The Secret Vampire Lord's Contract Bride

a Hay

e agreement, Sere

n studio was kicked open and cra

l blouse clinging to her heavy frame, smelling of stale menthol cigarettes and ra

he grabbed my sleeve. "Declan already can't walk, do you want to watch him get dragged to prison by the haul

umberyard heir whose family owned ha

y ring around his thick, hairy finger, his muddy brown eye

't ste

ted parchment on my workbench, my right hand raising a pair of surgical

e bastards fool you,"I said, my vo

; instead, Billy chuckl

acked dark mud across m

thick, calloused

ign the marriage settlement, let me take care of you, and those debts vanis

essed into the meat of his thum

d of blood

hand back, his smug expres

razy b

helf, sending a stack of antique refe

ch you! You'll beg me on your

the mud," I said, cold

Billy's arm to hold him

ific Northwest downpour, the heavy oak door

est h

so violently I nearly dr

housand

ction

rute who looked at me like a pie

dn't

n's medical bills or kee

s coat, and reached into my bag for the business card A

t of his needed a clean, legal marriage of conv

pecta

rom

ute p

he dark puddles along the fog-choked streets of Duskport, unt

I pushed through th

, damp wool, and an underlying sharpness th

r booth, half-shadowed by a t

dn't

houlders cutting a stark, elegant silh

eekbones so sharp they looked carved by

ghter around myself, and

oice barely carrying over the

clair turn

caught in

pale and piercing, carrying a stillness that mad

dn't

ing at a woman, but like a predator

s Hayes,"

ritone that seemed to vibrate

the booth

rvingly cold, like opening

rms?" I asked, trying to k

wife to get your family's elders off your back, and

't answer i

rested motionless on th

p irregular hours. I do not offer warmth, companionship, or explanations. You w

said, reaching into my bag

the laminated document sliced a

muttered

bright crimson blood

ooming in a spring thunderstorm-drif

an f

his body turned

vanished in a split second, swall

ge of the table so hard the w

in a violent, dry swallow as if h

hispered, fear spik

e y

bleeding,"

gravelly, tore stra

r it.

apkin, pressing it

t the sight of blood, a deafening cr

scre

f glittering shards as a runaway logging truck careened of

or turning my

rill of the truck

rld shattere

k wool cut th

iron beam locked around my waist w

from my lungs as my

as

splintering the heavy table into kindling

eyes, gasp

away, near the emergency

me, his arm slowly

n't br

didn't ris

at me, his black eyes gradually reced

My voic

that? You were a

said, his voice flat, emotionle

learn to avoi

s inside coat pocket and laid it on

it now, or walk away and de

ed truck, then at the

s dan

old as a

ved my life withou

my pocket and signed

id, taking the paper back wit

harp. Ci