Read Under Orders for Free Online Page A

need to tell you, little one, but never doubt that I meant every
word I said. I swore to protect you from the minute you were assigned to me.
You opened your eyes, and I was lost.” He smiled and kissed her nose. “Finding
you again after all those years, and to see the beautiful woman you have grown
into.” He stopped and pulled back to study her, the depths of emotion in his
crystal clear gaze making her chest feel tight with longing. “You have no idea
how much self-restraint it took for me to not just fling you over my shoulder
and storm out of that room, ethics be fucked. But I had to expose Brian, and I
had to clear this with the council. Contrary to popular belief, we are governed
by strict rules of conduct. It’s what keeps us all safe and existing in harmony
with humankind as much as we can. You had enough uproar in your life already
without me adding to it.”
    “And if I
want your kind of uproar in my life?” she asked, shifting on his lap.
    He groaned
and wrapped her long hair around his hand, forcing her head up, and exposing
her neck. She held her breath when he ran those lethal looking fangs up and
down her pulse point. Her blood rushed in her ears, and she tried to free her
hands, but he held them securely in his other hand.
    “Then you
have it, for all eternity, little one. All you have to do is ask.”
    He kissed her
and shifted them until she sat straddling him, his cock nudging her entrance.
She moaned and lifted herself slightly to let him slide home. His hands dug
into her hips holding her still, and they stayed locked, looking into each
other’s eyes, seeking confirmation of the feelings pulsing between them.
    She rocked
her hips, grinding herself against him, and he swore and took over.
    “Anna, you’ll
be the death of me, you know that, right?”
    She smiled
and tipped her head sideways to offer her neck in silent submission. He
hesitated for only a moment before his fangs sank in, and Ana saw stars. Joined
together as closely as two people could be, she rode the waves of sensation, as
every thrust of his hips, and every sip he took cemented the bond between them.
Release, when it came for both of them, stole their breaths, and they collapsed
on the bed, holding each other until they fell asleep.
    The last
conscious thought invading Anna’s brain was his whispered, “I love you, little
one.”
    She sensed
rather than saw his smile in response at her answering thought.
    “I love you.
Now get out of my head and let me sleep. I think you broke me.”

 
    Epilogue
     
    “Stop
fidgeting. You’re making me nervous.” Jonathan held his hand out and
pulled her out of the car in one fluid move. He turned her around, and they stood
facing the impressive old house together.
    Dread filled
Anna’s stomach, vying to destroy the bubble of happiness she had been in since
Jonathan had claimed her. They had not made it out of his hotel suite at all
that weekend. She had made her excuses to her Grand-pops, not ready to explain
the nature of her relationship with Jonathan. Despite her assurances to him
that her grandfather would not stake a plant, she wasn’t at all sure what Grand-pop’s
reaction to her dating a living, breathing vampire would be. He had lost his
family to that race after all, and here she was, as good as married to one.
    The bond they
had created could not be broken. Every time Jonathan drank from her, her life
span extended. Already she could feel the changes in her body. Her hair was
softer, her skin smoother, and that niggling back injury she’d carried for
years after a riding accident did not plague her anymore. Her hearing was
sharper, and she had perfected her mind conversations with Jonathan to such a
degree that folks looked at her funny when she burst into peals of laughter at
something he’d whispered to her consciousness.
    The dratted
man loved to tease her, and many a boring business meeting had taken on an
entirely different meaning in her head. Anna had been