Blood Rites: (Royal Blood #3) Read Online Free

and impeccably dressed. Flawless,
even. I wasn’t anything like that and he wanted me to come to his
party? Maybe it was just because of my father and his business
dealings. Maybe this was about money.
    You’re such an incurable
romantic, Lorelei .
    That's it, I couldn’t go. I had to decline.
This was obviously about business alliances, not romance. I wanted
romance. No, I was staying away from this, no matter how much my
body wanted Sebastian Vaughn to ravish it.
    “Lorrie!”
    I jerked upright, slamming the laptop closed
with a snap. Bex was standing in front of me, her hands on her
hips.
    “You were Googling that hot Sebastian guy,
weren’t you?”
    I flushed. Shit .
    “Lorrie, seriously?” She rounded the table
and opened the laptop. “Give us a look then.”
    “Who was on the phone?” I asked, trying to
distract her.
    “Oh, no,” she declared, wigging her index
finger at me. “You’re not getting out of this so easily.”
    “What’s there to get out of?” I asked,
coyly.
    “You are going to that party, Lorelei
Lansford, and that is final!” She rubbed her hands together in glee
and my stomach churned.
    “Oh, god,” I said with a groan.
    “I’m making you over!”
    I felt sick.

    The next evening, I stood in
the middle of Bex’s bedroom in her Notting Hill apartment, a pile
of dresses on her bed.
    The shrew, I mean my best
friend , had
come good on her promise. She meant well, but I wasn’t sure this
was a good idea.
    She’d preened and primped me,
doing my hair in a fancy curled up-do, making my face up with all
kinds of scary looking pencils, lipstick and powder, and finally
dressing me in some Vera Wang dress that probably cost in excess of
five thousand pounds. Top it off with a simple diamond necklace on
a fine gold chain, matching earrings and red Manolo Blahnik heels,
I felt like I was an overdone chicken.
    I did like the dress, though.
It was a sleek, blood red, silk that hung on my willowy frame just
right, its low neckline simple, just skimming the top of my
cleavage. Demure, yet elegant.
    Bex looked me over. “You
look hot .” She turned me around so I could look at myself in the
full-length mirror. “I’m so jealous!”
    I stared at my reflection and could hardly
recognize the woman staring back at me. I ran my fingers over my
face, which was usually devoid of most makeup, and pouted my lips.
I never wore lipstick and the red that Bex had put on matched my
skin tone perfectly.
    Whenever Mother made me go to charity
events, I always went for a natural look. I was uncomfortable as it
was and being made up into something I wasn’t never helped. But
right now, the woman who stared back at me with a full face of
harlot red lips… Well, she looked like she was a bloody movie
star.
    “How did you do that?” I asked, open
mouthed.
    “I didn’t do anything,” she replied,
laughing at my reaction. “You’re hot to begin with. Mr. Vaughn is
going to cum in his pants when he sees you.”
    “ Bex !” I shrieked, trying not to laugh. Secretly, I hoped he
did.
    “Now, out you get and I want details. No
holding out on me, you hear?”
    I rolled my eyes and gave her a hug. “Thanks
for the dress.”
    As I escaped outside, where a
car was waiting for me, I hoped that I was doing the right thing. I
was a romantic, Sebastian was a playboy. In what world would that
work out? Not this one, I was certain of it.
    But maybe Bex was right? I needed a little
fun. Maybe Sebastian was it.

Five
    Vaughn

    I sat in my office, in my house
in Bloomsbury, listening to the commotion downstairs.
    Marcia had been in and out all
day, setting up for the party that was just starting to wind up.
She was my event planner and obviously loved her job. I gave her
money and told her to go wild with it. Planning rich, posh parties
was her idea of doing crack. She was a neglected, fifty year old,
trophy wife of a colleague at work, and was always glad for
something to do. Her husband always shook my hand in the