Vacation with a Vampire

"Island Vacation"
Harlequin Nocturne #139
June 2012
ISBN: 978-0-373-88549-7

Vacations are a perfect time to indulge, so why not spend a little quality time with these immortal hunks in three luscious tales of hot getaways. Treat yourself to a little bit of summer moonlight with these tales brought to you by Michele Hauf, Kendra Leigh Castle and Lisa Childs.

Reviews

"'Island Vacation' is teeming with intense scenes and raw attraction.  Roarke and Piper’s story is a heavy one but a good one.  Vacation with a Vampire is a good vampire anthology.  Lots of love in the air with these stories.  If you are into vampires you will enjoy these stories with their sexy vampires and headstrong heroines." -- Miranda, Joyfully Reviewed

"These are three fun vampiric romances starring engaging protagonists." -- Harriet Klausner, Genre Go Round

"Another enjoyable story where nothing is what it seems to be and Piper has secrets about herself that even she don’t know about." -- Judy, GoodReads

"Island vacation was another enjoyable tale, my first from author Lisa Childs but I doubt it will be my last. I loved the suspense in this one, I was eager to get to the bottom of their secrets and I wasn't disappointed when I got there!" -- Michelle, GoodReads

"This trio of vampy tales makes for a fun read." -- Alexandra Kay, RT Book Reviews

Excerpt

Excerpt: “Island Vacation” by Lisa Childs

Work sucks. For the past four years, Piper Reynolds had spent ten to twelve hours a day, six—sometimes seven—days a week shut in a small, windowless office with only fluorescent bulbs for light. Whatever tan she’d once possessed had long since faded to a pallor so translucent she probably could have passed for a vampire.

If vampires actually existed outside the pages of young-adult novels…

Not that she’d read those novels or anything else. She never had the time or the energy to read anything but reports, ledgers and bank statements. She spent so much time studying numbers scrolling across a computer screen that she had strained her eyes to the point of needing glasses. While she only needed them for reading, she wore them most of the time—since she was usually working anyway. Not today, though, and not for the next thirteen days.

Piper should have been thrilled that she had won the office lottery for the two-week, all-expenses-paid vacation. But ever since her name—well, the one she’d used for the past four years—had been pulled from the raffle basket, apprehension had tied her stomach muscles into tight knots. Maybe that apprehension was just fear of the unknown since she’d never had a real vacation before and she had been working, at one job or another, since she was fourteen.

Or maybe it had been the fact that her boss had called out Patricia Reynolds before he had even completely unfolded the piece of paper he’d drawn out. Had her name really been the one written down? He had never shown it.

But why would he have wanted her to win?

To get rid of her?

That made no sense given how hard she worked. Had she stumbled across something she wasn’t supposed to have seen? But like every other employee, she’d signed a confidentiality agreement. She could reveal nothing of what she knew about E. Graves Financial Planning, which despite all those hours she logged, was really very little. She didn’t even know whose accounts she was working on; she didn’t know whose millions or billions she was investing and tracking.

Maybe her boss had been the one to stumble across something: her real identity. Given who she had once been, she could understand that he would want her far away from a company known for discretion. He had certainly sent her far away from the office in Zantrax, Michigan.

Boarding the private plane at the airport had been like stepping into a different time zone—a bygone era of luxury and comfort. The leather seats were so big and the cushions so deep and soft that she should have slept the entire flight. But she couldn’t relax enough to sleep.

She wasn’t afraid of flying. Even though she hadn’t been on a plane the past four years, she had logged many frequent-flyer miles before then. It was that damn sense of apprehension keeping her awake.

She had worked so hard to keep her secrets. What if she’d been discovered? But if her boss had discovered who she was, he would have fired her instead of rewarding her with a vacation.

This damn vacation….

Reluctant to leave the security of her windowless office, she had tried to refuse her win. Hell, she hadn’t even remembered entering her name in the drawing in the first place. But her boss had insisted she take the two weeks and the trip.

“Miss,” the young stewardess said softly as though not to disturb anyone else. But Piper was the only passenger aboard the private plane.

