Blood Fire by Sharon Page

For me, this book was all about female power, female sexuality, and magic. Lady Octavia Grenville is dying. She wants to have an adventure and lose her virginity before she dies. Who better to choose as an object of desire to accomplish both goals, then the sexy rake Matthew, the Earl of Sutcliffe? She has studied his delectable naked form in her hidden stash of naughty colored prints (no Playgirl magazine back then). She cleverly arranges for him to be invited (never knowing that he already was invited) to a scandalous party in hopes of seducing him or having him seduce her. When Matthew first meets her, he is intrigued by her and is at the same time suspicious of such a seeming innocent being at such a gathering. They eventually do click and sparks fly. Afterwards, he does believe that she really is dying and not just trying to trap him into marriage. Matthew has been on a melancholy and suspicious bent ever since he killed his brother when the brother was turned into a vampire by the evil vampiress Esmeralda.

Meanwhile..... Olivia thinks she is a witch because not only does she notice that her health seems to mysteriously improve after every sexual encounter she and Matthew have, she exhibits pyrokinesis & telekinesis - and all this freaks her out a lot. Little does Olivia know that she is actually a Succubus. Not only does she have that to deal with, but she discovers that she is pregnant. This throws a wrench into everybody's plans. Matthew doesn't believe in love, doesn't think he can love after what happened w/ his brother and after watching his parents' loveless marriage and the unhappiness it caused them. While he thinks he is just sexually obsessed w/ Olivia he offers to marry her out of duty. She would like to turn him down flat believing that a marriage made out of a sense of duty is worthless - however she agrees once she finds out she is pregnant.

There are some twists and turns, involving Mrs. Darkwell, Lucifer the Prince of Darkness, a MFM married vampire trio, female powerful paranormal types trying to enslave men and take over the world, a love curse, and all kinds of male paranormal baddies trying to kill Olivia & baby to stop the women taking over the world thing, and of course the requisite X-rated sexual vinegnettes.

I enjoyed this book, but Black Silk is still my fav book by this author. I would love to see in future books in this series if Mrs. Darkwell & the librarian vamp Guidon get together.