Dark Conquest - Rosa (Vampire romance) (Erotic romance)

I think I’ve been drugged.  A throaty groan escapes my lips and it grates hard against the roof of my mouth.  Why am I so dry?  I run a hand gently over my brow.  I’ve got a banging headache too and I can’t think of a good reason to explain that either.  Last night was fairly quite – no drinking, no riotous party that would leave me feeling so hung over.

Thinking about it
though, I can’t really remember last night at all.  That can’t be right, can it?

I feel confused
too, muzzy and slightly sick.  I’ve no recollection, no memory at all of what’s happened or what I’ve been doing.  The last thing I remember was eating dinner with Anton.  Could something have disagreed with me, could I be ill? 

Then a wild thought enters my head –
a ridiculous thought but there it is, large and ugly, niggling away.  Perhaps something has been done to me, in the middle of the night as I slept.  Perhaps I’ve been deliberately drugged and rendered helpless for some reason – a reason I won’t like. 

I
cy shivers of fear dance over my skin and I almost choke as I inhale.  My mouth is like a desert, I need a drink.  Drugged then, I decide terrified.

I’d suspected
all along this was a bad idea.  Spending the weekend at a strange house with a man neither of us knew particularly well.   

Jane
, where was she? 

W
e’d come to this place together and fuck knows how long I’d been lying here so why hadn’t she come to find me and woken me up? 

Perhaps she couldn’t wake me up, perhaps she was like me. 
Whatever had happened could only have been down to Anton – tall, dark, and wickedly handsome Anton.  There is no one else here, well, that is if you don’t count his butler, Addams.

But whatever
’s going on, whatever’s happened to me, I’m safe for the moment and in bed, in my own room. Running tentative fingers down my body I can feel the silk nightie I’d packed only the day before. 

I was still wearing it - r
elief! 

So
whatever has happened it can’t have been anything
too dreadful – too intimate – can it?
I bite my lip.  I need to see Anton.  I need him to explain this to me. I shuffle my body in an effort to rise then I feel it and scream out with shock.

As I move
a deep, intense pain sears between my thighs and there’s a burning in my neck.  Pulling back the bedcovers to look, I see the patch of dried blood on my pillow.
 

Tw
enty four hours earlier
 

I need
a new job.  I need something with prospects, something exciting.  Well actually, if I’m honest, I need something to get me away from Jason.   My old job was fine while we had a thing going but now that we don’t – it’s torture.

You see I’d liked Jason.  He was –
well still is, handsome, talented, funny and life was never dull with him in it.  Working as we do in that huge office block we’d meet up all the time.  Me working in the café on the ground floor and him working for an accountancy firm on the sixteenth meant we could do coffee, lunch and generally hang out together at every opportunity.

So what went wrong?  Well I suppose it must have been me, me and my high ideals.  Jason wanted a different sort of relationship
and I wanted us to take our time.  To be blunt, Jason wanted sex and I didn’t.  Well I did, I just didn’t want to rush things.  I’m the sort of girl who needs to be sure.  I need to know that the man I give my virginity to is my Mr. Right.  And Jason, well I really had no idea – we just hadn’t given it long enough.

But Jason was having none of it - s
o we split.  We both cried and I think we probably both regretted it.  But after a while I realised I’d been right and so now I’ve decided I need a change.

Jane, my best friend
and flat mate, said she had just the thing to cheer me up.  Oh, not a job, that was far too practical.  No, what Jane had was an invitation to a party – a house party that would last the entire weekend.

“Dorlan Grange,” she enthused.  “You, me and host of gorgeous men - what
d’you think?”

I should have taken
more heed of it then, but I didn’t.  It was that name –
Dorlan Grange
.  Despite never having heard it before it somehow sounded familiar but not familiar in a good way.  The sound of it sent prickles of electricity up and down my spine.  A feeling I didn’t like at all.

But that’s not what I said to Jane.  I told her
,
why not
, clapped my hands and hugged her for inviting me.  We were going to a party, in the pretty English countryside with plenty of new contacts to meet and impress.  Any one of them might just offer me a new job.  I was very enthusiastic, it’s exactly what I needed right now.”

Dorlan Grange
– despite the name giving me the jitters it did sound very grand.  How I wondered had Jane got to know someone with an address like that.

“A customer,” she informed me
wide eyed with a casual wave of her hand. 

But I know that look.  It was the look she always had when there was an ulterior motive.  She’d obviously met someone
she fancied and wanted to drag me along for moral support.

