her to another lusciously slow climax with his fingers—this one softer than the others.

Once she’d stopped shuddering and sighing against him, he cupped her face between his palms and kissed her for a long time. His lips skated lovingly over hers, his teeth nipped and his tongue stole within to brush against hers. The man almost kissed well enough to bring her to climax a fourth time.

Gentled by the residual effects of Alejandro’s veil, Daria allowed it all. He touched her so much, it was like Alejandro needed the contact and assumed tonight would be the only night he’d ever get it. The thought fought its way through the haze of satisfied lethargy that had stolen over her body and mind.

She needed it, too.

When he’d finished making love to her mouth and nuzzling her throat, he pulled the blankets up over both of them and curled himself protectively against her. “Sleep now, Daria. When you wake, you’ll be in control of all you faculties again.”

Was there a note of regret in his voice? Daria had only a few moments to consider it before the heavy hands of sleep pulled her under.

But he still knew a lie when he saw one.

It wasn’t that the surgery that Daria Moran had undergone was ineffective. On the contrary, if he hadn’t at one time been so in love with Daria, he never would have been clued in to her true identity. She looked nothing like she had.

And he’d never suspected from the scent of them that they weren’t actually mates. In that area, they’d done a good job. She and Alejandro were probably sleeping together.

Still, there’d been no way for him to mistake Daria. None.

He entered his house and closed the door behind him. The guards had left him near the entrance of his property and he’d walked up the drive in the early morning, deep in thought. Making his way upstairs, he replayed the events of the evening in his mind.

At one time he’d fancied himself so incredibly in love with Daria Moran that he’d memorized every inch of her body, every whisper of motion she made—from the way she tilted her head to the side when she was interested in something to the little hitch in her breathing when she was aroused.

He’d been watching the couple from the shadows ever since they’d arrived. The surgery hadn’t changed Daria’s mannerisms—the way she tilted her head, how her lips quirked in a smile, the exact way she gestured with her hands when she was upset or excited.

And he’d suspected.

Then last night at the party it had been one single movement of her right foot—an inch forward—as she shifted her weight just so. That gesture had cemented his suspicions even further. The movement had brought memories rushing back, filling his mind with Daria. The motion had been so her that it had made his heart ache.

And that was it. He’d arranged the visit to their room under the false pretense of the accusation in an effort to catch them unaware. His intention had been to study Valerie closer, to put his suspicion to rest one way or the other.

How she’d shifted and sighed. The way her face had slackened when she’d grown aroused under Alejandro’s touch. How she’d moved and breathed—Daria. It was all Daria. It had brought the past crashing into him and even, for a fleeting moment, made him miss her, long for her.

He’d always known that Alejandro had wanted Daria. It had always been clear in the heat of his gaze when he’d looked at her that the man had coveted her. If the display they’d shown him just now was any indication, the lust was reciprocal. The heat that had come off Alejandro and Daria could scorch an observer at twenty paces. They were clearly having sex, at the very least. Perhaps they were even in love.

He’d seen love in Alejandro when he’d touched her.

A ghost of jealousy raised its head, but he knew it was just habit. He still cared for Daria, but that part of his life was over now and he’d put Daria behind him with it. After the incident, he’d mourned the loss of her. He’d been depressed by the knowledge of how much she hated him. But as the years had passed, he’d relinquished her hold on his heart and moved on. These days he had a new love, the last love he would ever have in his life.

“Christopher, come in here. I miss you.”

She called from the bedroom, where the early morning faux-light shone in through the window and pooled on the hardwood floor. Emotion coursed through him at the mere sound of his name on her lips. He made his way into the bedroom and began to undress.

She lay tangled in the sheets, one long leg extended on top of the bedcoverings. Her silky hair cascaded over the pillows and she wore a small smile on her perfectly curved lips.

She was perfect, and she was his.

When he’d met his current lover, he’d discovered what undying and eternal love truly was. Compared to what he’d felt for Daria, this was an inferno to a flame.

It was fitting that Daria had come now to nail him—and he knew that was exactly her intention. If she’d arrived a couple of years earlier, he may well have turned himself in even though prison for a Chosen was a nightmare of eternal proportions. It was, for all intents and purposes, hell.

He’d mired himself in a large amount of self-hatred after the killings. The guilt had been so heavy, he’d been ready for punishment. He’d created the Shining Way as a retreat, a place he could separate himself from the rest of the world. All he’d wanted back then was to be a recluse. That’s all he wanted still.

Then, on a trip to Angel One, he’d met his lady. He’d been immediately entranced with her and, while it had taken him a while to convince her she was entranced with him, had fallen deeply in love. After that he hadn’t wanted to turn himself in anymore and the occasional urge he’d had to walk into the dawn—the real dawn—had completely faded.

His lady had saved his life. Nothing, no one, would take her from him or destroy their future together.

So, Daria had come back to him, dragging Alejandro along for the ride. The question was, what to do with them? He needed to know more about why they were here in order to make that determination. If they threatened him, threatened his woman or his current way of life, as much as he would regret it . . . bad things would happen to them.

He slid into his lady’s welcoming arms.

“Where have you been?” she murmured into the curve where his shoulder met his throat.

He stroked her upper arm. “Just taking care of some business, my sweet.”

Her arms tightened around him. “Don’t leave me again.”

“I won’t.”

As much as he still cared about Daria, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if she threatened him. He would do anything to protect the woman in his arms.