His dangerous beauty cannot be tamed. Murasaki is living on borrowed time. Turning to the mountain air to aid a difficult lung condition, she travels from a modern city of smoke-belching factories to a castle straight out of the past. Hired as a castle maid, she is convinced all possibility of romance is behind her. Yet the handsome servant she meets on her first day has her intrigued. In an attempt to curb his monstrous nature, vampire Haruki has spent years denying himself. As one of the powerful, secretive vampires ruling Kaiden as a chairman, there are few alive who have ever seen his face. But when he almost literally stumbles upon a new maid from the city, he has little choice but to pretend he's a fellow servant. Thanks to Murasaki, Haruki suddenly finds himself interested in the outside world again—even if he must lie to be a part of it. As ruler and maid begin a delicate dance around one another, both must ask themselves whether that which is tainted can still be saved. Or are these slow-burn lovers doomed from the start? The Tainted and the Tamed is part of the Bound by Blood a multi-author novella series featuring eight standalone tales of spicy, open door vampire romance. This series is for mature readers only.