Maya closed the bedroom door behind her and walked down the corridor. At the stairs, she halted. She could clearly sense Gabriel’s presence. In fact, she could smell his blood. Was it more intense now because she was famished or had she always been able to smell his blood from such a distance? When she turned her head, she realized that the smell was becoming more intense—it wasn’t coming from downstairs, but from the master bedroom.

Maya smiled to herself. If Gabriel was in bed, even better. She could first drink his blood and then devour him. On tiptoes, she walked to his door. As quietly as she could, she turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

As soon as she took one step into the room, she froze in horror.

Maya stopped breathing.

Gabriel stood near the fireplace, facing her. But he wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was focused on the woman who sat in front of him on the chaise lounge with her back turned to Maya. His face was contorted as if in pain.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was Gabriel’s pants were dropped to his knees, his naked thighs showing, while his crotch was blocked out by the woman’s head.

Maya blinked, but she wasn’t imagining this. The strange woman was giving Gabriel a blowjob! And the look on Gabriel’s face wasn’t pain. No, it had to be pleasure.

How could he do this to her?

A sob tore from her throat.

Gabriel’s gaze shot to her, and at the same moment the woman turned. They both stared at her, shocked looks on their faces.

Gabriel tugged at his pants, but failed to pull them up. “Maya, please, this isn’t what it looks like.” The woman turned fully, still blocking her view of Gabriel’s crotch. As if Maya needed to see his hard-on to know what they were doing. She needed no proof of it. All the proof was written in their guilty faces.

She spun on her heels and rushed out of the room.

“Maya, listen to me. I can explain.”

His words were lame at best. What was there to explain? He’d brought another woman to the house right after she’d told him she didn’t want to be controlled. Was that his answer to her anger? That he didn’t care what she thought? How cruel.

Maya ran down the stairs, faster than ever before. So this was vampire speed? Just as well. She had to get away, from him and from this place. In the foyer, she saw a set of keys on the sideboard. She knew there was a car in the garage—Gabriel had taken it when he’d met up with Zane earlier.

She snatched the keys and ran down into the garage. With a click, the doors of the Audi R8 unlocked. She’d never driven a sports car before, but it would do. Maya jumped into the car, slammed the door shut and jammed the keys into the lock.

A second later, the engine roared to life. The garage-door opener was where she expected it to be—on the visor. Valuable seconds passed as the garage door rose. When it was halfway up, Maya hit the gas pedal and raced out.

Her new superior vampire senses helped her avoid a crash as she pulled onto the street. From the corner of her eye, she saw Yvette stopping on the sidewalk, looking at her. Maya ignored her, pressed the gas pedal harder and raced down the road.

Her eyes burned, and only now she realized she was crying.

Damn Gabriel!

She’d let him come too close, and all it had gotten her was a hell of a lot of pain. He was just the way Yvette had laid him out to be;  all he wanted was a human woman, not an infertile vampire. It hadn’t escaped her notice that the woman who’d had her head buried in Gabriel’s crotch was human. Her scent had definitely been human, if just a little off. But certainly she wasn’t a vampire. Maya sniffed. It hadn’t taken him long at all to replace her. After all the things he’d said when he’d been in her bed; the promises that he’d take care of her, that he’d always be there for her. Had he lied when he’d claimed that Maya feeding off him was heaven for him?

With the back of her hand, Maya wiped the tears off her cheek. If it meant that men like Gabriel could treat her with such disrespect, such callousness, then she didn’t want to be a vampire.

She hit the brakes at a stoplight, letting the engine idle, and took a deep breath. Were vampires really all that different from humans? When she recalled the situation in Gabriel’s bedroom, she realized with disgust that even his “it’s not what it looks like” was decidedly human—any man would have said the same to get out of this mess. No, vampires weren’t really all that different when it came to that. What it boiled down to was that Gabriel was just another cheating bastard, no worse than any human man.

So she would just have to do what she would do with any other man: forget him. And bitch about him with her girlfriends. Yes, that’s exactly what she needed now.