The Vampire's Redemption, A Paranormal Romance (Undead in Brown County #3) Read Free Page B

the luminosity of his gorgeous eyes.
    Although Michael and I only shared just a kiss or two and an embrace, the fire between the two of us had always been there. I tended to think that we each had our own valid reasons for holding back our desires. My reasons were based on two perfectly logical facts. I’d been hurt badly before by someone who had used me for sex and then had quickly turned back to someone else. The other reason of mine was very simple. Michael was a vampire, and I knew that there was no future with him because of that.
    There had been emotional moments when I had looked on the situation differently. He had earned my trust in certain ways, to be sure. There were moments when I felt very much alone and knew that I could depend on Michael. But he was from a different world than mine.
    There in the study, he did lean down to press his smooth lips against my forehead and fold me into his strong arms for a moment or two. It was reassuring to have that powerful body against me and more than just a little arousing. When his hands slid down to my hips and his fingers tightened slightly against the fabric of my pajama pants, I felt his mood begin to change.
    We both leaned back an inch or two and our eyes met.
    “I should go,” he said.
    “Probably,” I replied.
    I couldn’t seem to stop staring at him. He had this certain way of making me feel like a little kid at one moment and then like a passionate woman the next. It was disturbing for me to feel so off balance. It wasn’t like I was a teenager or a virgin. It wasn’t as if I’d never been in love. But that’s exactly how it felt sometimes when he was around. Almost as if everything were happening to me for the very first time.
    “You never answered my question,” he murmured.
    “Question?” I couldn’t seem to remember a question, but that could be because he was so distracting, standing there with his arms draped loosely around me and his face so close to mine.
    “I need to go track down Alex.”
    I took a little breath and stepped back. He certainly knew how to kill a lady’s mood. He let his arms drop away from me and squared his shoulders.
    “No. I can’t let you do that. Send Victoria and Jones.”
    “Between the three of us, we may be able to take him down. But not those two on their own. They would need my help.”
    I shook my head firmly. “No way.”
    Picking up my book, I turned away from him. But he reached out and touched my arm.
    “Please.”
    “Goodnight, Michael.”
    When I got into my room and had the door shut, I leaned against it and clenched my jaw in frustration. He had to have known that I wasn’t about to just let him leave. He had proved in the past that he would come back. It wasn’t about whether or not he would run off permanently. It was the thought of something happening to him while he was away. I couldn’t let him put himself in jeopardy for me anymore. He had done too much already.
    Without turning on the light on my nightstand, I slipped in between the sheets on my bed and struggled to clear my head. It took me another three hours to fall asleep. The last thought before I finally drifted off into dreamland was that Michael might find a way to get out without my consent. Maybe my opinion didn’t matter much in the way of things.
    I knew enough about him to realize that when he was determined, he would find a way. It didn’t really matter who was trying to convince him not to make a move he might regret. He was a vampire who was hundreds of years old. He thought he knew what he was doing.
    He was wrong.

 
    CHAPTER 3 – Michael
    “She’s right, mate.”
    Jones and I were in the meadow. We’d been discussing Sarah’s refusal to let me leave. Katie and Victoria were searching the woods, double checking for signs that Alex had been back. I’d been through the same forest three times and found nothing. I still found it hard to believe that he would not return.
    “She’s not right. Not in this