Captured by Desire

Captured by Desire

By

Donna Grant

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Captured by Desire

ISBN: 978-0985371364

Copyright© 2012 Donna Grant

Cover Artist: Rasit Ra

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy at Smashwords.com. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

www.DonnaGrant.com

Chapter One

Brasov, Romania

Summer, 1873

Juliann Little wasn’t a woman to stand by while life flew past her. She had lost several friends in her propensity to act without thinking. Doing so had changed her life forever three years prior when she followed her heart and had an affair. With a married man.

She hadn’t known he was married, but by then the damage had been done. She was ruined. Completely. Utterly.

After that debacle, Jules had begun helping her father in his quest to search for anything supernatural. It was used as an escape, and her father gladly welcomed her.

Yet, Jules found part of herself on those travels. A part she hadn’t known was missing. A part that needed something…more…in her life than parties and gossip.

Usually her father kept his travels centered around England and Scotland, but recently, his research took him to Romania.

That’s where everything unraveled.

Jules stepped off the travel coach and took a quick look around the small, quiet village. Everyone kept their gazes to the ground, refusing to speak to each other.

“Excuse me,” Jules said when a man walked near her. But he continued on as if she didn’t exist.

She bit her lip and inhaled deeply. If she expected to locate her father, she was going to have to get someone’s attention. Quickly.

“Miss? Where do you want me to leave your luggage?” the driver asked impatiently.

Her gaze scanned the sleepy village until she spotted an inn down the road a bit. “I’ll take it,” she said.

He dropped her valise onto the ground before she could reach him, and Jules was glad she hadn’t packed anything breakable in the bag. She picked up her case, straightened her shoulders, and walked to the inn.

A thin, pale young woman with blonde hair greeted her as she walked through the door. “May I help you?” the young woman asked, a kind smile on her lips.

Jules sighed in relief as she closed the door behind her and set the valise at her feet. Finally, someone with manners. “I’d like a room, please.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “You’re staying in Brasov?”

Jules was hard pressed not to ask what else she’d be doing in the inn but looking for a room. “I’m searching for my father, actually. Professor Little. Perhaps he stayed here?”

The girl fidgeted with her skirts and swallowed nervously. “I wouldn’t suggest staying here, miss. These are very dangerous times.”

Dangerous
? Jules tamped down her growing panic and calmly asked, “What is going on, exactly?”

Not that she expected the girl to tell her there were vampires or such running around, but with her father here, it had to be something of the supernatural realm.

“There is a pack of wolves that has been attacking people.”

Jules looked out the window to her right and gazed at the Carpathian Mountains. Wolves. Her father hadn’t been hunting wolves, but he must have found something.

She turned back to the girl. “My father? Do you remember him?”

“I do, miss,” the girl replied softly. “He stayed here about six months ago before he headed into the mountains.”

“Thank you,” Jules said. “I don’t know how long I’ll be staying, but I do need a room.”

“You’re a woman traveling alone. Not a good idea in Brasov, if you don’t mind my saying so,” the girl whispered and glanced out the window.

“I’ll be fine, but thank you for the warning.”

Jules paid the girl, and then followed her up the stairs to her room. Before the girl turned to leave, Jules stopped her.

“Do you know of any men I can hire to take me up the mountains?”

The girl glanced down the stairs, her fingers clutching her her dark green skirts. “I know some men who are always looking for work, but with the wolves, you’ll have to pay extra.”

“The amount doesn’t matter. I just need someone who knows the mountains.”

“Then you really need Cristian Dragomir, miss. No one knows our mountains better than he.”

Jules’ heart leapt at the news. “Do you know where I can find Mr. Dragomir?”

The girl shrugged and took a step back, eager to leave. “You’ll find him somewhere about town.”

Jules waited until the door shut behind the girl before she turned to the window and the beautiful, dangerous mountains that rose up to the clouds.

They were dangerous because they contained the highest concentration of large carnivores in all of Europe. But the beauty with its vast array of flora turning the rock walls into multicolored canvases, was breathtaking.

Or so she’d read and seen in pictures. Jules was excited to get a closer look at the peaks, gorges, and valleys first hand.

Her father was somewhere on those mountains, and she wasn’t leaving Romania until she found him.

Chapter Two

Cristian Dragomir couldn’t shake the iron claws of dread around his heart. Many times his parents had gone off into the mountains, but always they returned. Always. Two weeks had passed since they left, and there was no sign of them.

He had scouted the foothills and found their trail, but it traveled deeper into the mountains. He’d returned to gather more gear to follow them, because he knew what no one else in Brasov did – it wasn’t wolves killing people in the mountains.

