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  Table of Contents

  Suck This

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale

  Blurb

  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 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Suck This

  Text copyright © 2022 Lani Lynn Vale®

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  I never know what to write here. I mean, I’ve written over a hundred books. By this point, if someone was going to read it, I can guarantee that they’ve seen their name mentioned at least twice.

  Instead, I’ll tell you a little story.

  Once upon a time, I was a girl who’d just had her baby at twenty-one years old, and lived in a place that had absolutely ZERO signal with no internet to be found. So that girl found romance books. From there, that girl started to literally devour every single book that she could find at the local library. From there, it turned into an obsession. Funny thing is, the book that caused that girl to start reading? A vampire book.

  So, even though this isn’t my usual genre, I felt compelled to give it a try. I hope that you like it!

  Acknowledgments

  Golden Czermak—Photographer

  Ellie McLove & Ink It Out Editing—My editors

  Cover Me Darling—Cover Artist

  My mom—Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred and twelve times.

  My betas—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do.

  Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale

  The Freebirds

  Boomtown

  Highway Don’t Care

  Another One Bites the Dust

  Last Day of My Life

  Texas Tornado

  I Don’t Dance

  The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC

  Lights To My Siren

  Halligan To My Axe

  Kevlar To My Vest

  Keys To My Cuffs

  Life To My Flight

  Charge To My Line

  Counter To My Intelligence

  Right To My Wrong

  Code 11- KPD SWAT

  Center Mass

  Double Tap

  Bang Switch

  Execution Style

  Charlie Foxtrot

  Kill Shot

  Coup De Grace

  The Uncertain Saints

  Whiskey Neat

  Jack & Coke

  Vodka On The Rocks

  Bad Apple

  Dirty Mother

  Rusty Nail

  The Kilgore Fire Series

  Shock Advised

  Flash Point

  Oxygen Deprived

  Controlled Burn

  Put Out

  I Like Big Dragons Series

  I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie

  Dragons Need Love, Too

  Oh, My Dragon

  The Dixie Warden Rejects

  Beard Mode

  Fear the Beard

  Son of a Beard

  I’m Only Here for the Beard

  The Beard Made Me Do It

  Beard Up

  For the Love of Beard

  Law & Beard

  There’s No Crying in Baseball

  Pitch Please

  Quit Your Pitchin’

  Listen, Pitch

  The Hail Raisers

  Hail No

  Go to Hail

  Burn in Hail

  What the Hail

  The Hail You Say

  Hail Mary

  The Simple Man Series

  Kinda Don’t Care

  Maybe Don’t Wanna

  Get You Some

  Ain’t Doin’ It

  Too Bad So Sad

  Bear Bottom Guardians MC

  Mess Me Up

  Talkin’ Trash

  How About No

  My Bad

  One Chance, Fancy

  It Happens

  Keep It Classy

  Snitches Get Stitches

  F-Bomb

  The Southern Gentleman Series

  Hissy Fit

  Lord Have Mercy

  KPD Motorcycle Patrol

  Hide Your Crazy

  It Wasn’t Me

  I’d Rather Not

  Make Me

  Sinners are Winners

  If You Say So

  SWAT 2.0

  Just Kidding

  Fries Before Guys

  Maybe Swearing Will Help

  Ask Me If I Care

  May Contain Wine

  Jokes on You

  Join the Club

  Any Day Now

  Say it Ain’t So

  Officially Over It

  Nobody Knows

  Depends Who’s Asking

  Valentine Boys

  Herd That

  Crazy Heifer

  Chute Yeah

  Get Bucked

  Blurb

  Blood, sex and alcohol.

  That was what Club Worth was all about.

  Ever since vampires had come out to the world, people had been obsessed. Take a walk on the wild side and see what the nightclub was all about.

  Acadia Powell, on the other hand, didn’t do vampires. Nor did she do messy.

  What she did do was stay away from people like Constantine Worth, Master of the City, and the most gorgeous man in the history of men. It didn’t matter that he had hypnotizing eyes, beautiful lips, and the sexiest body she’d ever had the privilege of laying eyes on.

  It should be easy for her to stay away, but with each subsequent encounter, it’s becoming harder and harder to fight the growing need inside of her.

  • • •

  Constantine Worth knew that Acadia was off limits. Not only was she human and not willing to slum it with the undead, but she was also the baby sister of the city’s chief of police. The man that liked to arrest him every other day and twice on Sunday.

  He should hate her based solely on the last name she shared with her brother. Yet each time he sees her, he forgets that he’s supposed to be playing nice. She sets his blood to boil, and each time she lets the verbal slurs flow, he finds it harder and harder to maintain his distance.

