Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 237(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 237(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
“My age is showing.”
“Exactly how old are you?”
“How old are you?” he asked.
“Twenty-nine,” she smiled, “until the end of the month. Now it’s your turn.”
“I am the grandson of Thaddeus Valaine, the founder of Mull.”
Lara did a quick calculation in her head. “That would make you over two hundred years old.”
“Around that.”
“And here I thought you weren’t a day over one hundred.” She didn’t know why she joked about it. Perhaps it was because she was still trying to wrap her head around him being a vampire. Or perhaps she had actually fallen down a rabbit hole or maybe that night she was returning to the bed and breakfast she had slipped on a patch of ice and was in a coma in the hospital and now living in an alternate reality. Both explanations seemed more logical than the present one...that this was all real.
“I like your sense of humor.”
“As you said, levity may help.” She took a breath before asking, “So the myth about Mull is not a myth after all?”
“No, it’s not.”
Rabbit hole, coma, or reality, she didn’t know which, but information was what she needed if she was to reach any kind of sensible conclusion. “The book about Mull I got at the book shop says that it was gypsies who placed the curse on your grandfather, but research shows that gypsies didn’t arrive in America until the early 1800s.”
“My family is originally from the area now known as Romania. It was there the gypsy cursed my grandfather. Once he realized what he had become, he knew he had to leave Romania and find a place where his family could live in relative peace. The New World was the perfect place for him to start anew and see that his family was prepared for what was to come as well as future generations. You see what no one knows about the myth is that the gypsy didn’t only curse Thaddeus, but all of his progenies as well.”
“I thought vampires couldn’t reproduce, but since you were born a vampire, I suppose that’s another misconception.”
“You’ll learn much about vampires in the few days you’re here, including their sexual appetites.”
Not from first-hand experience, she was about to say when in the blink of an eye he was out of his seat and standing in the doorway.
“I have matters I must see to. Make yourself at home. If you’re hungry the kitchen is down the hall, first steps to your right. If there is anything in particular that you’d like, just ask.”
How about an earth-shattering orgasm? Where the hell had that thought come from? Sex hadn’t been something that had been on her mind lately, but since meeting Michael Valaine it had suddenly become a constant. Sex was, in a way, the reason she was here.
She finally managed to say, “Thank you.”
Michael gave a nod and turned to leave when he stopped, turned back around and with a hint of a smile said, “I will make certain you have multiple orgasms.”
CHAPTER 4
Lara sat staring at the empty doorway, her cheeks burning bright red. “Idiot, idiot, idiot, he can read your mind.” She placed her wine glass on the table and rested her face in her cupped hands. “This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening,” she mumbled. “I’m trapped in a nightmare, and I need to wake up. Wake up now, Lara, do you hear me? Wake up now!”
She raised her head, and her shoulders slumped as she looked around. “Of course it couldn’t be that easy. All right, since this is real, you need to protect yourself. How is the question?”
She sprung off the sofa. “His library.” There hadn’t been much money when she was growing up, and she had loved to read as had her dad. He always told her that if she wanted to know anything about anything, the library was where you would find your answers. Of course, once they had gotten the Internet, it had become her chief source of research. But right now, that wasn’t available to her and from what Desmond had told her Michael had a substantial collection of vampire books.
With quick steps, she hurried out of the living room to the library. She entered without worry that Michael would be there. Taking care of matters wouldn’t have taken him to the library, though she did wonder where he had gone off to and why. She paused a moment to warm her chilled hands in front of the fire. The fireplace was early Victorian, ornate and ostentatious, but that would be expected in a home built in the early 1800s. She had read, this morning while having breakfast at Molly’s Place, the book about the founding of Mull. It mentioned that the Valaine house had been built in the early 1800s.
A sudden thought had her turning with a huge smile. If the library was that old, she could only imagine the literary treasures it held. But first things first, she silently admonished herself. She was here to look for books on vampires.