Relentless Seduction Read online

  Unrestrained.

  Unrelenting.

  And completely undressed!

  When her best friend disappears during Mardi Gras, microbiologist Claire Brookes is determined to find her. Her only lead is a bar called Once Bitten—a haven for the dark, melancholy and vampire-obsessed. And while Claire generally prefers science nerds over the Gothy children of New Orleans, something about the bar’s tall, dark and delish bartender makes her mouth water….

  Bar owner Rafe Moreau is pretty sure that there’s more to Claire than uptightness and frumpy clothes. And as they delve further into the dark, seedy underworld of the Big Easy, Claire and Rafe turn to each other, discovering a sizzling hunger that won’t be satisfied.

  But will one taste be enough?

  Look what people are saying about talented author Jillian Burns

  “With Let It Ride, Jillian Burns has written

  a worderfully steamy, fast-paced story that

  will keep you turning pages until the very end.”

  —Kwips and Kritiques

  “Jillian Burns’s latest is an emotionally moving masterpiece with characters whose profound issues create convincing and formidable roadblocks to happiness. The tropical setting will delight. A secondary romance between Kristen’s friend and a Hawaiian native is icing on the cake.”

  —Affaire de Coeur on Once a Hero…

  “Jillian Burns is an author who can take an ordinary, everyday story and make it her own. Burns fans will love this beautifully woven story and new readers will become lifelong fans!”

  —FreshFiction on Seduce and Rescue

  Dear Reader,

  We have exciting news! As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the Harlequin Blaze books you know and love have a brand-new look, starting this month. And it’s hot! Don’t you agree?

  But don’t worry—nothing else about the Blaze books has changed. You’ll still find those unforgettable love stories with intrepid heroines, hot, hunky heroes and a double dose of sizzle!

  Check out this month’s red-hot reads.…

  #729 THE RISK-TAKER by Kira Sinclair

  (Uniformly Hot!)

  #730 LYING IN BED by Jo Leigh

  (The Wrong Bed)

  #731 HIS KIND OF TROUBLE by Samantha Hunter

  (The Berringers)

  #732 ONE MORE KISS by Kathy Garbera

  #733 RELENTLESS SEDUCTION by Jillian Burns

  #734 THE WEDDING FLING by Meg Maguire

  I hope you’re as pleased with our new look as we are. Drop by www.Harlequin.com or www.blazeauthors.com

  to let us know what you think.

  Brenda Chin

  Senior Editor

  Harlequin Blaze

  Relentless Seduction

  Jillian Burns

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Jillian Burns has always read romance, and spent her teens immersed in the worlds of Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett. She lives in Texas with her husband of twenty years and their three active kids. Jillian likes to think her emotional nature—sometimes referred to as moodiness—has found the perfect outlet in writing stories filled with passion and romance. She believes romance novels have the power to change lives with their message of eternal love and hope.

  Books by Jillian Burns

  HARLEQUIN BLAZE

  466—LET IT RIDE

  572—SEDUCE AND RESCUE

  602—PRIMAL CALLING

  670—ONCE A HERO

  To get the inside scoop on Harlequin Blaze and its talented writers, be sure to check out blazeauthors.com.

  Other titles by this author available in ebook format. Don’t miss any of our special offers. Write to us at the following address for information on our newest releases.

  Harlequin Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  This is for Alice, a dear friend,

  who was the first one to believe I could actually write a novel, and made it seem like more than

  a pipe dream when she gave me

  “How to Write a Romance Novel.”

  And for my mama,

  who is always there for me, no matter what.

  As usual, it takes a village to raise a romance novel. Thank you to Charlaine Harris and her vampire bar, Fangtasia, for my inspiration. Thank you to

  dear friend and author extraordinaire Von for the plotting help, and to my amazing critique partners, Pam and Linda, for making sure my characters

  have believable motivations. And to my editor, Kathryn Lye, for her amazing patience.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  1

  CLAIRE BROOKS HESITATED at the door to Once Bitten. A sense of eerie foreboding made her shiver.

  Nonsense. She’d read too many gothic novels in her youthful summer days.

  There was no such thing as premonition, and it certainly couldn’t make one shiver. It was merely the cold, drizzly night. And her worry for Julia.

  Despite the jazzy wail from a street musician’s trumpet down the street, the occasional clip-clop of horses’ hooves pulling carriages, and tourists still roaming the sidewalks, this area didn’t feel as if it was part of the French Quarter.

  It was simply another New Orleans bar, the only difference being it attracted tourists with its singularly macabre theme. More importantly, it was the only clue she had.

  Claire pushed the button on her phone and compared the picture Julia had sent her last night to the purple neon sign in front of her. Last night, Julia had been standing in this exact spot. So this was the logical place to begin her search.

  That picture was the last communication she’d had from Julia. Despite leaving her dozens of increasingly frantic messages, Claire had heard nothing from her friend in almost twenty-four hours. What if she was already...dead?

  She shook off the horrifying thought, swung open the door and stepped purposefully inside.

