It was amazing how much things could change in such a short amount of time. Just last month she was burying her father with her sisters. He’d died so suddenly. At first, none of them could believe it. He’d lived to be over a thousand years old, a massive lifetime, and yet he didn’t find anyone he wanted to mate with until he met Lauren Dupree.

After he mated with their mother, who disappeared not long after giving birth to Lily, he was heartbroken. Neither Chloe nor her sisters remembered anything about their mother. Willow insisted on calling her an “egg-donor.”

Chloe couldn’t say she blamed her. Papa hired everyone imaginable up until the day he died to try to discover what had happened to her. Did she run away from him? Did she die? He always did say she was a fickle, flighty woman, course he said he loved that about her. Her unexpectedness kept his boring butt on his toes.

Now Chloe only had stories about her mother and a few pictures of her back home. When she was young, she desperately wanted to find her mother, to get to know her. But as she grew older and her mother never came home with open arms, Chloe distanced herself from the prospect. Now she could shrug at the whole matter and honestly didn’t care that she never had a mother in her life, because she’d had one fantastic papa who more than made up for it.

Suddenly, she stepped on a rock and her ankle twisted the wrong way. Sharp pain shot up her leg. “Ow! That’s it. I’m done. Call a taxi because I’m not moving from this spot. I’m tired and dirty. We’ve been walking for hours and I miss my sisters. I need to call them and you haven’t even said a word to me since we left that blue-haired demon’s HQ.” A hot blush crept up her face and she almost looked away from him, but decided he deserved her hateful glare. He looked down at her ankle with little interest and nodded down the street.

“The hotel’s right there.” His stiff voice was back to being controlled. She wondered if she slapped him across the face would he even flinch. She was about to find out when he said,

“Do you need me to carry you the rest of the way?”

“No,” she said gruffly. Okay, it wasn’t particularly sweet what he said, but it warmed her anyways. Honestly the pain wasn’t that bad. She was just frustrated at this whole situation. As they reached the hotel, Chloe’s mood worsened. She’d hoped it’d at least be a Holiday Inn or something but, no, it was some rinky-dink hotel that’d probably make her feel dirtier going into than leaving.

Tyrian paid for the room which, of course, was the one at the very end of the complex.

He’d asked for a room ‘furthest from the office.’ Of course he’d prolong the walking torture.

When she finally got inside the room, she didn’t care that the carpet was fifty years old or that the room was muggy with humidity. She marched straight to the bathroom and turned the shower on. At least the water got hot, she thought.

She didn’t bother pulling the door closed, just stripped, and got into the steamy water.

She sighed as the hot water beat across her sore back and leg muscles. When the water ran cold, she rinsed off and got out. She dried her hair and wrapped a white towel around herself as she left the bathroom.

Tyrian was talking on a cell phone. She didn’t even know he had one. It was odd, but seeing him use a piece of modern technology was just...weird. He should be holding a sword or a mighty hammer in one hand with a goblet of mead in the other. Especially with that jagged scar across his cheek, he looked every bit the old-time warrior. Course, an old warrior probably wouldn’t hesitate to ravage her like she wanted.

The new moon cycle only lasted for about three days. Soon the moon would be filling brightly again in the sky, and Tyrian wouldn’t have to help her with her little “problem.” She stared at the hard muscles of his shoulders, back and legs, which she’d felt the strength in as he thrust inside her. The man was a machine. And he wouldn’t touch her once her new moon was gone.

What would happen to her after her moon cycle was over and she reached full sexual

maturity? From then on she’d require sex every day, just like a human does with food, or a vampire with blood. Her eyes widened as a realization hit her. Who would feed the vampire? He finished with some businessy conversation on the phone and closed it.

“Tyrian?” She bit her lip, excitement making her heart race. She loved trying new things, and this particular thing she really wanted to try.

“What?”

She thought for a moment on how best to approach this subject and decided to go

outrageous since that always seemed to work with him. Dropping the towel to the floor, she walked to him.

He heard her coming and turned to her. Chloe smiled when his eyes widened and the

barest of flushes graced his cheeks. He was the biggest ego stroke she’d ever had in her whole life. With one simple look, a look that he was obviously trying not to show, he managed to make her feel like an irresistible goddess. As if he had to steel himself just to deal with her. God did she love it.

She stopped in front of him and pressed her palm against his chest. Encouraged when he didn’t pull away, she pressed the other against his heart. Was she finally making leeway with the vampire commander?

“I want to feed you.” His lip twitched and he looked back out the window.

“No. Come on,” he said. Not bothering to wait for her, he grabbed her by the hand and took her into the bathroom. He paused then said, “Stay in here while I shower.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s not a problem.”

His words were icy cold when he said, “This isn’t for fun. In case something happens, I want you near me.” Chloe sent him a saucy wink and leaned against the sink. His eyes flicked over her hard nipples before he dragged his gaze away and undressed in quick movements.

“Don’t rush, baby. Go slow. Tease me. Mmm, yeah. Just like that.” He kicked off his boots and glared at her, his icy eyes glittering. She smiled and hopped up onto the sink counter for a better view. “You have one delicious body, Ty.” He reached for the tie holding his hair and released it. Black hair spilled out across the breadth of his shoulders.

His body didn’t look baby soft or even smooth, for that matter. He had a variety of scars from his arms all the way down to his calves. Some were small gashes like thin cuts and others were deeper, wider and were probably once very nasty. A light dusting of black hair covered his stomach but did nothing to hide the hard muscles he kept there.

He turned his back to her and in full light, she finally got to see that strange tattoo again.

He got into the shower and closed the glass door with a bang.

“Tell me about the tattoo.”

He started soaping himself and said, “No.”

Undeterred Chloe said, “Either tell me about the tattoo or tell me about your family. I’d prefer to know it all but I’m nice and will let you get away with just one for now.”

“No.”

“If you don’t,” she rushed to think of something, anything that she could use as leverage,

“then I’ll sleep with Draven, Rayn, and Henry. I mean it. I will. Maybe even at the same time.

And you know they will. Don’t push me on this because I know that somewhere deep inside you, you really don’t want that.”

Silence greeted her except for the water sloshing as he created suds and lathered them over his arms and chest. Her stomach tightened at the sight and she really, really wished he’d go slower.

“Papa raised us different than other succubus families. He didn’t believe that the man needed to be head of household or that he had any right to decide whom his daughters should love or be with. My sisters and I respected that, especially as we got older and really understood what it took for him to do that. Some families ostracized us, criticized my father for breaking the time-honored tradition of creating submissive women. Ha, it was a joke,” she said. Tyrian had slowed his motions and she knew he was listening.