GoodHunting Read online

  Good Hunting

  Kannan Feng

  When lifetimes span centuries, seduction and pleasure become the ultimate entertainment.

  Vampires Genevieve and Daniel have been playing a tantalizing game of tag for hundreds of years. The chase has taken them through the boredom of everlasting life and across myriad countries and cultures. Yet as engaging as the hunt is, it’s the capture that truly drives them. Genevieve has chased Daniel from Frankfurt to Paris and finally has him exactly where she wants him—shackled to her bed and at her mercy.

  Stunned he’s been caught, Daniel enjoys paying the price—Genevieve is nothing if not a thorough and inventive lover. As the dawn approaches and Genevieve abandons him, still tied to the bed and unable to prevent her escape, Daniel can’t help but want to change the game—and the rules. No longer satisfied with a single night to claim his prize, Daniel hunts Genevieve to 1800s Venice. This time he’ll ensure he claims her as his—for eternity.

  A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

  Good Hunting

  Kannan Feng

  Chapter One

  Daniel had been doing so well. He had gotten out of Frankfurt without her being any the wiser, and in the four weeks he had spent in Paris, he had been staying out of the streets, confining himself to the quieter public houses and the cathedrals.

  He had been so clever, as a matter of fact, that he decided he was entitled to a bit of fun. After all, he had given her the slip so thoroughly in Frankfurt that there was a chance she was still in Germany. There was surely nothing to stop him from stepping out into the brisk winter night to find something to eat.

  The pretty girl in the flimsy gown pursed her lips sweetly at him, and at a nod, she followed him into the alleyway between the shops. It was a narrow space, lit only by the faint glow of the lanterns from the street.

  She said something to him in French, and Daniel spread his hands, shaking his head.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, and as she started to gesture, he met her gaze and stepped close.

  “I’m sorry,” he repeated, “but this will not hurt you, I swear…”

  The girl had gone still, her eyes wide and dark, and he smiled as he undid the top button of her dress. Her bared neck was smooth under his fingers, and he stroked it lightly with his thumb before bending close.

  His fangs, long and sharp, were already out and were within a hairsbreadth of her throat when he felt the cold barrel of a revolver pressed against his back.

  “Oh my darling, how did I know that I would find you pressed against a whore in an alleyway?”

  The words were light and sweet, flavored with just a hint of a French accent, and Daniel’s heart beat hard in his chest. He knew that there was a smile on his face, and he longed to spin around and sweep her into his arms. That would be patently unwise while she held a gun to his ribs, and instead, he contented himself with letting go of the girl.

  She blinked, catching sight of the slender woman who stood behind him. She started to speak, but seeing the revolver that was held so openly and so threateningly, she took to her heels instead.

  “I was hungry,” Daniel noted, and Genevieve chuckled.

  “I don’t care,” she said. “I think I chased you in Frankfurt for two weeks after you left.”

  “You obviously caught up.”

  “Hmm, you come to ground in my home city. How very bold of you, monsieur. Turn around.”

  Keeping his hands very still, he did as she said, and then the revolver was pressed against his gut, a cold weight even through his clothing.

  It would have been hard for a human to make out her features in the light, but neither of them were human, and he could see very clearly. She was small and pale, and her golden braid was wrapped around her head like a crown. When she smiled, she didn’t bother to hide the small, neat fangs that showed in her mouth.

  “I’ve missed you very much, my dear. Why did you run from me?”

  Daniel grinned.

  “Because you love it when I run,” he said. “Because after this, it will be your turn to do the same.”

  Genevieve’s mouth curved into a sweet, soft smile and she stepped back.

  “You delivered yourself right to me,” she observed. “My room is only across the street, and I saw you walk by. Simple as that. If I didn’t know better, I would say that you were getting sloppy.”

  Daniel shrugged, never taking his eyes off her. The love he felt for her hurt like a hand clenched around his heart. Now that she was so close, he almost couldn’t stand to be apart from her for another moment, but that wasn’t how the rules went, the ones that they had hammered out for themselves one cold night in Amsterdam, more than two hundred years ago. Right now, at this moment, he was the prey and she was the hunter.

  “Nothing to say to that?” she taunted. “Perhaps you’ll find your tongue in my rooms.”

  She gestured with her revolver, indicating that he should walk, and she pushed and prodded him across the street and up a narrow flight of stairs to a small well-appointed flat that was dominated by a large bed set in the center of the room.

  “It’s been so long…” he started, but she made an impatient sound. Whether scholar, warrior, poet or hedonist, the hunt aroused all of their kind. That was one reason why they had begun their game, among others, and over the past two hundred years, they had played it, switching between hunter and hunted, tracking each other across three continents, all for a few nights of savage reward before they began again.

  “Take off your clothes,” she said softly. “You will not like what happens if I have to tell you again, Daniel.”

  He swallowed hard and started to strip, watching her carefully out of the corner of his eye. She would not hesitate to shoot him if she thought that he was stalling or if she thought he was going to make another escape. It was part of the game, and it wouldn’t hurt in in any real way. Roused by the chase the way that she was, he knew that she wouldn’t want to hear of any kind of change or even that he had only missed her for so long.

