She had to do it. She was not a home wrecker. She would not fool around with an engaged vampire. But the thought of him touching beautiful, doll-like Julianna made her fists curl and her heart ache. The more she thought about him looking at Julianna like that, touching Julianna like he had with her made chest burn with jealousy.

She had it bad for Dominic Blackmoore.

Her stomach quivered at the thought of his lips, his hands. He touched her just how she wanted to be touched.

He made her bite him.

Holy hell had that surprised her. Vampires, especially the older ones in power, did not give blood away lightly—as in at all in many cases. Some who are quite old even refuse to share blood with their bond mates. They consider their blood special and if they bestow it on you then it’d be a rare gift.

Dom had given it as if he’d needed her to take from him. He’d order her to take his aged, perfect blood. Her nipples hardened into tender little points remembering his taste. Masculine perfection, that’s how she’d describe it. His taste had instantly robbed her of all thoughts.

A shiver wracked over her body. Felicity blinked realizing her water had lost all of its heat and poured out freezing cold streams. She shut it off, grabbed her towel, and started getting ready.

She didn’t know what she was going to do about the man who had captured her attention unlike anyone else ever had. He was so damn untouchable. He was off-limits, not to be had for someone like her. Maybe if her parents had been richer or if she came down from a long line of royalty that could be traced back to the dark ages like the Blackmoore family. Maybe then he’d be in her league. But that would never happen. One couldn’t change their heritage. She was a poor girl from a family of limited means.

Dom didn’t seem to mind that, a voice said in her head.

Just remembering the sweet and sexy things he growled at her last night made her heart twinge like something burning had been lodged there. No one had ever said anything like that to her. And she’d like it. It’d made her crave him more.

The concert started at ten and she still hadn’t told Beth. Beth was going to freak the hell out. Felicity couldn’t wait to see it.

They only had three hours until the concert so Felicity phoned Beth to get her ass over here. Of course Beth had to turn down her background music first, only this time Felicity recognized the voice in the background—Lucas Blackmoore.

While Beth was on the way over, Felicity took some of her last blood out of her warming oven. The warming oven was a great little invention. The small oven was about the size of a mini-fridge but kept things at warmer temperatures. It could also hold plastic bags of blood, glass, hell even Tupperware without melting or becoming stale. It worked like a charm.

Felicity eyed her diminished stash of blood. She had two bottles left but soon she’d be stacked. As she popped the cap on her glass bottle of AB, she froze. She’d been so busy on the drive home last night reliving every single second she’d spent with Dom that she hadn’t even looked at the check.

Now she raced across her kitchen to the dining room table, which also served as her kitchen table. The envelope sat next to her portfolio. She grabbed it and tore it open.

She stared at the check, blinking. The numbers of zeroes couldn’t be accurate. There were too many.

Her heart started beating in a hard staccato tempo.

Then a knocking sound joined the beat. Could vampires have a heart attack? No, no she couldn’t die like that, but holy cow were there a lot of zeroes.

Her front door opened and she barely managed to lift her eyes from the check to see Beth coming in looking agitated. Beth froze as she took in Felicity. Then Felicity froze.

“What’s wrong?” said Beth, slowly walking closer.

“I got paid.” Felicity’s voice was hoarse and dry.

Beth’s lips curled into a smile. “You got the job. Isn’t this a great thing we should be celebrating right now?”

Felicity nodded numbly not even realizing she was doing it. Beth crossed her arms, her agitation gone. “Okay, show me it.”

Felicity somehow managed to stand upright and show her the check.

Beth cocked her head, squinted at the check, then her eyes widened and she flew forward to snatch it from Felicity’s hand.

“No way! A hundred and fifty thousand dollars? This is your pay?”

Felicity swallowed over the lump in her throat. A hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That would more than pay off her bills. That’d keep paying them for a long while and she’d be able to eat for a few years off that.

Beth set the check on the table as if it was a sacred object that might break, and then sighed. “Is part of that for costs of buying things?”

Felicity frowned. “I don’t think so. She said it was just my pay. Usually for big jobs like this they’ll open their own account and give me a specific amount of money to work with and we’ll go from there. We didn’t discuss any of that though.” At the thought of what she did do yesterday—make out with Dom—she blushed.

Beth took a seat and smiled wickedly. “Okay, tell me everything. The dress worked, didn’t it?”

“Like a freaking charm.”

Beth clapped and tossed her head back laughing. “I knew it would. That dress on you just begs for attention.”

“Yes, well, um there are a few problems with all that.”

“Like what?”

“Well, he’s getting blood bonded in a month to another woman, and I think I really like him.”

Beth frowned. “What’s a blood bond?”

Right, sometimes Felicity forgot her best friend was mortal. “It’s like a wedding only much harder to divorce from and much more permanent. It’s a forever kind of thing, usually.”

Beth raised a brow. “But I was reading one of your vampire magazines—”

“It’s called V Society,” Felicity interrupted.

“Riiight, V Society, and it said that Dominic Blackmoore of the illustrious Blackmoore family had severed his bond with a woman named Helena.”

Felicity remembered that too. “That just means he must have been seriously unhappy with her. They were together for almost five hundred years. They were never really seen together either. The magazine is filled with pictures of her but none of him.” Felicity shrugged.

“So who’s the woman he’s supposed to marry—I mean bond with now?”

Felicity grabbed her teakettle and started making hot water. Beth loved her hot tea—heavy on the milk and sugar.

“Julianna Greenwich, another blue blood like him. She’s gorgeous.”

Beth’s eyes rounded with remembrance. “Tall, willowy, blond, stunningly beautiful and dresses to the nines? Does that sound about right?”

Felicity smiled tightly. “That’s about right.” Too right.

Beth whistled low. “I saw her in those magazines too. She’s on like every other page. So he gets to bond to the pretty blond woman? No fair.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Felicity played it cool but fact was this bothered her. Talking so flippantly about Julianna mating with the man that drove her wild didn’t exactly make her feel good. It made her feel sick to her stomach.

“Why bond with her? They close or something?”

“Well, his father died of a rare disease a few months ago and the big election is coming up. I guess since his father was president of the council for so long everyone expects he’ll get the nomination. But he needs a bruid. All presidents had one when they were elected. Those who didn’t never won. Plus Julianna has a great history with her family. People like her. He’ll get voted in for sure.”

“What’s a bruid?” Beth said rolling the “r” as Felicity did.

“Exactly what it sounds like I guess. The female who’s getting mated is called a bruid. When two vampires are mated they form a blood bond. It’s actually called sanguis vanculo. You find the one you want to bond with, there’s a ceremony, blood is drawn and shared, you have sex, there’s possibly a fight and so on. A blood bond.” She shrugged.