The Vampire's Curse, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #2) by S.J. Wright Page B

breeze picked up, tousling his ebony hair.
    There was a significant change in the air around us. It felt colder. Before his arms came around me, before his mouth descended down onto mine for the first time, I saw the first snowflakes begin to drift down towards us like little angels bestowing a blessing. And that's the moment when I knew where my heart belonged.
    It was a chaste little token, that light kiss. His lips were smooth, full, and gentle. The heat of his mouth against mine was heart wrenching, and I felt the muscles in my legs go weak. He had me fully supported in the way he held me; I could have gone totally limp and he would still have me.
    His mouth moved down over one side of my jaw, nibbling at my flesh and stroking it. I opened my eyes, my head tilting back. His arms were firm around my waist, his mouth fused to my neck. And the snow was falling on both of us. They were tender, delicate little sculptures of ivory perfection, perching on the fibers of his coat and the long ebony waves of his hair. I wanted to remember this moment forever.
    There was increasing strength coming from his arms around me and the pressure of his mouth on my skin. An image flashed across my consciousness that made my blood run cold. Again, I saw Alex kneeling on my bed, his mouth working to pull my blood from me. I saw the way his mouth looked as he pulled away, dripping with crimson. There was no stopping the shudder that ran through my entire body. Michael felt it immediately, and to his credit, he did not mistake it for lust. Somehow, he could sense my fear.
    He withdrew his mouth, loosened his grip around me. I heard a deep forlorn sigh issue from the depths of his chest, and his head sagged in defeat.
    "You are one hell of temptation, Sarah." His lips tasted mine once more, very gently, before he began to steer me towards the truck. “Come on. You’ll freeze out here.”
    I rubbed my hands together and shot him a grateful look, “Thank you.”
    “ For what? Accosting you in the middle of the road during the season’s first snow?” There was a terribly charming gleam in his light blue eyes.
    “ No. For stopping before you got carried away.” He had opened the driver’s door and was watching me carefully.
    Suddenly nervous, I stammered, “Not that you were the only one who was feeling aroused.”
    One corner of his incredible mouth quirked up in amusement. He seemed to be genuinely pleased to have turned me into a bumbling idiot. Jerk. I huffed and threw myself into the driver’s seat. Without another word, he went to the other side and got in. As I was trying to make a U-turn on the road, I felt his gaze going over me.
    Having anyone look at me in that way made me crazy. With him, the feeling was multiplied a thousand times. Having turned the truck around successfully, I decided to take a different approach. I could be direct when the situation called for it. Whenever I was feeling embarrassed, that was how I could keep things under control.
    “ Tell me something.” I snapped. “Exactly how old are you?” I kept my eyes on the road. The snow was coming down steadily. Big, fluffy frozen sparks of light where the headlights shone on them in the darkness.
    “ As a human, I was born in a small Greek village in 1659. So, technically, I’m over three hundred and fifty years old.” He said it in a light tone, and I dared to look over at him.
    “ How old were you when you were turned into a vampire?”
    “ Twenty-seven years old.”
    I waited for more information, but he said nothing else about being turned. Frustrated with the lack of pertinent facts about him, I gritted my teeth. Being mysterious might have taken him a long way with many women, but not with me. I still wanted answers.
    “ Can all vampires be out in the daylight? I thought it burned them or something.” I couldn’t seem to keep the sarcastic, bitchy edge toned down. It didn’t matter. Michael wasn’t offended in the least.
    “ Some of us are