Claiming the Vampire by Chloe Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

little.
    “This isn’t about romance. It’s about desire. And I know you feel it, too.”
    She lowered her eyes, and her lashes were like black feathers against her cheeks. He watched her take a deep breath and let it out, slowly.
    “There’s something else you should know about me,” she said, lifting her eyes to meet his. There was a glint in their blue-green depths that should have warned him, but he was too far gone to see it.
    “What?” he asked, lowering his head to kiss her.
    “I’m a warrior, you son of a bitch.”
    And then she punched him in the face.
    He reeled back with a grunt of pain, and she punched him again, catching him on the jaw.
    “That’s for holding a knife to my throat.”
    The next blow rocked his head back.
    “That’s for pretending to poison me.”
    She slammed her fist into his abdomen and he doubled over with another grunt.
    “That’s for using me to get to my mother.”
    She hooked a foot behind his knee and he went down, and she delivered a kick to his groin that made him see stars.
    “And that’s for propositioning me.”
    That kick hurt like a motherfucker, and he stared up at her through a haze of pain. But even then, he could have fought back. He could have fought back at any point.
    But he hadn’t. He hadn’t raised a hand to her.
    She crouched down beside him, and he realized that she was holding the knife he’d dropped, the point perilously close to his heart.
    “I could kill you right now,” she said.
    Then she straightened her torso and threw the knife far over the stone wall. “But I’m not going to. That’s because, no matter how selfish your reasons, you did save my life tonight.”
    She rose to her feet and looked down at him. “We’re square now. And I hope I never see you again. But know this, vampire—if you ever hurt my mother, or anyone I care about, I’ll hunt you down like a dog.”
    She turned and walked away without looking back.
    Hawk lay where she’d left him and listened to her footsteps. When they faded, he pressed his ear to the ground so he could feel their vibration in the earth.
    He lay there long after both the sound and the vibration were gone.
    He needed to get up. He needed to get the hell over that wall before the Fae found him here and killed him.
    But he was stunned, and by more than the pummeling he’d just taken.
    It hadn’t happened when he’d stopped her from killing herself. It hadn’t happened when he caressed her, and saw the evidence of her desire.
    It happened when he saw that gleam in her eye, a split second before she slammed her fist into his face.
    That was the moment he fell in love with Jessica Greenwood.
    After what seemed like a long, long time, Hawk rolled onto his back and stared up at the moon, gleaming down through the branches of the trees.
    After an even longer time, he spoke one word into the nighttime stillness.
    “Shit.”
     

 
    Chapter Four
    “It’s happening tonight.”
    Evan raised an eyebrow as he refilled Celia’s wine glass.
    “What’s happening tonight?”
    Celia took a sip of her Pinot Noir and set her glass back down on the white tablecloth. “We’re completing the claiming ritual.”
    As usual when they went out to dinner, Evan thought it was a miracle he could keep himself from knocking the table over to get to her. She looked so adorable right now, leaning forward to emphasize her point with that look of determination in her green eyes.
    Leaning forward also made her black silk blouse pull more tightly across her breasts, making it a challenge to stay focused on those green eyes.
    It had been three weeks since the night he’d claimed her to save her life, and this was their ninth formal date. Evan had insisted on a period of courtship before he would even consider letting Celia claim him in return, in a ritual that would mate them for life.
    After every date he escorted her back home—which happened to be his home, as well, since Celia was living under his roof now. He’d