Teaser Tuesday! Here's a little teaser from DANGEROUS, a YA contemporary romance. (The teaser mentions vampires, but there are no vamps in the story.) DEVIOUS, the follow-up book, will be released on Aug. 22.
Dara's POV:
“What was that about?” I thundered at Stone. Other than the confrontation between Chance and Stone, the day had been a smashing success. Everyone had left except for the two of us. It would be dark soon, and the Fourth of July parties would be gearing up for fireworks before long.
“What?” he asked innocently as he leaned against the kitchen counter.
I rolled my eyes. “You know what.”
“He’s lucky my fist didn’t connect with his face,” Stone muttered.
“Seriously?” I asked, my hands on my hips, staring at him as if he were an unruly child.
He closed the distance between us and hovered just above my face. “Seriously.”
“So your parents taught you to behave like a caveman?” I asked, angry with him for his dramatic display of testosterone earlier.
“Better a caveman than a yellow-bellied coward.”
“Who are you calling a coward?” I asked.
“The guy who left notes on my motorcycle warning me to stay away from you.”
I stared at him in disbelief. That didn’t sound like something that Chance would do. Of course, there had never been another guy in the picture since Chance and I had started dating, not that Stone was exactly in the picture.
“I have the notes at home to prove it,” he continued. “I say you can make up your own mind as to whether you want to be with me or not.”
I knew that Chance wanted to get back together, but would he have actually contacted Stone?
“On whether I want to be with you? Half the time you won’t even speak to me. What makes you think I would want to be with someone like you?”
I could see the flicker of emotions cross his face. His crisp, blue eyes seemed to dim the instant the words tumbled from my mouth.
He inched closer to me. “Because I can feel it,” he whispered, his fingers splaying across my hips as he pulled me to him. “The way your breath quickens, the way your pulse races, the way your heart beats like the wings of a hummingbird. The way your lips softly part as if they’re waiting for me to do this.” His lips touched mine as one hand moved to the small of my back, and he pressed his chest against me. He kissed me gently at first, but then he nibbled at my lip and his tongue slipped into my mouth. I wasn’t just being kissed. I was being devoured. My heart hammered against my ribcage, and before I knew what I was doing, my arms were wrapped around him, pulling him close, kneading his flesh. I could feel the hard, lean muscle beneath his shirt.
Forgetting that I was supposed to be angry with him, I hugged him to me more tightly as if I couldn’t get close enough. What was it about him that made all coherent thought flee from my mind?
I pushed him away. “You know what you feel?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “You feel my astonishment that you really are as conceited as you warned me about. You’re not as badass as you think you are…but you definitely got the conceited part right.”
“Ouch.” He grinned, unperturbed, rubbing his exquisite jawline with his thumb and forefinger. “And I thought I was supposed to be the vampire. Be careful, Dara. Your fangs are showing.”
I turned my back to him and retrieved my messenger bag from the hook on the wall. “Guess you’re the one that needs the garlic necklace.”
He walked up behind me as I was fishing my car keys out of my bag. I didn’t hear him approach me from behind, but his fingers brushed across the nape of my neck as he swept my hair to the side and his fingertips gently caressed the exposed skin. “What makes you think I want to ward you off?”
I swirled around to face him, my ire rising. “I don’t know, Stone. Your unpredictable behavior?”
“Most girls admire my spontaneity.”
“Spontaneity is not necessarily a bad thing, but when you’re drooling on me one minute and ignoring me the next…I can’t deal with that, Stone.”
“Drooling? Seriously, Dara? I do not drool.”
