Page 31 of Sunshine and the Vamp

“Your wife?” Benjamin seethed through a clenched jaw. “You’re married?”

“In a fashion,” I said. I hadn’t really been married for a while, but Lucia seemed to have a hard time letting go. “We haven’t been together for a long time.” Almost eighty years, in fact.

“Come now, darling,” Lucia purred, her sugary voice grating on my skull like a knife. “Don’t minimise what we have.”

I wanted to pull her off Benjamin and assert my dominance, but I didn’t want to frighten him. For some reason, I didn’t want him to see what I was capable off.

“Had, Lucia. What do you want?”

Her green eyes met mine. So dull in comparison to Benjamin’s. “I wanted to chat, to see if we could… rekindle something.”

She only ever came here when she wanted money or if she needed help digging herself out of a hole. I glanced at Benjamin, his hands held wide, his lips still swollen from my kiss. I could still taste him on my tongue. I shouldn’t have bitten him, but when it came to Benjamin, resistance wasn’t possible.

“Let’s step into my office,” I said curtly. I wanted to get her away from Benjamin as soon as possible.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Benjamin muttered under his breath. He probably didn’t think I’d hear him, but vampire senses were sharp.

“Lucia. Remove your foot from him, or I’ll remove it for you.”

“Oh, Damyr, I love it when you give me orders.” She lowered her voice and flicked her long red waves over her shoulder, exposing her neck. I’d loved her once, but now all I wanted to do was snap that pretty little neck.

“My office. Now.” I didn’t like that I was pandering to her, but I wanted a moment with Benjamin to explain myself. For some reason, I didn’t want him to think badly of me but judging by the hate seeping from his eyes as he watched the exchange with Lucia, he already thought less of me. My heart lurched uncomfortably in my chest. I didn’t understand it. I’d never been one tofeelbut all I could do at the moment was feel. Turmoil churned in my gut and for the first time ever, I felt unsure of myself.

Lucia giggled like a schoolgirl, and I tried my best not to flinch.

“I’ll be waiting,” she hummed as she strode past me and I held my breath, not wanting to catch her scent.

I waited until she’d left the room before releasing that breath.

“You didn’t think you should mention the fact that you were married before sucking my face?” Benjamin hissed as he sat up.

I held my hand out to help him up, but he slapped it away.

“I don’t need your help, Damyr. I don’t need anything from you.”

There was a venom to his words that made me frown. “Lucia is my wife in name only. She hasn’t been part of my life for a long time. I didn’t think I needed to mention her.”

“What? Are you serious?” he said, jerking his head back. “You think it’s okay to hide the fact that you’remarried?”

“I don’t consider myself married,” I shrugged. “It’s just a piece of paper now.”

I didn’t understand his anger. It almost too long in the past to remedy, practically a lifetime ago, and the world currently saw Damyr Morozov as an eternal bachelor.

“You’re a real piece of fucking work. You know that?” Benjamin had his hands on his hips, his shoulders tight and bunched up under his ears.

“Why are you angry?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered under his breath. He spoke so fast that I couldn’t catch all his words, but I did hear words like ‘idiot’, ‘madness’ and ‘jackass’. I guessed the last one applied to me.

“Look, I’ll deal with Lucia and send her away; then we can talk.”

“Great,” he drawled.

I didn’t think he actually meant that but maybe I should leave him to it for a few minutes. Perhaps it would give me a chance to figure things out as well. I didn’t get humans anymore. Apart from Byron, but he was a lot easier to deal with than normal humans. Give him someone to torture and kill and he was happier than a pig in the proverbial shit. Benjamin was something new and I wanted to pick him apart until I understood everything about him. I wanted to burrow under his skin and worm my way into his brain until I understood him completely.

“I’ll be back shortly,” I said as I tried to get my obsession under control. I didn’t want to deal with Lucia, I wanted to ask Benjamin to march his ass to my room so I could make bend him to my will.

“Whatever,” was the reply I got. Fucking hell, his sass was like catnip to my soul. My hands itched to scare that brattishness out of him, but now wasn’t the right time. Now he needed space, and I needed to deal with my wife.

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