A Vampire's Promise Read Free

changed. It was one of those pivotal moments that happen once in a lifetime. One that said nothing was ever going to be the same.

CHAPTER 2
    H e hadn’t moved, except to carefully peel Jessica’s fingers from his hand before resuming his place at the bar. But it felt as if he knew that I’d been looking at him, and now he was saying Okay . . . my turn.
    He was staring at me, and I could see the color of his eyes as clearly as if he were right in front of me. Dark blue, a brilliant mesmerizing shade of cobalt framed by thick lashes. They held on to me, making my stomach clench and roll like I was on a fairground tilt-a-whirl ride. And then he moved his mouth, lifting the corners in a lazy, sensual smile that almost had me stroking out. My chest became a vise, slowly expelling all the air from my lungs and forcing my heart to beat faster. I saw the brilliant gleam of his teeth as his lips parted, and as if asphyxia wasn’t going to be enough to deal with, I was suddenly flooded with the oddest sense of déjà vu.
    Intuitively I knew that if he widened his smile by just a few millimeters, it would reveal a dimple hidden in his left cheek. Right on cue, as if wanting to prove me right, he did just that, and . . . there it was. What could so easily be considered a flaw I thought was the sexiest come-on I’d ever seen. It was crazy, I know, but his expression seemed familiar. As if I’d seen him smile at me like that before. Which was completely impossible, of course. And then the final, totally insane thing happened.
    You know who I am.
    The words jolted inside my head, whispered in a silken voice I didn’t recognize—and they were completely untrue! If I’d seen this guy before, trust me, I would have locked him away in the old memory bank. He had a face no woman would ever forget. Lightly touching my hand, Laycee jerked me back to reality. I sucked in a greedy lungful of air as my heart found its rhythm.
    â€œRowan, are you okay?” She looked at me, concern marring her carefully made-up face.
    â€œYeah, of course. Why d’you ask?” For some reason my voice sounded perfectly normal, which was strange, considering I hadn’t been able to catch my breath a moment before.
    â€œNo reason, except your mouth’s hanging open and you look sort of. . . hungry .” A wicked smile replaced the concerned look. “Don’t worry, it suits you.”
    Self-conscious, I closed my mouth, pretending I had no idea what she was talking about as she turned her head and looked back toward the bar.
    â€œSmile,” she hissed suddenly. “He’s looking at you!”
    Tell me something I don’t know.
    I was in the process of trying to get my head unscrambled when the look of dismay on Laycee’s face told me it was no longer necessary. He wasn’t looking at me anymore. But I knew that too. The clenching in my stomach ceased and my ribs no longer felt as if they were on fire.
    Turning my head, I saw my now not-so-ardent admirer had picked up where he’d left off. He’d returned his attention to Miss Juicy, who, utterly enthralled, kept flicking her dark hair over her shoulder so nothing would interfere with his view of her assets. The gesture irritated the crap out of me, and woke up my inner bitch.
    How about we just go slap the shit out of her?
    I declined the offer, even though an inexplicable jealousy was swirling through me. After having the humdrum predictability of my world so thoroughly shaken, I was more than a little annoyed at being passed over without so much as a second glance.
    Miss Juicy laughed. Her cackle ricocheted across the bar with enough of a screech factor to set my teeth on edge. I thought it sounded forced, which just went to show how much that odd little episode had unnerved me. Why was I mad at her? As much as I hated to admit it, it wasn’t her fault I didn’t have the goods to hold his interest.
    I drowned my