I felt my jaw drop. “He paid her off? Son of a bitch.”
“He told her I’d been disinherited and that she’d get no cash, but that he’d give her money in exchange for her cutting me out of her life.”
“But … why do something so vindictive?”
“A couple of months before Austin’s death, Kaiden caught his fiancée—a woman his father pretty much chose for him—coming onto me at a party when she was drunk. I don’t think Kaiden loved her, but he was rightfully pissed at her. He was also pissed at me. I hadn’t done a thing to lead her on, and I’d pushed her away when she tried kissing me—he knew all that. But his pride was hurt. It hit the low self-esteem that he likes to pretend he doesn’t have.”
“So the bastard struck out at you,” I said, pushing aside my empty plate.
Damien nodded. “I beat the piss out of him. People heard about it and assumed I’d just been pissed that Austin left me nothing in his will. My dad knew different, but he gave Sam the false version when she contacted him.”
“What? Why?”
“When I first joined the legion, I was a bit of a shit toward Sam. The entire squad was—at Jared’s encouragement, I might add.”
I smiled and took a swig of my juice. “Yeah, I heard about that. You were total dicks.”
“We were. Sam wanted to give us all a metaphorical kick up the ass and bring us back down to Earth. So she found out something from each of our pasts to throw at us, to remind us what had given us our strengths in the first place. My dad didn’t feel good about handing her info that could hurt me, so he told her the bullshit version instead, knowing it would slap me back down to reality just as effectively.”
“Well, both Kaiden and Bianca need a few fucking bitch slaps.”
Straightening, Damien came toward me. “It was years ago. I’ve long since passed caring.” He looked at my plate. “You finished?”
I set down my glass. “Yup.”
He took my hand and pulled me off the stool. “We done talking now?”
“I guess so.”
“Good.” He bit me. Sank his teeth into the crook of my neck. As always, it woke my body right up. Chemicals raced. My heart pounded. And I pretty much melted against him.
“Damien,” I breathed. “Dammit, this should not count as foreplay.” But I could feel myself growing damp. I pushed at his chest. “Maybe I want to be the one sucking on something this time.”
He licked at the bite and met my gaze with a smile. “I’m not going to stop you.”
So I went to my knees, fished his cock out of his jeans, and took him into my mouth.
He hissed out a breath. “Jesus, baby.” It wasn’t long before he exploded, his hand bunched in my hair, a curse on his lips. “Hmm, you deserve a reward for that.”
Like I’d argue.
CHAPTER NINE
(Lexi)
Sitting in the club’s breakroom the next evening as we ate our lunch, Maisy stared at me, her mouth open. “You agreed to be his vessel?” she asked.
I nodded, resisting the urge to squirm in my seat, suspecting she’d tell me what I didn’t want to hear—that I’d messed up here. It wasn’t like I’d undo what I’d done. I couldn’t. If that made me a masochist, well, you learned something new about yourself every day, didn’t you? Or night, as the case might be.
Her shoulders sagged, and she let out a tired groan. “You’ve learned nothing from the mistakes I’ve made, have you?”
“Maisy—”
“Really, did I not teach you anything at all?”
I flicked a hand her way. “You’re the one who suggested I let him feed from me.”
“I figured you’d do it once. Maybe twice. That it would just be some casual thing.”
Personally, I didn’t really see how anything that sensual could truly be entirely casual. But then, I probably wouldn’t feel that way if it was any vampire other than Damien. Nothing I felt about or toward him was casual, but that was my little secret. I intended on keeping it to myself. Hopefully I’d done a good job of hiding it from the female squad members who’d been casually posing nosy questions at me all night as they tried to get a feel for where my head and heart was at.
Still my guard, Damien had come with me to the club and spent most of the evening just standing at the bar, watching my every move. But I’d seen him occasionally shake his head at the female squad, who all gave him bright, innocent smiles.
Maisy folded her arms. “You do understand that, as you’re his vessel, he now has a claim on you, right?”
I felt my brow furrow. “It’s more that he has a claim on my blood.”
“True, but it might as well run deeper, because no one—man or woman—will make any sort of move on you while you’re the property of a vampire. Yeah, I know ‘property’ sounds bad, but it’s not meant in a disrespectful way. It doesn’t mean you’re considered a thing. It means you’re valued, in vampire terms. My kind respects that sort of claim. So, basically, you’re now considered off the market. Did he tell you that?”