“
He’s called Anton and he really is something special and so keen for us to go.  And when we get there I won’t leave you on your own, honestly.”

That seemed fair enough, so
funny feelings about the place or not, I agreed to go.

Come Saturday morning we’d packed far more than we needed into Jane’s small car and armed with my brother’s old sat nav we were off.  Leaving London far behind an hour or so later we were in the glorious Sussex countryside and getting more and more excited about the weekend
as every mile passed.

“Anton who
?”  I ask finally, wondering how much Jane actually knows about this new man in her life.

“Anto
n Mortimer,” she replies squeezing the steering wheel with excitement.  “I met him in town - he came into the shop where I work.  He’s really gorgeous, Rosa, and I like him a lot.  I don’t seem to be able to help myself.”

“Is he wealthy?  I mean who had a house called a
Grange
out in the sticks without having a pile of cash stashed away?”

“I think he inherited the house
but I don’t really know.  When I know him better I’ll ask,” she giggled.  “I’d like to know just rich he really is before I commit,” she teased.

Gorgeous and rich – there must be a catch.  I mean this Anton appeared to be the perfect package a
nd that just wasn’t possible - was it?  And Jane had history.  She always seemed to attract the wrong sort of man.  The
wealthy, handsome, wants to get right down to it
type of man.  I pursed my lips thoughtfully, there was always a catch.  The last one had a wife and that didn’t sit well once Jane found out.  She’d only just got over almost being the
other woman
in a divorce suit so I couldn’t help but wonder what problems this Anton would bring with him.

“Shit,
it’s enormous,” Jane gasped staring at the impressive building we could just see at the end of an extremely narrow and overgrown lane.  

Yes it was but a
ll I could think about was whether Jane could negotiate the distance without her car getting scratched to bits.

“It l
ooks old too,” I add.  “Old, enormous and hell to heat I’d imagine,” I added letting my thrifty streak show.  Give me a nice, small double glazed apartment in winter anytime!  But all this chat was just a cover up because they were back, the nerves.  Just looking at the place gave me the oddest feeling and I couldn’t explain it.  I certainly couldn’t say anything to Jane but I had the distinct impression I’d seen the place before.

“Anton said to ring when we got here and his butler wil
l come and get our bags.” She nodded at a small parking spot across from the turn in to the lane.  “He said we could leave the car there.  No one comes up here so it will be quite safe,” she reassured.  “Imagine that, a butler,” she smirked with glee.

But
what about the other guests – where were their cars? But perhaps I was just over thinking it. 

“And
you and I – we walk?”  I groan grabbing my shoulder bag.  Given that I’d dressed to impress the shoes on my feet were hardly up to the task.  Shiny red heels were certainly not meant for walking in.  At that moment I cursed Anton Mortimer, whoever he was, for living at the back end of nowhere and just hoped he’d live up to expectations.

And he did
, and much more.  He was the archetypal tall, dark handsome male but there was something more.  He had an enigmatic sexiness, a captivating quality to his face that immediately hooked and entranced me.  He was a veritable sex God with broad shoulders and slim hips.  Put him in any social setting and he’d be an instant magnet for all the poor unsuspecting females around.  In that first moment of meeting him I could understand why Jane had fallen for this man and I felt nothing but envy for her,

“This is my
best friend and flatmate, Rosa,” she introduced me.

He
smiled and held out his hand, a long, pale hand with elegant fingers.  I look and then tentatively take hold of it with my own.  There is an immediate spark, a jolt of something weird yet oddly pleasant that shoots through my body making me catch my breath.  What is this? Why such a reaction to a complete stranger?  He smirks slightly, his full lips just tweaking upwards at the edges.  He knows, is that because he felt it too?  What further magic is this man capable of I wonder as my gaze meets his and my insides turn to mush.

“You’re very welcome
here, Rosa,” he smiles letting go of my hand.  “Addams will show you up to your rooms.  Unpack and come down then I’ll show you both around the place,” he offers.

“He’s nice,” I tell Jane.  “In fact he’s very
, very nice.” I grin and race her to the top of the staircase as we both giggle loudly.  The noise we’re making gets a sort of withered look from Addams who’s following up behind us and we both grab each other and collapse into hysterics.  “This is some place you’ve brought us to,” I whisper.  “Huge house, dishy guy and to top it all – a butler,” I compliment trying hard not to get the giggles again.