  Soon, he will have to make a choice. Maintain his upstanding relationship with human law enforcement, or take what he wants, and damn the consequences.

  CHAPTER 1

  Was it normal to always want a cookie? Because there is never a time that I don’t want one.

  -Acadia’s secret thoughts

  ACADIA

  I watched him from across the room.

  I knew I should stop, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t every day that you got to be in the same room with the Master of the City.

  Constantine Worth was beautiful, and I wanted to climb him like a freakin’ tree… though I hear that’s not acceptable in today’s day and age. Or, well, in any day and age.

  “Stop staring,” I muttered to myself, looking down.

  My hands played with the loose threads in the hole just above the knee of my jeans, and I tried to will my heart to slow.

  “Everyone is starin’,” Keisha said. “You’re not the only one. Just the only one that’s telling yourself not to.”

  I glared at my best friend, Keisha, and stuck my tongue out at her.

  “Why are we even here?” I asked. “This is a vamp bar. And I’m not willing to share my blood with anyone but the Red Cross.”

  Keisha snorted.

  “You don’t donate to Red Cross. You donate to Wentworth Blood Care,” Keisha said dryly.

  I started to laugh.

  She was right.

  I did donate to Wentworth, religiously, every six weeks on the dot.

  Also, because I was the universal blood donor, O negative.

  They called me every six weeks to remind me, and I went because I remembered what it was like to need blood and not have access to it.

  “We are at this particular bar because it was my turn to choose which one I wanted to go to, and this is the one I wanted to go to?” She batted her eyelashes at me, and I snorted.

  “Thanks,” I drawled. “I’m glad you cleared that up.”

  She shrugged.

  “What do you want to drink?” she asked, changing the subject.

  I let it lie. She went where I wanted to go, so I’d do the same for her, even if this place was giving me hives.

  And not because I was scared, but because I was so close to the dead sexy man named Constantine Worth.

  The man made my heart palpitate, even in pic
tures of him.

  I didn’t know what it was about the man, but each and every time his name was mentioned in my hearing, or his face was pictured on the front page of the Austin Times, I had to stop and stare.

  It was a compulsion.

  Something that I was forced to do, whether I wanted to do it or not.

  “What will you have, ma’am?”

  I looked up at the bartender.

  He was a vampire, too.

  I could tell by the fangs peeking out from under his top lip.

  Though, he didn’t bring attention to the fact that he was one… most didn’t.

  That was really the only way you could tell if a vampire was a vampire or not. The fangs.

  All other outward appearances were human-like, and in instances like Constantine Worth, if they didn’t want you to know, then you wouldn’t.

  “I’ll have your cheapest wine.” I grimaced.

  The vampire smiled.

  “Coming right up.”

  He left to get mine and Keisha’s orders, and I turned when I felt her stare on me.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “Can’t you act the least bit civilized when we go out?” she said under her breath. “Would it kill you to order a damn mixed drink?”

  “I don’t like mixed drinks,” I said. “I like cheap wine. The shittier and cheaper the better. And you know that. Not to mention you’re lucky that I’m drinking at all. You know I don’t like to.”

  And I didn’t.

  I hadn’t liked drinking since I was a senior in high school and was in the car with friends—who were also drunk.

  We’d made it about halfway to our destination when another drunk, this one heading the wrong direction on the highway, plowed into us.

  I’d been the only survivor, and to this day, I’d still yet to meet the mysterious stranger that donated blood to save me.

  The same man that’d pulled me out of the car right before it burst into flames.

  The same man who paid all my hospital bills, and left me all alone, never to know who my gracious stranger was.

  “Here you are, miss.” The vamp bartender set my glass down.

  I stared at it.

  It was a quarter full.

  I looked up at him with my brows raised.

  “This is one of the mid-price ranged ones, but we don’t serve boxed wine here. This is the cheapest you’ll get, and I only filled it up partially to cut down on the cost.”

  I blinked, then sighed.

  “Thanks,” I muttered.

  The vamp walked away, and Keisha started to laugh next to me.

  “You should’ve been more specific,” Keisha said.

  I should have.

  See, the thing was, I could afford any damn thing I wanted.

  I had a good job that I made six figures a year at, and I spent frugally. Meaning I didn’t buy stupid shit, and I didn’t go out to eat unless Keisha dragged me out the door by my hair.

  Then again, I didn’t go much of anywhere after six in the evening since the vamps had come out to the world.

  At first, everyone had gone into apocalypse mode, but over time, as they saw that the vamps weren’t going to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—at least no more than they already had been previously—things slowly went back to normal.

