Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 75: Reward_Part 1

Belle was more than certain it was Jamie, because just as she was staring at him, he was staring back at her. He wasn’t part of the guests, he wasn’t wearing a suit like the noble men, but the uniform of the servants serving drinks and snacks on a tray.

He stopped in the middle of serving a couple and stared at her from across the space, his blue eyes holding a look of longing and melancholy that made her heart squeeze guiltily. He had lost a great deal of weight and looked leaner than the last time she had seen him in Aragonia.

He had always been a lean man, but not this lean. He looked haggard and exhausted, as if he hadn’t rested. She couldn’t believe he was here.

What was he doing here? Belle wondered as she saw him give her a small smile and then turn away to walk out a door that led inside the castle. She got up from her seat even before she thought about what she was doing. She needed to speak to him. He shouldn’t be here! Why did he come to Nightbrook?

"Where are you going?" Came Cordelia’s voice, who Belle had momentarily forgotten was even beside her. She snapped back to her senses to realize she couldn’t just go after Jamie with this many eyes on her, but then she needed to desperately speak to him and to know why he was here. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she had a feeling he was here for her, or to speak to her. She saw it in his eyes.

Belle composed herself and then turned to Cordelia. "I thought to mingle with the guests rather than sit around doing nothing. If you’ll excuse me," Belle was about to walk away when Cordelia stopped her.

"Wait." She stood up and kept her glass of blood wine on a table beside her, but it spilled on the floor, and she gritted her teeth in irritation.

It was exhausting to live without a personal slave following her around, and if Cordelia had known that her father’s plan to get the slaves would fail, she would not have sucked her slave dry and killed her the very day their men set off to get the slaves from the establishment.

Not to mention, her only way back to a wealthy life would be by marrying her second cousin, no matter what it would take.

Rohan had wealth beyond anyone could imagine, and she would be a perfect fit for him, as she knew how to live in it—rather than this worthless piece of trash.

Cordelia smiled and walked toward Belle, then reached her hand up to her head. Belle was tempted to move her head, but she stood her ground and frowned as the vampiress touched the top of her head and smoothed her fingers into the portion of her let-down hair at the back. She pulled her hand back and said, with a polite, harmless smile,

"The pin on your hair was crooked. I fixed it for you. I hope you have a good evening."

Saying this, Cordelia turned away and made her way to her group of friends, leaving Belle stunned for a moment at her action of repairing her pin before she blinked and dismissed it, then turned in the direction she’d seen Jamie disappear to.

Rohan wasn’t back in the hall yet; she could quickly go and meet Jamie and return to the hall. She did not want to imagine what would happen if Rohan knew she had gone to meet the very man he had told her to forget. She was about to start walking in the direction of the door when one of the female human servants walked up to her and then bowed.

"This is for you, my lady."

Belle looked down at the folded note the young girl handed her. She took it and unfolded it and read the words carefully written on it.

"Meet me at the chamber at the top of the hall, first door. Right now."

Belle’s pulse leapt as a small frown came to settle on her face.

She looked up to ask the servant if it was Jamie who sent this to her, but then the girl was gone, already going about her work. It could only be Jamie, as it was obvious no one else would send this to her. He had looked at her with an expression that conveyed he wanted to have some words with her before he left the hall. He had probably gone to write this and sent someone to give it to her.

Her husband was busy with his whore, and as much as it had bothered her a while ago, she was somewhat grateful he wasn’t here to see Jamie or stop her from meeting him.

Belle didn’t waste time in leaving the hall. She did not even care who was watching or not; she made her way up the stairs after walking into the door Jamie had gone through. Her heart was pounding within her ribs in anxiety. She was more scared than excited to meet him, because to be honest, after she had left Aragonia, she did not think she would ever see him again until she would return to perhaps find him already in love with another. But he was here and wanted to meet her.

Belle reached the first door and pushed it open with a force that almost made her lose her balance. "You shouldn’t be—" she stopped dead in her tracks, her heart slamming into her stomach as she tried to catch her breath and at the same time register what she met in the chamber.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" she questioned in astonished disbelief before she could stop herself.

