All Chapters of The Devil's Kiss: Craving The Vampire Dark Lord : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

His words just hung there. "You just insulted one of their queens. And now she will never, ever forget your face." And just like that, whatever brave, smart-ass feeling I’d had inside the club was gone. Evaporated. Replaced by this deep, shivering cold that had nothing to do with the night air. This wasn't a game. It wasn't some drama for a movie. This was real. Like, ancient-deadly-serious real. “What is she going to do me?” I stuttered even though I tried so much to make my voice steady. He pretended not to hear me at first as if enjoying the panic in my face but his face was expressionless. "For now? Nothing. She won't act against you while you're under my protection." “That's good. I could breathe a little.” I said. "But she'll watch," he went on. "She'll wait. And she'll look for any weakness, any opportunity." He took a step back, there he was again. The unshakeable commander. The brief flicker of the guy who was worried about me was gone. "Which is why you won't

“God, Yvette, what was that?” I groaned as I tried to sit up the next morning, my shoulders hurt, everywhere felt heavy, even my butt hurt because I had come crashing down quickly because of that panic attack. Instead of thinking of how to get painkillers, I was fantasizing about Joachim's blue eyes and his lips when he came up close to me. Soon, I was smiling sheepishly and had to stop when I remembered the bottomless loneliness in his eyes. Someone must have wronged him or broke his heart. And what he said, about forgetting what it felt like to be scared? I mean, who forgets that? A crack in the armor, for sure. One I never, ever expected to see. After that we just stayed there. On the cold floor. I thought he was proud and arrogant, cold and selfish but the man who stayed with me till my heart stopped hammering wasn't the Joachim Knight I know. He eventually got me onto one of the giant white couches and then he was just gone. Left me alone. But the silence wasn't scary for on

(JOACHIM'S POV) Valerius. The name was like a curse in my head on the silent ride up to the penthouse. Just a cold, old familiar name, churning in my gut. Five centuries of building this life, this fortress. Meticulous and perfect. And now it's all teetering on the edge because of one human. One chaotic, impossible woman. Yvette. She's a liability. Or even more than that. She's just a pain in the ass. Her little scene at The Veil, the way she just doesn't get it. She’s a walking, talking disaster. Valerius has me on a leash, and he wants her on one, too. Except my leash needs to look like a diamond necklace. She has to be flawless, a perfect puppet if this fake relationship stuff is going to work . And for the flowers, those were just moves. A calculation. She had an emotional breakdown and I provide a simple countermeasure to ensure compliance. Easy. Strategic. But her face when she saw them, that gratitude, the actual tears. For centuries I have known humans to be ungrate

Yvette's pov If there was anything I was expecting tonight, it was for this gala to go easy and smooth, so I can go home and continue with the photos I had to sell off as the Woodsman. Business was already declining and now Whitfield just made me look like I was just another helpless rabbit. His remarks were hot and poisonous and I was quite sure that more than fifty people heard what he just said and to make matters worry, his last words kept ringing like Christmas carol in my ears. It seems as if the air and his insults suddenly switched places and now I was inhaling his insults instead of oxygen. An intense outburst of anger struck me. Years of tabloid battles had made my mind quick and vicious and it immediately prepared a hundred different scathing retorts. I was going to show this shark just how sharp my teeth were and tell him that I had a loud mouth. I was about to verbally rip him to pieces as I opened my mouth. But Joachim made a move before I could say anything. H

Yvette's pov His hand on my arm lingered longer than necessary, the bear from his fingers seeping through my silk dress. I wanted to pull away, but my body betrayed me, leaning just a fraction closer than I intended. I seriously don't know what's going on in his head or what he wanted to say. Wait! I hope he isn't going to say that I'm such a terrible kisser. I touched my lips lightly, God, please, no. I looked up to see him staring at me. I forced out one of my best smiles. “Okay,” I shrugged. “What is it you want to tell me?” “Come,” he said, almost immediately. Moonlight brushed over his jaw making the sharp line look impossibly perfect. I couldn't stop my eyes from tracing it, imagining what it would feel like under my lips. My pulse jumped at the thought— what was happening to me? Then we walked into a massive living room. Disappointments washed over me as he finally let go of my arm, he turned his back to me, staring at the tiny pieces of Manhattan below. I wanted to