But he was going to make sure he found whatever monster was there and kill it before it could harm anyone else.

Cristian noticed the coach stop in the street. He slowed his steps as he crossed to get a better look at the lady in a stylish gown of soft blue and white stripes. Her chestnut hair was tied away from her face and a straw hat with matching ribbons perched on her head. Even from a distance, Cristian noted how her eyes took in every detail, as if she searched for someone.

And then he heard her voice.

An Englishwoman traveling alone. She wouldn’t survive long in Brasov, but Cristian didn’t have time to tell her, not when his parents were missing.

He moved on, the Englishwoman quickly forgotten as he began to round up his supplies. It was just a short hour later when she stepped in front of him on the street.

“You’re Mr. Dragomir, yes?” she asked softly.

He took in her eye-catching petite frame and bountiful curves. Her voice was smooth as silk and more seductive than any woman’s ought to be. Her heart-shaped face held high cheekbones and large, expressive eyes the color of sherry, framed by thick lashes. She held his gaze with determination.

He knew he could pretend not to understand her as most in Brasov had done, but she had a tenaciousness that caught him off guard. Too many in Brasov liked to go through their lives pretending they didn’t know what was in the mountains.

There was a knowledge in the sherry gaze that watched him, a knowledge that said she understood Brasov. Or at least was willing to try.

Unsure why he would take the time, Cristian said, “I am.”

Her lips lifted in a grin of relief, and his heart skipped a beat. “Fabulous. I was told you know those mountains better than anyone.”

Cristian’s gut urged him to turn and forget the alluring woman before him. Immediately. But her smile had him rooted to the spot. “We all know the Transylvanian Alps.”

Her brows rose at his words. “Let me put it to you plainly, Mr. Dragomir.”

“Call me Cristian,” he interrupted before she could continue. “My father goes by Mr. Dragomir.”

She glanced at the ground. “Forgive my manners. I’m Juliann Little, the daughter of Professor Little who came to Brasov six months ago.”

“I remember the professor.” A sick feeling grew in his gut because he knew what Miss Little was about to say next.

She licked her full lips nervously. “You see, Cristian, my father wrote me constantly to let me know of his research. His last letter, well, held a note of fear, but also a declaration that he’d found something. Subsequently, I’ve heard nothing from him. It’s been three months since I’ve gotten a letter, and that isn’t like my father at all.”

“Maybe he’s doing more research.”

She covertly looked around her before she took a step closer, her voice lowered. “My father’s research is...different. You see, he specializes in the...in the supernatural.”

Cristian hadn’t been prepared for her words. His blood drummed in his ears as he waited for her to point to him and announce to the village that her father had come here for him.

Instead, she continued on, unaware of the havoc her words caused.

“Before he left England, he’d gotten a message from a friend telling him there was something in the Carpathian Mountains. The next day my father left for Brasov.”

Somehow Cristian managed to keep his voice even as he asked, “Do you know what he came for?”

She lifted a slender shoulder. “You’ll think him daft, but he was after a supernatural creature. He didn’t tell me which one.”

But Cristian guessed she knew which one it was by her silence. “I wish I could help, Miss Little, but I can’t,” he said before he turned and walked away.

“I was told you were heading into the mountains tomorrow morning,” she said as she hurried to catch up with him, her skirts in her hand.

He stopped suddenly and turned to her. “The mountains are treacherous, even in the summer. I’m sure you’ve heard the townspeople talk of the wolves, but there are more than just wolves out there. There are bears, lynx, and chamois, to name a few.”

“In other words, you don’t think I can keep up, that I’ll slow you down and scream at every little sound I hear.”

He shrugged. “As a matter of fact, yes.”

“I’ve hired six men. I am going up that mountain in the morning. I’d rather have someone like you with me, and I’m willing to pay for your services.”

He paused at her words. He could certainly use the money to fix up the manor, but was it worth the risk of her discovering just what he was?

“You’re going anyway,” she continued. “Why not get paid for it?”

“I’m going to regret this,” he murmured and raked a hand through his hair. No matter how much he didn’t want to take Juliann, he knew she’d be safer with him. “How much are you willing to pay?”

“Money isn’t a concern. My father is. How does a hundred pounds sound?”

“Three.”

Her chin lifted as her eyes narrowed slightly. “Two.”

“Deal,” he said and stuck out his hand.

She took it. “I’ll pay you half in the morning, and the rest once we return.”

“Be here at dawn.”

She flashed him a bright smile and turned on her heel. He watched the bustle of her gown sway gently as she walked. Already he regretted agreeing to take her with him, but the money had been too good to pass up.

Besides, he could almost guarantee that within two days she’d want to return.