Sensual Danger (Venice Vampyr #4)

Nico narrowed his eyes. “What is your point?”


“If she’s invited you to her bed and you stayed there for two days and nights, I can only assume that she enjoyed your company as much as you enjoyed hers.”

Nico clenched his teeth. “Get to the point.”

Lorenzo smiled nonchalantly. “But that is my point.”

“Would you care to elaborate on that?”

His friend laughed. “I didn’t think you needed tutoring lessons in seduction.”

Nico fisted his hands at his hips and widened his stance. “It’s one thing to seduce a woman into your bed, it’s an entirely different one to make her accept me as a vampire. She’ll recoil from me in disgust.”

A soft female chuckle interrupted him. He turned his head to stare at Isabella and Viola.

“For a moment maybe, until she’s overcome the initial shock!” Isabella claimed. Then she let her eyes wander over her husband’s body. “But once she realizes what it means to have a vampire for a husband, she’ll be yours forever.”

Nico looked at her. He couldn’t help but notice how her chest suddenly heaved when Rafael looked at her, his eyes blazing with lust. Would Oriana react the same way once she knew what he was?

Marcello grunted and pointed at his fellow vampires. “If I leave it up to you besotted idiots, our entire race will vanish in no time. I say we destroy the machine and erase her memory now. It’s the only sure way!”

“No!” Nico protested. Marcello’s reaction was forcing him to make a decision. “I’ll follow Lorenzo’s suggestion.”

Marcello glared at him. “Fine. You have twenty-four hours. If you can’t bring your wife in line by then, we’re doing it my way. Any objections?” He looked at the brothers, then at Lorenzo, daring them to protest.

Lorenzo threw up his hands in capitulation and rolled his eyes. “Whatever the big brute says.”

Raphael and Dante exchanged a quick look, then Dante replied, “One day and one night.” He tossed Nico an encouraging look. “I doubt you’ll need that much time.”

Wishing he could display the same confidence his friend possessed, Nico turned on his heels and left the house. He would have to conjure up all sensitivity and tact he possessed to aid him in the most difficult mission of his life. To convince his wife that he wasn’t a monster.





15


“The signora is awake,” the maid informed Nico the moment he entered his home.

With a curt nod, he acknowledged her words. “My wife won’t need you any longer tonight. You may go to bed.”

She curtsied and withdrew.

Taking a deep breath, Nico headed for his wife’s bedchamber. When he reached it, he hesitated for a moment. He would have to be as calm as possible to achieve his goal.

He opened the door and entered, finding that the maid had added more wood to the fire to warm the room. An oil lamp was lit next to the bed and threw an orange glow over Oriana, who sat up in bed, wearing a virginal nightdress that reached almost all the way to her neck.

She turned her head when she heard him enter and looked at him, then quickly averted her eyes.

“How are you feeling?” he asked politely.

“Perfectly well.”

Nico approached the bed and sat on its edge. “Good. Then maybe you’d like to explain to me what you think you were doing out there.” His words came out a little harsher than he’d intended, but he couldn’t take them back now.

Oriana sucked in a quick breath, her chest rising under the white fabric. “I was merely taking an evening stroll when those men attacked the footman and me.”

“A stroll?” He narrowed his eyes, anger boiling up at the fact that his wife was blatantly lying to him. “I would advise you to tell me the truth!”

She straightened her back. “Are you insinuating that I’m lying?” Outrage colored her voice.

Oh, what a magnificent actress his wife was!

Nico leaned in, making her shrink back into the pillows. “I’m doing more than that. I’m also telling you that from now on you won’t go out at night unless it’s in my company. You won’t put yourself in danger like this anymore. Do we understand each other?”

She huffed angrily. “If you think that simply because I submit to you in the marriage bed, I shall allow you to curb my freedom, let me make one thing clear, signore! I am not your property!”

Her cheeks were aflame, and her lips trembled.

“Ah, my dear wife, that’s where you’re wrong! You’re my responsibility now. You might have fooled your father, but don’t think you can play the same games with me. I’ve found you out! I’ve seen your so-called laboratory!”

She shrieked, her eyes widening in shock.

“Oh yes! I know what you’re up to and I’m telling you it’ll stop this instant!”

“You can’t do this!” she cried out. “My work! My research!”

“Research?! Do you have any idea what you’re getting into?”