As a mortal man, Heath had adored women’s breasts. They seemed to be a stroke of genius. Plump, bouncy, and tempting, and all the fun of playing with them pleasured the woman, too.

As a vampire, he found them irresistible.

For the ten years he had been Nosferatu, one of the undead, he’d been plagued with the yearning to sink his fangs into a woman’s breasts and taste her succulent blood that way.

He’d resisted. But hell, it had been hard.

And now, he was standing in a brothel’s salon while some foolish woman thought to tempt him by baring her generous bosom. Henna-red curls bounced around her face. She flashed a coquettish look to him beneath thick lashes, pursed her scarlet lips, then let her silk wrapper slide from her shoulders.

He knew he should look away. The gesture would annoy her and she would move on to other prey. Half the men in the room were watching that scrap of silk as it fell from her shapely shoulders and snagged on the swell of her generous bosom. She gave him a wicked smile. Then she shimmied to make the fabric fall free. Two stunningly, large breasts popped into view—full, ivory white, and topped with nipples rouged to an erotic scarlet.

Blinking, blazing hell.

The two vampires who sat in front of the courtesan traded lusty smiles, then bent to the two full breasts on offer. But neither men suckled the aroused nipples; each drove their teeth into the plump sides of her breasts. What they wanted was blood.

The seductive, coppery tang of it filled the salon.

The woman gave a sensual moan of pleasure. Her head fell back. The vampires knew how to take enough blood to give her a thrilling sexual sensation. They wouldn’t kill her. They would show her unfathomable delights by lightly drinking her blood, while stroking her nipples and her hot, wet cunny.

Years of abstinence reared up inside Heath. His cock reared in front of him.

No. He would not let himself give in to temptation.

Watching two men experience his fantasy had him taut as a bowstring and ready to snap. His hand closed too tightly on the glass of brandy in his gloved hand. With a delicate ping, the glass shattered. He dropped the remnants to a table and glanced around. Where in blazes had Julian gone? He needed to get out of here.

With her red-blond curls, this woman was not the one he was looking for.

He had made it to the door when the madam of the place, a demoness of some sort, sashayed out of the shadows and planted her buxom body in his path. “Ah, my lord. Have you only come to feed tonight, or do you wish to indulge in other pleasures as well?”

“Neither.” Heath cleared his throat, hiding the two weaknesses that tried to claim him. Lust and hunger. “I’ve come in search of my brother.”

Excerpt from Blood Wicked, ©2011 by Sharon Page

He had caught gangs of murderers in the stews off Whitechapel High Street. Arrested opium dealers in seedy brothels near the Wapping docks. But in all the years he had worked for Bow Street as a Runner, Trevelyan Foxton had never been required to investigate in a more foreign and intimidating place.

He watched the shop from across the street, drawing smoke from his cheroot. Each time the door opened, the silver bell tinkled delicately, and he caught the faint scents of rose and lavender. Ladies flowed in and out continuously. Ladies of every age and every description—slender, giggling girls with shining eyes, and their mamas, the formidable matrons of the ton. And from within, all he could hear was incessant feminine chatter.

Trevelyan glanced up at the name above the shop, proudly displayed on a large sign, painted in burgundy and ivory, glimmering with gilt.

No longer was she plain Sally Thomas. She was now Estelle Desjardins. He’d caught a glimpse of her when the door opened. She wore severe black and had pins stuck in her mouth. She had been pointing at a thin, sallow girl who looked miserable in an ivory dress. And, at the same time, she was lecturing the mother, a bosomy, gray-haired woman he recognized as the Duchess of St. Ives.

Now that was the Sally he remembered.

She’d been the toughest, hardest, and fiercest of their gang. All of the lads—the pickpockets, the mudlarks, the thieves—had been afraid of her. Except for him. He knew the one thing that frightened Sally. When he wanted her to shut her mouth, all he had to do was kiss her. Or show her he cared about her.

That had been a long time ago. Back in the days when he never would have dreamed he’d end up on the good side of the law as a Bow Street Runner. Back then he never would have pictured Sally in anything but a ragged dress, with her fists doubled and her point of a chin stuck out. Never would have pictured her looking down her nose at grand ladies.

Trevelyan tossed away his cheroot and ground it into the cobblestones of the street.

Sally had done well for herself.

It was a shame he was going to have to destroy her.