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Christmas is hard for a lot of people, but
for Calla Douglas it’s become unbearable. She thought to
end her life but when the wind blows her off a tall building,
she isn’t sorry to be rescued in mid-air by a flying man.
Unfortunately finding out he has fangs dampens her relief.
When Nightwalker Daniel Wilde rescued Calla, all he intended
was for her to be the temporary companion he takes before Christmas
Eve, to keep at bay the loneliness he feels each year. Trouble
is, she’s got a way of making him think more permanently
than he’s comfortable with.
Both Calla and Daniel have “ghosts” of past Christmases,
bad memories that haunt them, but through love, companionship—and
a lot of mind-blowing sex—this holiday may become the last
one those ghosts will ever visit.
Calla tried not to imagine what
it would feel like to land on the concrete from this high. She
expected it would hurt when her body shattered on impact, but
perhaps the fall wouldn’t be so bad. Possibly it would
feel like flying and she'd always wanted to fly.
Even so, she hesitated. Maybe this wasn’t such a good
idea…
A sudden gust of wind hit her, and then she was teetering
on the edge...
And then there was no longer any decision to make. She wasn’t
on the roof but falling, the glass side of the building a blur
of light and dark bands as it swept past.
Terror grabbed her as the ground grew closer and Calla opened
her mouth to scream.
But before she could, warm arms wrapped themselves around her
and then her downward progress slowed until she was merely floating
next to the building.
Floating in midair, in the arms of someone large and solid. Calla
turned her head and saw his face—handsome, pale, with dark
hair and compelling black eyes.
Those eyes compelled her now. Sleep…came an insidious whisper
into her mind.
But she fought that. "Who are you?" She looked down
at the expanse of space below their feet. They hovered at just
about the fifth floor and now began to rise slowly. "You
an angel, or some kind of Superman?" No wings were on his
back, nor did he have a cape.
He smiled with large, evenly-spaced teeth that gleamed in the
moonlight. "Not even close,” he told her in a dark
sensuous growl, and a third kind of shiver hit her, that of long-unexpressed
sexual need. When was the last time she’d had that reaction
to a man?
“ But we’ve a ways to go and you should sleep." Again there was
that compulsion in her mind, stronger than before, and this time he gave her
no choice. Calla's mind went dark and she knew nothing more.
She came back to consciousness surrounded by warmth and water and…bubbles?
Calla opened her eyes to see and smell the unmistakable sensations of a bubble
bath in a very large tub with a man sitting in the water behind her. His hands
massaged her scalp, working shampoo into her hair.
She knew it was a man because of the large erection poking her backside.
Calla tried to pull away, but his arm went around her waist, clutching her close. “Hold
still. You’ll get soap in your eyes.”
Soap in her eyes. Was he kidding?
No, I’m not. You needed a bath so I decided to give you one. She heard
him sniff her scalp. You smell much better now. Hold your breath!
With a quick jerk he pushed her under the water and then let her sit up, wet
hair streaming into her eyes.
With extreme annoyance, Calla shoved the hair off her face,
twisted in his arms and glared at him. Of course she hadn’t had a bath…the flophouse
she’d called home these past few months didn’t boast a working shower.
Half the time the toilet hadn’t been operational, but it was all she
could afford on her Burger Barn salary.
So she’d smelled a little—that didn’t give him permission
to strip her and take her into his bathtub. She liked to pick whom she got
naked
with.
Even so, his intrusion into her mind bothered her more. “What are you
doing inside my head?”
He grinned at her and again she was struck by how perfect his teeth were. “Not
to worry. You are a psi with strong mental powers. My being able to touch
your mind is not only normal, but under the circumstances quite useful.”
In spite of how gorgeous he was, Calla’s uneasiness grew. “What do
you mean ‘circumstances’?”
“
The ones we are in. What I am…why you are here.” He stared at
her long and hard then gave a heartfelt sigh. “I guess we might as
well get this over with.”
He put two fingers into his mouth and with a jerk dislodged the teeth she’d
been admiring, pulling and revealing an artificial upper plate. The teeth underneath—the
real teeth—weren’t at all even, but shorter than normal except
for the incisors on either side, which were long and pointed.
He had fangs like a vampire and as she looked, his dark eyes briefly glowed red.
Oh my God…fangs, glowing eyes, and he could fly—he was a
vampire!
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