Accidentally Married to…a Vampire?(Accidentally Yours #2)(7)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Helena shook her head. “Who’s Cimil?”

“Most interesting.” He paused as if about to explain, but instead reached out to clutch another lock of her hair. He bent down slowly and inhaled. “What is the date, my golden-haired one?”

This has to be a dream. There’s no other explanation. But why does everything feel so real? Why do I feel so alive?

Not knowing what else to do, she simply answered, “August tenth.”

His hungry eyes raked over her neck then down to her br**sts. He reached out and grabbed the hem of her neckline. He studied the knit fabric with curiosity as he’d done with her hair, feeling its texture between his thick thumb and index finger.

“Year?” he asked.

Maybe he was mad and she’d gone mad too? Or, when she fell in the jungle, she’d hit her noggin on a rock. Head injury. Yep, that had to be it.

Again, Niccolo appeared to be amused by her reaction to him.

“Year?” he repeated.

Helena squirmed, sliding sideways against the rough wall to put space between her and the na**d tower of muscles with the giant throbbing man-gear she so wanted to inappropriately grope.

“Twenty-twelve,” she answered.

A blaze of fury engulfed his face. He slammed his fist into the stone wall behind her, causing the entire temple to quake. Dust and small chunks of stone rained down.

“Three hundred years? Three hundred bloody years! Bloody inferno!” he roared at the ceiling.

Terrified, she dropped to the floor and covered her head as the structure shook. The mental tug-of-war between her dreamlike-lust and survival instincts finally ended. He must be mad. She had to run before he killed her.

***

When Niccolo awoke, he couldn’t have been more confused. He had no clue how he had ended up in that dark, musty chamber with odd-looking objects and priceless treasures, but he knew whom to blame.

Cimil.

He recalled her pointy little hand waving in his face.

Next thing he knew, he could sense the human woman. She had entered his dreams like a bolt of lightning. And when she smeared that delicious, floral-scented blood on his lips and kissed him, the world burst to life again. He sensed the pulse of every living creature for miles. And the smells—every leaf, fleck of dirt, drop of rain, and…her—he could smell them all. It was as though he’d been dormant for centuries, suddenly brought back to life by an angel of carnal temptation. The most gorgeous, sensuous female creature he’d ever laid eyes on. Her feminine scent, her warmth, everything about her filled his mind with erotic bliss.

Bravo, buffoon! That is because you have been dormant for centuries, three of them, if anyone is counting. And she is the first warm-blooded creature you have encountered. His body felt famished. She was food. Breathtaking, female food with silky golden spirals that framed her delicate sun-kissed face, and a curvy, juicy little body that made his c**k harder than the stones which entombed him; but nonetheless, food.

But why put me to sleep for three hundred years? he wondered. Cristo sacro! Cimil must be mad. Who had been keeping the population of Obscuros at bay? What had happened to his men? Bloody Cristo sacro.

And surely there would be no chance of freedom now. While dormant vampires were like the dead and did not emit any energy, once awake their blood served as a beacon to their makers. The queen would use their bond to hunt and then disembowel him. Afterward, she would put him back together and haul him off to her dungeon where she’d deprive him of blood so he would not heal, leaving him in agony for eternity. Death was the only sanctuary for him now. Maybe the female would assist him.

He gathered himself together and looked down at the woman crumpled on the floor. So weak. Yet, so enticing. Just as Cimil had foretold.

Unexpectedly, something inside him shifted. He could…feel her fear. He could taste the acid churning in her stomach and the adrenaline catapulting through her veins. An overwhelming urge to protect her surged deep within.

“What have you done to me?” he whispered.

Her sapphire blue eyes flashed up at him. “What have I done to you?”

“Sì. I feel—I feel…you.” His mind simply couldn’t process the inundation of emotions. Was this some absurd joke? Or could she be…? Impossible! Mates do not exist.

“I didn’t do anything,” she responded.

Bloody inferno! There it is again. He could feel her confusion.

He quickly reassessed the situation. If the slightest possibility existed that this mate nonsense was factual, then perhaps Cimil was not so mad after all. Cimil had cautioned he would not so easily accept a human.

True.

But if the prophecy was playing out as she had foreseen, then he still had a chance. Twelve weeks. Could he seduce the female into being turned by then?

Idiota! Of course you can. You are a goddamned vampire. And a handsome one at that—so you’ve been told. And yes, he agreed.

In any case, he would certainly enjoy conquering her.

Just look at the female. She will make an enjoyable little pet, to be sure. He would not enjoy, however, resisting bedding her or drinking from her. That, he could see, would be a thorn in his side.

He slowly kneeled and placed his hand on her shoulder, trying not to frighten her further. “Tell me, what is your name?”

“Helena,” she answered. “But you knew that already.”

I did? Why would she think that? She is confused. He mentally shrugged and then repeated her name. Heavens, she was gorgeous. By far the loveliest creature he’d ever seen.

“Let me go. Please,” she whimpered.

He swept away the dust from her forehead and then brushed his thumb over her full bottom lip—delicious, pink, supple, and meant for kissing. Just like her golden smooth-as-satin skin radiating with life.

“I cannot do that,” he said.

Slowly she rose from the ground, still trembling. Her eyes nervously flashed to his swollen manhood, which would only prolong its present state. It aroused him beyond belief when she looked at him with such lust.

“Why not?” she asked with a nervous whisper.

Because I haven’t bedded you yet. Would not want to deprive you of such a luxury.

“Apparently,” he said, “I have waited three hundred years for you. So I have no intention of letting you go.”

He cupped her face and leaned to kiss her.

Chapter 3

Helena’s tense body swooned when the force of his lips met hers. He pulled her greedily into to his hard frame and moved his strong hands to grip her waist. It felt like he had claimed her as his personal prize. It felt euphoric. Owned by a sex god!