The Vampire Pendant Read Online Free Page B

companions?”
    “It was baffling at first, especially since we were expected to share her. Plus we were mourning our human selves. But she put an end to that. She made sure that we couldn’t associate with anyone from our mortal lives.”
    “How?”
    “By faking our deaths.” He went over the details. “She dug up two fresh corpses from the cemetery. Then she burned the bodies in a fire that she set at my house. After that, she took us to France with her.”
    Tessa shivered, and he realized how horribly his tale had affected her. The burning of bodies. The melting of flesh.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have expounded on that.”
    “It’s okay.”
    “No, it isn’t.” He knew better than to make her pain worse. “I’m supposed to be fulfilling your wish, not reminding you of the devastation from your past.”
    “I’m reminded of it every day, Anthony. I can’t look at myself without seeing the damage.” Her expression softened. “Except for these next two weeks.”
    He leaned over and kissed her, and she slipped her arms around him. He was happy to provide her wish. Regardless, he had no intention of admitting that he knew what she looked like behind the veil of magic.
    He did, however, admit how special her chastity was to him. He said, “You’re going to be my first virgin.”
    She gazed at him from beneath her lashes. “I am?”
    “The women I bedded were wild.”
    “I’ll probably seem boring compared to them.” She frowned. “Not to mention Simone. The vampire heiress.”
    “Boring? Not a chance. And for the record, Simone was never an heiress. She was a lady of the evening in her day.”
    “A fancy prostitute? That doesn’t make me feel better.”
    “It should.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I always wanted an innocent girl.”
    “Then why didn’t you date that type?”
    “Because in my time, you were supposed marry the innocent ones, and I wasn’t the marrying kind.”
    “You still aren’t.”
    “Through no fault of my own.” He flashed his most dashing smile. “I live in a pendant.”
    She touched the necklace. “It’s mine for now.”
    “It is, indeed.” He kissed her again. He thrived on kissing her, on touching her, on being the guy she’d offered her innocence to.
    Tessa couldn’t help herself. She wanted to keep Anthony for as long as she could. “Will you stay with me for the next two weeks?” she asked, when they separated from their kiss. “Here in my room?”
    He shook his head. “I’ll stay tonight, but tomorrow I’m getting a bungalow.”
    She hid her disappointment. “Oh, that’s right. You planned on renting one.”
    “The bungalows are bigger and have direct access to the garden.” He paused. “You should stay with me instead, Tessa.”
    She looked at him, feeling thunderstruck and heart struck and everything in between. “Really?”
    “There’s no point in us having two accommodations and if you let yours go, it will save you money. A man should provide for a woman when he’s with her, not the other way around.”
    She smiled. He was definitely an old-world guy. “So, tell me about your routine. Do you sleep during the day and stay up all night?”
    “Hybrids don’t sleep.”
    “Ever?”
    “We rest when we’re inside of our jewelry, but we don’t fall into full repose. Unlike regular vampires, we can go in the sun. I’m able to enjoy daylight activities, which is nice, but I still feel a kinship with the dark.”
    She preferred the cover of night. It didn’t matter now that she looked normal, but once her scars came back, she would return to her reclusive lifestyle.
    “Shall I get undressed now?” he asked.
    “Yes. Please,” she added. She wanted to see him, to know him in the most intimate of ways. “Before the fire, I had a touchy-feely experience with a boy in high school, but I never got past rubbing him through his jeans.”
    He removed his clothes and tossed them aside. “Then here’s your chance to make up for