  Creepy discordant music assaulted her ears. Her eyes stung and her nostrils itched from the smoky incense. But at least the temperature inside was warmer than the chilly rain outside.

  She closed her umbrella, shrunk it to its mini size and placed it in her oversize tote bag. Searching for Julia’s mischievous smile and blond hair, Claire began to study the assortment of unique individuals gyrating around the dance floor—or in iron cages hanging from the ceiling.

  In addition to people with multiple piercings, an overabundance of tattoos and unusual costumes, there was a man wearing only tight, black shorts and a leather collar around his neck. And working her way around the room was a naked woman with a large, very much alive snake wrapped around her torso. A large percentage of the patrons sported dyed-black hair, kohl-lined eyes and...fangs.

  Whether they were fake, or real incisors filed to a point, the fangs didn’t disturb Claire. There was no such thing as vampires. But these people were all welcome to their eccentricities. The only thing Claire cared about was finding Julia. And if it meant questioning every vampire wannabe in this place then that’s what she’d do.

  She lifted her chin and joined the occupants of the famous vampire bar, Once Bitten.

  As she tried to make her way through the mob of sweaty people, she felt their stares on her as if she were the weird one.
Actually, she guessed she was.

  But she kept mingling, searching faces for Julia or the guy she’d disappeared with. Eventually she found herself in a darkened lounge with low, red velvet sofas forming an enclosed sitting area. Between each grouping of seats lay old-fashioned wooden coffins, on which people had placed their drinks. Coffins as coffee tables. Claire raised her brow. Clever.

  These sitting areas were occupied with similar-looking patrons. Goths, freaks and vampires.

  But no Julia.

  A glance to her right revealed a surprisingly normal-looking bar with neon beer advertisements flashing above a mirrored wall stacked with shot glasses and bottles of liquor. Cocktail glasses hung upside down from a rack above the bar with more patrons perched on black wooden stools.

  She headed there, pulling out her cell phone and bringing up the picture of Julia on the way. Snagging a lone stool, she leaned forward against the scratched, worn oak to catch the bartender’s attention.

  He was wiping a tumbler with a pristine white towel, while at the same time conducting a flirtatious discussion with two coeds in low-riding blue jeans and halter tops. The girls were engrossed in whatever he was saying, and who could blame them when he wore such a dangerously sinful grin.

  She summoned her inner Julia and raised her hand and waved. “Excuse me?”

  The moment the man turned her way a quiver of desire shot through her. Slate-gray eyes fringed with dark lashes bore into her, freezing her in place. His collar-length black hair wasn’t dyed, nor was the thick stubble darkening his angular jaw.

  His grin softened as he leisurely replaced the tumbler on a shelf behind him before sauntering over to flatten his palms on the bar before her.

  “What you need, cher?” His voice was as smooth and as deeply Southern as Spanish moss hanging from a Cypress tree. He wore a wide leather bracelet on his left wrist and a thick onyx ring—a bat with its wings wrapped around his right ring finger. She lifted her gaze to his hard chest outlined by a tight black tee.

  Claire opened her mouth but nothing came out. “Have y-y—” She felt her face heat and her throat close up as he stared at her expectantly. Two decades of therapy and determination to overcome her stutter destroyed in an instant of anxiety.

  Anxiety for her friend, of course. This breathlessness was in no way attributable to the proximity and attention of the bartender. The only true friend she had was missing. It was natural to be distraught.

  Remembering her purpose, Claire drew in a calming breath, lifted her phone to the bartender’s eye level and clicked the button to bring up Julia’s picture again. “Have you seen this woman in your bar tonight?

  The bartender’s gaze shifted down to her phone and back to her eyes without the rest of him moving a muscle. “No.”

  “But you r-recognize her? She was here l-last night.”

  He moved his weight from one foot to the other, causing his hips to shift, as well. “Cher, I’ve got hundreds of customers coming through here.”

  Claire gritted her teeth, biting back a stinging rebuke. “Please.” She shifted her phone in front of his nose. “She’s missing and I have to find her.”

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. “If she’s missing, call the cops.” He turned away.

  As if she hadn’t already tried the police first thing this morning. Julia was an adult, they’d said. Must be missing for forty-eight hours, they’d said. They hadn’t taken Claire’s fear for her friend seriously at all. As if Claire didn’t know when something was really wrong with Julia.

  She’d known Julia since third grade and Claire knew without a doubt that this was not just a case of Mardi Gras hangover. Sure, Julia had ditched her last night to hook up with that weirdo with the tattoo. Claire was accustomed to Julia’s free-spirited ways. Even when she hadn’t returned to their hotel room by this morning, Claire had calmly packed their things and gone to the airport, assuming Julia would come racing up to her at the last minute, full of false chagrin and a scintillating account of her adventures with the “vampire.”

  But she hadn’t.

  And Claire wasn’t leaving New Orleans without making sure Julia was alive and well.

  “She might’ve been with a guy who had three blood drops t-tattooed down the corner of his mouth,” Claire called after the bartender.

