The on going feud between werewolves and vampires continues and is getting deadlier each day. The Shadow Alliance, secret organization that governs the paranormal, wants answers now. Werewolf Vincent Rand is back in Los Angeles to find out who is framing his boss Gunnolf for the murder of 7 humans with more bodies piling up. Lissa Monroe is to use her succubus powers and ability to look into her lover's minds to find out more about Rand for the Alliance or will be forced to give up every thing she has worked for and will be sent to prison. What she thought would be an easy task proves to be difficult when they start to fall for each other and will risk anything, including their missions, to save the other.
Vincent Rand grew up on the hard streets of LA and killed his first person before he was even a teenager. He has always had an inner wolf lurking at his surface and finally let it loose after being bitten while over seas. Rand first became a soldier as a human and continue to be one for the werewolf leader Gunnolf once he was turned. He left LA for Paris to get away from his past but is forced to go back after years of being away to see who has been spreading lies about his leader that may cost him his territory. When he arrives he visits Orlando, a club where the women are succubi, and meets its beautiful and take no crap owner Lissa Monroe. He feels desire for her right away but writes it off as the attraction all men feel towards a succubus. Lissa is not sure of what to think of Rand at first. He seems unaffected by her succubus appeal and it both confuses and intrigues her. Lissa tells herself she must stay away from Rand but is forced to seek him out when Division 6, paranormal arm of the law, threatens to close her club down and toss her in prison if she does not use her gift of steeling secrets straight from someone's head on Rand to find out why his is in LA and what his involvement is in the string of recent killings.
I'm not generally a fan of succubus but I found myself liking Lissa. She won her freedom from her master and works to buy the freedom of other succubus and lets them be their own masters. Taking what is not given freely is why she is on Division 6's radar. She has already started to like Rand because he doesn't fall for her tricks and does what no one else has done for her. He tries to protect her. When she is with him it's not just about sex and you can tell she really feels guilty for what she must do. Rand has had a hard life. He was in a violent gang and got a girl pregnant. He married her but then lost her when a gang leader wanted to prove a point and killed her. After that he became a disciplined soldier who works to keep his wolf from coming out. He wants to blame the attraction towards Lissa on what she is but he can't help like that she stands up for herself and takes crap from no one. Not to mention the thought of her with another male makes him want to unleash his inner beast. Their relationship moves pretty quickly and at first it is based off lust but I ended up liking this pair because together they became better and more interesting characters.
There is a killer hunting humans in Southern California and not even the paranormal are safe. Someone is killing humans and vampires are blaming werewolves and werewolves are blaming vampires. I really liked that it wasn't that simple. When Pleasure Rules has a love story but is equally matched with a 'who done it?' story line done in a supernatural world. This is an ongoing series so you see a lot of the same characters that are in the first book in the series, When Blood Calls. One of my favorites is still Nick who is a lawyer and vampire (isn't that part of every lawyer joke?). He first comes off as a arrogant (which he is) and kind of one dimensional in the first book but in this book light is shed on his past and I ended the book wanting to know more about him and am glad he takes the lead in the next book in the series, When Wicked Craves.
