Prologue
Nathaniel hurries through the cemetery, his heartbeat pounding in his ears loud enough to drown out the sound of crickets and the dead leaves rustling in the trees. It’s past midnight and completely dark. Only the shaky light from his phone flashlight keeps him from tripping over the headstones.
He has to laugh at himself. Why is he so jittery? He’s a grown twenty-three-year-old man.
Until he can get over his fear, he’s going to keep forcing himself to cut through the cemetery every night on his way home from work.
But as Nathaniel nears the huge, shadowy structure that is buried in a tangle of trees, he doesn’t feel brave at all. His mouth goes dry, and his breath quivers with those annoying hitches.
Without even meaning to, he glances atit. The big marble figure. That’s a huge mistake.
Because it’s looking at him.
It sees him.
His stomach leaps up into his throat. Alarm bells shriek inside his skull; he can’t think through the noise.
No, he’s not going to freak out. Even though his feet want to run away as fast as possible, he makes himself walk. Walk and breathe.
He’s just going to walk past the huge, terrifying statue.
Night after night, it stands guard in front of the run-down, ivy-covered mausoleum. Nathaniel will not look its way again. He knows what the statue looks like; he’s seen it before many times.
He will not shine his flashlight in its direction to see the cut abs and defined musculature of the marble. The noticeable bulge of its groin. And those creepy, lifelike eyes that always seem to be looking directly at him.
“Nathaniel.”
He lets out a screech and runs like mad. He doesn’t stop running until he’s all the way home.
Chapter 1: The Halloween Party
“So what are you supposed to be?” The vampire’s eyes flick over him.
Nathaniel likes her vibe, the high heels and the hair piled on top of her head. Maybe if he sends the right signals back, she’ll want to tie him down and suck him dry.
He doesn’t have much experience dating, especially as a submissive trying to find a dominant girlfriend. All he knows is that he’s always been attracted to those magnetically powerful women in the room.
Only lately, he’s been wondering if women aren’t all he’s attracted to…
He pushes that thought away. It’s bad enough that he’s six feet two inches tall and has these stupid submissive desires, like the need for someone to spoon him from behind, kiss him on the head, and keep him from being afraid of everything.
Why are his emotions so needy and weird?
And he’s getting really tired of his ridiculous cock that likes to get hard in the presence of someone powerful and commanding. He doesn’t need to suddenly find out helikes cockon top of it all. He’s not gay, just…a little kinky. Once he finds a girlfriend, those kinks can stay in the bedroom where they belong. Completely safe, completely private.
He tries to concentrate on acting normal. The lady vampire is waiting for an answer.
“Um, I’m supposed to be Houdini.” He holds up his chained wrists, feeling a little ridiculous.
“Interesting. So if you’re Houdini, why don’t you escape?”
“But that’s not really the point…” he trails off, cringing a little under the vampire’s expectant gaze. He gives some halfhearted pulls at the chains, but they stay locked around his wrists.
“You’re not much of an escape artist, are you?”
“You can chain me down,” says the cute fox girl who comes up beside her. “If you feel like it, you can even give me a spanking.”
“I’m not…that’s not really Houdini’s thing.”
