Kiss of Crimson by Samantha Coville (best love story novels in english txt) 📕

plastic and metal sprawled out on his dented worktable.

“Yeah, man.” He slapped a hand on my shoulder. The man didn’t have the strength of a vampire, but it still packed a wallop. “Woo, boy, is Jardin going to love what I can do with these babies!”

As he started to spout words that I could scarcely follow, like signal-to-noise ratio and receiver saturation, I sidled out of the room before he could go full steam and then I’d never be able to escape.

Besides, it was time to pick up Eloise.

I dressed quickly for the evening, the leather outfit hugging my body more intimately than any lover could, and called for my car.

One of the perks of working for Jardin; anything and everything manual was done by one of the numerous staff, and that included manning the dozens of cars parked in the underground parking garage.

Halfway to the Hart’s residence, my phone started buzzing.

It was connected via Bluetooth to the car’s top-of-the-line stereo system, and I pressed the Receive button on the steering wheel.

It was a number I knew well.

I wondered if Jardin had any more advice before I picked up my quarry.

“Yes, sir.”

“Sir? I like the sound of that.”

Evangeline’s husky voice whispered through the speakers.

Goosebumps popped up along my arms, but not in a good way. “Jardin letting you make calls in his office now?”

She gave a throaty chuckle that made my insides quiver.

Again, not in a good way.

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, will it?”

Goddamn it.

Ten seconds ago, I was relaxed, ready to show a normal girl how normal vampires, not the stuffy ones her mother knew, liked to party.

Now, I was wound up tighter than a top, already on the defensive despite what little Evangeline had said. “What the hell do you want? Wasn’t almost killing me twice enough for you? Care to have another go?”

I could picture her in my mind, stretched out like a cat on top of Jardin’s massive desk, lying on her back, the old-fashioned phone cord wrapped around her index finger.

“Oh, you.” She laughed again. “You do know how to drive a girl crazy, don’t you?”

I didn’t like her choice of phrase, nor her emphasis on the word girl.

As though she knew all about tonight’s plans…

“Cut the crap,” I snapped. “The hell do you want?”

She sighed. “You can be so square sometimes.” Then her voice changed. More clipped, abrupt. “I heard Jardin gave you the job of bringing Madame Leona’s little infant daughter to task.”

“Yes.”

“What are you going to do? Charm her to rat on her mother?”

“Better than torturing her.”

Evangeline clicked her tongue. “My methods would have been far more effective.”

I shuddered. “Perhaps. Or perhaps it would’ve only further shut her up.”

“That’s because you don’t know the finer points of interrogation, my stupid, naïve friend.”

I didn’t want to spend a single millisecond contemplating exactly what Evangeline wanted to do to a delicate flower like Eloise. “Jardin entrusted this task to me. He trusts me.” I paused for effect. “Or are you calling his judgment into question?”

Not even Evangeline is stupid enough to show anything less than complete obedience when it comes to our master.

Evangeline might be able to make mincemeat out of me, but Jardin could rip her into pieces with both hands tied behind his back.

“Don’t be stupid, of course not. I trust Jardin’s judgment implicitly. As for you…” Her sentence ended on a light-hearted chuckle. “Do try your best with our little princess, won’t you? Otherwise, Jardin might send me.”

My hands tightened on the steering wheel and I fought to stay focused on the road.

“Are you threatening me?”

She giggled. “My dear, you’ll know it when I’m threatening you.”

“I’m not your goddamned dea—”

“Bye then!”

Forever dedicated to getting the last word in, she hung up then, leaving me to hear the buzz tone of a dead connection.

I stabbed at the Receive button, cutting off that incessant, annoying sound.

“Bitch,” I muttered, wishing I had the gall to say it to her face.

But I didn’t, and she knew it.

I fought hard to dispel the ugly emotions Evangeline invoked within me, but Eloise must have sensed that all was not well as I rolled to a stop at her front doors.

Looking like an absolute dream in a lush, dark blue dress that rose a few inches above her shapely knees, she slipped into the low-slung passenger seat of the Audi, a concerned look coming upon her face as she got a good look at mine.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.

I gave her an easy smile, my trademark get-the-panties-off look. “Of course, no problem at all.”

She eyed my outfit and then back to her outfit.

We looked so very different, me in my black clubbing leather and her in a classy ensemble that would not have looked out of place at any posh vampire ball.

Problem was, we weren’t going to any kind of posh vampire ball.

“Um.” She ran a hand down the velvety skirt and laughed somewhat awkwardly.

“Why do I get the feeling that I might be overdressed?”

“Perhaps just a little bit,” I said, and then quickly accelerated away before she could hop back out. “But who cares what other people think? Are you comfortable in that?”

“Of course!”

I smiled. “Then that’s the only thing that matters.”

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“You seemed to enjoy dancing. I thought we could do something a little less stuffy than the soirees your mother seems so fond of hosting.”

Gently… just gently bring up her mother…

Don’t be too obvious.

I glanced at her as we turned onto the main road headed into glitzy, bright downtown.

She was staring out the window, softly rounded chin resting on her elbow. “I’m not sure if she enjoys hosting those get-togethers. I think it’s more for the sake of reaching out to her customers and acquiring new ones. You know, her work can be pretty cutthroat at times.”

“Oh? How so?”

Good.

This was turning out to be quite fruitful.

Or so I thought.

Unfortunately, by the time we pulled up to The Crimson Room, I