Dare I? Read Online Free PDF

smile.
    “Special Enforcer is the actual title. But
yes, hunting does have a lot to do with it.”
    She understood, now. His gaze searching the
crowd, the confidence in his step, the grace of his movements… they
hadn’t been signs of his being a vampire as she had thought.
Rather, they were clues that he was another kind of predator—a
predator to vampires, as the case may be. A predator with whom she
was probably safer than with any vampire she could have met at On
The Edge. A predator whose cheek she kissed lightly when he dropped
her off in front of her apartment building.

    * * * *

    Morning is coming, and they’re lying in each
other’s arms, the heavy spare blanket thrown over them. Far above,
the distant ceiling of stars grows lighter by moments, the black
not so black anymore, blue slowly seeping in. They should go in,
probably, get back to Chase’s apartment before his neighbors start
awakening and roaming through the staircase. Neither of them moves,
though. Anna would loathe putting an end to a beautiful night.
She’s not sure whether Chase is awake, still, or if he fell asleep
after their last round of lovemaking.
    He answers her silent wondering by moving.
The arm beneath her neck extends, then curls back over her to
deposit a small box on her chest. Anna forgets to breathe when she
realizes what it is; what he is doing.
    “The plan,” he says, and his voice is rough,
even a little trembling, “was to ask you first, and then make love
all night, but I…” His words come out with more reluctance. “I
wasn’t sure you would—”
    She can’t bear to let him finish and turns
against him, laughing as she kisses him.
    “Of course I would! I mean will! I mean, I
do.”
    She doesn’t know what she means anymore,
doesn’t know what babbling passes her lips when he slips the ring
on her finger. It catches the first light of sunrise, shining
softly, perfect and beautiful. Just like Chase’s smile.

    * * * *

    As Anna had expected they would, Jessie and
Carol showed up at her apartment in the afternoon, though she had
thought they would arrive earlier. She shook her head and smiled
when she saw they had brought a bottle of wine.
    “Trying to ply me with alcohol?” she asked as
she led the way to the living room.
    “That was the idea, yes,” Jessie replied with
a shameless grin. “In case you decided to be tight-lipped.”
    Her friends settled on the sofa and Anna
pulled tall glasses from a cabinet. She uncorked the bottle easily,
and they were soon taking sips of the light white wine and munching
on dried fruit. With some difficulty, Anna repressed a grin as time
passed in silence and her friends looked at her expectantly.
    “So?” Carol was the first one to break.
“We’re dying here! Tell us what happened!”
    Anna gave a small shrug. “I went to the club,
like you two suggested. Had a bit of fun. Nothing much,
really.”
    By the time she said the last words, the
smile had pushed to her lips and she was beaming. Carol and Jessie
exchanged a look and turned to her, the same accusation rising from
their lips.
    “Liar!”
    Finally giving in, Anna laughed. “I went
there to find a vamp and prove you wrong,” she confided. “I was
going to get laid and bitten before the night was over.”
    She paused to take a sip, and could feel her
friends’ eyes on her, searching her neck and wrists for telltale
marks.
    “I didn’t find a vampire,” she continued. “I
thought I had, but he turned out to be a vampire hunter rather than
a vamp.”
    “You found yourself a Special Enforcer?”
Jessie exclaimed, and there was a hint of awe in her voice. “Nice.
So, you didn’t get bitten, but what about the rest?”
    She waggled her eyebrows suggestively, making
it clear if need be what she meant.
    “Let’s just say I had a very interesting
night.”
    Her friends started protesting the lack of
details, but Anna only grinned.
    “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”
    “You did kiss him, then,” Carol