A plane all to herself? A stewardess for only her? What the hell kind of vacation had she won? She hadn’t even been this pampered in her previous career.

“You need to fasten your seat belt,” the woman advised. “We’ll be preparing to land soon.”
“Where are we landing?” Piper asked as she clipped her belt back together. It was no canvas strap like on commercial flights but a thick leather belt with a gold-plated buckle.
The stewardess smiled slightly, as if amused. “You don’t know?”

“No.”

In addition to being all-expenses paid, the vacation was to an undisclosed location. All she had been told was to pack light and bring her passport. No matter how many times she had asked, her boss had refused to reveal any more clues to her destination.

Of course E. Graves Financial Planning was known for its confidentiality; that was why they had so many affluent clients who valued their privacy as much as their stock portfolios. One of them had been so grateful for the firm’s discretion and hard work that he had donated the vacation for the company’s annual office lottery. The only thing her boss had told her was that this man was their oldest and most important client and to refuse his gift would have been an unforgiveable insult. Piper had picked up on the implication that if she hadn’t accepted the trip, she might have been terminated.

She’d been fortunate that Graves’s background check hadn’t revealed her real identity, but she couldn’t risk that a new employer might. And if the media found out…
She shuddered at the horrific thought.

“Then I wouldn’t want to spoil your surprise,” the stewardess said, her smile widening slightly but not enough to show her teeth. She was beautiful, the kind of polished beauty that only went skin-deep.

Piper had once been that kind of beautiful…when she’d actually cared about how she looked. But along with her tan, she’d lost the highlights in her hair so that it was more mousy brown than blond. And badly in need of a trim, it hung thick and heavy around her shoulders and in her face.

The plane hit a rough patch, sending it bouncing like a stone across water. Piper clutched her seat belt, tightening it around her waist. She cared less about the plane going down than where it was going, though. She asked, “Can you at least tell me if it’ll be a pleasant surprise?”

But the stewardess hurried off toward the cockpit, leaving Piper behind with her question unanswered. For now. The plane had leveled out to a more gradual descent; it would land soon and then she would at least know where she was.

But when would she learn why? Because that tight knot of apprehension warned her that she hadn’t won this vacation out of luck. She worried that it might prove to be the exact opposite of luck that had put her on this plane to nowhere.

* * *

Anticipation quickened his pulse, sending his blood pumping hard and fast through his veins. The drone of a plane’s engine disrupted the eerie stillness of the night. She was here. Finally.

Roarke Monterusso chuckled wryly at his own impatience. Four years. That amount of time was nothing compared to the centuries he’d lived. So why had it felt so interminably long? Because four weeks—hell, four days—was too long to wait for justice.

She had eluded justice too long. She had eluded him too long.

Roarke didn’t need her formally charged or convicted of her crime. He only needed to know that she had been punished, and the only way to make certain of that was to personally dole out that punishment.

Bright lights flashed, guiding the pilot to the airstrip on the other side of the twenty-acre private island. The plane landed smoothly. Moments later another engine fired up, and a car brought her around the winding drive to the house. Headlamps flashed in his face, but he didn’t so much as blink. The light just bounced off his eyes like a spotlight reflecting back at her.

She stepped out of the door the chauffeur held open for her and directly into the beam. The light shimmered in the tresses of her deep golden hair.

His sources had sworn that Patricia Reynolds was not the infamous Piper. They had assured him that the women looked nothing alike. They had been dead wrong.

She had changed over the past four years, but the changes were slight and superficial and did nothing to disguise her beauty or her allure. She wore glasses and a baggy beige suit. Her hair was long and thick. As disguises went, it was weak.

How had she fooled so many? The media believed she’d disappeared off the face of the earth. But his sources should have been smarter… .

Had they lied to him?

Most people were too afraid of him to lie to him and risk his wrath. But maybe they had been more afraid of what he might do. To her.

They were right to be afraid. As she climbed up the porch steps to him, she trembled slightly. If it was with fear, she was right to be afraid, too. She had more to fear than anyone else.

Justice…

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