  The bartender froze, and several people at the bar around her quieted and stared at her. He turned back and leaned in close, conspiratorially. At last, she would gain some useful information. She leaned forward and caught a hint of his spicy intoxicating cologne.

  “This is a vampire bar. Lots of people have that tattoo.”

  Hope deflated. And irritation flared. He was taunting her. Then understanding dawned. She yanked her purse open, pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and slipped it across the bar toward him. “Perhaps this will help you r-remember the man or my friend?”

  His eyes narrowed and his lips tightened, harsh and cynical. “You want a drink, I’m your man. Otherwise, I can’t help you.” He gave his attention to the waitress who’d stepped up with an order.

  Claire fumed. “I’ll have a strawberry d-daiquiri,” she called out.

  He glanced at her, brows raised. “A strawber—” His lips curved up at the corners. “Coming right up.” As he shook the hair from his wary eyes, a tiny silver loop in his left ear gleamed in the light.

  He moved gracefully, spinning back and forth, grabbing bottles and pouring alcohol, and drawing beer into mugs with speed and precision. Tall, but slim, except for his wide shoulders and large biceps, he could’ve been a member of the Boston rowing club. Yet, unlike those privileged boys, this man seemed unaware of his masculine good looks.

  Finally, the waitress left with her filled tray. Then he bent to lift a clear plastic bowl from under the bar.

  Her gaze shot straight to his behind and the worn jeans outlining his impossibly sexy derriere. Wait. Was she actually checking out a man’s bottom? In her twenty-eight years as a female, she’d never understood why other women noticed things like that. But, now, now that her best friend was missing and possibly in danger, now she...noticed?

  He peeled off the lid, grabbed a handful of large, red-ripe strawberries and dropped them into a blender. As he prepared her drink, he stole a strawberry from the bowl and popped it into his mouth. He glanced at her and she looked away, feeling her cheeks heat with embarrassment.

  She should be searching the bar for her friend or that guy, showing Julia’s picture around. Claire spun, putting her back to the bar, and scanned the room.

  “Here you go.”

  She jumped and turned back as he set the fruity drink in front of her and took the twenty still lying on the bar. He sauntered over to a computer, touched the screen and made change when a drawer popped open.

  Digging a business card from her purse, she scribbled her hotel’s name and her cell number on it and shoved it into his hand as he offered her the change.

  “Please. Keep the change and if you see my friend, would you call me? My cell’s on here and where I’m staying—the Les Chambres R-Royale.”

  Before he could refuse, she snatched up her drink and plunged into the crowd.

  His fingers had been hot and rough. Claire swallowed back the tingle she’d felt at the brief contact.

  Bringing up the picture of Julia, she began stopping each person and asking if they’d seen her friend. Someone here had to have seen Julia last night. Or that creep she’d left with during the Mardi Gras parade. It wasn’t even eleven yet. The night was young.

  * * *

  RAFE WATCHED THE WOMAN stop his patrons one by one and show them the picture on her phone. That couldn’t be good for business. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to throw her out. Her big brown eyes behind the thick lenses had sparked with intelligence, and...authentic concern.

  Not your problem, Moreau.

  He eyed the card she’d forced on him, debating whether to pitch it in the circular filing cabinet.

  Dr. Claire Brooks, PhD
/>
  Senior Scientist/Group Leader

  Cell Line Generation

  Cambridge, Mass

  555-496-4949

  Doctor? He whistled. What the hell was cell line generation?

  He glanced at her again. She was still grilling his customers.

  Boy, was she out of her element. The frizzy chestnut hair and decades out of style clothing couldn’t have stood out more if she’d been dressed like a nun. All it would take was her asking the wrong person... Plus she was corrupting the vibe. Tourists came here to enter a different world, and the freaks and true believers came here to get their crazy on.

  If he looked up the word sensible, there’d probably be a picture of this woman. And yet. She’d braved this place to look for her friend.

  As he watched she stopped one of his regulars, a die-hard vamp who had the three blood drops tattooed down the corner of his mouth. The guy tried to brush her away, but she moved to block his path.

  He scowled and shoved her into another dude Rafe didn’t recognize and her drink splashed down the front of his T-shirt. The fact he was wearing a collar with sharp metal spikes was not a good sign. Dog Collar Guy grabbed her by the throat, his face inches from hers, his teeth bared.

  Her eyes widened and filled with fear.

  Damn it. Rafe leaped around the bar, shoved his way to the altercation and inserted himself between the collar-man and the good doctor.

  “What the—?”

  Rafe got in his face. “You lay hands on a customer of mine again, you’ll leave in an ambulance,” he snarled. “Now get out.”

  The psycho hesitated and Rafe signaled his bouncer, Bulldog.

  Why the hell he hadn’t let Bulldog handle it from the beginning he had no clue. Collar-man saw Bulldog headed toward them and raised his hands. “Okay, okay.” He made a beeline for the door.

  The woman began coughing when collar-man released her. “Thank y—”

  Rafe gripped her arm and dragged her toward the door.

  “What are you d-doing?” She struggled, but she was no match for him. “Let go of me.”