But
great as this weekend thing seems for now, apart from the noise we are making, the place is very quiet and that bothers me a bit.  Jane had said this was a house party – so where are the other guests?

“
It’s early yet,” Anton dismisses as we eat dinner out on the terrace overlooking his vast garden.  “Some of my friends won’t make it until tomorrow anyway,” he explains.  “The pressures of work, you know what I mean,” he smiles.  “Anyway, would it be such a dreadful thing to have you both to myself for the evening,” he adds taking my hand and kissing it lightly.

Oh shit, this man’s dynamite. 
Another jolt and more sparks that this time dare to dance between my thighs.    Unnerving though not unwelcome but I have to give myself an urgent nudge.  He’s Jane’s man not mine.

But
that funny feeling I have about this place is still circling around my brain and there’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  It’s a bit like some sixth sense telling me that being here is wrong, dangerous even. I don’t know if it’s nerves, a premonition, not that I’m usually given to such things, or just me. But I have the strangest feeling that I should be wary of this house and particularly of this man, gorgeous or not.  And that just isn’t normal – well not for me anyway. 

I don’t think Jane was very impressed either
but for very different reasons.  She’d expected to palm me off with one of Anton’s friends so she could have him all to herself.  No friends meant we had to share him.  He was such a gentleman he’d never allow me to be on my own while he spent time with Jane.  So she was miffed because that left no time for any of the red hot sex she’d been so looking forward to. 

And to make matters worse after dinner she said she felt unwell and had to go up to her room.  That really wasn’t like her and I’ll admit I was
even more worried now.  And I thought Anton should have shown more concern too but he didn’t. 

“She has
a headache and she’s running a bit of a temperature,” he told me coming down the stairs from her room.  “I’ve given her some tablets, she should sleep now,” he reassured.

I’d
never noticed before but he has a bit of an accent – Eastern European I think but I’m no expert.

“It’s a lovely evening, I’ll sh
ow you the garden,” he offered holding out his hand to me.

Suddenly I feel shy.  I don’t know
this man and neither does Jane, not really but that’s not it.  There’s something very seductive about the way he’s looking at me - almost as if he’s implying more than a simple walk past the herbaceous border.

The soun
d of his sexy voice reverberates around my head almost compelling me to agree and go with him.  So I do.  I take his hand and allow him to lead me through the French doors and into the fading evening light,

“
I like Jane,” he says once we’re out of sight of the house.  “But we haven’t known each other that long,” he frowns.  “So what do you think, Rosa, should I take things a little slower?”

I look at him puzzled, what does he mean – sex, is that what he’s getting at
?  Had it been his intention to jump into bed with her this weekend?  The idea upsets me a bit but I don’t know why it should.  If I didn’t know better I’d say I was jealous.

“Does she expect me to sleep with her?”  He asks matter of factly
while staring into my eyes.  “Is she that kind of girl?”

I try to answe
r without blushing but I fail and my cheeks burn as I stumble over my answer.  “Well she doesn’t hold back,” I mutter.  “But she’s not really promiscuous.  If she likes a guy then she goes for it.”

Anton smiles and tugs me around the back of a huge oak tree.  “I wanted her so m
uch,” he almost whispers pulling me closer to him.  “She was to be a sweet little dalliance.  I wanted us to stay in bed and have sex all weekend long,” he admits with a guilty expression on his luscious face.

“But
she can’t, not now she’s ill,” I reply lamely with a shrug, implying that sex was now out of the question.  Well, hoping that he thought sex was now out of the question.  What was I supposed to say for goodness sake?

“You misunderstand, lovely
Rosa,” he explains while running his delicate fingertips down my cheek.  Another shiver and the trembling begins.  “That’s not it – not it at all.  I’m not disappointed, because now I get to spend time with you,” he smiles charmingly.

I feel hot, hot and undone
.  He sees right through me.  I look into those eyes of his and feel my heart pounding wildly.  He has such dark, dark eyes, almost black in fact – was that even possible?

“But we’ve just met, Anton,
today in fact and I couldn’t do that to Jane.  I’d hate myself,” I told him watching the hurt expression mar that devastatingly handsome face of his.  “And anyway I don’t do sex on a first date,” I added hurriedly.  “In fact, so that you understand properly I’ll just come clean,” I flounder. 

What was the use?  Old habits die hard and if I couldn’t have sex with Jason because I didn’t love him then what chance with Anton?  But, of course I wasn’t considering the lust factor and with this gorgeous specimen
of manhood so up for it, believe me that was a biggy.