She followed him to the rear of the house, down a flight of stairs, and across a large room with a single sofa and a few chairs. The basement felt bigger than the basic size of the house, but she didn’t mention it. He pointed her into a room, and she turned in a circle once inside. She hadn’t expected much, and she was pleasantly surprised. The room was done up as a sitting room, with a sofa and loveseat, a desk, and a large screen television. A door led to a huge walk-in closet with shelves and drawers waiting to be filled, and another led to her own bathroom.
“The armoire is a murphy bed,” James told her. “If you want to change out the artwork, let us know so we can properly store the items in here already.”
She’d never heard the term murphy bed, but from looking at the armoire, she assumed it was a wall bed. She needed to remember to call it by the term they used.
Rather than mention any of that, she simply said, “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
Three walls were painted a nice cream color, but the fourth wall was a deep wood paneling. James walked to it, put the toe of his boot on the baseboard, pressed down, and a hole opened in the wall, waist high, three feet tall and six feet wide.
“There’s a bolt inside that makes it impossible for anyone outside to open it, when locked. Everything is well labeled. The mechanism is old-school mechanical and doesn’t rely on electronics or battery.”
“This is perfect, James. I know you don’t want me to thank you anymore, but it feels I should.”
“You have about an hour until sunrise. We’ll leave you to yourself so you can get situated, unpack a few things, take a shower — whatever.”
“I had soap and shampoo delivered, along with some other toiletries.”
“The boxes that arrived addressed to you are in your closet. One of us can take you shopping tomorrow night if you discover things you need but don’t have.”
5
Fabio took Kelsey’s phone downstairs thirty minutes before sunset and knocked on her bedroom door. When she hadn’t answered after thirty seconds, he said, “It’s Fabio. If you’re up, I need you to open the door.”
Ten seconds later, he heard footsteps and the door opened.
She stood before him in a short, sexy little robe. Her gaze focused on his bare chest and then went lower. His dick throbbed in his jeans.
“Sorry, I wanted to get my eyeliner on. I showered before the sun took me, but...” She moved out of his way and motioned him in. “Please, come in. I haven’t tried to lower the bed yet. Do you know how?”
“I do. It isn’t hard. I’ll show you. First, here’s your cellphone. The sticker on the box has the phone number and pattern to get in. You can change the pattern, but you can’t do away with it. Also, you should know the Drake geeks can get into it no matter the pattern. There’s no expectation of privacy. Oh, and the print on the sticker will fade in forty-eight hours, so make sure you memorize everything on it. It was printed about eight hours ago, so you have around forty hours left.”
He put the box in her hands, walked to the murphy bed, and opened the chest doors. “The main thing to remember is to pull it down from the top, which is technically the foot, I guess. If you pull from the sides you run the risk of mashing your fingers. The sheets are clean, and there’s a set of fresh sheets in your bathroom closet. We don’t have a maid, so you’ll have to wash them and change them out as needed.”
“James and I talked about that. If you want to hire a human, I can go into his or her head and make certain they don’t notice things you’d rather they not see.”
He turned and gave her a level gaze. “Yeah, ’Losa told us, but for now, we don’t have a maid. Also, you’ll be able to look into my head all you want once you drink from me, but you’re liable to need therapy if you do, so I wouldn’t advise it. Drake employees get six free visits with a therapist per year. She knows all about supernaturals, so you can be honest with her. It’s possible she knows more about vampires than you. If you kill someone for the company and you want or need more than six visits, Aaron will make it happen. First kill, seeing her is mandatory. Otherwise, killing someone doesn’t mean you have to. Usually, I assume vamps have killed, but I’m guessing you haven’t?”
She shook her head. “No. I was offered shapeshifters exclusively before I had control. I was told I’d just be in the office here, though. Not out in the field.”
“Your contract says we can offer a bonus for you to go out in the field, should your skills be needed.” She’d moved into the room far enough to put the phone on the sofa table, but she was still on the other side of the sofa. “You need to feed, Kelsey. If you don’t want to have sex today, that’s fine, but I can sense your hunger.”
She’d been shy and afraid, but his words seemed to give her confidence. She walked around the sofa, slid her robe down her arms behind her back so it fell onto the arm of the sofa, and then walked to him, completely naked, looking like a model on a runway.
She smelled of vampire, but she looked completely human. He knew this was a combination of being recently dead and the expert use of cosmetics, but he didn’t care. He opened his arms when she neared, and lowered his mouth to kiss her.
Fabio’s dick had been interested before, but the cool mouth of a vampire had blood pulsing into it, and within seconds, he was granite hard. He’d been with plenty of vampires, and all of them wanted to take control. Since his first, none had managed, and this little thing wasn’t going to, either.
“Undo my pants, Kelsey. You may lick, but no more for now.”
Kelsey knew she was good at sex. This wasn’t her being smug, just knowing her strengths. She was horrible at socializing, sports, and just about anything outside of the handful of things she excelled at — sex, hacking and computers, geeky sci-fi knowledge, business and finance, fashion, hair, and makeup.
But in this moment, she was focused on the hunk in front of her who smelled of big cat, and nothing else mattered. Leopards are damned sexy even when they aren’t trying, and this one seemed to be trying. She ran a finger from just below his Adam’s apple through the center of his chest, over ripped abs, and to the top of his pants. She flipped the button loose, and pulled the zipper out and down to make certain she didn’t injure him, since he clearly wasn’t wearing underwear.
And he was nearly as big around as a freaking Pringles can. Not terribly long, thank heavens, but fat enough she’d know when he was in her.
Her tongue touched her upper lip before she realized it was going to. He’d told her she could lick, but she wanted to do more to the beautiful man with the magnificent dick. She pushed his pants to the floor, and while she was leaned forward, she ran her hands up the sides of his legs until they reached his hips, and held on. Her legs were spread and straight, her back arched, and she ran her tongue over his gorgeous cock while she breathed in the scent of warm, male leopard shifter.
She’d fed from a variety of animals, but so far, one flavor hadn’t stood out above the others. Vampires are usually a great deal older when they gain power over a particular kind of shifter, but Kelsey’s former Master had given her a wide pallet on the off chance something stood out.