  Later, we’ll talk later, he thought, stripping to his skin.

  “Do you like what you see?” he asked with a smile, and she laughed softly.

  “You know I do,” she said. “Get on the bed.”

  He did as she said, aware that she was watching his every move. Her close scrutiny made his skin prickle, and his cock stirred in response. Daniel knew how attractive she found his body, knew what her touch would feel like on his skin, and he wanted her so badly he ached.

  “Genevieve…” he started to say, and then she pressed the barrel of the revolver against the small of his back.

  “None of your little tricks, dear,” she said. “I remember Morocco all too well. If you look at the bed frame, you will see that I am well prepared.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened when he saw the iron shackles that were secured to the bed frame, two to the head and two to the foot.

  “You’ve…been busy,” he managed, and she smiled sweetly.

  “Let’s just say that I respect your cleverness,” she said.

  He still wanted to sweep her up and kiss her and simply feel her skin next to his, but the look of the iron shackles and Genevieve’s sharp grin sent raw shudders of desire through his body. Mutely, he fastened the two for his ankles, and with some fumbling, he secured the one for his left hand. He was stretched on the bed, all limbs splayed, and now he was completely hard, his cock falling against his stomach. Finally, Genevieve put down the gun and came to secure the last shackle, planting a tender kiss on his palm as she did so.

  Daniel pulled experimentally on the chains that bound him to the bed, and he couldn’t even hear them creak. The bed must be iron as well, he thought, and he looked at Genevieve with new respect.
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br />   “You have planned very well,” he said, and she stroked his face with a featherlight touch.

  “I didn’t want you getting away again.”

  She ran her soft palm over his face, and he lapped her wrist, making a displeased sound when she pulled away.

  “Genevieve, please,” he said, and she pressed her finger against his lips.

  “Later,” she promised. “Right now, you’ve left me too hungry, my love.”

  He wavered. He knew that if he needed her to, if he asked her to, she would stop. There were things that they needed to speak about, there were two centuries of play between them, but now, all he could think about was her soft hands running down his chest, skimming with aching lightness over his cock.

  “I want you,” he said nakedly, and he was rewarded with a passionate kiss.

  She gripped a handful of his hair to keep him in place, and she ravished his mouth, sliding her tongue against his lower lip and nipping sharply when he moaned.

  “You’re all mine,” she whispered, and there was a note in her voice that that had terrified grown men in the past. “God above, Daniel, I want you, I’ve wanted you for months and now you are all mine…”

  He had thought that she would simply lay on top of him, but instead she climbed up on the bed, kneeling between his spread legs. Slowly and carefully, she started to unfasten her dress, stripping out of gown and corset until she was only in a soft shift that floated around her like a cloud. It was made out of such a sheer silk that he could see the shape of her body through it, and when the edge of it brushed against his leg, he wanted nothing more than for her to slither on top of him, slippery and silky and above all, his.

  “I had these forged in Frankfurt,” she said, her voice soft and low. “I thought I was close then, but you got away. You’re not going anywhere tonight, Daniel…”

  She leaned down and planted a soft kiss on the inside of his thigh, and he moaned as she lapped at the skin there softly and tenderly. She knit her sharp fingernails into the skin at his hips, and when he thrust his hips up longingly, she ignored him.

  “I’ve been without you so long,” she whispered. “I missed you so.”

  He started to speak, but before he could, she pushed herself on top of him, straddling his hips. Her silk shift was between them, but it was so thin that he could feel how soft and warm she was. His cock pressed again wet line of her slit, and when she shifted, he groaned. The pleasure that that single motion sent through him was immense, and all he knew in that moment was that he never wanted to be apart from her.

  Abruptly, her mouth was on his again, and this time he could feel the soft stretch of her body over his. She kissed him slowly and thoroughly, squirming against him as he struggled against the bonds.

  “Let me touch you,” he said, and he didn’t care that it sounded like he was begging. “Please, Genevieve, please let me touch you, let me…”

  “I will,” she promised, grinding herself teasingly against him. “I will as soon as I want to.”

  Her lips were on the soft skin of his throat, and maybe someone else would have been nervous to have such a powerful hunter’s teeth there, but this was Genevieve and he had known her for hundreds of years. He would trust her with that and more. He bared his throat to her and at first there was just the wetness of her lips and her tongue. He leaned up into her touch, and she responded with a gentle bite to the skin, just the graze of sharpness that made him whine.

  Daniel pressed his hips up high and hard between her legs, and for a moment he thought that he had her, that she would simply rip away the fabric between them and let him thrust up into her. Instead, she only laughed raggedly and ground against him again, her movements more maddening than fulfilling.

  “You’re all mine,” she repeated. “This, all of this is mine, and I am going to do exactly what I want to do with it tonight.”

  She slid down farther on his body and pressed the sharp points of her teeth to an erect brown nipple. She circled the tight bundle of nerves with her tongue, making him hum with pleasure. She set her razor-sharp teeth to it and bit down, neat and hard.

