Forever Valentine Read Online Free Page A

earlier that night with Dick. For one thing, when Ian grasped her hand, her womb clenched in anticipation and excitement instead of dread. Ian was a man well out of her league and much too dangerous to her heart. How could she even entertain the idea of flirting with him when there was no way she could survive any closer encounter with him without badly bruising—if not breaking—her fragile, mortal heart?
    She knew it was highly unlikely Ian would magically discover she was the one woman in all the world meant just for him. Sure, just that had happened to a few of her best friends, but what were the odds of Jena being yet another match for one of these amazing vampire studs? Not likely. Not likely at all.
    Still, just looking into Ian’s eyes was a pleasure she would remember all her life. When he left, she would pull out the memory of this night and warm herself with the echoes of the fire she saw in his burning gaze. His hand tightened on hers and her nerves erupted. He was getting too close. It was time to pull back in the name of self-preservation.
    “Don’t think you’re going to sweet talk your way into a blood donation, Ian. I’ve been bitten once, and that was enough.”
    Ian sat back, breaking the contact and pulling his hand away from hers. She missed his touch immediately. His gaze was still hot though, burning over her skin as he considered her.
    “Sebastian told me about it, you know.”
    Oh, God. Jena took a sip of her wine, hoping to cool the flush of embarrassment she knew must be staining her cheeks.
    “You mean you guys bite and tell? Have you no shame?” She hoped he would go with the humor and drop the subject, but somehow she suspected he wouldn’t let her off that easy.
    “Sebastian drank from you in front of witnesses, and he was half out of his mind with worry, knowing he had to change Christy quickly in order to save her life, but he made a point to tell me he thought there was something odd about your blood.”
    “Odd? I don’t think I like the sound of that.”
    “Special then,” he conceded. “He said your essence gave him more energy than it should have, though he couldn’t be sure with all the turmoil of the moment. Still, when things had settled down, he remembered it and thought it significant enough to call and tell me. He thought I should know when I was assigned to watch you.”
    “So why are you telling me this? Is this some elaborate way of asking for a taste? If so, I’m not buying it. I refuse to give another vampire cheap thrills and a meal.”
    Jena blushed furiously as she remembered the way Sebastian had fed from her, his astounding mental powers taking over her body and giving her an orgasm unequalled in her experience. In public! In front of her friends. And with all their clothes still on and his hands around her, but only to hold her upright, not in any place the least bit provocative. The man was dangerous.
    And she’d bet Ian was downright lethal.
    “First of all, you could never be cheap, Jena, and you’d get as much—if not more—out of it as I would.” His gaze burned a path over her pebbled nipples as if he knew just how much his sexy, low voice turned her on. And he probably did too, the rat.
    “Second, I really am curious enough to ask. Sebastian is relatively young compared to me and I truly wonder if what he sensed was accurate or just a product of the tense situation you were all in at the time. Third, I’ve observed you for the past weeks and have some theories of my own I’d like to test. Tasting your blood would go a long way toward helping me secure your future safety.”
    She would have questioned him on that point, but he just kept talking in his commanding way, not letting her get a word in edgewise.
    “And lastly,” his voice dropped even lower, sexier, “you know as well as I do that I could seduce you into baring your neck—and anything else I asked for. But I’m man enough to give you the choice. I don’t want it if you