The Girl & the Vampire (The Embassy #1) Read Online Free

twenty-two, but I was sure that he had a couple of decades on me. No human guy that age had ever seemed so patient and calm that I could remember. Even his eyes looked calm, and while his dark skin had a grayish tint to it that took me a moment to identify as just another version of the fabled pallor, he was on the attractive side of average. Of the three, he was definitely the most approachable guy and could easily have blended in at any college. If I’d been there to find someone to talk to, he would have been my first choice.
    But talking was not what had my fingers bunched in the skirt of my dress, so after a hesitant smile I turned my head to study the man right in front of me.
    I couldn’t say why, but he seemed to exude age and gravitas that the other two simply lacked. Maybe because he’d been older when he’d been turned, or there was something to that myth that even humans could pick up on the power whammy that supposedly came with age for vampires, but there was something sophisticated and classy about him that made him seem wise beyond his years. He was dressed the part, too, in a tailored shirt, pants, and suit jacket, his tie neatly knotted at his throat. While the entire image he presented was delectable, there was something about him that made me want to keep my distance rather than approach. And for once in my life, I was happy to rely on my gut instinct and move on.
    One look into vampire number three’s face—that incidentally made me catch his gaze—and I knew that I wouldn’t need to ask Emily for an extension.
    Some people claimed that vampires had the ability to ensnare humans with some weird kind of magic, but that was not what made it impossible for me to look away. He also wasn’t that terribly handsome, like I’d heard people describe vampires before. His face wasn’t quite symmetric, and there was a light scar on his chin visible through his five-o’clock shadow of a beard, the dark brown matching his hair and eyes. When he gave me the hint of a smile, I saw that one of his lower front teeth was slightly crooked. Don’t get me wrong—he was still quite the looker, and likely what I would normally have guessed above my level, even if Rachel would have slapped me for thinking like that. There was just enough imperfection to him to make his obvious attractiveness a little more… human, although the word was likely the wrong one.  
    It certainly made me want to jump him right away, and while I felt terribly shallow with my split-second decision, I knew that I wouldn’t change my mind tonight.
    Either I must have started to salivate, or everyone else in the room was a lot more observant than I preferred, but it only took a minute for Emily to herd the other men out of the room, telling me to call if I needed anything and leaving us to our own devices. No good-byes, and, come to think of it, not even introductions. My mind was reeling from the speed of how things were progressing, even if parts of my body were complaining that they weren’t progressing quickly enough. I didn’t even know his name.
    “Lewis,” he said and offered me his hand, derailing my train of thoughts.
    Staring at his hand, I hesitated a moment before I shook it. It was the perfect kind of handshake, firm and just long enough to have meaning, with no crushing or icky sweating involved. What I couldn’t ignore was how cool his skin felt, as if he’d spent too much time out in the cold.
    Or had no working circulation to speak of, but right then that was one more thing I didn’t know about vampires that wasn’t burning a hole into my mind.
    “Can you read my thoughts?”
    His smile widened just enough to let me catch a glimpse of fang, if only for a moment.
    “Only those so obvious on your face that even a blind man could catch them,” he replied, a hint of laughter in his tone. “But even if I could, which I cannot, the contract forbids any kind of mind control or even influence, and I think sifting through