Twice Tempted
Page 26
“Clearly he thinks you should pet him first and deal with the snow later,” I said.
Eyes so dark they were nearly black met mine. Once they did, my amusement turned into primal female appreciation. Bones’s cheeks were flushed, and the color accented his flawless skin, chiseled features, and sensually full mouth. Then he took his coat off, revealing an indigo shirt that clung to his muscles as if reveling in them. Black jeans were snug in all the right places, highlighting a taut stomach, strong thighs, and an ass that could double as a work of art. By the time I drew my gaze back up to his face, his slight smile had turned into a knowing grin. More emotions enveloped my subconscious while his scent—a rich mixture of spices, musk, and burnt sugar—filled the room.
“Missed me already, Kitten?”
I didn’t know how he managed to make the question sound indecent, yet he did. I would’ve said the English accent helped, but his best friends were English and their voices never turned my insides to jelly.
“Yes,” I replied, rising and coming over to him.
He watched me, not moving when I slowly slid my hands up to lace them behind his neck. I had to stand on tiptoe to do it, but that was okay. It brought us closer, and the hard feel of his body was almost as intoxicating as the swirls of desire that curled around my emotions. I loved that I could sense his emotions as though they were my own. If I’d realized that was one of the perks of him changing me into a full vampire, I might have upgraded my half-breed status years ago. Then his head lowered, but before his lips brushed mine, I turned away.
“Not until you say you missed me, too,” I teased.
In reply, he picked me up, his grip all too easily subduing my mock struggles. Smooth leather met my back as he set me onto the couch, his body a barricade I didn’t want to dislodge. His hands settled around my face, holding me with possessiveness as green filled up his irises and fangs slid out of his teeth.
My own fangs lengthened in response, pressing against lips that I parted in anticipation. His head bent, but he only brushed his mouth over mine with a fleeting caress before chuckling.
“Two can play at teasing, luv.”
I began to struggle in earnest, which only made his laughter deepen. My high kill count had earned me the nickname of the Red Reaper in the undead world, but even before Bones’s startling new powers, I hadn’t been able to best him. All my thrashing did was to rub him against me in the most erotic way—which was why I kept doing it.
The zipper on my hoodie went all the way down without his hands moving from my head. My clothes accounted for most of his practice with his fledgling telekinesis. Then the front clasp on my bra opened, baring the majority of my breasts. His laughter changed to a growl that sent delicious tingles through me, hardening my nipples. But when the buttons popped open on his indigo shirt, its color reminded me of Tate’s eyes—and the news I needed to tell him.
“Something’s up,” I said in a gasp.
White teeth flashed before Bones lowered his mouth to my chest. “How cliché, but true nonetheless.”
The baser part of me whispered that I could postpone this talk for an hour or so, but concern for my friends slapped that down. I gave myself a mental shake and grabbed a handful of Bones’s dark brown curls, pulling his head up.
“I’m serious. Don came by and relayed some potentially disturbing information.”
It seemed to take a second for the words to penetrate, but then his brows rose. “After all this time, he finally told you what he’s been hiding about Madigan?”
“No, he didn’t,” I said, shaking my head for real this time. “He wanted to let me know that Tate and the others haven’t been home in over three weeks. I tried their cells and only got voice mails. Actually, that distracted me from pushing Don about his past with Madigan.”
Bones snorted, the brief puff of air landing in the sensitive valley between my breasts. “Clever sod knew it would. I doubt it was an accident that he gave you this information while I was out.”
Now that concern for my friends wasn’t foremost in my mind, I doubted it was an accident, too. Don had been by my house enough to know that Bones left for a couple hours every few days to feed. I didn’t go with him since my nutritional needs lay elsewhere. Inwardly I cursed. Finding out if my friends were okay was still of paramount importance, but so was discovering what Don knew about Madigan. It must be monumental for my uncle to keep it under wraps even when we didn’t speak for months as a result. After all, I wasn’t just the only family Don had left—as a vampire, I was also one of the few people who could see him in his new ghostly state.
“We’ll deal with my uncle later,” I said, pushing Bones away with a sigh of regret. “Right now, we need to find a way into my old compound that doesn’t involve both of us ending up in a vampire jail cell.”
About the Author
JEANIENE FROST is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the Night Huntress series and the Night Huntress World novels. To date, foreign rights for her novels have sold to nineteen different countries. Jeaniene lives in North Carolina with her husband, Matthew, who long ago accepted that she rarely cooks and always sleeps in on the weekends. Aside from writing, Jeaniene enjoys reading, poetry, watching movies with her husband, exploring old cemeteries, spelunking, and traveling–by car. Airplanes, children, and cookbooks frighten her.
To know more about Jeaniene, please visit her website at www.jeanienefrost.com.
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Praise for Once Burned . . .
“ . . . a rambunctious debut . . .”
Publishers Weekly
“Fantastic . . . A stay-up-until-sunrise read . . .”
Ilona Andrews
“Let the rejoicing commence, as Frost spins off dangerously sexy vamp Vlad Tepesh into his own edgy and sizzling series.”
Romantic Times (Top Pick!)
“If you want a can’t-put-it-down-even-to-eat paranormal romance, pick up Once Burned.”
Vampire Book Club
. . . and Jeaniene Frost’s Bestselling Night Huntress Novels
“Cat and Bones are combustible together.”
Charlaine Harris
“ . . . a passionate and tantalizing tale, filled with dark sensuality and fast-paced action . . . irresistible . . . a smoldering hero to die for . . . unforgettable!”
Kresley Cole
“ . . . witty dialogue, a strong heroine, a delicious hero, and enough action to make a reader forget to sleep.”
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“Put Jeaniene Frost on your must-read list!”
Lara Adrian
By Jeaniene Frost
Twice Tempted
Once Burned
One Grave at a Time
This Side of the Grave
Eternal Kiss of Darkness
First Drop of Crimson
Destined for an Early Grave
At Grave’s End
One Foot in the Grave
Halfway to the Grave
Coming Soon
Up From the Grave
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Up From the Grave copyright © 2014 by Jeaniene Frost.
TWICE TEMPTED. Copyright © 2013 by Jeaniene Frost. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereina
fter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780062075833
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062076106
FIRST EDITION
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