“Please serve,” Byron told her waitstaff. She waved away more champagne, and instead poured herself a glass of Debrek Special Reserve the waiter brought to her. She knew Amelia had a dislike for red wine, so she could enjoy a glass of blood without her lover knowing a thing about it.

“Mm, this is delicious.” Amelia hummed in contentment.

Byron had hardly taken much notice of her own food. She had spent the whole of the first and main courses concentrated on Amelia eating her food. Amelia savoured each bite, and moaned in pleasure at the taste. Each time Amelia closed her eyes for a few seconds when enjoying a new taste, the wetness on her lips from the wine, the way her tongue snaked out to lick her lips, all of these things were making Byron hunger.

For Amelia.

Quite a few times now, her gaze had fallen on Amelia’s neck and her beating pulse point. She wanted to taste Amelia so badly…

“Byron? Byron?”

Byron quickly took a breath, in an effort to control herself. She had been so consumed with her own hungry thoughts she didn’t even realize Amelia had been talking to her. “Sorry, you were saying?”

“Do you do this often? Dine out here?”

Byron shook her head. “No, this is my first time. My parents did quite regularly when they wanted some private time with each other, and I thought it would be a nice thing to do with you.”

“That’s very sweet. They must be a loving couple. Tell me more about them?”

Maybe some talking between courses would calm both her libido and her hunger for her lover’s blood. Byron refilled her glass of blood, and dismissed the waitstaff.

Byron refilled Amelia’s champagne glass. “So you wanted to know more about my family?” Byron had no idea how she was going to last the whole evening that she had planned, without going back to the house for fresh blood.

But she had no choice. She just had to.

“My parents are two wonderful people, and I don’t just love them, I respect them greatly. They have strong morals, a sense of fair play, and an eagerness to make the world a better place around them. They brought me up with those same principles.”

“My goodness,” Amelia said. “They sound like wonderful people.”

“They are.”

“Do they still work in your business?” Amelia asked.

Byron took another big gulp of blood. She was calming slightly. “They are…retired. It’s a tradition in the Debrek family that the leaders retire early, and enjoy life while they are still young enough to do so. That is, as long as their children are of age, and competent.”

“Where are they now?”

“New York actually. They enjoy travelling but do a lot of charity work, in the Debrek name, and are working with UNICEF in New York at present.”

“How intriguing.” Amelia picked up her glass and took a sip of the chilled rosé champagne. She shouldn’t have been surprised. She knew that Byron had been to a lot of charity events over the last five months, although she had never invited Amelia as her date. Byron explained she liked to keep her private life just that—private. But it still niggled when she had seen the photographs in the media after of Byron surrounded by very glamorous and very beautiful women.