Read Stealing Magic (Vampire Primes) for Free Online Page B

lap with her hands on his bare chest when he broke the kiss. She was vaguely aware of unbuttoning his vest and shirt. She was burning alive with need.
    “I need more.” She rested her head over his heart. She felt its beat, slower than a mortal’s, but still strong and steady. She couldn’t recall why she’d been frightened that Julien was a vampire earlier in the day.
    “I want you in my bed. I want to make love to you over and over and over,” he said. His hands ran up her back, fingers trailing fire.
    “This bench will do nicely,” she said. “The floor is perfectly nice.”
    He laughed, when she wasn’t joking. His fingers stroked her cheek. “Have you ever made love to a man? I can tell from your kisses that you haven’t.”
    “Don’t I kiss well?”
    “You kiss beautifully, but you kiss as a woman who has just discovered the possibilities of life. You are a virgin.”
    He sounded proud of her, and Grace was glad she’d saved herself. For him.
    “When we make love, we will do it properly,” Julien said.
    “Is passion supposed to be proper?” she countered. “You aren’t going to ask me to marry you. Nor do I expect you to,” she added quickly. “Leave me with my memories of you, my lord, and I will be happy.”
    Julien sighed. “You deserve so much more than a life of drudgery.”
    “Who doesn’t?” she asked. “It doesn’t bother me that we have separate lives. We have now. ”
    “Actually, not now,” he said.
    Grace slid off his lap to stand before him with her hands on her hips. “What?”
    He threw back his head and laughed, giving Grace the oddest urge to bite his throat. Her self was tangled up with his somehow.
    “There is a ball being held tonight,” Julien said.
    “I know. I should be in the manor house laundry room ironing ladies’ ball gowns right now.”
    “And I need to be working as well.” He stood, taking her into his warm, safe embrace again. “I asked you here in the first place so I could explain to you. The psychic slap of jealousy you aimed at me when I entered the brothel was most invigorating, by the way.”
    She stiffened in his arms. “I have no right to be jealous.”
    “Which does not change the fact that you were, and are, and that I like it. The truth is that I was in the brothel and must attend the ball tonight because it is my duty to do so. My name is Julien Weaver, yes, but I am no idle nobleman. I—”
    “You don’t have to tell me what you are,” Grace told him. She looked around anxiously. “Someone might hear.”
    “I am a secret agent for Her Majesty’s government,” Julien said. “I am a spy, working undercover to find a traitor.”
    Grace held her breath while he spoke, then let it out in a relieved sigh. She’d thought he was going to admit to being a vampire.
    “Do you believe me?” he asked.
    Grace nodded. She wanted to laugh and tell him that he had managed to surprise her with this revelation, but she dared not say she knew that he kept even more secrets than his being a spy. She’d already known he wasn’t who he seemed, but now it was even more complicated. He had an agenda, and it was affecting her agenda, wasn’t it?
    “Why must you go to this ball?” she asked. “Why can’t we go to your room and—”
    “I told you, I am looking for a traitor.” He tapped a finger against his forehead. “I’m mentally looking into the minds of the other guests. I prefer to be near, even touching, the ones I am questioning. When I accompanied Lord Dowd earlier today he was my prime suspect. I hoped to extract information from him, turn him over to—”
    “Your valet,” she guessed. Because, of course, perhaps no one at Lord McHeath’s house party was who they seemed.
    “Clever girl. Unfortunately, it turned out that Dowd’s evil secret is a mistress and bastard child he’s keeping in Amsterdam. So now I must spend the evening mingling with people until I find a Russian agent, when I would much rather be in bed with