Page 5 of Hot Vampire Next Door: Season Three

I try to snatch them back, but my speed is no match for his.

I put my hands on my hips. "Is this another test of my obedience?"

He tosses the ball of fabric into the bathroom. "This time it's for my pleasure and nothing more."

A buzzy warmth fills my veins. He scents the air, his eyes burning golden, and then bends down to me and plants a chaste kiss on the corner of my mouth.

Then he turns away.

"Wait...is that it?"

"Did you expect more?" he asks from the door.

"Yes. You just took my underwear. That feels like a promise."

I'm wound up tight, waiting for him to touch me, grab me, slip his hand beneath the dress. But he doesn't, and the ache starts immediately.

"Come, Mouse, we really should be going." His face is blank, but I know him well enough by now to sense he's pleased with himself and my wet desire.

I could put the panties on. Pretend I'm not vexed by this at all.

But the promise of him having easier access to me is enough to make me abandon the idea. And I think he knows that.

I follow him out of the room and down the hall. We find my sister filling the dishwasher and Damien on a call on his cell phone.

He cuts it short when he spots us.

"In and out," he tells Bran. "Let's play our cards right. Don't piss anyone off."

"I take offense to that, brother. I'm a goddamn delight."

I snort beside him. He smiles down at me.

"Don't leave her side," Damien adds.

Bran's tone of voice immediately turns biting. "As if I would."

Damien seems satisfied with this and gives his brother a nod. "Call me if you need me. I can be there quickly."

Bran sets his hand on the small of my back. But before we leave, I look back at my sister. "You'll be all right while I'm gone?"

"Of course." She dries her hands on a plush gray towel. She's looking at me, but I think most of her awareness is on Damien.

"I'll look after her," Damien tells me.

I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

My mother worked in the human government until she died and my sister has been in the clerk's office since she was old enough to have a job there. I've been to the court a lot, but never on official business.

Our court isn't as fancy as the vampire court, but it feels imposing anyway with its creaking, wide plank floors that gleam beneath old-fashioned pendant lights.

The main floor houses the clerk's office, the Pledge office, and the county surveyor with a maze of waiting rooms and smaller offices throughout. The second floor has one main courtroom and three smaller ones with several large offices for our mortal judges.

Years ago, I overheard one of the receptionists telling another woman that one of the judges asked out my sister only for him to be turned down. I vividly remember them whispering, "If she'd said yes, I would have worried we'd find the judge staked in his bed the next day!"

At the time I thought it was strange that they were insinuating Julian would have staked a mortal judge because of a date, but now I'm wondering if they maybe knew more about my sister's love life than I did and were gossiping about her involvement with Damien.

I vaguely recall seeing him at the mortal court once in a heated conversation with my sister.

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