His lips devastated her, sweeping her into a hazy sensual storm where time ceased to exist. Where there was only him, her, and the primitive energy of the world coaxing them to fulfill their duties as beings and lay with one another.

He pulled back pressing soft, but no less ravenous kisses across her lips, her cheeks, up her jaw to her neck where he kissed her rapidly thumping pulse. His ragged breathing sawed against her skin sending a shiver through her body. His hot, wet tongue darted out to taste a tiny bit of flesh before retreating as if wanting to go slow and savor.

“You’ll make a perfect bruid.”

Felicity blinked slowly as the sensual fog lifted.

What?

She couldn’t have heard what she thought she just heard. It had to be the fog surrounding her, combined with the potent brew he’d given her. Did he just say bruid as in a bride as in the woman a male vampire married to for life?

“That’s an odd thing to say,” she said with an uneasy laugh, the fog receding.

He pulled back, that deep frown back in place as his brows pulled low. “Not really, considering.”

Felicity pulled back too. “Considering what?”

One of his dark brows flew up. “That we’re to be mated.”

“Say what?” she said in a sharp voice.

Before he had a chance to answer, the door downstairs flung open and in walked an older woman who looked no less stunning in her age. She wore a fine cream-colored dress with a matching jacket that had one button holding it closed. Felicity recognized Mrs. Blackmoore in an instant.

“Dominic, are you in here?”

Dom shot Felicity a scary look as if his mother’s intrusion seriously pissed him off. He called out, “What is it?”

His mother turned around and gazed up. Felicity cursed and tried to duck out of his arms but he only tightened his grip, keeping her locked snuggly against him.

At the sight of them together, his mother’s jaw dropped open and a deep flush colored her face. “Who is that!”

“My bruid Julianna Greenwich, who do you think? Now get out of here, mother.”

Felicity and Mrs. Blackmoore had about the same response—they both froze in place. Only his mother recovered much, much faster from her shock.

“That is not your bruid Julianna Greenwich. Julianna is waiting in the study for you, where she’s been waiting for nearly an hour!”

Suddenly Felicity found herself the focus of two intense eyes, both russet with a touch of gold in the center.

The touch on her arm became cruel. “And just who are you?” he asked and for the first time she heard him angry, and it sent a wave of fear down her spine.

She licked her lips. “My name is Felicity Shaw. I was invited here for a job interview.”

Even though she barely spoke above a whisper, his mother down below heard every word. “A job interview. That’s the event planner for the mating ceremony, Dominic! You are messing with the help,” she said.

Dominic let her go and stepped away. It was as if an Arctic chill blasted over her at his cold gaze. All the passion that had been between them froze as surely as water in a freezer. Cold touched her where his heat had been and an even colder feeling settled in her chest like a hard knot making it hard to breathe.

“Ms. Shaw if you’ll come down here we’ll get this all straightened away, and Dominic might you see to your actual bruid. She’s waiting in the study.”

Dominic’s gaze stayed locked with hers. God, he looked fucking pissed. Felicity rather understood that. She had just been ready to get naked with him on the expensive rug and he was supposed to be mated with someone else? And he’d thought she was the woman? She had too many questions but couldn’t ask any of them. One thing was for sure, disappointment crushed her like an anvil sitting on her chest.

Dom stepped up close but not touching. “You did this as a game. To play with me, to try a hand at a Blackmoore, for blackmail? Just what did you get out of it?”

He spoke to her as if he hated her not in that warm way he had before. She flinched but held his gaze. “It wasn’t a game. I came here for a job interview.”

“And you thought this,” he thrust his hand out to encompass the bar, her drink, where they’d just kissed so passionately, “was how I conduct an interview?”

Shame washed over her, burning her face red. “Well, no, I mean, I don’t know. How was I supposed to know you had a bruid waiting in the other room? Maybe you should have asked me for my name then! I assumed you knew who I was. This isn’t entirely my fault.”

The corner of his mouth twitched and not with a smile. “I don’t want to see you again. Do you understand me? I don’t ever want to see your face in my home.”

Felicity jerked at his brutal words. They were like slaps across the face. She steadied herself and glared. “Then all you have to do is make sure I don’t get this job, because if I get it you’re going to see me and if that’s not something you can handle then too...fucking...bad. Because now I’m ready to fight for this job in a way I wasn’t before.”

She spun around, snatched her briefcase off the floor, and raced down the steps to his mother. “Mrs. Blackmoore I am very sorry about the confusion.”

The older woman grabbed her gently by the arm and steered her towards the door. “No, my dear, it looks like it was my fault. Please forgive me and my son’s behavior. Things have been strained around here as of late...”

Felicity listened to the woman’s voice but only partially paid attention because the whole time she could feel his eyes boring into her back.

Dominic had just made a fatal mistake treating her that way. He’d made her an enemy, and she knew how to fight tough.

Felicity didn’t wake up the next morning so much as spring out of bed. For the first time in a long time she felt vigor blasting through her blood making her feel younger and more alive. All because of last night and one Mr. Dominic Blackmoore.

After her messed up evening last night, Mrs. Blackmoore promised to interview her tonight to see if she’d be the right planner for the “mating ceremony of the century.” Those were Mrs. Blackmoore’s words not hers. However after it was obvious Mrs. Blackmoore was bating time to end the interview to send Felicity packing, Felicity knew she had to get serious. So she’d pulled out the big guns, her bazookas. It wasn’t anything she’d ever done in her whole life, but it’d been worth it.

When Mrs. Blackmoore had been about to usher Felicity out the door without so much as a “we’ll call you if we’re interested” Felicity had spun around with a threat. If she didn’t get a fair interview then she’d go to the media. She’d tell her story about Dominic Blackmoore to anyone with an ear. It was incredibly unfair and she didn’t know if she could really ever go through with something like that, but the threat at worked. She blamed her horrendous behavior on the vow she made to Dominic. She would get this job. No matter what.

This led Felicity to have a few questions: what happened to Dominic’s previous bruid because he did have one, and why was there such a rush for him to find another one when he didn’t seem to want one? Felicity had read in V-Society that their separation only happened about two months ago. Seemed pretty fast to be taking on another bruid.

Dominic Blackmoore had mistaken Felicity for the gorgeous blue-blooded socialite Julianna Greenwich. Julianna was everything Felicity wasn’t. She was lovely, ultra-feminine with perfect skin, hair, and nails. She always wore the best and most expensive clothes. The paparazzi loved to follow her around.

Felicity’s cheeks burned to admit it, but she even had the celebrity magazines that followed people like Julianna in her nightstand. She loved reading the little captions on what designer made Julianna’s dress. What she loved even more was seeing the jaw-dropping prices. Always jaw dropping. A $4,500 designer custom-made gown with $25,000 diamond earrings paired with a real pearl necklace and shoes that cost another $2,000. All of that to go see a movie on a Wednesday night.