  However, I was a crime scene tech and saw the worst of the worst when it came to Austin, Texas.

  It wasn’t just because of the vampires that I hated going out. It was because of the regular psychos, too.

  “Drink your half a glass of wine, and let’s dance,” Keisha ordered from the seat beside me.

  I drank my wine like one would a shot, and then set the delicate glass down on the counter before standing up.

  “Okay,” I grumbled.

  Anything to get away from this bar, and away from the man that was still in my line of sight.

  The same man that I saw sucking on the neck of a bottled blonde not even three seconds before.

  Something techno came on just as we entered the dance floor, and I started to sway my hips as Keisha backed up to my ass and did her own thing.

  I was lost in the feel of the music, completely unaware of my surroundings when I felt someone come up beside me.

  At first, I didn’t react.

  But the moment the stranger at my side touched my hair, I started to have a minor freak out.

  “Hey,” I snapped, jerking my hair away from the man.

  He was a vamp.

  Fuckin’ a! I’d never seen so many vampires in the same place before!

  “Please don’t touch me.” I moved so Keisha was now at my side instead of my back, causing her to become aware of the situation.

  Keisha, knowing I was uncomfortable, waved her hand at the man. She never met a stranger.

  “Hi!”

  The man scowled. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  He turned back to me, and Keisha’s back straightened. “But I… was talking… to you.”

  Keisha and I backed up as the man advanced, not stopping until we were physically blocked.

  Keisha by the table, and me by falling into someone’s lap.

  I turned, ready to apologize, and froze when those wolf blue eyes peered at me through dark lashes.

  Constantine Worth.

  I was in Constantine Worth’s lap.

  Sweet baby Jesus.

  CHAPTER 2

  What doesn’t kill you gives you bad coping mechanisms and a mean streak.

  -Fact of Life

  CONSTANTINE

  There’s something about her that smells… familiar.

  My thoughts had me zeroing in on the woman across the room.

  The one dressed in light-washed jeans that were practically painted on, a black t-shirt that said ‘Virginity Rocks’ across the breast, and motorcycle boots.

  I presumed it was an old t-shirt with the way it was faded to hell and back.

  She looked like she was a man’s wet dream with her long, wavy black hair that came to a stop right above her black sparkly belt.

  And I could see just a hint of her black panties, though I couldn’t tell if they were a thong or regular bikini underwear.

  No matter what they were, they were teasing the absolute hell out of me.

  I watched her walk into the bar and take a seat at the end closest to me.

  Watched her wait around nervously for her friend to arrive and watched some more when relief crossed her face at her female friend arriving.

  I continued to watch her drink her wine. Watched her friend drag her onto the dance floor.

  And then watched and waited for Dimitri to corral them in my direction.

  Though, Dimitri didn’t know he was doing that at the time.

  He likely just thought he was about to get laid when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

  The moment she was backed up to my table, I scooted the table forward so she’d have nowhere else to go but down, and waited while she did it almost perfectly—though she didn’t mean to.

  Her ass hit my lap, and I automatically curled my drink up high in the air so she didn’t spill it.

  She turned to apologize, I was sure, but froze when she realized whose lap she had fallen into.

  “I’m so sorry,” she apologized, getting up.

  Or she would have, had I not held on to her hip with one large hand to keep her in place.

  “Dimitri,” I drawled, turning to the now very scared man. “Why does this young lady smell of fear?”

  Dimitri’s mouth tightened, causing his fangs to be revealed.

  “I was…”

  “Whatever your excuse, it’s not good enough,” I told him blandly. “Please, give your membership card to Pavlov at the door. You’re no longer a member here.”

  Dimitri looked crushed, but he wasn’t stupid enough to argue with me.

  “Yes, sir,” he squeaked, then started retreating.

  Nobody ever argued. Sometimes there was no fun in anything anymore.

  Silence loomed heavy and thick, and I heard the irregular heart rate of the woman in my lap.

  I’d heard it the moment she walked into the club earlier.

  It was distinct.

  Of course, I heard everyone’s heart rate if I concentrated hard enough, but this woman’s had caught my attention the moment her foot had touched my stairs.

  The smell of her so close was absolutely intoxicating, and I found myself unwilling to allow her to go.

  “Please, have a seat.” I gestured to the rest of the table at my side.

  She bit her lip and then wiggled to allow herself to slide to the seat on the inside of me, putting me between her and the rest of the room.

  “Won’t you have a seat?” I gestured to the friend again, and Abraham, my second in command, took the hint and slid over, allowing the woman to take a seat across from me.