Instead of Jamie, Rohan stood by the window of the chamber, his shoulder leaning sideways onto the wall as he looked down at his gold pocket watch in his gloved hand. He clicked his watch closed and tucked it into his coat. He then turned to her.

"I’m waiting to jump out the window and end it all," he replied dryly, shooting her a blank look. "What do you think I’m doing? Waiting for my wife, of course." He didn’t bother hiding the sarcasm. "Close the door. We’ve got about six minutes before we’re expected back in the hall."

Belle closed the door and stood with her back against it without moving. It was best to be closer to an escape if it called for it, because Rohan had a look she could not quite read on his handsome face as he stared at her now. Could it be that he’d seen Jamie?

"Time for what? Why did you call me here?" she asked, aware that Jamie had not sent any note and that her husband, who she had believed was with another woman, had sent it. Where is the other woman?

"Come over here." He beckoned her forward with his index and middle finger.

Belle lifted the big skirts of her ball gown and picked her way delicately toward him. Delicately because her feet were already swollen in her slightly heeled shoes, and the climb up the stairs here had left her wincing with each step. She had run here, afraid that someone would find out the man she had loved in Aragonia was here.

Rohan caught her hand and pulled her the last couple of steps. She landed against his hard body, and his strong arms came around her. "What...?!" freeωebnovēl.c૦m

He stopped her words with his mouth. His tongue stroked hers hungrily, stirring embers that hadn’t quite gone out since their last encounter in the hall after their dance, where their bodies touched and pressed together in ways that made her nipples tingled within her dress.

He had left the hall not long after that dance—unreasonably, unbearably aroused. If he had remained in her presence another second, he would have kissed her senseless, make her feel how much aroused he was right there, consequences be damned. She had set his body aflame, driving him past the edge, not only with need but with a thirst so sharp it scraped at his throat.

Since bringing her to Nightbrook, he hadn’t touched another woman. Couldn’t. No one else made him feel what she did. She amused him and made him feel more alive than he was. She gave him the feelings he sought in being inside the dewy warmth of a woman without actually being inside her. It was strange how a little woman like her could make a man like him want to have her in his presence, to tease her, and make her come undone in his arms.

He hadn’t been able to touch the woman he’d left the hall with. She’d been nothing but a vessel—her wrist raised to his mouth at his command as he drained just enough to soothe the fire in his throat. The lady had nearly fainted from blood loss, and still, all he could think of was his wife.

So he had sent for her.

His silly bunny had been glaring at him heatedly in the hall because he was talking to another woman. He had been pleased. Now, he kissed her with a raw intensity that made her moan into his mouth and arch herself against his already raw, oversensitive, aroused body that hadn’t gone down despite being away from her.

Belle’s entire body felt like it was on fire from the way he kissed her. His tongue invaded her parted lips with ease, touching hers. He explored her mouth as if searching for something, and when he found her tongue, he sucked it into his mouth, suckling and licking it, causing her legs to turn to jelly and grow weak.

She needed to stop this before she lost herself completely, Belle thought as she eased away from him with difficulty to think.

Her face was crimson, and she was panting softly as she placed her palms down on his chest and then said, "Why... why did you call me here? If we don’t have much time, perhaps you should tell me why you sent for me."

"What are you talking about, Isa?" he said as his gloved fingers played with a few strands of her hair and watched how flushed she was.

"The words in the note." She took it from her pocket. "Did you not send this?"

Rohan glanced once at it, his dark eyes meeting hers for an instant. "Hmm, I did, and you are here."

"Why?" she asked, not understanding why he would make her come up here when there was an event going on below.

He smirked as he tilted his head to the side. "Tsk, how you forget things so easily, sweetheart. It makes me wonder if you have the brain of a grandmother. Didn’t I promise to reward you for being brave in the hall?" He cupped the side of her neck and stroked his thumb on the skin. "You are here to collect your reward."