  Daniel yelped in pain, and there was her tongue again, sweeping around the nipple, soothing the hurt.

  “Sweet, sweet man,” she murmured, “I could eat your heart out, you know that?”

  She could. He knew it. He was older, but there was something savage about her, something that was pure and dark and hungry, but she loved him as well. That was all that mattered, and he felt himself settling into it. He let something go, and he could feel himself become more pliant for her, focused on her touch, her smell and her presence.

  As if sensing his capitulation, she gentled as well, and she pressed her hand against his hard cock, stroking it twice firmly along the shaft before reaching lower to cup his balls.

  “I’ve missed you and I’ve missed this,” she murmured. “You’ve let me hunt for too long.”

  Yes, he thought, but then his mind turned to a soft buzzing blank when her hand tightened, pumping his cock with a deliberation that made it hard to think.

  As she squeezed her hand around his cock, she bit him twice, right over his heart and hard enough to make him howl. She bit and tore at his flesh, stopping just shy of drawing blood, and when she drew back, he dropped down into that soft space that existed just for her. He would give her anything, and they both knew it.

  It was torture of a sort, letting her handle him so hard, but Daniel shifted eagerly the way he knew she wanted him to. He thrust his hips up in time to her rhythm, and from her quickened breath and the way she licked her lips, he could tell that she was not unaffected.

  Finally, she gave his cock one last squeeze and brushed another soft kiss over his lip.

  “Enough,” she said, almost to herself. “I have had enough.”

  With nothing more than that, she swung one slender leg over his hip and straddled him, his cock settling intimately against her slit. It was hot and wet now, and Daniel thought that he would go crazy if he was denied her for a single second longer. It seemed that she had had enough of teasing him as well, and with a single savage motion, Genevieve tore her shift over her head, leaving her body bare and beautiful for him.

  Hungrily, he watched the sway of her heavy breasts as she leaned down to kiss his chest again, all she could reach because she was so short. Her little hand pressed between them, adjusting him, aiming him so that she could slide straight down on top of him.

  The hot welcome of her body made both of them groan, and he strained at the shackles for a moment before remembering that he was tied down.

  “Genevieve, please!”

  That was all the encouragement she needed, and she propped herself up with her hands on his strong shoulders. Her sharp nails bit into his skin as she started to ride, and with her head thrown back and her hair half-pulled out of its tidy coronet, she looked like a wild thing, pagan and fierce in her pleasure.

  Her body gripped him like a hand, sleek but so very wet. He was out of his mind with the desire to push into her and he found he could brace his heels on the bed, bouncing up into her warmth. Now she was truly riding him, hanging on as he thrust with his hips flexed and his back arched.

  “Oh, oh god I have missed you,” she cried, and her nails tightened enough on his skin that he could smell his own blood.

  With a muttered curse, Genevieve thrust her fingers against her clit furiously, rubbing in tight circles until hard tremors started racing through her legs. Daniel could feel the way that her body tightened and went stiff, he knew she was ready to climax, and he watched her hungrily, drinking in the sight of her above him.

  When she came, a harsh guttural cry was ripped from her throat, making her hunch down as if she were wounded. She curled up tight to his body, burying her face in his chest as she shook, and that was all it took for him to spill inside her. The heat of his own climax made him drive up into her as hard as he could, and the pleasure was blinding, making him shut his eyes and shout through g
ritted teeth.

  Daniel opened his eyes when Genevieve finally shifted, both of them flinching a little when she pulled away. He watched as she tottered to her feet and made her way to a leather bag she’d left on a small table nearby. She withdrew a wine bottle and poured a generous amount into an earthenware cup before returning.

  “Genevieve, we have much to talk about. We’ve been playing for…”

  “I know.” She nodded. “I know, dear. But here, drink this first, please. You’ll like it.”

  He did as she bid him, enjoying the spice of the wine on his tongue. There was a smoky taste there, as well as something sharp, though he did not know what.

  “Now then, dear, what were you thinking?”

  She settled down next to him and Daniel cleared his throat experimentally.

  “We’ve been playing this game for the better part of two hundred years,” he said. “I need something more. I…”

  He paused, frowning. He realized that his vision, sharp as an eagle’s, was beginning to go furry around the edges, and he could feel a leaden heaviness take over his limbs.

  “Genevieve?”

  “Hush, dear, or do you not remember that it is my turn?”

  “What?”

  “My turn to be chased, my turn to be the prey. I simply thought to give myself a head start…”

  That was the last thing he heard before he sunk down into a darkness that tasted like anise on his tongue, and the last thing he felt was her soft and tender kiss on his lips.

  Chapter Two

  The moon had set by the time Genevieve stepped out onto the cold Parisian street. A woman dressed as well as she was should have feared for her money, her life and her virtue, but she did not. Instead, she walked without care, picking her way over the broken cobbles like a cat at home in the dark.

  She glanced over her shoulder at the second-story window of the house that she had left, a window that she knew was shuttered tight and curtained with swathes of thick cloth besides. She smiled slightly, and with delicate fingers gloved in black velvet, she blew the window a kiss.