La Luxure: Discover Your Blood Lust Read Online Free PDF Page B

head.
    After giving him a brief, awkward smile,
Julia turned her attention to her purse. In order to avoid a
painful attempt to socialize with him, she began to rummage through
the folds of fabric, looking for something, anything, to offer a
distraction. Pulling out the first available item, which happened
to be lipstick, she pretended not to notice him watching her with
his creepy, leering gaze while she painstakingly applied the creamy
gloss.
    The bartender returned with a shot glass
filled with thick red liquid. It looked like someone had added red
food coloring to Bailey's.
    Or it was blood.
    Julia chuckled at the thought and slipped the
compact and lipstick back into her purse. Blood? Really? She'd been
reading too many vampire romances.
    "You look lost." The stranger from the corner
was suddenly right beside her. How had she not noticed him
move?
    "Lost? No. Misplaced perhaps, and definitely
thirsty, but not lost." Up close, he was even better looking than
she'd first thought.
    "Fair enough." God, his voice was the most
delicious purr she'd ever heard. It was deep and smoky, with the
faintest mix of Brooklyn and southern accents tickling her ears.
"May I get you something to drink , then?" It was weird the
way he emphasized the word drink, like it had some other meaning
besides a mere alcoholic beverage.
    Man, she really was reading too much lately.
First, blood in the shot glass and now looking for an innuendo in
the word drink . "A Pinot Noir would be lovely, thank you."
She was guessing, and hoping, that this bar would have a decent
wine selection.
    "Any particular vintage?"
    Julia swallowed hard. The people in this bar
had the most intense eyes. The way this gorgeous stranger's hazel
eyes were boring into her was making breathing difficult.
    "Naw. I'm not the type that vets my wine
before drinking it. No bouquet sniffing or leg checking for
me. As long as the wine hasn't oxidized, I'm perfectly happy."
Jesus, she was prattling on like a schoolgirl and realized suddenly
that this man was making her nervous and not because he was kind of
a scary guy in a pretty scary bar.
    The stranger grinned, flashing perfectly
white teeth with unnaturally long, sharp canines. If they weren't
real, they were the most realistic fake vampire teeth Julia had
ever seen, blowing the ones at Spencer's or Hot Topic out of the
water. She knew there were people out there that liked to dress up
and play vampire, but this guy didn't really seem the type. Sure he
had long, dark hair and his perfectly supple pale skin looked like
it'd never seen the sun. He was dressed in black, but he
certainly didn't have that "canned" vampire look one normally
associated with tooth extensions. No "Blade" style trench coat, no
leather pants, no huge, shit-kicking boots with big silver buckles,
no eye-makeup or lipstick. And he was big, 6'2" at least, and
muscular. Maybe not as big as The Incredible Hulk behind the bar,
but he obviously worked out.
    A full sleeve tattoo decorated one arm and a
few colorful tattoos peaked out from under his fitted T-shirt in
various other locations, including one that started at the front of
his neck. He wore a small amount of silver jewelry, a labret
piercing, and had modestly stretched earlobes. When he handed her a
glass of rich burgundy wine, she noticed his short nails were
painted black.
    "Thank you." She sipped the wine, letting out
an inadvertent "Mmm."
    "I take it the wine is agreeable?"
    She blushed. She hadn't meant to be so
obvious with her pleasure. "It's delicious. So much better than the
Hurricanes I had earlier."
    "So what brings you to our sultry city?" he
wondered, the words rolling out of his mouth like they were the
most sexual and decadent words in the dictionary.
    "I'm here for a work conference."
    "Oh? What's your conference on?"
    " Managing Utilities During Natural or
Manmade Catastrophes, " she repeated the mouthful with a shy
smile. "I'm a city engineer for a suburb outside St. Louis," she
clarified